Pokemon Red benchmark: Opus 5.5 beats Brock for $8.44; Fable 5.1 needed $99.76

VibeCodyH · reddit · 2026-09-27

PokeBench drops models into a fresh Pokemon Red save, giving one screenshot per turn plus game state and on-screen text — no pathfinding, no map hints, 1,000 turns to beat Brock:

Opus 5.5: beat Brock on turn 271 for $8.44 in 1h06m, never blacking out. The run was decided on turn 13, when it deliberately walked past the first ball: "pick Squirtle, since it's strong against Brock"
Fable 5.1: grabbed the nearest ball and picked Charmander, never considering Brock. It was actually ahead entering the gym on turn 230, then got wiped by a Jr. Trainer's Sandshrew while its reasoning showed pure Tackle brute-forcing
On turn 363 it said it would catch a Mankey to counter — but never went, ground in Viridian Forest instead, and finally won on turn 554: $99.76, 3h17m, three blackouts

Full turn logs with prompts and reasoning are published at pokebench.tv.

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Pokemon Red benchmark: Opus 5.5 beats Brock for $8.44; Fable 5.1 needed $99.76

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