Yellow Speedrun Techniques, Information and You!

Yellow Speedrun Techniques, Information and You!

Mashing with A and B: (Source: https://pastebin.com/TEwsP7xx)
Pokemon Yellow has single input lag, which prevents the game from distinguishing very fast single button mashing with holding that button. This means that clearing text boxes would be slower than optimal if you were only mashing with 1 button and didn't memorize every text box clear timing. For example let's say you hit A 1 frame before you could clear the text box, that means you would have to wait a few frames before you can actually clear it with A losing you a few frames. The way around this is mashing by alternating both A and B.

Character Naming:
Naming some characters save time throughout the run because the name is displayed so much. Those characters are:
- Your Character (Needs to be 1 character for moon manip and saves time on other short name tricks throughout the run ie getting cut)
- Your Rival
- Nidoran Male
Notable HM slaves are not worth naming.

Turn Frames:
There is an extra lag when turning the first time in a room, but these 'turn frames' can be avoided by menuing before turning. So if you have a menu, try to do it before turning. (WR already does this so just copy WR menu locations)

Talking to Trainers:
Talking to Trainers is faster that letting them see you, even if you need to take 3 steps out of the way. This prevents the '!' from appearing above their heads.

Fast Poof:
There is a delay when deleting a move (1, 2, DELAY, Poof) but you can shorten the delay section. The easiest way to do this is just keep holding A after you select the move to delete.

Movement Buffering:
While moving you can buffer an input to occur on the first frame of your next tile. Since the game can't open the menu or talk to characters while you are in between tiles, the game will buffer inputs until after the character's movement is complete. This will save a few frames when you want to talk to a character and is required for the Menu Flashes in Moon Manip. Notably you can buffer movement after battles as well.

Swapping Moves:
Swapping move order is faster since you want commonly used moves at the top of the fight menu. In the Blizzard route there are 4 Move Swaps.
- Swap Leer with HA on Lightyear guy's Sandshrew (After you leer x2)
- Swap HA with trash on Bridge Fight 4 Turn 1
- Swap BB with DK on Boat Rival's Eevee
- Swap Trash with BB on the Gambler after Rock Tunnel

Ranges:
In Pokemon Yellow there is a number roll, 1 (85% of max roll) - 39 (100% the max roll), that will add variance to the damage. We call it a range when this roll will decide if the defending pokemon will live. This range excludes crit chance unless specified.

Blizzard Route (Ranges included): https://www.dropbox.com/s/2alksdsn9we5dl5/Pokemon_Yellow_Route_-_Low_Exp.docx?dl=0
Damage Calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nSi-qRfWOY4nqe4r9GaRkJM2L23gxiwTsmDJWoXPgak/edit#gid=2031281680

Jingle Buffering:
In Pokemon Yellow you can buffer an input when a jingle is being played. The best example, and possible most useful, is holding a button during the 'Level Up' jingle. This will clear the 'Stats' pop up since it's cleared before it ever appears.

Fight Buffering:
In Pokemon Yellow you can buffer inputs in multiple situations, and this section will cover each of those methods. NOTE: This overall doesn't save time since all these buffers can be timed. In short, if you find timing double A's to open the fight menu and select the move easier than buffering the fight menu open just time the A presses. You won't lose time if you time it properly vs buffering.

-Pokemon Cries: You can buffer A during a Pokemon's cry to open the Fight menu frame perfectly.
-HP Dropping: You can buffer A when an HP bar is dropping to open the Fight menu frame perfectly.
-Text Boxes: You can clear text boxes like speed falls with B then press A to open the Fight menu frame perfectly. (Note: this is 100% faster than just mashing A because of consecutive input lag)
-Fast Text Scroll: Moves with scrolling text can be speed up by holding B. Example: Screech
-Fast Run: You can buffer the Down + Right to 'RUN' during a Pokemon's cry.

Fast Scrolling/Yolo Scrolling: (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H37fMoK1bo&list=UU2BX5JgTuHBF1xyn9fPfzJA)
-You can avoid a pause in menu scrolling by timing the down properly after an action is taken in the ITEM menu such as swapping an item or even just opening the ITEM menu.

Fast Fly:
You can fly faster to a town by holding down when you select the move Fly from pidgey (avoiding a pause before the cursor goes fast from town to town). So if Pidgey is in slot 2, you hold Down to move the cursor to pidgey (Keep holding down) and you press a x2 to select pidgey and fly the cursor will move fast without pausing.

Reapplying:
There are multiple times of Reapplying in Pokemon Yellow some of which are very easy and others that are very hard. The basic idea of reapplying is exploiting the game into pressing the same button multiple times avoiding Consecutive Input Lag. You can press A + B very quickly to make the game press A twice even though you pressed two completely different buttons.
-Fast Bike: When getting on the bike (slot 1) you can do it frame perfectly by pressing A + B to open the item menu and select the Bike.
-Fast Shopping: You can reapply a B to close the buying menu when you clear the last text box for buying. Example: Buying Pokeballs: Press B + a direction when clearing the last text box after you buy the pokeballs.
-Double Input: You can reapply directions allowing you to move 2 slots down or up very quickly in ITEM menus. Example: Fast X ACC: After you open the item menu to go to X ACC press Down + Right to move the cursor down twice.
-Triple Input: This is Double input extended by pressing START after the first direction. Example: Teaching Dig: After you open the item menu to go down to TM 28 press Down + Start + Right to move 3 slots down.
-Fast Menu Close: If you hold B during a heal, you can reapply a B with a direction to close the item menu during a screen transition and close the main menu with start to save time due to Consecutive Input Lag. Example healing a pokemon with a potion: Hold B when the poke's HP is going up to buffer the healed textbox, and on the White Screen after healing reapply the B with a direction, then you time pressing START to close the main menu.