Fast-forward and game speed

Pokémon games have a lot of walking, text and grinding. Fast-forward runs the game several times faster so you get through it quicker, and PokeDaisy tries to get out of your way when speed would be a problem: in menus, on the map, and with the music.

You'll find all the speed settings under FF / SPEED at the top of the companion's SETTINGS. The ones you set once and leave, SCENE SPEEDS, FF MODE and FF MUSIC, are a tap further in, on its SPEED OPTIONS page. Most of them are on the top screen's Settings too.

#Turning fast-forward on

There are three ways, and you can mix them:

• The FF row in the companion's SETTINGS: tap it to switch fast-forward ON or OFF. It stays the way you left it, even after you close the app.

• FF TOGGLE, a hotkey that does the same thing. It's on the Tab key of a keyboard by default; you can put it on a controller button under HOTKEYS.

• FF HOLD, a hotkey that fast-forwards only while you hold it: R2 on a controller, or the space bar. Let go and you're back to normal speed.

A short message on the game screen tells you what speed you're at whenever it changes. See Controls, hotkeys and touch to change these buttons.

#How fast: FF SPEED

FF SPEED sets how fast fast-forward goes: 1.5×, 2× (the default), 3×, 4×, 5×, 6×, 8× or 10×. INFINITE takes the cap off and runs as fast as your device can manage.

Higher isn't always better. At 8x or 10x, text flies past before you can read it, and some devices get warm. 2x to 4x is a good everyday range.

#Smart or normal: FF MODE

Fast-forward is great for walking around and terrible for scrolling through a menu, where the cursor flies past what you wanted. FF MODE picks how that's handled:

• SMART (the default) drops to normal speed while a menu screen is open: your party, the bag, a Pokémon's summary, the PC, the Pokédex and the like. It does the same on the game's region map screens (including the one you pick a place to fly to) in FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald and the hacks built on FireRed, so you can move the cursor. Close it and fast-forward picks up again by itself; you never have to turn it back on.

• NORMAL keeps fast-forward on everywhere.

A few things stay fast in SMART on purpose:

• Battles. Attacks, messages and the screens between turns stay fast. While the battle waits for you (picking an action, a move or a target, or in its bag and party screens), it drops to normal speed, so the Pokémon and their boxes move at the game's own pace while you decide.

• Shops. The shop's buy and sell screens stay fast, since the clerk's lines are part of them and would crawl at normal speed.

• The START menu and talking to people stay fast too; they aren't menu screens.

#A pace that sticks: GAME SPEED

GAME SPEED (companion SETTINGS only) changes the game's normal speed rather than turning on fast-forward. Pick 0.25×, 0.5×, 1×, 1.5×, 2×, 3× or 4×.

It's saved for each game separately. Set a hack you're replaying to 1.5× and it opens at 1.5x every time, while your other games stay at 1x. Below 1x the sound is muted. If fast-forward is on, it wins over GAME SPEED; turn fast-forward off and you're back at your game speed.

The SPEED CYCLE hotkey (L2 on a controller, or the = key) steps through 1×, 1.5×, 2×, 3× and 4× and round again, without opening SETTINGS. If you're on one of the slow speeds, it goes back to 1×. Where it stops is saved for that game too.

#Battles, text and menus at their own speed: SCENE SPEEDS

SCENE SPEEDS (companion SETTINGS only, on the SPEED OPTIONS page) gives parts of the game a speed of their own. You can keep walking around at normal speed and still have battles go by at 2x, for example:

• BATTLE SPEED covers the whole battle, from the first message to the last. Its bag and party screens follow MENU SPEED instead.

• TEXT SPEED applies whenever a text box is open on the field: someone talking, a sign, a message after you pick something up. The words come out that much faster, close to instant text. The START menu counts too.

• MENU SPEED covers menu screens: your party, the bag, the summary, the PC, the map and so on.

• BIKE SPEED applies while you ride a bike on the field, and SURF SPEED while you surf (or dive). The whole game runs at that speed meanwhile, so the people and creatures around you speed up too.

Each one is SAME (the default: it follows GAME SPEED, like walking around does) or 1× up to 4×. These apply while fast-forward is off; turn fast-forward on and it wins everywhere. A sped-up scene's music follows FF MUSIC, the same as fast-forward's.

TEXT SPEED shows N/A on a game PokeDaisy can't read text boxes in yet. BIKE SPEED and SURF SPEED show N/A until you've walked around for a moment in a game, and stay that way on hacks where PokeDaisy can't tell yet whether you're riding or surfing: Heart and Soul, SoulGold, Too Many Types 2, Emerald Rogue and Quetzal.

#Slow motion

Hold the SLOWMO HOLD hotkey and the game runs at half speed until you let go, with the sound muted. It's handy for a tricky moment, like timing a button press or watching an animation you'd otherwise miss. On a keyboard it's the minus key; it has no controller button by default, so give it one under HOTKEYS if you want it.

For a slow pace that lasts, use GAME SPEED at 0.5× or 0.25× instead.

#Music while fast-forwarding: FF MUSIC

Sped-up game music turns into chipmunk noise. FF MUSIC picks what you hear while fast-forwarding:

• STEADY (the default) keeps the song playing at its normal speed and pitch while the game races. The song loops where the game loops it, and it carries on through menus when SMART slows the game down, instead of starting over.

• SPED-UP plays the game's own sound at the game's speed.

• OFF is silence while fast-forwarding.

STEADY works by preparing a clean recording of each song from your ROM, in the background. The first time you play a game, it goes through the game's songs once; a song that isn't ready yet is silent during fast-forward. Once a song is done, it's kept, so this only happens the first time you hear it.

#The real-time clock

Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and the Pokémon hacks that use a clock get it from your device. Day and night, berries growing, tides and daily events follow the device's date and time, with nothing to set up. Save files and save states keep the clock, so it carries on correctly.

The clock follows real time, not game speed: fast-forward doesn't make berries grow faster.

A save copied off a real cartridge can carry that cartridge's clock with it, and an old cartridge's clock battery is often dead. PokeDaisy starts such a clock fresh from your device, so the game doesn't greet you with "The internal battery has run dry" and its clock events keep working.

#Rewind

Missed a jump or walked into the wrong trainer? With REWIND on, holding the REWIND HOLD hotkey plays the last 20 seconds or so backwards. It's off by default and never touches your save file. See Saves for how it works.