Pokemon Heart Gold Caterpie+ FAQ

      Pokemon Heart Gold Caterpie+ FAQ

Q: What does Caterpie+ mean?
A: It means I'm going to catch a Caterpie, and use it (along with it's evolutions) to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Caterpie!
The + in Caterpie+ is to differentiate it from a potential alt run with *just* Caterpie, where you would never evolve it

Q: Is this run Glitchless or not?
A: Yes, it is glitchless. Alt poke runs are glitchless unless explicitly said otherwise.

Q: Where will you catch Caterpie?
A: On Route 31, just before entering Violet City

Q: So is this faster than using Raikou?
A: No, the entire point of an alt Pokemon run is that it is not the fastest way to beat the game. Otherwise it would just be...the fastest way, and it'd be the main category.

Q: So how much slower is this going to be?
A: A fair bit. Should get under 4:30, and the Glitchless run with Raikou sits at 3:34.

Q: How good is Caterpie?
A: Not very good!

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: Pretty much every Gym Leader is pretty tough. Even the Kanto ones. It's hard to say who the hardest is specifically because so many fights can go differently, but the ones that stand out are: Falkner, Bugsy, Pryce, Kimono Girls, and Lance.

Q: Do you manipulate the Caterpie? If so, what are it's stats?
A: Yes. It's IVs are 19 HP, 28 Att, 21 Def, 30 Sp Att, 18 Sp Def, 27 Speed with a Rash nature. It's sadly a Male (would prefer Female to avoid Attract), but given these IVs it has a Hidden Power of Ground with 66 Power.

Q: Why do you pick Totodile as the starter?
A: The main reason is so the Rival has Chikorita, which is the best matchup for Butterfree. Totodile also gets the Water HMs, and Cut too.

Q: What are the moves you use in the run?
A: Tackle, Confusion, (sometimes Poison Powder), Sleep Powder, Gust, Silver Wind, Psybeam, Hidden Power (Ground 66), Bug Buzz, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Substitute.

Q: What are the rules for alt main pokes?
A: You can find the rules across the series here: https://pastebin.com/uTqgXp6m

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Q: What are you playing on, it is emulator?
A: No, I'm playing on a DS (phat) with a capture board installed allowing me to record game footage

Q: Why do you keep resetting and changing the time?
A: I need to use a specific time in order to use RNG manipulation, so I set the clock in such a way that I can use it.
 The timer counts down to when I need to reset for the correct second.

Q: What is RNG?
A: Random Number Generator, the thing that determines everything random within the game, such as stats, encounters and pokerus.

Q: What is RNG Manipulation?
A: RNG manipulation is used in this speedrun, which involves resetting on a specific second starting from a specific time, and hitting the correct frame for the correct seed after resetting. This allows for manipulating of the wild encounters, Caterpie's stats, and Pokerus.

Q: What causes the resets?
A: I missed initial starting seed. There are 2 ways to check whether I hit the correct seed:
1) I check my Trainer ID. The one I am aiming for is 42647. I know if I get this ID, I hit the right starting seed, as that is generated at the same time. This is what I used to do, as it is the first thing you can do to check.
2) I can also check the movement of the NPCs in New Bark Town. Because their movement is derived from the RNG, I can tell I hit it based on their movements.
If not I didn't hit the right seed, so I reset. The RNG for the seed advances every frame, so it is a frame perfect trick

Q: Why is your movement so strange at the start of the run?
A: Because you can't get the best possible results off the bat. The movement that I do is designed specifically to manipulate the RNG (from NPCs movement around me, and the like) so that I get my great Caterpie, Pokerus off Elder Li in Sprout Tower, and no unwanted encounters to Falkner (ideally all the way to Goldenrod).

Q: Why did you just talk to your Butterfree?
A: Because it advances the RNG! This is used to advance the RNG right before Li to skip an encounter and get Pokerus.

Q: So why don't you just manipulate everything in the game?
A: There are multiple RNGs at play, and not all of them can be controlled the same way. Battle RNG for example, advances just about every frame, including lag frames, making it totally unpredictable.

Q: Why not Soul Silver?
A: Caterpie is only in Heart Gold, would be a Weedle in Soul Silver.

Q: Why do you play as the girl?
A: The counterpart does the catching tutorial, and the male does it faster, so it’s faster to choose the female for yourself
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI1-PJ7Sy1w

Q: Why do you name yourself and Caterpie 'I'?
A: Because it's faster to name them one character for text purposes, and the letter 'I' gives a nice spin as if the game was self-narrating

Q: Do you catch anything else?
A: I do obtain other Pokes. Those are: Abra (Teleport), Ekans (Strength/Intimidate), Kenya (Fly), and Snorlax (Rock Climb)

Q: What is WR?
A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmngen4ext#Alt_Main_Pokes_HeartGoldSoulSilver | See: Splits

Q: What is your goal time?
A: Under 4:25 for now, maybe under 4:20.

Q: Do you plan to do other Alt Pokemon runs?
A: Yeah, in the future. I've already done a few of these in other games, which you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKdCHbtiZdhA63-FROqfqamattnoWR0xd

I've got quite a few more on my list to do in the future (mostly across Gen 4/5). I definitely don't need suggestions on more - I've thought about and considered everything you can imagine. It's hard to find the right mix of something you get early enough in the game that is actually still interesting to use. But I've certainly got some more planned, it just takes a long time to route the whole game with something else.