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       Pokemon Soul Silver Glitchless FAQ
 
-Q: You've come back to this run after 3 years. New route?
+Q: What does Dratini+ mean?
-A: You better believe it!
+A: It means I'm going to catch a Dratini, and use it (along with it's evolutions) to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Dratini!
 The + in Dratini+ is to differentiate it from a potential alt run with *just* Dratini, where you never evolve it
-Q: What's different?
+
-A: Let me lay it all out for you. There's quite a number of differences, that are mostly interconnected to one another. So let's start with the crux. The new route involves playing Voltorb Flip for over 3 minutes.
+Q: Is this run Glitchless or not?
 A: Yes, it is glitchless. Alt poke runs are glitchless unless explicitly said otherwise.
-Yeah, you read that right.
+
-I pickup an Abra (for Teleport), Dratini (For Surf, Whirlpool, and Waterfall), and TM24 Thunderbolt (to teach to Raikou) from my winnings there. This changes a lot of things as a result.
+Q: Where do you get Dratini?
 A: I'll pick up Dratini in the Goldenrod Game Corner, from playing Voltorb Flip and buying it. So up to that point, the run is very similar to the normal glitchless route.
-1) You do not catch Sentret or Lugia anymore. All the water HMs go to Dratini, and Cut is given to Quilava.
+
-2) You must ONLY take Violet Center, to Teleport there after Whitney. This makes the early game *far* riskier, as Ember PP is *extremely* tight, so if Falkner uses Roost more than once, massive fucking ooft.
+Q: So is this faster than using Raikou?
-3) This ends up making it faster to skip Goldenrod Mart. Because Raikou has Thunderbolt, he doesn't need early X Items. And because you pickup Dratini, it isn't worth it to go straight up for Fire Blast either, as Dratini comes with Dragon Rage, meaning the Double battle is fine without Fire Blast.
+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.
-4) Because you don't have Fire Blast, Whitney and Rival 3 are extremely different fights. Both are much slower, but the route is still overall faster by not detouring for Fire Blast
+
-5) Because you are fighting Whitney without Fire Blast AND without X Items, it is an absolute requirement that the Cyndaquil have 31 IV in speed AND get Pokerus, so it can outspeed Miltank at +0. Thus, the seed had to change to one which meets these requirements. Since the seed changed, the entire manip process had to be redone.
+Q: So how much slower is this going to be? What's your estimate?
-6) Because of getting Thunderbolt, Thunder is no longer bought for Raikou.
+A: Just under 4 and a half hours.
-7) Because the main seed changed, the Raikou had to change also.
+
-8) As a result, it is no longer worth getting Hidden Power, as there are no good HP Ground Raikous on the seed used.
+Q: Isn't Dragonite a beast? Is this really that much of a challenge?
-9) Because Raikou doesn't get Hidden Power, it is now given Strength for PP use, given it has a free slot.
+A: Dragonite isn't too bad, but as a pseudo legendary it has a terribly slow experience curve. So slow, in fact, that I don't even get Dragonite until partway through Kanto!
-10) Because Raikou doesn't get Hidden Power, Surge must be done later in Kanto, instead of first, as the levels are needed to OHKO his Pokes at +1. This changes the entire route through Kanto.
+
-11) Since Surge isn't done first in Kanto anymore, Trash Manip is simply not possible. So Surge's cans are now completely random again.
+And trust me when I say everything struggles with Red. Just remember that even the most optimal Pokemon, Raikou, which *resists* Pikachu's best moves, still takes over half damage at neutral. The Flying type that Dragonite picks up does not help, at all...
-12) Since you don't have HP Ground, the Blue fight is entirely different. It requires switching to a Pokemon and dying, meaning another Pokemon has to be alive at the time. This means you can't skip past the double fight with only Raikou alive below Lavendar, and since you do Surge later, means it's worth approaching Snorlax from the left, instead of the right (changing Kanto order more)
+
-13) Since you don't have HP Ground, the following fights are much worse: Blue, Surge, Kimono Jolteon, JASMINE!!
+Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
-14) Since you have Thunderbolt, the following fights are better: Literally everything else in the game.
+A: All of the Dratini segment is pretty bad. Whitney is a bit of a pain, but Rival 3 and Morty are worse. Morty is so bad you have to do some slight grinding otherwise Gengar just OHKOs even at full HP. There are even some really dangerous fights in the Rocket Hideout, Proton there and the Double are quite troublesome.
-15) Due to the nature of all these things, several other minor changes appear all the way throughout the run (Damage ranges, PP, what items to get, when to heal, when to use Rare Candies, etc etc)
+
-And the most obscure: 16) Because you don't catch Sentret anymore, you can't heal with the PC box at Violet center anymore, as you can't deposit your only Pokemon. Therefore you must use the nurse. Because you have Pokerus however, healing at the nurse means Elm can now call you throughout the run, telling you about Pokerus. This is bad, as it advances the RNG. However, thanks to some godly work by MKDasher, we can now control when the call happens, so the advancement is predictable. Unfortunately, it happens at the worst time possible: Immediately after Rival 2. This makes keeping RNG manip past Rival 2 *very hard*, but not impossible.
+For Dragonair, Pryce is pretty bad. Clair requires a ton of setup, but still isn't too risky. The really awful spot is the Kimono Girls. E4 can be troublesome too.
 
