Now that you've beaten Roark, you can use Rock Smash outside of battle. Of all of the Pokemon you've encountered so far, the ones that can use Rock Smash outside of battle are Bidoof, Psyduck, Geodude, and Onix. If you stopped by Route 207 and caught a Machop, that can use it, too. Oh yeah, and your starting Pokemon can obviously use it, but you don't want to teach a rather weak move like Rock Smash to your awesome starter, do you? Didn't think so!

Personally I'd recommend teaching it right now to a Bidoof or catching a Machop up north for the sole purpose of Rock Smashing for now. Just remember, do not teach Rock Smash to a Pokemon you want to train! It's not a good move in the long run and you'll be stuck with it for a very long time.

Anyway, as you head back to Oreburgh Gate, Rival will bump into you and tell you that Route 207 is blocked so you can't take that route to the next Gym in Eterna City, so you'll have to take the long route. That means going to Jubilife City and then heading north, through Floaroma Town and Eterna Forest.

Before you do that, though, there's a few optional places you might want to check out. The first is Route 207, which is basically just a big field of grass to the north of Oreburgh City. You can catch wild Machop and Ponyta there, and since they both make pretty solid teammates, you might want to get one now. Also, now that you can use Rock Smash outside of battle, you can explore the basement of the Oreburgh Gate.

Route 207 Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Machop		Lv. 5 ~ 8 EXP: 53 ~ 85	35%	45%	35%
	Geodude	/	Lv. 5 ~ 7 EXP: 52 ~ 73	30%	30%	30%
	Ponyta		Lv. 5 ~ 7 EXP: 107 ~ 151	25%	25%	15%
	Kricketot		Lv. 5 ~ 6 EXP: 37 ~ 45	10%	0%	10%
	Zubat	/	Lv. 5 EXP: 37	0%	0%	10%

See? What'd I tell you. Nothing really to see here. If you had a Bicycle, you could ride up that ramp thing, but since you don't, you'll have to wait until you get one to take the shortcut up onto the real Route 207. For now, though, you can help yourself to some of the Pokemon in the big field of grass. The two new ones are Machop and Ponyta.

Firefighting

Route 207 gives you access to your first Fighting-type Pokemon, Machop, and your first Fire-type Pokemon, Ponyta. Obviously if you started with Chimchar, well, neither would be your first and there's probably no reason at all to check out Route 207, since you've already got a solid Fire-and-Fighting-type Pokemon in the form of Monferno. But if you started with Turtwig or Piplup, you may really enjoy picking up one or both of these new Pokemon to help cover your types better.

Machop  
-L28-> -Trade->

Machop is a pretty straightforward Pokemon: it likes to knock things out. No surprise there. It's a solid Fighting-type Pokemon with a wide range of powerful Fighting-type moves. It doesn't mess around with moves that help support it or don't do damage — nearly each and every one of Machop's attacks does damage!

What are Machop's stats like? Well, Machop has a good amount of HP, plenty of Attack, and some ok Defense. Its Speed leaves much to be desired, being almost as slow as Geodude, but it packs a bigger punch than its rocky counterpart.

Machop starts off with Low Kick and Leer. Leer lowers the Defense of the foe by a stage, which can help soften up the opposition (though you won't really need it later on), and Low Kick does damage based on the weight of the foe. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Unfortunately, early on, Low Kick won't do a ton of damage, but it'll still get the job done. At only level 10, it learns Karate Chop, which is a great Fighting-type move early on and has a high chance of a landing a critical hit. Revenge at level 22 is another good move for Machop, doing more damage than Karate Chop and doing 2x as much damage if Machop was damaged that turn. Since Machop is slow anyway, you'll find that it'll get hit first frequently, so then Revenge will do a ton of damage.

