Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow is a turn-based move game where stats (Level, HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special), types, and type class (physical, special) are important. Red and Blue are clones of each other except for wild Pokémon differences, which are few and far between. Yellow differs from Red and Blue in the following ways:
Pokémon Yellow models the anime show up to starting Pokémon, gym leader Pokémon, and special Rocket battles.
Although Red/Blue is inherently a "hard" Pokémon game to run and Yellow even more so, a single glitch (or two) instantly destroys the difficulty of this game. It's almost like link-trade, but without the unruly Pokémon issue! So the run is really about avoiding critical hits and super effective/not very effective messages (SE/NVE messages) except for the first few and last few battles.
Though there is little luck manipulation, it still exists, mainly in the form of controlling critical hits (either getting them or avoiding them when necessary). Luck manipulation affects damage variation, critical hits, wild Pokémon DVs and out-of-battle wild Pokémon encounters.
A quick review of move and damage mechanics:
Each Pokémon can only possess 4 moves. New moves must replace old ones.
Each move has a limited number of PP. If PP runs out, it can't be used until PP is restored. Each use of a move costs 1 PP. Thrash is slightly different (see below).
An attack has damage variation ranging from 217/255 times max damage to max damage (in other words, R/255 times max damage, where R is a random number between 217 and 255). Since the game uses integer division, max damage occurs rarely (only if R is 255).
Any move that is the same type as a Pokémon's type gets a 1.5x bonus.
Type matchups:
super effective = 2x damage
not very effective = 0.5x damage5
can't hit = 0 damage
If defending Pokémon has two types, match up each one separately and multiply together. Critical hit is slightly less than 2x (it's not a multiplier) if stats are not modified. If stats are modified, the modifications are ignored in a critical hit, always.
Physical-typed moves use Attack/Defense stats. Special-typed moves use one Special stat for both Special Attack and Special Defense.
Physical types: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost.
Special types: Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon.
Type Chart: fixme
Damage formula: { [ ( 0.4 * L + 2 ) * A * P / ( 50 * D ) ] + 2 } * X
where L is Level, A is Attack/SpAtk, P is attack power, D is Defense/SpDef, and X is a combination of all relevant multipliers. In a critical hit, L is doubled. All division and fractional multiplication operate on integers (hence, truncation). The multipliers in X operate one-by-one on the number inside the brackets, not themselves first.
Note about weapon delays:
There are basically two types of weapon delay: short delay, and long delay.
- Short-delay attacks: Poison Sting, Bubble, Bubblebeam, Ember, Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, etc.
- Thrash is a special short-delay multiple-turn attack that has a long first-move delay.
- Long-delay attacks: Tackle, Scratch, Water Gun, Mega Punch, Strength, Surf, etc.
On L100 Nidoking, I use short-delay attacks whenever possible. Short-delay attacks are about 50 frames faster than long-delay attacks, and the first move of Thrash is about 70 frames longer. The guideline I use is to use Thrash over 2 Pokémon if it saves 2 SE/NVE messages, and over 3 or 4 Pokémon if it saves 1 or more SE/NVE messages.
Note that SE/NVE messages occur even if the type matchups cancel (one is SE and the other is NVE). This is only true in RBY, not in later-generation games.
Here is a review of the moves used:
Thundershock is one of Pikachu's first moves. 40 power, Electric type. Can cause paralysis.
Growl is another of Pikachu's first moves. Non-damaging move. Can lower opponent's Attack stat modifier. Used only with trainer-fly glitch to glitch a L1 Nidoking.
Poison Sting is one of Nidoking's first moves. 15 power, Poison type. It is a short-delay attack, unlike Tackle and Horn Attack, and that makes all the difference. Unfortunately, Poison moves create a lot of SE/NVE messages.
Thrash is one of Nidoking's first moves. 90 power, Normal type, attacks 3 or 4 times and user is confused at the end. It is a short-delay attack with a long first-move delay. Although the menu is skipped during the multiple attacks, the first-move delay unfortunately makes Thrash less useful than it should be, but it is still useful nonetheless, especially since it rarely creates SE/NVE messages, and an entire set of attacks counts just 1 PP.
Bubblebeam is Nidoking's third useful move. 60 power, Water type, 30% chance to drop opponent's Speed. Another short-delay attack, and useful to avoid SE/NVE messages which Poison Sting can't avoid.
Strength is Nidoking's fourth useful move. 80 power, Normal type. A long-delay attack which only comes into play near the end of the game as a last-resort power move when Bubblebeam fails and Thrash is inconvenient.
Surf is Nidoking's fifth useful move. 95 power, Water type. Same role as Strength.
There are other moves but I don't use them.