Pokemon Soul Silver Chikorita+ FAQ

      Pokemon Soul Silver Chikorita+ FAQ

Q: What does Chikorita+ mean?
A: It means I'm going to pick Chikorita, and use it (along with it's evolutions) to beat the whole game. In other words, an alternate Pokemon run using Chikorita!
The + in Chikorita+ is to differentiate it from a potential alt run with *just* Chikorita, 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: 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? What's your estimate?
A: A good deathless run is around 4 hours - perhaps a touch higher, perhaps a touch under.

Q: Isn't Chikorita absolute shit? How is this going to work.
A: It's really not as bad as you might think. The early game is a bit dicey, but it goes alright. And the late game is fine, in fact it's one of the better Pokemon to beat Red, given it resists Pikachu.

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: By far the worst is Bugsy. Falkner and Morty are also reasonably tricky, as are Blue and Rival 3. Red is always hard no matter who you use.

Q: Do you manipulate the Chikorita? If so, what are it's stats?
A: Yes. It's IVs are 23 HP, 30 Att, 24 Def, 31 SP Att, 22 Sp Def, 30 Speed with a Rash nature. It's also Female, and given these IVs it has a Hidden Power of Rock with 67 Power.

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, Chikorita's starting 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 64011. 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 the girl faces Down, then turn Right, Down, and then Left, I got it
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 Chikorita, Pokerus off the first Rival battle, and no encounters to Falkner except for Sentret.

Q: Why did you just talk to your Chikorita?
A: Because it advances the RNG! This is used at the start of the run to skip over patterns that would have encounters, but also to make the RNG advance by decently significant amounts to accelerate getting Pokerus, otherwise I would have to run around a lot more in the grass, which would be slower.

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 Heart Gold?
A: Heart Gold and Soul Silver are the same for one key difference, the legendary Pokemon you must visit. Visiting Ho-Oh and Lugia take almost the exact same amount of time (Lugia is faster by like ~2 seconds assuming you have good movement), but there's also a Rare Candy in the Whirl Islands that is currently a part of the route, making it a clear choice.

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

Q: Why do you name yourself and Chikorita '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 catch Sentret (for CSurf/Whirlpool), and Lugia (for Waterfall, also helps for Double). I also obtain 2 others, Kenya (Fly) from the guard, and Shuckie (Strength)

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

Q: What is your goal time?
A: To get a decently clean run. Probably around the 4:00 mark, not necessary sub 4, but around there.

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.