Using Sanqui Randomizer for a Togetic Solo Run on Pokémon Red

The original Pokémon games, Red and Blue are perhaps the most played and dissected video games ever. Its linear gameplay, hidden events, and notorious glitches help make it a game as fun to play as it was in the nineties. Whilst its graphics may have aged horribly, there is still a nostalgic charm about them. It is also a broken game. In fact, it's so broken that not even Bob the Builder could fix it.

The game favours fast Pokémon which enables higher critical hits. Multiple types and match-ups and the category of special and physical types are a lot for somebody to take in. Using an X-accuracy move makes 1HKO moves have 100% accuracy. Some types had an abysmal choice of moves and Psychic was the king of the generation.

Those that know Pokémon will be the first to say that Toegtic wasn't in Pokémon Red. They would be right. Togetic wasn't introduced until generation 2. The Red I was playing was a ROM randomised through a website called Sanqui. I first discovered it on Youtube after watching a Scizor solo run on Red.

All in all, this makes playing Pokémon "off the beaten track" in a different way so much fun.

But Togetic wasn't in Pokémon Red

That's correct. But the first generation of Pokémon games has been discussed and analysed and some ROMs have even been modified or hacked to bring out a new experience playing Pokémon Red and Blue unlike any before, and in a way that Nintendo doesn't want you to play. It gives off a sense of being so wrong that it must be right. It's a well-known fact that these games are buggy and many use this to their advantage. So how did I get to play as Togetic in a Gen 1 game? As mentioned earlier the answer lies with a randomizer.

Sanqui randomiser

The Togetic solo run was not planned. After discovering the randomiser, I fiddled with the options. With no idea what I was doing until I entered Oak's lab, I noticed the choice of Pokémon was different from the iconic Kanto starters. Instead of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, I was given the choice of Weedle, Luvdisc, and Togetic.

Togetic sounded like the best choice at the time as I love the Togepi line. I had a Togepi figure when I was a kid (which I still have) and I used Togekiss in Soul Silver and she was the strongest on my team. The game would have taken a different turn had I chosen the other two, but I like Togetic and I liked how it got the fairy type in this run, as Fairy is one of my favorite types. I decided on a whim that I would do a solo challenge, thinking it would be easy. Little did I know the challenges that would come.

No Fairy STAB moves

Togetic doesn't learn any fairy moves. It starts off with the grass-type move Magical Leaf. This is fine at first as it makes fighting Brock and Misty a walk in the park, but it took longer than necessary to get past the Viridian forest. Togetic also doesn't learn many flying-type moves with the exception of flying, but cannot utilise it due to its poor attack stat.

A lot of bug Pokémon are also part-poison. Poison is a prevalent type in this game, and it's Togetic's biggest threat. Don't ask about my first attempt at fighting Koga without the psychic move. Everything post-Misty was an uphill struggle until I got to Saffron city to get the Psychic TM. I won't lie, I lost many battles due to poisoning, thunderbolts, and general bad luck. Instead of resetting, as many playthroughs do, I chose to accept the whiteout to keep the experience.

It was like playing Pokémon for the first time where I had no idea what I was doing. The items had been switched around and so did many tracks and sprites.

Beating the Game

When I did eventually get to the elite four, Togetic was level 76, but I still felt underprepared. Grinding was taking too long, so I just kept going through the Elite Four over and over again until I reached Blue and won. What confused me was that I couldn't teach it Thunderbolt, and yet I could teach it Surf. It doesn't actually learn Thunderbolt anyway, but I realised when I played with the randomiser settings, I had set it so that Pokémon could learn all HM moves. So Togetic's final move-set was Cut, Fly, Surf, and Psychic. Most of the time, the latter two moves were sufficient enough to get by and I entered the hall of fame at level 85.

Lessons learned

• Plan solo runs before carrying them out.
• Get a HM Slave - this would stop me from wasting valuable move sets from my Pokémon doing the solo run as HM moves are harder to get rid of, and impossible to remove in generation one.
• Keep some items nearby. Limiting the items I used greatly delayed the playthrough.
• Check the Pokémon's move pool and stats against the moves available in the game.