Red responses, part 1

Exarion Oct 19th, 2014 350 Never
  1. *GENERAL*
  2. • I use Excel with formulas I found online. I think most people use RouteOne, though. I can share the Excel spreadsheet with you if you want.
  4. *ROUTE 1*
  5. • With 12 Attack at Lv. 6, I'll fight a Lv. 3 Pidgey on the second trip up to Viridian in the last four grass patches. With 11 Attack, I'll fight a Lv. 3 Pidgey in the last three patches. I'm undecided on fighting Lv. 4 Rattatas on Route 1 at the moment. If I have to kill an encounter on Route 22, I'll go for anything except a Lv. 3-4 Nidoran female, Lv. 5 Spearow or something I want to catch (Nido or Spearow).
  7. *ROUTE 24*
  8. • Because I use Tackle on Lv. 3 Spearows, which results in many more outcomes that affect the DSum (Tackle miss, crit Tackle, Peck, crit Peck, Growl, Growl fail). The Lv. 5 DSum is only for catching Spearow on the first ball. I do plan to make a DSum chart for Lv. 3 Spearows and second- and third-ball Lv. 5 Spearows soon.
  9. • Tackle Lv. 3 Spearows once, and just chuck balls at Lv. 5 Spearows.
  10. • Early = you get a Lv. 4 Rattata, for example, early in the part of the cycle when Lv. 4 Rattatas appear. I am going to remake/reword this chart so it's clearer for everyone (especially me, haha): something like "If you expect a Lv. 4 Nidoran but get a Lv. 4 Rattata, do these steps."
  11. • The second one (14 out) is for very late Lv. 2 Rattatas.
  13. *ROUTE 2*
  14. • If you go too early, you could have to walk out of the grass (a two-step detour) or risk getting an encounter (never worth it with such a high encounter rate). So you enter on the tile where, if you get an encounter immediately, you can walk out of the grass without losing time.
  17. • You need two speedfalls, because Onix has 26 Speed.
  18. • I use an Excel chart. I think other runners use RouteOne. I can send you the chart if you want.
  19. • Not during runs, but I have a lot memorized, and I made a chart with the most common ones for my reference during runs.
  21. *ROUTE 3*
  22. • The extra Attack makes you more likely to 2-shot it if you get a crit. If you don't get a crit, it's better to Leer once because you might be able to finish it with Tackle, which saves a Horn Attack. I use the same threshold for Shorts Guy's Rattata.
  23. • With 0-2 DV Defense, <23 HP. With 3-12 DV, <20 HP. With 13-15 DV, <17 HP.
  25. *Mt. Moon*
  26. • Any Zubat that I can 1-shot (Paras and Geodude don't give enough Speed stat exp. unless on Hiker strats)
  27. • One step is also fine. Three steps and you risk an encounter. Zero steps and it takes longer to open the menu (it's faster to open the menu while moving; hold Start instead of mashing).
  28. • Can't as in no chance without a crit? I haven't calculated that, but probably just Lv. 12 Zubats when Nidoking is Lv. 16 with average to bad Attack. Also high-level Clefairys. Lv. 10-11 Zubats are usually ranges. Any Lv. 10-12 Zubat that lives is dangerous because of Supersonic.
  29. • For the Lv. 10 Paras, I meant 15 DV Attack, which is 40 at Lv. 16 and 45 at Lv. 18. For the Lv. 12 Paras, it should be Tackle with 13-15 DV Attack, which is 44 at Lv. 18. My mistake.
  30. • After the Mankey to reach Lv. 23.
  32. *Nugget Bridge*
  33. • Safe red bar HP = HP at which it's pretty safe (~90% survival) to enter the fight. Very safe would be like 97% or higher. For trainer 3, you're sometimes Lv. 19, sometimes Lv. 20. For trainer 5, you're sometimes Lv. 20, sometimes Lv. 23. Safe and very safe depend on the damage you expect to take in the fight, which depends on your Defense DV.
  34. • Good point about Poison Sting. I just calculated some damage ranges, and it looks like Poison Sting is preferred to Tackle when catching Oddish (because Tackle crit is very bad). So if you need to catch Oddish, delete Tackle if you have it; if not, delete Leer. Leer is also useful for Surge's Voltorb if you need to wait for Sonicboom to get into red bar (standard strat with bad Attack, backup strat with 9+ DV Attack).
  35. • You could do that, but pressing up to use Thrash each time is only two frames or so, which is like 0.5-0.6 seconds in the run. It works out slightly better in the end to not switch (saves ~0.5 sec) and have Horn Drill in slot 1.
