Pokémon Mirror Gold
Every trainer fight in Johto and Kanto is a double battle, with a rebalanced Gen 1-9 roster and a beta build the creator is still finishing.
More about the game
A difficulty hack of HeartGold built on hg-engine, and a very different kind of Johto than the base game: this one has turned essentially every trainer battle into a double battle, given each trainer smarter AI and stronger teams, rebalanced species from all nine generations onto its dex, added the Fairy type, and folded in a nerfed, two-stone take on Mega Evolution. The early game is streamlined — Fly opens up from a key item once the catching tutorial is done, EVs come uniformly from fainting foes instead of a grind, and IVs default to a flat 31 in every stat unless a setting turns randomization back on. The game is still a beta (v0.6.0-rc1), and the creator's own documentation says so throughout.
What's different, point by point
- 1,084 species and formes (59 of them alternate formes), each with its own stats, types, abilities and level-up moves
- Nearly every one of the game's 731 trainer fights is a double battle: 700 fought solo against two opponents, 26 fought alongside a partner trainer, and 5 single battles
- Wild encounters across 144 places in Johto and Kanto, by time of day, including the Johto Safari Zone's own areas
- 216 TMs and TRs, with full compatibility per species
- A nerfed, two-stone take on Mega Evolution, available only for non-legendary Pokémon so far
- The Fairy type, and a hand-picked list of type changes across the dex (the creator's own reasoning is on the documentation site)
- EVs awarded uniformly per fainted foe instead of the usual grind; IVs default to 31 across the board unless randomization is switched back on
- Fly works from a key item once the catching tutorial ends, ahead of the usual badge order
- Nuzlocke mode (encounters lock per area once caught) and a randomizer mode, both optional
- Still in beta: v0.6.0-rc1
ebbenezer
This guide is built from ebbenezer's own documentation. The game, the ideas and the work are theirs — the site just makes the numbers searchable. Play it from the official page, and send them the feedback and the thanks.
What this guide covers
Every guide here is built from the game's own documentation. Where a ROM hack changed something but never published the numbers, this says so rather than quietly filling the gap with the original game's — which would be worse than leaving it out.
| Section | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Wild Pokémon by area | From the game itself | 144 places across Johto and Kanto, including the Johto Safari Zone's twelve areas, straight from the creator's own per-species wild-encounter data. |
| Encounter rates | From the game itself | Worked out from each encounter's own slot position run through the game's per-method rate table (see the Rates note above), checked against the creator's own “Odds” column on a sample of species pages. Radio-channel and swarm slots carry no percentage, matching the creator's own pages. |
| Wild levels | From the game itself | Fixed levels or level ranges, straight from the creator's own data. |
| Stats, abilities and movesets | From the game itself | Base stats, types, both ability slots, egg moves, tutor moves, level-up movesets and evolution methods are the creator's own data for all 1,084 species and formes this hack gives a name and numbers. A further 451 Mega/Gigantamax engine slots are reserved by hg-engine but not yet given stats in this beta, so they are left out rather than guessed at. |
| TM and HM compatibility | From the game itself | 216 TMs and TRs, with per-species compatibility, from the creator's own machine list and each species' own learnset. |
| Where TMs are found | From the game itself | 147 of 216 have a shop or a ground pickup, from the creator's own mart stock list and hidden-item list; the earliest reachable place is shown, with up to two more named alongside it where a TM is sold in several shops. The eight HMs and a run of lower-numbered TMs never turn up in that list, in a shop or on the ground, so no place is claimed for them. |
| Trainer and boss teams | From the game itself | 731 fights (of 737 trainers with a team — five Frontier Brain slots carry only a placeholder Rattata and are left out), every one with the creator's own levels, items, abilities, natures, IVs, EVs and full movesets, and its own battle type. 501 have a place from the creator's own trainer-area index; the remaining 230, mostly rematches, are gathered on one page instead of guessed at. |
Credits
- The game, and every number in this guide: ebbenezer
- The documentation site this guide is built from, and the trainer-placement data on it: ebbenezer / zebben
- hg-engine, the engine the game is built on, and engine-side contributions to the hack itself: BluRosie and Aero
- hg-engine, the base project: BluRosie
- Sprites via PokéAPI; base move and TM data from PokéAPI and Bulbapedia.
Reading the tables
BetaThis is a beta build (v0.6.0-rc1) and the creator's own documentation says so throughout. Anything here can still change before a full release.
DoublesThe creator's own trainer data marks almost every fight's battle type directly: 700 are fought solo against a trainer's own two Pokémon, 26 are fought with a partner trainer alongside you, and 5 are ordinary single battles. Each fight's title says which.
RatesPercentages are read the same way the creator's own species pages show them: from the slot a Pokémon sits in, run through the game's own per-method rate table. Walking, Surf and the three rods keep HeartGold's own numbers; Rock Smash here is 80/20 rather than HeartGold's 90/10, confirmed against the creator's own page for both of Vermilion City's Rock Smash Pokémon. The two radio channels and every swarm slot carry no percentage of their own — the creator's own pages don't give them one either, so none is shown here.
TimesMorning, day and night follow the DS clock, the same as HeartGold. A table with no time on it applies whenever you find it.
SafariThe Johto Safari Zone's twelve areas are listed with species and level, but the creator's data never gives a percentage for a Safari Zone slot, only for the ordinary tables, so none is shown here. A “bonus” row needs objects placed nearby first, as its own note says.
TrainersEvery trainer's team — level, held item, ability, nature, explicit IVs and EVs, and full moveset — is the creator's own data. Where a trainer stands comes from the creator's own map index, which accounts for 501 of the 731 fights; the rest, mostly phone and Match Call rematches, have no place recorded anywhere in the source and are gathered on one page rather than guessed at.
MegasMega Evolution is deliberately cut back here: the creator's notes describe two Mega Stones (one standard, one for the handful of Pokémon that need a different kind of Mega) and say only non-legendary Pokémon can Mega Evolve at this point in development.
ModesNuzlocke mode locks an area's encounter once you catch from it (a shiny still shows, but still counts as that area's catch). A randomizer mode also exists. Both are optional settings the creator documents; neither changes the numbers in this guide, which are the game's default data.
TM Locations147 of 216 TMs and TRs have a place, from the creator's own mart stock list and its short list of ground pickups; where one is sold in more than one shop, the earliest one you can reach is shown, with up to two more named alongside it. The other 69 — the eight HMs and a run of lower-numbered TMs — are never listed in a shop or on the ground anywhere in the source, so no place is claimed for them; the creator's list of gym-leader and battle rewards names items, not TMs, so it adds nothing here.