Weird Fishing Glitch Ends Pokemon Shining Pearl In Minutes

Carolio, a speedrunning VTuber, just beat the "Pokemon Shining Pearl" Any% Speedrun record with a time of 15:50. Werster previously held the record at 33:10 minutes, which used an open menu trick to bypass most of the interactions. However, speedrunners like Carolio took advantage of an additional bug to glitch through the Pokemon League and halve the 30-minute record.

In the video, Carolio started tinkering with glitches after they received their first Pokemon. They repeatedly opened up Turtwig in their party menu until the window duplicated, then they closed the duplicate window. YouTuber SmallAnt, who completed a similar run, explained that this tricks the game into thinking both menus are closed when one is still open. Players can then run past trainers and through grass without any interruptions and cutscenes.

The second glitch came into play with the Old Rod, which is the key to bypassing the Pokemon League without actually battling the Elite Four even faster. Carolio applied the Old Rod to two different item slots at once, which allowed them to glitch past NPCs and even float.  Players receive the Old Rod from a Fisherman NPC next to Jubilife City, after which they should head straight to the Pokemon League. 

Carolio's recorded their video in Japanese, even though its text is in English. Luckily, SmallAnt and other Redditors explained for viewers that aren't fluent in Japanese. Here's more background information on this glitch, and what the speedrunning community is expecting next.

Redditor EZScape posted Carolio's playthrough in the speedrun subreddit to let community members know about the new world record. They also offered an analysis on the record-breaking run, like how to strategically stack menus so that there's less time needed to back out of them, and how to skip two Cynthia cutscenes at once. However, they added that small, non-glitch performance differences like "little to no hesitation performing these tricks" and "faster text mashing" also helped shave seconds off of Carolio's time.

EZScape noted that this likely was a "final minute barrier" for "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl," meaning it's unlikely that speedrunners will find more glitches to shorten the playtime. "Now that the game has been patched we'll see less participation in the category overall as runners and routers divert their attention to v1.1.2," EZScape predicted. "This isn't even the main reason, we've just literally ran out of things to skip. Without a wrong warp we really can't go any faster."

Nintendo might patch these glitches, but the speedrunning community could also discover new ones. It's difficult to say how long Carolio's 15-minute run will stay at the top. At the very least, most casual players still seem to be enjoying "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl" without major issues. Well, except for instances like the game-breaking Veilstone City glitch.