First, MKDasher's input is used until getting the bike. Therefore, he is added as coauthor.
Second, aera helped routing in very crucial ways. Therefore, he is added as another coauthor.
The first video starts at the bike shop and ends after entering Battle Tower. The second video covers the rest of the run.
- Emulator Used: DeSmuME 0.9.9
- Advanced Bus-Level Timing: OFF
- Genre: RPG
Goal Choice
This movie beats Pokemon Pearl with all boss battles completed at least once, similar to [3588] DS Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin "all bosses" by mtbRc in 24:09.89 and [3506] N64 Paper Mario "All Cards" by Malleoz in 2:30:33.83. There is no restriction in the use of glitches.
"Boss battles" are defined as all battles that doesn't use the standard trainer or Galactic grunt theme. To be exact, boss battles include 6 rival fights, 8 gym leader fights, 6 Galactic commander fights, 2 Cyrus fights, 2 Palmer fights, Elite 4 fights, and the Cynthia fight.
Note: There is a harder version of the sixth rival fight that is unlocked after entering Hall of Fame 20 times. Given the fact that the fight is exactly the same other than the rival's team being at slightly higher levels and it takes about 100 minutes to enter Hall of Fame 20 times even from the void, I decided to only to the normal version of the rival battle in Fight Area.
Version Choice
The only version difference that matters for this run is the legendary encounter at Spear Pillar. Pearl is used because Palkia can learn Surf, thus the number of wild encounters is minimized.
A History of This Run
Everything started in early 2016 when I decided to make an "all bosses, maximum legendary" run after seeing a few videos showing how to catch Giratina, Darkrai, and Shaymin from
the void in English Diamond/Pearl. However, after catching Giratina, I realized that it takes hours to reach Darkrai and Shaymin. I thought
about redoing the run on early Japanese release, but I worried that it would make the watchability of the run much lower for most audience, and the fact that lua scripts only
support English roms also made it harder for me to make a run on a Japan rom. Eventually, I set the project aside.
The time moves on to early 2017. A way to catch Arceus was found, and more importantly, a much faster way to catch Shaymin and Darkrai in non Japanese D/P was found. These great
discoveries reminded me of my D/P completionist run. Many months later, while working on "no save/reset" and "glitchless" runs, I decided to give this project another shot.
Unfortunately, soon I learned that it's impossible to encounter Heatran whatsoever without getting Nationaldex. This means that I would have to acquire Nationaldex in order to
meet the "maximum legendary". That would make the run much longer than I hoped it to be. After thinking it through, I decided to abolish the goal of catching all
available legendaries. While catching Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus in a speedrun can be interesting for sure, repeatedly watching a bunch of legendaries getting caught after biking in the void
would get old really quick anyway. It was obvious that there has been a much better understanding of how the void works compared to a few years ago, but I didn't know much about the details. That's when I decided
to ask for help from Hall of Origin. Lucky for me, aera enthusiastically agreed to help on routing.
And the run you see here right now is the end result.
The Team
Chimchar/Monferno, Fearow, and Azelf are used as the main battle Pokemon at different points in the run.
Fearow is used for the middle section of the run because it's over leveled and can learn Fly; its type machup is also decent against most opponents it faces.
Azelf is used for the later portion of the run because it has very high Spe. Atk. and Speed base stats and good move pool. These traits are especially important for the fights in Battle Tower.
Oh, and Palkia is caught to be the Surf slave, a suitable role for the master of space and dimensions. :)
The Void
Coming soon.
The Route
Due to how much the route diverges from normal gameplay sequences, I'll explain it in a chronological order. A detailed explanation of the void mechanism can be found in the previous section.
Prebike Era
As mentioned earlier, everything before the bike is directly copied from MKDasher's any% run. There isn't much to talk about here.
Void Trip 1 - Flagging locations and warping to Galactic HQ
I enter the void for the first time in Oreburgh City. I warp to the black Sinnoh to flag the locations that only require a visit to the corresponding map for Fly usage. The map of Pokemon League
entrance is visited after leaving black Sinnoh to flag Pokemon League. There are random grasspatches on certain black Sinnoh locations that can trigger wild encounters normally available
to the corresponding location. I caught a Lv. 51 Fearow with a Sharp Beak on black Route 225 for Fly and the upcoming fights. It has a good enough Speed IV and +Speed nature
so that it can outspeed all enemies it needs to fight. After all of these, I warp into the walkway to the Lake Trio room in Galactic HQ.
