Part 32: Speed Run Strats - King of the Nido
Crosspeice posted:
And of course, there's a hideout beneath it, we'll invade it on Monday.
And while we're waiting for that, here, have a speed run!
Set the options to this before we get started! We're gonna use only one pokemon for the majority of it, so Shift ain't needed, and animations waste time!
Hey Professor Oak, stop wasting my time!
What?! I gotta name em? Uh...
Sure, why not, saves time on textboxes.
Get the Potion! Well, actually, don't if you're going for World Record, but we're using safe strats here.
Don't name Pikachu, we don't use him often enough.
SPAM THUNDERSHOCK!! If Pikachu dies, the battle is faster, but future battles are slower due to Vaporeon over Flareon, so TRY TO WIN!!
Do zah stuff!!
BUY zah stuff!!
Don't forget this!
GIVE ME THAT NIDOMALE!!!
Ok, so being serious for a minute, Nidoran M is by far the best choice for a Pokemon Yellow speed run, and actually a bit better than even Squirtle in Pokemon Red. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is it's early availability, it's early evolutions, and it's ability to easily defeat Brock with some backup from Potions. But in addition to that, it also has an ENORMOUS movepool, so can learn just about every useful technique you could possibly teach it, including Thunderbolt, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Rock Slide, you name it. AND, it even learns the fabled Horn Drill and Fissure, moves that may SEEM useless, but are actually the most broken moves in the game for reasons you will see about...I'd say one speed-run update from now?
As for what sets it apart from early game pokes like Mankey and Nidoran F, well, mainly the difference is both in the stats it possesses, and in the moves that it learns. Well, first of all, Mankey is garbage in this kind of run. It levels up WAY too late compared to the Nidos, reaching it's full evolution at Level 28 instead of Level 16 like they do. And while it's 80 Attack LOOKS impressive at first, the Nido's actually surpass that once they become Kings and Queens at Mt. Moon. And on top of all of that, it also levels much, MUCH slower than they do, a fact that's only further compounded by it being defensively weaker than even the Stage 1 Nidos, and Primeape isn't nearly a big enough improvement to make up for that. Oh, and of course, it's Special is awful. So Mankey is right out.
As for Nido F, it fares a little bit better, but, it's hampered by two big factors. First of all, it has an inferior level up pool. Instead of getting Horn Attack at Level 8 (65 Power), it gets Scratch (40 Power). Instead of getting Thrash at Level 23 (3-4 automatic 90 Power attacks for just 1 PP), it gets Body Slam (85 Power attack with regular PP cost). But even without that disadvantage, it's still rendered obsolete by it's weaker Base Stats in the three stats to rule them all, Attack, Special, and Speed. And while Attack and Special can be worked around, Speed is absolutely non-negotiable. I mean, Poison/Ground is a horrible defensive typing, so the Nido's practically live or die by their ability to kill their foes before they can kill them.
So, there you go. We NEED Nidoran M. No other pokemon will do.
That said though, we need to get it to Level 12, and get it Double Kick before we fight Brock, so here's a trainer battle.
Ha, Leer! Never thought you'd see that huh? Well, at these low levels, one Leer actually saves us enough hits that it's actually worth using.
Course, that doesn't help the fact that Caterpie is actually taking off a good chunk of health, but, fortunately...
We have Potions and dumb A.I. on our side, so,
Our victory was inevitable!
As for this guy, we'd skip him if we caught Nido M at Level 6, but we didn't, so nyaa.
Fortunately, critical hits are common enough to make everything better, and Horn Attack is real nice!
Oh wow, our Nido actually has really good DV's. Like, I could actually get the World Record with this if I were skilled enough! Yeah, those are very important for world record attempts...but this is not a world record attempt, so my strats will account for the BAD DV Nido's as well.
So GET the items...
SEND these trainers to oblivion...
