SoulGold vs HeartGold and SoulSilver: what the hack changes

Should you play SoulGold if you loved HeartGold and SoulSilver?

Yes. SoulGold is Johto rebuilt as a bigger, harder, modern game. You trade Kanto for everything else.

You keep the Johto story, the eight gym leaders, Silver, Team Rocket, followers, the Pokégear, Apricorns, the Bug-Catching Contest, Cameron and Buena’s show. You gain a region about twice the size, 702 dex entries, every Mega, boss legendaries, level caps and a Hard mode. You lose Kanto, the Pokéathlon and anything that needed a second screen.

I beat SoulGold v1.2.1 on Hard with Hard level caps, postgame included. I grew up on HeartGold, so I came in skeptical and left converted.

Side by side

	HeartGold / SoulSilver	SoulGold (v1.2.1)
Platform	Nintendo DS	Game Boy Advance hack of Emerald (pokeemerald-expansion)
Regions	Johto, then Kanto	Johto only, expanded with new areas and a new tileset
Gyms	8 Johto + 8 Kanto	8 Johto; Chuck, Jasmine and Pryce scale with badge count
National Pokédex	493	702 entries; 959 species and form entries including 118 Megas
Starters	Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile	Nine, including Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie, Sprigatito, Torchic, Popplio
Mega Evolution	None	All 118 Megas; 18 type-generic stones plus the Bondstone
Legendaries	Standard catches	Boss fights with 2 to 4 health bars and form changes; guaranteed catch on victory
Difficulty options	None	Normal or Hard; Hard makes gyms and the Elite Four Doubles with tougher teams
Level caps	None	12/19/26/34/42/45/48/55/58/62/70; None, Soft or Hard enforcement
Exp. Share	Item, late	Given before Violet City, party-wide, on by default; Candy Jar banks 90% of every foe’s EXP
HMs	Taught to a Pokémon	Owning the HM plus the badge is enough; Fly from the region map
Following Pokémon	Yes	Yes (toggle), Mega followers optional
Pokégear	Phone, map, radio	Kept, with the radio visuals and a Roamer Tracker on the map
Postgame	Kanto, Red at Mt. Silver, Battle Frontier	Battle Tower, Vajra Pyramid, Rocket Arcade, Battle Café, Title Defense, innates, 121 trophies
Pokéathlon, Pokéwalker, touch controls	Yes	No

Johto is much larger, and there is no Kanto

SoulGold adds all of this on top of the HGSS map:

• Goldenrod Shore and Routes 47 to 50
• The Vajra Desert, with Rinto Village and a Battle Pyramid
• Snowtop Mountain and Railway Cave
• Kitakami, with the Lost Woods
• The South Johto Sea, with an Abandoned Lab and an Abandoned Rocket Warehouse
• Meteor Island, Faraway Island and the Nameless Cave
• New floors under Ice Path, Mt. Mortar, the Whirl Islands and Ilex Forest

The tileset is new everywhere, so even routes you know look different. Walking Route 30 in the new tiles made me grin.

Kanto is gone. No Kanto gyms, no walk to Red. The postgame happens in the new Johto areas instead. A few Kanto faces still show up:

• Blaine fights you at Olivine Port on the way to Faraway Island and Mew.
• Green waits in the Nameless Cave near Mewtwo.
• Leaf joins the Title Defense pool.
• Steven lives in a Kitakami house and gates Rayquaza.

The gym order is HGSS with one fix. Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney and Morty come first. Then do Chuck, Jasmine and Pryce in any order, since their teams scale to your 4, 5 or 6 badges. Clair is last. The Goldenrod Rocket event starts after seven badges, whichever three you picked.

702 Pokédex entries instead of 493

HGSS stopped at 493. SoulGold goes to 702 across nine generations, or 959 once you count forms and Megas. All 608 non-legendaries are catchable in one save. Finish those 608 and Oak gives you an Arceus egg. The only blanks are a couple dozen legendaries with no encounter.

Most regional forms are in Baoba’s Safari Zone, and some show up earlier. The in-game trades are all new:

• Pawmi: Violet
• Galarian Slowpoke: Azalea
• Honedge: Goldenrod Department Store
• Rotom: Route 39 gatehouse
• Hisuian Voltorb: Olivine
• Gabite: Blackthorn
• Meltan: Rinto Village

The Meltan trade was the one I looked forward to most.

Smash rocks in the Ruins of Alph for fossils. Hidden Grottos give you a ‘mon with two perfect IVs and its Hidden Ability, every day.

Mega Evolution with type-generic stones

HGSS had no Megas. SoulGold has all 118, and each stone covers a type instead of one species. There are 18, named Firetite, Watertite, Dragotite and so on. One Dragotite covers Charizard X, Dragonite, Salamence, Latias, Latios and Baxcalibur.

Elm gives you the Bondstone after the eighth badge. It’s for your starter, and it also works for Mega Raichu Y and Mega Gardevoir Z.