Listing all of Machop's moves would take too long. I'll just say that they get progressively better as Machop levels up and you'll have no problems upgrading its moves along the way. Unfortunately, it learns only Fighting-type moves, so you'll need to use TMs if you want to give it some diversity. TMs like Earthquake, Return, Rock Slide / Stone Edge, or maybe even Poison Jab would help give it a wider range of moves, but do remember that you'll probably want to have two Fighting-type moves just to make sure that you don't run out of PP (obviously replace one of those moves if you're going to fight online or against another player).

Machop evolves into Machoke at level 28, so it'll start falling behind for a few levels before it evolves. Once it evolves, it'll be much stronger as Machoke. If you have a trustworthy friend, trade him or her your Machoke so it'll evolve into Machamp, then have him or her trade it back to you, because Machamp is really the way to go. There's no drawback to evolving your Machoke — it learns everything at exactly the same level. It's just a lot stronger.

Ponyta  
-L40->

Fire-types are hard to come by in Platinum, though thankfully there are a few other options since the days of Diamond and Pearl where Ponyta was your only option other than Chimchar. How does Ponyta stack up as a Fire-type Pokemon? Can it be a valuable member to your team?

Well... Ponyta learns Ember at level 10 and then the even more powerful Flame Wheel at level 15. Since you're about to be fighting a bunch of Grass- and Bug-type Pokemon, Ponyta will be very useful during your trek to the second Gym in Eterna City, but you may find Ponyta's usefulness dropping off after that. It isn't until level 37 that Ponyta learns an alright move, Fire Blast, and you'll be able to buy it in a TM sooner than that anyway in Veilstone City.

Ponyta evolves into Rapidash at... level 40. That's so far through the game that you have to ask yourself, is it really worth putting up with Ponyta for that long? Is a Fire-type Pokemon really that useful to you? Remember, Flying-type attacks do just as well against both Bug- and Grass-type Pokemon, so you might find something like Staravia to be a better option.

Stat-wise, Ponyta is alright. It's pretty fast for an unevolved Pokemon and has even more Attack than Geodude or Machop. The rest of its stats aren't really that bad, either. When you finally reach Rapidash, there's a minor improvement to Ponyta's stats, though not enough to make you leap for joy. Still, though, Rapidash is very fast and has a pretty high amount of Attack, so it's not that bad if you can wait that long to evolve it. Also, if you visit the Move Tutor in Pastoria City and give him some Heart Scales, you can teach your Rapidash Megahorn and Poison Jab, both of which being good moves to add to Rapidash's diversity.

The choice is yours as to whether or not Ponyta is your Fire-type Pokemon of choice. I personally think that you're better off waiting for Houndour or Magmar and you should just use a Flying-type against the upcoming Gym, but if you'd like to use Ponyta or eventually Rapidash, feel free.

After you've caught yourself a Machop or a Ponyta — if you'd like — you can head back to Jubilife City. But on your way through the Oreburgh Gate, you might want to check out the basement, now that you can use Rock Smash.

Oreburgh Gate B1F Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	/	Lv. 6 ~ 9 EXP: 45 ~ 68	45%	45%	45%
	Psyduck		Lv. 8 ~ 10 EXP: 90 ~ 113	35%	35%	35%
	Geodude	/	Lv. 6, 8 EXP: 62 ~ 83	15%	15%	15%
	Golbat	/	Lv. 10 EXP: 244	5%	5%	5%

There's not really a ton to do in the basement of Oreburgh Gate, but you can pick up some TMs that might come in handy. Oh yeah, you can also fight level 10 Golbats, which, if you happen to find and catch one, might serve as a better replacement for any Zubat you're using, since it'll still be a lot of levels before it evolves. Though since there's only a 5% chance of running into one, don't bank on it.

Anyway, on the eastern side of the cave, you can pick up TM70, which contains Flash. All it does in battle is lower your opponent's accuracy by one stage, so it's not really that handy, though it does light up one of the upcoming dungeons, so you might want to keep it handy. Just don't bother teaching it to anyone in the meantime.

