🧩 ZA-decoder

A simple Python tool to decode .pz9 and .pa9 Pokémon data files from Pokémon Legends: Z-A. It extracts core information such as species, nickname, original trainer, and trainer IDs.

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🔍 Features

• Reads and decodes 344-byte .pz9 and .pa9 Pokémon records.
• Displays key trainer info:
  • Species
  • Nickname
  • Original Trainer (OT)
  • TID (6-digit Trainer ID)
  • SID (4-digit SID7 for Gen 7+ games)
• Optionally exports JSON output for each Pokémon.
• Automatically fetches a full species name list using PokeAPI.

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🖥️ Usage

Web version: ZA-Decoder Web

Python

The script will automatically find and process all .pz9 and .pa9 files in the current directory.

1. Basic (print summaries)

python pz9_decoder.py

Example output:

Species: Magikarp
Nick: Fish
OT: Set
TID: 021203
SID: 1341
------------------
Species: Pikachu
Nick: Sparky
OT: Ash
TID: 123456
SID: 7890

2. Save JSON output

Creates an outdir/ folder containing a .json file for each .pz9 or .pa9 found.

python pz9_decoder.py --out

3. Custom output directory

python pz9_decoder.py --out results

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⚙️ Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Requests

  pip install requests

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🧠 How It Works

• The script identifies .pz9 and .pa9 records as 344 bytes long, representing one Pokémon entry.
• It extracts key data from fixed offsets:
  • 0x08–0x09 → Species ID
  • 0x0C–0x0F → TrainerID32
• Trainer IDs are derived from the 32-bit TrainerID32 value as follows:
  • TID7 = TrainerID32 % 1_000_000 → 6-digit in-game Trainer ID
  • SID7 = TrainerID32 // 1_000_000 → 4-digit Secret ID (Gen 7+ format)
• UTF-16LE encoded strings in the file are used to extract:
  • The Pokémon’s nickname
  • The Original Trainer (OT) name
• The script can optionally pull full Pokémon species names using PokeAPI, ensuring complete species coverage.
• Output can be printed directly to the console or exported as per-Pokémon JSON files for further analysis.