Pokemon Darkrai promo - TRU 5/31-6/1

[calthaer]

I figured that, instead of thread-liching a post from 1-2 years ago about a different promo Pokemon (Mew, Manaphy, whatever), I'd just start a new one. This is just in the way of an FYI.

Serebii.net and the official Pokemon USA site are reporting that, on 5/31 and 6/1, Toys R Us will be giving away the promotional Pokemon Darkrai for Pokemon Diamond / Pearl.

It looks like Darkrai may also be available as a downloadable promo from Pokemon Ranger Batonnage, which isn't yet scheduled for a US release, to my knowledge.

[JSoup]

I'm guessing that the giveaway will be a granting of the Member's Card rather than just 'here's the damn Pokemon'.

Also, I didn't know about this, thanks for the heads up.

[Cryomancer]

yeah, i'll be going, hopefully it works like manaphy did, a simple wifi download without waiting in line.

when i went last time, roms on an R4 worked, by the way.

[JSoup]

I'd be nice if there was a list of participating stores some place.

[calthaer]

I am going to guess myself that the giveaway will probably not be the Member's Card, although I may be wrong. Every time TRU has given away a Pokemon - from the giveaways when FireRed / LeafGreen first came out to Mew to Manaphy - it's always been giving away a Pokemon, not the card or whatever to get it. For instance, they never gave out the ticket to go to the island where you could catch Mew in Emerald in the US. In each of those cases, it looked to me like it was a cart where every slot in every box was one of the promo Pokemon. TRU employees had to do the trades.

The only place I've ever seen devices to give out the tickets / key item sort of things are at official Nintendo events - there's probably a big, big risk that some TRU employee would swipe or not return one of those things and then would be doling out legitimate Member's Cards from now until the end of time.

They did, however, give out the Eon Ticket e-Reader card @ TRU way back in the day.

When the event gets closer, I'm guessing TRU will post the participating stores list here:

http://www2.toysrus.com/our/tru/prom/store_index.cfm

As an aside: thanks to the Emerald cloning glitch that has come to light, I can now clone promo Pokemon from the GBA games and trade them to DP members that want them via WiFi in Diamond / Pearl. I have (completely legit):

Level 10 Mew that TRU gave out
Level 70 Celebi given out at the 10th Anniversary
Some Level 70 Suicunes given out at 10th Aniniversary
The level 70 Deoxys given out at the Houston Space Center

I can also generate new Jirachis from the Colosseum Bonus Disc, and can generate the Swablus with False Swipe from Pokemon Box (a really useful Pokemon, to be quite honest - Dragon-type with Sing + False Swipe is the ultimate catching Pokemon vs. anything but Ghost).

Technically, I suppose this is "cheating," but since I've seen Pokemon actually disappear over WiFi, I don't feel too badly about cloning GBA Pokemon before sending them over.

[JSoup]

I would absolutely love to take you up on the offer, but I have no wifi internet.

Since we've touched on the topic of wifi, has there been a third-party version of the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector made yet?

EDIT: And, looking at Wikipedia, it seems the original was discontinued.

[Cryomancer]

The Celebi would be nice to get sometime if you wanna work that out, I've been trying to find a rip of the Japanese colloseeum disc for that exact purpose. I've got the mew and manaphy as well, and could do jirachis if needed.

I also am kinda annoyed how they don't give you the items to do the quests, but rather just give you the pokemon. i'd like to actually DO the darkrai quest someday, nintendo.

[Sudo]

I have legit Darkrai, Arceus, Shaymin and Manaphy from using an Action Replay code to get the NPC who gives you the quest starting items to appear. I know there used to be a way to use the GTS to clone Pokemon, as I've used it a few times in the past but I can't remember exactly how it's done at the moment.

[Trumpman]

I have legit Darkrai, Arceus, Shaymin and Manaphy from using an Action Replay code to get the NPC who gives you the quest starting items to appear. I know there used to be a way to use the GTS to clone Pokemon, as I've used it a few times in the past but I can't remember exactly how it's done at the moment.

Doesn't using the Action Replay to get it make it not legitimate?

[JSoup]

Doesn't using the Action Replay to get it make it not legitimate?

Hacking the Pokemon to appear when it shouldn't makes it illegitimate.

Sudo used a hack that made the NPCs that trigger the very legitimate event to catching these Pokemon trigger.

[calthaer]

In general, yes, but not necessarily always. Using AR to get key items that were legitimately given out can make that Pokemon look perfectly legit - there's no way to tell whether or not the Pokemon was caught using some AR help. But not all tickets were legitimately given out (i.e., the Old Sea Chart in Emerald was not; the Aurora ticket was).