You can smash some of those rocks and make your may further to the west of the cave to see a cyclist and an item waiting for you, as well as a ramp. The ramp won't do you any good and you won't be able to proceed any further until you have a bike, but you can pick up the Big Pearl nearby and sell it for some cash later on.

After you get the bike, you can come back here and hop across that ramp to get TM31 (Brick Break), a very useful TM to have. But you'll have to wait for that...

As soon as you arrive in Jubilife City, Looker will approach you and then tell you that there's some suspicious activity going on. So heal up your Pokemon and then head to the northern exit of town to see Professor Rowan and Dawn with two people with blue hair. They're a part of Team Galactic, and they're trying to get the Professor to fork over what he knows about the power of Pokemon evolution and a bunch of other stuff. After a bit of talking, you'll have to take them on in a fight.

This will be your first double battle, and you'll have Dawn as your partner.

Boss Fight
	Galactic Grunt and Galactic Grunt			$880
		Stunky	/	Lv. 11 186 EXP
		Glameow		Lv. 11 167 EXP

If you started with Turtwig, she'll be using a Piplup; if you started with Chimchar, she'll have a Turtwig; and if you started with Piplup, she'll be using a Chimchar to help you out. It'll be at level 13 and should be able to keep up with the Galactic Grunts Pokemon without any problem.

The two Grunts will then run off and Rowan and Dawn will say some things before leaving. After that, a guy will come over and tell you that the TV Station is open in Jubilife City and he'll give you an Accessory Case for storing accessories that you can use to decorate your Pokemon in Pokemon Contests — which are available later in the game.

Anyway, you might want to check that out if you'd like. You can also go to the G.T.S., which stands for Global Trade Station. In there, you can put your Pokemon up for trade or look to see what everyone else is trading — but you can only search for things that you've seen on your Pokedex.

After checking those places out, if you bothered, you can go north to Route 204 and start making your way to your next Gym in Eterna City.

If you didn't check this place out earlier, you'll find some Trainers here for you to fight, but they're at a pretty low level in comparison to what you have been fighting. Hopefully you've already checked this place out. If not, yeah, have some fun and then make your way into the Ravaged Path to the north.

Ravaged Path Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	/	Lv. 3 ~ 6 EXP: 22 ~ 45	65%	65%	65%
	Psyduck		Lv. 4 ~ 6 EXP: 44 ~ 67	35%	35%	35%

Exciting stuff in here. Zubats and Psyducks. All low-level, too. At least Psyduck is a bit more common than in Diamond and Pearl, but you're better off catching one in the Oreburgh Gate. Anyway, you can pick up a Potion here, but now that you can use Rock Smash, you can smash the rocks blocking your path to the rest of Route 204.

Before you smash those rocks, though, smash the ones to the west to reach a little place that has TM39 (Rock Tomb) sitting there for you. It's a rather weak Rock-type attack, having only 50 power, but it always lowers your opponent's Speed if they get hit by it. Probably a little more useful than Rock Throw for your Rock-types, but it's not as accurate, so it's really your call.

Route 204 (North) Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Starly	/	Lv. 9 ~ 11 EXP: 71 ~ 87	25%	25%	25%
	Bidoof		Lv. 9 ~ 11 EXP: 73 ~ 90	25%	25%	25%
	Wurmple		Lv. 9 EXP: 68	10%	10%	0%
	Kricketot		Lv. 8 ~ 9 EXP: 60 ~ 68	10%	0%	10%
	Budew	/	Lv. 8 ~ 10 EXP: 76 ~ 96	15%	25%	15%
	Shinx		Lv. 9 ~ 10 EXP: 76 ~ 84	15%	15%	15%
	Zubat	/	Lv. 8 EXP: 60	0%	0%	10%

Trainers at Oreburgh Gym
	Aroma Lady Taylor			$352
		Budew	/	Lv. 9 130 EXP
		Cherubi		Lv. 11 159 EXP
	Bug Catcher Brandon			$176
		Wurmple		Lv. 10 114 EXP
		Kricketot		Lv. 11 126 EXP
	Twins Liv & Liz			$352
		Pachirisu		Lv. 11 281 EXP
		Pachirisu		Lv. 11 281 EXP

