Guide can be found properly formatted and always up to date here: https://pastebin.com/htx3X4sw
This is a guide for how to beat Pokemon Red without using any TM's (TMless). Teaching TM's to any pokemon for any reason is banned. Since certain HM's are required to progress the game, teaching HM moves is allowed, even nonessential ones (mainly just fly, but also technically applies to flash); however, using any HM moves in battle is banned.
This guide is still a work in progress and is subject to change at any time. This guide also assumes you know the general glitchless route (locations of important items, how to get Instant Text, etc.)
Special thanks to entrpntr for finding a zapdos manip and for helping to route the endgame
The route is the same as glitchless up to Mt. Moon, with small changes: -Buy 6 poke balls in viridian (need 5 and want 1 extra for the bag slot) -Buy 6 potions in pewter, also buy antidote if you used one on weedle (necessary for dugtrio manip) -Money is pretty flexible, so you can buy extra balls and potions if you like, but you then have to do the Pewter shop after Brock -Swap leer and Horn Attack (HA) on third Route 3 trainer -Take the center before Mt. Moon
Mt. Moon: Super Nerd: HAx3, HA+HA(+PS) Get Rare Candy and Escape Rope Lass: HA+HA(+PS) Pallete Moon Manip: Catch Paras Use Moon Stone on Nidorino Rocket: HA+PS, HAx2 Super Nerd: HAx2, HA+HA/PS, HA+HA(+PS) Do Backup Paras if Necessary Pick up Great Ball if doing Stringflow's Dugtrio manip: http://extratricky.com/pokeworld/rb/1#170,47
Nugget Bridge and Bill's House: Take Cerulean Center Get Instant Text Get Rare Candy Bridge Rival: HAx3,HA,HA+PS,HAx2 (swap to bird if sand attack and you are scared of dying) Nugget Bridge: HA until lvl 21 (after mankey), PS if possible After mankey: Rare Candy x2 Teach Thrash in slot 1 (no longer need horn attack) Rocket: Thrash Top Hiker: Thrash Pick up Elixir: http://extratricky.com/pokeworld/rb/1#260,1 Lass: Thrash Boyfriend (not the hiker): Thrash Lass: Thrash Pick up Ether: http://extratricky.com/pokeworld/rb/1#288,3 Talk to Bill
ROUTING NOTE
It is still unknown if doing misty early with nidoking or doing it late with dugtrio is better. Late misty saves about 3-4 turns over the course of the run, but requires extra biking down to vermillion, taking 40-50 seconds. I am of the opinion that early misty is faster, however it is much, much safer to do late misty with dugtrio. If one wishes to do late misty, the only changes from the notes below are to get bike voucher immediately upon entering vermillion, dig out of diglett cave and do misty after getting dugtrio, and rare candying after the second slowpoke in rock tunnel instead after the bug catcher.
END ROUTING NOTE
Early Misty (skip if doing late misty): Bill: Potion to 70+, escape rope -you will be selling all potions in vermillion anyway, so don't worry about running out Get IT Do Misty, Thrash
Get Underground Full Restore
Vermillion: Cerulean Rocket: Thrash Cooltrainers: Thrash If doing late misty, get bike voucher now
There are two dugtrio manips (name one character)
Chillmagic Dugtrio Manip: -E5DF -No setup required (nidoking in slot 1, uses poke ball, still need antidote though) -https://pastebin.com/bKzcP6Ww -This is much faster but has lower HP and defense which makes dying to lavender rival much more likely
Stringflow Dugtrio Manip: -DB2C -Swap Paras to slot 1 -Swap Great Ball to slot 1 -First 4 items must be Great Ball, Antidote, Potion, TM34. Order shouldn't matter as long as Great Ball is in slot 1. - -This is slower because of all the setup but safer for lavender rival
Swap Dig to slot 1 in first fight
Late Misty (skip if doing early misty): Dig out of diglett cave, get bike Bike to Misty Goldeen: Dig Misty: Dig, scratch until less than 37 hp, Dig -You want to take damage here to set up rock tunnel redbar, if not just dig starmie Bike back to vermillion
S.S. Anne: Gentleman: Dig x2 Get Candy Boat Rival: Scratch Pidgeotto (x2-3), Dig the rest -swap to bird if you get sand attacked, missing dig is really slow -if going for rock tunnel redbar you can stall on raticate with growl, but its risky. You want to end this fight at around 11-15 health Get Cut Mart: -Buy 3 repels -Sell antidote, all potions, TM34, nugget, TM28, TM11 Surge Menu: swap slot 1 with repels, teach cut Cans Manip Surge: Dig, Scratch (x2), Dig -can stall on pika, QA does 5-6 with no growls Bike Voucher if don't have it yet, Dig out of voucher house
Rock Tunnel: Get Bike Bike Menu: Swap 2 with Bike, toss tm24, use ether on dig, bike 4 turn thrash: Dig x4 Bug Catcher: Dig x3 Take one step into rock tunnel, then repel
Rock Tunnel (continued): Cubone Guy: Dig x2 Slowpoke Guy: Dig + Scratch -If going in redbar, this fight is super scary -Dig is 41% range with crits -Confusion: 8-10 -Headbutt: 13-16 -Also knows disable Use Elixir (Late Misty) Use Rare Candy on Dugtrio, Teach Slash slot 2 Oddish: Dig x2 (Slash x2 if have it) Hiker: Dig x3 -the rocks love to explode while you are underground it's great (Early Misty) Rare Candy on Dugtrio Teach Slash in Slot 2 Jr. Trainer: Slash x3
