ROM Hack Pokemon Shuffle Preservation Mod v1.1

SaltedNeos

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Since Pokemon Shuffle 3DS is a primarily offline game which still requires going online once a day to obtain check in
rewards, and more importantly obtain a few of the Megas in the game, I have made a mod which both moves all files in the Extra Data to the base game, for those of you who haven't downloaded the extra data before they shut off the servers, and for everyone, makes the Megas which were only obtainable through the competition events act like boss stages instead of competition stages. These boss stages give the proper mega stone, a level up if you already had the stone, but regardless also give a jewel and 25 hearts. Additionally, Drop Rate Increase has been ported from Mobile, Galvantula (and temporarily Exploud) have been removed from the Survival Mode pool, the Vivillon sprite bug and the Shiny Genesect special enemy graphics bug have been patched.

You will need a Hex editor such as HxD, Flips (or presumably other patching software, flips is the one I usually use), and a decrypted copy of the Pokemon Shuffle.cia file (either dump it yourself, or go through some other means)


Installation is slightly more complicated then I'd like, but the first thing to do is back up your save file and extra data using either checkpoint or preferably JKSV, as I've seen installing a new .cia over the base game delete the save data, and you'll need to do a hex edit to your save file anyways if you want to keep it. Also back up your extra data, because you will be deleting it in order for the mod to run properly, and if you want to return to vanilla, you will need access to the extra data.

To delete the extra data after backing it up go into your system settings. Once there, go to Data Management, click 3DS, then Extra Data. You'll want to locate Pokemon Shuffle's Extra Data and delete it. What this does is prevents the extra data files from overwriting the modded files in the base game, as extra data files have some sort of verification on them that prevents me from just modding those. All relevant data from the extra data has been ported over to the mod.

Unfortunately, because I've not figured out a way to deal with code edits for 3DS games that doesn't intimidate me, there's instead a small hex edit to any existing save files which have had specials unlocked. Once you have a back up of your save file, put your SD card into your PC, make a copy of the folder the back up is in, put it somewhere safe, and then drag the one you'll be using for the preservation mod into HxD or your hex editor of choice. Basically, these values that are highlighted in the save data need to be changed to 00 00. Once you're done that, save the edits and delete the .bak file it created.


image.png

If you don't have a save file or are want a fresh start and are just gonna delete yours, you'll instead be using the save file included with the mod as this one already has specials unlocked, which unfortunately doesn't happen naturally in the game. However, if you don't have a save file, you instead will want to ensure that you nullify the offset of your console through the Luma menu, as the save file will only have specials unlocked if played on a console with an offset of 0. Hopefully in the future, I want to instead make the game just always have specials available without having to worry about this.


Regardless of if you have save data or not, you'll want to patch your .cia file using Flips or whatever patching software you're using. Once you've got it downloaded its pretty easy to patch the file, you just click apply patch and follow the instructions. You have the option to either put the patched .cia file onto your SD card to be installed through FBI, or if you'd prefer to use layeredFS, you can extract the files and put the A4700000, B6680000, and all files which begin with F05 into the folder used for layeredfs. These are the only files changed in this patch, there should be 9 files which begin with F05.

Once this is all done, you should have the game load as version 1.5.0 as opposed to the usual 1.5.11, and upon clicking start, you should be getting a "Attention this game isn't up to date" message, however Special stages should be unlocked. If this is what you see, you're all good to go, the mod is working properly. For anyone using the included save file, Specials can act pretty glitchy before stage 11, or at least stage 6, so I'd suggest not playing them until you've progressed at least that far into the game.

If there are any problems, concerns, or bugs, please reach out so I can either patch them if needed or try to help with anything else related to the mod.

Special Thanks to the people who were involved in figuring out how Shuffle's files worked and datamined the game, for enabling me to create this mod, and to any other member of the community who has contributed anything for the game, you're all awesome!