A few more Trainers are scattered along the way to the next town. The Twins fight you in a Double Battle, giving you another chance to engage in one. Enjoy the EXP you gain from the Trainers along the way! You can also pick up TM09 (Bullet Seed) near the very end of the route, heading west when you see the picket fences. Bullet Seed is a rather unreliable Grass-type move that hits between 2 and 5 times for a whopping 10 power each time. At absolute best, you're hitting for a base power of 50, so it's not really that much. But you can still teach it to one of your Pokemon now to give it a little diversity to its attacks. After all, you can always replace it with a better move later on.

There's nothing really too exciting in Floaroma Town, unless you enjoy lots of pretty, colorful flowers, which you'll find tons of here. There's a Pokemon Center for you to heal up at, which should probably be your first priority.

You can pick berries from those weird looking tree things and you'll be able to from now on when you see them scattered around the landscape. I'm not going to point them all out to you, though, but you might want to reap them and take all of their berries. Plus, you can replant your berries in there and they'll grow back after a few hours or, for rarer berries, after a few days.

To help berries grow, you'll need to water them! And where better to look for something to water them with than the flower shop in the middle of town? Check inside and then talk to one of the ladies inside of the flower shop and she'll give you the Sprayduck, a key item that lets you water your berries. You never need to fill it with water, because it's just that cool. Also, another of the ladies inside of the flower shop will give you a random berry each day you talk to her. She'll give you one of the following: a Cheri Berry (heals paralysis), a Chesto Berry (heals sleep), a Pecha Berry (heals poisoning), a Rawst Berry (heals burn), or an Aspear Berry (heals freeze).

If you talk to a girl inside of one of the houses with a Clefairy, she'll give you TM88 (Pluck), a Flying-type move with a base power of 60 that does 2x damage if the foe is holding some sort of berry as a held item and lets you use the berry's effect immediately. Zubat and Bidoof can both learn it and probably get some use out of it if you teach it to them, particularly Zubat, since it needs some good Flying-type moves in order to be effective. Otherwise, you can save it for later. A few other Pokemon you might have at this point can learn it, too, but I wouldn't bother with them.

You may also notice two Galactic Grunts blocking your way in the northwest corner of town. You won't be able to do anything about them for right now, but you'll be able to pretty soon. Really soon, really. In fact, let's start with that right now, so head off to Route 205 to the east.

As you head east through Route 205, you'll be stopped by a girl whose 'papa' is being held at the Valley Windworks and how the 'mean spacemen' won't let her in. Mean spacemen? Could that be Team Galactic? What other mean spacemen do you know? You'd better hurry on over to the Valley Windworks to see what their reason is for not letting the little girl see her papa. You're just that good of a person. (Besides, you've got nothing else to do for now, since more Galactic Grunts are blocking the bridge to the rest of the route.)

Valley Windworks Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Shellos		Lv. 9 ~ 12 EXP: 93 ~ 125	45%	45%	45%
	Shinx		Lv. 10 EXP: 84	20%	20%	20%
	Buizel		Lv. 9 ~ 11 EXP: 96 ~ 117	25%	25%	25%
	Pachirisu		Lv. 9, 11 EXP: 153 ~ 187	10%	10%	10%
	Drifloon	/	Lv. 15 EXP: 272
Drifloon only appears on Fridays, and only after beating Mars in the Valley Windworks. You will see Drifloon standing outside of the Valley Windworks rather than randomly finding it in the tall grass. You can fight only one Drifloon each week.

When you get to the Valley Windworks, you'll notice a nice big field of tall grass as well as a building being guarded by a Team Galactic Grunt. Talk to the Grunt and he'll start a fight with you!

