Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have had incredible speedruns since launch, and now the world record has no fights and utilizes the fishing rod [via Kotaku].
If you’ve not been paying attention to the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl speedrunning scene, that’s understandable. It’s a bit of a blink and you miss it kind of situation. Especially considering in a matter of weeks the speedrun has been reduced to just over 15 minutes.
Only a week ago the speedrun was 33 minutes in length. The games are full of glitches. One glitch briefly saw a Gabite’s nickname turn from girlboss into mike. You could also softlock yourself in the slippery seventh gym in Snowpoint City. But thanks to these smorgasbord of bugs, we’ve been gifted with some of the fastest Pokémon speedruns in the history of the games.
This 15 minute speedrun was completed by Japanese speedrunner and VTuber Carolio. Thus far the speedruns for BDSP have involved finicky and precise button presses, to utilize a menu stacking glitch.
You would press ZL and ZR at the same time while on the menu screen, which would open up a second menu screen. When you close the menu screen, one stays open, letting your character walk wherever they like.
The previous world record did also have some fights you would have to beat to complete it. But a new trick found in the Pokémon using the fishing rod lets you bypass most of the game. Assigning the fishing rod to two different quick select slots again lets you interrupt anything you want. And talking to a particular NPC lets you walk high above the map, eventually all the way to the Pokémon league.
Updates have been coming in for the games slowly but surely, so who knows if the glitches will be around forever. For now though, they certainly do make for a fun 15 minute watch.
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Featured Image Credit: Game Freak/ ICLA