Pokemon FireRed Kaizo IronMON FAQ (2023)

Pokemon FireRed Kaizo IronMON FAQ
Updated September 2023

Q: What are you doing?
A: I am attempting to beat a randomized version of Pokemon FireRed using the Kaizo IronMON rules.

Q: What are the Kaizo IronMON rules?
A: A bunch of settings and restrictions that make the game much, much harder. Some of them include: You can only use one Pokemon and must beat the game without that Pokemon dying, you can't use healing items outside of battle, you can't buy any items except Poke Balls and Repels, opposing trainers are a much higher level, and you can't use Pokemon with 580+ BST. A full list of rules can be found here: https://gist.github.com/valiant-code/adb18d248fa0fae7da6b639e2ee8f9c1

Q: What is your goal?
A: To beat the game 10 times in 3000 attempts or less. So far I've beaten it 7 times in 2106 attempts.

Q: What strategies do you use?
A: Patiently grind for a very strong Pokemon at the beginning. This usually requires high BST (490+), high Attack or Special Attack, at least average defenses and Speed, and at least one strong move. If I can't find a Pokemon that meets these requirements before the first Viridian Forest trainer, I will reset. Once I have a good Pokemon, I will try to fight every trainer possible for experience. I will only skip a trainer if the odds of dying or losing valuable resources are high.

During easy battles, I will usually just use my strongest move against each Pokemon. During hard battles, I will usually use a stat-boosting (setup) move or X item before sweeping. On the Elite Four, I will try to stay above 50% HP as much as possible, and I will try to heal to full HP for the beginning of each battle if possible.

Q: What are the biggest run killers?
A: By far the biggest one is Perish Song, since it is an instant loss when the opponent uses it with 4+ Pokemon remaining. The other three big ones are Destiny Bond (especially with low Speed), Counter and Mirror Coat. Good Pokemon aren't likely to die to anything other than these four.

In terms of battles, the beginning and end of the run is much harder than the middle. The first two forest trainers and Brock can kill even the best of Pokemon, and the Elite Four will almost always make you pay for running a subpar Pokemon (or a promising Pokemon that never learned good moves). The Elite Four also has the highest chance of killing your run with Perish Song, since each trainer has 6 Pokemon.

Q: Why do you always choose the right ball in the lab?
A: You have to choose your starter Pokemon before seeing the choices. The easiest way to do this is to always pick the same ball each time. If the right ball is a banned Pokemon (580+ BST), I can choose either middle or left.

Q: What are your favorite Pokemon?
A: Espeon, Lapras, and Chikorita. This is important for Kaizo IronMON because you are allowed to choose a favorite from any of the three balls in the lab.

Q: Why Chikorita?
A: Because the rule says "favorite Pokemon," not "Pokemon that give me the best chance of winning."

Q: Why don't you use speedups?
A: I explain this in detail here: https://pastebin.com/CZmTgZx7

Q: What are those calculators at the bottom of the screen?
A: I show my damage calculator, my "best move" calculator, and Sfayne's IV calculator during runs. These can all be found in the #kaizo channel of my Discord: https://discord.gg/Tu6QwBT

Q: How is the "% to win" calculated?
A: By my own estimates given all the variables present in the run. These include my stats, my moves, the number of moves remaining, my ability, my items, my experience level, and the opposing Pokemon I've seen.

Q: Why do you wear out repels before battling trainers in caves?
A: To allow myself to generate an encounter immediately if needed to heal poison from the trainer battle. Healing poison outside of battle is not allowed, and Pokemon take 1 damage per 5 steps while poisoned in the overworld, so it's important to minimize steps taken while poisoned. It's also important to repel any unnecessary encounters because it's possible for a fast wild Pokemon to outspeed and trap you.

Q: What's the lowest BST that can win Kaizo?
A: Realistically around 450. But it's never worth the time to grind for a low BST wild Pokemon, since the chances of it being runnable are much smaller than the odds of finding something good on the next seed.