Hacking Homebrew PKSE - Pokemon Save Editor

[kiasta]

PKSE - Pokemon Save Editor v1.0.2​

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Source and binary can be found here: https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE

Greetings everyone! I have developed a switch homebrew application for editing Pokemon save files -- PKSE (Pokemon Save Editor). I used PKHeX heavily as a resource and I am very thankful for their hard work!

Current games supported:

• Legends: Z-A
• Scarlet/Violet
• Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
• Legends: Arceus
• Sword/Shield
• Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
• FireRed/LeafGreen

I would strongly suggest making a backup with Checkpoint or a similar tool before using my save editor.

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LOOSE DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

• Event injection + event-flag enable
• PKSM bank import/export interop
• Legality Layer 3 — encounter matching
• Legalize" button — auto-fix to nearest legal

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SCREENSHOTS

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I HAVE PERSONALLY TESTED THIS WITH THE 22.5.0 FIRMWARE.
INSTRUCTIONS: Place the PKSE.nro file in your "smdc:/switch" directory. Must use title override for newer firmwares 21+.
If anyone has any suggestions or feedback feel free to leave it here, thanks!

Source and binary can be found here: https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE

 

[kiasta]

Added partial support for Legends Z-A, but only reads some data. Offsets need to be tweaked. Did some heavy file restructuring and uploaded to github here: https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE

 

[Insektaure]

Nice to see an app like this being made that target current switch games !

FYI I opened several issues regarding optimizations / bugs for the current codebase.

Keep up the good work !

 

[kiasta]

Nice to see an app like this being made that target current switch games !

FYI I opened several issues regarding optimizations / bugs for the current codebase.

Keep up the good work !

Thanks a lot! There's another one with more features around here with more features, but not open-source. But I'm pretty close on getting the missing titles integrated. Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated!

Post automatically merged: Dec 1, 2025

Version 0.0.1 Release Candidate 1​

- Fixed offsets for Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Now party/box Pokemon and items can now be modified.

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/0.0.1_rc1

 

[kiasta]

Version 0.0.1 Release Candidate 2​

• Heavy file and naming restructure.
• Fixed a critical bug that caused Pokemon to become corrupted and "Bad Egg".
• Fixed money amount for Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/0.0.1_rc2_Release

 

[kiasta]

Version 0.0.1 Official Release​

• Fixed various issues with Base Stats and IV/EV calculation
• Added regional variant and individual Pokemon form Base Stat changes for IV/EV and Stat calculation
• Several UI fixes
• Save logic fixes
• Instruction tooltip fixes
• Heavy file and code restructuring

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/0.0.1_Release

Post automatically merged: Dec 10, 2025

Version 0.0.2 Release​

Changelog:​

• Fixed issue where shiny Pokemon had improper PID generation based on trainer OT instead of the Pokemon's OT.
• Added project and build support for Visual Studio 2026

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/0.0.2

 

[kiasta]

Version 0.0.3 Release​

This release brings several enhancements and bug fixes.​

Enhancements:​

• Added option to delete a save backup
• Updated MAKEFILE to include Regional Variants/Forms sprites
• Added Pokemon Types and Type banner sprites
• Added Pokemon sprite to the Pokemon Details modal

Bug fixes:​

• Fixed issue causing Pokemon shininess to toggle off when modifying IV/EV values
• Fixed the incorrect back navigation logic from Save Backups screen
• Fixed Dialog when leaving Trainer View Screen with unsaved changes

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/0.0.3_Release

 

[TrunksSSJ23]

thanks alot for this, nice work!

 

[kiasta]

thanks alot for this, nice work!

Thanks!

 

[kiasta]

Version 1.0 Release​

This release brings several new features, title support, a whole new UI interface and a plethora of bug fixes.​

Supported games (read, edit, write):​

• Legends: Z-A
• Scarlet/Violet
• Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
• Legends: Arceus
• Sword/Shield
• Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
• FireRed/LeafGreen

Editing:​

• Party & box Pokemon: species, level, stats, IVs/EVs (AVs in Let's Go),
  nature, ability, moves, held item, ball, OT/met/origin, shininess, gender,
  and ribbons.
• Trainer info and item pouches, with per-game item and count limits.
• Pokemon creator: build one from scratch in any game's format, with legal
  values highlighted.
• Legality checker: flags illegal values as you edit (informational; it never
  blocks or changes anything).
• Cross-game bank: PKSE-native storage every supported game shares. A Pokémon
  deposited from one game is converted into the destination's format on
  withdrawal, preserving its origin (OT, IDs, met data, IVs, nature, PID).

Interface & save handling:​

• HOME-style UI (NanoVG) with 256px HD sprites, full touch controls, and
  scrollable storage and lists.
• On-console backup and restore, with retained backup history.
• Per-game save-version and DLC detection.
• On-screen error reporting (including when no backups are present).

 

[kiasta]

Version 1.0.2 Hotfix Release

Met/egg locations, pre-Switch origins, and 7 missing HD sprites bug fixes

Met/Egg location bug:
Met/egg location showed "(none)" for banked location IDs. PKHeX banks these IDs by ID / 10000 (bank 0 = in-world, 3 = Link Trade / region + Pokémon HOME/GO transfers / "a picnic", 4 = events, 6 = egg sources). The generator only emitted bank 0, so traded, HOME-transferred, and egg Pokémon rendered "(none)". Now emit every bank and route by threshold, mirroring PKHeX LocationSet6.

Pre-Switch Origins bug:
HOME transferred Pokémon from a pre-Switch game showed Origin "Unknown" and met/egg "(none)". PKSE only recognised the Switch-era origin games. getOriginGameName now names every origin version byte (Gen 1-9), and location lookup carries one table set per generation (added Gen 4/5/6/7 = HGSS/BW2/XY/SM) routed on the origin generation, per PKHeX GameStrings.GetLocations. A Gen 3/4 (and Pokémon GO) MET ID is remapped into the current format's numbering when the mon is transferred up, so it is named with the format table -- a Platinum starter link-traded to Violet reads met = "a Link Trade"; Gen 5+ keep their own table; a Gen 4 egg stays on the Gen 4 table. An unset met date (00/00) now shows "(none)" instead of "00/00/2000". Verified against a real Violet save: every transferred mon resolves.

Missing HD Sprites bug:
The HD sprite set was fetched by NAME from pokemondb, which needs a name->dex map. That map dropped Mimikyu and six other species/forms whose display name didn't match pokemondb's URL slug. Once the old 96px PokeAPI fallback was removed, they rendered blank.

Fix the class of bug at the source: fetch PokeAPI's HOME renders by NUMERIC id instead (base = National Dex number, forms = 10000+ ids), so there is no name map to get wrong. New tools/gen_hdsprites.py downloads and downscales them from 512->256px (Pillow), fails on any missing base sprite, and is pinned to a PokeAPI/sprites commit for reproducibility.

Retire the whole download-based pipeline from the Makefile (the old low-res sprites/forms targets and the HD hdsprites/hdforms targets); `make` / `make all` no longer fetch Pokemon sprites. Delete the name-map tool files and document the one-time fetch step in the README.

https://github.com/kiasta/PKSE/releases/tag/1.0.2_Release