Professor Oak
Pokemon Professor
About the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Wireless (Wi-Fi) and Infrared (IR) Distributions:
Unlike past Pokemon Distributions for Generations 3, 4 and 5 with Gen 6 & 7 Pokemon distribution software was simply installed on to a normal 3DS console, that would then distribute the currently active distribution to any 3DS, the same as the Gen 4 and 5 distribution carts did over local Wi-Fi.
This distribution software is also capable of distributing events over IR as well, which some events are setup to do.
Download:
Download Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor
Download Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor Distribution Data (Checkpoint Saves)
How do the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Wi-Fi and IR Distributions work?
These distributions download the distribution data as required. This is essentially the Wonder Card and some metadata, which essentially contains information about the current distribution such as its name, if the distribution is to be distributed over Wireless or IR and the date range of the distribution.
Like with the Gen 4 and 5 distribution carts, the date on the 3DS has to match the distribution period, otherwise you will not be able to distribute the Pokemon.
Only one Pokemon event distribution can be stored on the 3DS at once, however one event distribution can contain multiple Pokemon for example.
Distributions are downloaded via serial codes entered into the distribution software when it is placed in download mode. This is done by holding A+B on the blank screen when the distribution software is loaded, which unlocks the serial code prompt.
We can speculate that these codes we’re probably emailed to stores / event organisers to allow relevant distribution 3DS consoles easily to be updated.
It’s possible for any 3DS with the Gen 7 Local Distributor installed to download these event distributions by entering the correct code, even today in 2023. However it’s worth mentioning that not all local Wireless and IR events are still able to be downloaded.
How do we know what Pokemon Gen 7 Distributions can still be downloaded?
That part is easy, once you know how. The distribution software downloads a filelist.txt to the 3DS’s extdata. We can dump this extdata data with a 3DS save manager such as Checkpoint and view the data on a PC.
The filelist.txt includes information about all the local Gen 7 distributions that are still able to be downloaded, along with the serial code to download these distributions!
Below is the filelist.txt data cleaned up in Excel to make it more human readable, the date format used is dd/mm/yyyy:
So now all we have to do is start the distribution software with our 3DS connected to the internet, enter download mode by holding A+B on the blank screen, type the serial code we have obtained, the event distribution will then download:
How to Distribute:
Once you have downloaded an event to distribute the date on the 3DS must be set somewhere in the distribution period.
You then simply load up the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor and press X + Y to start distributing.
Local Distributor Event Preservation:
Surprisingly the infrastructure / servers for the Gen 7 Local Distributor are still online in 2023 so for at least for now you can use the local distributor as intended.
Sooner or later I suspect the servers supporting this will no longer work, however not all is lost. I have been though and downloaded every local distribution event still available today. After downloading each event I’ve backed up the data with Checkpoint (A 3DS save manager), so the end result is the Wonder Card, along with the metadata, distribution setup and all preserved for every event still available to download.
This in turn allows the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor to work without an internet connection. You simply restore the desired save for the distribution you wish to use with Checkpoint, set the date on the 3DS and it will then distribute the event as normal.
It might not be the best idea to install this on your 3DS and go online and download events with this, they are probably not many 3DS consoles out there in the wild with this software on legitimately... so could well raise some raid flags about your 3DS been hacked. Then again its 2023, the eShop recently closed down, so do Nintendo really care at this point? only you can decide if its worth the risk.
Either way I have backed up all the events, along with the meta data, so you don’t have to connect to the internet to use the local distributor if you don’t wish to.
Installing and using the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor:
To make use of the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor you will need:
- 3DS (or 2DS) console with the Luma3DS custom firmware
- FBI installed so you can install the local distributor CIA
- Checkpoint installed if you wish to restore the save game i'll talk about below
- Another 3DS with the Pokemon Sun, Ultra Sun, Moon or Ultra Moon game you wish to distribute to
To get started simply download the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor, copy the .CIA to your 3DS’s SD Card and install it with FBI.
You should then see Pokemon Sun has appeared on your home screen (if you own the actual game you'll now have two Pokemon Sun icons on your home screen) this is not actually Pokemon Sun, however the local distributor.
So it might be an idea to place it in a folder to remind you of that:
When you load the Gen 7 Local Distributor you will get a black screen, this is normal:
To start the distributor in download mode hold A+B, you will then be asked to enter a code:
The distribution will then download and be ready to distribute, if the date on the 3DS is correct.