A very credible word on legit promo / event Pokemon is:

http://www.serebii.net/games/events-pkmn.shtml

Any in there that say "OT caught" can potentially be caught using an AR on the appropriate language cartridge.

[JSoup]

there's no way to tell whether or not the Pokemon was caught using some AR help.

I know this wasn't your point, but I thought I would state it for anyone who didn't know:

If certain legendary Pokemon are generated with an AR, they won't obey the trainer, regardless of badges or level.

[Buyatari]

Do they give out any tangabile goods or collectables or it just a downloaded character?

[calthaer]

I have never seen the TRU events give out goods. However, copies of the game that include these legitimate downloaded characters are probably worth more than those without.

[Buyatari]

I have never seen the TRU events give out goods. However, copies of the game that include these legitimate downloaded characters are probably worth more than those without.

Can't you just use a gameshark or other cheat device via pc?

[JSoup]

Can't you just use a gameshark or other cheat device via pc?

I don't follow.

You mean, use gameshark emulator and bounce the Pokemon over to the DS?

[calthaer]

Or copy the Pokemon, I guess he means. The answer is "yes." But I believe many people who play the Pokemon games either a) don't know how to do that, b) feel that the effort required to learn how is greater than the effort to get a legit character (which in many cases may be true) or that it is more fun to get the characters legitimately, or c) feel that it is somehow "wrong" to use gameshark on Pokemon games.

When I say "worth more," I don't mean that it's worth a TON more. I've seen those Pokemon - the digital data - go for ten bucks, maybe fifteen. Which, when the game only cost $30, is worth noticing. And given that a Gameshark is thirty, you can see why people might rather pay the ten for a legit than the thirty for a "fake" one that the Nintendo WiFi connection will either disallow or flat-out ban you from the trading center for.

[Cryomancer]

Are they actually banning people now?

[calthaer]

They've been banning people for using Pokemon cheats for almost a year now:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/06/15/pokemon-cheaters-banned/

They seem to have also been tweaking the system since last summer in various ways:

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/New_GTS_restrictions_fall_short_of_ideal

I went on today and did a search for a bunch of legendaries like Celebi, Deoxys, Mew, etc., and was surprised to see NONE of the hacked Pokemon that used to litter the system before - obvious hacks, I mean - like a Celebi in a master ball (that event Pokemon was never offered to anyone in the world in a master ball).

My guess is that either a) Nintendo is checking for hacked Pokemon (some of them are fairly obvious) and keeping them from being offered, and / or b) Nintendo is banning AR users from the GTS Wifi network.

[Cryomancer]

Interesting!

[JSoup]

Seems the Toys R Us in my area might not be participating. I know a few guys who work there and they said that each head manager had the option of rejecting an event for their store, which theirs seems to have done.

Next closest one seems to be in Modesto.

:\

[Alfador]

I'm gonna be out of town away from TRU's...boo....anyone wanna pick me up a spare?

[Trumpman]

Is this happening in Germany too? Because that's where I'm going to be that weekend. Too bad - I really would have liked to go.

[calthaer]

The official site says it's not even happening in Canada - just the U.S. Not sure what Nintendo of Europe is going to do re: the promotional giveaway. What did they do for Manaphy?

[HYB]

At least in Finland it's never going to happen. I've been dreaming of nintendo events where they would give out pokemon but they've never happened. Maybe now that the wi-fi's here we might have a small chance of the new legendaries being available in Helsinki, but it's over 7 hours in a train and a lot of money for one pokemon. I checked the TRU site and it didn't say anything about pokemon giveaway. Oh well, even the gamestop here doesn't do the pre-order special stuff, so TRU certainly doesn't. I envy the US.

[Cryomancer]

Alright I'm gonna go ahead and bump this since it's close now. Anyone have a link to an official site with dates and times?

edit: nevermind, here we go: http://www2.toysrus.com/our/tru/prom/2008FreePkmnDwnld/index.cfm

31st and the 1st, 12:00pm to 4:00pm

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

The site isn't very specific still. Should I still call one or both of my local TRUs stores to verify if they are participating in this event? I clicked the link for stores near me in that event promo ad and it shows both of my stores, but I guess I should still call to make sure.

And the other thing they aren't clear about. They say you have to have obtained the Pokedex in the game. Well...do they mean the standard Shino pokedex or the national pokedex? If they mean the national, then I and my oldest son are screwed. I'm still about a dozen or so from filling the main pokedex and he has even more than that to find. In addition, you still have to beat the game as well before getting the national pokedex and while I have beaten the elite four, I still can't get past the final League master. My oldest boy hasn't even gotten to the league island yet.

