pokemon reborn nature changer
Pokemon Reborn FAQ
 
Q: What is this?
A: Pokemon Reborn is an Emerald-styled downloadable game featuring all content up to Generation 7. It has its own unique region and story with 18 type based gyms and elite 4 alongside customary evil team. While its final update is still pending, the game currently goes up to the 17th gym leader and will have the rest of its content available in the final release. There are several features that make this game particularly difficult to speedrun compared to other pokemon fan games/rom hacks: 
 
-Custom field effects which give opponents an inherent edge in most battles and forces you to adapt to many unfavorable scenarios.
 
-Highly advanced AI, trainers and especially gym leaders/bosses will make logical decisions based on a variety of different factors such as your pokemon's stats, typing, items, moves, etc., almost all of which they know beforehand.
 
-Double battles are much more prevalent in this game compared to say a standard vanilla pokemon game (~35-40% of the fights are in doubles). This is enough to influence the dynamic of the team structure and requires members that are able to handle this format.
 
pokemon reborn nature changer How to get it? pokemon reborn nature changer
-Competitive movesets and general difficulty curve remain consistent throughout the entire game. All important trainers and late game fights will have optimal iv and ev spreads, money is also somewhat hard to come by and is tight up to the end of the run and x items can only be accessed late game by collecting enough department store stickers and by early game pick ups.
 
-Disobedience is enforced and pokemon will not obey you if you overlevel past a certain gym badge. This is the same kind of disobedience you would see if you were using a traded pokemon in a vanilla pokemon game, however it also applies to pokemon with the same TID as yours. Your pokemon will still obey you if you overlevel during a fight but not after and common candies (opposite of a rare candy) can be used to delevel your pokemon to stay within the level cap. Due to the excess experience, this mechanic also discourages a traditional pokemon speedrun where you would solo the game with 1 pokemon, not that it would be possible here.
 
All of these problems pretty much necessitates a full team of 6 in order to effectively speedrun through the game, which isn't asking much considering the general pacing between gyms and amount of mandatory fights. 
 
Q:That all sounds pretty daunting, how optimized is this run?
A: Fortunately with the current release, the engine this game runs on has virtually eliminated all notable instances of lag within the game. The only limiting factor at this point would probably come down to execution and luck. As brutal as this game gets, it does have some quality of life changes that are very welcome that we do take advantage of. Access to hidden abilities broaden the scope of viable pokemon to use, an iv and ev checker to be able to check for good stats, ev training items and nature changer being available early to mid game, the ability to forfeit trainer battles to be able to fast travel back to places where you last healed and also having the option to quick save whenever possible (except during dialogue). With all these accommodations and my experience in running this game, I would say that it's somewhat optimized all things considered with about ~10-15 minutes in variance between a bad and a good final time depending on how the run goes.
 
Q: What Pokemon do you use for the run?
pokemon reborn nature changer How to use it? pokemon reborn nature changer
A: Speed Boost Blaziken is by far the best pokemon available that can sweep through a majority of the game which we choose as our starter. It notably only has issues with quite a number of double battles and obvious type disadvantages. Meowstic is also an integral early game member that falls off in value offensively around the mid game section, but still manages to be effective throughout the entire game due to having access to Prankster reflect, light screen and misty terrain. I also pick up 3 secondary mains, all of which have unique enough qualities that warrant their usage. What makes them particularly significant is that they all have a different TID which gives them boosted experience so raising all 3 is feasible under these circumstances. Not only are they early and easy to get, but they also save a slot for an otherwise useless hm slave as they all learn the necessary hms and can carry their own weight. 
 
Ampharos is the first member and is especially potent considering the amount of factory fields there are in the game, which it's able to make quick work of due to discharge spam. Aside from the glaring issue with ground types, its lack of weaknesses and above average bulk allow it function as an offensive tank that patches up the team's relative frailty. Sharpedo is the second member and is somewhat special in that it comes with destiny bond as an egg move. This is extremely beneficial as a way to dispatch of pulse pokemon in particular, or any other troublesome threat for that matter. It's also an essential Speed Boost sweeper that is efficient in dealing with fights that Blaziken is less favored in. While its paper-thin defenses work well with destiny bond, it can be debilitating at times when I need it to survive a hit or two. Nidoqueen is the third member and is sort of a jack of all trades. It's just as bulky as ampharos, has great coverage options in earth power, sludge wave and flamethrower and hits just as hard as everyone else with Sheer Force. Unfortunately, it does evolve relatively late but is useful throughout the rest of the game once it does.
 
Some other miscellaneous pokemon I pick up are a Noibat as early and late game death fodder that also doubles as cut and fly slave, Onix which is a useful suicide lead for the early game which is able to lower speed with rock tomb and set up stealth rock, Natu as mid game death fodder and is the only available pokemon with access to teleport early game and a Ponyta as a mandatory pick up that's part of a sidequest.
 
