R/S Trainer ID & Starter Manip
Overview
Ruby & Sapphire are the best place to begin your RNG Journey within Generation 3, thanks to this combined manip. In this guide I'll be covering how to manip your Trainer ID and Secret ID, which determine when your shiny targets are available, and we will follow that up with a Shiny Starter manip, so you can be sure you did the Trainer ID manip correctly.
Even if your main goal is not to use RNG Manips to shiny hunt, this will still serve as a way to teach you the fundamentals you'll need to understand any Manip you want to do in the future.
Recommended Setup
- Pokémon Ruby or Sapphire with a Dead Internal Battery (any language)
- GameBoy Advance, Gameboy Player, Nintendo DS / DS Lite, GBA Emulator, or Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire.
- Windows 10/11 PC
Tools Used
Video Examples
The Guide
Step 1: Trainer ID Setup
Before we can start any manips, we have to know what Trainer ID and Secret ID we want. What we're going to do is pick a specific target advance to make shiny.
Which one you pick is up to personal preference– It's all about IVs, Nature, & Gender. Also, the higher advance you pick, the longer the wait you will have. Be careful not to go for too short of a wait, though, as you need enough time to be able to reset the game and press A at the correct time. I would not pick a target below 1000.
To pick your target, open PokéFinder, and in the Gen 3 Tab, click Static
A new window will pop up. By default we are in the Generator tab, which is where we want to be. We've got some settings to fill out.
In the RNG Info section, we'll leave the Method as Method 1. This is background info about how a Pokémon is generated.
For Seed we'll put 5A0, this is the default seed for Ruby & Sapphire with a Dead Battery.
Initial Advances, Max Advances, and Delay cover your starting point, how many advances you want generated, and how much time a Pokémon takes to generate, respectively. We will not need to edit these for now.
In the Settings section, have the Category as Starters, and pick one of the three Hoenn Starter Pokémon. I'll choose Mudkip.
Lastly we have Filters. This is any info about a Pokémon you're able to control through this manip. Pick out what IVs, Nature, and Gender you want. Make sure to leave the Shiny dropdown as Any. Also, the more picky you are with this info, the less options you will have. I recommend aiming for no more than 3 Perfect IVs with the desired nature.
Once you've filled everything out, click Generate. If you get no results, lower some of your IV Ranges, or remove them entirely.
I aimed for a Mudkip with Perfect Attack, Defense, and Speed, with an Adamant Nature. Here is how my window looks:
You may have more results than I do. If that's the case, pick whichever one you want. Once you've made your selection, highlight the PID box and use your computer's copy command.
Then, we'll go back to the main window and click IDs.
A new window will pop up, and we're going to select the RS Tab. In that tab, in the RNG Info section, check the Dead Battery box. We also want to set Initial Advances to 5000 here. This is because during the TID Manip, we have to do the entire intro of the game, and 5000 Advances is about the fastest you can do that section in.
In the Filters Section, select the PID bubble. Then, box to the right of the PID bubble, paste the PID we copied from Gen 3 Static.
When we click Generate here, it will use that PID we pasted to generate multiple different Trainer ID and Secret IDs that will make any Static Encounter, Gift Pokémon, Legendary, or Roamer Shiny if we receive/encounter it on the advance we picked.
I will be aiming for Advance 7660, Trainer ID 14002 and Secret ID 29131. At this point, our prep is complete. You should have a Trainer ID and a Starter Pokémon you are aiming for ready. So it's time to move on to the TID Manip.
Step 2: Trainer ID Manip
To get started with the manip, we’re going to boot up our copy of Ruby or Sapphire, and open the Eon Timer 3.0 App on our computer.
In Eon Timer, click the 3 tab, and make sure the Calibration Box is set to 0.
Also, make sure to put your Target Advance from the IDs section into the Target Frame box in Eon Timer. Mine was 7660.
Pretimer is optional.