Below we can see the date is incorrect, however the distributor will display the date range 13/April/2018 to 30/September/2018
Simply go in to the 3DS settings and alter the date to be within the distribution period:
When you next load the distributor hold X+Y and you will see a message stating the distribution has been suspended (press A to start):
The distribution is now running:
Any 3DS console with Pokemon Sun, Ultra Sun, Moon or Ultra Moon in range will be able to receive the distribution via Mystery Gift > Get via Local Wireless:
Using the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor Offline:
As mentioned above sooner or later I suspect the servers supporting the Gen 7 local distributor will no longer work, so I have downloaded every event still available to download and backed up the saves with Checkpoint, below I will show you how to restore and use these saves with Checkpoint. You would install the Checkpoint.cia the same as you did the local Gen 7 local distributor.
Download and extract the saves I have created to the 3ds\Checkpoint\extdata\0x01A89 Pokémon Sun on your 3DS's SD card, as shown below:
Load checkpoint and notice how it states "Press X for extdata" do so and press "X":
You will probably see games on the top menu will change to only show ones which have extdata, if you actually have Pokemon X also installed on that 3DS it could be confusing which is the local distributor and the actual game.
The distributor is CTR-N-AJZA:
If you have copied my distributor saves to the SD card you will also be able to scroll though all the saves and restore the one for the event you wish to distribute:
I have named the file names for these save starting with the ID then csv name you will find on the spreadsheet below, to keep things organised:
After restoring one of the above saves set the date on the 3DS to be within the range of that distribution:
You then simply load up the Pokemon Gen 7 Local Distributor and press X + Y to start distributing.
That's pretty much it, you have now learned how to distribute Gen 7 events via Local Wireless / Infrared and even restore all the events I have preserved for when the servers inevitably close down at some point in the future.
Distributing Other Gen 7 Events:
It is possible to replace the Wonder Card on any of the saves i've provided and distribute any past event Pokemon to a non modified 3DS.
You can a Download a raw Pokemon Wonder Card Server Dump of all the Wonder Cards still available online here.
However I would suggest obtaining additional Wonder Cards from the Events Gallery curated by Project Pokemon. You will find more Wonder Cards here, in addition all these are all curated and organised, some events in the dump above are unreleased / tests.
Editing the local distributor to distribute a Wonder Card of your choosing:
1. I would suggest using the Eclipse Shiny Lunala example event I have created as a base for any event edits. This already has the date restrictions removed. However I will still show below how this was done.
To get started if you unzip the save you will see a file called "info.txt", open this in a Hex editor. For the instructions below we are using HxD as this is a nice freeware Hex editor.
Do not open info.txt in Notepad to edit, it will not work and will cause the local distributor to crash if you save changes this way.
In HxD click under where it says decoded text and type over the distribution name with what you wish to call the edited distribution, then save:
Next download the Gen 7 Wonder Card (full) you wish to distribute from the Events Gallery curated by Project Pokemon.
This should be renamed to "1" with no file extension
Inside the distribution save you are editing open the hashin folder and overwrite "1" with the Wonder Card you have downloaded and renamed:
To change the distribution start date scroll right the to bottom of info.txt to offset 00014120
Highlight 65 2D 31 01, if you look to the data inspector to the right you at Int32 will see a date (the date format is YYYYMMDD).
In this example the date is 20000101 as I've already changed this to the earliest possible date the 3DS will accept.
To modify the start date simply type a new date in to Int32 using the data inspector on the right of HxD:
The distribution end date is also at offset 00014120.
Highlight EF D3 38 01 then if you look to the data inspector to the right, you will see another date on Int32.
In this example the date is 20501231 as I've already changed this to the latest possible date the 3DS will accept.:
By setting the start date as 1st January 2000 and the end date as 31st December 2050 you have covered every date it's possible to set on the 3DS, essentially removing the date lock on the distribution.
Now go File > Save.
Your edited distribution is now finished!
Finally copy the folder containing your modified save to \3ds\Checkpoint\extdata\0x01A89 Pokémon Sun on the 3DS's SD card and restore the save game with Checkpoint as you have read instructions for above.
Launch the local distributor and you can now distribute your chosen Wonder Card to any 3DS in range.
Example distributing the Eclipse Shiny Lunala with the text on the local distributor edited to read Eclipse Shiny Lunala (ENG):
If you are trying to use these distributor saves and have error 9000, follow these steps:
1. Download Save Data Filer and launch it
2. On Save Data Filer's User tab, find:
001A8900 - Pokemon Sun (Gen 7 Distributor) (it will show as 01A89)
3. When you locate them, press R+X to "delete this secure value"
4. After that, delete the distribution and reinstall the CIA.
5. Once reinstalled you can now use Checkpoint to apply whichever distribution save you wish to use
6. Launch the distributor, while the screen is showing Nintendo 3DS logo, press and hold X+Y
