01: Littleroot Town

First I want to say -- welcome to Hoenn! Now I admit that the manner by which you arrived was a bit, umm, unorthodox. Your mother is lucky that Child and Family Services did not find out that she had the moving van company pack you in the back of their lorry for the trip, as I am fairly certain that would result in charges! But no worries about all that! You are here! You are home! At your new home! In Littleroot Town! In... Littleroot... Town... Why am I so excited about that?! Littleroot is the armpit of the universe! Nothing ever happens there! There is nothing to do! Oh man! We live in Littleroot Town! That would be like living in Goomeri in Queensland... Actually now that I think on it, you'd be better off in Goomeri actually, they have shops and restaurants and at least something to do. Well I guess we will just have to make the best of it, mate! As you climb down off of the back of the truck your mum comes out to greet you, and takes you inside to show you the new digs, and let you see your new room, which she has had the moving Pokemon unpack for you. I swear if one of the Vigoroth broke my Gamecube I am going to be so... After you check out your room head down stairs where mum will draw your attention to the TV, which has a news crew at the Petalburg Gym, which is the gym your da Norman is the leader for! Sadly you miss that bit, but mum tells you about your Da's mate who lives in town -- Professor Birch -- and suggests that you pop over and say hello! As you hit the front door to your new home this is the point where your new adventures actually begins. You are about to set out upon on epic adventures full of Pokemon, evil trainers, good mates, and good times. Be happy! Deciding who to pick -- The Adventure Begins -Professor Birch lives right next door, which makes this all a bit convenient, so go ahead and pop over to say hello -- but do not expect to meet the Prof just yet, no no. As you go in you will be greeted by Mrs. Birch, who will send you upstairs to meet their daughter May! Now, unlike previous games in the series, May is not your rival -- think of her more as a condescending but helpful older kid who tolerates you because she wants to help you learn about her favorite subject in the whole world: Pokemon! After you have a chat with May and she tells you that she has to go help her da, why not pop in to the Lab to the south end of town and say hello to the Lab Assistant there, and then head to the north path that leads out of town, where there is a little girl waiting. She tells you that there are scary noises coming from the path and asks you to go and check it out -when you do (of course you do!) you find the Professor being chased by an angry Pokemon! He calls for help, and directs you to grab a Pokemon from his bag on the ground! This is where you will be choosing your starter Pokemon -- you can pick from a Treecko, a Torchic, or a Mudkip -- a grass-type, fire-type, and water-type respectively. In the previous games I chose Torchic because they had a decided advantage but in Emerald that has changed. A smarter bet

would be to go with Treecko, because they have a slight edge when you get to the Elite 4, but the thing is, I know Torchic really well, and its moves, its abilities, and style -- so even at a slight disadvantage I can make it sing like a Phoenix! So I chose Torchic. You really need to think this through before you make your choice, because while you will be getting other Pokemon, your starter is always going to be the Captain of your Team, so you should try to pick the one that best fits your style of play. If you are passive, and prefer to fight middle-of-the-road, Treecko is probably the best choice here. If you are a defensive trainer who prefers to use tactics like xx then Mudkip is the obvious choice, while an aggressive trainer who likes to wade right in and kick butt will find Torchic to be the ideal companion. Once you have made your choice, you will find yourself facing a wild Zigzagoon for your very first Pokemon Battle! Now obviously the idea here is to defeat it -- you do not have any Poke Balls, and even if you did, you do not know what you are doing anyway, because you are a total noob in the world of Pokemon Trainers at this point in the story, so go ahead and do battle, with the goal being to KO your opponent! After you win the Prof will thank you and then take you back to his Lab where, after a brief chat, he will gift you with the Pokemon you chose earlier. He then urges you to go and have a chat with his daughter, and effectively dismisses you. That pretty much wraps up your first adventure in Hoenn and Littleroot Town! How about that? -- The Next Adventure -Exiting the Lab we may as well head to the Professor's house now and have another chat with May, but between there and the front door to the Lab you will notice that there are three citizens of Littleroot wandering about -- go ahead and have a chat with each to learn something about computer storage and tidbits about Birch. At the Professor's house, if you have not already done so, chat up his youngest child, who offers you a very friendly greeting. Nice town this Littleroot, has a friendly bunch of people. Sadly when you check upstairs you find that May is not in her room -- so go ahead and leave the house now. ** An Important Bit of Advice ** Before we continue with our adventures in Hoenn I would like to take a moment to have a brief chat with you about your play habits, and in particular making use of the save feature for this title. There is nothing worse than playing for a long time, and then either forgetting to save and turning off the player or worse, running into a string of bad luck that causes something to happen in the game that you would rather had not happened, only to discover that you failed to make checkpoint saves and so cannot easily undo it. There are no automatic saves in the world of Pokemon. You have to actively develop the habit of making checkpoint saves of your own. What I have done is made it a rule for myself to save whenever I enter or exit a building or change zones. That is an easy to remember prompt, and invariably when something bad happens it happens shortly after exiting a building or changing a zone.

I suggest that you get into the habit of doing the same! Second, there is the question of hit points (HP). Unlock many games, simply winning a battle does not restore your HP -- to accomplish;ish that you must rest, or partake of the services of a Nurse in a Poke Center in one of the larger towns, who has a machine that can heal up your team of Pokemon while they are still in their balls. As there is no Poke Center in Littleroot, the developers gave your mm the power to heal -- all that you need to do is enter your house and talk to your mum, and she will automatically put you through the healing process. If you watched the video you will note that before leaving our room on the grand tour of the new house I removed a potion from the PC storage system. The Potions have the same effect as a healing though they are more limited, as where being healed restores all of your HP, Potions only restore up to the amount that is their maximum. ** End of Useful Chat ** So after leaving the Professor's house, drop in and have a brief chat with your mum if you took any damage at all in the battle earlier -- and even if you did not, since being healed also restores the PP of your Pokemon (think of PP as action points -- you only have so many per move, and when you run out of PP you can no longer use that move until you are healed and thus your action points are restored). Now that we have taken care of those minor chores, head outside again and then walk north to the path you originally met the Prof on, where you will find Route 101, which connects Littleroot to Oldale Town. In the tall grass on the Route you will meet various trainers who will talk to you, battle you, or offer you pressies depending upon the trainer. Obviously it is a good idea to talk to any and every trainer that you encounter, because they might offer you useful advice and information, a nice pressie, or the opportunity to pick up a larger chunk of XP than you will receive for wild battles, and maybe some money to help defray your travel expenses if you happen to beat them, which I expect that you will do more often than not. -- Tall Grass -A word about Tall Grass -- that is where you are going to encounter the wild Pokemon that you battle and capture. The Tall Grass is where most of them live, though some also live in water, and in caves, in magma pools, and other odd places. Still the majority live in Tall Grass, and because of that you should expect to encounter wild Pokemon in Tall Grass. Are we clear on that? Good! At the moment you have exactly one Pokemon -- your starter -- who is at Level 5, and only knows two moves -- one offensive and one defensive -- and none of those moves are type-moves. If you examine your inventory you should have your daypack (called a "Bag" in this world), which has a number of pockets built into it: Key Items Pocket: will hold all of the Key Items that you collect in your adventures, and there will be a lot of that sort, believe me!

Items: A sort of catch-all that contains any items that are not part of the type that the other pockets contain. In this case all that you should have in the entire bag is the Potion that we got from the PC in our house, which should be in the Items Pocket now.

Poke Balls: There are actually many different types of Poke Ball, from the bog standard red and white variety to special ones that work on specific Pokemon or under specific conditions. There is also the Master Ball that you will eventually get as a reward, but think long and hard before using that as there is only one of those in the entire game unless you clone it, which though frowned upon is fairly easy to do once you have access to a special area of the game called the Battle Frontier, but more on that subject later!

TM's & HM's Pocket: This is where you will store the Technical Machines (TM's) and Hidden Machines (HM's) that you encounter in the world. A TM is a one-time use move teaching device that is destroyed when you use it, but that can teach a useful move to one of your Pokemon. An HM is a more sturdy device that can be used over and over again, but is also much more rare, and only teaches special moves of a sort that you will need to move the story forward, reach special areas in the game, or otherwise perform special functions.

Berries Pocket: This is where you will store the many different types of Berry you encounter in the game, berries that are used for a variety of functions, making special items that are used to permanently enhance a Pokemon's abilities for competition, or that have specific temporary effects when they are consumed by your Pokemon. As berries never go bad, and the bag will hold an unlimited amount, you should actively acquire any that you find.

That takes care of your bag -- the only other possession you have that is worth noting is your Trainer Card, also reached through the Pause/Inventory Button, which will eventually contain all sorts of useful information about you, including statistics and the badges you have earned. At the moment all that it can tell you is your name, the amount of time you have played the game, and how much money is in your wallet. Not that this is not useful information mind you, but later you will find that the ID card is actually useful beyond that. The Option selection can be used to alter certain aspects of the game, like how fast text messages are displayed on the screen -- I suggest that you change it to the fastest setting -- the borders used in the game interface, and the sound style. Go ahead and change anything there you think needs tweaking but remember to save after leaving that sub-menu or your changes will not be permanent. -- Route 101 -Route 101 links Littleroot with Oldale Town, and contains a number of Tall Grass spots and trainers for you to meet. It is your first Route in the game. -------------------Route 101 Area Pokemon Report #261 Poochyena (C) #265 Wurmple (C) #263 Zigzagoon (R)

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See that enclosed section above? That is the Pokemon Report for this Route -- you will find one of these at the beginning of each new Route or area in this guide. Its function is to provide you with a list of all of the wild Pokemon that are available in the current area. You will use that information to see which are here that you do not already have both for their Dex Entry and for your collection. The Report lists the Pokemon alphabetically, staring with their Dex Number (Pokedex Number). You do not have a Pokedex yet -- you will shortly receive one -- but if you are not aware, the Pokedex is an electronic device with an advanced AI that is used to record information about Pokemon you encounter that it does not know about already. Among other things, the Dex will keep track of which you have seem and which you have captured (an important bit of info). The listings above use the National Pokedex Number for each Pokemon. You will not obtain your National Pokedex until near the end of the game, and many of the Pokemon you encounter will be numbered with the Local Version of the Pokedex instead of the National Version until you acquire the National Version. The reason that we use the National numbers here in place of the Local is simple: you will use these Reports after obtaining the National Dex in the process of completing your Dex in the later stages of the game, so having them listed this way is actually advantageous for you. Each listing shows the National Dex Number, the proper name of the Pokemon, and in parenthesis its CURL Rating, followed by any notes about it that may be important. The CURL Rating is actually meant to indicate how rare that particular Pokemon is, and is named after the code that is used to indicate that rarity. The full CURL codes are: (C) Common (U) Uncommon (R) Rare (L) -- Legendary When a Pokemon is (C) Common, that means you will encounter it a lot. When it is (U) Uncommon, not so much, and when it is (R) Rare, that usually means considerable effort is necessary to find and catch one. The notes section will contain information like any special method you need to use to capture the Pokemon; for example Pokemon that can only be captured by using the move Surf will be so noted. Pokemon that you must fish for will have the Rod Type you need to use to catch them listed, and so on. -- Back on Route 101 -In the Tall Grass on your left you will encounter a trainer who will tell you about the Tall Grass! After your chat with him, if you like you can troll in the Tall Grass for some wild battles in order to pick up some XP. It would not be a bad idea to level your starter to around 7 or 8 now, just to give you a bit of an edge. When you battle you may take damage. Once the damage gets to a certain point your Pokemon is at risk of getting incap'd (incapacitated) -- which is a bad thing. Before their health gets that low, head back home and have your mum heal you up, then you can return to the Tall Grass and continue leveling.