Get Max Ether
Gambler: Slash x2 Skip Underground Elixir Take the Celadon Center Shopping: New Shopping! Top to Bottom -Take Elevator to 5th Floor -5 X Accs -5 X Specials -25 X Attacks -1 Fresh Water -1 Poke Doll -10 Super Repels -4 Super Potions -This shopping has 1 extra Acc, 2 extra Specials, who knows how many extra Attacks but its definitely overkill -Note: it's probably worth it to buy a revive here but I haven't worked out the menus for that yet -Another note: if you do this you can't pick up revive in Gio's gym for bag space, have to get fissure, maybe not worth Get Fly
Poke Flute: Fly Menu -Swap 3 with X Attacks -Super Repel -Teach Fly -Fly to Lavender Rival: Slash all -consider saving before, most dangerous fight in the route besides early misty -Pidgeotto: 10-12, 18-22 crit -Gyarados, 57-68, dead to crit -Ivysaur is a 97% range with slash. If you don't want to risk that, Dig is 100% but slower Ghastlies: Dig x4 Pick up the fast Elixir Ghost Menu: Swap 2 with super repels, Poke Doll Rocket 1: Slash, Slash, Slash+Scratch Rocket 2: Dig, Slash Rocket 3: Slash x4 Get Poke Flute
Koga: Fly to Celadon Do not take Center Snorlax Menu: -DO NOT Super repel -swap 5 with Elixir -flute Do Left Side Cycling Road, pick up Max Elixir Safari Zone (2 super repels) Get Full Restore Get Gold Teeth, Surf Dig out, Fly to Fuschia Juggler 1: Dig, Dig, Slash, Slash Juggler 2: i dunno just dig -optimal fight is Dig drowzee, Slash x2 hypno, but since jugglers like switching it can be hard -just improvise and do your best -if poisoned, full restore after fight (dugtrio needs to be alive and not in redbar for zapdos manip) Koga: X attack, swap 4 with X special, X Acc, Dig x4 (X acc for koffing smokescreen and muk minimize)
After Koga: Get strength Fly to cerulean Bike to water Use super repel, swap bike with poke balls, teach strength to squirtle, surf to squirtle Bike to power plant Do Zapdos manip: Name Zapdos one character -Note, leading pokemon must be dugtrio, and first four items must be poke balls, super repels, X Attacks, and X Specials Walk out, swap zapdos to slot 1, fly to Celadon
Erika: Bike to Erika's Gym (bike is down quite a bit, nothing can be done) Exeggcute: Swap drill peck to slot 1, drill Erika: Drill x3 Fly to Pallet
Blaine: Palette menu: swap 1 with bike, use rare candy on Zapdos, use super repel, surf -Rare Candy is done here to give Zapdos less experience (we want to not get level 60 to avoid light screen teach) Do pokemon mansion, get secret key Dig out, fly to Cinnabar, Bike to Blaine Questions: ABBBAB Blaine: x special, x acc, Thunder x4 Dig out
Silph: Arbok: Drill Pick up card key Rival: Tshock, Tshock, Tshock(x2), Drill, Drill -If burned, X attack, after the fight full restore -Drill PP is really tight, need to Tshock Growlithe (86-91% range depending on which Zap you got) Rocket: Drill x3-4 Giovanni: Drill, X attack, Drill, Drill x2, Drill -Nidorino moveset: Horn Attack, Poison Sting, Fury Attack, Focus Energy -Kangaskhan moveset: Comet Punch, Rage, Bite, Tail Whip -Nidorino dies with no setup and has 2 bad moves compared to Kangaskhan's 1 bad move, so setup on Kangaskhan Dig out, Fly to Saffron
Sabrina: Bike to Sabrina Sabrina: Drill x4 -If you run out of drills, Max Ether during the fight Swap Dugtrio to Front, Dig out, Fly to Viridian
Giovanni: Max Ether Drill Peck (assuming you didn't during Sabrina), Bike to Giovanni Cooltrainer: X Attack, Dig Blackbelt: Send in Dugtrio, Swap to Zapdos turn 1, Drill, Tshock, Drill -Need to split xp on Zapdos Pick up Revive for Bag Space Swap Zapdos back to Slot 1 Giovanni: X attack x2, Drill x2, Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill x4
Final Stretch: Super repel, Elixir, Full Restore if necessary, Bike -Since E4 Center is skipped, want very high health for Lorelei, aurora beam does a lot and jynx is a range Viridian Rival: X attack x2, Tshock, Drill x2, Tshock, Drill, Drill, Drill Get Victory Road Full Restore (definitely need 2 full restores, but shouldn't need more than 2, you should have a bunch of super potions too)
Deposit all (keep bird if you want to be safe with revive, Lorelei can be scary) Lorelei: X Acc, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Drill(x2), Thunder -Aurora Beam: 51-60, 108-128 crit -Ice Punch: 61-72, 129-152 crit -Jynx is 62% range with Drill Peck
Full Restore Bruno: X attack x6, Drill a lot, Drill, Drill, Drill a lot, Drill -Bruno's onixes have X Defend and Harden, ideally he uses rage since that locks him into it. 2 X Attacks is optimal for the ranges, but I choose to set up some extra Attacks since the Onixes are so dumb -If drill pecks run out, max elixir during fight
Max Elixir if didn't during Bruno, heal if necessary (night shade does 56) Agatha: (full restore/poke flute immediately if put to sleep), X attack x2, Drill x5 -Mist is really bad, hope she doesn't swap turn one
Full Restore Lance: X Acc, Thunder, X Special x2, Thunder x4 -New low xp route has Zapdos level up after Gyarados, we need both speed badge boosts for Aerodactyl
Champ: X attack x4, X special, Drill a lot, Tshock Gyarados
