Pokemon Crystal Clear FAQ

Pokemon Crystal Clear FAQ

Q: What game is this?
A: It's a romhack based on Pokemon Crystal. The main feature allows the player to start in either Johto or Kanto, then earn the 16 Johto/Kanto badges in any order, with gym trainer/leader levels scaled based on how many badges you have. For example, if you face Falkner first, he'll have two Pokemon -- a Lv. 7 Pidgey and a Lv. 9 Pidgeotto -- but if you face him last, he'll have six Pokemon, including a Lv. 75 Zapdos. Forced story elements such as Team Rocket and rival battles have been removed, and HMs are not required to reach the gyms, the Elite Four or Mt. Silver. Read more here: https://shockslayer.com/

Q: What are you trying to do?
A: Beat the 16 leaders, the Elite Four and Red as fast as possible. There are no other restrictions.

Q: Can't you fight the Elite Four and Red after 8 badges? Doesn't that count as beating the game?
A: Yes, but the whole point of the romhack is to customize the order in which you win the 16 badges. So stopping after 8 badges would defeat the purpose of playing the game.

Q: What are you playing on?
A: GambatteSpeedrun, an accurate emulator for Gen 1-2 Pokemon games.

Q: What is the world record?
A: 1:49:55 by me. This is the only completed run.

Q: What is your goal?
A: Sub-1:40 would be nice, maybe even sub-1:35.

Q: Why start in Johto?
A: The free Spearow in the Route 35 gatehouse comes with Fly, which is OP because nearly every Fly point in both regions is unlocked from the start. You can reach Route 35 fastest if you start in New Bark Town.

Q: Why choose the girl?
A: Red's team differs based on your starting region and gender. If you start in Johto with the girl, he leads a Ditto that uses Transform, allowing you a free turn of setup.

Q: What Pokemon do you use?
A: Chikorita (starts with Cut, allowing you to skip a trainer on the way to Route 35), Sentret (Surf slave), Spearow (Fly slave) and Ursaring (fastest Pokemon to beat the gyms/E4/Red).

Q: Why Ursaring?
A: You have access to the highest-level Pokemon in the game from the beginning, and Ursaring is the best species among them because of its high Attack, powerful STAB moves and coverage. You just Fly to Mt. Silver and enter the cave, where L44 Ursarings have a 30% encounter rate.

Q: How do you catch Ursaring? Doesn't it just kill you before you have a chance to weaken it?
A: You just chuck Friend Balls and hope for the best. Each ball has an 8% chance of catching it. You save before getting any encounter in Mt. Silver, so if you die to Ursaring or another encounter, you can reset and continue searching. If the search takes too long, it's early enough in the run that resetting isn't too costly.

Q: Why Friend Balls?
A: Catching a Pokemon in a Friend Ball sets its happiness to 200, which gives the Normal-type move Return a power of 80. Its happiness increases as you battle, eventually reaching 255 (Return power 102). STAB Return on Ursaring is quite powerful.

Q: What route are you using for the gyms?
A: https://pastebin.com/F7Wtiy2b (see "ROUGH ROUTE" at the top)

Q: Is there any RNG manipulation in this run?
A: No. I'm sure it's possible, but I don't know how.