Pokemon Heart Gold Manipless FAQ

      Pokemon HG/SS Manipless FAQ

Q: What is Manipless?
A: Manipless is, as the name implies, not using manip. So beating the game with no RNG Manipulation. It's also a glitchless run.

Q: How much changes in a Manipless run?
A: A lot! Because you can't get an early Master Ball to use on a (manipped) Raikou, the route changes a fair bit. There's a number of routes available actually. Those are:

Solo Typhoslion, but catch Mewtwo for Red (my PB from 2013 did this)
Solo Typholsion
Quilava, then catch L50 Magikarp and Gyarados
Quilava, then Kenya for Whitney/Morty, then catch L50 Magikarp for Gyarados (what I will do in these runs)
Quilava, then catch Raikou with a Fast Ball (~1.5% chance to work. But would still be the best strat if it worked, but super unlikely, and only faster by a small amount)

Q: Any other change aside from the Pokemon you use?
A: Well, yeah. Because there's no RNG manip, Cyndaquil's stats are random. Which means all of the early fights are different each run. Kenya always has the same stats, however.
There's no Voltorb Flip too, which means no Abra, or Dratini. As such, I also catch a Sentret early game for Surf/Whirlpool (Surf also goes to Gyarados, but I need to get on the water first to catch it)

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Q: What are you playing on, it is emulator?
A: No, I'm playing on a 3DS with a capture board installed allowing me to record game footage. Usually I use a DS, but because there is not resetting here, a 3DS works the same for run, and has the circle pad, which is useful for catching Magikarp.

Q: Why do you choose Cyndaquil?
A: Because the Cyndaquil evolution family is the best for start of the speedrun.

Q: Why not Soul Silver?
A: Heart Gold and Soul Silver are the same for one key difference, the legendary Pokemon you must visit. Visiting Ho-Oh and Lugia take almost the exact same amount of time, but Lugia is faster by like ~2 seconds assuming you have good movement. However in this run, you need Max Revives, and the Max Revive at Bell Tower is faster to pick up.
Additionally, because I'm not going to be using a manipped Raikou, it's possible that I will be slower than the Ho-Oh/Lugia, which means there is a chance I won't be able to run away. As such, visiting Ho-Oh is preferred, as it has lower speed, meaning there's more chance I will be able to run away first turn.

Q: Why do you play as the girl?
A: The counterpart does the catching tutorial, and the male does it faster, so it’s faster to choose the female for yourself.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI1-PJ7Sy1w

Q: Why do you name yourself and Cyndaquil '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: Do you catch anything else? Mewtwo maybe?
A: I catch a Sentret (for Surf/Whirlpool), and obtain Kenya (for Fly), and Snorlax (for Rock Climb, and Red).

Q: What is WR?
A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgssext#Manipless

Q: What is your goal time?
A: To win the race. Ideally I'd like a sub 3:45 at some point, but I'm not planning on grinding this category out, much prefer doing the races.

Q: What is with those split icons? What does A and B 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.