Pokémon White 2 | Challenge Mode FAQ

Pokémon White 2 | Challenge Mode FAQ

What is Challenge Mode?
- CM is basically hard mode for this game. It's unlocked when you beat Black 2 (and then the key is transferred to White 2, so I can start the game with it).
Enemy Pokémon levels increase by 1-4 levels depending on how far into the game you are. Gym Leaders and E4 members get a massive boost, getting 30IV in all of their Pokémon stats, and they all get a new Pokémon entirely. They also get much better moves (i.e., Elesa's Emolga gets Aerial Ace!). They also get some held items (although these are mostly Oran/Sitrus berries for Gym Leaders).

What fights are hardest?
- In a weird turn of events, Burgh is actually the hardest fight you do with Pignite, because of the variance of Rock Blast. The hardest fight Drilbur/Excadrill does is Elesa, because of Emolga's Aerial Ace.
That isn't all though, Cheren can be really annoying, Undella Rival (Rival 4) can cause a LOT of issues, Marlon can go absolutely cataclysmically if you are unlucky, and Marshal is just as bad as Normal Mode.

Why White 2 and not Black 2?
- The two games have different layouts in Reversal Mountain, in Black 2 there is an extra mandatory double battle to do. Furthermore, in Black 2, Charles is a Rotation Battle instead of a Triple Battle, which is absolutely horrific for Drilbur.

Why are you resetting?
- Most likely 1 of 3 reasons:
1) I messed up my movement for RNG Manipulation.
2) I died, I hope you understand why this warrants a reset.
3) The run was too bad to bother continuing (i.e., failing to catch Drilbur, Spinners, bad RNG causing me to lose a lot of time).

Why do you pick the girl?
- Gender choice actually makes little to no difference in Gen 5, I just prefer the girls design, so I pick her.

Why do you pick Tepig?
- Tepig is the best Pokémon for the first 3 gyms, after that we swap to Drilbur anyway.

Drilbur??? Mr Strimmer why?
- Yes, Drilbur! Drilbur itself isn't overly impressive, however once you evolve into Excadrill, very little to nothing can match it, Excadrill just owns basically everything in the game, between getting Earthquake at Level 36, its high speed and attack stats, and having access to moves like Iron Head and Swords Dance (SD is good because you don't need X Attacks!).

Not nicknaming Tepig?
- Nope, Tepig isn't used for long enough to warrant nicknaming it, because text speed moves so fast in this game.

What are Tepig and Drilburs stats?
- Tepig is 30/31/30/30(+)/30(-)/31 [Rash]
- Drilbur is 31/31(+)/31/18(-)/31/31 [Adamant]

Why are you moving so strangely?
- If you're referring to the beginning of the game or just before Drilbur, it's for RNG manipulation purposes. If you mean outside of this, I just suck.

Why do you catch Pidove and Psyduck?
- Pidove is used for Fly, Psyduck is used for Strength and Surf. You also need 3 Pokémon in your party for multiple battles in this game (Charles and Drayden's Gym).

Do you Manipulate Pokérus?
- We DO know how to manipulate Pokérus in Gen 5, however it's just too difficult (It's based off of IVrng, which advances on every frame of a battle, and furthermore (especially in Challenge Mode) it doesn't help enough to be worth resetting for.

What is World Record?
- 3:13:30 by scoagogo (me), see: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnbw2#Challenge_Mode

What is your goal?
- 3:12!

What are the grades? (A+/A/B/C)
- These are actually more for the benefit of the viewer, to see how good the segments were in my PB, with A+ being the best, and C being the worst. Shows easily that losing time to an A+ segment isn't that bad, but losing time against a C segment is really bad. It also allows viewers to see where I'm expected to be able to save large amounts of time.