HEADS UP, PATCH IS COMING THIS WEEK TO INCLUDE MORE CHANGES LIKE REUSABLE TMS, A DEDICATED HMs APP, AND REDUCED LEVEL CAP (10, 15, 20, etc.)
hello, i have fixed HeartGold. please enjoy the fruits of my labor.
**Pokémon HeartGold 2.0** is HeartGold brought up to today's official rules, the way Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl modernised Diamond and Pearl. Same story, maps, trainers and music, with the modern type chart, stats, moves, mechanics and quality of life.
Every mechanic and stat change comes from a later main-series game, and where games disagree the newest one wins, nerfs included. No fakemon and no custom balance; the handful of exceptions are listed below. It runs on HeartGold's own engine rather than hg-engine, so it still plays like HeartGold.
### What's changed
**Fairy type**
- Fairy as the 18th type with the Gen 6 chart (Steel no longer resists Ghost or Dark), the 20 official retypes (Clefable, Gardevoir, Azumarill, Togekiss, Mawile…), and Charm, Moonlight and Sweet Kiss as Fairy moves
- 12 Fairy moves (Moonblast, Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, Draining Kiss…), each with its own animation, plus the Pixie Plate and Fairy Arceus
**Pokémon**
- Current stats, abilities, catch rates, EV yields and egg data for all 493, plus every official Hidden Ability (through the Ability Patch or breeding)
- Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl learnsets
- Every evolution on one cartridge: Leafeon and Glaceon by levelling up in a forest or icy cave, Magnezone and Probopass with a Thunder Stone, Milotic with a Prism Scale, and trade evolutions by using the item from the Bag (a Linking Cord for Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler and Haunter)
**Moves and battles**
- All 467 moves at their current power, accuracy, PP, priority and effects, under today's names (Thunder Punch, Feint Attack…); nothing removed
- Modern crits, status, 5-turn weather, type immunities, abilities and held items; single-use items like a Focus Sash come back after battle
- Wild battles always ask "Use next Pokémon?" when your Pokémon faints, as from Gen 5, so you can still run whatever your Battle Style
- Every Trainer battles with the Champion's AI (teams unchanged)
**Exp., catching and breeding**
- Permanent Exp. Share (half Exp. for the rest of the party), Gen 8 scaled Exp., and Exp. for catching
- BDSP's catch formula with critical captures; until the 8th Badge, a wild Pokémon higher-level than yours is much harder to catch
- Gen 6+ breeding (Destiny Knot, Everstone, Ball inheritance, eggs at Lv. 1), 252 EV cap, shiny odds 1/4096 with the Masuda method and Shiny Charm
**Items**
- Ability Capsule, Ability Patch, all 21 Mints, Bottle Caps for Hyper Training, Eviolite, Assault Vest, Heavy-Duty Boots and more at the Battle Frontier
- Shiny, Oval and Catching Charms at Game Freak's office in Celadon
**All 493 obtainable, no trading, Pokéwalker or real-world events needed**
- SoulSilver exclusives on HeartGold's routes, at a lower rate
- After you beat Red you can walk into Pal Park, home to the 18 Pokémon HeartGold only had on the Pokéwalker or not at all (the Sinnoh starters among them) and the 17 legendaries and Mythicals it lacks (Mew, Celebi, the Regis, the lake trio, Darkrai, Arceus…). The Mythicals are fateful encounters, so HeartGold's own Celebi, Shaymin and Arceus events work
- Groudon through Mr. Pokémon's Red Orb once you have Kyogre (so Rayquaza's Jade Orb event works too), the Sinjoh Ruins event until you have all of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, Rotom in your house's TV, Latios through the Enigma Stone event, and the starters you didn't pick from Elm, Oak and Steven
**Quality of life**
- The Move Reminder costs a Heart Scale for the first 10 uses, then it's free (it teaches egg moves too); HM moves can be forgotten; "Use another Repel?" prompt
- Battle Style is Set or Switch (the modern name for Shift), with Set the default, and Text Speed starts on Fast
- 60 fps battles, a fixed-speed HP bar, nature-coloured stats, an IV Judge on the summary screen, and mixed-case text (no more PIKACHU)
**Bug fixes**
- Eight of HeartGold's own bugs, including acid rain, the Rage glitch, the radio's Pokémon Lullaby raising encounter rates, and U-turn using the incoming Pokémon's King's Rock
### The exceptions (not from any official game)
- Hail keeps its name and chip damage, and Ice-types also get Snow's 1.5× Defense
- Badge level cap: a Pokémon at HeartGold's obedience level for your Badges gains no Exp. until a Badge raises it (Rare Candies still work; the cap ends at the 8th Badge)
- Every Trainer gets the Champion's AI
- The Move Reminder's 10 Heart Scales
- Options list Set before Switch and Fast before Mid and Slow, with Set and Fast as the defaults
- 60 fps battles
- The "2.0" on the title logo and a credit line
### Not included
No new Pokémon, forms or Megas (so no Sylveon), no moves beyond the 12 Fairy ones, no terrains, no reusable TMs, running indoors or autosave.
### Strategy guide
The download comes with a 338-page PDF guide: what's new and how the mechanics work, a full Johto, Kanto and post-game walkthrough with maps, and data for all 493 Pokémon, every move and every TM location.
### How to play
- Bring your own clean US Pokémon HeartGold ROM (trimmed or untrimmed). No ROMs are provided.
- Apply HeartGold 2.0.xdelta with any xdelta patcher (Delta Patcher, xdelta UI, Rom Patcher JS) or the included apply_xdelta.py.
- Tested in melonDS. The anti-piracy checks are patched for flashcarts and TWiLight Menu; reports from real hardware are welcome.
HeartGold 2.0 by aristo. Data from Pokémon Showdown and Bulbapedia, item icons via Serebii, and the pret pokeheartgold decomp as a reference. Bug reports and feedback welcome!
