Pokemon Stadium 2 GLC Round 1 FAQ

Pokemon Stadium 2 GLC FAQ:

Q: Are there any new strats in this since you last run it?
A: There are. With the team manip understood now, there's been some rejigging of the teams to get better manip from opponents. Not a *huge* amount of fights have been improved though, a lot of the manual testing just found the best options. Improved fights in this regard are: Rocket Exec (specifically the final Rocket), Brock, Jasmine, Janine, Nick, Chuck, Whitney, and Bugsy. A few other fights have had their team changed to accommodate these and are therefore slightly different, but largely the same (Falkner, Red)

Q: How does team manip work?
A: GMS cracked it early this year (2022) and wrote up a great piece on it, along with a super easy to use tool that you can play around with to see how it works: https://genericmadscientist.github.io/posts/ps2-ai-teams
The tool: https://genericmadscientist.github.io/AI-Team-Manipulator

Q: Why are you using <pokemon>? Why not <other pokemon>?
A: Because the restrictions in running this game involve only using rental Pokemon (as otherwise it would be incredibly easy and not at all challenging) Generally speaking, worse stat Pokemon have better moves, it's about finding the right combinations. So in a lot of cases you will see me use for example, Kadabra (Has Psychic/Thunder Punch), but never Alakazam (Has Psybeam/Theif)

Q: What is this category?
A: This is the Gym Leader Castle, specifically Round 1. So basically beat everyone in there. They can be done in any order (so long as Red is last), so I start with some of the better fights to get out of the way early. (GLC R1 stands for Gym Leader Castle, Round 1)

Q: Why is the order scrambled like that?
A: It's allowed because doing it from a fresh file would be really annoying to reset the save data for (given you'd have to remake the teams every reset as well), so it's stupid to not allow play on a completed save. And since that's allowed, no reason to restrict order either. Red still must be done last because timing ends during the cutscene after his battle (would be slower to not do him last because of that anyway).

I fight Misty and Brock first because fast fights on them saves a bunch of time, but relies on them picking teams that you can kill quickly, and resetting for a specific team is not something you want to do during the run. Afterwards, I head off to the more difficult fights (Blue, E4, rest of Kanto, then backwards through Johto so that Falkner is second last before Red)

Note: Sometimes I end up doing E4 last, because I get sick of resetting at the E4 all the time. So to just have more fun and play more of the game, shuffle them to the end. It's also a bit faster menu wise to do it this way.

Misty is done before Brock because I use 11 teams (you can only register 10), but the team used against Misty is only used against her, but the one against Brock is also used vs Jasmine, meaning I don't have to make another team during the run doing Misty first.

Q: Why does that gym leader have a Pokemon that isn't of their type??
A: Because if every leader had only their type, all these fights would be easy. It's not like in the games where you only have a small team, since you have access to every Pokemon, they need coverage in order to be a challenge at all.

Q: What is the record?
A: http://www.speedrun.com/pkmnstadium2

Q: So what's your goal?
A: Any PB is an improvement I'd be happy with.

Q: What does "Round 2" or "Round 1" mean in this game?
A: This game repeats itself over, after you beat Round 1 of the game you unlock Round 2. Round 2 gives the opponent different pokes, with different moves, and better stats. It is in general, much much harder.

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.