Pokemon Diamond Glitchless FAQ Q: What are you playing on, it is emulator? A: No, I'm playing on a DS (phat) with a capture board installed allowing me to record game footage Q: Why do you choose Chimchar? A: Because the Chimchar evolution family is the best for the speedrun. Q: Why do you keep resetting and changing the time? A: I need to use a specific time in order to use RNG manipulation, so I set the clock in such a way that I can use it. The timer counts down to when I need to reset for the correct second. Q: What is RNG? A: Random Number Generator, the thing that determines everything random within the game, such as stats, encounters and pokerus. Q: What is RNG Manipulation? A: RNG manipulation is used in this speedrun, which involves resetting on a specific second starting from a specific time, and hitting the correct frame for the correct seed after resetting. This allows for manipulating of the wild encounters, and Chimchars starting stats Q: What causes the resets? A: I missed the initial seed. There are 2 ways to check to see if I hit the right seed, one is to check my Trainer ID which should be 2084, and the other is to check to movements of the NPCs outside my house. Checking Trainer ID is faster for resets, but obviously takes a few seconds. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick Q: Why don't you check Chimchars stats? What are Chimchars stats like? A: Chimchars starting stats are the same every time RNG manipulation is used, and also quite decent using RNG manipulaton, but not perfect. The reason for this is because there are a limited amount of seeds you can RNG manipulate for, as you are manipulating so many things, it's literally a game limitation how good they can be. The Chimchars IVs are 25 HP, 31 Att, 26 Def, 30 SP Att, 27 SP Def, 31 Speed with a Naughty nature. This is also important as it gives a Hidden Power of Grass with 69 Power Q: Why is your movement so strange at the start of the run? A: This is to advance the RNG is specific ways to get desired outcomes; these being to get the right Chimchar, and to manipulate encounters. You can't just find a seed that gets no encounters with a perfect Chimchar by just running straight through (again, game limitation; there isn't one), so I need to do specific movement to manipulate the RNG to get these things. Q: What encounters will you get? A: I will catch a Bidoof (For Cut/Rock Smash) on Route 202, and then a Starly (For Fly) on Route 203. I will also catch a Bibarel (For Strength/Surf/Rock Climb/Waterfall) on Route 209. | I also encounter a Geodude in Oreburgh Mine that I kill for experience (mainly to get L13 for Roark's Craindos, and L29 before Maylene so I can Rare Candy to 30) Q: So why don't you just manipulate everything in the game? A: There are multiple RNGs at play, and not all of them can be controlled the same way. Battle RNG for example, advances just about every frame, including lag frames, making it totally unpredictable. Q: Why do you have splits for Bibarel? And Lucky Egg? A: On Route 209, I catch a Bibarel as an HM Slave. Before using it as an HM Slave though, I teach it theif, and then manipulate a Chansey encounter that holds a Lucky Egg, and then steal it, and give it to Monferno for the rest of the run. Q: How on earth are you going to do that?! A: I've mapped out every Bibarel at pretty much every possible RNG Frame at the point that I get to Route 209. After catching it, I can check it's Level, Gender, Item, and Nature (Potentially not Nature if first 3 are rare enough, potentially also need to check Att or Defense if all 4 are very common), to determine exactly what my RNG Frame is. From there, I can do specific movement to advance the RNG to a specific point that I know will generate a Lucky Egg Chansey. Note however, that I now have an extended manip path for this run (which are really the only new strats since my PB). The manipulation used to end at the notoriously difficult to manip past Jubilife Galatic Double Battle, but I found a pretty nice path that gets through that. Now, if I don't mess up, I keep manip until the Lucky Egg, so I know exactly what Bibarel I get without even having to check. I won't reset runs that don't keep extended manip that far though, as it's very difficult. If I make it to Hearthome City, I'll still have enough repels to complete the run, so I should be fine. Q: How much time does the extended manip save? A: It's hard to measure exactly, because half of it is theoretical timesave. If I keep it all the way to Lucky Egg, I save using 6 Repels, which is a good ~30 seconds of less menuing. However the probably more relevant thing is there are 10 spinners to that point in the run, and if I don't break manip it means they have no chance of hitting me. Which means there's likely timesave in not waiting for them to turn away, but also in obviously not losing a bunch of time if I were to hit one. Q: Why Diamond and not Pearl? A: There is extremely little difference between the two games for this run. The only difference is 4 set of textboxes on Spear Pillar. When referring to Palkia, they call it the 'deity of space and the dimensions', whereas Dialga is simply the 'deity of time'. Due to the shorter text, Diamond is 50 frames faster, almost a whole second! (So it barely matters, but I have both carts so Diamond it is) Q: Why do you play as the girl? A: The counterpart talks less to you if you are the girl Q: Why do you name yourself and Chimchar 'I'? A: Because it's faster to name them one character for text purposes, and the letter 'I' gives a nice spin as if the game was self-narrating Q: What is World Record? A: http://www.speedrun.com/pkmndp (See: Splits) Q: What is your goal time? A: WR.