And he thought: I am a seed

Hey Dune fans, anyway hope you like that title. Today we're going to talk about Pokemon and its random number generator (RNG). The goal was to catch a Shiny Caterpie, we want one with okay stats (so good individual values, IVs), we also want one with a nature that works for us (we are doing a solo Caterpie run so we only have 3 moves, none of which involve Special Attack, so that's our dump stat). We are essentially looking for an Adamant nature, a Caterpie that has higher Attack EVs at the cost of Special Attack EVs. Well, we had to use a different laptop because the BEST way to see the RNG is through Pokefinder. In order to catch the Shiny Caterpie I'd recommend doing my strategy (below is what I posted on im a blisy). im a blisy is a great Youtuber who walked me through most of this stuff. Check out his video here: https://youtu.be/SWTlb1xcU7s?si=upg6hzQNEhJUiuuC

My comment to him: What if I'm just starting out in hgss, I don't have a chatot or anything (only elm so I can call him to frame advance) so I loaded at the exact time (set system clock) but can't verify I'm on the right seed. Right now I guess I'll try catching a few pokemon and then compare them to see if they match up in the frame chart but my shiny Caterpie is on frame 114 so I guess I technically should call elm 113 times and then enter the grass?

I solved my own problem, basically I used Pokefinder and got the SEED, then I had to nail that timing. For me it was using MelonDS and setting the date and time to 2025-01-01 and the time to 4:00:00 (because my Shiny was at 4:00:40). So as soon as I set the time I started a stopwatch, as it was ticking I just clicked Open Recent on the emulator, opened the game, and got to the loading screen, just to my SAVE file and ready to push the button, then I waited until the stopwatch said 40 seconds exactly and I clicked. I got into the game. Now the hard part. How did I check I was on the right seed? Well it was so early game I didn't have a chatot or anything fancy. I didn't even know how to advance frames correctly. THEORETICALLY if I was on the right seed I could have called Elm 113 times (he would just say the same dialog about the egg but at least I know I'd be on the exact right frame). But without knowing I was on the right seed I didn't want to do that. SO INSTEAD I just got the whole list of frame 1 to frame 144 on Pokefinder of all the pokemon I'd see for my seed. Then I proceeded to just mess around and catch pokemon. I wasn't hitting frame 144 but I could tell the Pokemon gender, nature, and special ability. So indeed after a few catches I KNEW I was on the right SEED. I had saved the state so now I have the saved state I just need to advance to 144. I'll report back after I catch my shiny caterpie. So anyone out there needing to catch a pokemon, the way to set the seed is to set your date time, use a stopwatch, and HOPE you're on the right seed. Then just encounter pokemon and check to see that you indeed are.