Pokemon Crystal Speedruns (Any% Glitchless, Manipless)

 Pokemon Crystal Manipless (Glitchless) FAQ

Q: What is this run?
A: This is a standard any% glitchless run, without the use of manips.

Q: How does manipless differ from regular any% glitchless?
A: In Crystal, the "Manipped" run sets up stuff before the run begins in order to win the Master Ball from the lottery, to use Raikou throughout the run, as well as a few other manips for good stats and to avoid encounters.
Because I have never liked the idea of doing stuff that significantly alters the run not being timed, I have never done that route.

So for me personally, this run is basically just like what my runs were, a decade ago.

Q: What are you playing on?
A: I'm actually playing on the 3DSVC version. Reason being I don't have to setup my gamecube this way, and the quality is probably a bit better.

Q: What is your goal? What is WR?
A: The 3DS version actually has a separate leaderboard, because the game plays a bit differently time wise. Manips work different too, so there's effectively no manip runs on 3DS because no one wants to map them out (Hurray!)

As such, the "WR" is technically the time I'm comparing against here, a run I got quite recently. I'd like to improve it a bit though, as that run hit 4 spinners, and a death! My overall goal is probably a sub 3:19, would be a good solid run.

3DS Leaderboard: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngscext?h=3dsvc-manipless&x=w20oj882-onv5017l.lr3087ol

Q: What Pokemon do you use for this run?
A: Totodile and it's evolutions all the way through. Also catch a Poliwag for Whirlpool/Waterfall, something for Cut (Sentret/Bellsprout/Oddish), and Kenya for Fly.

Q: What stats do you need for this run?
A: Because I use Totodile all the way through, it's stats are quite important. So I check them at Level 5, and reset most of the below par ones. Note: I will reset Females straight away on the nickname screen without checking stats, because it means the Attack DV is 0-1, i.e. the worst.

Perfect stats are: 21 HP, 13 Attack, 12 Defence, 10 Sp Att, 11 Sp Def, 10 Speed.

13 Attack is very rare (only perfect attack gives 13), so I'm generally resetting for 12 Attack and 11 Sp Def (Sp Att / Sp Def share the same DV, so 11 Sp Def tells you top Special)

I'll also require at least one of 12 Defence or 10 Speed if I have 13 Attack. So in order of the Totodile's I'll accept from best to worst (ignoring HP):
13/12/10/11/10 | 13/11/10/11/10 | 12/12/10/11/10 | 12/11/10/11/10 | 13/12/10/10/10 | 13/12/10/11/9 | 13/11/10/10/10

The odds of getting an acceptable Totodile are about 1/10

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: As with most games, the early game is where the most troublesome fights are. Whitney is the worst of them, but most fights until I get past Morty can be bad. Red isn't as scary in GSC as he is in HG/SS, but can still waste a ton of time.

Q: What other places can you lose time?
A: Spinners. Spinners are a nightmare in this game with how often and quickly they can spin, and how many of them there are. Very unlikely to go a whole run without hitting at least one, so they are the big equaliser throughout the run, and pose a pretty constant threat given they are all over.

Q: How many spinners are there? And where are they?
A: There are 17 spinners in the run, but 32 spinner passes (on average you pass them just under twice per spinner)

Russell in Union Cave (2 passes)
Anthony on Route 33 just after Union Cave (1 pass)
Benny in Bugsy's Gym (2 passes)
Ivan on Route 35 north of Goldenrod (3 passes)
Irwin on Route 35 north of Goldenrod (3 passes)
Greg on Route 37 before Ecruteak (1 pass)
Dana on Route 38 after Ecruteak (1 pass)
Olivia on Route 38 after Ecruteak (1 pass)
Ernest in the Lighthouse (2 passes on two separate trips)
Kaylee on Route 41 before Cianwood (1 pass)
Benjamin on Route 42 before Mahogany (1 pass)
Grunt in Rocket HQ (2 passes)
Douglas in Pryce's Gym (2 passes)
Joyce on Route 27 (2 passes)
Heidi on Route 9 before the Power Plant (4 passes on two separate trips)
Rebecca in Sabrina's Gym (1 pass)
Tom on Route 8 before Lavendar (3 passes)

By split:
Falkner: 0
Bugsy: 3
Whitney: 2
Morty: 3 (2 of them may have been hit on Whitney split)
Chuck: 4
Pryce: 3
Jasmine: 1 (May have been hit on Chuck split)
Clair: 0
Johto: 1
Erika: 1
Sabrina: 2 (1 may have been hit on Erika)
Surge: 1

Q: Why do you use Frame 4?
A: Because it's cute :3

Q: Why the girl?
A: Because she's cute :3
Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPKNXqA4sns

Q: Why do you set the time to 5:50 PM?
A: This is so it is hopefully still Day when I pass through Route 29 with Pokeball (to attempt to catch Sentret for Cut), but pass over to night (6PM) as I cross into Route 30 (for Poliwag).

Q: Why do you name yourself and slaves '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 with those split icons? What does A and C mean?
A: This is a grading system for all of my splits. I'm sure you are familiar with grades, A+ being the best then going down from there. So the idea is, if the split has an A+ next to it, my time there was really good and would be very difficult to beat. If it's a C though for example, it was quite poor, and I should be able to save time there pretty easily.

This way, everyone watching has more accurate information on where I can save time, and where I should be making up time. Also that all time loss is not equal, as losing time vs an A+ split isn't really that bad, whereas losing time vs a C split is really bad. It'll probably take a while for a lot of people watching to pick up the meaning so I will appreciate everyone who explains how this works (correctly) in chat to new people.