(Link to video)

Introduction

Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.6.2

  • CGB in GBA mode is enabled for console verification.
  • Also for console verification, the RTC Offset is set to -69, to match Tikevin’s Gold cart.

Game objectives

  • Beat the game without using glitches.
    • “Beating the game” is defined as defeating Red on Mt. Silver.

Categories

  • Very heavy luck manipulation
  • Forgoes <insert glitch type>
  • Uses a game restart sequence

General Strategy

Go read previous submission lol.

Route

Violet Gym

Abe's Spearow hits Totodile with a minimum of 5 damage per attack. In the previous TAS, I did this for 2 of the attacks, but not all 3, as it was easier to manipulate. However, besides the minor timeloss for more HP being lost/sliding down, this will end up dropping Totodile to yellow bar after Falkner. Apparently, being in red/yellow bar entering a battle will cause 5 frames of lag, so maintaining green bar is optimal to avoid this lag.
Falkner’s Pidgeotto minimum damage roll is manipulated this time (the previous TAS has the second minimum damage roll). This keeps Toto shy of being knocked into yellow bar, saving a bit of time.

Violet Pokemon Center

Unlike the last TAS, the egg is NOT deposited immediately. Depositing is delayed for quite a bit.

Rattata

This TAS opts to switch mains right after Falkner, catching a L8 Rattata. The main benefit to this is the much shorter cry length. This Rattata is manipulated to have CBCB DVs, allowing for Hidden Power Ground with the maximum power.
For manipulating this encounter, a bot was used. The code can be found here: https://github.com/CasualPokePlayer/pokemon/blob/gold-tas-rattata/src/searches/GoldRattataTAS.cs
Mud-Slap is taught immediately to Rattata, more required just due to that move being the only way to attack Rival 2's Gastly.

Union Cave

Russell is easily the worst fight in this game, and tradeoffs were done for this fight due to not using a bot to manipulate fights. This is mainly due to Mud-Slap being used, as its accuracy drop has a 1/256 chance to not happen, which is faster due to less text. As a note, if the attack KOs, then the accuracy drop will not apply regardless of the RNG roll.
For the first Geodude, a non-crit is done first, with the accuracy drop manipulated to not happen. Then a crit is manipulated for the KO.
The tradeoff here is a 1/39 non-crit into another 1/39 non-crit would be sufficient to KO the Geodude. However, due to how close the 2 RNG rolls are (with only 1 unrelated RNG call in between) and due to requiring the same value returned for a 1/39 damage roll and 1/256 roll for no accuracy drop, it would require VERY specific RNG with VERY specific rDIV values, and possibly not even worth finding.
For the second Geodude, a crit is done first, with the accuracy drop manipulated to not happen. This is actually much more possible compared to the 1/39 roll into 1/256 roll, since the damage roll happens in between the crit and effect rolls, and the damage roll takes a variable amount of RNG calls (if an RNG call produces an impossible damage roll, RNG is called again). Another crit is done for the KO.
The tradeoff here is a 1/39 non-crit into a 1/39 crit would be sufficient to KO the Geodude. But as discussed before, it's not feasible to look for a 1/39 damage roll into a 1/256 roll for no accuracy drop.
For the third Geodude, Tail Whip is done first, then two 1/39 crits are done to KO the Geodude.
The tradeoff here is very simple. It's done right insane to get a crit 1/39 roll into a 1/256 roll for no accuracy drop. So the accuracy drop is taken anyways.
A detour is taken before Ray is fought, getting the TM for Swift. This TM is quite useful, securing many KOs for the early game and providing a large amount of PP with a short move name for the rest of the game.

Azalea Town

After the Slowpoke Well is taken care of, Hyper Fang is learned. This is a very valuable move, being able to flinch opponents while also being Rattata's strongest move. However, PP must be conserved for this move until the next free heal, so it is only used if it saves a turn or for a useful flinch.

Abra

I got annoyed at how long it took to find an Abra encounter, so I just wrote a bot to find it for me: https://github.com/CasualPokePlayer/pokemon/blob/gold-tas-rattata/src/searches/GoldAbraTAS.cs
Bugsy in particularly shows how useful Hyper Fang is, done in only 5 turns due to Hyper Fang's power.

Whitney

Whitney is another example of Hyper Fang shining. Clefairy is able to be taken out in a single turn, and Miltank can be taken out in 3 turns, with the last turn even quicker due to Quick Attack.