EDIT: 1.2 is now available, replacing 1.1 on this post, there is also now an alternate patch which addresses SOME but not all of the versions floating around, please make sure your .cia is around 91000kb as the smaller ones floating around will not work for the moment. And make sure that your decrypted .cia file is actually output as a .cia file.

Changelog:
- Victini has RML drops after being caught, but can no longer use jewels to get more attempts, to make up for the now missing comp RMLs until I find a better solution.

- Galvantula Survival Mode patch is fixed and Exploud returns to Survival Mode.

KNOWN BUG:
- Beating a comp boss stage with 99 hearts doesn't give you the stage rewards and then bugs out as if its already given them to you.
- Stages 1-11 give the wrong initial clear rewards, this will be fixed next update.
 

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  • Shuffle Preservation mod 1.2.zip
    1.7 MB · Views: 69
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kooriking

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At the risk of sounding like a doofus, I'm running into issues getting the patch to apply correctly. I've tried applying the patch to a .cia file of the game using Flips v. 1.31, and I keep getting the message "This patch is not intended for this ROM." Is there a particular revision of the Pokemon Shuffle ROM that this patch is intended to work with? I've tried several versions of the ROM (both encrypted and decrypted), and I keep getting that message, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
 

SaltedNeos

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At the risk of sounding like a doofus, I'm running into issues getting the patch to apply correctly. I've tried applying the patch to a .cia file of the game using Flips v. 1.31, and I keep getting the message "This patch is not intended for this ROM." Is there a particular revision of the Pokemon Shuffle ROM that this patch is intended to work with? I've tried several versions of the ROM (both encrypted and decrypted), and I keep getting that message, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Its possible that I also just messed up, though I've had another person patch it and have it work fine. I dumped the rom myself with godmode9 when I made the patch. I was under the assumption Shuffle was a region free rom, but just to make sure, do you know which region of console the rom came from? I'm on a 1.5 rom from the NA region.
 
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kooriking

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Its possible that I also just messed up, though I've had another person patch it and have it work fine. I dumped the rom myself with godmode9 when I made the patch. I was under the assumption Shuffle was a region free rom, but just to make sure, do you know which region of console the rom came from? I'm on a 1.5 rom from the NA region.
If someone else was able to get it to work, it's probably on me, then. The versions I tried were from a directory on archive.org, and were listed as "world" versions (with Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish support); some of them were listed as "Rev 1," "Rev 2," or "Rev 3," but there wasn't anything about the actual version number from a file update standpoint. All of those were .3ds files (finding the pure .CIA files out in the wild is a little tricker), so it's possible that something happened while I was converting the files to unencrypted CIAs and made them unpatchable. I downloaded Shuffle through the eShop back before it closed, and I haven't tried dumping that version yet for the purposes of patching; I'll probably have better luck that way.

Anyway, thanks for putting this together; once I can get it working, it'll be nice to have access to the stuff I wouldn't have been able to get after the eShop shutdown. I played the 3DS version of Shuffle for a very short while back when in first came out and just decided to get back into it a few weeks ago, and it's been a great way to take little breaks as I'm finishing up my dissertation.
 

SaltedNeos

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If someone else was able to get it to work, it's probably on me, then. The versions I tried were from a directory on archive.org, and were listed as "world" versions (with Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish support); some of them were listed as "Rev 1," "Rev 2," or "Rev 3," but there wasn't anything about the actual version number from a file update standpoint. All of those were .3ds files (finding the pure .CIA files out in the wild is a little tricker), so it's possible that something happened while I was converting the files to unencrypted CIAs and made them unpatchable. I downloaded Shuffle through the eShop back before it closed, and I haven't tried dumping that version yet for the purposes of patching; I'll probably have better luck that way.

