Pokémon Platinum - 'Elite 4 Round 2 Glitched' F.A.Q.

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Pokémon Platinum - 'Elite 4 Round 2 Glitched' F.A.Q.
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► What is a speedrun ?

▬ It's the process of attempting to finish a video game as fast as possible, with or without additional rules to spice up the challenge.

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► What is the goal to achieve here ?

▬ Starting with FireRed/LeafGreen onwards, the Pokémon games offered the players the possibility to defeat the Elite 4 (supposedly the toughest trainers of the game) a second time with an increased difficulty. This is our goal.
In Pokémon Platinum, the Pokémon involved are the same, only their levels and moveset increase/change.

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► What does the route look like ? How do you unlock the E4R2 ?

▬ The first part (Round 1) is pretty much the same as the Any% category, with a few adjustments. We start with a manipulated Chimchar that will be used for the first hour of the run, then we main-swap for another manipulated Pokémon, a level-40 Tentacruel, that is obtained through some glitch abuse (see below). Tentacruel will sweep the rest of the game. After defeating the first Elite 4, we have to do a small sidequest before unlocking the second stage of the E4.
In order to unlock E4R2, you normally have to see all the Pokémon of the Sinnoh region (210) before being able to complete the Stark Mountain side quest.

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► Why do you explicitly specify that this category is glitched ?

▬ Because the E4R2 is an already existing major category, which doesn't allow any glitches.
This mostly comes from a specific set of glitches called 'Tweaking' or 'Tweaks'.
They completely cut off parts of the Glitchless run, including the Pokédex completion requisite, explaining why the major E4R2 category doesn't allow glitches.

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► How does 'Tweaking' work & how does it break the game ?

▬ In order to load big areas, the game splits them into smaller pieces called chunks, and loads the ones that are closer to the player to lower the CPU charge of the console. Using fast and specific movement patterns between these chunks (the delimitations are called 'loadlines'), we're able to corrupt the loading of some nearby chunks.

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► What is the RNG ?

▬ It's how the game fakes randomness. Since it's impossible to create true randomness from deterministic machines like computers, developers use tricky formulas to create a look-alike behaviour that appears random at first. In order to be manipulated properly, we have to prepare in advance specific movements throughout the early game (in correlation to the explanation above) to get our good starter, avoid unnecessary wild Pokémon, and encounter the ones we need for the speedrun.

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► How do you manipulate Pokémon and why do you do it ?

▬ We're using a community-based software called 'RNG Reporter'. It's a very powerful tool that allows us to analyse and predict how the RNG works, and allows us to manipulate it as much as humanly possible. The base idea is to count the number of frames that the game loads from boot-up, mixed to some time&date selection, in order to manipulate seeds that interest us. Then from this seed, it's often easy to manipulate the Pokémon we want to get.
Without manipulation, we couldn't get an overpowered starter or an overpowered sweeper like Tentacruel that early in the game, especially since we obtain this level-40 Tentacruel when Monferno is only around level 24.
Also the Round 2 is very very brutal against Tentacruel, so you absolutely need close-to-prefect stats for it to be viable.

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► What are the ticks we hear at the beginning of the run ?

▬ It's another software I use, called EonTimer. It's a multi-staged timer that allows me to hit the frames/seeds I need for the manipulations to go well.

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► What are the messages showing up on the top screen ?

▬ Since i don't have a stable console system for RNG manipulation (i.e. I only have a 3DS, which has a lack of boot up time consistency), I'm using emulator. Emulators are also known for various inaccuracies, thus no run done on emulator for Gen III onwards can't be submitted to a leaderboard. Each time I reset, the emulator will stop and start a 'movie', which allows me to set a specific time & date different from my computer's. You'll also see some savestates involved, and that comes from how the emulator handles the savefile with movies. Note that I won't be loading any savestates that are exterior to the current run.

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► Who inspired this speedrun ?

▬ TheTyrant14 is the first runner I know that came up with the crazy idea of running the Round 2 of Pokémon Platinum (this category was already created and established for FireRed/Leafgreen).
Werster is the one who put the more effort into the Any% route which is the strong basis for this run.
Many others who run/route various Pokémon games, because this community is truly amazing !