-Q: How much time does this new route save?
+For Dragonite, there's this guy towards the end who has pokes 20-25 levels above you. He's a bit tricky...
-A: It's really hard to tell. There's a huge amount of changes, and a lot of them are variable. Such as, not using Fire Blast/Thunder anymore, which could miss. But then having to deal with Attract bullshit from Whitney, etc. My estimate would be between 30-60 seconds, but I'm honestly not sure.
+
 Q: Do you manipulate the Dratini? If so, what are it's stats?
 A: Yes. Manipping Dratini is hard, because it's late enough that it'll require a secondary reset, but not manipping it would be suicide. It's IVs are 29 HP, 15 Att, 19 Def, 31 SP Att, 30 Sp Def, 31 Speed with a Modest nature
 
 ---
-Q: Why do you choose Cyndaquil?
+
-A: Because the Cyndaquil evolution family is the best for the speedrun. Until you catch Raikou, that is.
+
 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 Cyndaquil as your starter?
 A: Because the Cyndaquil evolution family is the best for the start of the speedrun. I'm literally using the exact same seed/manip for the start of the run that I use in glitchless. This isn't entirely optimal, as there would probably be a Cyndaquil with slightly better IVs given the manip doesn't require you getting Raikou (or fighting Whitney with Quilava), but ultimately it would've meant probably another full week of routing to help by an almost insignificant amount, so I have not bothered looking into that.
 
 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.
 
-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, Cyndaquils starting stats, Raikous starting stats, Raikous starting position, and the lottery so I win the Master Ball
+
 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, Cyndaquils starting stats, Dratinis starting stats, and the lottery so I win the Master Ball
 
 Q: What causes the resets?
 A: I missed initial starting seed. There are 2 ways to check whether I hit the correct seed:
 1) I check my Trainer ID. The one I am aiming for is 39391. I know if I get this ID, I hit the right starting seed, as that is generated at the same time. This is what I used to do, as it is the first thing you can do to check, but it takes ~3 seconds to check so I tend to instead...
 2) I check the movement of the NPCs in New Bark Town. Because their movement is derived from the RNG, I can tell I hit it based on their movements. If the girl faces Down, then turn Right, Down, and then Left, I got it
 If not I didn't hit the right seed, so I reset. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick
 
-A: Because it advances the RNG! This is used at the start of the run to skip over patterns that would have encounters, but also to make the RNG advance by decently significant amounts to accelerate getting Pokerus, otherwise I would have to run around a lot more in the grass, which would be slower. It's also potentially used during Raikou manip if I go for backup Raikou, as it's otherwise unhittable without resetting the room, which is slower than talking.
+
 A: Because you can't get the best possible results off the bat. The movement that I do is designed specifically to manipulate the RNG (from NPCs movement around me, and the like) so that I get my great Cyndaquil, Pokerus off the first trainer battle, and no encounters to Falkner
 
