User:Bbbbbbbbba/Pokémon Blue "Catch 'em All" speedrun route

This article is incomplete. Please feel free to add any missing information about the subject. It is missing: A large portion of the route.

The current Pokémon Blue "Catch 'em All" speedrun route obtains all 151 valid Pokémon using a variety of intended methods and glitches. The glitch used the most to obtain Pokémon is the LOL glitch. The run also performs the dry underflow glitch early on both the PC and the item pack, and uses the expanded item pack extensively to obtain Master Balls, Rare Candies and glitch items, warp around on the map, and do other memory corruptions.

The run also uses many luck manipulations. Most of them are to encounter specific Pokémon in their intended habitat, either by DSum manipulation or by hard-reset manipulations (including a Pidgey at the beginning for Brock Through Walls). Two other manipulations are used near the beginning, to get a desired Trainer ID and to death-warp from a trainer twice for a x255 item stack.

This page documents the route and analyzes the glitches used in detail.

The content of this page is based on the route guide by Shenanagans, Eddaket, Dabomstew, Stringflow, and Krazyd4n. Details unrelated to glitches/manipulations (i.e. for time saving only) are omitted.

Intro

• If there is an existing save file, clear it by pressing Up + Select + B on the title screen.
• Manipulate for a Trainer ID of 0x805E (32862).
• Name the rival "AaR SS×" (the last character is a multiplication symbol, not a lower case X).
• Pick Bulbasaur as the starter.

Brock Through Walls setup

There are two strategies to activate Brock Through Walls. The Pidgey strategy is faster, but is not consistent because it requires the Bulbasaur's Special stat to hit exactly 16. The PP strategy is slower, but consistent.

Either way, there are some steps that, for time reasons, are best done before activating Brock Through Walls.

• Acquire six item stacks.
  • In the route, this is done by saving a Potion (appears in many places throughout the early game), buying 10 Poké Balls and 1 Paralysis Heal in Viridian City, picking up an Antidote in Viridian Forest, then buying 1 Burn Heal and 1 Escape Rope in Pewter City.
• Catch a Pidgey (best to maniplate a 17 HP one on route 2).

Pidgey strategy

• Make sure Bulbasaur hits 16 Special.
  • After winning the rival fight, the Bulbasaur will level up to L6, and the player should note its Special stat here.
    • If it has 13 Special, then it is most likely to hit 16 Special at L8 (75% probability). Therefore the player needs to kill an encounter (ideally L2/3 Rattata or L2 Pidgey) on the way to Pewter City.
    • If it has 14 Special, then it is most likely to hit 16 Special at L7 (43% probability). Therefore the player needs to avoid killing any encounter (Bulbasaur will level up after the Weedle Guy fight).
    • If it has 12 Special, then it is unlikely to hit 16 Special at all, so the player should either reset immediately, or commit to the PP strategy.
• Put the Bulbasaur in slot 1 of the party, and the Pidgey in slot 2.
• Mark sure Pidgey has 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, or 17 current HP (guaranteed if caught from the manipulation).
  • Some HP values may have unwanted complications (like disabling the Start menu, requiring a save from the PC). Again, it is best to just manipulate a 17 HP Pidgey.

PP strategy

• Make sure the Bulbasaur is level 8, and has the following moves, in this order: Leech Seed (any amount of PP), Tackle (16 PP), Growl (36 PP).
  • Bulbasaur learns Leech Seed on level 7. It is best to kill two encounters (or one L4 Rattata) so that it learns Leech Seed before the Weedle Guy fight, and use the Weedle Guy fight to switch the move order.
• Put the Bulbasaur in the last slot of the party.
• Flash the party menu after doing the Pewter Gym skip.

Out of bounds travel

• Trigger Brock Through Walls by doing the Pewter Gym skip glitch normally, going to Route 3 and back, then talking to the Youngster from the right.
  • For the PP strategy, remember to flash the party menu after the Pewter Gym skip, before talking to the Youngster.
• Follow the red path below.
  • It is important to go up on the Route 3 map, rather than the Pewter City map. As the map above Route 3 is Route 4, this puts the player in the out of bounds area of Route 4 (more specifically, the phantom quadrant).

• Walk left all the way to the tile on the right picture.
  • This tile pattern will appear early on during the travel, but 2 tiles higher. That is only a phantom copy of this place; keep going left.
  • This is actually a map connection tile on the right boundary of Route 4. After stepping on this tile, the player will be on the Cerulean City map, at an actually existing (but normally inaccessible) tile. The "cave" texture on the bottom-left corner is the "background tile" of Route 4, which is normally kept out of sight by strategically placed walls.
• From here on, walk to the Vermilion Pokémon Center in a "normal" shortest path.
  • The preferred path is first walk straight down (through the out of bounds area of Route 5) to Saffron City, then turn right at the row below the Pokémon Center door, go to the column to the right of the door, then walk down (through the in bound portion of Route 6) onto the tile left of the Vermilion Pokémon Center door, and step right into the door.
  • Taking a warp ends the "walk through walls" effect.