Pokemon Stadium 2 Switch FAQ

	Pokemon Stadium 2 Switch FAQ:

This game was released on the Switch NSO. It plays *way* faster on the Switch. It is considered an entirely different category.

Q: How much faster is it?
A: I can't say exactly, because I haven't done extensive testing or runs. Even if I had there isn't an exact answer, because the reason it's faster is because there's less lag - and the amount of 'lag' each run varies based on outcomes.
From my short testing though, on average battles are about 5-6% faster. Over the course of a Complete the Game speedrun, that could potentially save about an hour of time.

Q: What else are you 'testing'?
A: Well I don't have time for a Complete the Game run, and I don't have a savefile prepared to do anything else - so I wanted to setup for both of those for runs potentially in the future.

Also wanted to look at how the RNG works - it seems more static in this version compared to on N64. I won't go ahead and say the manip might be possible, but it seems more plausible an option on Switch than on N64.

Q: Where is HG/SS runs?
A: I'm now mapping out new Whitney Battle Identification now that I've made a run there with the new route. This will probably take close to 2 weeks, so I'm gonna do stuff with this in the mean time

------------

Q: How does AI Team selection work?
A: You can read up about it here: https://genericmadscientist.github.io/posts/ps2-ai-teams/
And there's a tool you can play around with yourself to see it in action here: https://genericmadscientist.github.io/AI-Team-Manipulator/

The concept being that the team of 6 you show to each opponent will impact the possible teams they can bring. While you can't even force a trainer to *always bring* a specific team, you can skew the odds in your favour.
However, of course you still need to bring Pokemon that can win. And you typically win more than 1 fight with the team you use, so you can't always carry dead weight Pokemon just for manipulation, but it does happen a reasonable amount.

Q: Why are you using <pokemon>? Why not <other pokemon>?
A: Because the restrictions in running this game involve only using rental Pokemon (as otherwise it would be incredibly easy and not at all challenging) Generally speaking, worse stat Pokemon have better moves, it's about finding the right combinations. So in a lot of cases you will see me use for example, Kadabra (Has Psychic/Thunder Punch), but never Alakazam (Has Psybeam/Theif)

Q: Are the movesets the same between all the Cups and Gym Leader Castle?
A: Gym Leader Castle and Poke Cup have the same rental movesets. Prime Cup has a lot that are the same, but some are slightly different, and some are very different. This is because some Pokemon learn moves after level 50, so they only get them in Prime Cup. Two examples used in this run, are Hitmonlee (learns Reversal at 51, this replaces Mud Slap from the level 50 rental), and Heracross (learns Megahorn at level 54. Moveset is entirely different, as would be too OP with both Megahorn and Reversal)

Little Cup is just different. The main poke used in Little which gets use elsewhere is Voltorb, which actually has Thunder and Mirror Coat in both, however it has Rollout in Little Cup, and not Selfdestruct. (Also Curse instead of Rain Dance, but that's not too relevant)

Q: Is that Pokemon Shiny?
A: No, it isn't. However, when Pokemon get given nicknames, it can slightly alter their colour (which is why trainers that aren't leaders have nicknames on their Pokemon to show off this feature)
It is actually possible that a Shiny Pokemon will show up in Challenge Cup, as everything there is randomised. However, it will actually sparkle, like seen in this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKx37qF79TA

Q: Why does that gym leader have a Pokemon that isn't of their type??
A: Because if every leader had only their type, all these fights would be easy. It's not like in the games where you only have a small team, since you have access to every Pokemon, they need coverage in order to be a challenge at all.

Q: Why do you reset after completing a cup?
A: This is just to skip the small cutscene that shows all the Pokes you used in the cup. Saves just a few seconds each time.