 Q: Why did you just talk to your Cyndaquil?
 A: Because it advances the RNG! This is used at the start of the run to skip over patterns that would have encounters, but also to make the RNG advance by decently significant amounts to accelerate getting Pokerus, otherwise I would have to run around a lot more in the grass, which would be slower.
-Q: You also manipulate Raikous stats? How is that possible?
+
-A: You don't specifically know at what seed the RNG is on when releasing Raikou, so it's a bit trickier. What you do instead, is get encounters in Burnt Tower to tell you what seed you are on. After that it's a simple matter of advancing the RNG the correct amount of times to hit the target Raikou.
+
-For this route though, there are 2 Raikous pretty close to each other that can both complete the run. So if the RNG has advanced too much that I can't get the first one, I can just get the second one and continue (the first is ever so slightly better for the run)
+
 
-The main Raikou's IVs are: 17 HP, 23 Att, 17 Def, 27 Sp Att, 20 Sp Def, 28 Speed with a Modest Nature
+
-The backup Raikou's IVs are: 26 HP, 5 Att, 3 Def, 29 Sp Att, 13 Sp Def, 31 Speed with a Modest Nature.
+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: And then you manipulate it's position...how?
+
-A: Well if I hit my target Raikou it always goes to the same spot, so if I make the same movement to down below Ecruteak I can manipulate the Raikou's jumps to go to where I want it to.
+
 
-Q: And then how do you plan on catching it?
+Once at Voltorb Flip, I take specific patterns on the boards to manipulate future boards. The first thing you need to know about it is Level 8. Level 8 is the highest level in Voltorb Flip, and as such where the most coins are. Accessing Level 8 is different to the prior levels, instead of beating the level 1 below, Level 8 is unlocked by having a continuous streak of 5 boards in a row, and all 5 of those boards having at least 8 panels flipped over. So after Level 5, I can jump straight to Level 8. Also note: The streak means you must win, except on the 5th board, so I actually quit out of that level and still get the jump.
-A: The starting seed, when I get my trainer ID, also starts a few other things in the game. One of them is the starting lottery number, and one of the reasons this seed is so desirable is that they line up, so I scoop up a free Master Ball before I catch him
+
 
-Q: Who is the magical god who came up with all of this?
+
-A: MKDasher, pay your respects.
+
 
 Q: Why do you play as the girl?
-A: 1) 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.
+
-2) Some things simply aren't worth it, as they are limited by the amount of possibilities in the game. For example, having Cyndaquil be a Female would be better to avoid Attract on Miltank, but there are simply 0 seeds that have all the other requirements needed AND get a Female Cyndaquil, making it slower overall.
+
 Q: Why do you name yourself and Dratini '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: Do you catch anything else?
-Once at Voltorb Flip, I take specific patterns on the boards to manipulate future boards. The first thing you need to know about it Level 8. Level 8 is the highest level in Voltorb Flip, and as such where the most coins are. Accessing Level 8 is different to the prior levels, instead of beating the level 1 below, Level 8 is unlocked by having a continious streak of 5 boards in a row, and all 5 of those boards having at least 8 panels flipped over. So after Level 5, I can jump straight to Level 8. Also note: The streak means you must win, except on the 5th board, so I actually quit out of that level and still get the jump.
+A: I catch Gyarados (for Whirlpool/Waterfall/Intimidate), and Snorlax (for Rock Climb). I also obtain 3 others, Abra (Teleport) from Voltorb Flip and Spearow (Fly) from the guard.
 
 Q: What is WR?
 A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngen4ext#Alt_Main_Pokes_HeartGoldSoulSilver (See: Splits)
 
 Q: What is your goal time?
 A: To get a decently clean run. Probably around the 4:20 mark, maybe a bit above, maybe a bit below.
 
 Q: Do you plan to do other Alt Pokemon runs?
-Q: Why do you name yourself and Cyndaquil 'I'?
+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.