Pokemon Crystal FAQ (Raikou route)

Pokemon Crystal FAQ (Raikou route)

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

Q: What are you playing on?
A: GambatteSpeedrun, an accurate emulator for Gen 1-2 Pokemon games.

Q: Why not console?
A: Emulator offers many competitive advantages. There are many other skilled Pokemon runners, and I don't want to be at a disadvantage to them by playing on console.

Q: Why not just ban emulator?
A: Playing on emulator is much more convenient than playing on console, even for people who have access to both. As long as it's accurate, allowing it makes sense.

Q: What is the world record?
A: 3:13:35 by wsopboy91.

Q: What is your goal?
A: To beat the WR and finish a respectable run with the Raikou route.

Q: Why choose the girl?
A: Her sprite in battle saves about 1 second throughout the run, and certain RNG manipulations don't work as the boy.

Q: What Pokemon do you use?
A: Totodile (fastest starter for the early game), Poliwag (Whirlpool and Waterfall slave), Spearow (Fly slave) and Raikou (fastest Pokemon to beat the game from Ecruteak City onward). If I don't catch a Poliwag, I'll teach Whirlpool to Croconaw and pick up the free Dratini from Dragon's Den for Waterfall.

Q: Why Raikou?
A: It has a huge level advantage when you catch it, its stats are superior to anything else you can catch in the first 2 hours, and it has excellent coverage.

Q: Why not Entei?
A: Worse coverage, mainly. But it's close, and I had to make a detailed comparison to be sure: https://pastebin.com/TAVnXkNV

Q: Why do you keep backing out of the main menu? Why wait before starting a new run? Why save and quit?
A: This run features a lot of RNG manipulation. Rather than list each manip as a separate question, I'll explain them below in order of appearance:

1. LID manip. Before starting runs for the day, I need to set the lottery ID to be 01001, which matches the trainer ID of the Spearow you receive for free on Route 35. This will allow me to win a Master Ball from the Goldenrod City lottery. The LID is set when you select NEW GAME, and you can manipulate it by executing the same inputs from a hard reset to NEW GAME. Conveniently, the LID is stored and doesn't change until you clear ALL save data, so you don't have to do the manip before every run. I know I hit the correct LID if my trainer ID is 27623.

2. StartSecond manip. At the start of each run, I'm asked to confirm the time of day. I need to do this a whole number of minutes after the game's real-time clock (RTC) has started. The RTC starts whenever you reset without a save file (which I do after confirming my trainer ID). So I'll keep a secondary timer running the whole day, and for each run I'll confirm the time of day when that timer displays 00 seconds (2:00, 40:00, 2:21:00, etc.). I need to do this because the game adds the RTC to another hidden time value, and if this addition produces a carry in the seconds (meaning xx + xx > 59), RNG manipulations will fail. A carry cannot occur if the seconds are set to 00.

3. Totodile manip. To manipulate a Totodile with good stats, I'll save in front of the Totodile ball in Elm's lab, hard reset the game, then execute a series of inputs, including one frame-perfect input. The desired Totodile has the following DVs: 11 HP, 15 Attack, 14 Defense, 15 Speed, 15 Special.

4. Raikou manip. To manipulate a Raikou with good stats and the necessary Hidden Power, I'll save before the Route 37 grass, hard reset the game, then execute a series of inputs, including one with a 3-frame window. Each of the 3 frames produces a different Raikou, but all are acceptable:

Frame 1: 12/15/9/8/14 (HP Ice 69)
Frame 2: 13/15/13/12/11 (HP Ice 70)
Frame 3: 14/15/9/13/12 (HP Ice 68)

The Raikou manip has a 15% chance to fail that is out of your control. It will also fail if my step counter for the whole run is too low, so some extra steps might be necessary. It will also fail I take too few or too many steps after the legendary dogs cutscene in Burned Tower.

5. Douglas manip. Douglas is the spinner in Pryce's gym who takes a minute to fight. Since your character is sliding on ice, you can't control whether he hits you, and it's basically a coin flip. So you save before him and try to pass him normally, and if you hit him, you hard reset and execute a series of inputs to guarantee that he won't see you on the second try.