Pokemon Emerald manipless FAQ

Pokemon Emerald any% glitchless (manipless) FAQ

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat Pokemon Emerald as fast as possible without using glitches or RNG manipulation.

Q: What is the world record?
A: To my knowledge, 2:39:20 by Craftedite. See the unofficial leaderboards here: https://pastebin.com/nGdqepMW

Q: What is your goal?
A: To first beat my PB from 8 years ago (before manip was discovered), then beat the world record.

Q: What Pokemon do you use?
A: Mudkip as the main battler and HM user, Swablu for Fly, Castform for a few double battles, and Rayquaza for the Elite Four.

Q: Why those Pokemon?
A: Mudkip has a quick first gym and evolves into Marshtomp, whose Ground typing allows it to dominate the third gym. The rest of the battles are all reasonably fast -- no major walls. Castform is a gift Pokemon that you're required to get, and it comes at a high enough level to save some time on double battles. Rayquaza has a huge stat and level advantage on the Elite Four, which makes it worth the 2.5-minute detour to Sky Pillar.

Q: What is different about manipless?
A: The main difference is that Mudkip's stats are random. You reset about 90% of Mudkips because its stats aren't high enough to complete the route quickly. Among the Mudkips you accept, there is still major variance in all stats. For example, good Attack and great Attack perform much differently in Norman's gym, and average Speed forces you to adapt against several Pokemon that you no longer outspeed. These stat-based variations force runners to have more knowledge and preparation entering the run.

You also cannot consistently catch Abra without being allowed to manip, so this run uses the 2016 Abraless route that deathwarps to Dewford Town after getting poisoned on Flannery. While this route is fun to see, it loses about a minute to extra overworld movement.

Finally, manipless uses a different mid- to late-game route for Swampert, teaching it Ice Beam and picking up two additional Rare Candies. Having Ice Beam and extra experience saves about a minute in Winona's gym, 45 seconds on Tate & Liza, and 45 seconds elsewhere -- at a cost of about 130 seconds in extra movement. This is a considerably safer route than the old one, especially for Swamperts with average Sp. Atk and/or Speed. I came up with this route recently, and it may be faster for glitchless as well.

Q: Why is there no leaderboard for manipless?
A: Most likely because every time someone asks about manipless in the PSR Discord, they are met with a response along the lines of "It's too hard; you should just run manip instead."

Q: Why did you stop playing Kaizo?
A: I needed a break, and the Emerald rules likely need revising. I've enjoyed routing speedruns a lot more than Kaizo lately.