Pokemon Pearl Glitchless FAQ

      Pokemon Pearl 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 Chimchar?
A: Because the Chimchar evolution family is the best for the speedrun.

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 Chimchars 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 48471, 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 Chimchars stats? What are Chimchars stats like?
A: Chimchars 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 24 HP, 31 Att, 27 Def, 30 SP Att, 31 SP Def, 31 Speed with a Hasty nature. This is also important as it gives a Hidden Power of Grass with 69 Power

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 catch a Bidoof (For Cut/Rock Smash) on Route 202, and then a Starly (For Fly/Defog) on Route 203. I will also catch a Bibarel (For Strength/Surf/Rock Climb/Waterfall) on Route 209, but this encounter is not manipulated, as the manipulation 'stops working' once you return to Jubilife City after beating Roark (the RNG advances during cutscenes with textboxes, making it nay on impossible to manipulate)

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: Why Pearl and not Diamond?
A: In Glitchless runs, you catch the Legendary Pokemon for the last hour of the run. For this, Palkia is much faster then Dialga, as it has better moves and type (Water stab is better, and a much better signature move)

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/pkmndp (You can see real time on the splits)

Q: What is your goal time?
A: I'd like to get sub 3:50. My current run hit 6 extra trainers, (4 spinners, 2 optionals) but given there are 28 spinners in the run it is unlikely that I won't hit at least a couple.