Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

Hi! Since 2020, we’ve been developing a reinforcement learning (RL) agent to beat the 1996 game Pokémon Red. As of February 2025, we are able to beat Pokémon Red with Reinforcement Learning using a <10 million parameter policy (60500x smaller than DeepSeekV3) and with minimal simplifications. The output is not a policy capable of beating Pokémon, but a technique for producing solutions to Pokémon. This website describes the system’s current state. All code is open sourced and available for you, the reader, to try . As improvements to the codebase are made, the changelog will be updated. What is Pokémon Red? # Pokémon Red, released in 1996, is a single player Japanese role playing game (JRPG) that follows the journey of a new “Pokémon Trainer.” Players capture Pokémon “creatures” to battle against opposing Pokémon, explore the world and progress through the game’s storyline. Pokémon has two goals: Catch all possible Pokémon species. Become the “champion.” We focused on the second ... Read full article.