Galactic HQ and Veilstone City
At Galactic HQ, Saturn 2 and Cyrus 1 fights are done. I proceed to clear Veilstone Gym and get HM02 Fly. I teach Fearow Fly and fly to Celestic Town.
Celestic Town
The events here happen as usual. HM03 Surf is acquired and Hearthome Gym is unlocked. Before flying to Hearthome City, I go to the shop to buy an Escape Rope and get Wise Glasses
from the guy in the shop.
Hearthome City
Meet Mom in the the Contest Hall, fight the gym leader, and do the Rival 2 fight. Looks like Platinum, doesn't it? Afterward, fly back to Veilstone City for another trip to the void.
Void Trip 2 - Onto Spear Pillar
TBH, entering the void from Veilstone City might be slightly slower than doing it from Jubilife City or Oreburgh City, but I decide to use a different entrance for each void trip
to show something different each time. The time difference is trivial. The goal of this trip to the void is Spear Pillar.
Spear Pillar
For some reasons, the summon ceremony won't happen until the two grunts are defeated, so the entire sequence has to be done (almost) normally. The Galactic Commander double battle
and Cyrus 2 fight take place. After catching Palkia, I use the Escape Rope I bought earlier and fly to Pastoria City.
Pastoria City and Lake Valor
After reaching Pastoria City, I immediately leave from the east to get to Lake Valor. Because the events in Spear Pillar already happened, the lake is back to normal and Azelf is
in the cavern... while Saturn is still there. Azelf, the main fighter for the rest of the run, is manipulated to have a 30 Spe. Atk. IV, a + Spe. Atk. nature, and a decent Speed IV. After finishing Saturn 1, I get the TM
for Thunder, teach Thunder and Grass Knot to Azelf, give it Wise Glasses, and fly back to Pastoria City.
Pastoria City again
Clear the gym, fight Rival 3, and fly to Twinleaf Town.
Twinleaf Town and Lake Verity
Galactic Grunts double battle (the last grunt battle in this run, actually), Mars 2 fight, and flight to Canalave City.
Canalave City
Fight Rival 4 and clear the gym, then fly to Jubilife City for the third and final trip to the void.
Void Trip 2 - Volkner
Inside the void, I enter the Palpark map to activate the Palpark menu and enter Volkner's room to fight him via RETIRE. After the fight, I go to the Palpark map again to switch
back to the normal menu. Doing so warps me to the actual Palpark entrance on Route 221. Then I fly to Fight Area.
Fight Area
Normally, the rival can be battled here during weekends after finishing the quest at Stark Mountain. However, because I entered the map toward the east end while in black Sinnoh, the conversation
between the rival and Buck is finished on black Route 230. For some reasons, this makes the rival stuck at the dock, which means I can challenge him once per day anytime I want!
The in game time is set on Sunday anyway, but this saves the effort of doing the Heatran quest. That being said, I take the ship to Snowpoint City after doing the Rival 6 fight.
Snowpoint City
Clear the last gym and fly back to Fight Area. There isn't much to do in such a snowy place, right?
Battle Tower
I couldn't find a way to effectively manipulate the trainers and Pokemon that appear in the tower, but luckily, most of them can be OHKO (after Azelf uses Nasty Plot, at least), unless their abilities make it impossible to launch critical hits or their carried Focus Sash (or Sturdy) make it impossible to OHKO them whatsoever.
Another noteworthy thing is that many trainers in the tower have much better AI than anyone outside of the tower. Many of them would actually only use the most effective move against my Pokemon. There are a few critical moments when a faster opponent can almost KO Azelf.
49 trainers are fought in total because that's the minimum requirement to do both Palmer battles. A minor glitch
is used to make the conversation with Palmer shorter. There is only one place to go after this...
Pokemon League
At last, the end game. I choose not to deposit extra Pokemon in the PC because Azelf actually have enough PP for the last battles, and using the PC takes a long time.
And thus, all boss battles are completed!
Possible alternative routes and goal choices
Coming soon.
Special Thanks
- MKDasher for the any% run and all the lua scripts. This movie wouldn't happen without his work on this game.
- Anyone who contributed to the documentation of the void glitch, including but not limited to aera, Krys3000, and MAP.
- YOU, for reading the submission text and watching the movie.
Masterjun: Hey Fortranm, did you know you can add coauthors yourself? Anyways, judging.