Trainers at Valley Windworks
	Galactic Grunt			$520
		Glameow		Lv. 13 197 EXP

Afterwards, he'll lock himself inside of the building, but will clumsily tell you that his other partners off in the flower fields have the key to get in. Wanna take a guess where your next stop is? Yep, that's right: back to Floaroma Town!

But first, there are three new Pokemon you can encounter here right now! Shellos, Buizel, and Pachirisu! You won't be able to get Drifloon for a little bit, at least until after you've beaten one of the upcoming fights, so don't worry about it for now.

What Works at the Windworks

The Valley Windworks introduce several new Pokemon choices that you can add to your roster: two Water-types (one of which becomes Water/Ground-type later on) and one Electric-type. Let's take a look at the usefulness of some of these Pokemon and if they're worthy or not for your team!

Shellos   ()
-L30->

This slippery little slug thing may look a little odd — and if it doesn't look odd enough, there's another look to it if you wait until later on in the game — but Shellos and its evolution, Gastrodon, can actually make an alright addition to your team if you give them a chance. Are they the best choice? Well, maybe, maybe not. That's up for you to decide.

First of all, it's a Water-type Pokemon with a lot of HP, a good amount of Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, then some pretty lousy Speed. The low Speed is really the biggest drawback to Shellos, along with its eventual 4x weakness to Grass-type attacks when it evolves into the Water/Ground-type Gastrodon, but after evolution, that'll be its only weakness, which is pretty nice. As Gastrodon, it'll get even more HP and will round out its stats even more — except for its Speed, which remains really pathetic. It'll also have enough Attack to use Physical-based attacks with enough effectiveness, so that's a plus, because you can teach it Earthquake then if you feel like using your TM for it.

Shellos starts off with Mud Slap, Mud Sport, Harden, and Water Pulse if you catch it at level 10 or less, and will learn Mud Bomb at level 11 or will have it instead of Mud Slap if you caught it at that level or higher. Water Pulse is a great move to have so early on in the game and is a very solid, strong Water-type move until you get the HM for Surf. The other moves aren't worth mentioning, so dump them whenever you're able. Mud Bomb is good, though, and should be your Ground-type move of choice until you get the TM for Earthquake or even Dig (unless you don't want to use up a TM). It'll learn Rain Dance at level 22, which is good for strengthening Water-type moves for 5 turns while also weakening Fire-type moves. Helpful, but not necessary. Muddy Water and Recover both seem like good ideas, but Surf is more reliable than Muddy Water and you should always use Hyper Potions instead of Recover in-game since Shellos and Gastrodon have low Speed and will likely get hit before they have the chance to use Recover.

How does Gastrodon stack up to other Water-type Pokemon you might want on your team? It's sturdier than Golduck and can take a few more hits, but Golduck will actually outspeed quite a few things and can also learn Psychic-type moves — but isn't part Ground-type and can only learn Dig for a Ground-type move. It's also a lot sturdier than Floatzel, who can barely take a few hits, but Floatzel is amazingly fast and is also Physical-based rather than Special-based — though even Floatzel's lower offensive stat, Sp. Atk, is nearly as high as Gastrodon's. Gastrodon's Speed is what really hurts it the most, so if you can put up with that, it's probably a more solid choice than training up a Psyduck or a Buizel, although both of the other's evolutions will do more damage than Gastrodon and will be faster. All three are good picks in their own way, though, so it's really a matter of preference.

Buizel  
-L26->

Speaking of Buizel, let's take a look at how the other Water-type in the area does.

Buizel starts with a few unimpressive moves, most likely knowing Water Sport, Quick Attack, Water Gun, and Pursuit. Unfortunately none of these are very strong. Not only that, but it doesn't learn a lot of other strong moves along the way, either. Swift at level 15, but it's not a Water-type move, so it'll only do about as much as Water Gun was doing, and then Aqua Jet at level 21, which is only maybe a bit stronger than Water Gun is. Bummer.

