Pokemon Platinum Any% FAQ

      Pokemon Platinum Any% (Glitched) 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 Chimchar? I thought Platinum used Piplup?
A: Any% is an interesting category, because there are so many options that are viable. For this run however, I'm using a strategy where I switch to Tentacruel after getting the Bike. Chimchar has an easier way through the early game (Piplup's advantage comes later on), and has access to Taunt, which is very useful for catching Abra

Q: There are glitches in this run, yes?
A: Correct. Only one, but it is used multiple times. It's quite well known, it's called tweaking.

Q: What is tweaking?
A: Tweaking is a glitch in all gen 4 pokemon games. The games are loaded by 32x32 tile grid, and by moving quickly over various load lines where these grids intersect, you can cause the game to load/unload certain collisions and character sprites allowing you to get to areas before you're supposed to.

Q: How much do you skip in this game?
A: Some, but not a whole lot. The biggest skip comes after Candice, as you can go to Sunnyshore early (skipping huge Galatic sections & Distortion World). The other instances are skipping the Psyducks (which gives early access to Surf and Choice Specs; along with skipping some cutscenes and fight with the grunt, and Cynthia) and going into Lake Valor early (which skips the cutscenes at the Library), and in this run I will also be skipping the entirety of Maylene's Gym and Fly by tweaking into Pastoria Gym early.

Q: So...Tentacruel? Why, what can Tentacruel do that other Pokemon can't?
A: By tweaking once you get the Bike, you can place yourself above water, and access one at level 40 when your starter is only level 24, and that level gap proves very crucial. It is a water type, which is crucial (Surf + Specs ruins), and it's speed is excellent, outspeeding every Pokemon in the game without any X Speeds. It's offensives are pretty average, but it still manages very well throughout the game.

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, Pokerus, and Chimchar'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 Chimchar's stats? What are Chimchar's stats like?
A: Chimchar'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 Chimchars IVs are 31 HP, 30 Att, 31 Def, 29 SP Att, 28 SP Def, 30 Speed with a Naughty 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 Chimchar 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 get no encounters until after Barry 2, where I will encounter an Abra, and catch that. No HMs slaves are caught in this run (Monferno gets 4 of them, Tentacruel 2, and Fly/Defog are not used)

Q: What is Abra used for?
A: Abra is required for Teleport in order to skip Fly in reasonable time. For a pastebin that decently outlines the differences between Teleport and Fly, see here: http://pastebin.com/xfDHX6wG

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 past the first fight (which is still frame perfect)

Q: Is there anything else in the game you manipulate?
A: Yup, I also manipulate Pokerus in this run. It's obtained off the second trainer on Route 202 (Bidoof). I also manipulate the Tentacruel encounter, as not doing so would be suicide.

Q: How do you manipulate the Tentacruel?
A: Because this is a real time category, saving and reseting is allowed. After I position myself on the water, that is what I do, in order to reset the time again to manipulate for it. After hitting the seed, I then advance the RNG where I know the Tentacruel will be, and then use Honey to force him to show up. I also have to time the Honey frame perfectly as well to manipulate the Battle RNG so I can catch the Tentacruel.
The Tentacruels IVs are 29 HP, 28 Att, 28 Def, 31 Sp Att, 27 Sp Def, 31 Speed with a Mild Nature. It is level 40 (levels are 20-40), is holding a Poison Barb (5%) and has Clear Body as it's ability (blocks Intimidate, Sp Def drops from Psychic)

Q: Do you reset the time anywhere else?
A: Yes, I also save and reset before the Load Delay tweak to get to Celestic Town early (as messing this up crashes the game), and I change the time here too, but only so I can get the Choice Specs, as they are only available in the morning, and sadly you can't get a Tentacruel as good as the one I manipulate in the morning.

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 Chimchar '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: What is WR?
A: http://www.speedrun.com/pkmnplat#Any See: Splits

Q: So what is your goal time?
A: Just a few more minutes off. Main places I lost time were manipulating Tentacruel, and Volkner split. Sub 2:50 would be a really nice clean run, but I'll prob be happy with a 2:50:xx depending on where the time loss is. I'm also running this for PSR Marathon, so gotta get into shape for that.

Q: What is the PSR Marathon?
A: PSR (Pokemon SpeedRunning) Marathon is a yearly online marathon the Pokemon community is doing. This is the second year we are doing it. It's going to be between August 12-15 (Depending on your timezone). Watch this shit if you like Pokemon runs.

Schedule: https://horaro.org/psrm2016/marathon
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/pokemonspeedrunstv