Pokémon Gen 3 Save Editor

.sav
.srm
.sa1

Edit Pokémon Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ruby and Sapphire saves online: money, coins, trainer and party IVs, EVs and moves. Many ROM hacks open too.

Try the demo first

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen keep a playthrough in one 128 KiB save, and most of the ones uploaded here come from ROM hacks built on those games. Upload the .sav or .srm your emulator wrote: the trainer, money, coins and party open as fields, each offered only once it checks out against the save itself. Fan games made in RPG Maker XP are a different format, covered on the Pokémon Essentials page.

How to edit a Pokémon Gen 3 save

Close the emulator, then find the game's save: a .sav or .srm, usually named after the ROM (see below).
Upload it here and change money, the trainer or a party Pokémon.
Download the edited save.
Put it in place of the original under the same name, then load from the game's own menu: loading a save state would bring the old progress back.

What you can change

Money, up to 999,999, and Game Corner coins, up to 9,999
Trainer name, gender, trainer and secret IDs, and play time
Each party Pokémon's level, experience, IVs, EVs, moves, PP and held item
Its nickname, friendship and Poké Ball

Where the saves are stored

By default mGBA and VisualBoyAdvance write a .sav with the ROM's name next to the ROM. RetroArch writes an .srm into the folder set under Settings, Directory, Save Files. My Boy! on Android keeps saves in a folder of its own on the phone's storage, and Delta on iPhone exports one when you long-press the game and choose Manage Save File, then Export Save File. A plain save is 131,072 bytes; for cartridges with a real-time clock mGBA adds a 16-byte clock record after it, making 131,088, and that record comes back untouched.

What the format actually is

A Gen 3 save is the cartridge's 128 KiB of flash: two copies of the game save, each made of fourteen 4 KiB sections with their own checksum, followed by the Hall of Fame and, depending on the game, a Trainer Hill, Trainer Tower or recorded battle. The games write each new save over the older copy, so the editor reads the current one, re-checksums only the sections an edit touches, and carries everything else back byte for byte. Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen mask money and coins with a key kept in the save. The games encrypt every party Pokémon and give it its own checksum, which is how the editor tells a real party from bytes a hack has moved. Hacks built on Complete Fire Red Upgrade store their Pokémon unencrypted and leave that checksum empty, so there the editor trusts a party only when each Pokémon's level, stats and experience agree with each other. Hyper Emerald goes further and writes the same constant in place of every section checksum, which is how the editor recognises it and what it writes back after an edit.

Warning:Change experience rather than level. The game works a Pokémon's level out from its experience again when it comes out of the PC, evolves or takes a vitamin, so a level set on its own goes back to what experience says, and a raised level holds off level-ups in battle until experience catches up. New IVs or EVs show in its stats after one of those events or its next level-up. The editor checks that a value fits its field, not that the game allows it, so keep the level at 100 or below, EVs at 510 in total, and species, move and item numbers to ones the game has. Party members cannot be added or released, and the PC boxes and the bag are not editable yet. Money stops at 999,999, coins at 9,999, play time at 999 hours and a trainer name at seven characters. On Japanese versions the trainer name is shown in the Western alphabet, so leave it as it is. Korean and Chinese hacks keep names in an alphabet the editor cannot read, and it now leaves those names out instead of showing them wrongly.

Questions

Which games and ROM hacks does it open?

Saves from Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen, from a cartridge dump or an emulator, and ROM hacks built on those games. Hacks built on Complete Fire Red Upgrade, such as Radical Red, Unbound and Amethyst, are read too, party included, and so is the Hyper Emerald family, where the trainer, money and party all open. Many hacks move parts of the save or check them differently. When a part does not check out, the editor leaves it out rather than guess, so a hack save can open with only the trainer or only the party. When nothing in a save checks out, the upload is refused with a message that the format is recognised but not editable yet.

Why are species, moves and items shown as numbers?

Because the save stores them as numbers. For species that number is the game's internal index, not the Pokédex number: up to Celebi the two match, but the Hoenn Pokémon start at 277 (Treecko is #252 in the Pokédex), and ROM hacks give many indices to Pokémon of their own. A name list from the original games would label hack saves wrongly, so the editor shows the number.

Can I edit a save state?

No. A save state is the emulator's own snapshot, a different file. Upload the in-game save, the .sav or .srm the game writes when you save from its menu.