Pokemon Blue Classic FAQ (Squirtle route)

Pokemon Blue Classic FAQ (Squirtle route)

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Blue using the "Classic" ruleset of no glitches, no RNG manipulation, no instant text, and no Poke Doll.

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

Q: What Pokemon will you be using?
A: Squirtle for battling, Pidgey/Spearow for Fly, and Farfetch'd/Paras/Sandshrew for Cut.

Q: Why Squirtle instead of Nidoran?
A: Without the aid of RNG manipulation, it's easier to reset for a good Squirtle 2 minutes into the run than reset for a good Nidoran 10 minutes in, especially since Nidoran sometimes fails to appear or get in the ball. And Blastoise benefits more than Nidoking from the extra experience obtained in Rocket Hideout, since Blastoise's late game is its weakness.

Squirtle and Nidoran were always competitive for manipless speedruns. See this paste for a detailed comparison of the manipless route that allows Poke Doll: https://pastebin.com/L7LWJkVK

Q: Do you think Squirtle is faster than Nidoran?
A: I'm not sure yet, and I'd like to use these runs to find out. My experience running Squirtle so far in various Gen 1 categories is to get tilted by extended Squirtle resets and pure randomness of the early game. Runners who have better patience might have a better chance of getting WR with Squirtle than Nidoran.

Q: What are the main differences between the Squirtle and Nidoran routes?
A: Squirtle has a much faster early game since it can just rush to Brock without catching and switch training another Pokemon. Squirtle also saves time in Mt. Moon by fighting one fast optional trainer to evolve instead of two slow optional trainers.

The Misty and Surge sections are similar in speed, but Wartortle has a much slower Misty fight and a much faster Nugget Bridge. Wartortle also picks up an extra Rare Candy on the S.S. Anne, which requires fighting an extra trainer.

After Surge, Wartortle/Blastoise lose major time in battles because of worse coverage and the absence of Horn Drill. They save some time back by skipping the Rock Slide and Earthquake TMs. The Champion fight is particularly bad for Blastoise, since it can't safely keep red bar and must use moves with slow animations.

Q: What is the world record?
A: 1:55:56 by pokeguy, using the Nidoran route. For Squirtle, I don't think anyone has attempted serious Classic runs.

Q: What are the hardest fights?
A: Anything with a Gyarados -- so the late rival fights and Lance. These fights are easy to win from full HP, but it's important to stay at low HP for red bar, and Gyarados usually kills you from red bar. So you usually heal for Gyarados and hope it hits you back into red bar, but sometimes you take a big risk. The second rival fight is also risky for the same reason -- you really want red bar for the easy Pokemon on Nugget Bridge, but first you must defeat a Bulbasaur that often kills you from red bar.

Honorable mention goes to the Oddish/Bulbasaur girl in Rock Tunnel, who can easily end your run with Stun Spore or Sleep Powder.

Q: Why are you resetting?
A: I need my Squirtle to have 11 Attack, 10 Speed, and 11 Special at L5 (sometimes I'll take 10 Attack and hope it goes 12 at Level 6). The odds of getting this are 5%, or 1/19. Each reset takes a little less than 2 minutes, so this means I'll get on a run once every 35 minutes.