Pokemon Platinum Glitchless FAQ

      Pokemon Platinum Glitchless 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 Piplup?
A: Because the Piplup evolution family is the best for the speedrun.

Q: Is Chimchar not better? He is used in some categories.
A: Chimchar is used in both Diamond Glitchless and Platinum any%. The reason for the difference in any% and Glitchless is simple - Chimchar is faster at the start, whereas Empoleon is faster at the end, and in any% you switch Pokemon after Gardenia.
The difference between DP Glitchless and Plat Glitchless is the difference in Gym Leader order (Fantina with Monferno suuucks, so does Hearthome Rival), no Hidden Power TM at the start of the game, and Prinplup getting Bubblebeam earlier in Plat, along with several other trainer differences, including the AI differences (in DP they use random moves, making fights winnable that in Plat wouldn't be)

Q: Is there anything new about the route?
A: My PB is from 4 Years ago (!!), so there's been quite a few improvements since then. Most notably I'm going to be attempting extended manip, my PB only kept manip up to Roark, whereas now I'm going to try and keep it up to Solaceon Town, which will save a few repels and spinner passes.
There are a number of other general optimisation improvements as well, such as better movement, menus, and better ideas for fights, but the general gist of "Get Empoleon and own everything" is still the same.

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, and Piplup's starting stats

Q: What causes the resets?
A: I missed the initial seed. There are 2 ways to check to see if I hit the right seed, one is to check my Trainer ID which should be 49741, and the other is to check to movements of the NPCs outside my house. Checking Trainer ID is faster for resets, but obviously takes a few seconds. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick

Q: Why don't you check Piplup's stats? What are Piplup's stats like?
A: Piplup's 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 Piplups IVs are 24 HP, 27 Att, 28 Def, 29 SP Att, 23 SP Def, 29 Speed with a Mild nature.

Q: Why is your movement so strange at the start of the run?
A: This is to manipulate encounters. You can't just find a seed that gets no encounters with a perfect Piplup by just running straight through (again, game limitation; there isn't one), so I need to do specific movement to manipulate the RNG so that I can avoid these encounters

Q: What encounters will you get?
A: I will catch a Kricketot (for Metronome held item) and a Starly (For Fly) on Route 201 and then a Bidoof (For Cut/Rock Smash) on Route 202. All other HMs are given to Empoleon (It ends the game with Surf/Waterfall/Strength/Rock Climb)

Q: Krickeot for Metronome? What does that mean?
A: Metronome is a held item, Kricketot's have a 5% chance to hold one. In this run, I have also manipulated one to show up which does.

Q: What does Metronome do?
A: It increases the damage output by an additional 10% for each consecutive time you use a move. So 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x etc up to 2x. This may not seem like a lot, but it makes a big difference in the early game. Most notably on Rival 2, you do 3 damage to Turtwig instead of 2 per hit, and end up doing 5 (which saves like 6 turns since he has 29 HP), are able to OHKO Gardenia's Roserade, and numerous other occasions where it saves 1 turn, and/or eliminates what would be damage ranges without it.

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: Is there anything else in the game you manipulate?
A: Yes! Pokerus is obtained off the third trainer fight on Route 202. Sadly it doesn't go straight to Piplup, to goes to the last Pokemon in my party. But it is also manipulated to spread from Bidoof to Starly in that very fight, then spreads to Kricketot after Rival 2, and then finally to Piplup after I defeat a Wild Onix in Oreburgh Mine for experience.

Q: Why do you play as the girl?
A: The counterpart talks less to you if you are the girl

Q: Why do you name yourself and Piplup '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: So what is your goal time?
A: To get WR I suppose.

Q: What is WR?
A: http://www.speedrun.com/pkmnplat (See: Splits.)