Pokemon Platinum Starly+ FAQ

      Pokemon Platinum Starly+ FAQ

Q: What does Starly+ mean?
A: It means I'm going to catch a Starly, and use it (along with it's evolutions) to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Starly!
The + in Starly+ is to differentiate it from a potential alt run with *just* Starly, where you never evolve it.

To see the rules for Alt Main Poke runs, see here: https://pastebin.com/uTqgXp6m

Q: Is this run Glitchless or not?
A: Yes, it is glitchless. Alt poke runs are glitchless unless explicitly said otherwise.

Q: So is this faster than using Empoleon?
A: No, the entire point of an alt Pokemon run is that it is not the fastest way to beat the game. Otherwise it would just be...the fastest way, and it'd be the main category.

Q: So how much slower is this going to be? What's your estimate?
A: Actually not that much slower. Starly is definitely one of the top 3 Pokemon to beat the game with (the others being Piplup and Chimchar). It's actually possible that Starly would take the least amount of turns to beat the game, but those turns would end up being slower on average to make it end up being slower (it loses a handful of minutes to things like Intimidate text, and Close Combat text)

But it'll definitely be Sub 4 hours.

Q: When do you catch Starly? Surely beating Roark would be super hard.
A: Yes, beating Roark with Starly would be suicide, and as such Starly is caught after beating Roark. I'll catch a L11 Starly on the route just before entering Floraroma.
Because of this, I'm going to be using Turtwig as the starter, as it does the early part of the game the best. It also learns a bunch of HMs, and has the rival pick Chimchar, which is the ideal choice.

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: The early gym leaders are actually fairly easy in this run, and after getting Staraptor the later ones aren't much of a concern either. And with this re-route, even Fantina is a likely win.

The *worst* fight in this run, though, is a random NPC - Ruin Maniac Calvin, who has a Bronzor and a Shieldon. Both of which are extremely difficult for Staravia to kill. It's unlikely I will lose to this fight, but it might take...a long time.

The most likely way the run dies however is by losing RNG manip - I need to keep manip for a very long time to first get the Starly, given it's pretty late, but then to manipulate a Lucky Egg Chansey as well.

Q: How are you going to manipulate a Lucky Egg wild Chansey??
A: I'm a genius.

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Quick rundown of the differences between this new seed and the old Starly seed I was using:
1) I'm now catching a Kricketot holding a Metronome, and giving it to both Turtwig for its early fights, and then over to Staravia until I get to Lucky Egg.
2) As a result, a decent amount of the route changes. For example:
I no longer catch a second Starly, given I already have a Pokemon to switch out on Rival 2. As such, I teach Fly to Staraptor instead. This means I have 1 less moveslot, so I end up not teaching Brave Bird, which slightly changes the fights where I otherwise would've used Brave Bird (Candice, Cyrus 2/3, Mars & Jupiter Double, and Aaron the most notable)

With the Metronome, some of the early fights are both a bit faster, but also much easier. The most notable is Fantina, since Mismagius always dies in 2 hits, and even Haunter often dies in 1. Other reasonable examples are Jupiter and Rival 3.

3) The stats of the Turtwig/Starly are a bit different. Overall the Starly has better defensive stats, meaning it'll take a bit less damage throughout. The new Starly does have 30 Att IV instead of 31, but this is almost entirely irrelevant, as it's damage output on anything that matters is almost entirely identical anyway.

4) The new seed gets Pokerus earlier, meaning I can choose my experience route a bit more freely due to not getting it in Roark's Gym. As such, I can choose the more optimal option of fighting trainer 2 instead of trainer 1, meaning Turtwig reaches Level 15, making the Nosepass and Shieldon fights a bit better.

5) Because of the differences between the seeds, I'm catching Psyduck before Roark, instead of after it. This makes Psyduck a bit more annoying to catch, since I'm lower level I do less damage, and since it's higher level, it also knows an extra move, meaning teaching it Waterfall will take longer. However, having an extra Pokemon makes the Roark fight much safer, since he can use Stealth Rock to waste a turn, and also Pursuit instead of Headbutt sometimes too.

