100% snags category speedruns

[Toothache]

My first speedrun of any kind was in fact Pokemon Colosseum (download link: http://speeddemosarchive.com/PokemonColosseum.html ), so I learned a lot about how to speedrun this game, and speedrunning in general. Looking back at my old strats, I made a fair few mistakes, in execution as well as planning, and looking for suggestions on ways to possibly improve my time in this category of speedrun. Also, to encourage more people to consider running 100%, it's a very different kettle of fish to any% as I have discovered from doing both types of run.

Not necessarily sure if you need a max SpA Espeon to start with in this category, but it certainly helps for segmented. Ideal nature is Mild, as the low Defence encourages more attacks to go towards Espeon and leave your Croconow/Feraligatr free to damage enemies. -SpD hurts for something like the Shadow Mantine fight, so I wouldn't consider Rash, and Espeon starts with high Happiness so you can get a lot out of Return on high SpD/low Def enemies so I wouldn't like anything that reduces Atk either.

As for Croconaw, I got a Rash natured one for my current run. Mild will hurt it less, as it already has a high Def stat to play with, but I proved Rash can work, provided you get some luck in the Lab sections with all those Electric types to deal with. The real issue comes to snags, and the best time to take them.

You can have as many as 3 opportunities for a particular snag, if you count the post-Evice section of the game, which you would for 100%. Time ends when you get the final snag, on Togetic, so you would aim to get all of the other 47 snags before then. My route for the snags considered the exp you would gain from the fight, as well as the replacement for the snagged Pokemon, as well as the position of the Master Ball in the run, which you would obvious use the Ball-Dupe glitch to get as many fast snags as you can.

Before the Master Ball, I wanted to get as few snags because anything not snagged by a Master Ball obviously takes a bit of time. I think the only one that comes close outside that was the Makuhita snag, as it has a 220 catch rate, but I found a 3 turn strategy for Croconaw snag that was fairly consistent: 1st turn: Confusion on Grimer, Bite on Spoink; 2nd turn: Confusion on Croconaw, Bite on Spoink. 3rd turn: Ball-Dupe Great Ball (you buy one from the Outskirt Stand); proving a surprisingly consistent level of snag, guess they wanted to make it fairly easy to get the GSC starter. Catch rates in general seem to be more generous than the handheld games, even for the things you would expect to be tough like the Legendary Beasts.

Before this post gets too detailed and erratic, I should stop for now. Any ideas to help improve this type of speedrun would be appreciated

[Zewing]

I actually planned on going to colosseum 100% after I did an XD 100% run. Colosseum, however, is WAY more complicated to route since you can't ball dupe glitch.

I'm unsure how to route this, but most of us agreed that Croconaw would be used. It could be faster with implemention of current any% strats, but that's something I don't know since the only person who's been routing it lately has been lblueeagle.

I'd offer more, but I only know XD 100%...

[Toothache]

The main thing that makes routing tricky is when you actually choose to snag something. Ideally, you want to be able to use the Master Ball and dupe it on as many snags as you can. The earliest point you can get the Master Ball is after the second battle with Ein, in Realgem (do this battle first so you can have the MB for the other three Admins). However, in some cases you get 3 battles with a particular snag, and in others, you have to trigger extra battles, like the four trainers blocking your path after the Venus 1 battle.

You obviously want to feed Croconaw/Feraligatr with as much exp as you can, helped along with the Exp Share held item, so that's another routing problem, dealing with the 6 trainers in Duel Square in Pyrite - whether it's better to get them the first time you go there, whether you get them after you beat Evice, when the other Pokemon are higher level so you get more exp from them, or even taking an extra visit after you get the Master Ball but less exp from them as they aren't upgraded yet. So yeah, lot of problems in routing. Also, most snagged Pokemon are replaced by something of slighly higher level in rematches, providing more exp and usually being a similar typing (Houndoom replacing Dakim's Entei, for example).

Not an easy game to plan for, by any means, but that's half of what makes it fun.

[Accuity]

Has anyone confirmed that soloing with Fera is faster than using the any% route (difference being that u snag some of the easy ones). I tried using Espeon and Fera in the aftergame and I had many fights where i thought Espeon really helped (Miror B in Deep Colosseum comes to mind). I also tried losing to Gonzap 2 on purpose, which forced me to fight an extra Cipher Peon in the Snagem Hideout. This lets u skip the two Peons in the Under (Nore and Skrub are required as far as I know), and makes Ledian easier to catch.