GitHub - HydrosPlays/TidalHeX: Pokémon Save File Editor

A modern, console-style interface for PKHeX, the Pokémon core series save editor.

TidalHeX is a fork of PKHeX that replaces the classic Windows Forms window with a new animated interface, styled after a game console's home menu and the Rotom Dex. Underneath, it is still PKHeX: saves are read and written by PKHeX's own engine (PKHeX.Core, unchanged), with the same legality checker and the same encounter and Mystery Gift data. TidalHeX edits your saves exactly the way PKHeX does.

A built-in Save Manager lists every save you keep in the saves folder next to the exe, raw files or .zip backups, with each game's box art, so switching games is a double-click. Five themes change the whole look, from the default ocean blue to a Game Boy Advance–style pixel menu. PKHeX plugins work too: drop them in the plugins folder and their commands appear under Save Tools. The classic PKHeX window is still one click away for anything the new interface doesn't cover yet.

We do not support or condone cheating at the expense of others. Do not use significantly hacked Pokémon in battle or in trades with those who are unaware hacked Pokémon are in use.

Screenshots

Boxes	Pokémon editor

Stats	Encounter database

Mystery Gift database	Save tools

Trainer Info	Pokédex

Items

Classic mode

The classic PKHeX window is still there, restyled with the TidalHeX ocean theme.

Classic window	Stats and party

What TidalHeX changes

A new interface

Home screen with your party along the top, large tiles for Pokémon, Boxes, Encounters, Mystery Gifts, Save Tools, Open File and your recent saves, and a dock for quick actions (open, Save Manager, export, check every Pokémon, settings, classic mode).
Boxes: a large box grid with your party and a details panel. Drag to move, Shift+drag to clone, Alt+drag to overwrite, with undo and redo. Drop a Pokémon or Mystery Gift file onto a slot to place it straight into that slot.
Pokémon editor split into Overview, Met, Stats, Moves, Trainer and Extras, with a large sprite, a live legality card, a stat chart and one-click actions (max IVs, suggested moves, suggested met location and more). Ribbons, memories and medals open PKHeX's own editors.
PKHeX's editor shortcuts kept: Alt+click the shiny star to keep the PID and change the SID (so PID/IV-correlated Pokémon stay legal), Shift+click for a square shiny, Ctrl+click for a star shiny.
Forms: the form picker shows each form's sprite, gender forms (Meowstic, Indeedee and others) stay in step with the gender, and Gen 3 Deoxys explains that its forme comes from the game it's in.
In-app messages: PKHeX's questions and errors appear inside the interface instead of Windows message boxes.
Keyboard friendly: Q/E switch pages (the L/R buttons), Esc goes back, Ctrl+1–6 jump to a page, Ctrl+O opens a file and Ctrl+E exports the save. Each screen lists its actions along the bottom.
Themes: Tidal Light, Tidal Dark, Tidal PSS, Tidal ZA and Tidal Pixel (see Themes).
Updates: at startup TidalHeX checks this repository's releases. When a newer version is out it shows the release notes, and Update now downloads it, swaps it in and restarts. Turn the check off or run it by hand in Settings → Updates.
Light on your PC: the background animation only runs on the home screen while the window is focused, and pauses when minimized. A "Reduce motion" setting turns it off entirely.

Easier Encounter and Mystery Gift databases

Same data and the same filters as PKHeX, laid out as cards with the encounter type, level, location and the games it comes from.
A details panel with the facts that matter: moves, guaranteed IVs, ability, ball, shiny lock and more.
Gifts claimed through Pokémon HOME are labeled as HOME gifts, and forms are named and drawn correctly (Alolan Vulpix, Deoxys-Speed, Vivillon patterns, …).
An Only Pokémon in this game switch, which is PKHeX's "filter unavailable species" setting.
Opening an encounter always gives you the Pokémon as the database generates it. PKHeX's "Use tabs as criteria" setting, which copies the shiny state, nature and IVs of the Pokémon you're editing, only applies in classic mode.

Save tools

Items, Trainer Info, Box Layout and Pokédex are rebuilt inside the interface, with the same rules as PKHeX's editors. Nothing is written until you press Save, and leaving with unsaved changes asks first.
Every other save editor opens PKHeX's own window, restyled to match. Each rebuilt tool also has a More options button that opens the classic editor for game-specific details.
Plugins: PKHeX plugins in the plugins folder next to the exe load at startup, just like in PKHeX. Everything they add to PKHeX's Tools menu shows up in a Plugins section of Save Tools, with their submenus as groups, and commands that don't apply to the loaded game hidden. Plugin windows get the TidalHeX theme. Startup setting PluginLoadEnable turns plugins off.

Save Manager

Keep all your saves next to TidalHeX and switch between them with a double-click.