This sort of leveling activity is something you will be doing a lot as you play the game, between your battles with other trainers (battling other trainers is always preferable to wild battles because it pays out in XP and money), so you may want to get used to the notion. Trolling the Tall Grass is also largely how you will go about finding Pokemon to capture and add to your collection, but you need Poke Balls to do that and we have none at the moment! One good reason to level up early is that other than TM and HM moves, the primary means for your Pokemon acquiring new moves is through leveling. For example if you chose Torchic (I did), you will find that when they reach Level 7 they will learn the move Focus Energy, a passive move that raises their critical-hit ratio, and at Level 10 they learn Ember, a fire-type that is also the first of their TypeMoves that they learn. When you have finished leveling to your satisfaction, continue along the Route and you will meet a trainer who tells you what to do when your Pokemon are tired. Past the last patch of Tall Grass is the town of Oldale!

02: Oldale Town

As you enter the town you will immediately spot the Poke Center (it has an orange roof and the letters "PC" on its front). To its right is a house, and north is another house, while to the northeast is a blue-roofed building you will come to know as the best place in the world for buying kit! That is the Poke Mart! For now, head inside the Poke Center and talk to Nurse Joy behind the counter to have her heal your Pokemon. Good on ya mate! You have used the Pokemon Healing Station for the first time! You will be using the services of Nurse Joy and her identical twin sisters all over the land a LOT! Now first, have a chat with everyone here and you will learn a bit about this place. Now head to the corner where there is a PC set up for trainers to use. Configuring your Storage Boxes -- Poke Center PC -This PC can actually access two different systems -- the PC you have at home, in which you may store items and receive mail, and a special PC that is part of a global network of Poke Centers in which you can store actual Pokemon! At the moment as we do not know who the inventor of this awesome device is it is known simply as "Someone's PC" to us. This PC contains 14 boxes, and each box can hold 30 Pokemon, which means that in addition to the 6 Pokemon you can have on your team at any time, you can store up to 420 Pokemon in the digital storage system, and gain access to them at any Poke Center in the region, as well as at certain other buildings that have PC's connected to this network. The first thing that you will want to do is edit the boxes to reflect their basic function, a practice used by most professional trainers to simplify the collection and storage of Pokemon. The basic steps that you will want to take are as follows: Box 01 -- Change its name to "A-Team" and set its Wallpaper Box 02 -- Change its name to "B-Team" and set its Wallpaper Box 03 -- Change its name to "Fire/Fgt" (for Fire and Fighting Types) Box 04 -- Change its name to "Grnd/Rck" (for Ground and Rock Types) Box 05 -- Change its name to "Bug/Gras" (for Bug and Grass Types) Box 06 -- Change its name to "Water" (for Water Types) Box 07 -- Change its name to "Flying" (for Flying Types) Box 08 -- Change its name to "Normal 1" (for Normal Types) Box 09 -- Change its name to "Normal 2" (for Normal Types) Box 10 -- Change its name to "Misc 1" Box 11 -- Change its name to "Misc 2" Box 12 -- Change its name to "Legendry" (for Rare and Special Pokemon) Box 13 -- Change its name to "Outgoing" and set its Wallpaper

Box 14 -- Change its name to "Incoming" and set its Wallpaper

This nicely covers the sorting in a way that matches the distribution of types that you will collect, giving you a place for each. Note that the way that the box system works, whatever the box was set to that you quit the last PC session was is the box that any new Pokemon will be placed into when you capture a wild one and your team is full. That being the case, you want to ALWAYS quit the PC on the Incoming Box, right? This system allows that you will always know what Pokemon are new, and where they are, so you do not end up having to hunt through boxes to find them to sort them out! Every so often you will want to visit a PC and sort out the new ones in the Incoming Box to see to it that they get put where they need to be. The first pair of boxes that you named "A-Team" and "B-Team" you use to conveniently keep the team that you use for the game -- the A-Team -- and the team you use to battle other real life trainers -- the B-Team -- as configuring and training will be different for both types of battling. Once you have the boxes squared away, take a quick peak upstairs -- this is the area you will use to interact with other trainers in real life, as it has a special room for battles, and another for chatting and trading Pokemon. As it is presently under construction (it stays that way until you have X number of Pokemon in your collection) head back downstairs once you have had a look see, then go ahead and leave the Center. -- Oldale Town -First have a chat with the bloke standing by the house to the east -- he is from the Poke Mart and will give you a bit of a tour, then gift you with a free Potion! After you chat with the various people outside and inside the two houses, head to the Mart to shop. Sadly they are out of Poke Balls! All that you can purchase are kit items like Potions, Antidotes, Paralyze Heal, and Awakening -- nothing we absolutely need at the moment, so after checking out the menu, quit out. On the counter to the left is a piece of paper -- go ahead and move to it and open it, and you will see that it prompts you to enter a phrase. This is the trigger that unlocks the Mystery Gift System, and we may as well do this now so that it is done! For the first word, select the Section "Trainer" and the word "Link" -- for the second, select the Section "Conditions" and select "Together" -- then the Section "Endings" and the word "With" -- and finally the Section "Endings" and the word "All" before hitting OK. What you have done is unlock the Mystery Gift System, but it will not actually activate until after you link to another gamers Pokemon to battle or trade -- after which when you turn the game on you will have the Mystery Gift Menu Selection thereafter available from the Start Menu. Now that we have taken care of all that, head to the north exit of town and use it!

-- Route 103 -Route 103 links Oldale Town to Route 110, and is the direction that we need to go in so that we can meet up with the Professor's daughter May. Be aware that this meeting will immediately result in a Pokemon Battle! -------------------Route 103 Area Pokemon Report -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #278 Wingull (U) -- #263 Zigzagoon (U) -------------------After you enter the Route you will find a ledge blocking the way, and forcing you to go through the Tall Grass. There is a trainer here that remind you that Potions are a great idea, and then after the second patch of Tall Grass you will find May waiting. This would be a very good time to Save Your Game! May wants to establish the pecking order with you right off the bat -- you apprentice, May master -got it? Well we cannot have that, so I sincerely hope that you leveled your Pokemon to at least Level 7 so you can kick her butt! Her Pokemon will be whatever is strong against the one you picked -- meaning that it will not be the same one as you picked, and it will not be the one that is weak versus your Pokemon's type, got it? Good.

-- May Battle Number One -If you have not leveled your Pokemon to Level 7 minimum go do that prior to talking to May. Walk up to May and say hello -- she will be recording information into her journal when you approach, and you will surprise her. Without giving you the option to refuse she pushes you into Battle Mode. For my battle -- and yours if you chose Torchic like I did -- she has a Level 5 Mudkip. The fact that it is Level 5 is fortunate, because if it were a higher level it could know a water move, which would be deadly for Torchic! Beating her -- you did win right? -- gets you a reward of $300 and the satisfaction of winning. After the battle May compliments you and then departs, telling you that she is returning to the Lab. Now would be a good time to save your game. Return to town by jumping down the ledges rather than going through the Tall Grass, as you took damage in the battle. When you get to town the first thing you should do is have Nurse Joy heal your Pokemon, and then save the game again. -- Leaving the Center -After you leave the Poke Center you run into May again outside, and she encourages you to return to Littleroot Town and her father's Lab. She must have a reason for being so enthusiastic for us to come back home and visit the Lab, right?

Using the ledges it is a quick and safe trip back home, and when we arrive at the Pokemon Lab we find May waiting for us with her father, who greets us as we arrive! First he tells you what May told him about your battle, and then as something of a reward he gives you the Pokedex that he says he ordered for himself (May already has her own). Birch tells you all about the Pokedex and what it does, and then May acts as if she was not standing right next to him while the entire conversation took place and he gave you the device and is surprised that you now have a dex like hers! May has her own rewards to gift to you -- Poke Balls! That is a most excellent reward for several reasons -- one, we really need those balls if we are going to start building teams and filling that Dex, and two, now that May has shared some balls with us, the Poke Marts will suddenly be able to sell us more! ** A word on Poke Balls ** The Poke Balls that May gave us are the bog-standard common type, but all that means is they have the normal capture rate of the standard Poke Ball. With that in mind, it is time to reveal that there are in fact many types of Poke Ball, normal and special, with each type having strengths and weaknesses built into them. The different types of Poke Ball are: -- Dive Ball: 3.5 x chance for capturing water Pokemon underwater. -- Dusk Ball: Works best at night or in caves. -- Great Ball: Has a higher chance of capture than the Poke Ball. -- Luxury Ball: Same chance as Poke Ball but increases rate of "Like" in Pokemon. -- Master Ball: Will capture ANY Pokemon without fail. -- Nest Ball: Higher chance on weaker Pokemon. -- Net Ball: Increased capture rate on Bug-type Pokemon and in water. -- Poke Ball: Standard ball with regular catch rate. -- Premier Ball: Commemorative ball with same stats as regular Poke Ball. -- Quick Ball: Best capture rate when used at the beginning of a battle. -- Repeat Ball: 3x chance for capturing types you already have one of. -- Safari Ball: Used only in the Safari Zone to capture their Pokemon. -- Timer Ball: Capture rate improves the longer a battle takes. -- Ultra Ball: A much higher capture rate than the Poke and Great Balls. Poke Balls are sold at Poke Marts and also are received as rewards for quests and sometimes found. When you are purchasing the standard Poke Ball from a Mart, ALWAYS buy them in lots of 10 balls! The reason for that is because the Poke Marts have a standing special that gives you a free Premier Ball whenever you purchase 10 regular Balls. Note: the list of balls above presents the balls you may encounter in this game, but does not represent a full and complete list of Poke Balls, as there are other types from the other games as well as these.