Kimono Girls

This is a rare case where it's faster to cancel evolution for a Pokemon once. Rattata learns a move at level 20, but so does Raticate, and Rattata evolves into Raticate at level 20. This causes 2 level up moves to appear if Rattata evolves at level 20. However, delaying the evolution will skip the latter level up move, and saves time overall.

Hidden Power

Due to Morty's gym being filled with ghosts and Mud-Slap being the only move able to touch them at the moment, I decided to detour out to the Lake of Rage to collect the TM for Hidden Power. This provides a strong move for Ghost type Pokemon, along with Steel type Pokemon, and is used for the entire TAS. Unfortunately, the detour is quite long and requires fighting an optional trainer since I am unable to use Surf without Morty's badge, and eats up a very big chunk of the timesave Rat gets.

Mahogany

After Gyarados is caught, it is immediately deposited into the PC, along with the Egg. This is for preperation of a deathwarp that will be done later. This is also why the Egg was not deposited immediately, as both Gyarados and the Egg can be deposited at once.
The 3 Electrodes are handled quite differently this time. Raticate is swapped to the bottom of the party, then each remaining party member takes a Self-Destruct hit. This is also for preparation for the deathwarp, and overall only has around 5 seconds of timeloss total.
Fun fact, this Electrode deathwarp setup also works on Crystal, and much better there as there is 1 less Pokemon to deal with, so the Gyarados deposit/withdraw doesn't have to be done.

Radio Tower

Right before the Radio Tower is entered, Goldenrod Center is entered. This is to set the death respawn point.
Whirlpool and Waterfall cannot be taught to Gyarados just yet, as it is still in the PC.
A different trainer is fought getting up the Tower instead of one of the scientist.
For the last Rocket before the deathwarp, his Weezing hits Raticate with Sludge, then his last Koffing hits Raticate with Sludge, leaving Raticate at 1 HP, and poisoning Raticate. After it is KO'd, a few steps are taken for the 1 HP to be taken out, and thus the deathwarp is complete. All this setup just to skip 30 seconds of walking and to be able to fight a trainer with less Pokemon.
Gyarados is withdrawn from the PC when the Radio Tower is re-entered.

Dragon's Den

Whirlpool is taught to Totodile in front of the first whirlpool, as to use Whirlpool from the menu to save a bit of time. Waterfall is also taught to Gyarados to save a menu.

Elite 4

The Elite 4 is quite annoying for Raticate and much worse overall. Will's Slowbro can't be taken out in a single hit, Koga's Forretress takes 3 turns to KO, and Bruno's Hitmonchan will always go for Mach Punch.

Kanto

The route for Kanto isn't too different. Erika is moved to be the first gym however, as the exp from her gym helps save a crit on Sabrina and Misty.

