Pokemon Gold any% glitchless (Classic) FAQ
 
Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Gold as quickly as possible with these restrictions: no glitches, no hard resets (meaning no RNG manipulation).
 
Q: What are you playing on?
A: GambatteSpeedrun, an accurate emulator for Gen 1-2 Pokemon games.
 
Q: What is the world record?
A: 3:18:41 by Gunnermaniac. Full leaderboard here: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngscext#Manipless_GoldSilver

Q: What is your goal?
A: To beat the WR.

Q: Why not run with manipulation?
A: Manip in Gen 2 is actually awful. For any manips to work, you have to keep a timer running for your entire session of attempts and only start a new run on a certain second (1:00, 2:00, etc.). The manips themselves are quite difficult and stressful to execute. And the run has a ton of variance even if you execute every manip perfectly, so it's not rewarding. Playing without manip also makes the run more strategic, as you have to manage different Totodile stats and different risk thresholds (take fewer risks with good Totos/times).

Q: How is the route different without manips?
A: Since you can't manipulate the Master Ball from the Goldenrod Lottery, you can't reliably catch the shiny Gyarados as a Whirlpool/Waterfall slave. So you catch a Poliwag or Poliwhirl in the Ecruteak City pond instead. This also means you want to buy a Poke Doll to escape from Gyarados, which necessitates an early trip to the Goldenrod Mart. While at the mart, you buy the items you'd normally buy at the Violet Mart. You also buy an X Special for Morty, which makes it faster to do Morty after the Kimono Girls. Otherwise, there are no major changes as long as your Totodile has decent stats.

Q: Why is Totodile faster than the other two starters?
A: Totodile gets Rage for Falkner's gym, while Cyndaquil must rely on Leer and Tackle. Chikorita, despite being the cutest starter in all gens, isn't a fast battler at any stage of the game.

Q: Why are you resetting?
A: Probably because my Totodile's stats were too low. I might also reset because my Totodile died or I lost too much time to encounters and spinners.

Q: What stats are you looking for?
A: Stat ranges at Level 5 are as follows: HP 20-21, Attack 11-13, Defense 11-12, Sp. Atk 9-10, Sp. Def 9-11, Speed 9-10. The two Special stats are controlled by the same DV, so if my Sp. Def is 11, I'll know my Sp. Atk is very good (a high 10) as well. The standard "good Totodile" has Level 5 stats of 21/12/12/10/11/10. If my Attack is 11 (0-4 DV), I'll always reset; if Attack is 13 (15 DV), I'll consider taking worse other stats. I'll always reset if my Sp. Atk is 9.

Q: What are spinners?
A: Trainers that face random directions and can't be consistently dodged even with perfect execution. In Gen 2, a spinner can change directions 8 times in the time it takes you to walk one tile!