Pokemon Emerald FAQ (December 2015)

Pokemon Emerald FAQ

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Emerald as fast as possible without using glitches. If the stream title says "practice," I might not be doing full runs.

Q: What are you playing on?
A: A GameCube using a GameBoy Player.

Q: What is the world record?
A: Please read this explanation of the difference between "world record" and "best time" in Pokemon speedrunning: http://pastebin.com/HhayPUby. (The best time for Emerald is 2:33:12 by me.)

Q: Why are you playing Emerald when you have the best time?
A: It's an amazing speedgame, and my time is improvable by 3+ minutes.

Q: What Pokemon do you use in this run?
A: I use Mudkip as my main Pokemon until I catch Rayquaza, which I use for the Elite Four. I catch Abra for Teleport and Taillow/Swablu for Fly. I also receive Castform for free and use it in several double battles.

Q: Why choose the girl?
A: It makes the second rival fight much easier. The boy leads with Slugma, which generally will only stall you with Yawn. The girl leads with Wingull, which can use Growl or Supersonic, both of which can end the run.

Q: Why are you resetting?
A: Probably because my Mudkip's stats are bad or I died.

Q: Why aren't you RNG manipulating Mudkip's stats?
A: Certain variables, such as NPC movement, cause the RNG to advance at a different rate. So even if I execute the manipulation frame-perfectly, I may receive a Mudkip that is 10 frames earlier or later than my target. The RNG variables are likely trackable, which would make the manipulation much better than old-school resetting, but no one with knowledge of the game's code has looked into them yet. Also, even perfect manipulation loses 2 seconds, because you have to open a separate menu to check your trainer ID.

Q: What is your goal time?
A: I don't care about the time as much as my execution, but I doubt anything above 2:30 will satisfy me. I may stop at a higher time if the Abra resets become too frustrating.