Pokemon Soul Silver Dunsparce FAQ

      Pokemon Soul Silver Dunsparce FAQ

Q: What does Dunsparce Speedrun mean?
A: It means I'm going to catch a Dunsparce, and use it to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Dunsparce!

To see the rules for Alt Main Poke runs, see here: https://pastebin.com/uTqgXp6m

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 Dunsparce?
A: I'll pick up Dunsparce in Dark Cave, before entering Violet City.

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: Is Dunsparce good?
A: Uhh... it's not the best, but it's also not the worst. It gets a diverse movepool that it gets good access to at Goldenrod. It doesn't have massive struggles anywhere, but it's never really comfortable either, especially because of its low speed. So it's a nice poke for this.

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: Red is definitely the hardest, for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. Outside of him, it's the typical stuff - all of the early Gym Leaders can be real pricks, and then Blue can be a pain in the ass at the end. The main added danger is Chuck, who can OHKO with Focus Punch if you miss a turn.

Q: Do you manipulate the Dunsparce? If so, what are it's stats?
A: Yes. Given Dunsparce is in a 1% encounter slot, it would've been reasonable to think I couldn't find something that good at all, but I actually found a fantastic one. It's IVs are 20 HP, 31 Att, 29 Def, 31 SP Att, 31 Sp Def, 27 Speed with a Naughty nature, Female (to avoid Attract), with Serene Grace.

Q: What moveset do you use with Dunsparce?
A: Dunsparce is actually pretty cool in that it uses a mixed pool, to the point where it actually cycles through 3 different items (Metronome, Choice Specs, Silk Scarf). The moves it uses are - Rage, Rock Tomb, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Return, and Earthquake.

Q: Why do you choose Cyndaquil as your starter?
A: This is actually a tough choice, but ultimately I pick Cynda to force the Rival to have Totodile. Picking Totodile myself is faster (beats the first 2 fights faster, and also learns more HMs), but Bayleef in Rival 2 especially is an absolute asshole to kill, given it has Reflect and Synthesis.

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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 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, Dunsparce starting stats, and getting Pokerus.

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 6628. 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 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 good Cyndaquil, Pokerus off the second trainer battle, and no encounters to Goldenrod

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 27 HP, 30 Att, 24 Def, 21 SP Att, 13 Sp Def, 5 Speed with a Serious nature (the 30 Att IV with moderate speed is basically all that's needed to be optimal for the first couple of fights)

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 mostly 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 relatively clear choice.

Another difference between the games is the Pokemon you can buy at the Game Corner, in Soul Silver you can buy Sandshrew and in Heart Gold you can buy Ekans. Both have advantages, both can learn Strength, but Sandshrew can also learn Rock Climb. However Ekans can have Intimidate as it's ability, which can make Red especially, a bit easier. However, I decided to stick with SS.

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 Dunsparce '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: At Voltorb Flip I get Dratini (for Whirlpool/Waterfall/Surf), and Sandshrew (for Strength/Rock Climb). I also get Spearow (Fly) from the guard, and use the Master Ball to catch Lugia (to use in the Kanto Double Battle, and also because it's faster than me and so could kill me if I try to run)

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.