6) The Lucky Egg I'm getting on this seed is a MUCH higher RNG Frame, meaning it's way more lax to actually be able to reach it. This means runs won't just instantly die if I lose manip, however the flip side is it also means it'll likely take more steps to actually reach the Lucky Egg Chansey too.

7) And finally, for the bad news, both the delay and wait periods on this new seed are much higher, meaning the time to perform the manip is without a doubt longer (waiting on the intro, and also doing some extra movement during the run).

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Q: What are you playing on, it is emulator?
A: No, I'm playing on a DS (phat) with a capture board installed allowing me to record game footage

Q: Why do you choose Turtwig as the starter?
1) As a HM slave, it learns Cut/Rock Smash/Strength/Rock Climb, which is perfect.
2) It beats Roark easier than Piplup (and Chimchar by a mile).
3) To force the rival to pick Chimchar. Chimchar and it's evolutions are the easiest to kill, partly because they learn Leer instead of Growl, but also because of their lower defences and typing for Staravia to kill.

Q: Why do you keep resetting and changing the time?
A: I need to use a specific time in order to use RNG manipulation, so I set the clock in such a way that I can use it.
 The timer counts down to when I need to reset for the correct second.

Q: What is RNG?
A: Random Number Generator, the thing that determines everything random within the game, such as stats, encounters and pokerus.

Q: What is RNG Manipulation?
A: RNG manipulation is used in this speedrun, which involves resetting on a specific second starting from a specific time, and hitting the correct frame for the correct seed after resetting. This allows for manipulating of the wild encounters, and Turtwig/Starly's starting stats

Q: What causes the resets?
A: I missed the initial seed. There are 2 ways to check to see if I hit the right seed, one is to check my Trainer ID which should be 31373, and the other is to check to movements of the NPCs outside my house. Checking Trainer ID is faster for resets, but obviously takes a few seconds. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick

Q: What are your Pokemon's stats like?
A: The starting stats are the same every time RNG manipulation is used, and also quite decent using RNG manipulaton, but not perfect. The reason for this is because there are a limited amount of seeds you can RNG manipulate for, as you are manipulating so many things, it's literally a game limitation how good they can be.
The Turtwig's IVs are: 22 HP, 29 Att, 26 Def, 15 SP Att, 13 SP Def, 31 Speed with a Naughty nature.
The Starly's IVs are: 30 HP, 30 Att, 29 Def, 14 SP Att, 19 SP Def, 30 Speed with an Adamant nature.

Q: Why is your movement so strange at the start of the run?
A: This is to manipulate encounters. You can't just find a seed that gets no encounters with a perfect Starly by just running straight through (again, game limitation; there isn't one), so I need to do specific movement to manipulate the RNG so that I can avoid these encounters.

Q: What encounters will you get?
A: I will catch a Kricketot at Route 201 (to take it's Metronome, and also to have a Pokemon to switch out on Rival 2), a Psyduck in Oreburgh Gate (For Surf/Waterfall) and finally the L11 Starly on Route 204.

Q: So why don't you just manipulate everything in the game?
A: There are multiple RNGs at play, and not all of them can be controlled the same way. Battle RNG for example, advances just about every frame, including lag frames, making it totally unpredictable.

Q: Is there anything else in the game you manipulate?
A: Yes! There is one more thing you can manipulate in Platinum and not Pearl - Pokerus! Pokerus is obtained off the second fight on Route 202.

Q: Why do you play as the girl?
A: The counterpart talks less to you if you are the girl

Q: Why do you name yourself and Starly '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: What is WR?
A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngen4ext#Alt_Main_Pokes_Platinum

Q: Do you plan to do other Alt Pokemon runs?
A: Yeah, in the future. I've already done a few of these in other games, which you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKdCHbtiZdhA63-FROqfqamattnoWR0xd

I've got quite a few more on my list to do in the future (mostly across Gen 4/5). I definitely don't need suggestions on more - I've thought about and considered everything you can imagine. It's hard to find the right mix of something you get early enough in the game that is actually still interesting to use. But I've certainly got some more planned, it just takes a long time to route the whole game with something else.