Pokemon Red FAQ (May 2017)

Pokemon Red FAQ (May 2017)

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

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

Q: What is the world record?
A: 1:48:58 by me.

Q: Why are you starting over?
A: Probably my Nidoran died or I made a major mistake. These things lose too much time.

Q: Why do you save and reset in the middle of the run?
A: This is RNG manipulation. The game almost always starts from the same RNG seed when you hard reset after a save. You can buffer every input from reset to file select, allowing you to frame perfectly load your game. As long as you continue to be frame perfect, you'll get the same RNG. So what you can manipulate depends on how easily you can be frame perfect. Movement is extremely easy to do frame perfectly, so encounters are manipulated whenever it is worth the 20 seconds it takes to save and reset. Surge's trash cans are also manipulated. Battles require too many precise inputs to do frame perfectly.

Q: When is it worth manipulating encounters?
A: Route 22 (catch a perfect Lv. 4 Nidoran in the same spot every time) and Mt. Moon (manipulate a Paras and no other encounters during the long stretch between the Lass and the Rocket).

Q: How much time does the manipulation save?
A: It's tough to say, since runs before RNG manipulation just reset for good Nidorans and encounter luck. A good run with RNG manip will exit Mt. Moon at about the same time as a good run without it. But these good starts will happen nearly every run with manip, whereas they often took weeks to achieve without it. More good starts means more time-saving risks can be taken without fear of losing a valuable run. All things considered, I'd estimate 2 minutes.

Q: What stats does this perfect Nidoran have?
A: 13 HP, 15 Attack, 15 Defense, 14 Speed and 15 Special. Because of RNG constraints, it is impossible for a Nidoran caught on Route 22 to have higher HP and Speed without having much lower Attack or Special.

Q: How are you catching the Nidoran from full HP almost every time?
A: By buffering all of the inputs before the catch. The first text box ("Wild Nidoran-M appeared") looks like it can't be buffered, but there's actually a 4-frame window (hold A before you see the arrow). I also catch Paras this way.

Q: What do the letters next to your splits mean?
A: This is a grading system for the splits in my PB. A means amazing, B means bad, C means crap, D means disaster and F means fuck, time to reset. I got this idea from Werster, who got it from another streamer.

Q: What is your goal time?
A: I don't have a specific time in mind. But I'll play to PB, and ideally get a decent time like 1:48:30.