Q: What are the hard fights in the game?
A: This route is for the most part relatively safe, but a couple fights can definitely be worse depending on bad rng or bad stats on mains. There is too many to mention as a lot are different depending on the situation but a couple standouts are aster+eclipse 4 with aya and fern+blake with florinia at the fiore gauntlet which can go south quickly depending on battle rng and random ai choice. Radomus and solaris 3 can also be bad if sharpedo has less than stellar defense. Serra is also noteworthy since her gimmick is evasion which I can't really do much about. Most double battles in general especially with the orderlies and meteor grunts can get pretty random so having to adapt to the scenario at hand is critical.
 
Q: Where are the biggest potential time saves/loss in the run?
pokemon reborn nature changer How to get it for free? pokemon reborn nature changer
A: Most of the time sinks in this run come down to resets on mains for the correct stats, so the julia and team complete splits will probably have the largest variance in time save/loss due to resetting for an optimal Torchic, Espurr, Carvanha and Nidorina. Another rng aspect that I can't really control is the weather which is predetermined at the start of a run. If it rains in chrysolia, the fights with noel and fern 5 are noticeably worse and it also prevents me from getting a department store sticker from a lady in spinel who only appears during clear weather, which would force me to get a backup sticker in ametrine by fighting a gauntlet of trainers. If it hails in ametrine and agate, the fights vs team meteor up to blake at ametrine city and solaris 3 in agate city would also be worse but still manageable.
 
Q: Are there any other potential mains to use?
A: There is a completely different route that uses Diggersby as a secondary main as opposed to Ampharos, Sharpedo and Nidoqueen, which gets Buizel as a HM slave via joining magma gang instead of aqua gang as well as catching Cottonee for additional Prankster support. Huge Power Diggersby is a strong enough secondary main that is worth consideration since you get it relatively early and it can deal with double battles with its access to swords dance and earthquake. Cottonee would also be valuable due to its excellent support movepool in tailwind, sunny day, leech seed and charm; all of which help facilitate set up and sweeps for Blaziken and Diggersby.
 
While this route does less grinding on average, almost all the fights are much harder in comparison. The segments between kiki and noel are especially notable since there are a ton of double battles that blaziken is ill equipped in dealing with and diggersby is only useful once it gets earthquake before radomus; which it can only feasibly get through the exp share that's before serra so it's deadweight until then. Bunnelby is also at a 15% encounter rate in Beryl Caves and Cottonee is at a 14% encounter rate in the morning on route 4 which makes finding and catching them a lot more annoying, not to mention potential resets if bad ivs. You also wouldn't get enough stickers to be able to access x items late game since Blaziken and Diggersby already come with set up, which also makes every fight post ciel even more scarier. While this route would be ideal for segmented runs, it is otherwise much riskier for single segment runs and is not worth pursuing as of right now (the final update will provide an exp share after corey which will probably make this route worth looking into).

EDIT: I did a non-speed up segmented speed run to compare the two routes and can confirm that the diggersby route as of right now is slower than the current route. While it definitely is faster and saves time early on, the late game for the current route makes up a lot more time than it by virtue of having a much more balanced team and access to x items to handle the late game.

https://www.rebornevo.com/forums/topic/50018-pokemon-reborn-e18-speedrun-in-9h-17m-in-game-timer/
pokemon reborn nature changer How to use it? pokemon reborn nature changer

https://puu.sh/HmRfD/37bf819981.png <- split comparison

I don't plan to do any non-speed up segmented runs since they are barely RTA able but it was a good way to compare routes in a setting where everything goes perfectly. This might change in E19 depending on what changes in the game.
 
Q: Do you rng manipulate anything in this run?
A: There is no rng manipulation in this run as it does not work. RPG Maker XP games base language is ruby and ruby's default rng can not be manipulated without modifying the game itself.
 
Q: Is this game running at normal speed?
A: This run is done using the in game speed up function which is a developer intended tool in order to alleviate lag. At times I do turn it off in order to do more precise movements that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. This run is not at all comparable to runs that aren't using speed up which should be self evident, as those would average to around 9 hours.
pokemon reborn nature changer How to use it? pokemon reborn nature changer
 
Q: Why pick the guy?
A: Outside of a couple changes in dialogue and losing a couple relationship points which is irrelevant, the gender you choose does not matter in the context of a speedrun. I just choose the guy so I can mash through the introduction faster.
 
Q: What's the goal time?
A: My sum of best is around 4 hours and 45 minutes, but that's assuming every split goes more or less perfectly which is highly unlikely. 5 hours is around the estimate and if I can get under that then I'd be satisfied.
pokemon reborn nature changer