Pokemon Crystal FAQ (Jan. 2018)

Pokemon Crystal FAQ (Entei route)

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Crystal as quickly as possible without using glitches.

Q: What are you playing on?
A: A GameCube using a GameBoy Player.

Q: What is the world record?
A: 3:13:35 by wsopboy91.

Q: Wsopboy's run was done on emulator. Aren't emulated runs disqualified from WR contention?
A: Officially, yes, but nearly everyone in the Pokemon community disregards this rule because Gen 1-2 emulation is accurate at the moment. The "emulators can't WR" rule was made in response to cheated runs (cheating is much easier on emulator), but we have no reason to believe Wsopboy's run was cheated.

Q: What is your goal?
A: Just world record. If I get it, I'll have all the Gen 1-3 glitchless records, which has been a goal of mine since 2014. :)

Q: Why choose the girl?
A: Her sprite in battle saves about 1 second throughout the run. Also see this: https://www.twitch.tv/werster/v/38667384 (you can just watch the first 3 minutes)

Q: What Pokemon do you use?
A: Totodile (fastest starter for the early game), Poliwag (Whirlpool and Waterfall slave), Spearow (Fly slave) and Entei (fastest Pokemon to beat the game from Ecruteak City onward). If I don't catch a Poliwag, I'll teach Whirlpool to Croconaw and pick up the free Dratini from Dragon's Den for Waterfall.

Q: Why Entei?
A: Entei saves 2+ minutes over Totodile if you encounter it quickly (see the final question). Most of that time comes from its huge level advantage at the start (L40 vs. L21). Here's a detailed breakdown: https://pastebin.com/w1HVcuPs

Q: Why not Raikou?
A: Raikou's only good move until Lv. 61 is Spark, as it doesn't have high enough Attack to make good use of physical moves like Strength and Iron Tail. Raikou could be faster if we manipped one with a high Hidden Power Ice, but we don't have the knowledge to do that yet.

Q: How do you get the Master Ball every time?
A: By manipulating the lottery ID to be 01001, which matches the TID of the Spearow you receive for free on Route 35. The LID is set when you select NEW GAME, and it will always be the same as long as you execute the same inputs from a hard reset to NEW GAME. Inputs in the intro sequence have large buffer windows, so this execution is trivial. Conveniently, the LID stays the same until you clear all save data, so you don't have to do the manip before every reset.

Q: How do you get the Entei to appear?
A: The game almost always starts from the same RNG seed when you hard reset after a save. You can buffer every input from reset to file select, except one timed input, allowing you to load your game within a 1-7 frame window (depends on how good you are at hitting the timed input). If you hit a 3-frame window with the timed input, Entei will move to Route 38 when you enter it. Then it has roughly an 82% chance of appearing in one Repel if you have the Radio Card tuned to the Pokemon March, which doubles the encounter rate. So if you can hit the 3-frame window 50% of the time, you'll have a 41% chance of encountering Entei per try.

If I encounter an Entei with bad stats, it's not enough to force a reset unless the run was already bad. Traditionally, Pokemon runners reset for good stats not because of potential time save, but because some fights are nearly unwinnable if a certain stat is too low. Entei's huge level advantage allows it to win every fight with basically no risk, except in cases of calculated risk (e.g., skip using an X Accuracy because it saves a turn) or extremely bad luck (getting crit after missing Iron Tail). The best stats save about 2 minutes over the worst, but there is much more variance in other forms of RNG (mainly encounters and spinners).