-- Our Pokedex -As she gives you the Balls she tells you about her plans to capture the most Pokemon, an admirable goal to be sure! Now that we have our own Pokedex, what do you say we take a look at it? The main page of the Dex (or Index Page) contains a summary of our Dex Contents including the number of Pokemon that we have seen, the number we actually own, and a search button for use when our Dex is so full that scrolling through the listings is no longer practical. To the right is the listing Index that we can scroll through to find the Pokemon we want to look up. The first thing that you will likely notice is that the Dex contains an entry for every Pokemon that we have encountered in the game up to this point! That is rather odd since its function is to automatically scan any Pokemon we encounter and then add them to its database, but we did not possess it when we saw these Pokemon! Still it is rather cool that it does this since we now have a short-list of what Pokemon we can definitely capture in the areas that we have visited. When I opened my Dex for the first time it showed me entries for: -- Torchic -- Mudkip -- Poochyena -- Zigzagoon -- Wurmple -- Wingull Note that Mudkip is the starter Pokemon that May chose, and is not encountered ANYWHERE in the region in the wild, so discount that from the list above, and of course discount our Torchic, and that leaves four Pokemon that we can and should capture to add to our collection. You will also note in the Dex that any Pokemon that we own or have owned / captured have a regular Poke Ball symbol to the left of their Local Dex Number, which is good for letting us see which we have and which we do not. In addition to that, you will note that the Dex is displaying the Pokemon by their Hoenn Region number scheme rather than the National Dex numbers that we use in the guide here. As mentioned previously, later in the game you will unlock the National Dex, and it is after that point that you will begin to seriously start capturing Pokemon to complete your Dex, and that is why they are listed by their National rather than Local Dex Numbers. Go ahead and move the Dex selector to your Starter Pokemon's entry and click the action button to open it up. As you can see there is a lot of information about your Pokemon -- a page containing a basic description, The Local Dex Number and proper name start the page, followed by its vital statistics, and a representation of its footprint. Below that is a description of the Pokemon that includes any special or helpful information that you may need to know when you battle or capture it. The next page shows a map of the region, and if this were a regular Pokemon that could be captured in the wilds of Hoenn, the map would indicate -- using colored shading -- what specific areas of the region this Pokemon can be found in -- if it could be found in the region, which it cannot.

The next page utilizes the built-in audio player and sound sampler for your Dex, and allows you to play a recording of your Pokemon's basic cry so that you can learn what they sound like. That can be useful whenever you are moving through large areas of Tall Grass, because when you get close to a Wild Pokemon who is concealed in the Tall Grass you often hear their cry. The final page for each Dex entry contains a standard size comparison image represented by a shadow outline of you, and one of the Pokemon, in order to give you a perspective based on yourself. While the Dex contains entries for Pokemon that we have seen (but have not owned or captured) these entries are very basic indeed, containing only its Local Dex Number and Name, its Cry, and the area that it can be found in on the Region Map. -- Home Again -Once you have finished examining the Dex, go ahead and leave the Lab, returning to your house in town, where you will find your mum standing outside waiting for you to come home! She asks if you spoke with the Prof, then notices your new Pokemon and tells you how adorable it is. Recognizing that as you are now well on your way to becoming a Pokemon Trainer you will likely be spending a lot of time away from home and, more to the point, doing a lot of traveling, she gifts you with a pair of Running Shoes. -- Running Shoes -Mum gives you instructions on how to use the new shoes -- simply hold down the B-Button when walking to run. The Running Shoes are not added to your Key Items Pocket since you are actually wearing them, so this is the only description that you get in the game, but as is often the case with items in these games, there is a bit more to them than is evident. - Wild Pokemon: When you are using the Running Shoes in regular areas they double your movement speed, but beware! When you use them in Tall Grass they also double the rate at which you encounter wild Pokemon! In simple terms, if you wish to move through a section of Tall Grass without a wild Pokemon encounter, you should walk, not run. - Trainers: Normally the trainers that you encounter are a predictable lot; they stand around wherever it is that they happen to consider their spot, and look this way and that. If they are the fighting sort -- and you have never fought them -- then the first time that they see you and you are within their range (around four squares usually) they will automatically engage you in battle. Fighting these guys always gives more XP than a wild Pokemon battle, and also results in some amount of money as a prize when you beat them, so unless your team is injured it is generally a good idea to go ahead and battle them. Ah, but if your team is in fact hurt, you may not want to fight them, so you will likely wait until they are looking in some other direction and try to sneak past them. Well, if that is the case DO NOT RUN. Using the running shoes to run makes noise, so when you try to run past them they will naturally turn, see you, and go into battle mode. To get past them you will want to walk, not run. Easy-peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Now that you have your new shoes, head inside to talk to your mum and heal up, then head back outside to test out your new shoes. Run back and forth a bit to try them out - pretty spiffy addition to your kit, eh?

03: Team Building

At this point we have pretty much moved through the bulk of the kit, we have covered all of the basics, and we have advanced the story to the point where it actually has direction, so what we need to do now is concentrate upon our first baby-steps in building our Team and our Dex entries -- and a good place to start in that direction is to cover the Tall Grass patches that we have already passed through in the previous two sections, only this time as we have balls, rather than kill every Pokemon we encounter we should try to capture one of each as well! Getting your Freebies at the Poke Mart -- Poke Ball Rules -The process of capturing a Pokemon is actually pretty simple -- you troll the Tall Grass until you flush one out, then you battle it. Your goal is to hurt it until you lower its health into the early yellow or red zone and then, using the Poke Balls, you try to capture it. With any luck, and assuming that you have weakened it sufficiently, you should be able to capture it with ease, but there are some rules that you need to be aware of: 1. Lower-level Pokemon (those under Level 7) can often be captured with a standard Poke Ball without needing to be damaged or given a state condition. 2. Pokemon above Level 7 should always have their health reduced as low as you can before trying to capture them, in order to prevent yourself wasting balls in failed attempts. 3. Balls that fail to capture a Pokemon are broken in the process and cannot be re-used. 4. With high-level Pokemon, weakening should always be combined with a state condition such as sleep, frozen, or paralysis, as these state conditions can assist in the capture process. 5. Burn and Poison are undesirable state conditions for use in capturing Pokemon because they continue to do damage over time. When you have lowered a Pokemons health into the red, these two conditions can incap it, which is an automatic fail and prevents capture. 6. Pokemon that belong to other trainers -- such as those encountered in trainer battles -- can NOT be captured. Attempting to capture a Pokemon that belongs to another trainer will get you labeled as a thief. Who wants to be lumped into the same category as Team Rocket?? 7. The graphical indicator that appears on the ID bar for wild Pokemon that you battle to indicate when you have already captured one of that type does NOT indicate the sex of the Pokemon that you have captured. If you caught a male of that type, when you battle a female it will still show as captured even though you have not captured a female of that type. When hunting for breeding pairs you need to be aware of which sex you have, and which you still need.

Your first Wild Pokemon Capture -- First Capture -Right then, it is now time for us to go and capture our first Pokemon and start to build our team and our Dex. As there are sections of Tall Grass between Littleroot and Oldale, and as May has given us five balls, we will go ahead and capture a few on our way back to Oldale Town, but remember that we need to stop at the Poke Mart to purchase more Poke Balls when we get there. In the first section of Tall Grass we can (and should) capture the following: -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #265 Wurmple (C) -- #263 Zigzagoon (R) Once you have captured these three Pokemon, continue to Oldale Town and the Poke Mart, where we will re-supply our Poke Balls. Remember to ALWAYS purchase balls in lots of 10 so that you receive a free Premier Ball! Now that we have some more Balls, head north onto Route 103, where we can capture the following Pokemon for our collection: -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #278 Wingull (C) -- #263 Zigzagoon (U) If you ran out of Balls earlier and did not catch one of the two that are common to both Routes, go ahead and capture one now. Otherwise concentrate upon capturing a Wingull here. When all is said and done, you should now have five Pokemon on your active team who will all be at different levels -- if you are up for it now, you can take your first adventuring break now and level them up. Our target is Level 8 for all of the Pokemon on our team -- but you may want to hold off on doing that until you have the full team, which you will in a bit. It is your call whether you level now or later... -- Special Ability Notes -Among the Pokemon that we have just added to our team is the Zigzagoon, a dog-like Pokemon that is extremely loyal, ferocious in its defense of its master, and perhaps even more interesting, imbued with a Special Ability called "Pickup" that allows it to find items on the ground after battles. Specifically it gives each Pokemon with that ability a 10% chance of finding an item on the ground following a battle and picking it up. This is an important ability because it can be the source of items and wealth that will help to make your life ever so much easier on the long road to becoming a Pokemon Master, but only if you are shrewd about it! The quality of the items is directly impacted by the level of the Pokemon with the ability -- for example if it is Level 4 and under it will pick up a lot of Potions -- which is a good thing, do not get me wrong -- but higher levels get things like X-Defend and X-Attack and the like, while the upper

level range will often find Rare Candy and lumps of gold. Obviously you will want to level up your Pickup Team when you have the time, as the rewards for doing so are easy to see! After you have obtained all of the Pokemon noted above, head back to the Tall Grass on Route 101 and capture five more Zigzagoons -- and store them on the bottom level of your A-Team box. These are the members of your Pickup Team. Whenever you feel like it, have some spare time, or need money or items, simply swap them in to your active team, and go trolling for items! In no time at all your Pickup Team will be full of items! Just remember to stop every now and then and take the items that they find away from them, as they can only find one item at a time, and if they already have an item in their possession, they will not pick up any new items that they find! -- The First of Many Leveling Pauses -Now that you have obtained the Pokemon available on these Routes, and you have assembled your Pickup Team and stored it in your A-Team Box, if you have not already done so as suggested earlier, it is time to level up your team. Why? Good question! The process of batch-leveling your team is something you had better get used to, because the reality is simple: you can progress far further and faster along the story route in this game than you can level. What that means in its most basic definition is that you can easily find yourself facing a team in a gym battle that is WAY out of your league if you simply keep rolling forward without actually preparing for these battles. How do you prepare for the battles? By batch-leveling of course! Your team at the moment consists of the five Pokemon noted above. Before we start batch-leveling, go ahead and step out of Oldale Town onto Route 102 now (we have not yet formally covered this Route, but we will soon -- for now do not worry about that). Head onto the Tall Grass near the pond on this Route and capture a pair of Ralts (technically you only need one for your team and Dex, but shortly you will have the opportunity to do your first ingame trade, and for that you will need a spare Ralts!). You can also capture a Seedot and a Lotad if you like, and really the Lotad can be used in place of the Ralts for your team temporarily, that is your call, but the point of this is to assemble a full team of six Pokemon for the batch-leveling we are about to do! With your team now full, head back to Oldale Town, which is a convenient place to do your first batch-leveling because the Poke Center is right there, making healing up so easy. Granted the wild Pokemon you will encounter are not high-level but slow and easy wins the race, mate. At this point, your team should consist of the following: -- #XXX Your Starter Pokemon -- #261 Poochyena (C) Dark Type -- #280 Ralts (R) Psychic Type -- #278 Wingull (C) Water/Flying Type -- #265 Wurmple (C) Bug Type -- #263 Zigzagoon (U) Normal Type