So, anyone have any other specifics on this? I would hate to get his hopes up and take him up there only to find out he can't have it due to some other limitations.

Also, do we know if Darkrai is given in a ball already to be used? Or do we just get the member card that sets off the chain of events to find him and fight him in the game? I don't have a problem trying to fight him, but I've already used my Master ball I got in the game for getting one of the other legendaries (Mesprit I think?).

So anyone know more specifics on this? I also tried searching around the web but can't find anything conclusive.

[JSoup]

I would think that you'd only need the basic Pokedex, as you can still receive and use Pokemon listed in the NationalDex if you don't have it.

As for the rest, not sure. Personally, I hope it's just the item and not a hand out. I'd love to complete the event.

[calthaer]

In every other event I've ever been to, you just need to have obtained the dex for the game you're in - the one they give you in the first fifteen minutes of gameplay. Even if the Pokemon is one that is in the national dex, they can give it to your cartridge. There is sometimes a restriction, however, that you can't trade those Pokemon to other cartridges until you get the national dex.

In terms of whether it would be the card or the Pokemon, well...they're really not going to tell you anything about that until the day of.

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Okay...well obviously I have the standard Dex you start of with. But if they only give you the member card to start the nightmare event to get to Darkrai, then, how does one obtain another Master Ball in a very short amount of time? Unless Darkrai can be caught in a standard ball or other variant? I only ask since using my strategy guide sometime ago, I used the Masterball I already got in the game on one of the other legendaries... Mespirit I think?

[calthaer]

Well, you can try to win the lottery...but other than that, you may be SOL on a master ball. But there's nothing that says you HAVE to have the masterball. The only time I've ever used a masterball in a Pokemon game was on Tyranitar at the end of the long fight in Pokemon Colosseum. Darkrai is only dark-type, not ghost, so you can use False Swipe on him, which makes everything easier.

However, serebii.net has stated that:

======
As news is slim at the moment, I figure it is best to remind you all that the Darkrai event is occuring this Saturday & Sunday in Toys 'R' Us stores across America from 12pm to 4pm. The Darkrai given is identical to the one that was given at the 10th movie in Japan last year and as such cannot be put on the GTS due to its Classic Ribbon. It also knows Dialga & Palkia's special moves; Roar of Time & Spacial Rend. Be sure to go down with your Diamond & Pearl carts to get yourself a Darkrai. However, make sure your local Toys 'R' Us is following this event before you go. Click below for Darkrai's Pokédex entry

======
This means that they'll be doling out Darkrai - you won't be catching him.

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

I had hear that this was possible. And it's fine by me if you can't trade him on the GTS. I've never had any luck getting any decent pokemon with that system anyway. Best I got was a low level Lopunny. I could have just evolved the Buneary I had..but...ehh..I was lazy...

Thanks for the info, I've checked and both of my local TRUs locations are doing this.

[Sudo]

I find it rather disappointing that they're simply giving him away rather than triggering the in-game event that would allow you to catch him yourself. Why even have the events if they're impossible to access without an Action Replay?

[Harkunan]

That is the most cheapest pokemon I have ever seen. I mean mew was off the hook being cute, babish, nicely rounded shaped body, and this ....

This this magus abomination looks like a joke. I mean come on that looks like a enemy from a cheap Tales Of Phantasia run-off game or even a dark wizard drawning that is incomplete.

Not even worth it.

[ubersaurus]

I got mine today at the TRU in Southgate. Pretty straightforward; waltzed into the game area, opened my DS, and recieved a Mystery Gift containing Darkrai. No line or anything. Plus, then the woman gave me a coupon and a little Pokemon swag, so I snagged Geometry Wars DS for 5 bucks off :P

[josekortez]

Yeah, I wanted to go today but I decided to take a nap instead. I'll go tomorrow.

I've been playing Pokemon Diamond since I started the game at 7 a.m. this morning. I found a copy of the game at a yard sale for $5 complete a few weeks ago, so I'm just getting back into it and the free rare Pokemon is a nice bonus.

[Cryomancer]

yeah, you get 5 bucks off any DS game for the weekend ticket and a nice little lenticular card with a type chart on the back. handy. they also had 3rd gen GBA titles on sale for 20 for the weekend, so finally emerald doesn't cost 35 bucks. too bad i don't have the cash to grab a copy, and the coupon won't work for it either.

pokemon is simple enough to get. i use the expensive crap toy isle next to electronics since no one is ever there. also: they were selling wii fit towels

[joshnickerson]

Aw man, they didn't give out any swag at my TRU... in fact, there we no TRU employees in the game area, just a sign posted on how to download.