Once Buizel evolves into Floatzel at level 26, though, it'll learn Crunch, an 80 power Dark-type move that compliments its rather high Attack nicely. But again, that's about it, so you'll need to rely on Surf or Waterfall (Waterfall being much later in the game, like, after the 8th Badge) in order to get some satisfying Water-type damage. If you bring the Move Tutor in Pastoria City a Heart Scale to relearn moves, you can teach your Floatzel Ice Fang, which is a little weak, but still a nice Physical-based Ice-type move to have on your Floatzel.

Buizel will always be weaker than Shellos and Psyduck since it doesn't learn Water Pulse on its own and by the time you can get the TM for Water Pulse, you'll have Surf anyway, which is stronger. But it is very fast in both of its forms and easily outspeeds the two. It also has a lot lower defenses than both of the other two. On the bright-side, it does learn Crunch and makes good use of it. If you're feeling like getting funky with TMs, it can learn Brick Break — even as just a Buizel, so you can get it as soon as you get your bike — and Rock Tomb, to do some Rock-type damage. Sure, Golduck can learn Brick Break, too, but it doesn't have Floatzel's decent Attack stat to make use of it.

Pachirisu  

Pachirisu is, regrettably, not all that great. The little energetic Electric-type may be your first Electric-type other than Shinx for the time being, but it lacks a lot of usefulness. No offense, squirrel lovers.

From the start, Pachirisu has a lot of Sp. Def and Speed. I mean, really, a lot. It also has a fair amount of Defense, too, but both its Attack and Sp. Atk are pretty darn bad. You're not going to see too much damage come out of the little rodent, unfortunately. However, for in-game purposes, you may still be able to get some use out of Pachi as long as you can put up with its obvious inferiority over Shinx and its evolutions. Remember, Pachirisu has higher defenses than Luxray and Electivire (just not more HP), so that's it's advantage.

One thing kind of neat about Pachirisu is that some will have the Pickup ability, allowing Pachirisu to sometimes pick up an item and equip it as a held item after every few fights. You can get cool things like Nuggets, Rare Candies, Great/Ultra Balls, Super/Hyper Potions, even some evolutionary items and TMs at later levels. The higher level Pachirisu is, the better the items you have a shot at getting, though you won't be seeing a lot of Rare Candies until at least level 41, so don't get too excited. I'd definitely recommend getting a Pachirisu with Pickup over its other rather useless ability, Run Away.

As for moves, Pachirisu works as an alright support Pokemon. Charm (level 9) lowers the opponent's Attack by half each time you use it and Sweet Kiss (level 25) confuses the opponent with an alright accuracy. Super Fang (level 33) can be used to half the opponent's current HP, which can be useful for softening them up for later strikes.

But those are all support moves. For attacking, Pachirisu learns Spark at level 13, Swift at level 21, and Discharge at level 29. Discharge you'll find will be the most useful of Pachirisu's moves and will actually be pretty powerful at the point you learn it, despite Pachirisu's rather poor Sp. Atk. At level 37, Pachirisu will learn its last move — Last Resort. You can only use Last Resort if you've used Pachirisu's other attacks, so what you can do against Trainers with a few Pokemon on their team is something like Sweet Kiss + Super Fang + Discharge (in that order) and then use Last Resort against whatever they have left for a staggering 130 base power. Though just something to consider, since you get STAB on Discharge, it'll have the equivalent of a 120 base power move, so Last Resort winds up being only a little stronger than Discharge.

As I said in the beginning, Pachirisu's usefulness is really limited. It lacks the offensive power to really strike as effectively as the likes of other strong Electric-type Pokemon. But it can do a few annoying things along the way. Other neat TMs it can learn are Light Screen to help reduce the damage your party (not just Pachirisu) takes from Special-based attacks for 5 turns, Thunderbolt for added power over Discharge (at the cost of a lower chance of paralysis), Double Team for being annoying, and maybe even Grass Knot to hit for some Grass-type damage.