You may notice above that I listed them by number and name, but this time I included their Type as well. There is a reason for that! Ideally your team members should all be different Types -- that way you have maximum flexibility for a given encounter, with the ability (hopefully) to switch to a Pokemon Type that is strong against whatever Type you are battling. Some Pokemon -- the Wingull above for example -- are dual-Types, which is a good thing, and eventually your team will consist mostly of dualies, but for now the make-up of the team is good for what we are doing. In theory you could actually use what we have above to play through the entire game without much trouble! Now is the time for you to batch-level your team to a minimum of Level 8. Higher would be better, but you can live with Level 8 for now... Be aware though that after we reach the next town and before the town after that we will need to raise the entire team to Level 13, so any extra Levels you pick up now are bonus! Your first Pokemon Evolutionary Change -- Evolution Solution -When your Pokemon each reach a specific level, they will evolve, changing from one form to another. For most Pokemon, the evolutionary process involves three stages -- the starting stage, the intermediate stage, and the final evolved form. Often you can actually capture Pokemon in all of its different stages of evolution, but most trainers prefer to start with the first form and evolve them through the chain themselves because it gives you maximum control over what moves they learn via evolution and leveling. Take Wurmple for example -- its intermediate stage is a Pokemon called Cascoon, which is clearly a cacoon-stage, so you can easily imagine what she will look like after the next evolutionary stage, which also happens to the the final stage. The important point here is that the Casoon now has all of the offensive and defensive moves that Wurmple had, plus the evolutionary move Harden. If you had captured this Pokemon in its Cascoon stage of evolution, the ONLY move it would know is Harden, which is purely a defensive move, making it next to impossible for you to properly level it since it cannot do damage! Thus starting with the Wurmple stage is clearly a better approach. -- And Onward We Level -As you level up your team you can use several different tactics, either leveling each one at a time until you get them to the level you want, and then starting on the next, or simply level them by using each to fight until their health is too low to risk it, and then switching to the next, until you need to hit the Poke Center to heal them all (that is how I usually do it). In this fashion you can quickly level up your team with everyone staying pretty much within one level of each other -- though that approach is not really as important now as it will be later in the game, it is still a good habit to get in to! Keeping level parity in your team is always a good idea but it will be very important later on, when you are facing much higher level Pokemon.

I know that level breaks are a pain -- and this is your first of many, so while it may suck, you really need to embrace the suck and remind yourself that you only have to do this once! Each time they level that is a level you will not have to level again :) On Leveling Ralts: There are few Pokemon as troubling as Ralts when it comes to leveling them, as it only gains its first offensive move (Confusion) at Level 6, and the one you will have caught will be either Level 3 or Level 4. The best tactic here is to place it in the lead spot on your party, and each time you troll up a wild battle, immediately switch it out for a Pokemon that can actually fight. Doing this will earn Ralts half of the XP for the battle. While it is a slow method to level, it will work, and once you have them to Level 6 you can stop doing it. Whoa! You are done already?! That was fast! Well, excellent! Now that you are done with the leveling you have essentially completed this Part of the Guide! Good on ya mate! Before you continue on from here though, please visit the Poke Center in Oldale Town, heal up, and make sure that your PC storage is set to to the Incoming Box, since we will start to acquire Pokemon shortly that will be sent directly to the box from now on. With all of those ducks in a row, go ahead and save now, and then head for the exit on the West side of town for the next stage in our adventure!

04: To Petalburg City

As we depart from Oldale Town via the west exit to Route 102 it is something of a false start, as we are not actually on our way to Petalburg City just yet! In fact our destination is the Tall Grass patch to the north just after entering the Route, near the pond. -------------------Route 102 Area Pokemon Report -- #270 Lotad (R) -- #261 Poochyena (U) -- #280 Raltz (R) -- #273 Seedot (R) -- #265 Wurmple (C) -- #263 Zigzagoon (U) -------------------As you can see from the Report above for this Route, there are three Pokemon we do not have (well, technically two as I suggested that you get a Ralts earlier). Regardless of what you have or have not accomplished here, you need to obtain the following in total before we can move on: 1 Seedot 1 Lotad 2 Ralts That is 1 each for your Dex and to store in your boxes for possible future use on your team and for leveling for the Dex forms, and an extra Ralts because ahead on our journey is a bloke who wants to trade you for that extra Ralts, which will give you the chance to complete the first of a handful of ingame trades. While these are not always to your advantage, they are an element of the game, and so they are worth completing when doing so will not harm us. The benefits of using your Pickup Team -- Trolling for Ralts -As you troll for Ralts and the others, I have a suggestion to make: combine this with leveling your team towards the Level 13 mark. By doing that, you make it a lot less painful as a batch-leveling session. There is another thing you can do to alleviate some of the pain -- prior to departing the Poke Center in Oldale Town for this troll run, place three or four of your team in the A-Team box, and replace them in your team with members from your Pickup Team. Really all that you need is the Pokemon you are actively leveling, and your starter to be there in case of emergency, so it can bail you out. That leaves four slots you can fill with Pickup Pokemon, which means four chances after every battle to get free stuff. To put this in perspective for you, in addition to Potions and X-items, you can also expect to get berries, Repels, Escape Ropes, Great and Ultra Balls, and every now and then, a Rare Candy! Now

clearly that is worth doing as it requires practically no effort on our part! Just a trip back to the Center every now and then to heal and, once you raise your active Pokemon a Level, a quick trip to swap in the next active one. If you proceed in this fashion you should pick up items that you can sell, which will allow you to add items to your kit from the store that you actually want -- like more Poke Balls, and status fixers. Obviously this is your call, but we need to add those Pokemon to our Dex anyway so... -- Off to Petalburg City -OK we have obtained the Pokemon we need, picked up some levels and some free stuff, and added some good things to our kit. All of the members of our team should now be at least Level 8 (higher is better), and we now have a full team with a good selection of Types, so it is time to actually head for Petalburg. Leaving Oldale, go ahead and have a chat with the trainer in the grass to the north to learn that he plans to catch "a whole bunch of Pokemon" and the bloke to the south who will present you with your first official trainer battle that is not with May! Youngster Calvin presents you with a Level 5 Poochyena, which ought to be a cake walk for you at this stage, playing off 58 XP and $80! Bug Catcher Rick is a bit further along the path, and he has a pair of Level 4 Wurmple worth 45 XP each, and $64. The short trainer in the Tall Grass is there for some light comic relief, but the trainer in the area above them is serious about wanting to battle. Youngster Allen has a Level 4 Zigzagoon worth 51 XP, and a Level 3 Taillow worth 37 XP and $48. Petalburg CIty is to the left, while to the right are some berry trees. If you do not know, Berries are used in the game to make competition items and also for their direct attributes. They can be collected, and they can be planted in the soft soil in order to grow more. Heading west towards town you encounter another trainer, Lass Tiana, who sports a Level 4 Zigzagoon worth 51 XP, and a Level 4 Shroomish worth 55 XP and $64. From Tiana head directly south, jumping the ledge here to find a Treasure Ball with a Potion in it. After grabbing that head back up to the main path and continue west to the entrance to Petalburg! -- A look Around Town -Head into the Poke Center to heal and save, then chat with the people inside for information purposes. Next stop is the Mart to chat and re-supply any kit you used. The bloke by the pond will tell you that as you have six Pokemon in your team, any newly caught ones will be sent right to your storage box in the PC -- but you knew that! Talk to the people wandering around - and the ones in the two houses in the proper part of town before you head west past the Gym, where a bloke will stop you and school you on what you are supposed to do whenever you enter a new town -- report in to the Gym! Of course what he does not know is that this particular Gym happens to the one our Da is the leader of!

You may as well go into the Gym now, because that annoying little bugger is going to keep you from heading west or visiting the house north of him until you do. The old man is very pleased that you are treading the path of the Pokemon Trainer, but before his happiness can truly manifest a kid comes into the Gym -- the Wally that that girl is looking for -- so now we know where Wally is! Your Da loans Wally a Pokemon and instructs you to help the boy catch one for his own -- and no, you cannot politely decline, saying you have an appointment at the dentist, or you left the sushi on the grill... Wally leads you off to the east, where if you can believe this, he teaches you how to catch Pokemon! As if we have not already caught like five?! Blimey! Then to add insult to injury he captures a Ralts. He has ONE Poke Ball, ONE. And he captures a Ralts. Sheesh! After you return to the Gym your Da tells you to head for the next town and battle the Gym Leader there, because you are not worthy to battle him yet. Well fine, we wanted to do that anyway! After leaving the Gym pop into the house we could not enter before to meet Wally's parents, and then take the western road out of town! As you are about to step over the town line you are stopped by a stranger, who walks up to you and pretty much insults you. Great, first your dad tells you you are not worthy to battle, and then this bloke tells you that you resemble nothing like a trainer! Collect your bad mood and hit the road, mate!

05: The Trek to Rustboro City

Leaving Petalburg we instantly step on to Route 104 -- thanks to your Pickup Team you should be well found in Potions, Poke Balls, and kit. When I arrived in Petalburg I had 6 Super Potions, a Hyper Potion, and 26 Potions, Antidotes, Repels, Escape Ropes, 3 Ultra Balls, and 7 Great Balls, all of which I had acquired through pickups. In addition to that I had 20 Poke Balls that I bought, and some kit items to correct stat issues that I also bought, having made a mint in X-items that I could sell thanks to that cadre of loyal and helpful Zigzagoon -- how did you do? -------------------Route 104 Area Pokemon Report -- #183 Marill (C) -- #261 Poochyena (U) -- #276 Taillow (U) -- #278 Wingull (U) -- #265 Wurmple (C) -------------------As you can see from the Report, there are two Pokemon that are new to us on this Route, so assuming that you have been following this guide and have the ones that you should have if you have been, now all that we need do is capture a Taillow and a Marill! By the way, the Marill is actually a Pokemon from the previous generation Dex, which you can tell by its National Dex Number, just so you know. Ahead on the Route is a bloke with some basic advice to weaken them before capture, and then you have a choice to make -- head north into the Tall Grass, or south, then west, then north onto the beach? For now go ahead and walk into the Tall Grass to the north, right? Remember -- the Gym Leader in the next town has a Level 15 Pokemon among her team, so you are not going to want to avoid any fights for now, because we need to level our team up! Getting the team to all 15 would be great, but if you have them all at Level 13 or so you can still deal with the Gym Leader, so it is your call how high you train them. I went to 15 just because that is how I roll! You should quickly capture the Marill but the Taillow is going to take more effort -- which is fine! Remember to alternate your team members so that they level closely together, and set your target level now, then stick with that plan! You should find that it is now a lot easier to stay in the field and level without having to worry about health, but remember you have those Potions, so use them if you need to. North of the Tall Grass is a cabin with a girl in the road in front of it. If you talk to the girl she will tell you about who lives in the cabin. A visit to the cabin reveals it to be empty -- at the moment. Now head back to the entrance to the beach and down the stairs and you will encounter a young girl who though not a trainer herself, gives you useful advice about dealing with trainers. Walking a patrol-pattern on the beach nearby you will find a trainer you can battle -- Youngster Billy, who has a Level 5 Zigzagoon worth 63 XP, followed by a Level 7 Seedot worth 111 XP and $112.

