New speedrunning trick discovered in Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen that can save over a minute in one category

Have you ever used the Help System in Pokémon FireRed or LeafGreen? Maybe only accidentally? Yeah, it was a weird thing. The ability to bring up an in-game tutorial virtually anywhere and anytime was an interesting concept, but it was likely that very few players actually needed it, which is probably why it never returned after these games - at least in such an omnipresently accessible form. However, a recent discovery has given this menu an unusual new lease on life.

When a Pokémon is obtained, a little fanfare gets played. It takes around three seconds to complete in the case of the wild Pokémon one, and text cannot be advanced until it does. But a speedrunner by the name of IamClemi (Clemi_CH on Twitch) recently discovered a way to skip this when...resetting for days while attempting to get a Charmander with high stats for his casual playthrough of the recent Switch release. Yeah, kind of a weird way, but hey! There have been weirder ways to discover speedrunning tricks. He accidentally opened the Help menu, which skipped the fanfare. While it was initially dismissed as a bug in the Switch version's emulator, he did it again after capturing a Mankey. And this time, it did something a bit different. While he didn't speedrun Pokémon games, he immediately realized the ramifications and quickly informed the community about his finding.

By opening and closing the Help menu, the fanfare for capturing a wild Pokémon will be canceled. This saves around 2.68 seconds per capture, if executed perfectly. And it was confirmed that this works on all versions of the game. Unfortunately, capturing wild Pokémon is the only scenario this works in: in all other cases (including getting gift Pokémon), the player will still have to wait until the jingle would have finished.

So what's the point of this when speedrunners usually blaze through the game with very few Pokémon? Blastoise as the main one here if you're wondering. The infamous Elite Four Round 2 category. In order to challenge their upgraded teams, the National Pokédex is in-part required. Which requires a total of 60 Pokémon registered in the Pokédex. Given the average number of captures in a run is around 30, this can save around a minute and a half with the current route. Time will tell exactly how much time it will save when reroutes are factored in.

Gunnermaniac, a notable runner of Elite Four Round 2 and the current world record holder in the category, explains this exploit in more detail.

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