Now that the Galactic Grunts aren't blocking your way in the northwest corner of Floaroma Town, you can actually enter the Floaroma Meadow. Waiting for you inside are those two Galactic Grunts hassling a man to give them his honey to attract Pokemon in great numbers. They must have it. And they'll fight you to get it if they have to! Unfortunately for them, they have to.

Trainers at Floaroma Meadow
	Galactic Grunt			$520
		Stunky	/	Lv. 13 220 EXP
	Galactic Grunt			$440
		Zubat	/	Lv. 11 126 EXP
		Zubat	/	Lv. 11 126 EXP

You'll have to fight them both back-to-back, one right after the other, without any time between the two to heal. The good news is that they aren't really that hard and will give your Pokemon some good EXP.

After beating them, they'll leave and then you'll get the Works Key, which is the key you need to open up the locked entrance to the Valley Windworks. I wonder if it works... He'll also give you some Honey, which you can use on any of those funny-looking brown trees. You can also buy more Honey from him for $100 each.

When you're all done here, head on back to the Valley Windworks!

Honey, Darling

Honey is a surprisingly deep, complex thing, being perhaps a lot more complex than you'd think. You can slather it on any of those brown trees you see in Sinnoh by just pressing A by it while you have Honey in your inventory. After you do this, you'll need to wait 6 hours before you check back on your tree to find it shaking. If your honey tree is shaking, that means that there's a Pokemon waiting inside for you to fight! If it isn't shaking, that means you either waited too long (24 hours from the point you first slathered the Honey) or you're staring at a tree you didn't slather.

Once you see the tree shaking, save your game! Unfortunately, you won't be able to change what Pokemon shows up there, as it'll no longer be random at that point, but you can reset and try to get a different gender, nature, or level. Since only female Combee evolve and since Burmy evolves differently if its a male or a female, this is important.

Honey Trees
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Aipom		Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 66 ~ 200	* %	* %	* %
	Heracross	/	Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 141 ~ 427	* %	* %	* %
	Wurmple		Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 37 ~ 114	* %	* %	* %
	Burmy		Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 43 ~ 130	* %	* %	* %
	Combee	/	Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 45 ~ 135	* %	* %	* %
	Cherubi		Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 47 ~ 144	* %	* %	* %
	Munchlax		Lv. 5 ~ 15 EXP: 66 ~ 200	* %	* %	* %

Those are the Pokemon that can show up when you check out the tree. Their rarity varies depending on whether or not you've previously slathered the tree and what Pokemon showed up that time. If you're looking for something like a Munchlax, you're either going to have a very hard time encountering one or you'll get very lucky. It's best that you slather as many different trees as possible to increase your chances of running into one, since if you didn't encounter one, it's a lot less likely you'll encounter one on that same tree.

Anyway, let's take a whether or not these Pokemon make decent additions to your team, if you're willing to take the sweet time hunting them down.

Aipom  
-Level Up with Double Hit learned->

A much sillier-looking simian than Chimchar, Aipom is a Normal-type monkey thing with a gigantic hand-like tail. How interesting. It has decent Attack and is surprisingly zippy, with fair enough HP and Defense to get by until it evolves.

For moves, Aipom doesn't offer all that much, but it does have some interesting ones thrown in there. If you catch an Aipom below level 11, it'll have Scratch to attack with — otherwise you'll need to put up with just Astonish until level 18, when it learns Fury Swipes. Scratch is still more dependable than Fury Swipes, though, but you won't really have all that much control over what level you catch it at unless you saved your game right before you checked the honey tree that has Aipom.