After the battle be sure to remember to check your Zigzagoon -- you should still have one in your party, and he does have the pickup ability! It would be a shame to have him find things and you not take them, right? Up the beach a ways is a pair of blokes who you want to say hello to; one will wax philosophically while the other will battle you! Fisherman Darian has a Level 9 Magikarp -- not precisely what you might think of as a challenge... Still the Magikarp may not be much in this form, but its next form after it evolves is rather interesting. After you battle this one, which is worth 37 XP and a whopping $360 bounty, go have a look at its Dex entry (#129). It is a first generation Pokemon, and while it is mostly harmless, it evolves into a Gyarados (#130) which is anything but harmless! Notice that boat moored to the dock nearby? Yeah, that will become important later, but for now just mark it in your mind and head back up to the main road. Ahead on the path is a pair of Berry Trees, and to the west is a set of Tall Grass and an exit to the north, along with a young female trainer named Lady Cindy who has a Level 7 Zigzagoon worth 90 XP and $1400. -- Petalburg Woods -As you walk past the white picket fences that lead into the dark and foreboding path into the woods you feel a slight chill on your back and arms -- something is odd about this place. You cannot put your finger on just what it is that stands out in your mind, but there you have it! -------------------Petalburg Woods Area Pokemon Report -- #268 Cascoon (U) -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #276 Taillow (U) -- #285 Shroomish (U) -- #266 Silcoon (U) -- #287 Slakoth (R) -- #265 Wurmple (C) -------------------Of the seven Pokemon found here, only two are truly new to us, but we actually need to get three here. Of the three, Slakoth is going to be the hardest to find and capture. This is the only area in the game that I know of where it can be captured, and while its form is not exactly a great one, it evolves into a form that is actually desirable and strong... Plus you need it for your Dex, so you may as well bite the bullet and troll one up. Note: if you have one from another game, transferring it into this one is the way to go here, because that way you do not have to spend the time it will take to troll one up!

Now moving on, there is the two cacoon-form Pokemon that evolve out of Wurnple. What I did not mention before when we obtained our Wurmple and evolved it into a Cascoon and then Dustox is that the Wurmple actually has what is called a split-evolution chain. -- The Curious Case of Wurmple -Wurmple is at its base appearance not what you might think of as a powerful Pokemon, but like many types, as it evolves it grows into a strong Pokemon with good moves in its level set. When the Wurmple makes its first evolutionary change, that change can go two different ways depending upon a hidden value called its Personality Score. If the Personality Score is 4 or below, the Wurmple evolves into a Silcoon at Level 7, which then evolves into a Beautifly at Level 10. If the Personality Score is 5 or above, the Wurmple evolves into a Cascoon at Level 7, which then evolves into a Dustox at Level 10. Chances are very good that your first Wurmple evolved into a Dustox, like mine as that is the more common line. The easy way to get the Beautifly is to capture a Silcoon -- but in that form the Pokemon has no offensive moves, which makes leveling a pain in the buttocks, and is the reason that there is a sign posted in the woods to remind you how to level under those conditions. So even though there are only two Pokemon that are new, we actually need to capture three Pokemon here -- a Silcoon, a Slakoth, and a Shroomish! -- Back in the Woods -As you venture forward you notice a sign sticking out of the ground ahead, and walk over to read it: "Trainer Tips -- Any Pokemon hat appears even once in a battle is awarded EXP Points. To raise a weak Pokemon, put it at the left of the team list. As soon as the battle starts, switch it out. It will earn XP without being exposed to any harm." To the west in the grass is Bug Catcher Lyle, who has four Level 3 Wurmple worth 34 XP each, and just $48 in prize money. Now head east through the Tall Grass to encounter a bloke wandering around in the woods looking for hidden treasure -- and that is your first hint that there are hidden objects that you can find. A good way to find that sort of thing is to use the action buttons on objects like stumps, rocks, boulders and the like, as well as odd spots on the ground that look different than the regular ground. To the south is a path -- following it will take you to the elevated area that we passed by on the first part of Route 104 that we could not reach with a trainer and a treasure ball. Talk to the trainer to learn what you already know -- trying to capture a Pokemon that belongs to another trainer makes you a thief. The treasure ball on the ground contains a Poke Ball -- so grab that now, then retrace your steps back to the woods. Head back to the west and into the Tall Grass past the trainer, where you will find another treasure ball on the ground with a Paralyz Heal, so go ahead and grab that now.

A rude introduction to Team Aqua -- An Introduction to Team Aqua -As you work your way along the path through the woods you will encounter a trainer who is looking for Shroomish -- but just as you start to chat another trainer (a bad one) pops out! Evidently he had been laying in wait to ambush the first trainer, but the bloke was taking too long so he decided it was time to simply attack! The good one is called Devon Researcher, and he seems to have some research papers that the bad one is a dressed in the uniform of Team Aqua -- hey! This is your first introduction to Team Aqua! How about that?! The Team Aqua Grunt wants the research papers very badly -- bad enough in fact to be willing to kill you to get to them. As he demands them, the Researcher hides behind you! It looks like it is up to you to deal with this miscreant. The Team Aqua Grunt pulls out his only Pokemon -- a Level 9 Poochyena -- but that is no threat to us! After we take it down we are rewarded with 105XP, and $180 -- and the satisfaction of protecting the weak. The Researcher rewards you with a Great Ball -- which would likely be the first one of those we received in the game if not for our Pickup Team. Still, not a bad reward! After giving you the reward he takes off for Rustboro to warn the officials that Team Aqua has something planned there, and you are left to make your way out of the woods. Further along the path you meet a trainer who has some good advice for you, and then you naturally run into yet another trainer, but this one wants to battle! Bug Catcher James has a pair of Level 6 Nincada worth 82XP each, and $96. Above James on the ground is a Treasure Ball with an Ether in it -- those are always good to find, as Ether will restore 10 PP (Power Points) for a given move, which is useful if you run out of PP. A nearby sign tells you about PP as well as HP, so you may as well read it. Past the sign is the exit from the woods, which leads to the continuation of Route 104. To the east of the exit path are a pair of odd-looking trees that, if we had the move Cut, we could remove to enter that path. As we do not presently have that move, we will just have to remember that is there and return when we can actually cut down the small trees! -- Back on Route 104 -As you re-enter the Route you will see to your left (west) a trainer standing near some Berry Trees. Go over to chat with him to learn that he likes spitting seeds out of his mouth -- which is probably more information about him than you really wanted to know -- and then gives you a gift! TM09 -- Bullet Seed! If you open your bag to the TM and HM Pocket and highlight that TM you will see that it shoots 2 to 5 seeds in a row at an opponent. This move can only be learned by specific Pokemon, none of which are in our party, but you can boot it up anyway just to see how that works. Good on ya mate! You have acquired your first TM!

Grab the berries here and then look to the north where you will see a building -- the Pretty Petal Flower Shop -- which you should now enter! Inside you should chat up the people as they will fill you in on Berries, and one will give you the gift of a Wailmer Pail -- a Key Item that you will need later so do not forget to get it here! The young girl in the back of the shop will give you a random berry every so often, so go ahead and talk to her whenever you are in the area, right? She also tells you about the Berry Candy you can make from the Berry that is used in competitions, which is worth the read. Back on 104 be sure to read the sign to learn about Double Battles -- as you are about to have your first one! Challenge the trainer nearby, Rich Boy Winston, who has a Level 7 Zigzagoon worth 90XP and $1400. A few steps further on the path and you run in to Lass Haley, who has a Level 6 Lotad worth 04XP, and a Level 6 Shroomish worth 82XP and $96. The Shroomish also gives you your first taste of the move Absorb, which will suck a small amount of life away from your Pokemon! As you move along the path towards the bridge you will see another Cut Tree with a Treasure Ball past it we cannot reach yet, and on the bridge is our first Double Battle! Let us get to it! Trainers Gina and Mia are twins who will battle you at the same time, using their Level 6 Seedot and Lotad, who are worth 92XP each, which is split between your two Pokemon. You receive $144 as your reward for winning this battle, so good on ya, mate! On the shore at the end of the bridge is Fisherman Ivan, who has a Level 5 Magikarp worth 21 XP, a Level 6 Magikarp worth 25 XP, and a Level 7 Magikarp worth 30 XP and $280. Don't forget to grab the nearby berries and chat up the old woman near them who will give you a bit of advice and a free berry! All that remains is for you to walk to the end of the path and enter Rustboro City! Well done!

06: Rustboro City

Welcome to Rustboro City - the first large city on our adventure. While this does not really qualify as a metropolis, Rustboro is a major city for the Region, and that is fitting as we have a lot to do here, starting with talking to pretty much everyone outside in the streets -- so let us do that now! We start by talking to pretty much everybody who is out in the streets -- you never know what you will hear or find doing that. After you finish doing that head back to the south entrance to town and follow the outside black fence until you can slip in behind it. Walk along its inner edge to the back area where you will find a Treasure Ball that contains X-Defend. Starting with the buildings on the south side of town, head into the large gray one, which is housing for the Devon Corporation. Chat up the people you meet here to obtain a Premier Ball, and learn that the company president collects rare stones. The brown building to the east to hear some naming philosophy, and the Pokemon Trainer's School above that to learn about misc Pokefacts -- then talk to the teacher at the back of the room to receive a Pokemon Hold Item called a Quick Claw. The blackboard at the back by the teacher -- actually it is more of a green board, but still -- will teach you everything you need to know about Stat Conditions. In the front left corner is that bloke who insulted you earlier -- turns out that his name is Scott. To the west of the Poke Center is Cutter's House, where you can obtain your first HM -- HM01, which contains the move Cut! Remember, HM's allow you to teach the move multiple times, whereas TM's only let you teach it one time before self-destructing. You are likely remembering those funny trees we could not cut down that we saw earlier -- but before you run off to chop-chop-chop you should probably be made aware that we cannot use this move outside of battle until we obtain the Gym Badge! -- A Smile a Day & Hidden Game Goodness -In the building to the north of the Poke Center on the second floor there is a concerned father standing by the bed of his little girl -- a little girl who it appears needs to be cheered up. Surrounding her bed is an impressive collection of plush stuffed Pokemon dolls, but as you chat with the father there is nothing here to indicate to you that something quite special is hidden in your interaction with him! The bloke is Mr. Pepper - and the little girl is named Walda Pepper. She may be ill, or just depressed, who can say? But what she wants and what her Da wants is for her to be cheered up, and to make that happen she needs to hear a funny word. The hidden part of this is that if you can give them the right words, you can unlock special PC Box Wallpaper! This is not the first time that Game Freak has hidden this sort of thing in one of the games, but it is the first time that it was so discretely placed!

The easiest way for you to take advantage of this opportunity is for you to visit the website at Filb (http://www.filb.de/games/gba/emerald/word?lang=2) where you can find the Pokemon Emerald Secret Word Generator! On this website you can generate the words that you need, based upon your game and Trainer ID number. Just fill in the requested information and then create your own wallpaper and click the "Generate Secret Word" button. The word is not really a word at all, but a code that is case-sensitive and will create the wallpaper image that you design on that web page -- in your game! Once you have created the wallpaper you want, go to Rustboro and chat up the Dad, tell him the code, and he will create the wallpaper for you because it makes his daughter laugh! Simple as pie! After you get your new wallpaper, when you use the PC to change the wallpaper for a box simply select the "FRIENDS" option instead of one of the previous ones and voila! You get the new wallpaper! Now how cool is that?

