Getting Past the Grind in a Fangame That Doesn't Deserve One
Pokemon This Gym Of Mine is a fan-made ROM hack that basically throws you into a gauntlet of increasingly absurd gym battles with no hand-holding. The game is short, charming, and brutally unforgiving if you walk in unprepared. A lot of people look for cheat codes to breeze through it, and honestly, I get it. The difficulty spikes in the second half are rough. Because this is a fangame built on a modified engine rather than an official Nintendo release, the approach to cheating is different. There aren't really traditional cheat code inputs like you'd find in original GBA titles. What most people end up using falls into a few categories. The most common method is editing the save file directly. You can find .sav or .psv files in your emulator's save directory. Open it in a hex editor like HxD, then look up memory addresses for HP, money, or Pokemon levels. This is tedious but reliable. I spent about twenty minutes last week editing my money to 999,999 because I kept buying TMs and running out before I could afford the Elite Four preparation items. Worked fine, no crashes.
Another option is using a trainer editor or inventory editor if one exists specifically for this ROM. Search the PKMN hacks community forums—sites like Pokemon Essentials forums or ROM hacking Discord servers sometimes have tools made by other players. I found a basic save editor someone threw together for This Gym Of Mine about two years ago. It was clunky and only worked on Windows, but it let me give myself full teams and max-level pokemon without touching hex code. Some players also use AR codes or Action Replay scripts if they're running the ROM on a real console or a console-compatible emulator that supports them. These are easier to apply but harder to find since this isn't a widely documented title. I tried a couple AR codes I found on a now-dead forum thread and got the game to freeze on startup every time. Stick to save file editing if you go this route—it's more stable. There's also the emulator cheat engine route. DeSmuME and sameboy both have built-in cheat code input systems where you can paste in a hex-based code and toggle it on. The problem is finding valid codes for a ROM hack that isn't on GameFAQs or similar databases. I managed to get one working that maxed out my EXP gain, but it had an edge case where it would desync the battle animation frames if you used it mid-fight. Turn it off before battles start and you're fine.
If you just want to beat the game without cheating, here's the unfiltered truth: the early gyms are designed to teach you type matchups, and the later ones punish you for not investing in the right moves. A Skitty with Play Rough and Bite covers half the roster by itself. Don't overthink the team building early on. Spend your money on Potions and Revives, not expensive status cures you won't use. The final gym leader runs a team that hits hard and fast, and if you've been hoarding premium healers you'll wish you hadn't. I'd recommend the save editor route if you just want to skip the grind. It takes about five minutes to set up once you know where your save file lives. The AR code route is faster to toggle but more finicky. And honestly, if you're playing this for the story and humor, the difficulty is part of the joke—the game knows it's a pain in the ass and pokes fun at you for it. But that's neither here nor there if you just want to see the ending.
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