HG/SS Battle Factory Doubles FAQ

      Gen 4 Battle Factory Doubles FAQ

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat the Battle Factory without manip, going for the fastest time for Silver and/or Gold Print.

Q: Why Doubles at the moment?
A: This Gold print time is simply my weakest across the Battle Factory categories. I currently hold all 16/16 Factory manipless records across Emerald and HG/SS, so just improving the ones where there's lots of improvements to be had.

I'm aware you can't get the prints in Doubles, but there's still a category for it as if you could.

Q: Are the Pokemon that appear and the sets they have the same in Double as in Singles?
A: Exactly the same.

Q: Do the battles work the same apart from being Doubles?
A: Well Thorton doesn't appear on fight 21 and 49, which means crucially on fight 21 they do not have "Good AI"

I'm only just started doing Doubles, but I think from my short experience that the AI for the early sets might be slightly different too. In the general game, AI in Doubles is quite different when "bad AI" is applied (like in D/P), but it's certainly not "Good AI" either. Might be something in between, I'm not sure atm but we'll find out more the more runs I do!

It seems like a lot of the time they will exhibit "kill AI", that is use a move if it will kill, but if they don't have that, do random moves. The other priority that seems to exist is a huge weighting towards weather moves, Pokemon with Rain Dance etc love to spam it.

Q: What is your strategy regarding swaps?
A: Swapping isn't as advantageous in L100 as it is in L50.
This is because for every 7 swaps you do, you get a Pokemon from the above set in the first choice of 6 Pokemon to choose from. But the difference between set above Pokemon in L50 is much greater than in L100, so in L50 it's worth doing a swap in all battles of the first set to get a "set above" Pokemon in each of the next drafts, but it's not worth swapping "for the sake of it" in L100.

However, in Doubles, it's worth swapping just for better matchups. So in the first 2 sets where I'm given information on my opponent, I will swap somewhat often if it gives me a better matchup against their Pokemon. Then if say I swap in the first 5 battles, I might end up swapping in battle 6 and 7 "for the sake of it"

Otherwise, I then only swap if it actually helps me win.

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

Q: What is WR?
A: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgssext?h=Battle_Factory-Open_Level-Gold-double-ENG-DS3DS&x=jdrlv9xd-rn10g6o8.p12exkd1-gnxv33pl.klrwy5w1-2lge1x68.qj7d6r7q-onv473wn.81p92zkq-jlzx35x8.lr3e360l (See: Splits)

Q: Is there any difference between Platinum and HG/SS Factory?
A: Yes! There are very slight changes to the teams Thorton will use. But in terms of speedrunning, the most relevant thing is that Platinum does not disable entry animations of Pokemon, so HG/SS is way way faster.

Q: Is Gen 4 Factory easier or harder than Gen 3?
A: Much harder to get Gold, but easier to get Silver. You get given way more information about teams you fight in the early rounds making them easier to manage, but this goes away in the later rounds. And in Gen 3, your draft Pokemon get much stronger than the opponents you fight. This doesn't happen in Gen 4, so it's comparatively harder.
The 7th battle of each set is also much more difficult in Gen 4, as you fight Pokemon from the "set" above, which makes them more difficult fights in general (especially fight 7 and 21)

Q: What are the IVs and EVs of each Pokemon?
A: The EVs are built for each set - most Pokemon have 252 in 2 different stats (some do have 168 each in 3 different stats).
The IVs start at all 0s, and then increase by 4 for each set. The IVs are tied to the 'set' the Pokemon is from, not the set you are doing. So for example in the second set (Battles 8-14), you'll fight trainers with Pokemon from 'set 1' (i.e. Burmy) and 'set 2' (i.e. Hitmonlee). The trainer with Burmy will have all 0 IVs since it's from set 1. The trainer with Hitmonlee will have all 4 IVs since it's from set 2.
Trainer 14 will have Pokemon from 'set 3', and have all 8 IVs.

Q: What does the number Thorton says before he fights you mean?
A: Absolutely nothing. It is just a random number that is chosen (game runs a mod100 check), it has zero bearing or basis on the fights, or the teams.

Q: How does the AI work?
A: The AI gets progressively 'better' as the sets go.
Set 1-2 has Random AI (Uses random moves. Switches are not random, however.)
Set 3-4 has Semi-Random AI (Will not use a move that does nothing, but otherwise choses random moves)
Set 5 onwards, and fight 21 with Thorton has Good AI (Tries to use best move in all scenarios. Some weighting is still weird, though.)

NOTE: The AI in Doubles is slightly different to Singles, it appears to be slightly 'smarter' in the earlier sets, i.e. seems more inclined to choose the 'right' move than it being totally random. However it's still not as smart as perfectly 'Good' AI, and still does have a chance in certain situations to do things that are useless.

Q: What power does Return / Frustration have?
A: Always max, no matter which, so 102.

Q: What is with those split icons? What does A and B mean?
A: This is a grading system for all of my splits. I'm sure you are familiar with grades, A+ being the best then going down from there. So the idea is, if the split has an A+ next to it, my time there was really good and would be very difficult to beat. If it's a C though for example, it was quite poor, and I should be able to save time there pretty easily.

This way, everyone watching has more accurate information on where I can save time, and where I should be making up time. Also that all time loss is not equal, as losing time vs an A+ split isn't really that bad, whereas losing time vs a C split is really bad. It'll probably take a while for a lot of people watching to pick up the meaning so I will appreciate everyone who explains how this works (correctly) in chat to new people.