Your first in-game trade: a Ralts for a Seedot -- First In-Game Trade -In the small house to the east of the Pokemon Gym is a bloke who will trade you a Seedot for your Ralts -- remember when I said you would need an extra Ralts? Well, this is why! So grab your extra Ralts and put it in your party, then return here to trade it with him. Sure we already have a Seedot, but hey, it is part of the game -- and on the off-chance that you did not capture a Seedot, well, now you have one! The animation that you just saw during the trade is the same one that you get when you trade Pokemon with another human player -- just an interesting factoid! The last building save for the Gym is the largest -- the home of the Devon Corporation. I guess you could say that this is a company town, and if it is, well then, this is the company! Inside you run into a bloke who points out the Running Shoes your mum gave you and tells you that they are a product made by Devon Corp! Sadly the door to the stairs that lead upstairs is blocked, and we cannot get past it right now... Ah well, head outside now then. -- Preparing for Our First Gym Battle -Now that we have explored the city and taken care of the extras that are part of that, it is time for our attention to turn to our first Gym Battle and scoring our first Gym Badge. But before we do that, how is your team's condition and level? Ideally you want to go into this Gym Battle with a minimum of your team at Level 13. You can win it with them leveled to that point, though it will be a battle and you will probably end up with some of your team incapacitated and having to use kit and potions to make it happen. A smarter approach would be to level your team to Level 15, but that would take some time and effort on your part... But let me tell you why that is not a bad idea...

So far we have largely faced wild Pokemon and trainers with Pokemon that were below the level of those on our team, so the battles that we have been fighting have been rather one-sided (you have to admit that). Ahead of us the wild Pokemon and the trainers will be rapidly increasing in level, and that means that the upcoming battles are not going to be the exercise in just picking the correct move that the past battles have been. It should be obvious to you that you are going to have to level your team at some point ahead, so why not do it now, when it is convenient to your needs? There is Tall Grass quite close to town, which means that when you need to heal and recharge that is a trivial matter, and the Pokemon here are not so high a level that they will cause you too much trouble, but are high enough so that leveling off of them is actually worth it. No more 2's and 3's in the Tall Grass, nuh uh! Instead there are 6's and 7's which pay out a bit more XP per match, not to mention that there are some Pokemon that we need to capture on the Routes north and east of town anyway... So what do you say, mate? Up for a bit of batch leveling? Excellent! -- Batch-leveling near Rustboro -As the early parts of this game are partly a challenge of managing resources, trotting out your Pickup Team -- or at least some of it -- to use while you level here is not a bad idea at all. For one thing it will add items to your kit that you can really use, and it will get you items you can sell so that you can stock up on stronger Poke Balls. I call that a win-win, and you should too! So before you start to level, head back to the Poke Center and drop 3 or 4 of your main team into the A-Team Box, sort out the Pokemon that are in the Incoming Box, and then add in some of your Pickup Team before heading to the northeast Route out of town, Route 116! -- Route 116 -One of the two Routes leading out of town in the direction we want to head, Route 116 presents the opportunity to pick up some new Pokemon as well as some Treasure and a chunk of XP from Trainer Battles -- pretty much like any good Route! -------------------Route 116 Area Pokemon Report -- #063 Abra (U) -- #290 Nincada (C) -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #300 Skitty (R) -- #276 Taillow (C) -- #293 Whismur (C) -------------------We need a total of four of these Pokemon for our Dex -- by far the highest new to old ratio in a Route yet! Getting Whismur and Nincada is easy, Abra a bit more difficult, but Skitty requires serious dedication!

Abra may be the one that gives you the most trouble in actually capturing because it flees as soon as you attack! An alternative to that frustration is to simply lob an Ultra Ball at it as soon as it appears -- an almost certain capture! The treasure ball in the bottom section of Tall Grass contains a Repel -- always a useful item to have, especially in caves! Nearby is Bug Catcher Jose with his Level 8 Wurmple worth 90XP, and a Level 8 Nincada worth 85 XP and $128. School Kid Karen is to your east with her Level 9 Shroomish worth 102 XP and $180. Youngster Joey is to the north with his Level 9 Machop worth 175XP and $144. The Trainer Tips sign is worth reading, as it teaches you how to halt a Pokemon from evolving by pressing the B-Button during an evolution. You may want to do that if there is an evolutionary move that they only learn at a higher level or, more likely, you want them to retain their current form as is the case with a lot of cute Pokemon. Head further east now, past Karen to where there is a group of trainers in the open area past the Tall Grass. Hiker Clark and Youngster Johnson challenge you to a doubles battle -- they bring out their Level 8 Geodude and Shroomish, worth 146XP and 110XP respectively, and a Level 8 Lotad worth 126XP, and $448. Hiker Devan has a pair of Level 8 Geodude worth 147XP each and $320. To the north is the Tunneler's Rest House but the entrance is blocked by an out of work Tunneler for now. To the north and west is a raised area that we cannot get to with some Trainers and stuff, but we need to be able to use Cut, so that will have to wait for later. To the east is some ledges -- if we climb up there is a Treasure Ball with an X-Special, and above that is one of the locations that we can create a secret hideout at once that ability is unlocked later in the game. For now head back to the west, continue leveling and capturing the Pokemon we do not have yet for this Route, and when you are finally ready and your team is at the level that you want for the big Gym Battle, well then, head for the Gym! -- Rustboro City Gym Battle -As you enter the Gym you will notice a bloke standing beside one of the statues -- this is the Gym Greeter and there is one in every Gym. It is his job to provide you with information that may be helpful to you in defeating the Gym Leader -- in this case he tells you that Roxanne -- the Gym Leader here -- is a user of Rock Type Pokemon. He adds that Rock Type are vulnerable to Water Type and Grass Type Pokemon, which is very good advice. Before you can battle the Gym Leader you will have to battle the AGL's -- Assistant Gym Leaders. There are usually several in each Gym, positioned between the door and the Leader. So let us ready ourselves and, when you are good to go, start taking out the AGL's! Youngster Josh is waiting for you at the entrance to the mini-maze with his Level 10 Geodude, worth 212 XP and $160.

The next battle is a Double with Youngster Tommy and Hiker Marc, who each have a pair of Level 8 Geodude worth 146XP each, and $448. That battle clears the way to the Gym Leader, Roxanne! If you had to use a lot of PP or took any damage, go ahead and hit the Center to heal up and save, and then return for the Leader Battle! Your first Gym Leader Battle with Roxanne -- Gym Leader Roxanne -She opens with her pair of Level 12 Geodude, worth 220 XP each and follows with her Level 15 Nosepass, which is worth 346 XP and $1500. She awards you with the Stone Badge, which boosts their attacks and allows you to use the move Cut outside of battle. She also gives you TM39, Rock Tomb. We should cover a few things now... You notice that the Nosepass used a berry to heal itself, and when you lowered its health Roxanne used a Potion on it? Those are common events in Gym Battles, and you need to plan for them as part of your strategy! For example if you know a move will bring the opponent very close to incapacitated, you are better off using a lesser move to reduce their health at the top end, so as not to trigger the use of a potion by the Leader, and then use your killer move to KO the opponent, thus depriving the Gym Leader from having an opportunity to use a Potion! In addition to the Badge and the cash, it is customary for Gym Leaders to gift you with a TM of one of the moves that their Pokemon knows and that you may have faced in the battle. Remember TM's can only be used one time, so think long and hard about which Pokemon to use it on, or even whether you should use it now or not. As you leave the Gym following the battle you witness a Team Aqua Grunt running down the street and a Devon Corp employee chasing after him - clearly the Grunt has stolen something! If you chase after them -- they took the eastern road -- you will run into the Devon bloke who turns out to be the same one you helped back in the woods. He tells you about being robbed and asks for your help -- sort of. It would be an idea to heal up and save at the Pokemon Center before you head off on yet another adventure, mate!

07: Bound for Dewford Town

Now that you have healed your Pokemon and saved the game, go ahead and take off after the Team Aqua Thief -- the tunnel is closed, so he is not going anywhere! You corner the Grunt inside the unfinished tunnel, where he has effectively trapped himself, and of course he tries to fight. He has a Level 11 Poochyena worth 129XP and $220, and the Package containing the Devon Goods. You also rescue the Pokemon he had taken hostage, so good on ya mate! When her owner turns up to claim her you learn that he is the famous Mr. Briney! Well how about that?! On your way back out be sure to grab the Poke Ball that is in that Treasure Ball above, and then head back to the Devon Researcher to return the package - but on the way you remember that area we could not get to because of the tree? Yeah! Let's cut that sucker down! Above is a Treasure Ball, but to get it we have to do a Double Battle first. Lady Sarah and Rich Boy Dawson have a Level 8 Lotad and Zigzagoon worth 126 XP and 103 XP respectively, and a Level 8 Zigzagoon and Poochyena worth 103XP and 93 XP respectively, plus $3200! The Treasure Ball contains a Potion -- so bonus! Now cut the next tree for the next battle! School Kid Jerry has a Level 9 Ralts worth 135XP and $180. Lass Janice has a Level 9 Marill worth 111XP and $144. The Treasure Ball past the next tree has an Ether - which is always a good thing to find - and of course you can get berries from the trees here! When you are done getting the berries hook up with the Researcher. Saving the Devon Corporation -- Devon Corporation Redux -Our reward is another Great Ball from him, but this time he decides we should meet his boss! We are teleported to his bosses office, and then he asks you to deliver the package for him - of course you say yes! When you meet the President he asks you to deliver a letter to Stephen in Dewford Town on your way to Slateport City -- and as payment for the favor he gives you a device called the PokeNav! In addition to giving you a map to use, this thing has other uses, though at the moment you only know about two, the map and the condition assessor that allows you to check the contest condition of your team. GO ahead and leave the building now that you are rested and rewarded, and as you leave another Researcher stops you -- he wants to upgrade your PokeNav! The upgrades are a Match Call that allows you to ring up people you have met, and a utility that allows you to view any Ribbons that your Pokemon have won! Now how cool is that?!