When set to 0, clicking Start on EonTimer will immediately start the countdown to your target TID. This requires you to soft reset your game at the same time as clicking Start on Eon Timer.
Setting this to 5000 will create a 5 second countdown, which you will soft reset the game to, then the countdown for the TID Begins. I’ll be using this method for the remainder of the guide.
Your timer should look something like this:
You should also click the gear icon, and make sure your console setting is correct. GBA and NDS-GBA have slightly different frame rates.
GBA: 59.7275 fps
NDS-GBA: 59.6555 fps
Having it set incorrectly will make longer timers inconsistent relative to the actual game. If you’re playing on unofficial hardware or emulator, stick with GBA as this is usually the default.
You don’t need to touch Refresh Interval or Precision Calibration. Now it’s time to attempt the manip.
Start Eon Timer, and when the pretimer countdown hits 0, soft reset the game. You’ll notice Eon Timer starts beeping as it approaches 0. By default, it beeps 6 times. The goal is to Soft Reset on the 6th beep itself.
At this point, play through the intro where you pick your gender and name yourself until you’re at the final text box, pictured below.
While here, we just wait for Eon Timer to finish counting down. Once it gets near the end, it’ll beep 6 times again. The goal is to Press A here on the 6th Beep.
Once the overworld loads, open up the start menu and click your Trainer Name to check your ID on the Trainer Card.
And as you can see here, it’s not the one I wanted. You also probably didn’t get it. What’s going on here? Well, as mentioned in the Introduction page, the gen 3 games move at around 60 frames per second, and different manips have different offsets and delays. This is no different, so I’ll show you how to account for your own personal timing, and any delay incurred by the game itself in the next section.
Step 3: Trainer ID Adjust
The first thing we’re going to do post attempt is open back up the IDs section of PokéFinder. We can leave the RNG Info section the same as our setup. But in the Filters section, we’re going to click the TID bubble.
There, we’ll type out what TID we just got in-game, and hit generate. You should only get 1 result using these parameters.
You can see the TID I got was after 7654 advances, which is slightly before 7660. The way we adjust for this is simple– In Eon Timer, paste 7654 from the advances column into the Frame Hit box, and click update.
After you click update, the Calibration box will be changed. This value is updated automatically, no need to worry about it.
With the update done, you hit Start on Eon Timer and try again, with the exact same procedure as described in the Trainer ID Manip section.
This is a precise endeavor, the timing is 1/60th of a second, remember. So have patience, and with enough attempts you will get the ID you want.
Once you do, it’s time to use that Trainer ID to get a shiny starter!
Step 4: Starter Setup
The process for the Starter Manip is very similar to the Trainer ID Manip, but before we get started I want to walk you through setting up a Profile in PokéFinder for Gen 3, and making your target starter show up in PokéFinder.
First, we’ll head back into the Static section in Gen 3 on PokéFinder. Up top, there’s a Profile section, click the Manager Button.
A new window will pop up called the Profile Manager. If this is your first time using PokéFinder, there will be no profiles here. Since I have a lot of games, I already have a lot of profiles, though.
Anyway, in this window, click the New Button. You’ll be greeted with yet another new window. Here we’ll enter our Profile Name, Select our Game, and enter our Trainer ID and Secret ID, that we just RNG Manipped.
It’s also important to check the Dead Battery box. This will automatically fill the Seed Box with 5A0 every time in Gen 3’s Generator in PokéFinder.
Once all our info is in, we can hit Okay in this window, and then Done in the Profile Manager Window.
With a profile set up, we can search for our Shiny Target that we picked out earlier. First select your profile from the drop down, if you haven’t done it already.
Then, make sure the Method in RNG Info is set to Method 1, and seed is 5A0 (which should happen automatically now). Also make sure to pick your starter correctly in Settings.
For the Filters section, though, all we want to do is set the Shiny drop down to Star/Square. We can leave ability, IVs, Gender, and Hidden Power Blank. Then, let’s hit Generate.
