ATTEMPT 37 · TRACKER ON · CHEATS OFF
KAIZO IRONMON. NUZLOCKES. ROM HACKS. ON YOUR PHONE.
Playing IronMON on a PC takes a patcher, a randomizer, an emulator, a tracker that only runs on a computer, and OBS. KaizoCore is all of that in one free Android app, on an emulator for every Game Boy, Game Boy Advance and DS game you own. Add a game, pick a mode, tap Start attempt 1. The tracker is already under the game when you pick your starter.
Free. The checksum and the install steps are below. No sign-up, no account, nothing to buy. Tap download and install it.
THE NAT. DEX WALKING PALS, GEN 4 TO 9
Every tracker animates your Pokémon. The Walking Pals cover Gen 4 to 9 and the Nat. Dex forms, on Nat. Dex and MaxDex builds and on the DS tracker as well as on Gen 1 to 3. They are on by default; two Tracker Setup switches turn them off or stop them walking. These are the app's own sheets, walking.
- Megas and forms nobody has drawn yet RC34 walk as their base Pokémon until one is drawn. A Pokémon with no sheet at all keeps its still picture.
- Play as your Pokémon: on Game Boy Advance games, MaxDex RC34 included, your lead walks the map in your place, from the same sheets, or you play as a sprite of your own. Stop playing and it dozes off.
The parade is the app's own walk sheets, from PMD Sprite Collab, shared under CC BY-NC 4.0 (credit the artists, not for profit). Drawn by: Gen 4: Mega Lucario by baronessfaron; Heat Rotom by Soulja; Arceus by JFain and baronessfaron. Gen 5: Zorua by Emmuffin and baronessfaron; Chandelure by baronessfaron; Haxorus by Pink_no_tori, baronessfaron and Deeshura; Volcarona by powercristal, pi3.14 and Soulja. Gen 6: Greninja by Jhony-Rex and Soulja; Aegislash by Top_Kec; Sylveon by baronessfaron. Gen 7: Midnight Lycanroc by baronessfaron; Mimikyu by baronessfaron. Gen 8: Wooloo by Emmuffin and JFain; Dragapult by Emmuffin. Gen 9: Sprigatito by Emmuffin and baronessfaron; Ceruledge by baronessfaron; Koraidon by baronessfaron. Forms: Alolan Vulpix by NeroIntruder and baronessfaron; Hisuian Growlithe by baronessfaron.
WHAT CHANGED IN THIS BUILD
- New in rc35.1: the floating tracker can go see-through and wide, its top is one slim row, and you can edit favorites mid-run in Tracker Setup.
- GachaMon, the PC tracker's card game: in a Kaizo IronMON run on a GBA game, the Pokémon leading your party becomes a card, rated the way the PC tracker rates it, and its stars show next to your heals. Collect them, fill the GachaDex, open packs, and win a Prize card when a run ends.
- Share codes work both ways with the PC tracker, and your whole PC collection comes over in one import.
- Rule marks: a held item or ability your mode bans gets a red X, like banned moves. Tap it to read the rule. It's on by default; turn it off in Tracker Setup.
- 19 more Pokémon walk, Iron Boulder and Iron Crown among them, with overworld sprites by DarkusShadow. The Walking Pals
- DS forms walk as themselves: Rotom's appliances, Giratina Origin, Shaymin Sky and the rest. DS pictures load without stalling the screen, and DS save states keep the 3D scene.
- Fixes: the route line and the weather show right away, Trainers defeated counts the whole area, an enemy Deoxys shows in its Normal form, and Gold, Silver and Crystal Survival add the Kanto heals on their own.
FOUR WAYS IN, ONE TAP EACH
Open the app and Home asks one question: what are you playing today? Where you left off sits on top, with the game, the mode and the attempt, and Continue takes you straight back.
GAME OVER TO A FRESH SEED IN SECONDS
The Universal Pokémon Randomizer is built into the app. Randomizing from scratch takes a phone the better part of a minute, so KaizoCore makes your next seed in the background while you play. When the run dies, the next one is already waiting.
- 72 settings files from the rulesets, picked for you by game and mode.
- The extra steps are done for you: Gen 1's second pass and the 60% levels Emerald, Gold, Silver and Crystal call for, each a switch you can turn off, and Crystal gets the growth patch its rules ask for.
- Every randomizer setting is editable on the phone: about 140 options in eight sections, searchable.
