[pkmngoldsilver] Any% NSC Beginner Guide

BEFORE READING (15.08.2021)

The following is an in-depth guide for Pokémon Gold in the category "Any% No Save Corruption". This used to be the route for Any% back in the day, however new glitches were discovered that allows us to beat Pokémon Gold in about 13 minutes, which is now the Any% route. As the new Any% route uses save corruption is not very fun to do, the category "Any% No Save Corruption" was created.

I completely rewrote this guide so that it is hopefully much easier to read and understand. Let me know if there are any uncertanties or if anything is unclear.

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Hi everyone, I'm Kylovic and this is a beginner guide for Pokémon Gold Any% No Save Corruption aimed at beginners looking into starting with the category. This guide explains all the things you need to know in order to complete a run.

Note: please inform me about any mistakes you may find in this guide. You can message me over at Twitter (@Kylovic), or send me a PM on Twitch (twitch.tv/kylovic).

Note 2: for all movement, make sure to watch any of the top runs on speedrun.com to observe all the movement. It's not all too hard but writing down every nuance on movement would add a ton to this doc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Intro
- New Bark Town
- The way to Mr. Pokémon and back to New Bark Town
- The way to Violet City
- Violet City
- Falkner's Gym
- Route 32
- Union Cave and outside Union Cave
- Azalea Town
- Slowpoke Well
- Azalea gym
- Rival 2
- Ilex Forest
- Goldenrod City
- Goldenrod Pokémon Center
- Final Words


----Before the run---
Before starting any speed run of this game, clear any save file present (makes saving during the run faster) and set your options accordingly:
 - Text Speed: Fast
 - Battle Animation: Off
 - Battle Style: Set
 - Menu Account: Off
 - And you can pick a frame you like.


----INTRO----

In the intro, set the time to night 3:00 (7 down inputs), and give yourself a one character name(e.g I, A etc.)

Go down the stairs. During the talk with mom, make sure to answer the following:
 - Confirm the correct time with A
 - Day: Sunday (this is the default option, just press A)
 - DST: press B to delcine DST (saves 3 frames)
 - Confirm that you know how to use the phone with A



----New Bark Town----

Head for the lab. Talk to Elm and he'll let you choose your starter. Choose Totodile.

A quick section on Totodile's stats:
Technically, this speedrun can be completed with any kind of Totodile. Even with the worst stattet Totodile you can finish the run no problem, albeit with timeloss here and there. You can just take any Totodile you want to and run with it or you can check it's stats here and reset if you feel uncomfortable with bad Totodiles.
The best stats you can get at level 5 are 13 ATK, 12 DEF, 10 SP.ATK, 11 Sp.DEF and 10 SPD. The worst stats are 11 ATK, 11 DEF, 9 SP.ATK, 9 SP.DEF and 9 SPD.
Contrary to popular belief, the offensive stats are much less important than the defensive stats. Good defense helps in a lot of fights, good speed allows you to outspeed many Pokés. Good attack helps in a few spots but not nearly as much. Both special stats are also connected to one DV, so good SP.ATK equals good SP.DEF.
Choose your Totodiles at your own pace. Your choice. Might require a few completed runs to figure out what you need/like. I usually take any Totodile nowadays.

Whether you checked your stats or not, make sure you take off the held item (berry). I cannot stress this enough, make sure you take the berry.



----The way to Mr. Pokémon, back to New Bark Town----

Now head to Cherrygrove and up to Mr. Pokémon. Run from every encounter you see. I would say 4 encounters is average, the maximum i had was 8.
For a strat later on in the run you want at least 13 bonus experience from wild encounters. Luckily, any wild encounter will do. On your way up, make sure to kill either a level 2 or 3 Pidgey, level 2 or 3 Sentret or level 3 Caterpie. Never fight any level 4 Pokémon or Metapods. If you get no encounters or only encounters you don't want to fight don't worry. There will be chances for you to get experience later on.

The first time you reach Cherrygrove city, enter the mart.
* Cherrygrove mart
	Buy:
		-Potion x4 (first item)

Simply continue up to Mr. Pokémon after and mash through the long cutscene. After leaving the house you'll get another phone call which just equals more mashing.
On the way back to Cherrygrove make sure you take the left path (not through the grass) and pick up the Route 30 berry (the bush next to the lone house). Back in Cherrygrove prepare for the first rival fight.

