Can’t reverse the effects of your cheats? Learn how to fix cheats that stay active even after disabling them on your Game Boy Pokemon games.
From sneaking in a few items or levels into your Pokemon playthrough to going completely bonkers and breaking the game with voidwalking and breaking the laws of physics, Pokemoncoders is the best resource for cheat codes and cheating guides.
Cheating is pretty easy, especially with our detailed instructions, and so is disabling them (well, most of the time).
If you are having trouble disabling cheats or removing their effects from your game, then this guide is all you need.
We also made another version of this guide for DS games and hacks, so feel free to check it out if you’re playing a non-GBA/GBC game.
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- How to Use Cheats on Citra (3DS Emulator)
- The Rare Candy Cheat in Pokemon Games
- How to Use PKHex
Table of Contents
Why Do Cheats Remain Active Even After Being Turned Off?
While cheats can enhance your Pokemon experience, they are also known to cause errors and glitches. One of them is having lingering or irreversible effects even after you disable them. So why does this happen?
Cheats work by altering or injecting game codes to create your intended effects. However, cheats can sometimes directly affect the game’s memory or save file. Here are some of those cases.
1. Cheats That Permanently Modify Your Save File
Most cheat codes write or make changes directly to your save data. For example, cheats that give you items like 999 Master Balls or Rare Candies and hacked Pokemon don’t just give you those items and Pokemon temporarily.
They are permanently written and ed in your save file. So, even if you turn the cheat off, the items have already been given and they will still remain.
Examples:
- Item modifier cheats (Rare Candies, Master Balls)
- Exp gained through cheats
- Unlimited money cheats
2. Cheats that Affect Tempory Memory
Sometimes, cheats don’t alter your save file but the game’s temporary memory instead. Cheats such as Pokemon modifiers and shiny Pokemon cheats are great examples.
While disabling these cheats usually makes their effects go away, the emulator or device can still keep using the altered memory values until a reset, resulting in lingering cheat effects.
Examples:
- Shiny encounter codes
- Wild Pokemon modifier codes
- Infinite HP or PP in battle
3. Buggy Cheats
These cheats are the reason why you always create a backup save file. Some cheat codes can cause errors in your game, like glitchy graphics, NPCs misbehaving, and being stuck.
These errors can ruin your game, making further progress impossible or causing it to just crash entirely.
Examples:
- Being stuck while walking through walls
- Gym Leaders are not battling you
- Glitched graphics and NPCs
How to Fix Cheats That Stay Active After Disabling in Pokemon GBA, GBC & ROM Hacks
Now that you understand the whys, let’s proceed to the solutions:
Fix #1: Remove and Disable Cheats Completely
Ever heard of the term human error? Well, that happens even to the most experienced people. Sometimes cheats remain active simply because they weren’t fully turned off.
Maybe you disabled a different code. Perhaps you went back to a save state where cheats were still active. So, the first step is to always double check if the cheats have been properly turned off.
How to Do It:
Emulators (VBA, mGBA, RetroArch, MyBoy)
- Go to your emulator’s cheat menu.
- Look for the code you want to turn off and uncheck it, or, much better, just delete it.
- Don’t forget to hit Save.
- Much better to just disable cheats
- Restart the emulator and reload the ROM.
Physical Devices (GameShark, Action Replay, Code Breaker)
- Go into your cheat device’s menu before starting the game.
- Disable or delete the cheat codes.
- Restart your device.
When to Use: Use this method every time you face the lingering cheats issue. This should always be your first step in troubleshooting cheats that stay active. Most of the time, this will solve your problem.
Fix #2: Reset the Game’s Temporary Memory
The game’s temporary memory is reset when you restart the emulator or reload the ROM. For physical devices, you need to restart them as well. This will refresh the game and device memory and will remove any lingering effects of a cheat.
How to Do It:
Emulators (VBA, mGBA, RetroArch, MyBoy)
- After deleting the cheats, save your game on a new save slot, and save again using the in-game save.
- Hit Ctrl+R or just look for the reset button under Emulation, then load your in-game save.
- Or close the emulator and reload the ROM.
For GBC/GBA Hardware
- Turn your hardware off and restart it with no cheats.
When to Use: Use this fix when you have done the first step and you are still experiencing lingering cheat effects. Most of the time, they will be from temporary cheats like walk through walls, shiny Pokemon, or wild Pokemon modifiers.
Fix #3: Restore a Clean Save File
In worst cases, the damage or effects of a lingering cheat can be permanent. That means the effects are now part of your game data, and the only way to reverse them is to load a clean save file.
How to Do It:
Emulators (VBA, mGBA, RetroArch, MyBoy)
- Simply load a clean save slot.
- Load a backup .sav file.
For GBC/GBA Hardware
- Sadly, physical cartridges don’t have any recovery features unless you made a backup using a flash cart or save extractor tool.
- You can toss items and release Pokemon manually.
When to Use: This is only done in worst-case scenarios where the game is totally ruined or progress becomes undoable. Or, if you want a clean save file, and the cheat’s effects are irreversible.
Conclusion
That wraps it up for our guide on fixing cheats that remain active even after you disable them.
Cheats can make or break your Pokemon experience in GBA and GBC. But I’m confident that Fix #1 and #2 will solve 99% of your problems. That’s why the number one habit that Trainers should have is to save, save, save in multiple slots.
Create a backup because if you don’t have one, then the only way to fix your game when hiccups happen is to start from scratch.