slamo: Delaying due to upcoming improvements.
slamo: Updated movie file with an 814-frame improvement. And...judging!
slamo: Nice improvement, the use of Raticate as a main is interesting and surprising. It's not quite top percentage (look forward to many of these jokes in the Youtube comments) but a perfect one isn't necessary and manipulating for Hidden Power Ground seems to pay off. The fact that you are now using cry length as a major optimization is a testament to how many frames are getting squeezed out. The new deathwarp is also really interesting.
Feedback was great as usual. The gameplay is not vastly different from the old run, so a tier change isn't warranted, and it has the same goal as well. Accepting to Moons as an improvement to the previous movie.
Spikestuff: Publishing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7127: CasualPokePlayer's GBC Pokémon: Gold Version in 2:52:21.83
Spikestuff
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Going to wait on the next version of Hawk to come out, but will be claiming this one once accepted.
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Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
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Screenshot suggestion:
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
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Yes vote. However, how was this done on 2.6.2? I can't find it in the release history page; the first one I found is 2.6.1.
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DJ Incendration wrote:
Yes vote. However, how was this done on 2.6.2? I can't find it in the release history page; the first one I found is 2.6.1.
TASVideoAgent wrote:
Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.6.2 dev
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Oh...
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TiKevin83
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Console Verified! Link to video
Acumenium
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Yes. Absolutely yes. I still need to watch the LeafGreen one from earlier this week too. My backlog is looking great!
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Looks great! One small question: Against the Koffing at the end of Slowpoke Well (about 21 minutes in), you've manipped it into using and hitting Poison Gas on you. I know that in other generations, the fastest option is usually for the computer to use a weak damaging move against you. Is that not the case here?
TAS noob. Completed: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen Round 2 In Progress/Backlog: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen Any% Reroute Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen Beat All Trainers The Neverhood Any% NES Monopoly 1 CPU Glitchless
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Games before Gen 3 tend to have slow damaging moves (even early in the game), and text boxes can be cleared much faster too. Oh, and before I forget, I noticed that deathwarping from Radio Tower did make it into this version of the TAS. Prior to that, we weren't so sure whether it was faster.
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UnopenedClosure wrote:
Against the Koffing at the end of Slowpoke Well (about 21 minutes in), you've manipped it into using and hitting Poison Gas on you. I know that in other generations, the fastest option is usually for the computer to use a weak damaging move against you. Is that not the case here?
The shake from damaging moves + HP bar drain is very slow. So slow in fact, it is avoided wherever possible. Moves missing is generally fastest, along with stat up/down moves getting hit (missing those moves causes a long delay which makes missing them not worth it). For Poison Gas, it's an odd case as it's a status move with no animation attached, so it ends up being the fastest for it to hit.
FractalFusion wrote:
Oh, and before I forget, I noticed that deathwarping from Radio Tower did make it into this version of the TAS. Prior to that, we weren't so sure whether it was faster.
Yeah, it accounts for most of the timesave in this TAS. I knew for sure it was faster in Crystal at the very least (the Electrode Self-Destruct thing works much better there), but Gold is just another beast due to just having that extra Pokemon (doesn't help that it's a shiny). It's ultimately very worth it despite the setup. Oh, and this end up being another thing Toto can do and Graveler (probably) can't :P
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CasualPokePlayer wrote:
Oh, and this end up being another thing Toto can do and Graveler (probably) can't :P
Not sure what you mean by this. I thought the main reasons for not using Graveler was that Geodude/Graveler is too slow and needs Quick Claw (which the Toto line doesn't need) and the moveset produces too many super effective / not very effective messages.
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FractalFusion wrote:
CasualPokePlayer wrote:
Oh, and this end up being another thing Toto can do and Graveler (probably) can't :P
Not sure what you mean by this. I thought the main reasons for not using Graveler was that Geodude/Graveler is too slow and needs Quick Claw (which the Toto line doesn't need) and the moveset produces too many super effective / not very effective messages.
I mean Self-Destruct abuse on Graveler is not exactly a great combo, and note that Sludge is a physical move and quad-resisted and needs to drop Graveler to 1 HP + poison (well, suppose higher HPs are possible, but each addition HP is 4 more steps which is 64 frames so around a second per HP). Ultimately, it ends up slower to deathwarp with Graveler (although I suppose it's probably not enough where it's slower outright, so it's more "another thing Toto can do great that Graveler can't" /shrug)
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Requesting delay to implement newly found improvements.
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How major is the improvement?
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slamo wrote:
How major is the improvement?
Not sure exactly. For the total confirmed improvement, it's around 3.5 seconds. There are also further possible improvements I have yet to confirm work (not sure how much yet, need time to confirm).
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So the "confirmed" improvement did not actually save any time, and rather lost ~5 seconds. However, the potential improvements did pan out, saving 14 seconds overall. The main improvement being switching to Rattata for my main Pokemon after Falkner. I'll post an encode and update submission text later. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/72417918038904443
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I guess it wasn't really a "confirmed improvement"... Really though, nice improvement!
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Super excited by the new Rat main movie, it's amazing what main cry lengths can do for gen 2.
Chamale
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This is a major route change, I'm surprised you kept it as the same submission. I suppose it doesn't matter, though. I love the Rattata route. Some of my favourite moments: - Rattata's first attempt to evolve is skipped, to avoid trying to learn a move. - The Hidden Power detour, and despite its length (including the teleport back to Violet) it still saves time. - In between the free Lance heal and the death warp, you become much more aggressive with PP. - When the Poké Flute music plays for several seconds before the Snorlax fight Great run to watch, I love the improvement from cry length. Yes vote.
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Wouldn't you be able to one-shot Umbreon if you fight it after the others?
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ThunderAxe31 wrote:
Wouldn't you be able to one-shot Umbreon if you fight it after the others?
No, from RouteTwo ordering Umbreon last: Hyper Fang 28-33 47.46-55.93% (crit: 48-57 81.36-96.61%)
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Since you are no longer maining Totodile for the entire run, could you save time by manipping for lesser stats?
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UnopenedClosure wrote:
Since you are no longer maining Totodile for the entire run, could you save time by manipping for lesser stats?
I did consider this. However, the manip for perfect stats only has 3 frames of delay, and Special is really the only stat where there is no disadvantage for lower stats, assuming it's kept odd for max HP, but I cannot maintain perfect atk/def/spd at the same time, or even get max HP to begin with.
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Link to video Console verified!