Platinum Any% FAQ

Q: What is this category?
A: Platinum Any% is a category where you try and get to the hall of fame as soon as possible. Unlike any% glitchless, however, glitches are allowed.

Q: What glitches will you be using?
A: I only use one and it's called tweaking. The game is loaded by 32x32 tile grids and I use the bike to quickly move over the load lines where these grids intersect. Since the game can't handle loading multiple grids in a short amount of time, this causes the game to load certain parts of the map incorrectly. This lets us access places we're not supposed to and thus, allows us to skip portions of the game, such as the entire Distortion World, various cutscenes, and various trainers. This also lets us catch pokemon before we're usually supposed to be able to, such as a level 40 Golduck after Gardenia and a level 50 Tentacruel before Wake.

Q: I thought you could skip to the end of the game after Jupiter?
A: That's only in Diamond and Pearl using the void glitch. The void glitch was fixed in Platinum, making it impossible.

Q: Why are you resetting the date and time?
A: I'm doing a trick called RNG Manipulation (or Manip for short).

Q: What is RNG Manipulation?
A: By setting the DS at a certain time and date, and by moving in specific ways, you can manipulate the RNG to give you favorable outcomes. You can do this because RNG isn't truely random as true randomness on a console like DS would be way too slow and resource consuming, so the game uses various algorithms to make it appear random.

Q: What do you use rng manipulation for?
A: Getting good stats on Chimchar, Golduck and Tentacruel, getting no encounters until after Oreburgh mine (other than an Starly, which we catch), and getting pokerus off the second rival fight on route 203.

I also use rng manipulation to catch Golduck and Tentacruel since both have pretty low catch rates (33% and 27% respectively) and weakening them is ineffective due to being underleveled. Battle rng for the entire battle is decided as soon as the battle starts and are based on the amount of frames that have gone by since the game bootup. However, it's difficult to consistently hit the same battle rng seed every time because battle rng *also* advances with lag frames, which are totally uncontrollable. Thus, I aim for a cluster of seeds that result in a catch.

I also try and manip the battle rng for the first rival battle. Usually, the rival spams Growl, which makes the fight slow, but with battle manip, I can manipulate the rival to use Pound at least once to save one or more turns. It's difficult to guarantee success with this strategy, especially as the manipulation starts at around 5 minutes into the run but I still go for it, as there's nothing to really lose.

Q: Why do you pick Chimchar?
A: Short answer: it's the fastest.
Long answer: The starter only needs to be used until after the first Jupiter fight, and Chimchar does that portion of the game the fastest. While it does the Roark section the slowest of the three starters, both Piplup and Turtwig do horribly against Gardenia, while Chimchar breezes past her, so Chimchar ends up being the fastest. After Golduck is caught, Monferno gets used as an HM slave, as it learns all of Cut, Rock Smash, and Strength

Q: Why do you use Fly over Teleport? Is it faster?
A: It's.... a bit complicated. Teleport is faster by about 25 seconds *if* you catch Abra in one ball. However, the chance of catching Abra in one ball is relatively low (27%) and if it takes 3 balls to get (which is approximately what you would normally get), it's slower. Starly, on the other hand, is essentially guaranteed to get caught in one ball, making it much more consistent. You also need to pass less spinners with the fly route and hit less Hydro Pumps. I overall went with the fly route as it's more consistent although teleport is faster top end.

Q: Tentacruel?
A: Yes. Turns out, by tweaking into places you're not supposed to go, you can catch overleveled pokemon before you're supposed to be able to get them! By tweaking into route 222 (the route left of Sunnyshore) and tweaking into the water before you have surf, you can rng manip a lvl 50 Tentacruel, which, at the time when you catch it, is a far higher level than the trainers you fight. Tentacruel is also a solid speedrun poke, STAB Surf + Specs is an excellent attacking combo in Platinum, it's high speed means that it never needs X Speeds, and it has solid coverage options for water resists such as Poison Jab and Wring Out. Its special attack isn't the greatest but it gets the job done.

Q: Golduck? What happened to the double Tentacruel route?
A: Using a lvl 40 Golduck caught by tweaking into the water in route 205 (west of Eterna City) was found to be faster than using the lvl 40 Tentacruel. The main reason why is that it's faster to get Golduck than Tentacruel. The route Golduck is found on is just left of Eterna City while the route Tentacruel is found on is south of Sandgem Town, which is a far bigger detour. It does the rival 3 fight far slower than Tentacruel due to its lack of a secondary STAB move to hit Roselia and Prinplup with but it still ends up being faster to not detour for Tentacruel.

Q: What are the hardest fights in this run?
A: The worst is definitely Bug Catcher Jack and Lass Briana, a double battle in Eterna Forest. Briana has a Pachirisu who is a 3HKO and can paralyze you, and Jack has a Beautify which does a lot of damage with Gust and doesn't get OHKOed unless you are lvl 19 or in Blaze. It doesn't help that the partner Chansey is rarely ever helpful making it almost a 2v1.

Q: What are the hardest tweaks in this run?
A: The answer may vary depending on who you ask although most people will say the tweak above Solaceon Town, as that tweak is done in a  void, making it difficult to see where and when your character needs to move.

Q: What do the grades next to the splits mean?
A: How good the split was in my PB. An A split, for example, means the split was very good and would be difficult to save time in while a C split means the split was very bad and it would be very easy to save time in said split. It basically indicates the splits where I am most likely to save time.

Q: Why do you pick the girl?
A: 1. She's cute 2. It's faster (see: https://youtu.be/G9pD4oLiFyo)

Q: Why did you reset?
A: Couple of reasons:
-I died. Speaks for itself
-I didn't hit the correct trainer ID (17996)
-I lost manip by doing incorrect movement
-The run was too bad to continue (assume this if nothing else)

Q: What are the IVs of Chimchar, Golduck and Tentacruel?
A: Chimchar: 26/31(+)/21/29/24(-)/29 [Naughty]
Golduck: 28/23/9(-)/30(+)/2/27 [Mild]
Tentacruel: 9/30/21(-)/30(+)/23/25 [Mild]
Tentacruel is manipped to hold a poison barb upon encounter (raises the power of poison type moves by 20%), and has Clear Body to avoid Intimidate and Psychic special defense drops from Cynthia's Spiritomb.

Q: What is WR?
A: 2:38:47 by Werster.