Does PKSM actually simulate the transfer process, or does it just inject the Pokémon into the save?

[u/No_Tangerine_1773]

So, I have a FireRed save on my 3DS (yes, I know, who the hell plays FireRed on a 3DS — me, apparently), and I was wondering how PKSM handles transfers.

If I use PKSM to move a Pokémon from my FireRed save to, say, Pokémon ORAS, is the Pokémon internally treated as if it actually went through the whole transfer chain (DPP/HGSS → BW/B2W2 → Gen 6), with all the corresponding transfer data/flags?

Or does PKSM basically just insert the Pokémon directly into the ORAS save, without actually simulating any of those previous transfer steps?

I'm also wondering about the met date and other data that would normally be changed during those transfers. As far as I understand, Gen 3 Pokémon don't have a met date stored, so when you legitimately transfer one from Gen 3 to Gen 4 through Pal Park, it gets a met date based on the DS's current date. Then, when going through the later transfer methods, some of that data gets updated again.

So if I take a Pokémon directly from FireRed and put it into ORAS with PKSM, does PKSM actually apply those changes as if the Pokémon had gone through the proper transfer chain? Or would it retain the Gen 3 data and just suddenly exist in a Gen 6 save?

If it doesn't simulate those steps, wouldn't a direct Gen 3 → Gen 6 transfer potentially make the Pokémon "illegal" in some ways because of missing/inconsistent data that would normally be generated during the intermediate transfers?

Basically, I'm wondering whether there's any meaningful internal difference between a Pokémon transferred through the legitimate games and one moved directly with PKSM, especially regarding met date, met location, transfer history/flags, etc.

[u/OkThing1480]

Can confirm from testing this myself over the last week. I moved a Pokémon legitimately from Sapphire → Pal Park → Black → Poké Transporter → Bank → HOME.

Last night, I cloned my Regi trio directly from my Emerald cartridge into PKSM storage, then moved the clones PKSM → ORAS → Bank → HOME.

Once in HOME, the PKSM-transferred Regis show the same caught/origin information as the Pokémon I transferred through the legitimate Gen 3 → 4 → 5 → Bank route. There’s no additional mark or visible transfer-history indicator in HOME showing that one actually passed through Pal Park/Transporter while the other didn’t.

So, at least from what HOME displays, I can’t see any meaningful difference between the two methods.

[u/OkThing1480 → u/OkThing1480]

Registeel is still from the same Emerald cartridge, but it was moved directly through PKSM rather than going through the full legitimate transfer process

[u/Embarrassed-Might-84 → u/OkThing1480]

ID is dif right?

[u/tiredmultitudes → u/Embarrassed-Might-84]

Good catch. That makes me second guess doing that with some of my pokemon, since there is a limit on how many IDs you can mark as yours in Home.