* Rival 1:
	- Chikorita: Leer, Scratch x4-6
The AI in this game likes to use status moves more on the first turn, so expect a growl from Chikorita. Sometimes you can get through without any growls which is awesome and fast. Sometimes you get growled multiple times and it's awfully slow. You can die to this fight but it's highly unlikely. Yourn best trategy is just to Leer, then Scratch and pray.

After the rival fight head back to Elm's lab, going over the ledges to avoid the grass.
Back in the lab, name the rival a one character Name. Afterwards talk to Elm above. Mash through Elm's speech and leave. You'll get free Pokéballs here.


----The way to Violet City----

Now head back to Cherrygrove and north.
If you have't killed any encounter for experience yet you can do so now. The encounter you want and don't want to kill stay the same. Instead of heading to Mr. Pokémon, go left to the first trainer battle. You can dodge the first one by going around him through the grass. Fight the second Youngster (above the ledge).

* Youngster Mikey:
 	- Pidgey: Scratch x2
 	- Ratatta: Scratch x3
This fight is very straight forward. Not that much to say besides spam Scratch and win. During this fight you will reach level 7 which comes with the move rage. Rage will be your best friend throughout this run. The move gets stronger when you use it in succession and get hit throughout.

After defeating Mikey, head up making sure to walk to the right of the girl. Then walk all the way to the left of the grass to get one dodge of the upcoming spinner.

An introduction to spinners.
Spinners are present in almost every Pokémon game (except Red). These spinners can be dodged by walking past them without getting looked at. In this run you will have to pass a total of 5 spinners, some of them twice for a total of 6 passes. You will see many Gold runners pause in front of the spinners while they look away. This creates a tiny bit of unpause lag which you can use in your favor. I won't go into great detail on this but you should stick to pausing right after they turn away, then unpause and try to dodge them. Hitting the spinners will just cost you time.

One tile before Bug Catcher Don (the tile you want to pause on), menu.
* Menu
	- Potion Totodile
	- Equip a berry to Totodile
	- Call mom via the PokéGear. Once she asks about saving money, answer no (very important!)

* Spinner 1 - Bug Catcher Don:
	- Caterpie: Rage x3-4
	- Caterpie: Rage x2-3
If you do get hit by Don simple use your new acquired Rage move to take him down. The number of rages required depends on how many string shots you get from the Caterpies.

Head up to Violet City. If you encounter any Bellsprout here, make note of it. You will need a Bellsprout Pokédex entry for later, do not catch it though. You will come by a berry tree which holds a bitter berry. Make sure to grab it before heading to Violet.



----Violet City----

Head straight to the gym (why did I make this a seperate chapter again?)



----Falkner's Gym----

The first trainer in Falkner's Gym is one of the most dangerous in the entire run especially if you have bad defense. Consider saving here if you don't want to lose the run.

* Bird Keeper Abe:
	- Spearow: Rage x4
This is the first fight where you will notice the power of rage. Without rage in fact, this fight would be more than hopeless. Spearow hurts. With good defense he will deal 6 damage per peck, increased to 8 on bad defense. The berry helps in surviving and is needed to durviva on bad defense. Any crit will likely cost you a death here.

After the fight, menu.
* Menu
	- Potion Totodile
	- Equip the bitter berry to Totodile

* Bird Keeper Rod:
	- Pidgey: Rage x3
	- Pidgey: Rage x2
More rage spam. The first Pidgey outspeeds you on bad speed and deals 5 damage with bad defense. This is one of those fights that justifies good defense and speed over good attack. If you always potion before this fight you should get through but be prepared to get bodied from Pidgey one with bad stats. The second Pidgey is much less of a problem.

Head on to face Falkner himself. You have to make a call on healing again here. For beginners, I would say that you should heal on anything below 22 HP which spares you even after a critical. At the very least you'll need 19 HP to survive without any criticals.

* Leader Falkner:
	- Pidgey: Rage x3
	- Pidgeotto: Rage x2

This fight is actually the most straight forward in this entire gym. Even with bad stats the 5 rages should always work out. Pidgey does 3 with Tackle, Pidgeotto does 6 with Gust. 2 Tackles and 2 Gusts hit for 18 without criticals.

