Pokemon White 2 Challenge Mode FAQ

 Pokemon White 2 Challenge Mode 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 Tepig?
A: Because the Tepig evolution family is the best for the speedrun. Unlike in Normal Mode however, he isn't used for the whole run.

Q: What do you use instead?
A: I catch a Drilbur before Burgh, and use Excadrill throughout the game. I still use Pignite for Burgh's Gym (giving Drilbur exp Share), but then switch to Drilbur straight after as my main Pokemon.

Q: Are Drilbur/Excadrill's stats manipulated?
A: Yes! I manipulate both the dust cloud appearance and Drilbur's stats at the same time. This is a fairly new strat, and changes the run a lot

Q: Wait, I'm sure you used to say that wasn't possible. What changed?
A: Yeah, it used to not be possible. That's because you have to Save and reset in order to do it. Because Pokemon (Glitchless) runs have traditionally used the In Game Timer to time runs, they had to be done without resets in order to be accurate. However, with the new switch to using Real Time (which will probably be live on the leaderboards by the end of the month), saving and reseting is allowed, which makes this manipulation possible.

Real time switch: http://forums.pokemonspeedruns.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=5619

Q: So what is Challenge Mode? What exactly is different?
A: It's essentially hard mode. All enemy Pokemon levels are increased by between 1-4 based on how far you are through the game. Gym Leaders and elite four members see the biggest increase, with all of them getting 30 IVs in all stats as well, all of them also get an extra Pokemon entirely, and much better moves (eg elesa's emolga gets Aerial Ace). In a lot of cases they also get additional held items, for the gym leaders these are mainly oran/sitrus berries, but the most notable is that Shauntal's Chandelure gets a Choice Scarf.

Q: So what are the really hard fights in this run?
A: Answer is pretty surprising. The hardest fight Tepig/Pignite does is Burgh. Hardest fight Drilbur/Excadrill does is Elesa. Other than that, Cheren and Charles can still be a bit annoying, but another threat later on is Undella Rival, pretty much the only fight Excadrill has trouble with.

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 start the game 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 the game at a specific time, a to hit a specific seed.

Q: What causes the resets?
A: I missed initial starting seed. There are 2 ways to check whether I hit the correct seed:
1) After setting my and my rivals name, the game sets up a save. At this point, there is a "clock hand" that rotates clockwise. Where it starts is determined by the seed. So I know that unless it starts by pointing straight down, I missed it
2) I check the movement of the NPCs in Aspertia City. Because their movement is derived from the RNG, I can tell I hit it based on their movements. This is used as a second check, most runs that get to this check will progress

Hitting the seed is only based off the second, not the frame in gen 5, so it's a lot easier to hit than it is in gen 4/3. However there is another mechanic at play, the "Timer0" fluctuates seemingly randomly, and is what causes the inconsistencies. If you want a rough estimate of the chance of it being the one I want, I can't give you one because it isn't actually a random chance (as far as we know, not actually entirely sure why it changes), but so far I've only hit 5 different Timer0s

For Manipulated Drilbur, the first thing I can use as a guide is whether the Dust Cloud shows up. If it doesn't show up when I know it should, then I know I missed the Timer0 I want. There's also a chance that one will show up but in a different spot, which also means I missed the Timer0 I want, and have to reset regardless.

Q: Why don't you check Tepigs stats? What are Tepigs stats like?
A: Tepigs starting stats are the same every time RNG manipulation is used, and due to the huge number of possible seeds, are perfect in this game (all 31s). The nature however is decided independently to the IVs, and is based on the RNG Frame when I pick him. If I do movement correctly, so that the NPCs move around the right amount, it should be the target: Rash.

Q: What are Drilbur's stats like?
A: Drilbur has 31 IV is everything but Sp Att (which is 9). Drilbur only uses Sp Att in one fight, the first fight it does against Colress, but because it's ability is manipulated to be Sand Force, it's Sp Att does not matter for that fight. It's also an Adamant nature, highest level (19 out of 16-19) and a Female, to avoid Attract from Skyla/Grimsley.

Q: What encounters will you get?
A: [This answer may change in future]: encounters can also be minimised as they are also derived from the inital seed. However gen 5 RNG is a bit different, it varies on every system as the MAC address, Timer0 and VCount all change. As such, you can not have universally specific movement to avoid encounters, it must be done by each runner individually, and there is no program to look up how to do that, wheres there are several for manipulating IVs. As such, each run I do is also partially routing, as I try new things to try to find new paths in the early game to dodge all the encounters. Ideally, I get no encounter until Cheren, after which I buy repels (you can't manipulate after Cheren because of the Xtransceiver call, where RNG runs every frame)

Q: So why don't you just manipulate everything in the game?
A: Quite simply, nothing else is really worth it. There's no roamer/legendary worth getting, no Master Ball lottery, etc. There's also different types, while you are in battles certain RNGs advance making it impossible to control for any length of time. It's also currently possible to manipulate Pokerus (but maybe in future)

Q: Why White 2 and not Black 2?
A: Black 2 has an extra trainer in Reversal mountain, Charles is a Rotation battle instead of Triple, etc. Other stuff is different too but basically White 2 is better in every way.

Q: Why do you play as the boy/girl?
A: As far as I know they play exactly the same. I prefer the girl but because Real Time is used now, picking the boy is slightly faster, and the boy is this game is actually not that bad a design, so going with him.

Q: Why do you name yourself and NOT Tepig '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. Tepig however isn't used enough to make nicknaming worth it, since text moves quite fast in this game. I name Drilbur '9' because it's really close to the OK button to finish nicknaming (and also a naming system I used to do where I'd name a Lvl 19 '9' so you know what Lvl I caught it at)

Q: Do you catch anything else?
A: You need 3 Pokemon to fight Charles (the heartbreaker after elesa), and a slave for Surf and Fly. So I catch the Minccino before Charles to make up the 3. Straight after I'll catch a ducklett for Surf/Fly

Q: What is WR?
A: www.speedrun.com/pkmnbw2#Challenge_Mode1 Remember this is currently IGT, it'll be switched to RTA soon, which you can see in my splits.

Q: What is your goal time? How much does manipulated Drilbur save?
A: Well, since I use a manipped Drilbur now, I should be able to knock a good 3 minutes off my time now. The main place manipped Drilbur saves time is on Elesa, because I don't have to go to the desert to get Soft Sand and Rock Tomb (which saves about 3 minutes). Throughout the rest of the run it plays about the same (because my PB just happened to get a really nice Drilbur without manip), but does make everything a lot more consistent.