Pokemon Diamond Any% FAQ

Q: What are you Playing on?
A: A DS Phat with a Capture Board installed from https://3dscapture.com

Q: Why is this category so short?
A: That is because we only get 2 badges throughout the entire run. Once we obtain the bike shortly after beating Jupiter in the Galactic Eterna Building, we can break the game wide open. The bike allows us to perform a glitch called Tweaking, that basically lets us skip straight to the hall of fame.

Q: What is Tweaking?
A: So think of Minecraft for a second (don't act like you've never heard of it).
In Minecraft, chunks are a section of the map that gets loaded/unloaded as you approach them. In Diamond/Pearl, the overworld is loaded in a similar way. The overworld is loaded in 32x32 "chunks" that load/unload as you get close to them. The game knows to load/deload specific chunks whenever you cross the what are called loadlines, which intersect in the middle of each chunk. However, if we are to quickly move across the loadlines, we can effectively confuse the game into loading chunks out of order, i.e. a chunk that's supposed to load to the right of you actually ends up loading to your left. The bike lets us cross these loadlines at very high speeds, which lets us cause the overworld to get loaded out of order. Then, we can enter what's known as the void.

Q. What is the void?
A. The void is the dark area that you see outside of an indoor area. By tweaking, we can enter a doorway that leads indoors backwards, and since the game remembers which way we entered the warp when we take it, the game mistakenly has us move downward into the void instead of upward in bounds. This lets us roam the ether and wind up places we aren't supposed to. This lets us get to the Hall of Fame very quickly after entering the void from Jubilife City. 

Q. Why did you reset?
A. One of three reasons:
	1. I died (pretty self explanatory)
	2. I missed the seed, meaning I missed a frame-perfect input to clear the TV intro of the game (at 30fps)
	3. I messed up manip

Q. What is RNG Manipulation?
A. By clearing the intro at a specific time, we can effectively control all outcomes in the overworld, including Chimchar's stats and no encounters. This is used to skip ever needing to stop and repels after clearing the first gym. There is a route that doesn't use the shop but I am not doing it for now because I would like a good time with the mart first, and to spend more time getting used to Gen 4 movement for more intense categories. Furthermore, with the new seed that was recently routed, this category is much more approachable now.

Q. What's the difference between the old and new seeds?
A. Chimchar has better stats overall, including a better Hidden Power base power (Grass 69). This makes the run a lot safer overall on some fights that used to be a pain with the old seed. Most notably, Starly is a much higher chance to 2HKO at the lake than the old seed, where the range to 2HKO was only ~50% if you got Growl T1.). Furthermore, the general overworld movement required to hold manip is much more manageable now (for example, Fashion Case requires only 8 reloads instead of the 13 before, which is a massive improvement).

Q. Why Diamond instead of Pearl?
A. It's the only cart of the two that I own, and there is no difference in Any% anyway. (The only difference overall between the two games in a speedrun context is 1 textbox at Spear Pillar where Cyrus talks about Dialga/Palkia, and Diamond is given the edge for runs that visit Spear Pillar because of it). 

Q. Why the girl?
A. Lucas talks less as the Professor's assistant than Dawn does. This is important for the manip as well, as after Catching Tutorial RNG is moving despite being in a cutscene, and there are text differences depending on the gender you're playing as. 

Q. Why do you name yourself/Chimchar 1 character?
A. Every character that needs to get printed on screen takes 1 frame, so shorter name = timesave.

Q. What is the WR?
A. See: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmndp?h=Any-ENG-DS3DS

Q. What is your goal time?
A. 57-ish minutes with the mart would be cool, but requires a solid run overall. I dont really have any expectations since I'm not comfortable with Gen 4. I'll likely switch to the Mart Skip route once my time becomes competitive enough to justify it, but I don't know that I'll stick with this category to go for record or not.