A new Pokemon Emerald speedrun record has been set after almost three years of stagnation thanks to the implementation of a Lonely Mudkip, which is harder to get than the usual Naughty one.
The situation is outlined beautifully in a video by Youtuber Pulse Effects, which describes how the latest Pokemon Emerald Any% glitchless run by keepingiticy has spurred players into picking up the category once again after the three-year reign of legendary Pokemon speedrunner WaveWarrior. The main change that keepingiticy implemented in their run was a different Mudkip, although it didn't end up saving them any time.
For the sickos, Pokemon Emerald's RNG is set on reset, meaning that if you do the exact same thing on every frame, you will see the same outcome. Being human, doing so for an entire run is essentially impossible, but it is fairly easy to predict in short stints.
In order to make the run more consistent, players reset just before they select their starter and then aim to hit the frame that spawns a rather powerful Mudkip with almost perfect stats. For years, people were using a Mudkip with an Attack-boosting Naughty nature as this one appears very quickly after the game is reset.
However, longer speedruns like the 17-hour long All Gold Symbols category require a better Mudkip with a Lonely nature in order to take down the Battle Frontier. This one takes longer to spawn, meaning you have to save earlier if you don't want to lose time. The longer between saving and selecting the Mudkip, the harder it is to hit the right frame, but this is worth it when you need to lock in for the entire day.
While the original All Gold Symbols Lonely Mudkip wasn't considered strong enough to aim for given the minimal time save it offered, runners began looking at Mudkip that were even further away, and thus harder to hit. Eventually, a speedier, but equally Lonely Mudkip was found.
Most speedrunners think the added inconsistency of hitting the harder Mudkip isn't worth the payoff when the run only lasts around two and a half hours. The above mentioned former world record holder writes, "the Lonely Mudkip provides marginal net benefit over Naughty, if any," claiming that while the higher attack is nice, the lower defensive stats can lead to more resetting for very little time save overall.
This is backed up by keepingiticy's current world record. They were behind WaveWarrior's record while using the Lonely Mudkip, and only caught up to – and eventually overtook – the top run once they switched to using Rayquaza in the late game. Decsy's Japanese any% glitchless world record still uses the Naughty Mudkip, as does Ananan's emulator any% glitchless record.
Keepingiticy's new record and their Lonely Mudkip might not be faster than the Naughty one that came before it, but they have shaken up the leaderboard, inspiring speedrunners to return to the best generation of Pokemon games once again.