Maybe I'll try going back tomorrow?...

[heybtbm]

I had the TRU employee put Darkrai on both DS's I brought. The TRU where I went was giving out the lenticular cards and $5 coupons. I decided to pick up Nanostray 2 finally...$15 was the perfect price.

[JSoup]

Just got mine. They didn't feel the need to give out certificates or anything. Just the Pokemon. I was expecting there to be more kids, but it was mostly all adults and a few teens.

[SpaceHarrier]

Got my Darkrai today, lv 50. Also got the lenticular card and kept the coupon. Very cool to get an exclusive like this --even if we didn't get the 'quest'. Never been to one of these events before...

I expected a bunch of kids at my closest TRU, but instead it was a bunch of older people like myself, with just a few 10 yr olds.

I laughed when -in the games dept.- Toys R Us employee 1 , looking confused, asks Toys R Us employee 2, "what's going on today?" and Toys R Us employee 2answers, "Some kind of new pokemon."

[Blitzwing256]

a fun little note, if you have a r4-ds flash cart the mystery gift funciton works just fine with it too.
so if you have 5 copies of the game on your flash cart you can download 5 darkrais.

I ended up getting one each on both my legit pearl and diamond, but unfortuatnly it doesn't work with the japanese or french versions of the games. a fun little event without any line waiting, and the type chart was a nice freebiee (plus I bought a rarish star wars figure that i didn't know existed while I was there)

[Cryomancer]

kinda pointless to do though, since you can't trade these on the GTS. and if you wanna local trade, you can always just backup your save, do the trade, and put your backup save back on.

[Blitzwing256]

doing it this way you'll get darkrai's with differnt natures ,if you just copy the save it will always have the same nature (its chosen when the gift is given not when you pick it up)

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

You also can't have Darkrai in your party of on the battle pass you choose if you try to play online via WFC on Pokemon Battle Revolution. I know it was Darkrai causing it since it was the only new Pokemon I had added to my battle pass.

In addition, I haven't tried yet, but with Darkrai in the party now, defeating the elite 4 and the Pokemon League champ shouldn't be too hard since Darkrai contains both Dialga's and Palkia's special moves. I wonder if Nintendo did this on purpose so that there was the possibility of having pokemon in you game with the abilites of both main legendaries? Afterall, I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't plan on trading my Palkia or any of the other legendaries through the GTS. Took me too long to catch them buggers to just hand them over.

[JSoup]

Many people, myself included, don't use legendaries and, therefore, don't mind trading them for other version exclusive legendaries.

[calthaer]

Mine actually has some decent stats. I'm thinking about firing up my unopened Diamond and heading back today to get another one, though. They'll probably never give this guy out again.

[josekortez]

I got mine today. The only other people there were a boy and his father and some woman who asked, "Do ya'll have the new Poke-E-Man?"

When I walked into the R-Zone, the guy behind the counter said, "Just open up the DS. It's wireless." Then, he handed me $5 off coupon and the lenticular card and said, "Here."

I bought Nanostray 2 too just like heybtbm, which I might return. I forgot how far away payday was...

[calthaer]

A quick note:

You can download Darkrai to your Pokemon game at the Nintendo World Store any time before the end of June. I may make the trip up there to get one for my other Pokemon cart.

On another note: Gamestop announced that they will be disbursing Deoxys characters later this month:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/06/08/gamestop-handing-out-deoxyses-this-month/

[Electric Blue]

Did anyone get an extra card they would be willing to part with at shipping price? My TRU was out of them by the time I got there

[Sudo]

A quick note:

You can download Darkrai to your Pokemon game at the Nintendo World Store any time before the end of June. I may make the trip up there to get one for my other Pokemon cart.

On another note: Gamestop announced that they will be disbursing Deoxys characters later this month:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/06/08/gamestop-handing-out-deoxyses-this-month/

I may head down there and take advantage of this, since there's actually a Gamestop right near me.

[JSoup]

It's nice that we are finally getting these guys. Now we just need that grass hedgehog thing and that will be that.

[Cryomancer]

Personally I still need a damn Celebi.

[calthaer]

If you don't mind the fact that I'm duping them with the Emerald dupe exploit, I'd give you a Celebi. And a Houston Space Center Deoxys, if you want.

[JSoup]

Well, got my free Deoxys. The store was virtually empty. The staff didn't seem to know anything about the event, either.

[Kyle15]

I've got to go get Deoxys this weekend.
I hope to, at least.....

[SpaceHarrier]

I wonder which of the bajillion Gamestops I should go to tomorrow...

