Pokemon Red FAQ (console runs, round 2) Q: What are you trying to do? A: Beat Pokemon Red as quickly as possible without using glitches. Q: What are you playing on? A: A GameCube using a GameBoy Player. Q: Why play on console? A: Because the Pokemon speedrunning community has decided to no longer accept emulator runs as world records. Q: Why not accept emulators? A: Most people use the logic that 1) they are easier to cheat on, and 2) the controls are easier. There is no difference in timing between a proper GameBoy Color emulator (such as Gambatte) and console. Q: What is the world record? A: 1:51 by Werster. Q: Why are you playing on a brown palette? A: Because it allows me to see the trainers in Rock Tunnel, which makes movement much easier. Hold up + B on the Game Boy title screen to use this palette. Q: What Pokemon do you use in this run? A: I use a male Nidoran as my main Pokemon, and I use Squirtle to beat the first gym. I also use Pidgey/Spearow and Paras/Farfetch'd/Oddish as HM slaves. Q: Why are you resetting? A: Probably because my Nidoran's stats are bad. I rarely reset because of a bad time. Q: What stats are you looking for? A: Ideally, a Nidoran with 16 Attack, 15 Speed and 13 Special at Level 8. If my time is good, I'll take a 15/14/11 Nidoran, but I won't run 14 Attack. Q: Why are stats so important? A: With Attack and Special, I need to maximize the chances that I can OHKO certain Pokemon. With Speed, I want to outspeed certain Pokemon, such as Misty's Starmie and Sabrina's Alakazam. High Attack and high Speed also allow me to use faster, riskier strats. Q: You keep saying "DV" -- what is that? A: DV stands for dynamic value. Each Pokemon has a DV ranging from 0 to 15 for each stat. The higher the DV, the higher the growth rate for that stat. At Level 100, the difference between 0 and 15 DV is about 30 stat points. DVs help me decide which strategies to use, and I can determine them by checking my stats at certain level-ups. Q: What "new strats" do you keep referring to? A: A series of route improvements that people have made since Werster's 1:51. The main ones are: - Switching to Squirtle against the Geodude on Route 25 when Nidoking is confused - Skipping the Rare Candies in Cinnabar Mansion when Nidoking has 13-15 DV Speed - Taking a faster path through the Celadon Mart (thanks to Entrpntr for the find) - Taking a path in Mt. Moon that includes three "encounterless" tiles (thanks to Gifhevexxin for the find) - Getting the PP Up on Cycling Road with bad stats or the skip Candies strat. This allows Nidoking to use more Horn Drills and risk fewer damage ranges. Q: What is "red bar," and why is it important? A: When your Pokemon is below 20.833% HP, its health bar turns red and a warning sound plays. While this sound is playing, the game does not pause to play certain other sounds, such as Pokemon cries and level-up jingles. Pokemon cries last about 0.9 seconds on average, and level-up jingles last 2.2 seconds. Q: Why do you exit the grass when looking for Nidoran? A: This is a form of RNG manipulation that is explained here: http://www.pokemonspeedruns.com/index.php/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red/Blue/Yellow_DSum_Manipulation Q: What is your goal time? A: Eventually, 1:49. Right now, I just want a 1:50 to regain the world record. Q: Why are you playing against splits from your 1:50 emulator run? A: Because I know those splits much better than any console run. Q: Where can you save the most time on your 1:50 splits? A: Mt. Moon (I had 10 encounters, which is average); Fly, Poke Flute and Koga (I didn't use red bar strats); and the Elite Four if I play risky. The first three splits are almost impossible to save time on, so I expect to be 30-90 seconds behind as I enter Mt. Moon. Sometimes you'll see me continue a run that is 2-4 minutes behind after Surge. This is because I can save a lot of time in the late game if I have good stats, play risky and get great luck. Here's a rough idea of how much time I can save in such a situation: Fly 0:41 seconds Poke Flute 0:21 Koga 1:00 Erika 0:25 Blaine 0:02 Sabrina 0:06 Giovanni 0:09 Lorelei 0:29 Bruno 0:01 Agatha 0:11 Lance 0:20 Champion 0:04 TOTAL 3:49