After defeating Falkner mash through the text and leave the gym. Outside, you will receive a phone call. Mash through, then head to the Pokécenter. Heal your party and talk to the assistant afterwards (just face right). Receive the egg and exit the center. Head for Route 32.



----Route 32----

First up, pick up the przcureberry from the bush you walk by.
Route 32 is one of the main places in this run where the action happens. A few things need to be done here which you cannot leave without.
If you have not encountered a Bellsprout on Route 31 earlier you need to encounter one here. You also need to catch a Wooper. Wooper is the sole reason why you want to set the time to night at the start of the run as Wooper only shows up during night time. As soon as you encounter one anywhere on the Route, Scratch him once and start chucking balls. If he escapes from 3 of your 5 balls, weaken more and chuck again. You need to catch a Wooper no matter what so running out of balls is run over (or you run back to Violet and buy some more I suppose). Wooper is a 30% encounter here, Bellsprout 20%. Hopefully this doesn't take you all too long.
Again, If you see a Bellsprout, just run. You only need the Pokédex entry!

* Youngster Albert:
	- Ratatta: Scratch x2
	- Zubat: Scratch x3
This is the first of many fights where you can lose your bitter berry. Ideally you don't but if you do just shrug it off. Not much else that can go wrong here.

After Albert, had down and then head right through the grass. Pick up the hidden super potion here: http://i.imgur.com/PFjMkNy.jpg. If you still need either Wooper or Bellsprout, continue walking through this patch of grass back and forth until you got everything you need. Then head down and fight the bottommost trainer.

* Fisherman Ralph:
	- Goldeen: Leer, Scratch x3-4
This fight is the reason why you want 13 extra experience. This fight is technically optional, but after this and the bonus experience you will reach level 13 and learn Water Gun early which speeds up the upcoming section a bunch. Another supersonic target here so this fight is another lose your bitter berry fight. This can go either super well or really bad. Potion during the fight if you get abysmal luck with confusion and tail whips.

After defeating both trainers, grabbing the super, catching Wooper and encountering Bellsprout, Route 32 is finally over. Walk down, declining the nutritious slowpoketail. Head into Union Cave.



----Union Cave and outside union Cave----

Simply make your way down Union Cave, fighting the trainers and dodging the spinners as you go.

* Spinner 2 - Hiker Daniel:
	- Onix: Water Gun
This is probably the fastest spinner to hit as Onix dies in just one Water Gun. You can be the least sad about running into this guy for sure, if you do.

* Hiker Russel:
	- Geodude: Water Gun
	- Geodude: Water Gun
	- Geodude: Water Gun
This fight is why we get Water Gun early. Otherwise you would need to spam rage maybe 8 or 9 times which takes more time than fighting Ralph.

* Spinner 3 - Firebreather Bill
  -Koffing: Water Gun x2
  -Koffing: Water Gun x2
Each Koffing does 2-3 damage with tackle. This is the only spinner in the run that you need to dodge twice, once above and once to the left. Double the chance to get hit, double the salt if you do.

After fighting or dodging Bill, make sure you pick up the item lying around to the left (x attack). Keep it for later.

* Firebreather Ray:
	- Vulpix: Water Gun, Scratch
Water Gun first. In case it crits, Vulpix dies. If not, use Scratch after to avoid a second super effective text. Quick attack on turn two is annoying but by far the worst thing for you is getting burned by ember. If you do get burned, you need to pick up an extra item later.

Leave Union Cave and had left to Azalea Town.

* Spinner 4 - Hiker Anthony:
  -Geodude: Water Gun x1
  -Machop: Water Gun x2-3
This fight is notoriously difficult in Crystal but not too hard here. Machop hits like a truck with low kick, especially on low defense. Make sure to heal during the fight if you feel threatened by Machop.



----Azalea Town----

If you got burned by Vulpix in Union Cave, go behind the well and grab the hidden full heal which is hidden inside the back wall. Afterwards, head straight for the mart.
* Azalea mart
	Buy:
		- Super potion x3 (buy 4 if you have left over money at the end of the shop)
		- Escape Rope x1
		- Repel x3
		- Antidote x3
		- Paralyze heal x1

Leave the Mart. Now head to Kurt's house, mash through the cutscene, and head to the Slowpoke Well.



