Pokemon Sacred Gold is Drayano’s ROM hack of Pokemon HeartGold for the Nintendo DS. The story and maps follow HeartGold, but all 493 Gen 1–4 Pokémon can be caught, trainers have new teams and the difficulty is much higher. Its twin release, Pokemon Storm Silver, applies the same changes to SoulSilver.
Download Pokemon Sacred Gold Version
Game Full Name: Pokemon Sacred Gold Version
Creator: Drayano
Hack of: Pokemon HeartGold (USA)
Latest version: v1.05 (June 1, 2012)
Companion hack: Storm Silver (SoulSilver)
Official thread: GBAtemp (Drayano)
Sacred Gold is a finished hack: v1.05 from 2012 is still the latest public release. A remade v2.0 was announced by Drayano in 2020 but has not been published on the official thread, so treat any “Sacred Gold 2.0” download claims with caution.
Features
Drayano’s release notes list these changes compared with HeartGold:
- Every one of the 493 Gen 1–4 Pokémon can be obtained, with almost all of them available before the Elite Four (Legendaries are somewhat restricted).
- The National Dex is unlocked as soon as you receive the Pokédex.
- Trainers carry new, more varied teams, and Gym Leaders and the Elite Four use full teams of six with a big difficulty boost.
- Extra trainer battles, such as Ethan/Lyra, Cynthia and Steven.
- Changes to many Pokémon’s moves, abilities, types and TM compatibility (the “Complete” patch); a “Classic” patch keeps the original Pokémon data.
Sacred Gold vs Storm Silver
Pick based on which base game you prefer. Both hacks share the same trainers, difficulty and features; Drayano notes only minor differences in wild encounters between them, and all 493 Pokémon are obtainable in either one. Sacred Gold needs HeartGold, while Storm Silver needs SoulSilver.
How to Patch Sacred Gold
- Download the v1.05 patch and documentation (Complete or Classic) from Drayano’s official thread.
- Apply it to your own clean, unmodified USA Pokemon HeartGold ROM. The anti-piracy fix is already built into the patch.
- Play the patched game in a Nintendo DS emulator such as melonDS or DeSmuME.
Download
Screenshots
Sacred Gold FAQ
Is Sacred Gold still being updated?
No new version has been released since v1.05 (June 2012). A v2.0 remake has been announced but not released.
Should I choose the Complete or Classic patch?
Complete includes Drayano’s changes to Pokémon moves, abilities, types and stats. Classic keeps the original Pokémon data while still adding the new trainers and full Pokémon availability.
Credits
Drayano’s credits for Sacred Gold & Storm Silver thank:
- afcmark15, bossdresser, Joodicator and other friends: For contributing ideas to the hack, as well as helping to test the thing in some cases (not much, but it’s something!)
- Project Pokémon Forums: Again, for any help you’ve provided regarding HG/SS issues, either to myself or to other people.
- Alpha and SCV: Although it hasn’t been updated for a while, PPRE is the most important thing needed to create this hack. I appreciate that very much.
- KazoWAR: His tutorial on inserting sprites in HG/SS was important to insert the steven sprite.
- Dewgong/Frostbite: For the steven trainer sprite added to the game.
- Various GBAtemp / YouTube members: For their continuous support and ideas throughout the production of SG/SS.
- Jhon 591 from Romulation: For his vastly improved HG/SS anti-piracy patch, which means you can play the game on no$gba WITHOUT it crashing every five seconds!
- Jensei: For beating the game pretty quickly and pointing out bugs in the early versions. I can’t say it looks good on me, but it helped!
- Early Players: I can’t thank you enough for helping me with all the bugs and I apologize for forcing you to download so many times!
