Pokemon Soul Silver Dratini+ FAQ

      Pokemon Soul Silver Glitchless FAQ

Q: What does Dratini+ mean?
A: It means I'm going to catch a Dratini, and use it (along with it's evolutions) to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Dratini!
The + in Dratini+ is to differentiate it from a potential alt run with *just* Dratini, where you never evolve it

Q: Is this run Glitchless or not?
A: Yes, it is glitchless. Alt poke runs are glitchless unless explicitly said otherwise.

Q: Where do you get Dratini?
A: I'll pick up Dratini in the Goldenrod Game Corner, from playing Voltorb Flip and buying it. So up to that point, the run is very similar to the normal glitchless route.

Q: So is this faster than using Raikou?
A: No, the entire point of an alt Pokemon run is that it is not the fastest way to beat the game. Otherwise it would just be...the fastest way, and it'd be the main category.

Q: So how much slower is this going to be? What's your estimate?
A: Just under 4 and a half hours.

Q: Isn't Dragonite a beast? Is this really that much of a challenge?
A: Dragonite isn't too bad, but as a pseudo legendary it has a terribly slow experience curve. So slow, in fact, that I don't even get Dragonite until partway through Kanto!

And trust me when I say everything struggles with Red. Just remember that even the most optimal Pokemon, Raikou, which *resists* Pikachu's best moves, still takes over half damage at neutral. The Flying type that Dragonite picks up does not help, at all...

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: All of the Dratini segment is pretty bad. Whitney is a bit of a pain, but Rival 3 and Morty are worse. Morty is so bad you have to do some slight grinding otherwise Gengar just OHKOs even at full HP. There are even some really dangerous fights in the Rocket Hideout, Proton there and the Double are quite troublesome.

For Dragonair, Pryce is pretty bad. Clair requires a ton of setup, but still isn't too risky. The really awful spot is the Kimono Girls. E4 can be troublesome too.

For Dragonite, there's this guy towards the end who has pokes 20-25 levels above you. He's a bit tricky...

Q: Do you manipulate the Dratini? If so, what are it's stats?
A: Yes. Manipping Dratini is hard, because it's late enough that it'll require a secondary reset, but not manipping it would be suicide. It's IVs are 29 HP, 15 Att, 19 Def, 31 SP Att, 30 Sp Def, 31 Speed with a Modest nature

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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 Cyndaquil as your starter?
A: Because the Cyndaquil evolution family is the best for the start of the speedrun. I'm literally using the exact same seed/manip for the start of the run that I use in glitchless. This isn't entirely optimal, as there would probably be a Cyndaquil with slightly better IVs given the manip doesn't require you getting Raikou (or fighting Whitney with Quilava), but ultimately it would've meant probably another full week of routing to help by an almost insignificant amount, so I have not bothered looking into that.

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, Cyndaquils starting stats, Dratinis starting stats, and the lottery so I win the Master Ball

Q: What causes the resets?
A: I missed initial starting seed. There are 2 ways to check whether I hit the correct seed:
1) I check my Trainer ID. The one I am aiming for is 39391. I know if I get this ID, I hit the right starting seed, as that is generated at the same time. This is what I used to do, as it is the first thing you can do to check, but it takes ~3 seconds to check so I tend to instead...
2) I check the movement of the NPCs in New Bark Town. Because their movement is derived from the RNG, I can tell I hit it based on their movements. If the girl faces Down, then turn Right, Down, and then Left, I got it
If not I didn't hit the right seed, so I reset. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick

Q: Why is your movement so strange at the start of the run?
A: Because you can't get the best possible results off the bat. The movement that I do is designed specifically to manipulate the RNG (from NPCs movement around me, and the like) so that I get my great Cyndaquil, Pokerus off the first trainer battle, and no encounters to Falkner

Q: Why did you just talk to your Cyndaquil?
A: Because it advances the RNG! This is used at the start of the run to skip over patterns that would have encounters, but also to make the RNG advance by decently significant amounts to accelerate getting Pokerus, otherwise I would have to run around a lot more in the grass, which would be slower.

Q: Why don't you check Cyndaquils stats? What are Cyndaquils stats like?
A: Cyndaquils 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 Cyndaquils IVs are 4 HP, 23 Att, 21 Def, 28 SP Att, 5 Sp Def, 31 Speed with a Rash nature

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: Do you manipulate Voltorb Flip? How does it work?
A: Yes, I do. Voltorb Flip works off the Secondary RNG, not the main one that impacts encounters and IVs and such. The Secondary RNG advances only during the route between Union Cave and Azalea Town, because it is raining, and the rain advances the Secondary RNG.

Once at Voltorb Flip, I take specific patterns on the boards to manipulate future boards. The first thing you need to know about it is Level 8. Level 8 is the highest level in Voltorb Flip, and as such where the most coins are. Accessing Level 8 is different to the prior levels, instead of beating the level 1 below, Level 8 is unlocked by having a continuous streak of 5 boards in a row, and all 5 of those boards having at least 8 panels flipped over. So after Level 5, I can jump straight to Level 8. Also note: The streak means you must win, except on the 5th board, so I actually quit out of that level and still get the jump.
Outside of that, the panels I flip also matter, as some panels do not advance the secondary RNG, where most do. The ones that don't are those that are on either a column or row that has no bombs.

Q: Why not Heart Gold?
A: Heart Gold and Soul Silver are the same for one key difference, the legendary Pokemon you must visit. Visiting Ho-Oh and Lugia take almost the exact same amount of time (Lugia is faster by like ~2 seconds assuming you have good movement), but there's also a Rare Candy in the Whirl Islands that is currently a part of the route, making it a clear choice.

Q: Why do you play as the girl?
A: The counterpart does the catching tutorial, and the male does it faster, so it’s faster to choose the female for yourself

Q: Why do you name yourself and Dratini '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: Do you catch anything else?
A: I catch Gyarados (for Whirlpool/Waterfall/Intimidate), and Snorlax (for Rock Climb). I also obtain 3 others, Abra (Teleport) from Voltorb Flip and Spearow (Fly) from the guard.

Q: What is WR?
A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngen4ext#Alt_Main_Pokes_HeartGoldSoulSilver (See: Splits)

Q: What is your goal time?
A: To get a decently clean run. Probably around the 4:20 mark, maybe a bit above, maybe a bit below.

Q: Do you plan to do other Alt Pokemon runs?
A: Yeah, in the future. I've already done a few of these in other games, which you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKdCHbtiZdhA63-FROqfqamattnoWR0xd

I've got quite a few more on my list to do in the future (mostly across Gen 4/5). I definitely don't need suggestions on more - I've thought about and considered everything you can imagine. It's hard to find the right mix of something you get early enough in the game that is actually still interesting to use. But I've certainly got some more planned, it just takes a long time to route the whole game with something else.