This route assumes you always do late surge. You must fight Franklin instead of Wayne (Elixer Hiker instead of Onix Hiker, which is 8 seconds slower). THE ROUTE: Pewter City SELL Rock Tomb BUY 0-2 Poké Balls 4-5 Potions 2-3 Antidotes 2-3 Para Heals 3 Awakenings 1 Escape Rope 7 Repels. Adapt depending on the following scenarios: Do you have 4 Poké Balls? Buy 0 Poké Balls, 5 potions. Do you have 0-3 Poké Balls? Buy 2 Poké Balls, 4 Potions. Do you have 1 Antidote? Buy 2 Antidotes, 3 Para Heals. Do you have 0-3 Poké Balls and 2 Antidotes? Buy 2 Poké Balls, 4 Potions, and 2 Paralyze Heals. You can also get 0/6/2/2/3/1/7 if you have 4 Poké Balls and the Antidote. This allows you to skip the Vermillion Mart trip, as you do not need Super Potions for Lt. Surge or Rival 3 because we early boat heal for this fight. In case you want more Super Potions, you can just get them from Fuchsia city. PROS Way safer (late Surge). Makes very good use of Early Pikachu. Much faster on average. Death Warp potential. Can probably skip Ether (as long as you have 1 kick after Haley and Torrent, or 2 and no Torrent). Can normally WP first Oddish from Haley (T-WP is an 82% range). More money for Ultra Balls. CONS Slower Hiker. Worse reset efficiency. Extra ranges (some can be annoying. First Bellsprout, Martha, Jigglypuff, Ekans 1, Arbok, both Sandshrews). Always pick the Super Potion up. Slower movement. Harder to get Torrent than Early Surge. 2-shot Martha (unless 53% range? Probably not even then. You also need literally 31 attack IVs). Harder to have 2 kicks for Rival 4. Stricter Squirtle stats (must have better attack for Rival 3, as you delay the candy that makes you lvl 27). TIMINGS EARLY SURGE VS. LATE SURGE (thanks Exarion + lots of retiming with newer strats). NOTE: this timing assumes you are doing the new cans movement, in which we make much better use of spinner understanding. Otherwise, Cans would be +2.5. GOOD: - Less Shop Scroll -0.6 - Skip Ether -3.58 - Skip Mart -17.0 - No Candy Menu -3.0 - Never Heal -0.5 - Gentleman -1.0 - Surge fight -36.0 - PP route -1.0 - Less risk -9.0 - L25 Oddish -1.0 - Late-game exp. -5.0 TOTAL -77.68 BAD: - More Bag Scroll +1.5 - Sell Rock Tomb +7.0 - Early Boat Heal +0.0 (you boat heal with early Surge too) - Cans +0.5 - Movement +23.0 (+6.0 if early Pikachu) - Top Hiker +8.0 - L26 boat rival +3.0 - L28 Venonat +0.5 - Hidden Super +2.0 - L28 Slowpoke +0.7 - L28 Slowpoke +0.3 - L28 Oddish +8.68 - L29 Geodude +0.44 - L29 Jigglypuff +0.63 - L32 Ekans +1.5 - L32 Ekans +0.5 - L32 Arbok +1.5 TOTAL +59.75 (+42.25 with early Pikachu) BAD (with Torrent): - More Bag Scroll +1.5 - Sell Rock Tomb +7.0 - Early Boat Heal +0.0 (you boat heal with early Surge too) - Cans +0.5 - Movement +23.0 (+6.0 if early Pikachu) - Top Hiker +8.0 - L26 boat rival +3.0 - L28 Slowpoke +0.7 - L28 Slowpoke +0.3 - L28 Oddish +8.68 - L29 Geodude +0.44 - L32 Arbok +1.5 TOTAL +44.62 (+37.62 with early Pikachu). We conclude that the time save from Surge is -36 because of this timing (thanks Exarion) A late Surge fight takes 32.5 seconds A standard perfect early Surge fight takes 46 seconds Average early Surge fight (thru 25): 69 seconds Win rate (thru 25): 88% Might want to count 2+ minute fights as a death? TRIAL WIN/LOSS TIME MK USED NOTES 1 WIN 1:46 3 2 WIN 0:45 1 Paralyzed 3 WIN 0:46 0 4 WIN 1:03 0 Paralyzed 5 WIN 0:48 1 Paralyzed 6 WIN 1:09 2 Paralyzed 7 WIN 2:26 0 Paralyzed; 4 slaves dead 8 WIN 0:47 0 9 WIN 0:48 1 10 WIN 0:53 0 11 WIN 1:11 1 12 WIN 1:00 1 13 LOSS -- -- Shock Wave crit 14 WIN 1:18 0 15 LOSS -- -- Shock Wave crit 16 WIN 0:54 0 17 WIN 0:47 0 18 WIN 0:49 1 19 WIN 1:28 0 20 WIN 0:49 0 Paralyzed 21 WIN 1:49 0 22 WIN 1:02 1 Paralyzed 23 LOSS -- -- Para hax 24 WIN 1:27 0 25 WIN 1:35 0