Pokémon Platinum FAQ

Q: Why are you checking your trainer ID and restarting so much at the beginning?
A: I'm trying to correctly manipulate various pieces of RNG at the start of the run. First, I must boot the game and press A on the TV cutscene on specific frames (Platinum is 30fps) to set my seed, which is confirmed with a trainer ID of 06622. From here, I must mash through text and move in a certain way to manipulate Piplup's stats (Mild 28/18/31/30/17/31) and the first few wild Pokémon encounters (Starly > Kricketot holding a Metronome > Bidoof > Shinx with Pokérus).

Q: I've seen Werster's run of Platinum and why do you look for a different trainer ID than him?
A: I use a different seed which was found and routed by Tyrant14. It wastes around 20 seconds or so waiting on the TV cutscene compared to the other seed, but is a much easier seed to execute, also the date for it is 4/20/2069 which is hilarious. The only caveat is that the Piplup is a fair bit worse and makes a few early fights slightly riskier.

Q: What is the Metronome and why do you need to manipulate for it?
A: The Metronome is a new hold item in the Gen 4 games that increases the power of a move used consecutively by 10% each use up to a maximum of 100%. This speeds up a fair chunk of fights in the early game.

Q: What is Pokérus and why do you need to manipulate for it?
A: Pokérus is an EXTREMELY rare disease that was introduced in the Gen 2 games. It has a 1 in 21,845 chance (0.0046%, around 1/3 the chance of finding a shiny) in being generated on a Pokémon and doubles the EVs it gains. This increases Piplup's stat gain a decent amount and makes several fights a bit safer.

Q: How bad are spinners in this game? Can you do anything to control them?
A: Spinners in Gen 4 are the worst in the entire franchise (rivaled only by Gen 2) and do whatever they please. The only thing you can reliably do about them is to not run past them, they can still "hear" you like in the Gen 3 games.

Q: Why are you doing these double battles one trainer at a time? Wouldn't it be faster to fight them at the same time?
A: Since the run is only really using one Pokémon the whole time and in the case of Eterna Forest, Cheryl has a Chansey and is a moron, it's much more reliable to do the fights on their own. In addition the ! animation of a trainer seeing you is REALLY long in Gen 4 so you avoid 2 of them per double fight fought in this way.

Q: How can you tolerate speedrunning a Gen 4 game? They're SOOOO SLOOOOWWWWW!!!
A: Quit your crying about Gen 4 being slow, they're still good games. The Blissey in Victory Road is a nice bathroom break though :^)