FireRed Charmander Round 2 FAQ

Pokemon FireRed Round 2 Charmander FAQ

Q: What do you play this game on?
A: I play an original Nintendo DS with a capture card inside of it.

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Speedrun Pokemon FireRed under a certain category called Round 2 as fast as possible with Charmander.

Q: What exactly are the requirements to finish the run?
A: In order to beat Champion twice, you need to complete the following conditions must be met:
1. Beat the Champion once.
2. Have 60 unique Pokemon in your Pokedex, to unlock the National Dex.
3. Complete the Sevii Islands side quests

Q: If there's a Round 2, then what exactly is Round 1?
A: Round 1 is just a term we use for when we beat the Elite Four for the first time. To sum it up, it's basically the Any% category.

Q: You keep mentioning "Spinners" what exactly are "Spinners"?
A: Spinners are generally trainers that can spin in many different directions at a time. With the way Generation 3 mechanics work, these trainers can also be avoided altogether through manipulation. By going into one of you Bag menus or selecting the TM Case, this causes their internal clock that causes them to spin, to reset to 0. This basically gives us a 32 frame window to pass any Spinner with only 16 frames required to pass them under normal circumstances.

Q: What do the different colors mean in the Pokemon Catch Counter?
A: Blue = Mandatory Pokemon I need in the future
Red = Non-Mandatory Pokemon I've caught.
Black = Mandatory Pokemon that I've caught.

Q: What's your Team for the Route?
A: I use Charmander for about just about the entire games fights. We trade for a Farfetch'd that is used for a Cut/Fly slave. We grab the free Eevee that we use for a our Dig slave. Abra is used to teleport to Lavender Town from Celadon City.

Q: Why do you grab Mewtwo and not just finish the run with Charizard?
A: The Round 2 Elite 4 are the main reasons why we grab Mewtwo. Charizard has struggles on the Round 2 versions of Lorelei, Champion, Lance, and has consistency issues with Agatha. Grabbing Mewtwo not only makes these fights consistent but he also saves us quite a bit of money.

Q: What are the Sevii Islands and what do you do there?
A: After beating Blaine's gym, Bill prompts you to take a trip to some Islands if I say "Yes". For the first section, I mostly do a few sidequest involving saving a little girl and dealing with a biker gang. The second time we come to the islands, we get a quest from Prof. Oak and deal with team rocket on a few different islands before taking them out. We also have to grab a couple of gems and bring them back to Celeo.

Q: Are there any glitches used in this category?
A: There are no glitches used in the run.

Q: Why do you keep resetting?
A: Probably because I didn't hit the proper frame to get the Charmander I needed to complete the run. I need are At least 20 IV Attack, 26 or 14 IV Special, and 29 or 9 IV speed all depending on the nature of the Charmander. The nature also has to be all except Bold, Timid, Modest, Calm, Adamant, Impish, Jolly, Careful, Naughty, Brave, and Lonely.

Q: Why don't you just grab a Charmander and run with it?
A: If I were to just go off and grab a Charmander, the run would likely fall apart due to bad stats. I could very well get lucky, but I see no point with the manipulation that is available.

Q: How do you know the stats you will get on your Charmander?
A: So the way Generation 3 games work in terms of getting a good starter is based on the time frame in which you grab the Charmander from the lab table. Before reaching the lab however, we need to plug our Trainer ID into a program to properly determine what Charmander are on the seed, what stats they have, and exactly what time frame we need to reach that specific Charmander at. The game also runs at 60 FPS, so getting a Charmander is frame perfect making it hard to do. If you're interested in using this program, check here for more details. (http://forums.pokemonspeedruns.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=499)

Q: What are clusters?
A: When I say things like "Oh hey, there's a cluster!", it basically means that there are multiple Charmander that have runnable stats and natures surrounding each other by a few frames/milliseconds.

Q: Does gender affect anything like in Gen 2?
A: Gender for the Charmander and Trainer sprite I choose don't really make a big difference.

Q: What are the beeps I hear right before you grab a Charmander?
A: I use a program called Eon timer. This program basically allows me to produce an audio queue that makes it easier to hit the Charmander that I want to run.

Q: Aren't you tired of FireRed?
A: Have you seen how many categories there are in this game?!

Q: Does it matter if you play FireRed or LeafGreen?
A: Yes, some of the game corner Pokémon prizes you need cost more in LeafGreen than they do in FireRed.

Q: Do you have notes for this route?
A: Yes! If you'd them here is the Charizard Solo Route http://pastebin.com/Agr0ZZVQ and this one is the MewTwo + Charizard Route http://pastebin.com/ibu5CRRx

Q: Who came up with this route?
A: So far it has been a group effort between me and Snorms. Credit for the original base route for this goes to ExarionU. Credit for Mewtwo information goes to SFayne.

Q: Is this faster than the regular Zapdos/Squirtle Round 2 route?
A: Most likely no, but the route isn't exactly finished either. Only time will tell.

Q: What is your goal time for this Route?
A: I'd like to see if sub 3:50 is possible. Otherwise Sub 4 hours seems like a solid time.