And then rest up at the Pokemon center. You'll want to deposit Pikachu here, and OBVIOUSLY you'll want to try and get a Pidgey while you're in the forest, but, not everyone's lucky enough to get one there. And even if I WAS, I only actually got 7x Pokeballs, and then didn't feel like re-recording by the time I realized my mistake. So, I just ended up getting a Spearow with a Great Ball before entering Celadon City.
As for Pikachu, I forgot to deposit him, but you really do want to do that. Not only does he activate unwanted cutscenes that waste time (like his fawning over Clefairy at the Pokefan club, and his short little animation at Bill's), but you also bump into him quite a bit when turning. This is especially bad in instances like here, where I want to just talk to this guy rather than walk in front of him. That way, I don't have to watch his big "!" animation, which wastes precious frames. But with Pikachu getting in my way, I just lose whatever time I would've gained. But oh well.
And yay, Double Kick!
So just bumrush Diglett, and for Sandshrew, just Leer him, spam Horn Attack, and use a Potion if it looks like he could kill you with a crit.
I'll show you my moves!
Now Geodude is a straightforward butt-stomp, but Onix is entirely different.
For him, you'll want to catch him with two uses of Leer, otherwise, he can potentially kill you with Bide before you can kill him.
Plus, he's faster than you, he can Wrap you, he can use Screech on you...he can be dangerous. Not SO dangerous that you can't beat him consistently though. You just have to not take any dumb risks, that's all.
Awesome, now,
Roxor ALL of these guys, and make sure Nido M is above 15 HP for each fight, because Ratatta can kill him if you're not careful. Then after that,
Enter back into Pewter like so,
And BAM, no one's forcing you to fight that Bug Catcher anymore, because now the trainers have been reset! So just,
Beat this one last guy, and BAM!
You got yourself a Nidorino.
Ah, there we go. Free from Pikachu at last. Now, here's what you do for Mt. Moon.
Follow those green lines of glory, and you end get a Moon Stone, a Rare Candy, and the Helix Fossil. In addition, you should avoid every optional trainer except that guy with two Geodudes and an Onix, whom we want to beat up for Exp (though you wouldn't do that for a World Record run). Speaking of which,
If you find a wild Geodude, beat it up for Exp. That, you actually WOULD do for a World Record run, but only once. Me though, I'm just gonna kill whatever "Dudes" I come across.
And with Nidoking on our side, nothing in here has a chance again us, so let's just fast FORWAARRRRRD!
There we go.
Nope, no need to heal yet. Though I will mention one thing...
See how Nidoking is Level 21 now? A World Record run would shove those two Rare Candies into him straight away in order to get Thrash, but, if you have bad DV's, that'll leave you vulnerable to Misty, so we're going to grab two trainers we wouldn't normally fight before Misty, get to Level 25, and THEN use them.
Also, here's one of our HM slaves.
And here's Thrash, an extremely helpful move that basically allows you to sweep entire teams while using just 1 PP. Quite convenient!
Now then, a World Record attempt would fight the guy above this Hiker, but the Hiker gives ~700 more Exp., so we fight him instead.
After that, do all the riggamorale, beat up the Rocket early (more Exp. and you have to fight him eventually anyway)...
Heal up...
BEAT UP...
LEVEL UP...
And save. Now that we're Level 27, we SHOULD be able to win even if we have bad DV's. We outspeed Starmie, we should be able to kill it with two Thrash hits, we should be able to survive two Bubblebeams, and Staryu is killed in one shot. But, if Starmie gets, or manages to drop our speed, or whatever else? Who knows? One of the scariest parts of the run for any speed runner.
LET'S DO THIS!!
Yeah!
Don't Bubblebeam crit me...
C,mon
...
YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! 
Alright gents, that's a wrap. Now, how long did all this take us?
Wow, only 51 minutes! And that's actually a slow time, with my safe but slow strats, and my own inexperience bogging it down. And it's still under an hour! Well, just what ELSE will we be accomplishing in under an hour in the future? Find out, next time, on let's Speed Run Pokemon Yellow! This is Fionordequester, signing out. Have a nice night, and God bless you all!