-- To Dewford Town -Right, so you remember where Mr. Briney lives? Well, go there now, as you are going to get him to sail you to Dewford on his boat! As you are leaving the city May stops you and, after trading Match Call numbers, challenges you to a battle that you win easily! Now, on the way out, remember that spot near the other side of the bridge with the Treasure Ball behind a tree? Well cut it down to grab the X-Accuracy, then head to the cutable trees just inside the woods and cut them next! Follow that path east to find a trainer who will give you the Hold Item Miracle Seed, and then grab teh Great Ball from the Treasure Ball farther east. Head south on the path, jumping down ledges to get an X-Attack from another Ball, then south to exit the woods on the ledge above Mr. Briney's Cottage! How convenient! Jump down and then go inside to say hello, whereupon he agrees to take you on his boat to where you need to go! First stop, Dewford! -- Dewford Town -At this point you have leveled enough so that you no longer need to be told the stats for each of the trainers, as the only reason we were noting that information was so that you would be prepared to battle them with the right level gap. Provided that you follow the leveling advice in this guide from here on it will no longer be an issue for you! Along the way your Dad gives you a ring on your PokeNav, and then you arrive! Talk to the people wandering around -- one is a Fisherman who gives you his Old Rod, which means you can now capture a Magikarp! In the house by the dock a trainer gives you a silk scarf, and in the house above that you can take part in the Top Conversation craze. -- Dewford Gym -As you enter you will notice two things -- it is very dark in here, and you are standing in a small circle of light. Talk to the Gym Greeter to learn that the Leader here is into Fighting Types and to learn how to increase the size of your circle of lighe -- by defeating the AGL's! That is pretty much everything that we need to know! Now let us locate the first AGL and pound them into the dirt, shall we? Head up and right and then down to find your first battle... Battle Girl Laura haas a Level 13 Meditite worth 253 XP and $312. True to the word, after you defeat her the circle of light grows a little bigger. From here head up and right then up to find the next battle, which is a Double! Battle Girl Lilith and Sailor Brenden are waiting for you, and they spring their trap with a Level 13 Meditite and Level 13 Machop! They recieve 121XP each from the Machop, 126XP each from the Meditite, and $728 as their reward! The circle grows a lot bigger thanks to beating a pair of trainers at once time, but as we can now see that this was a dead-end passage in the maze anyway, it is clear that we need to backtrack and then

go up! If you stay towards the right once you are heading up the hall to the left of the pair you will encounter your next trainer! Battle Girl Jocelyn has a Level 13 Meditite worth 253 XP and $312. Down a short way and left is the next opponent. Black Belt Cristian has a Level 13 Makuhita worth 241 XP and $416. Now our circle of light is very large, so we can easily see to head down and left to the next opponent! Black Belt Takao has a Level 13 Machop worth 244 XP and $416. As that is the final AGL, and as we used a fair bit of PP here, it is time to leave the Gym and head back to the Poke Center to heal and save! If you need to replace any kit items before you face the Leader do that as well, but you should quickly head back to the Gym to take down our second Leader and, naturally, win our second Gym Badge! Note: I was able to do the entire set of battles save for the Double on with just my Wingull, whose Wing Attack is deadly to Fighting Types. YMMV, but doing it that way quickly leveled them to Level 19, making Wingull the perfect team member to take on the Leader! Dewford Gym - The Second Gym Badge is Ours! -- Brawly: Dewford's Gym Leader -Standing on his platform is Brawly, a Leader who believes in the Fighting Type. It has been my experience for whatever that is worth that sticking to a single Type is folly, because a well-spread team can eviscerate you. Which we are about to prove here! He leads with his Level 16 Machop worth 301XP, and follows with his Level 16 Meditite worth 312XP. His final Pokemon is his Level 19 Makuhits, which does require a bit of care in handling. You can do it though - and the 354XP this guy is worth should get you another level! Your reward is $1900 and the Knuckle Badge. With this badge Pokemon up to Level 30 -- including those you acquire in trade -- will fully obey you! You can use Flash outside of battle, and he gifts you with TM08, Bulk Up, as well. Good on ya mate! That is another Gym down and an important badge as it now allows you to raise your Team Level beyond 20 without any risk! Head to the Poke Center to heal and save now, and replace any kit you used up in the battle, and then head for the beach mate! -- Dewford Beach -Known as a resort destination, Dewford's pristine beaches are famous for their excellent fishing and topless sunbathing. Serious Pokemon Trainers however are only interested in the Beach for its proximity to the entrance to Granite Cave, the go-to destination for trainers everywhere looking to expand their Dex!

-------------------Dewford Beach - Route 106 Area Pokemon Report -- #129 Magikarp (C) Fishing: Old/Good Rod -- #072 Tentacool (C) Fishing: Good/Super Rod -- #320 Wailmer (U) Fishing: Good/Super Rod -------------------As we only have the Old Rod at the moment we can grab a Magikarp - and we should! When we collect the other Rods we can manage the rest of these. As you leave town you will notice that there are trainers on the beach ahead -- battle the trainers above to reach the cave on the beach -- Granite Cave -- and head inside. -- Granite Cave -Talk to the Hiker here, who will give you HM05 -- Flash - which as you know we can now use outside of battle. Yay us! He tells you that Stephen came this way, which is good to know as we need to deliver that letter! -------------------Granite Cave Area Pokemon Report -- #063 Abra (U) All Floors -- #304 Aron (C) 2nd/3rd & 4th Floor -- #074 Geodude (U) 1st Floor & Rock Smash -- #296 Makuhita (C) 1st/2nd & 4th Floors -- #299 Nosepass (C) Rock Smash -- #302 Sableye (U) 2nd & 3rd Floors -- #041 Zubat (C) All Floors -------------------As you can see there is a mix of generations present here, but a lot of Pokemon that we need both for our Dex and because there are some awesome Pokemon here! Not only can we use this place to fill up some Dex entries, we can also level here, and this is a really good time and place to take our team to Level 25, so do that now. As you head along the first floor there is an Escape Rope in a Treasure Ball -- be sure to grab that -and then you take the ladder to the next floor, where you need to use Flash. As you head along take the path that branches down to grab the Treasure Ball that has a Poke Ball in it. Work your way east to the ladder to the 3rd floor and you will pass a raised area with a rock on it. Go up the stairs here, face the rock, and press the action button to obtain the Held Item Everstone! The Everstone is an item that, when held by a Pokemon, automatically prevents them from evolving! So if you wanted, for instance, to keep your Torchic a Torchic simply have it hold this item, and it will always BE a Torchic!

Take the next double-set of ladders and you will reach an area that is well lit -- this is the 4th floor and the last stretch to reach Steven! Just fight your way along and through the exit at the end and you will find him standing in the middle of a narrow canyon-like area. Walk over and chat him up to learn that he is also in to rare stones. As a reward for delivering the letter he gifts you TM47, Steel Wing! Excellent move! You exchange PokeNav numbers and then Steven takes off. Now at this point you are free to do some batch-leveling, so go ahead and run your team up to Level 25 now if you have not already done so. Be sure that you have captured at least one of all of the Pokemon from here, and come see me when you are finished leveling, right? Wow! That was fast! Excellent! Now go ahead and leave the cave -- or you can use an Escape Rope to instantly exit if you like, as that is a bit faster. Walking out or using the Escape Rope will get you to the entrance to the cave. As we have done all that we needed to do here for now, it is time to return to the docks and Mr. Briney to finish our mission and deliver that package to Slateport City!

08: Slateport City

When you arrive it becomes very clear that this is not a small no-consequence place! In fact it appears to be a major resort destination of the sort Dewford can only dream to be! First get the exploration bit out of the way but talking with everyone and battling the trainers here on the beach. A young bather gives you Soft Sand, and if you walk in just right you get a Double battle that could have been a triple if the game allowed it! There is a second Double near the Treasure Ball, with the two trainers hidden under beach brollies, so you do get some decent XP from this beach! Inside the Treasure Ball is a Potion, so be sure to grab that. You get a call from Roxanne as you approach the Seashore House -- go inside to have some more trainer battles and learn where Paris Hilton learned the phrase "That's Hot!" from. After you beat all of the trainers talk to the bloke in the back and he will give you some free soda pop as he is very impressed by your battling. -- Slateport Market -North of the Seashore House is the Slateport Market, a place that should be of considerable interest to any Pokemon Trainer! Among the items that you can purchase here are plush stuffed Pokemon Dolls (something to remember for decorating your secret hideout later), special stat-altering items like Protein, Iron, and etc. Next to the bloke who sells the stat items is a woman who will award your fully-trained Pokemon with the Effort Ribbon if they have earned it. A bloke who belongs to the Secret Power Consortium who will only sell to you if you have that, and a woman who will give you an important Key Item called a Powder Jar that you will use for making Berry items. Pop into the Pokemon Fan Club to learn the move Swagger, be interviewed on TV, and if your Pokemon really loves you, a girl in the back will give you a Soothe Bell held item. Be sure to chat up the Chairmen (sitting on the couch) before you leave. Visit the Name Rater's house to have him consider the names you have chosen and, if he thinks you can do better, help you change a name. Visit the Battle Tent and talk to the trainers there to obtain TM41, Torment, and learn how the events work by chatting up the bloke at the counter. If you want to battle here go ahead, I will wait for you. Ready to go? Excellent! Hit the Poke Mart to stock up on kit -- including Great Balls -- and then the Center to heal and save. Now for the interesting bits... Make sure you buy a Harbor Mail while you are here, I will explain why later. Walk past the long line of Aqua Thugs to the boat building building, and chat up the Engineer, who will ask you to go find Captain Stern, That sounds like a great idea!

He was not upstairs in the boat building building -- God I love saying that -- boat building building... Muahahahaha! So I went to the Museum and saw that the line was gone, so what the heck! Why not go inside? On the second floor we find Captain Stern, who is happy to get the package we came to deliver, but just when we think we have done well along comes Team Aqua to screw up our day! Well obviously that cannot be allowed to happen. Battle Mode! If you trained your team into the 20's this guy was a push-over. And so was his buddy! The leader - Archie -- shows up to tell you off, then you deliver the goods to Stern and he takes off, and hey, mission accomplished! When you go downstairs one of the Aqua Grunts has remained behind -- if you talk to him he gives you TM46, Thief, because he feels guilty for what he tried to do to you! As you leave the museum, Scott, the bloke who insulted us and is looking for Pokemon Masters walks up to have a chat. He swaps PokeNav numbers with you and then takes off. Odd bloke that Scott! The real reward for delivering the Package! -- Collecting the Real Reward -Now before we do anything else, we need to head back to Mr. Briney and take his boat back to Dewford, and then to Rustboro. I know, every other guide in the world tells you to head north from here to continue on your adventure, right? Yeah, well those guides were written by Trainers who do not understand the importance of the item we are going to be rewarded with. Because of that, and their failure to return and collect our rightful reward, they made the game 10 times harder on all the poor trainers who used THEIR guide! So trust me mate, this is worth the effort and the time it will take. Head back to Briney and take his boat back to his Cottage now. Run through the spooky forest, over the bridge, into town, and up to the President's Office to tell him of your success, and he will be pleased! So pleased, in fact, that he rewards you with what has to be the most time-saving uber item in the game: the held item EXPERIENCE SHARE! "What's it do mate?" I hear you asking. I will tell you that, yes I will! What it does is give the Pokemon that is holding it HALF of the XP from ANY BATTLE. Whether they were in the battle or not. Now, think on that a minute mate. You can now power level your weaker Pokemon using your stronger ones without having to swap them out! This will not only make it easier to complete your Dex, it will make leveling your Team easier, especially later in the game when you need to swap in new members that have to be leveled up to the team's level! You don't have to thank me, mate. It is my job to give you the good info, so just say "Good Job!" and we will leave it at that! Right, now we have to go back to Mr. Briney and use his boat to get back to Slateport -- but along the way I want you to pay close attention to the people and the objects that we pass, as this will become important later.