- Build your own: five plain steps, any starter from the game's own dex, and wild and trainer Pokémon that are unchanged, random, or random at a similar strength. It's labeled custom everywhere, so nobody mistakes it for an official run.
- Run codes: send a friend one line and their app builds the same seed from their own game, then checks it matches. Same-seed races with no server and no ROM changing hands.
EVERY KAIZO MODE, ONE LINE EACH
Standard is the base. Ultimate adds rules to it and Kaizo adds more; every other mode starts from Kaizo. Each line below is the one the app shows under the mode, written from that mode's rules, and Read all the rules opens the whole rulebook.
Standard
The base rules. Catch or kill one Pokémon per route. A Pokémon that faints is gone for good. No shops, except for Poké Balls and Repels.
EVERY GAMEUltimate
Standard, plus no HM moves in battle, no leaving a gym until you beat every trainer in it, one visit per dungeon, and six Pokémon in all.
EVERY GAMEKaizo
Standard and Ultimate, plus one Pokémon at a time, no fighting wild Pokémon and no healing items outside of battle. Built to be very hard.
EVERY GAME, AND MAXDEXSuper Kaizo
Kaizo, plus trainers that pick their moves more cleverly, gym leaders with six Pokémon, and a switch to a new Pokémon about halfway through.
FIRERED, LEAFGREEN, EMERALD, PLATINUM, HEARTGOLD, SOULSILVER, NAT. DEXSurvival
Harder than Kaizo. Ten Pokémon Center heals, counted from your first trainer battle after the rival, and an eleventh after your eighth badge.
EVERY GAMESurvival Revival
Kaizo with a tight healing budget: five Pokémon Center heals after your first badge, and one more after your eighth.
FIRERED, LEAFGREEN, NAT. DEXKaizo Doubles
Kaizo, but every trainer battle is a double battle. The run ends if either of your two Pokémon faints.
GEN 3, GEN 4, BLACK 2, WHITE 2, NAT. DEXChaos Kaizo
Kaizo with random Pokémon types, random move power, accuracy and PP, and looser item rules. Its rules are marked as a work in progress.
GEN 3, NAT. DEXEvo Kaizo
Kaizo, but your Pokémon evolves on every level up and you cannot cancel it.
FIRERED, LEAFGREEN, NAT. DEXIronMON Journey
Kaizo with one Pokémon: any starter you like is your whole team, apart from emergency swaps. No fighting wild Pokémon, and every TM can be learned.
GEN 3 TO GEN 5, NAT. DEXAll ten on FireRed, LeafGreen and the Nat. Dex builds of FireRed and Emerald. MaxDex has one, Kaizo, on the Nat. Dex 1.1.3 rules, where a 600 BST starter is legal. Every other game gets the modes its rules cover, and only those: the row never offers a mode a game cannot run.
THE PC TRACKER, UNDER YOUR THUMB
KaizoCore carries its own copy of the IronMON trackers: the PC tracker for Gen 1 to 3 and the NDS-Ironmon-Tracker for Gen 4 and 5. Same boxes, same options, same defaults, in KaizoCore's own look: rounded cards, type pills and an HP bar, in your theme's colors. It reads the game while you play.
- Your favorites, as icons RC34: before your first Pokémon the card shows them as the PC trackers do. Three on Gen 1 to 3, four on Gen 4, five on Gen 5, nine on Nat. Dex and MaxDex, with the random ball picker beside them.
- Rule breaks get an X RC34: a Pokémon over your mode's BST limit, a move your game and mode ban. Tap it to read the rule.
- MaxDex, all of it RC34: its 1255 Pokémon, the 45 Legends Z-A Megas among them, and its moves and abilities through Gen 9.
- Your Pokémon and the enemy: HP, level with the evolution level beside it, and the moves you've seen with PP, power and accuracy, each in its type's color with a type symbol.
- Your notes: stat marks on every stat, a note for every species, abilities as the game reveals them, badges, heals and friendship. Tap an ability or a move to read what it does.
- The attempt number on the tracker RC34, Setup as a gear, and an arrow when there is more below.
- DS forms with their own picture RC34 on Platinum, Black 2 and White 2: Rotom's appliances, Giratina Origin, Deoxys and the rest.
- The PC tracker's tools: coverage calc and the attack estimate on the games that have them, and Time Machine restore points.
- The game-over popup: Continue playing, Retry the battle, Save this attempt, Grade my notes, Inspect the log, or New game. It names what beat you, your badges and your time, and whether it was your best.