Anyway, thanks for putting this together; once I can get it working, it'll be nice to have access to the stuff I wouldn't have been able to get after the eShop shutdown. I played the 3DS version of Shuffle for a very short while back when in first came out and just decided to get back into it a few weeks ago, and it's been a great way to take little breaks as I'm finishing up my dissertation.
Let me know if dumping works or not, if it doesn't, then I need to look into whats going on here.
Also, what were you using to decrypt the files, and which format was the decrypted file coming out as?
 
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kooriking

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Let me know if dumping works or not, if it doesn't, then I need to look into whats going on here.
Also, what were you using to decrypt the files, and which format was the decrypted file coming out as?
I was using a program called "Batch CIA 3DS Decryptor" to output a decrypted .3DS file, and then running another program called "Batch CIA 3DS Converter" to convert that to CIA, so there's a very good chance that the file got wrangled into an incompatible state somewhere in there.

I'll try dumping as soon as I can find my SD card reader (which I haven't used in a while, and it's probably buried under some clutter somewhere), and I'll let you know what I find out.
 

SaltedNeos

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I was using a program called "Batch CIA 3DS Decryptor" to output a decrypted .3DS file, and then running another program called "Batch CIA 3DS Converter" to convert that to CIA, so there's a very good chance that the file got wrangled into an incompatible state somewhere in there.

I'll try dumping as soon as I can find my SD card reader (which I haven't used in a while, and it's probably buried under some clutter somewhere), and I'll let you know what I find out.
I noticed that software doesn't output a .cia, but a .cci, which would be the problem. I would suggest decrypting using godmode9 if at all possible. I am working on patch files for other dumps of the game, because it seems like there is more then one unfortunately.
 

AletheiaXVI

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At the risk of sounding really dumb, I'm assuming I need a file to patch the .cia file with, right? Cause idk if it's me being blind or if its my extensions or something but I don't see anything that will let me download the patch :unsure:
 

SaltedNeos

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At the risk of sounding really dumb, I'm assuming I need a file to patch the .cia file with, right? Cause idk if it's me being blind or if its my extensions or something but I don't see anything that will let me download the patch :unsure:
Uhh... looks like you're right? I have no idea what happened there. Putting that back.
 

SaltedNeos

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Does someone have the hash for the CIA version used for this patch?
I really need to figure this out lol. All I can really say rn, is that anyone who I've seen encounter problems with installation had them resolved by just dumping the game themselves using godmode9. If I can get a moment to figure out, I'll do this. I'm almost at the point of unfortunately having people patch individual files.
 

Z_Tetriminos

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Can confirm it only works if you make a cia standard dump from your own 3DS with godmode9 and patch it. I tried with 3 different backups I found online and no one worked.

But your hack is functional, and that's what matters! Thanks!
 
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SaltedNeos

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Can confirm it only works if you make a cia standard dump from your own 3DS with godmode9 and patch it. I tried with 3 different backups I found online and no one worked.

But your hack is functional, and that's what matters! Thanks!
Np, I'm pretty sure the only solution for the online dump problem is to make people have to patch every individual file, and that already sounds like a nightmare, but I might need to make that option available.
 

Vapettaja

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Okay, so I've been fighting this battle for some time now, and I just can't get it to work. I'm guessing I can't patch it correctly or something because the game version never changes for me, and neither do the online stages. Here's step-by-step what I've done:

-I already had the game downloaded pre-shutdown, so I made a standard dump on god9mode from that game.
-I took that CIA-file, alongside the bps-patch, and patched the CIA with Flips 1.31. Got no error, and the resulting file had a different file-size than the original, so the patch did do something
-I Deleted the old game using normal means (Options -> Data Management -> etc.)
-I took the patched CIA-file, and used FBI to install the game
-Since there is no savedata for the new shuffle, I couldn't replace it with the new one, so I just booted the game normally. Even at this point, the game version was wrong (1.5.11), but I nonetheless did the last steps as well
-Now that there is a savedata for the game, I closed the game, and replaced it with the savedata I downloaded from here. I also made sure to delete the secure value beforehand as well.
-After this, I loaded the game. The version is wrong, online stages don't work, but the button for special stages is present, so I did at least something correctly :D.