You’ll notice that, yes, the target I selected showed up (Adamant Mudkip with 3 Perfect IVs), but there’s many other targets available to me as well! This is because a Trainer ID and Secret ID do not only make the one target you picked out shiny. They will make THOUSANDS of shinies available to you.
And you can see, on the typical 5A0 seed for Ruby & Sapphire, I have 4 that are available to me in under two minutes.
So, pick any of these targets to be your first. I’ll be aiming for advance 7660.
You may be wondering what the Star/Square Distinction is in PokéFinder in the Shiny Column. This is for Pokémon Sword and Shield. That game has two distinct shiny animations, and this column tells you if it will be the animation with stars, or with squares. It makes no visual difference in any other game.
Okay, at this point, we have the ability to search for a target, we know our Trainer ID should theoretically produce a shiny, so let’s confirm we’re correct.
Step 5: Starter Manip
To get started with the starter manip, you want to play through the intro until you are in front of Professor Birch's bag, and save the game.
Then, in Eon Timer, put the number from the Advances Column into the Target Frame box. In my case, it is the same number I used for my Trainer ID Manip. Also, change the value in the Calibration box to be 0 again.
For every type of Manip, the amount of calibration will be different, because the game delays generating whatever you’re manipping differently, based on what it’s generating.Your Eon Timer should look something like this, but with your target advance instead.
We are once again all set to begin. Start Eon Timer, and when the pretimer finishes on the 6th beep, soft reset the game.
Then, get all the way up until the Yes/No box on the starter you intend to choose, and hover over Yes while you wait for the timer to count down. Pictured below
When the timer finishes counting down, hit A to start the battle with Poochyena.
We can check the summary screen and see that we missed our target once again. Just like with the Trainer ID Manip, we are going to have to learn how to calibrate missing our target.
Step 6: Starter Adjust
To figure out which Mudkip we hit, we’re going to have to figure out its IVs and use that to search.
First, though, let’s set up Generator for a search.
In RNG Info we’ll leave Seed and Method alone, but we are going to change Initial Advances. To be about 1000 advances before our target.
In my case, I am aiming for 7660. So I set it to 6660.
Then, for the Filters section, clear everything out to their default values. All IVs should be 0 to 31, and all of the drop downs should say Any, except Nature and Gender. Set those to what the starter you received had. In my case it’s Relaxed and Male.
After that, click the IV Calculator Button.
A new window will pop up. If you’ve never used an IV Calculator before, I’ll explain how it works.
In the Pokémon drop down, select the starter you chose. And for the Nature Box, select its nature.
Then, at the bottom, put level 5 and input all the stats of the Mudkip as they are on the summary screen. Then, click Find IV’s. In the Result section, it will populate ranges for what the IVs could be. You can see my Mudkips stats then see how I have entered them in the IV calculator.
Once you have clicked find IV’s, it also fills that info out within the Static Generator in PokéFinder.
At this point, hit Generate. You will likely get many different results, however, one should be much closer than the rest. In my example, 7662 is only 2 Advances away from my target. The next closest would be a whopping 5000 Advances away.
Despite each advance only being 1/60th of a second, that adds up to about 83 seconds. There is no way I could be over 1 minute late. So, by process of elimination, 7662 is where I landed.
Now repeat the process from Starter Manip until you get your desired Pokémon.
If you find yourself dancing around your target, being 1 or 2 advances late or early repeatedly– that’s okay. The timing is strict, do not worry about it. Just keep practicing and you will eventually succeed.
Next Steps
If you enjoyed this process and want to do more RNG Manips, I would suggest moving on to Static RNG. It is the same type of RNG Manip as the Starter Pokémon, but with a couple of different targets available to choose from.
Alternatively, if you want to jump straight into doing some Wild Pokémon RNG, that’s a feasible path as well. It is slightly more difficult to determine where you land during this manip, but the timing is not any more difficult.