Pokemon Red FAQ (December 2015)

Pokemon Red FAQ (December 2015)

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Red as quickly as possible without using glitches.

Q: Why play without instant text?
A: http://pastebin.com/wqu9iGC3

Q: What are you playing on?
A: A GameCube using a GameBoy Player.

Q: What is the world record?
A: Please read this explanation of the difference between "world record" and "best time" in Pokemon speedrunning: http://pastebin.com/HhayPUby. (The best time for Red is 1:49 by me, according to the in-game timer.)

Q: Are you going for 1:48?
A: Yes.

Q: Then why are you running against worse splits?
A: Both my PB and my target splits have very lucky early games. If I ran against those splits, I would be behind on 95% of my runs, and I'd rather not stress about deficits until the run becomes good. Also, it's frustrating that many viewers tune out upon seeing red splits, because some of my best runs have involved recovering from an early deficit with new strats/improved execution.

Q: Why are you resetting?
A: Probably because my Nidoran's stats are bad. I may also reset because of too much early-game time loss.

Q: What stats are you looking for?
A: Ideally, a Nidoran with 16 Attack, 15 Speed and 13 Special at Level 8. I'll run worse Nidorans if my Brock time is good.

Q: You keep saying "DV" -- what is that?
A: DV stands for determinant value. Each Pokemon has a DV ranging from 0 to 15 for each stat. The higher the DV, the higher the growth rate for that stat. At Level 100, the difference between 0 and 15 DV is about 30 stat points. DVs help me decide which strategies to use, and I can determine them by checking my stats at certain level-ups.

Q: What is "red bar," and why is it important?
A: When your Pokemon is below 20.833% HP, its health bar turns red and a warning sound plays. While this sound is playing, the game does not pause to play certain other sounds, such as Pokemon cries and level-up jingles. Pokemon cries last about 0.9 seconds on average, and level-up jingles last 2.2 seconds.

Q: Why do you exit the grass when looking for Nidoran?
A: This is a form of RNG manipulation that is explained here: http://www.pokemonspeedruns.com/index.php/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red/Blue/Yellow_DSum_Manipulation

Q: Why are you playing on a pink palette?
A: Because it looks amazing.  <3