For the record, I am pretty new to this thing, so please go easy on me if I've made some basic error in the process. Thanks in advance.
 

SaltedNeos

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Okay, so I've been fighting this battle for some time now, and I just can't get it to work. I'm guessing I can't patch it correctly or something because the game version never changes for me, and neither do the online stages. Here's step-by-step what I've done:

-I already had the game downloaded pre-shutdown, so I made a standard dump on god9mode from that game.
-I took that CIA-file, alongside the bps-patch, and patched the CIA with Flips 1.31. Got no error, and the resulting file had a different file-size than the original, so the patch did do something
-I Deleted the old game using normal means (Options -> Data Management -> etc.)
-I took the patched CIA-file, and used FBI to install the game
-Since there is no savedata for the new shuffle, I couldn't replace it with the new one, so I just booted the game normally. Even at this point, the game version was wrong (1.5.11), but I nonetheless did the last steps as well
-Now that there is a savedata for the game, I closed the game, and replaced it with the savedata I downloaded from here. I also made sure to delete the secure value beforehand as well.
-After this, I loaded the game. The version is wrong, online stages don't work, but the button for special stages is present, so I did at least something correctly :D.

For the record, I am pretty new to this thing, so please go easy on me if I've made some basic error in the process. Thanks in advance.
You seem to have deleted the wrong thing in data management, if its still on 1.5.11, that means you still have the extra data, which is the cause of this issue. You'd want to delete that instead of the game itself in data management, there should be a tab specifically for extra data. You will also need to load that save data backup again once you delete the extra data since the save file will now be associated with 1.5.11.

You can check if you patched it correctly despite being on 1.5.11 by checking the special shop and seeing if Drop Rate Increase was added, as that change applies regardless of having extra data (why that one specifically works either way is because theres no extra data update that changed anything in the special shop).
 

Vapettaja

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You seem to have deleted the wrong thing in data management, if its still on 1.5.11, that means you still have the extra data, which is the cause of this issue. You'd want to delete that instead of the game itself in data management, there should be a tab specifically for extra data. You will also need to load that save data backup again once you delete the extra data since the save file will now be associated with 1.5.11.

You can check if you patched it correctly despite being on 1.5.11 by checking the special shop and seeing if Drop Rate Increase was added, as that change applies regardless of having extra data (why that one specifically works either way is because theres no extra data update that changed anything in the special shop).
Okay, thanks! It works now! Like you said, I just had to delete the extra data and replace the savedata again for it to function.
BTW if you ever run out of things to do for this mod, it would be really cool if you could make it so that the special stages don't get locked out again when you change the time on your DS. Because then I guess one wouldn't have to wait like half a year to play all the special stages, but could rather change the time when they've played all the current special stages (I really don't know if this is possible, just sharing my thoughts)
Anyway, really cool mod and thanks for making this :D
 

SaltedNeos

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Okay, thanks! It works now! Like you said, I just had to delete the extra data and replace the savedata again for it to function.
BTW if you ever run out of things to do for this mod, it would be really cool if you could make it so that the special stages don't get locked out again when you change the time on your DS. Because then I guess one wouldn't have to wait like half a year to play all the special stages, but could rather change the time when they've played all the current special stages (I really don't know if this is possible, just sharing my thoughts)
Anyway, really cool mod and thanks for making this :D
I'm working on that, but programming isn't exactly my strong point. Though you could always just change the clock then nullify the offset on your system again before booting the game using the Rosalina menu to go to whatever week you wanted.

My priority rn is making the game not require a provided save file or hex editing just to access specials again. I would hope I could make them unlock when checking in normally unlocks, but I've not had any luck with it yet unfortunately. Code edits in this game aren't so simple.
 
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