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/ayumifanatic/gamestopmap.jpg

hmm

[Trumpman]

A quick note:

You can download Darkrai to your Pokemon game at the Nintendo World Store any time before the end of June. I may make the trip up there to get one for my other Pokemon cart.


Are you sure about that? I missed the Darkrai event because I was in Germany, so I would really like to pick one up.

[youruglyclone]

I tried a couple days ago, they were giving out deoxys...

[calthaer]

It does look like they're giving out Deoxys in line with the Gamestop promo. Rats.

They were giving out the Darkrai when TRU was giving those out. Said they were giving them out until July, but I guess they weren't.

[Cryomancer]

Supposedly a rom of the card that hands out the pokemon has hit the internet. People are even talking about hacking it to give out other pokemon.

[JSoup]

Interesting. I guess it would work by using an R4? Or could one shanghai a Mystery Gift with a PC?

[Cryomancer]

I assume it would require an R4 or similar device. Haven't tried it myself. I might try it out though, just to see what internal not-for-consumer-viewing Nintendo software looks like. I already got mine "legally", I don't need to generate more.

[JSoup]

I assume that if it can be used to generate any Pokemon, we might have an easier way to get otherwise unavailable ones, such as Shaymin and Arceus.

[calthaer]

Just a note: the promo giveaway cartridge ROM does indeed work with a DS flash cart, and does indeed dole out Deoxys(es?) to anyone and everyone.

[Alfador]

Skara Brae? Ever play UO? What's the name of that Pokemon-Giving-Out-Game-Thing if I wanted to search for it..?

[JSoup]

Reviving an old thread, as we had some rather nice conversation going on.

Three American event releases have pasted since the last post.

-Toys "R" Us Shaymin last February.
-Toys "R" Us Regigigas last March.
-Secret Key from Toys "R" Us a few months ago.


Skara Brae? Ever play UO? What's the name of that Pokemon-Giving-Out-Game-Thing if I wanted to search for it..?

Try 'Pokemon Generator ROM'. That used to get a number of hits for me.

[calthaer]

The Regigigas from the previous promo can apparently, if brought over to Platinum, unlock three areas where Regice, Regirock, and Registeel can be caught.

Also of note: that Deoxys-giveaway ROM requires you to change the date on your Nintendo DS to conform to the dates when that Gamestop giveaway was active.

The Member Card to access Darkrai was also just given out via WiFi for Pokemon Platinum only.

Right now via WiFi Platinum can access Oak's Letter, which opens up an area where one can catch Shaymin.

[JSoup]

Right now via WiFi Platinum can access Oak's Letter, which opens up an area where one can catch Shaymin.

Interesting. It would be nice if these things were a touch more publicized.

[JSoup]

Nintendo Power has revealed that there is going to be a TRU Arceus event from November 7 - 12.

Source: http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nintendo_Power_reveals_American_Arceus_distributio n_dates

Additionally, it's been discovered that taking Arceus to a specific place in HeartGold/SoulSilver will allow the player to get a Lv.1 Dialga/Palkia/Giratina.

[calthaer]

Taking this Arceus into Platinum and talking to a few people will also unlock a few minor events - mostly some guy explaining the history of something or other; can't remember exactly what.

[JSoup]

I'm seeing rumors that the Arceus event is Platinum only. Might want to keep that in mind.

[calthaer]

The main website states that the Arceus event is available for Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.

[calthaer]

The Jirachi event begins at Gamestop stores tomorrow until the release of HeartGold / SoulSilver

In the process of investigating e-Readers (and looking at the Eon Ticket), I discovered that there is a way to get old Wonder Cards that are no longer being distributed. The process is fairly simple and easy, and does not involve "hacking" your main game, per se. In a sense, I suppose you're hacking in that you're receiving a wonder card from a somewhat "unofficial" source, but I'll leave that up to one's individual conscience.

You can also get Wonder Cards that were distributed overseas.

Since this involves an R4 card and ROMs (although not a ROM for a commercially-available game - the process involves turning a Nintendo DS into a Wonder Card "distribution station"), I am not sure if Digitpress' site would prohibit discussing the process for this on the forum. If you've missed Wonder Card distributions for Pokemon events for Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum (for instance: the Darkrai promo that is the thread title), PM me and I can send you the instructions / links.

[Blitzwing256]

thanks for the update for the jirachi, i'll be bringing my 3 copies of pearl and 2 of diamond to work with me today (gameslop right next door)

still want a legit celebi dammit (not willing to cheat for it though)

there still hasn't been an offical way to get a us celebi yet in this generation has there?