How to use it

Make a folder named saves next to TidalHeX.exe, or open the Save Manager and click Open folder (it creates the folder for you).
Put your saves in it: raw save files (main, *.sav, *.dsv, *.bin, …) or .zip backups, such as the ones JKSV makes for Switch games.
Optionally, sort them into folders. Each folder becomes a group, and common console names get a proper title (gb, gbc, gba, gc, ds, 3ds, switch). Any other folder name is shown as it is. Folders inside a group, like the folder Checkpoint makes for each backup, stay in that group.
```
TidalHeX.exe
saves/
├── gb/
│   └── blue-main/
│       └── sav.dat
├── gba/
│   └── Emerald.sav
├── ds/
│   └── Black 2.sav
└── switch/
    ├── shield.zip
    └── legends za.zip
```
Open the Save Manager from the home screen dock or the Save Manager tab at the top.
Double-click a save to load it and jump straight to its boxes. You can also point at a save and press A or Enter, or move with the arrow keys.

What each save shows

The game's box art. Saves that don't record which game of a pair they're from (like Ruby/Sapphire) show both.
Trainer name and gender, TID and SID. The SID is hidden when PKHeX's "Hide secret details" privacy setting is on.
Play time, the date the adventure started, money and the number of Pokémon caught. The start date shows for Gen 4 onward; Gen 1–3, Let's Go and Legends: Z-A don't have one.
Language, generation and ZIP badges, plus Open now on the save that's loaded.
The party, and when the file was last saved.

Red or Blue? Naming Gen 1–3 saves

Saves from the first three generations don't record which game of a pair they came from (Red or Blue, Gold or Silver, Ruby or Sapphire, FireRed or LeafGreen), and most don't record their language either. Like PKHeX, TidalHeX works both out from the name: it checks the save's file name first, then the .zip it's in, then its folders. A Checkpoint backup in blue-main/sav.dat is read as Blue. Put the game's name in the save's own language somewhere in the file or folder name:

Game	English	French	German	Italian	Spanish	Japanese
Red	`red`	`rouge`	`rot`	`rosso`	`rojo`	`aka` / 赤
Blue	`blue`	`bleu`	`blau`	`blu`	`azul`	`ao` / 青
Green (Japan only)						`midori` / 緑
Yellow	`yellow`	`jaune`	`gelb`	`giallo`	`amarillo`	`pika` / 黄

Later games work the same way with their English names (gold, silver, crystal, ruby, sapphire, firered, leafgreen) or translated ones (rubin, saphir, feuer, blatt, …). Yellow, Crystal and Emerald are also recognized from the save itself, so for those the name only adds the language. A save whose name doesn't say uses PKHeX's default from Settings → Save Language (Red/Blue, English, unless you change it). Keep names simple: a folder called transferred contains "red".

Good to know

Groups go from the oldest console to the newest, and saves in each group are sorted by generation. Use the search box or the Gen buttons to filter.
The folder is read when TidalHeX starts, so the list is ready right away. It refreshes when you switch back to TidalHeX or press Refresh (Y or F5), so new files show up without restarting.
A save inside a .zip is read straight from the zip, and the zip is never changed. When you export, TidalHeX asks where to save it. Plain save files work exactly like opening them with Open File, including PKHeX's automatic backups and the recent files list.
Files that aren't saves are skipped, and the page tells you how many there were.

Themes

TidalHeX comes with five themes. They change the colors, panels, backgrounds and animations of the whole interface; everything works the same in each.

How to change the theme

Open Settings: the gear button in the home screen's dock, the + Options hint at the bottom of the home screen, or the + key.
Under Theme, click the one you want. The interface switches right away, and TidalHeX remembers your choice the next time it starts.

The theme is also a PKHeX setting (Startup → TidalUITheme), so it can be changed from PKHeX's settings window too. PKHeX's classic windows (Ribbons, Memories and the other editors that open in their own window) keep the ocean theme in every theme. Reduce motion turns off each theme's background animation.

Tidal Light (Default)

The original look: a bright cyan-to-blue sea with a grid, rings and rising bubbles, frosted-glass panels, and a white-and-cyan selection ring.

Home	Boxes

Pokémon editor	Save Manager

Tidal Dark

The same design on a deep night-time sea: darker panels, dimmed glows and box wallpapers, and the same cyan accents and colorful home tiles.

Home	Boxes

Pokémon editor	Save Manager

Tidal PSS

Based on the Player Search System of Pokémon X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: a sunny yellow background with diagonal stripes, burnt-orange panels, navy bars across the top and bottom, and navy buttons and labels.

Home	Boxes

Pokémon editor	Save Manager

Tidal ZA

Based on Pokémon Legends: Z-A. The background is the game's title screen: near-black with a teal and maroon glow, falling green data dots and floating squares (animated on the home screen). Menus are frosted slate panels with condensed white titles, and items turn white with a lime marker when you point at them, like the game's menus.

Home	Boxes

Pokémon editor	Save Manager

Tidal Pixel

Based on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games (Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, FireRed/LeafGreen): a light-blue striped background that scrolls on the home screen, flat dark-blue boxes with pixel frames and hard shadows, white boxes with a ▶ cursor for the item you point at, and pixel bubbles. Titles, buttons and labels use Tidal Pixel, a pixel font made for TidalHeX (its glyphs are drawn in PKHeX.WinForms/Tidal/Assets/PixelFont/make_tidal_pixel.py, which builds the font file).

Home	Boxes

Pokémon editor	Save Manager