Pokemon SoulSilver Mareep+ Manipless - FAQ
 
This is a speedrun by the way

Q: What are you playing on, is it an emulator?
A: No, I play on an original DS with a capture card installed.

Q: Why SoulSilver?
A: Whirl Islands has a faster Rare Candy than Bell Tower and is a few seconds faster for movement, would be saving roughly 30 seconds and having the extra level helps too.
As to why I chose to play this game, I just loved playing it when I was younger, and never stopped replaying it. Certainly my favorite pokemon game, and my pick for best pokemon game.

Q: What is Mareep+?
A: Beating the game (beating Red) glitchless, using the Mareep evolution line.

Q: Why not run with manipulation?
A: Back when I ran this in 2020, it was my first category, and I loved the idea of routing Mareep+ to learn. I can easily do Mareep+ with manips but at this point, it is a personal legacy thing to do this run manipless.
 
Q: Are there glitches in this game?
A: Yes, there is tweaking, which saves a significant portion (1.5 hours, about 45% of glitchless) of the game by cutting out from Morty to Tohjo Falls, and the first 7 Kanto gym leaders if you are doing glitched speedruns. But i’m not using glitches in this category.

Q: Why Mareep?
A: Fun, different, and lowkey one of the fastest mons you can main in a HGSS speedrun.

Q: How fast is Mareep?
A: I think it's worse than Raikou, Entei, Gyarados, and solo Cyndaquil, so 5th fastest, which is not bad!

Q: Why do you name yourself and Mareep one character?
A: Because it's faster to name them one character for text purposes.

Q: Why did you choose the girl instead of the boy? Are you that kind of incel gamer?
A: No, the girl is faster by 8ish seconds because Lyra’s cutscene in the catching tutorial is silly.

Q: Why do you choose Cyndaquil?
A: I use Cyndaquil until I can get a Mareep. While Totodile is faster for that stretch, Cyndaquil saves time overall because the rival gets the Totodile line which is obviously a better matchup for the Mareep line. Rival 2’s Bayleef is awful.
 
Q: What stats are you looking for on Mareep?
A: I’m looking for 13+ SpA (x/4+/all) and 10+ Spe (x/14+/14+) (or 9 Speed with +Spe, x/x/0-13).

Q: Why are you resetting?
A: Most likely because my Mareep(s)’s stats aren’t good enough. They are somewhat restraining, at 41% runnability.
 
Q: What else do you use/catch?
A: I catch a Sentret, Kenya the Spearow, and Lugia for HMs. Sentret gets Cut, Surf, and Whirlpool, Kenya is used in the Fairy Double and gets Fly, and Lugia gets Waterfall. One of Ampharos' slots is Strength.

Q: What are the hardest fights in the game?
A: Bugsy, Sabrina, Blue, and Red. Notable for being annoying: Whitney, Chuck, Pryce, Karen, Sabrina, Erika, Misty, Surge.

Q: New route? Splits are missing?
A: Well, I deleted quite a few of my splits. This is because I rerouted a lot of things, including getting enough money items to buy Thunder and use that. I also can do Erika+Janine before Misty, so that gym order changes things.
Main timesaves are using Thunder, better EXP management (not fighting Scott lol), and all the self-improvements I've had since 2020 :)