You get the Mega Ring from Oak after the Team Rocket takeover in Goldenrod. So Megas won’t save you from Whitney. The list includes the Pokémon Champions “Z” Megas, the Legends Z-A Megas, and three new ones for Typhlosion, Meowscarada and Primarina.

There are no Z-Moves and no Dynamax. You never get a Z-Power Ring. You do get all 18 type Gems from the Gem Merchant in the Indigo Plateau Pokémon Center.

Legendaries are boss fights

This is the biggest change from HGSS. Many legendaries are bosses with several health bars and a 10 percent stat boost, and some change form as bars break.

• Lugia and Ho-Oh: two bars at level 65 in the story. Leave one for the postgame and it’s four bars at 80.
• Mewtwo: Nameless Cave, four bars, cycles through Mega Y and Mega X.
• Kyogre and Groudon: go Primal for three bars each.
• Dialga, Palkia and Giratina: on the Spear Pillar Summit. Reach it through the Ruins of Alph with Hoopa in your party.

Win and you catch it with any ball. Lose or run and it stays, so you can’t miss one for good. That alone fixed my oldest HGSS complaint.

The beasts still roam after the Burned Tower, but now the region map has a Roamer Tracker on R. They can’t flee while asleep. Want a shiny roamer? Use the Shiny Genome item instead of resetting. Every location is in the legendary guide.

Level caps and Hard mode

HGSS had no difficulty settings. SoulGold has two:

• Difficulty: Normal or Hard. Hard gives gyms and the Elite Four tougher teams and makes them Doubles. You can flip it in Options any time.
• Level caps: None, Soft or Hard. Hard gives zero EXP at the cap. Soft cuts it hard.

The caps go 12, 19, 26, 34, 42, 45, 48, then 55 at the Rocket takeover, 58, 62 until you catch Ho-Oh or Lugia, and 70 until you’re Champion.

Even Normal is tougher than HGSS. Hard looks like this:

• Falkner: three ‘mons on Normal, including a Gligar. Four on Hard, with a Tailwind Rufflet and a Pecha Berry.
• Whitney: Maushold, Audino, Cinccino and Miltank at 27, all holding items.
• Clair: six level 58s with EVs, and a Gyarados holding a Watertite.
• Lance: six at 70 and 71, with a Choice Specs Archaludon and a Dragonite holding a Dragotite.

On my Hard run with Hard caps, I needed two switch-ins per gym but never a damage calc. Every setting is broken down in level caps and Hard mode.

What carries over from HGSS, and what is gone

Still here:

• Followers (toggle in options)
• The Pokégear, with phone, map and radio
• Cameron at five spots, and Buena’s password show on the radio
• Apricorns and Kurt
• The Bug-Catching Contest
• Baoba’s Safari Zone, with later expansions
• The Kimono Girls, Eusine and the Ruins of Alph puzzles
• The Goldenrod Game Corner, on Coins
• Day and night: Morning 06:00 to 10:00, Day to 19:00, Evening to 20:00, Night after

Seeing the Bug-Catching Contest survive made me happier than it probably should have.

Kanto is gone, along with its sixteen-badge finale, the Pokéathlon, the Pokéwalker and the touch menus. Red isn’t on Mt. Silver. The mountain has Silver’s final story fight, a back room with Regigigas, and a Jirachi egg at the summit. Voltorb Flip is still in the Goldenrod Game Corner, two machines at 50 Coins a play, next to blackjack, a Dropspin machine and the Gachapon. I lost more coins to Voltorb Flip than I’d like to say.

New:

• The DexNav, with your first Poké Balls
• A VS Seeker that recharges every 200 steps
• A Candy Jar that banks 90 percent of every fainted foe’s EXP, on top of your team’s, as Exp Candies
• Every tutor move for 44,444 at the Olivine tutor master
• Every egg move for 88,888 at the Blackthorn egg move master
• Hyper Training in Rinto Village
• 121 trophies with Pokémon rewards
• Title Defense, which swaps the Elite Four rerun’s Lance for a random challenger

How much harder is SoulGold than HeartGold and SoulSilver?

Harder on every setting. How much depends on what you pick:

• Normal, no caps: a bit tougher than HGSS. Trainers carry items and gym teams are full.
• Normal with Soft or Hard caps: a fair fight for your first hack.
• Hard with Hard caps: for HGSS veterans who’ve beaten a hack or two. Doubles gyms punish a single sweeper, the Elite Four runs EV-trained teams at 68 to 71, and the postgame rematches are level 85 Doubles.

It stays fair because the tools are generous. Exp. Share from the start, no HM slaves, Ability changes at the Battle Factory after gym three, and buy-once tutors. You spend your time building a team, not grinding one.

My full take is in the review. Torn between this and the faithful GBA remake instead? Read SoulGold vs Heart & Soul.