Gold Glitchless FAQ

Q: Why did you reset?
A: One of three reasons:
1. I died. Speaks for itself
2. I failed my manips
3. The run was too bad to continue (assume this if nothing else)

Q: Did you just win the lottery? How did you do that?
A: Rng manip. Basically, I manipped the lottery to always choose the ID 01001, which is the same ID as Kenya (the gift Spearow from the guard).

Q: What is rng manip?
A: By setting the time and options in specific ways, and by moving in specific ways, you can manipulate the RNG to give you favorable outcomes. You can do this because RNG isn't exactly random as making a proper random outcome is unfeasibly hard, so the game uses various algorithms to make it appear random.

It can't exactly explain how I do nor how it works since it's very complicated and too much to explain in one pastebin so if you're curious, you can ask the manip wizards over at the gens 1-3 PSR discord

Q: What do you use rng manip for?
A: Getting good stats on Totodile, winning the master ball from the lottery to catch the red Gyarados (for waterfall and whirlpool) getting no encounters on route 29 and 30, (you don't have repels by then), getting a Sandshrew (for cut), and passing Boarder Douglas in Pryce's gym (he is positioned in a way where you have no idea when to move in order to pass him so passing him is complete luck otherwise,)

Q: Why is Totodile the fastest?
A: It has access to all of the correct moves needed to get past hard early game fights such as Rage for Falkner and Bugsy, Fury Cutter for Rival 2 and Whitney, and Bite for Morty. It has the highest attack of all three starters which makes it the best at using Headbutt and Return, two very good moves obtained early on. It tops that all off with STAB Surf to get past normal resists and Ice Punch to get past grass and dragon types. It also evolves into Feraligatr very early (level 30) which lets us do Chuck early and get fly early.

Q: What else do you catch?
A: I get the gift Spearow named Kenya from the route 35 guard (for fly and it's much faster than catching a pidgey), a cut slave (either Sentret, Bellsprout, or Sandshrew. Not Rattata since it can't learn cut in this gen for whatever reason) and the red Gyarados from the Lake of Rage (for waterfall and whirlpool).

I also get Abra from the Goldenrod Game Corner, as teleport lets us skip route 35 (which has some mandatory trainers) by going back to Violet and taking a faster route to Ekruteak. Teleport also lets us quickly go back to the power plant pokemon center after visiting it once since unlike other pokemon centers, you can't fly there.

Q: I thought you used Raikou?
A: Raikou is only used in Crystal. Unlike in Crystal, you don't need to go to the burned tower in Gold, meaning that you need to take a massive detour in order to get Raikou in Gold. This detour includes an extra rival fight, an additional trainer battle (Firebreather Dick) and Rock Smash. Not to mention that you need to catch Poliwag (since you'll be wasting your master ball on Raikou and Croconaw can't learn Waterfall) which is far slower than catching the red Gyarados. All of this makes Raikou suboptimal in Gold.

Q: What are the fights that are most likely to end the run?
A: Bugsy, Rival 2, Whitney, Chuck, and Red. The fights in the Bugsy split in particular are worth mentioning as many of the trainers have moves that can confuse you and waste a lot of time and hp.

Q: Why not Pokemon Silver?
A: Gold and Silver are virtually the same for this run except for one difference: you can't catch Sandshrew in Silver. This makes Gold overall better, as you get more options for cut slaves.

The real reason, however, is that there aren't actually any manips made for Silver, as all of the manips only work in Gold. It's unlikely that manips for Silver will ever be made, because making manips in gen 2 is immensely difficult.

Q: What is WR?
A: 3:13:41 by WaveWarrior