Pokémon Shield v1.2 - Any% F.A.Q.

Pokémon Shield - Any% F.A.Q.

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: I am trying to complete Pokémon Shield as fast as possible

Q: What is your best time?
A: My best time is 4:07:32

Q: What is the World Record?
A: The World Record time is 4:07:32 by eddaket

Q: That's you!
A: I know!

Q: Why is there a distinction between versions (1.0-1.1.1 and 1.2.0+)?
A: When Version 1.2 came out, the game began to load slower meaning that it's a lot harder to be competitive with the old times. Because of this, the leaderboard has been split by patch, and the time above is my best achieved time

Q: Where can you save time?
A: Mostly in the early game, but kind of all over the place. My Arcanine section was "okay", and my Drilbur catch was mediocre so those are probably the two biggest places

Q: What Pokémon do you use in the run?
A: I start with Scorbunny, which I use until the Wild Area where I catch a Growlithe and evolve into Arcanine. I use Arcanine until we beat Opal and unlock the ability to catch Pokémon up to Level 45, where I catch a Drilbur and evolve into Excadrill. I use Excadrill until the final fight, when we switch to Eternatus

Q: Can you do this run on Sword!?
A: You can! The leaderboards are separate for the two versions, and I like the Shield run better

Q: Which game is faster?
A: Currently, Sword is faster

Q: What are the differences between the two games for the speedrun?
A: The route is completely different. Sword uses Sobble/Drizzile/Inteleon for the entire game, however Shield uses Scorbunny, Arcanine, and Excadrill. This is mainly because of a few things:
- The 4th and 6th Gyms are different between the two games, with Sword getting Fighting/Rock while Shield gets Ghost/Ice. This brings a lot of factors to the surface:
    - The Ghost Gym has a trainer with 3 Grass types, which Sobble struggles with
    - The Ice Gym Leader has a Lapras that Sobble struggles with
    - The Fighting Gym Leader rematch leads a Hawlucha that Excadrill struggles with
- Growlithe (and a Fire Stone) is available early in Shield, but is locked behind at least 2 Gyms in Sword

Sobble has been used in Shield (see Etchy's run on the leaderboard) and is believed to lose ~2min over Sword. My belief is that the Arcanine/Excadrill route has a better top end than the Inteleon route, however it will be a lot harder to get that run due to the catch rate formula changes that were made in Generation VIII

Q: What catch rate formula changes?
A: We aren't sure exactly what the changes were, however we know that a change was made. If a Pokémon is a higher level than you are, the catch rate seems to be astronomically low. In the speedrun, this heavily affects the Drilbur catch, since it will always be at least 6 levels higher than your Arcanine. Without these changes, we'd be able to use a Quick Ball on Drilbur with an 83% success rate. Instead, we need to burn Drilbur, get it down to red health, and use Dusk Balls at night to have an approximate 20% chance to catch it. With this catch happening over 2 hours into the run, it makes it very hard to actually get a good run completed

Q: What are those numbers at the bottom of the screen?
A: Those are Arcanine and Excadrill's IVs. As I see their stats during level ups, I will input them into an IV Calculator. This will output the possible IV Ranges to let me (and you) know how good my Pokémon are. The IV Calculator was made by wartab and modified by Dabomstew for Shield

Q: Is sub 4 possible?
A: Not with the current route, no

Q: What is your goal time?
A: Not sure! My sum of best is like a 4:02, which is unreasonable, but I could see a 4:05 being possible or maybe even lower. I've not put a lot of time into the game since my SGDQ 2020 run, so it's hard to say exactly what my potential is!