STREAM IT WITHOUT A CAPTURE CARD
Tap Stream and open the address it shows on your PC. The game's picture and sound, the tracker and the attempt counter arrive in OBS as browser sources, over your own Wi-Fi. No cable, no screen mirroring, no capture card. Download the ready-made OBS scene from that page, import it, and your 1920 x 1080 layout is done.
- KaizoCore
- Stream on
- The picture is lossless, at the game's own resolution, for any game you play.
- The stream shows what the phone shows, and the randomized data waits until the run is over.
- Leave for another app and the stream stays up RC34 while the game pauses. Swipe KaizoCore away and the stream ends.
- No Wi-Fi? STREAM says to join the PC's Wi-Fi or turn on the hotspot, instead of showing a link that cannot work.
EVERY TRACKER THEME, BUILT IN
Tracker colors, as the app calls them: tap a tile and the tracker wears it at once. Gen 1 to 3 games get the PC tracker's 15 presets and DS games the DS tracker's own 15 and a Default, by their own names. Below, each one drawn from its own color codes.
- Auto themes: the tracker takes your lead Pokémon's colors, with Fellshadow's Auto Pokémon Themes on Gen 3 and the DS tracker's own on DS. Your theme comes back when it lets go.
- Your own: edit any color, then Save as new under your own name.
- A photo of your own behind the tracker, picked from your gallery and kept inside KaizoCore.
GEN 1 TO 3: THE PC TRACKER'S 15
- Default
- Fire Red
- Leaf Green
- Beach Getaway
- Blue Da Ba Dee
- Calico Cat
- Calico Cat v2
- Cotton Candy
- GameCube
- Item Bag
- Neon Lights
- Simple Monotone
- Team Rocket
- USS Galactic
- Cozy Fall Leaves
GEN 4 AND 5: THE DS TRACKER'S 15, PLUS DEFAULT
- Default
- AlolanExeggcutor
- beach
- Bulbasaur
- Chalkboard
- ChillBlue
- CottonCandy
- FireRed
- LeafGreen
- LightTheme
- Neon
- Pinky
- RedBlueAndGreen
- Spaceship
- STONKS
- VeryBlue
THE RANDOMIZER LOG, WHEN THE RUN IS OVER
The log opens from the game-over popup, never during a run. On Gen 1 to 3 it is the PC tracker's log viewer, full screen on the phone: Pokémon, Trainers, Routes, TMs and Misc. Tap a Pokémon for its stats, abilities, level-up moves, evolutions and the TMs it can learn. On Gen 3 a trainer opens with each Pokémon's four moves and held item. On DS games it is the NDS tracker's own viewer: Pokémon, Trainers, Pivots, Gym TMs, Info and Search.
- Search suggests Pokémon as you type, and one typo is forgiven.
- Misc keeps the run's details: the version, the seed, the settings string, the starters and the static encounters.
A NUZLOCKE LEDGER THAT KEEPS ITSELF
Pick a preset or flip any of the 19 rules. The tracker sees your first encounter in each area, your catches, your faints and your whiteouts, and writes them down while you play. No spreadsheet, ever.
Red to White 2, every game the tracker reads.
- Every rule is a switch: dupes, shiny, gifts, statics, cave floors, level caps, a slow start until you hold Poké Balls, and more.
- Level caps set by the next boss's strongest Pokémon, a graveyard, and a ledger with areas, team, grave and log that you can edit when you disagree with it.
- It warns, it never stops you. A broken rule gets a flag, not a locked game.
- Genlocke carries your survivors into the next game, and the app offers that game when one ends.
- Nuzlocke fair: a randomized Nuzlocke where wild Pokémon and trainers are random but close in strength, and nothing else changes.
A REAL EMULATOR UNDER ALL OF IT
Everything above runs on a full emulator you can also just play. Pick any game from your library: no rules, no randomizer. Come back tomorrow and it opens right where you left it.