  37. *Route 25*
  38. • This strat is pretty complex because it depends on so many things. Basically, you want Elixer in slot 4 for the second half of the run, and to do this, you need to get the Route 25 Elixer and then remove exactly one item above it. If you used the Antidote against Weedle, the Antidote is that item. So you can't sell TM34 -- which is necessary to buy X items -- until you've swapped it below the Elixer. You can swap it below the Elixer if it's in slot 2 (Bike menu in Cerulean), but not slot 3. So if it's in slot 3, just abandon the Route 25 Elixer strat and get the Ether. If you didn't use the Antidote against Weedle, you can get the Route 25 Elixer and just sell TM34 from slot 2-3.
  40. *Route 6*
  41. • Because I was Tackling Oddish, and since Water Gun was taught over Tackle, I wanted a move that can damage Oddish more. Poison Sting looks to be a better option, though. I try to delay Bubblebeam until I'm already in a menu (usually Potioning before SS Anne Rival) to save ~1.5 seconds.
  43. *S.S. Anne*
  44. • Yes. And safe is basically YOLO, haha. You want to go with very safe unless your time sucks or you're low on Potions.
  46. *Vermilion City*
  47. • This is a very complex area right now. I'm shopping after because I want an extra item above Super Potions (HM01) so that Super Potions are in slot 7 for the Koga split (slot 8 with Route 25 Elixer strats). Then I swap Rare Candies, X Speed and X Special to slots 4-6 or 5-7. I don't want to swap my Super Potions down, because I often use one immediately after using X Special on Silph Rival. I also use them on the Elite Four. But swapping Rare Candies up isn't optimal in some cases, and those cases involve just about every variable in the run (your time, your items, Nido's DVs). If out of Potions, you could opt to not sell TM34 (assuming you still have the Antidote) and buy 1 fewer X Acc. Or you could sell it, in which case the Elixer menu wouldn't work optimally (you'd have Elixer in slot 3 and X Accs in slot 4) and you'd need to not swap Rare Candies up (so that Super Potions wouldn't get swapped). You'd get TM32 to fill your inventory before Koga so that you don't get TM06 from him.
  48. • Yes, that's the first thing I do in the Cut menu if I haven't yet taught Bubblebeam.
  49. • Lead with Bubblebeam if you can survive a Sonicboom + a non-crit Quick Attack. The Sonicboom will put you into red bar, which you want. If you can't survive this, you want to avoid giving Voltorb a turn, so Thrash it unless your Attack sucks. Thrash is a 74 percent 1-shot on 15 DV Attack (49% on 9 DV). This can backfire if you miss the range and/or don't 4-turn on Raichu, but you can always switch out to Squirtle or your flier, which will die immediately to Thundershock/bolt. This risk is better than healing before the fight, IMO, because it can make the fight go really fast, and Sonicboom red bar is really unreliable (Surge can X Speed on Voltorb so it's faster, and then if you wait for Sonicboom, he could kill you with a second one).
  51. *Cerulean City*
  52. • You want Thunderbolt in slot 3 because it's the least-used move in your final moveset, and Horn Attack can't be in slot 3 because that wastes a bunch of time from Route 3 to Nugget Bridge. Also, Horn Attack is faster to use than Thrash on turn 4 if you get a 3-turn Thrash on Route 9.
  54. *Route 9*
  55. • If I can survive a hit in confusion at 3+ HP, I'll stay in for a turn. Bellsprout's only threat to kill is Wrap, which does 2 damage per turn. Otherwise, I'll switch out if I have something alive. The list depends mostly on the length of the Pokemon's cry and whether that Pokemon will level up after splitting the experience with Nidoking. The level-up wastes 2.2 seconds. Lv. 3 fliers are preferred because they'll actually die to Wrap, so you don't have to split experience and risk Sleep Powder or Wrap upon switching back to Nidoking.
  56. • Bubblebeam if Special DV is 8-15 at Lv. 28 (5-15 at Lv. 29). Caterpie is a range at lower DVs. Saves one frame of text, and another ~0.15 seconds if you Gen 1 miss.  :)
  58. *Rock Tunnel*
  59. • PP Up strats are getting the hidden PP Up on Cycling Road and using it on Horn Drill in the Safari Zone. This takes a few extra seconds, but it allows you to use more Horn Drills to avoid EQ damage ranges and help manage EQ PP. The damage ranges -- Arcanine, Black Belt's Machokes, and Jynx -- are present with 0-10 DV Attack. EQ PP becomes a problem when you have to EQ Erika's Pokemon because of bad Special. You also need more Drills if you're skipping the Rare Candies in the mansion.
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