----Slowpoke Well----

Before fighting the first Rocket, you want to use either a regular potion (if you still have one) or a super potion and use the full heal if you did get burned and grabbed it. Throughout the well, the encounter rate is exeptionally low. If you do get an encounter (or two), you can rightfully complain.

* Rocket #1:
	- Ratatta: Scratch x2
	- Ratatta: Scratch x2
This guy usually sets up some tail whips and then spams attacks. Quick attack from this guy sucks and can cost you a ton of hp if you get unlucky. By healing before this fight however you really shouldn't die at all.

If you are somewhat low (maybe below 15 HP?) heal up before the second Rocket.

* Rocket #2:
	- Zubat: Water Gun x2
	- Ekans: Water Gun x3
Hey, another supersonic user. Not having the bitter berry will usually be felt throughout the well. You might not hit all ranges with utterly bad special. Heal during the fight if you feel like you might die.

You can pick up the super potion left of the Rocket here. If you already used at least one I would really recommend picking it up. Once again, if you are somewhat low on HP heal before this Rocket.

* Rocket #3:
	- Ratatta: Water Gun, Rage
	- Zubat #1: Water Gun x2
	- Zubat #2: Water Gun x2
Two more Zubats equals two more potential supersonic users. You can get quite bodied here on unlucky runs. Much like before, heal at any point if you feel like you'll run low on HP.

Heal before the final Rocket if you have less than 21 HP.

* Rocket #4:
	- Koffing: Water Gun x3-4
All of his attacks do 5 damage. A lot of his attacks can also miss. With average luck, some attacks miss and you'll only take some damage but it doesn't really matter. Heal during the fight after some crits or if you run low on HP.

After the final rocket you'll get into another cutscene and get teleported to Kurt's house. Luckily though, you will get a free heal here which is nice. Head straight to the gym.



----Azalea Gym----

The first two trainers in here can be talked to from either the right or the left. Whichever trainer you talk to first changes the first Pokémon they send out. You want to make sure to talk to the right one first.

* Twins Amy & May:
	- Ledyba: Scratch x2
	- Spinnerak: Water Gun x2
Ledyba is the penultimate Poké to confuse you but you should be fine here even with confusion.

After the twins, head to the left and fight the upcoming bug catcher.

* Bug Catcher Josh:
	- Paras: Leer, Scratch x3-4
This guy has both stun spore and poisonpowder. Do NOT heal any paralysis or poison during the fight as he might just use it again afterwards. Just sit through everything and wait for after the fight to heal.

Just like with the first spinner Don, pause one tile in front of Benny to menu.
* Menu:
	- Super potion Totodile
	- Heal either posion or paralysis from the previous fight (if any)

* Spinner 5 - Bug Catcher Benny
	- Weedle: Water Gun
	- Kakuna: Water Gun, Rage
	- Beedril: Rage
This is definitely the most annoying spinner to hit. If you get lucky, Beedril will use fury attack which fuels your rage. If not, expect this fight to take a while.

Head straight to Bugsy.

* Leader Bugsy:
	- Metapod: x Attack, Start Rage
	- Kakuna: Rage
	- Scyther: Rage
Use the x attack here that you got earlier in Union Cave (you picked it up didn't you?). Then spam Rage. There really isn't a whole lot that can go wrong, other than some crits from Scyther.

After evolving and receiving the TM for fury cutter (very important!), leave the gym and walk to the tile in front of the rival 2 fight trigger.



----Rival 2----

* Menu:
	- Equip the przcureberry to Croconaw
	- Super potion Croconaw
	- Use a repel
	- Teach fury cutter to Croconaw over scratch (slot 1)
	- Save

Now take a step left into the rival fight trigger.