| Systems | Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS |
|---|---|
| Save states | 8 slots with screenshots, lock and undo, plus an auto-save |
| Speed | Up to 16x on Game Boy and GBA, 4x on DS. Slow motion at ½x and ¼x. Rewind, about 30 seconds back (12 on DS). |
| Landscape RC34 | The tracker docked beside the game, floating over it, or hidden. The floating tracker moves, resizes and locks in place, one menu holds the tracker's extras, and DS games keep the bottom screen under the docked tracker. |
| DS screens | Stacked, side by side or hybrid, and your finger is the stylus |
| DS sound RC34 | 16-bit with smoothing by default. The DS's own sound is one tap away in DS settings. |
| Controls | Touch buttons you can move and resize, three skins, controllers that just work, keyboard keys you can remap. The d-pad moves through the menus too. |
| Picture | LCD, CRT, sharp and upscale filters, color correction, 47 Game Boy palettes |
| Reading | Every tracker window's text follows your phone's font size, with larger buttons, and TalkBack reads the controls. |
| Achievements | RetroAchievements, with a hardcore mode that locks the helpers |
| Cheats | GameShark, CodeBreaker, Action Replay and Game Genie codes, outside runs |
EVERY GAME THE TRACKER KNOWS, AND EVERY PATCHED VERSION
Red, Blue, Yellow
Gold, Silver, Crystal
Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen
Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver
White, Black 2, White 2
The US releases. Black plays, and its tracker waits on one check against a real dump. Any other game plays too, just without the tracker.
PATCHED VERSIONS
Library, Patched versions makes each of these from a game you already added. Your own copy is never changed, and Kaizo IronMON offers to make the one a mode needs. Every patch comes with the app except MaxDex's: add Trip's MaxDex.bps to your library once.
MaxDex 1.0
Every Pokémon through Gen 9 and the 45 Legends Z-A Megas, 1255 in all, with moves and abilities through Gen 9. Kaizo only, on the Nat. Dex 1.1.3 rules, where a 600 BST starter is legal.
Trip (Tripc423), on CyanSixFour's Nat. DexIronMON HGSS 0.2.2a
Skips the intro, shortens the talk until Goldenrod, and speeds up walking and battle animations.
PyroMike (PyroMikeGit), on SilverstarStream and Foulton's intro skipNat. Dex 1.2.1
Adds Pokémon from later games, with ten modes of its own.
CyanSixFour (CyanSMP64), used with permissionFaster FireRed 1.3.2
Hidden items marked, instant healing at the PC, shorter errands.
DrMapleFaster Emerald 1.3.2 and 1.2.1
Shorter intro, instant healing, hidden items marked. 1.3.2 carries the 6% trainer level increase Kaizo, Survival and Super Kaizo use; 1.2.1 is the one for Standard and Ultimate.
DrMapleFaster Black 2 / White 2
Skips most cutscenes; every battle stays. A second build also skips the Driftveil tournament and its three battles.
SilverstarStreamSuper Kaizo: Smart AI patch
Every trainer picks its moves more cleverly. Needed for Super Kaizo.
tom-overton; CyanSixFour for EmeraldSuper Kaizo 0.0.3
The Super Kaizo patch for HeartGold.
PyroMike (PyroMikeGit)Super Kaizo 1.0
The Super Kaizo patch for Platinum.
SentorG, with PyroMike, Arex, Champred, Toxxxyn and devbotmanPseudo-fluctuating growth patch
Adds the experience curve these games lack, so nothing evolves into a legendary. Crystal's rules require it.
The Kaizo run site's patch page
ROM HACKS, THE SAFE WAY
Add your dumps and the library tells you what each file is and whether it's a clean copy. ROM Hacks lists 31 fan-made hacks and patches for 13 of the games and opens each creator's own page for the patch. BPS and UPS patches name their game and are refused on any other, so a wrong one never makes a broken game; for IPS and xdelta you say which game each is for.
- Patch on the phone: IPS, BPS, UPS and xdelta, applied to a copy. Your clean dump stays clean.
- Nothing is downloaded and nothing leaves your phone.
MAKE IT YOURS
Your lead walks the map
On Game Boy Advance games your trainer becomes your lead Pokémon, or your own sprite. Stop playing and it dozes off. OBS sees it too.
Your own last words
Up to 100 lines of your own for the game-over screen to throw at you. After UTDZac's Death Quotes.
Every run, counted
Runs started and won, time played, winning streaks, and your best run in every game and mode.
Restore points
A restore point every few minutes out of battle, ten kept, as on the PC tracker. A run's record says when you used one.
Dungeon maps
Seven dungeons by Bill Greenwald (doctrDNA), used with permission. Off until you want them.
Rain, sun, sand, hail
On Game Boy Advance games the weather shows under the battle banner while it lasts.
You, in a bubble
Your phone's camera in a bubble over the game, for screen recordings. Nothing is recorded or kept by the app.
Grade my notes
At game over on Gen 1 to 3, the PC tracker's score sheet grades your stat marks against the real numbers.
Every credit, in the app
About has a Licenses page with every component's license, and the credits name every creator.
