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Over 11 years since Pokemon X and Y first launched, speedrunners have discovered a record-breaking new method to get through the RPGs as quickly as possible, ditching a strategy that's been in place for more than a decade.
As explained by YouTube creator PulseEffects (below), if you've watched any X and Y speedruns over the last few years, chances are whoever was playing followed the same tried and tested approach that's, truth be told, slightly messy. There's a lot of swapping of party members thanks to the varied Type specialities of the gym leaders – runners generally try to catch a Bunnelby as soon as possible to complete an in-game trade for a Farfetch'd for the Bug-type gym, before catching a Hawlucha for the Rock-type gym, and then switching over to the free Lucario you're given before the Electric-type gym.
That's just the start, though, because there's another crucial step – obtaining the Lucky Egg, a held item that significantly boosts the amount of EXP the Pokemon holding it earns. This is a great way to strengthen a 'mon quickly, but to get your hands on one in X and Y, you first need to get a Pokemon to its maximum friendship level – something which takes time, resources, or both, and doing this in this speedrun brings a lot more factors into play that can slow things down.
The designated best buddy of the run is Hawlucha – a Pokemon with a relatively low 20% encounter rate on its route. Budding speedrunners must catch their Fighting/Flying-type in a Luxury Ball, which boosts the amount of friendship earned but is also more likely to fail to catch in the first place, making obtaining the team member potentially even slower. After that, there's a certain amount of randomness involved in whether or not you'll even reach maximum friendship by the time it comes to get the Lucky Egg. For example, getting an NPC to give your Pokemon a massage is one way to boost their friendship, but it's random how big of an increase it'll actually give you.
Needless to say, a lot can go wrong. But what if all that could be avoided? That's what speedrunner Headbob wanted to find out, ditching this method that runners had toiled away with for around 10 years according to PulseEffects.
Not only could Headbob streamline the route by avoiding all those extra steps, but it also meant he could implement new strategies that were previously unheard of. By setting his 3DS clock to nighttime, he could use a Dusk Ball to easily catch Hawlucha, thanks to the ball's catch rate being boosted at night. Beyond that, Lucario could be given items other than the Lucky Egg, including one that was right under speedrunners' noses all along – its Mega Stone.
The Lucario that runners had been relying on for all these years already comes with the Lucarionite needed to Mega Evolve it, but players previously valued the extra levels they could gain over the extra raw power Mega Lucario could give them. You can't really blame them for overlooking it when the Mega Evolution animations are so lengthy, but Headbob determined that using it was still faster as it could end certain battles in fewer turns.
Even then, Mega Evolving wasn't always necessary – with the freedom to use other held items, another speedrunner, who goes by Wartab, highlighted the power of the Black Belt, which boosts the strength of Fighting-type moves by 20%. By using this on occasion, it was only necessary to Mega Evolve Lucario a total of nine times, speeding things up even further.
In the end, Headbob was able to secure a new world record of 3 hours, 38 minutes, and 41 seconds, beating his previous world record with the old strategy (which took 3 hours, 39 minutes, and 29 seconds) by almost a full minute. It certainly sounds like it's going to make new speedruns far less stressful for runners, and given that we're finally returning to X and Y's Kalos region this year with Pokemon Legends: Z-A, the timing couldn't be more appropriate.
Be sure to check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games for even more of the best RPGs you can play now.