* Rival 2:
	- Gastly: Water Gun x2
	- Bayleef: Fury Cutter x3
	- Zubat: Water Gun x3
This is the worst and hardest fight in the game. Period.
Gastly can lead with hypnosis which just wastes time, lick which can paralyze (this is why you get the berry) and spite which is by far the best move as water gun PP doesn't matter in the slightest.
Bayleef is the big offender. You want it to use either reflect or poisonpowder turn 1. Razor leaf can crit which guarantees a death. You can also sometimes miss the range for 3 fury cutters to kill which also means you won't make it. Finally, fury cutter can also miss (95% accuracy).
Zubat is the least annoying, although it has supersonic. If you get through Bayleef at all, you don't care about the Zubat in the slightest. If you have any healing items left, feel free to use any here if you feel like Zubat might kill you (Bite will do about 5).

If you do manage to beat rival 2, congratulations! Most runs are sure to die here.

Now head to Ilex Forest!



----Ilex Forest----

After beating the rival you can relax for a bit before the final part of the game. This part is all about optimizing movement and not wasting tiles, repels are fairly well timed so missteps will cost you tiles where you could risk encounters.

For the first part, stick to this gif for the side quest: http://i.imgur.com/KNg3HEh.gif. After you return the Farfetch'd your repel wears off on the tile in front of the guy. Get cut first by risking the one encounter you could get while turning and talk to the guy.
After you got the HM for cut, menu.
* Menu:
	- Teach HM01 cut to Croconaw over Fury Cutter (slot 1)
	- Repel

Afterwards go north, cutting the bush in your way. From here on out you only have one repel left so just use it right after the second one wears out (right after exiting Ilex Forest). For the correct movement out of Ilex Forst and to Goldenrod, consult any video like I mentioned at the start. You can and want to dodge all trainers here.
In the hallway at the end of Ilex Forest, talk to the lady with the Beautifly to get the TM for sweet scent. This is very important as you need sweet scent to finish the run. After getting the TM, leave and head for Goldenrod.



----Goldenrod City----

Goldenrod will be the final area in your speedrun. Once we leave Goldenrod the run ends, so get ready for some setup. The first stop in Goldenrod will be the department store. Head up to the second floor where you can buy battle items. At this point, you want to buy a number of x specials depending on the level of your croconaw.
	- Croconaw level 19: sell the mud slap TM, then buy 16 x specials
	- Croconaw level 20: don't sell mud slap, buy 13 x specials (if you somehow don't have enough money sell mud slap anyways)

If you are unsure of your level you can go ahead and check. After you bought the correct number of x specials, leave the store and head for the gatehouse at the far end of Goldenrod. Inside of the gatehouse you want to talk to the guard who offers you a Spearow with mail to deliver to a friend of his. Accept the offer and get Kenya (although we won't be delivering any mail sadly). With the x items and Kenya in the bad, exit the guardhouse and enter the underground through the top left entrance.

* Pokémaniac Donald:
	- Slowpoke: x special x13/x16, Water Gun
	- Slowpoke: Water Gun
So, this it it. The final fight of the run. The entire purpose here is to use all of your x items that you just bought. Don't worry, this is not done to just increase your special stat but has other reasons I'll get to in a second. The Slowpoke uses either growl which is fine or tackle which does like 2 damage. If you exit rival 2 with low health you might have to heal here to get all your x items off. Make sure that you used all of the x speicials before killing both Slowpokes.

After Donald is defeated, head down and stop just before the second trainer. Grab the item to the right (coin case). After grabbing it, use your escape rope and exit the underground.
Head back into the department store now and climb up all the way to the fifth floor. Talk to the lady and you should get the TM for return (TM27). If she does not give you TM27 here you used the wrong amount of x items. Let me explain:
You only get TM27 here if your first party Pokémon (Croconaw) has enough happiness. Happiness is generated through two ways here: levelling and usage of x items. Each level grants 3 points of happiness, each x item grants 1. This is the reason why you need 2 less x speicals if you are level 20 instead of 19. The total x items then increases by 1 because you pick up the x attack in Union Cave. If you missed the x attack there or forgot to use it during the Bugsy fight, you also won't be awarded the TM. In any case, not getting the TM means you have to buy more x items, go into a wild battle, use them there and head back to get return after.

After getting return, exit the department store and head to the center.



----Goldenrod Pokémon Center----

Goldenrod center is where the magic happens. Everything done so far is fairly similar to the glitchless run (minus the return stuff), so everything you do from now on counts towards beating the game quickly. When you start out learning the category, take your time. Go though this stuff multiple times until you feel comfortable with the setup.