PLAYS BY THE RULES
IronMON is a challenge, and the community asked that an app keep it one. KaizoCore follows the rulesets and leaves the playing to you.
- It shows what the PC trackers show, no more. The randomizer's log opens when the run is over.
- No tips and no strategy lines. Extras the PC trackers don't have are off by default.
- Rule breaks get an X, never a lock. A Pokémon over your mode's BST limit or a banned move is marked, and a tap shows the rule.
- Rewind and cheats switch off in runs. Every state load, retry and restart goes on the run's record, and the death card says so.
- Attempts count per settings file, the way the PC tracker counts per profile.
YOUR RUN SURVIVES ALMOST ANYTHING
- An auto-save every three minutes, at the start of each battle and whenever you leave. After a crash the game reopens where you were.
- In-game saves reach the phone within seconds RC34 on Game Boy and GBA, so a crash or a dead battery no longer loses them.
- One-file backups and cloud sync through Android's own file picker: saves, notes, attempt counts, layouts and themes. Your library games are never in it. A restore checks the file before it changes anything and says what it replaces.
- Updates in place. The app says when a new build is out, checks the download, and installs it over the old one with your games, saves and attempts kept.
- Crash reports only with your say-so, and never with a ROM, a save or a file name in them.
FREE. OPEN SOURCE. BRING YOUR OWN GAMES.
KaizoCore is free, and the source is on GitHub under the GPL-3.0. It needs a 64-bit phone with Android 8 or newer, and DS games want at least 3 GB of RAM.
You need your own game dumps. KaizoCore contains no ROMs and downloads none. Asking here where to get one gets no answer.
- Download the APK on the phone. Android asks once to let your browser or file manager install apps. Say yes.
- Open it. The app installs like any other. After that it tells you when a new build is out, and Update installs it over this one.
- Bring your own game dumps. The app contains no ROMs and downloads none. Its list of ROM hacks opens each creator's own page for the patch.
Uninstalling the app wipes its games, saves, notes and attempt count; install the new APK over the old one instead.
Also on GitHub releases, with the changelog and the same checksum, and the source is on GitHub. Something broken? More tab, Backup and info, Report a bug, Email Blake.
What it sends: once a day the app asks this site for one small file that names the newest build, and nothing about you or your games goes with it (More, Backup and info, Updates turns it off). After a crash it asks before sending Blake a report, unless you chose Always send. A report says where the app failed, with the phone model, the Android and app versions and the game family. Never a ROM, a save or a file name. Stream sends the game, the tracker and your attempts only to your own PC, by USB cable or your Wi-Fi, never the internet. If you connect Twitch, chat commands read and answer your own chat. Privacy
Built on
LibretroDroid with the mGBA, melonDS and Gambatte cores; Universal Pokémon Randomizer ZX and CyanSixFour's Nat. Dex fork; rcheevos for RetroAchievements. The tracker follows Besteon's Ironmon-Tracker, its Game Boy forks by Sannji and seadogstingray, and Brian0255's NDS-Ironmon-Tracker. The IronMON rules are iateyourpie's with UTDZac's official settings, and the community's: Super Kaizo (kept by PyroMikeGit), Survival Revival (SaltyDolphin and Reimi), IronMON Journey (PappyQC, settings by UTDZac), Chaos Kaizo (UTDZac) and Evo Kaizo (a pastebin that names no author). Nat. Dex Extension by CyanSixFour (CyanSMP64) and dungeon maps by Bill Greenwald (doctrDNA), each used with permission; MaxDex by Trip (Tripc423), on CyanSixFour's Nat. Dex, with moves, abilities and animations from rh-hideout's pokeemerald-expansion, and MaxDex runs on his changes to the Nat. Dex randomizer; Sprite Is Me, Calc Atk and Death Quotes by UTDZac; Auto Pokémon Themes by Fellshadow; the patched versions' authors are named beside each one above. Walking Pals from PMD Sprite Collab, by its artists. This page is set in Press Start 2P by CodeMan38 and Roboto Condensed by Christian Robertson, both under the SIL Open Font License.
FOUND A BUG? REPORT IT
Fastest: the app's More tab, Backup and info, has Report a bug, which composes the report with your device and log lines and hands it to any app you like. Or use this form.
WHAT SHOULD KAIZOCORE DO NEXT?
A mode, a game, a tracker box, a button that should be somewhere else: say it here and it goes to Blake. Your name and email are optional; leave an email if you want an answer.