Pokémon Yellow FAQ Q: Why did you reset? A: Choose one: - My time was bad - My stats were bad - A Pokémon broke out of the ball - I didn't get a Fly slave before Mt. Moon - I died - I messed up Q: What Pokémon do you use? A: I catch a level 6 Nidoran Male for the battles, and a Pidgey/Spearow for Fly. I also pick up the Charmander and Lapras as HM slaves. Q: Why are you moving in and out of the grass? A: By doing this, I am manipulating the next encounter to be a level 6 Nidoran Male, but I can't control when I get the encounter, so I may get the Pokémon in one of the adjacent encounter slots. (See http://www.pokemonspeedruns.com/index.php/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red/Blue/Yellow_DSum_Manipulation for a more detailed explanation) Q: Can't you catch a level 4 Nidoran? A: I could, but leveling it takes too long (2+ minutes), and it's faster to manipulate a level 6 Nidoran anyway. Q: Couldn't you catch a Female Nidoran? A: Nidoran Female has lower attack, is slower, and has a much worse movepool (Doesn't learn Horn Attack or Thrash), making it much worse for speedrunning. Q: What stats do you need? A: I check my stats when I level up to levels 7 and 8, and I want at least 15 Attack, 14 Speed, and 12 Special at level 8. Low defense can be either good or bad, depending on the situation. 16/13/15/13 are the best stats possible at level 8. Q: Why do you name yourself and the Nidoran 'I'? A: Giving yourself and the Nidoran 1 character nicknames saves time on text. I also like the narrative that it gives the game. Nicknaming HM slaves isn't worth it as you don't use them as much. Q: Why did you talk to Oak from behind? A: The rival's walking speed is exactly half of yours, and moving behind Oak scrolls the screen up, making the rival take fewer steps. You end up taking 7 extra steps, and the rival takes 4 fewer steps, which saves 17 frames overall. Q: Why do you deposit Pikachu? A: With Pikachu, healing at a Centre takes longer, you activate a couple of cutscenes, and he can block movement. Q: Is this a glitchless run? A: Yes. Q: Isn't using the Poké Doll on the Marowak a glitch? A: Technically it's a sequence break; the item behaves exactly as it should do in a battle, meaning you can skip getting the Silph Scope. Q: What is a jingle skip? A: When your HP is less than ~21%, you enter redbar, where the obnoxious music makes it so that you don't get the level up/move learned jingle, which saves time. I will try to get and keep low HP when I know I don't have much chance of dying to save as much time as possible. Q: Why did that attack miss? A: In Generation 1, every move has at least a 1/256 chance to miss due to a programming oversight. Q: Why do you get so many critical hits? A: In Generation 1, the chance of getting a critical hit is equal to your base speed / 512. This means that Nidoking has approximately a 1/6 chance of getting a critical. Moves with a high critical hit ratio have a base speed / 64 chance of getting a critical, and if the base speed is at least 64, then the chance is 255/256. Q: Why does Horn Drill always hit? A: Using an X Accuracy removes all accuracy checks, so all moves will always hit. Q: Why don't you get Repels for Mt. Moon? A: In this game, you can't buy Repels until Cerulean City. Q: Why do you deposit your Pokémon before taking on the Elite 4? A: It's faster to do this, so the Hall of Fame cutscene is much shorter. Q: What's your PB? A: Terrible. Q: What's the World Record? A: The current World Record is 1:56 in-game time by Gunner. Q: I thought Werster got a 1:55, why isn't that WR? A: That run was done on an emulator, and as a community we decided that WRs had to be done on console because it's easy to cheat on emulator. Q: Are you playing on console? A: Yes, using a GameBoy Player. Q: What's a badge boost? A: After getting specific badges, you get a 12.5% increase in a stat (Brock gives Attack, Surge Defense, Koga Speed, and Blaine Special). Whenever one of your stat levels gets modified during a battle, the game recalculates that stat based off of the unboosted value, then applies all of your badge boosts. That means that the other stats get an extra copy of their badge boost. The stacked badge boosts go away whenever the stat is recalculated, meaning whenever that stat is modified, you level up, or the battle ends. I can exploit this, for example using an X Special in the final fight gives me enough defense to survive Sandslash's Earthquake.