The first thing to do is to set up the box names. What you are doing here is basically writing game code which will be executed by the upcoming glitch. To do this, enter Bill's PC and click change box. From there you can name the individual boxes.

BOX 2:	A A A p é D 9 5
BOX 3:	'v , 'v é é 7 2 'l
BOX 4:	'v ♂ é , 2 p
BOX 5:	é ♂ 2 'v 9 é 2 2
BOX 6:	'v 8 é é 4 'v 't 'l
BOX 7:	'v é é é 4 p 'l é
BOX 8:	4 é d 2 'd

For all lower case letters with the apostrophe, those can be found after pressing select in the lower portion of the characters. There are also 2 male symbols wich can be found in there. Again, if you're just starting out with this run, take your time here. Double check that everything is correct. Any single mistake here can cost you your run, as the glitch will only work if every character is correct.
If you are satisfied with your boxes, exit the PC. Now, the setup begins.

Go one tile down and 3 tiles to the left, so that you are just below the fake pc tile that is on the table.
* Menu:
	- Teach TM27 return to Wooper.
	- Give TM12 sweet scent to Wooper as a held item (don't teach the move).
	- Open your party, switch Wooper with Kenya so that Wooper is in the 4th position and Kenya is in 3rd.
	- Select Wooper, use the 'move' option and swap Wooper's return with water gun so that return is Wooper's first move.
	- Optional: save. This glitch is not 100% to work even if you did everything right. Saving is recommended.

Close the menu, then walk exactly one step down and four steps right. If you mess this up, walk back to the original position, then  open and close the menu to reset it and try again.

Open the menu on your new position. Open the Pokédex, then scroll down 8 times by pressing right on the d pad until you reach Bellsprout's Pokédex entry (you should get there after exactly 8 right inputs). Open it (the cry will play) then close the Pokédex. All you need here is to play Bellsprouts cry, nothing more. Scroll down to items, change pockets to key items then use the Coin Case (you need to change pockets at least once here even if you're already on key items. This basically just means that if you open the pack and you are inside the key items pocket, select a different pocket once and reselect the key items instead of using the coin case right away).

If you got everything right and got a "good" Kenya*, the game won't crash and the character will become invisible instead. Close the menus (being careful not to use the Coin Case again) and walk all the way to the left and down into the stairs. Immediately walk back down again to appear in Mt. Silver. Red will be invisible here but is still there. Walk up three tiles and right until you bonk into Red, then talk to him to end the run. Red will be invisible but his model is still there so you can't walk past him. Timing ends when the screen flashes black after the instantly-over battle. Enjoy your credits.

Troubleshooting.
Like I mentioned earlier, even if your setup is correct the glitch is not always going to work. After using the coin case, instead of turning invisible the game might straight up crash or hardlock itself with a change in color palette. If this happens and you saved, there is still something you can do. What this glitch is all about is that the Pokémon in slot 3 of your party (usually Kenya) needs a specific range of DVs in oder for the glitch to work. If it doesn't the game crashes. If the game did indeed crash, just repeat the setup again but change out the Pokémon in slot 3. Instead of Kenya you can try either the egg or Croconaw. The only thing you need to have in Wooper in fourth.

You might find yourself in a situation where you tried Kenya, egg and Croconaw in third and the glitch didn't work all three times. At this point you might want to double check your boxes to make sure you didn't overlook a mistake. However, it is possible (<1% chance) that neither of the three Pokémon has acceptable DVs. If you made sure that your boxes are correct, your party setup is correct, Wooper's move setup is correct and your movement is correct, you are one unlucky fella. In this case you would need to catch a new Pokémon on the route below, put that in third and try again. However, this scenario is so incredibly rare, don't start to worry about it too much.



----Final Words----

Thanks for reading my guide! This speedrun is my speedrun life's work and I'm glad to be able to share it with others. If you still have any remaining questions, suggestions or want to get in touch, use the socials that I mentioned at the start. Don't be hesitant to contact me at all, I usually reply pretty fast to all messages.

Once you are comfortable with this route you can go ahead and start learning the faster route with Trainer ID manipulation. You can find that one here: https://pastebin.com/cUY5WUgq.

Have fun speedrunning!