How To Add Rare Candies To Renegade Platinum: Methods, Tools, and What To Expect

Renegade Platinum is one of the most ambitious ROM hacks of Pokémon Platinum, overhauling trainer rosters, wild encounters, and difficulty across the board. Because of that increased difficulty, many players look for ways to add Rare Candies to their inventory — whether to level-match opponents, skip grinding, or test team compositions. There are several legitimate methods to do this, and the right one depends on your setup, technical comfort level, and how you're playing the game.

What Are Rare Candies and Why Do Players Add Them?

In any mainline Pokémon game, Rare Candies instantly level up a Pokémon by one level when used. In Renegade Platinum specifically, the difficulty curve is steep — gym leaders and rivals field high-level, optimized teams early on. Many players use Rare Candies to keep pace without spending hours grinding, or to quickly test different Pokémon and team strategies without committing to a full playthrough.

Adding them externally doesn't break the game's core challenge — the trainer AI and movesets in Renegade Platinum are still demanding — but it does remove the time gate that grinding creates.

Method 1: Using a Cheat Code (Action Replay / Cheat Database) 🎮

The most common method is entering a cheat code through your emulator's built-in cheat manager. Since Renegade Platinum is played almost exclusively on emulators (it's a ROM hack distributed as a .nds patch file), this is straightforward on most platforms.

Common emulators that support cheats for NDS ROMs:

• DeSmuME — has a built-in Action Replay cheat manager
• MelonDS — supports cheat codes via a separate cheat database file
• DraStic (Android) — has a cheat menu built in

The cheat code most widely used for Rare Candies in standard Platinum also works in Renegade Platinum, since the item's memory address is typically unchanged by the hack. The most referenced code is a Pokésav-style Action Replay code that gives 995 Rare Candies in the PC or bag.

Important variables here:

• Codes written for the US version of Platinum may not work on EU or JP ROMs — your ROM region matters
• Some codes target the PC storage, requiring you to withdraw items; others modify the bag directly
• MelonDS requires a .db cheat file rather than manually entering codes, which adds a setup step

If a code isn't working, the most common causes are a region mismatch, the code being entered incorrectly (missing lines), or the emulator not having cheats enabled before the game boots.

Method 2: Using PKHeX to Edit Your Save File

PKHeX is a save editor widely used in the Pokémon ROM hacking community. It works directly on your save file (.dsv or .sav depending on your emulator) and lets you add items to your bag without any in-game cheat codes.

The process generally looks like this:

1. Export or locate your save file from your emulator
2. Open the save file in PKHeX
3. Navigate to the Items tab
4. Find Rare Candy in the item list and set a quantity
5. Save the file and reload it in your emulator

This method is often preferred by players who want precise control — you can set an exact quantity rather than having hundreds you didn't ask for. PKHeX is also useful for editing Pokémon directly, checking IVs, or adjusting other bag items.

Variables that affect this method:

• PKHeX is updated frequently; using an outdated version can cause save corruption
• Save file format differs between emulators — DeSmuME uses .dsv, while MelonDS uses .sav; make sure you know which format your emulator exports
• Renegade Platinum uses the Gen IV save structure, which PKHeX supports, but always back up your save before editing

Method 3: Finding Them In-Game

This one gets overlooked. Renegade Platinum does include Rare Candies as obtainable items in the overworld, though their locations may differ slightly from vanilla Platinum. Several are hidden items found with the Dowsing Machine (Itemfinder), and others are in fixed locations.

For players who want to stay cheat-free but still accumulate Rare Candies faster, knowing the in-game locations can make a meaningful difference. Community-maintained documents for Renegade Platinum (typically hosted on forums or shared via Discord) list item locations including hidden ones.

This method has no technical variables — it works regardless of emulator, setup, or ROM version — but it does require more time investment.

Key Variables That Determine Which Method Works For You

A Note on ROM Version and Patch Application

Renegade Platinum is distributed as a patch file (.xdelta or .ups) that you apply to a clean Platinum ROM. If the patch wasn't applied correctly, or if you're using an already-modified ROM as a base, cheat codes and save editors may behave unexpectedly. Always verify that your ROM was patched from a clean, unmodified Platinum dump.

Some players also confuse Renegade Platinum with other Platinum hacks (like Blaze Black 2 / Volt White or Radical Red, which are different games entirely). Codes or guides written for those games won't apply here. ⚠️

The method that works best comes down to how you're running the game, what emulator you're on, and how much friction you're willing to tolerate in the setup process. A player on DeSmuME with a US ROM has a very different experience entering cheat codes than someone on MelonDS managing a cheat database file — and someone playing on Android via DraStic has a different workflow again.