There are a LOT of trainers on the water here, and once we get the move Surf we will be able to milk them for XP and money, but there is also a wrecked cruise ship on the shore between Dewford and Slateport that will be very important to us later, and I want its location fixed in your mind now.

09: The Road to Mauville

Back in Slateport you should drop into the Mart to replace any kit you need, heal and save, and then head towards the north exit of town. -------------------Route 110 Area Pokemon Report -- #309 Electrike (C) -- #316 Gulpin (U) -- #312 Minun (U) -- #043 Oddish (U) -- #311 Plusle (R) -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #278 Wingull (U) -------------------Ahead you will see the Cycling Road -- and if you chat up the bloke standing outside you too will face a dilemma -- take the Cycling Road or the Low Road to capture Pokemon. Seeing as how there are a few here that we need, and the fact that we really do want to fill up our Dex, we should take the Low Road, but after we get to town it would be an idea to run the Cycling Road for the Trainer Battles there to help us with leveling our team up after the next Gym Battle -- to prepare for the one that follows it! Now, let us hit the Low Road and troll the Tall Grass for the Pokemon we need -- come see me when you have them all, right? OK! Excellent progress mate! You now have all of the Pokemon on this Route that we needed, so now we should head into Mauville proper! -- The Low Road -As we move up the road Professor Birch appears, confused that May is not with you. Actually I had no notion that she should have been, but whatever. We swap PokeNav Numbers, and then he asks us to keep an eye out for May and takes off. A bit up the road and we have a nice Double Battle near the intersection with Route 103 -- after we beat the two trainers here, depending upon how that went you may need to retreat to the Poke Center to heal and save. Either way if you did, head back and continue on the Route. -- The Trick House -Up ahead you will find the junction and the Trick House. Head inside the Trick House for a brief bit of Poke Fun -- look for the flash as you enter then go to it and use the action button to reveal the hidden trickster. After you reveal him he invites you to take the door behind the scroll -- doing so will present you with some trainer battle opportunities, so go ahead and do that now! Go through the maze to get the scroll and the Orange Mail, Using the Secret Code from the scroll you open the rear door and enter

the Trick Master's flat, where he rewards you with a Rare Candy and the promise to think up a new challenge for next time! Use the door out to leave and when you are back outside, instead of heading to the east on Route 110, take a brief side trip to the west, and Route 103! -- Route 103 -This Route connects Route 110 to Oldale Town, and should be familiar to you - the other side was the second Route you traveled on at the start of the game! The side we are on is separated from that side by water, but once you get the move Surf, this becomes the shortest way between Littleroot and Mauville, and in a way, the shortest way to the rest of the world! -------------------Route 103 Area Pokemon Report -- #129 Magikarp (C) Fishing: Old Rod -- #279 Pelipper (R) Surf -- #261 Poochyena (C) -- #319 Sharpedo (U) Fishing: Good Rod -- #072 Tentacool (C) Fishing: Good Rod & Surf -- #263 Zigzagoon (U) -- #320 Wailmer (U) Fishing: Good/Super Rod -- #278 Wingull (R/U) Grass and Surf -------------------For now we should concentrate upon capturing the Pokemon we need that we can capture, and adding this side to our explored areas! There are some trainers to battle here, and using Cut, head above in the closed off area to grab some berries and a Guard Spec from a Treasure Ball past the berries along the cliff wall, and a Treasure Ball with a PP Up in it as well as some very good XP from battles! -- Back on Route 110 -Having completed our brief side-trip it is time to head east and resume our travels on Route 110! A short way along the path you will find a Treasure Ball with a Dire Hit in it, followed by a Trainer Battle! Another chance to show May how much we Rock! As we progress along the northern section of the Route we run into May! Well, the Prof did ask us to keep an eye out for her, but before we can take a breath to tell her about running into the Prof she attacks us! Trotting out her Level 18 Lonbre, we kick its but for 543 XP, so she follows that with her Level 18 Slugma worth 300 XP, and finally her Level 20 Marshtomp, which is worth 596XP and $1200.

To make up for attacking us and then getting beaten so badly May gives us an Item Finder as our reward -- a Key Item that can be used to locate hidden items on the ground! A most excellent "Sorry I attacked you and you kicked by butt" pressie! With that, May rides off on her bicycle -- we need to get one of those by the way -- and we are left on Route 110 wondering what we did to deserve getting kicked around and insulted by May? Be sure to grab the Elixir from the Treasure Ball on the Route, and score some of that awesome XP from the Doubles Battles as well, some Nanab Berries and then stroll right in to town! -- Mauville -On the way in be sure to talk to the people here and there, so you learn about TV shows, bikes, and the fact that there is a bike shop here in town. As you enter town you will spot a Treasure Ball behind the wall there -- grab the X-Speed from that, and in town you can have that trainer teach Roll Out to one of your Pokemon if you like. As you explore the town you will see that there are several Routes branching here, as this is the crossroads of the area. Route 111 to the north, 117 to the west, 118 to the east, and of course, 110 is south. Before we get down to brass tacks, start looking into the houses and buildings here. Ignore the house west of the Poke Mart for now, we will go there in a bit, as we are not quite ready for that transaction just yet. Head into the Poke Mart to replace any kit items you may need, Awakenings, Paralyze Heals, that sort of thing, and get some Great Balls to replace the ones that we used to capture Pokemon on Route 110. Now visit the house east of the Mart to obtain HM06, Rock Smash -- a move we can get some very good use out of! Notice the TV in the corner that is flashing? Go take a look at it and you will see the interview you gave earlier at the Pokemon Fan Club in Slateport! How cool is that? Whenever you see a TV in a house flashing like that it means that there is a program on you can watch -- and you should! It will not always feature you, but still, TV is a goodness. Our next stop is the house to the north, which turns out to be the bike shop. Rydell, the owner, offers you a free bike, you pick the type, and promises that you can come back and swap it out for the other type any time you like. How very generous of him! On the tables in the back are instruction books that explain in detail both types of bike, so if you do not know how they work, go have a read there, I will wait for you. Done? Good! Hit the door mate! Our next stop is the Poke Center to heal and save. Now would be a good time to open the PC and sort all of the Pokemon we have been catching into their proper boxes as well, so why don't you do that? When you reach the Gym you find Wally and his uncle -- remember Wally? You helped Wally capture his Pokemon! Anyway he wants to challenge the Gym Leader, but his uncle thinks that may not be a really bright idea.

Wally wants to have a battle with you to prove how far he has developed as a trainer. You know what you have to do, right? Crush him! Wow... I actually felt kind of bad doing that... As they are leaving Wally's uncle invites you to have a visit if you are in town, and you say sure, no worries mate! Scott shows up to offer his opinion of your crushing Wally -- yeah, Scott... Thanks a lot... -- The Game Corner -South of the Gym is the Casino -- but you need a coin purse to play there -- so go ahead and chat up the people here to learn that you need a coin purse and for one of them to tell you where he thought you might get one. Now head to the first house we saw when we entered town and chat with the woman there. Remember the Harbor mail I told you to buy in Slateport? Right, she will trade us her coin purse for that Harbor Mail! Now that you have your coin purse, head back to the Casino, and then talk to the bloke in the corner who will give you some coins. The slot machine is all about timing -- you stop the wheels with the A Button, so if you time it right, you can win big! -- Mauville City Gym -As you enter the Gym chat up the Greeter to learn that Wattson is the Leader of this Gym, and he favors Electric-Type Pokemon. He suggests using Water-Type here, which is not really bad advice at all! To get to Wattson you will need to take on his AGL's and throw a few switches... So why don't we do that now? It looks like the first battle was intended to be a Double, but you do not have to fight it that way -- you can approach the trainer on the bottom from the side and do it as a single instead. Battle Girl Vivian has a pair of Level 17 Meditite worth 331 XP each and $408. Guitarist Kirk has a Level 17 Electrike worth 378XP and a Level 17 Voltorb worth 375XP and $544. Youngster Ben has a Level 17 Zigzagoon worth 217XP, and a Level 17 Gulpin worth 273XP and $272. Bug Maniac Angelo has a Level 17 Illumise worth 531XP and a Level 17 Volbeat worth 531XP and $1020. Guitarists Shawn has a Level 17 Voltorb worth 375XP and a Level 17 Magnemite worth 324XP and $544. That wraps up all of the AGL's, so go ahead and run back to the Center to heal and save, and then return to the Gym and face off against Wattson. Now at this point you should have your entire team at Level 25 with a few of your team members closer to Level 30, so Wattson should be no problem for you at all!

Our Battle with the Mauville Gym Leader -- Gym Leader Wattson -As you enter the Gym set the switches to allow you to access Wattson in the very back of the Gym, and then perhaps you should save just before you begin to battle, right? I mean, just in case... Because if you have not been following this guide and your levels are significantly lower than what is specified here, this could be a tough battle. I am warning you right now, all of his Pokemon have the move Shock Wave, and it is really an annoying move. Add to that the programmers tilted the game in Wattson's favor for this battle -more on that in the after battle notes -- and you are facing a very frustrating battle here. So save first, and be sure to use your best tactics and moves to go for his throat. Do NOT hold back or go for a finesse style of play, as that will just get you killed. Hit him hard, hit him fast, do as much damage as you can in as short a period of time as you can, and you will be way happier, trust me on that. He starts with his Level 20 Voltorb, which is worth 441XP, following with his Level 20 Electrike worth 445XP, his Level 22 Magneton worth 759XP, and his Level 24 Manectric worth 864XP and $2400. In addition to the money Wattson gives us the Dynamo Badge and TM34, Shock Wave. With this Badge the speed of our Pokemon is increased, and we can use Rock Smash outside of battle! Good on ya mate! You have your 3rd Badge! Now we just need to get our 4th, which will raise our control level to 50! After Battle Notes: I have no doubt that you are not very happy right now. You worked hard, you know your Pokemon, and you are a good trainer, but it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong with that battle, right? Well, believe it or not, this is not your fault. You will notice that Wattson pretty much got all of the breaks, landed excellent blows, maxed out his hits and, when he needed to, had plenty of time to apply potions to his Pokemon, while you seemed to fail a lot more than usual, and when you did hit, your blows did the minimal damage. Not your fault mate, you just ran smack into the first instance of what they call Grief Code. In simple terms, the people who make video games believe that you will be happier with a game that takes longer to beat. Rather than add extra content to the game, they grief it to slow you down, so you will feel better... about... umm... Something is wrong with that logic. They are confusing tedious with challenging. No gamer likes it when they tip the game in favor of the game in so raw and obvious a way -- I am telling you this so you understand that the frustration you are feeling with this battle was intentional on the part of the programmers. Just so you know. -- Back on Track -Having wrapped up matters in the Gym, head to the Center to heal and save and get ready for our next stage in this epic adventure! Oh, and hit the Mart to resupply any kit you used up, right?