Baton Pass is interesting, as it lets you switch Aipom for one of your other Pokemon of your choice, but it also carries over all positive and negative stat changes. Too bad Aipom doesn't learn anything that can really help take advantage of that until level 29, when it learns Agility, which probably isn't worth Baton Passing. Nasty Plot at level 39, though, is a really awesome move to Baton Pass, because it raises Ambipo—I mean whatever Pokemon you'd like's Sp. Atk by two stages! If you have a powerful Special-based Pokemon, you can lead a battle with Ambipom, use Nasty Plot once or twice, then Baton Pass over to your Special-based attack machine and rip apart the opponent's team! I'd personally recommend getting rid of Baton Pass early on in the game, and then bringing a Heart Scale to the Move Tutor in Pastoria City to have your Ambipom relearn it after it knows Nasty Plot. There's no sense in having it before then and Heart Scales are easy enough to get if you spend some time underground (which you can do when you get to Eterna City).

Speaking of Ambipom, your Aipom will evolve into Ambipom when it learns Double Hit at level 32. That's why it's really important to have Aipom learn that move at that level, otherwise it won't evolve unless you relearn it and then level it up again. Ambipom has a lot of Attack and a ton of Speed, outspeeding nearly every Pokemon you come up against. It doesn't have the greatest defensive stats in the world, but it doesn't have the worst, so it can probably take a good hit or two without worry.

One thing really important is to make sure that your newly-caught Aipom has the Run Away ability. It could have either that or Pickup, and though Pickup is generally more useful than Run Away, when Aipom evolves into Ambipom, it'll have the very useful Technician ability if it had Run Away as an Aipom. Technician increases the base power of all moves than have a base power of 60 or less by 1.5x! That means Double Hit is hitting for 70 per hit rather than 35, since Ambipom has both Technician and it is a Normal-type so it gets STAB with Double Hit. A useful TM to teach your Ambipom is TM40, Aerial Ace, which will become a useful 90 power Flying-type move with perfect accuracy if you have Technician. Very diverse. Ambipom can also learn a few other useful moves that don't get the bonus from Technician, like Brick Break, Facade, or even Strength (though Double Hit is better than Strength). If you still have your TM for Return, that'd be a great thing to teach your Ambipom.

Overall, I'd say that Ambipom is a pretty good Pokemon. It's just a shame that Aipom isn't really all that useful until it evolves at level 32. Do you want to invest that time in training it? That's your call.

Heracross   /

This beetle doesn't mess around. Heracross is a very brutal fighting machine and probably the best Bug-type in the game — even though it only learns one Bug-type move. It has monstrous Attack, good HP and both Defense and Sp. Def, as well as pretty nice Speed. The only place it really fails stat-wise is Sp. Atk, but that's a really good thing, because it's a lot better to have that really low than something else critical like Speed, since there's no reason to use Special-based attacks with Heracross' amazingly high Attack.

Right from the get go, Heracross will have a full set of moves. Depending on when you catch it, it'll have different moves, but some of the more notable ones in the beginning are Horn Attack, which it starts out with and is a very solid 65 power Normal-type move, Aerial Ace at level 13, which is a good 60 power Flying-type move. 60 power at level 13 is pretty nice. But the real fun for Heracross begins at level 19, when it learns its first Fighting-type move, Brick Break — a 75 base power move! Since Heracross gets STAB off of that, it'll really be the equivalent of 112.5 power. Oh yeah, and Heracross has a TON OF ATTACK TO GO WITH IT!

At level 37, it'll learn Close Combat, which has an absolute ton of power. The two problems with Close Combat are that it lowers Heracross' Defense and Sp. Def by one stage after you use it and that it has only 5 PP, so I'd recommend keeping Brick Break on it along with Close Combat as you get through the game. For online battles and battles against other players, that's not a good strategy at all, but you need to conserve PP while getting through the game since PP restoring items can't be purchased in any shops. Anyway, lastly, at level 55, Heracross learns its final move, Megahorn, a 120 power Bug-type move with amazing striking force. Couple that with Heracross' other great moves and you've got a great machine. Too bad it doesn't learn it until level 55, but that might be just in time for you to take on the Elite 4 and help out against some of their Pokemon. In the mean time, you'll hardly find Heracross' Fighting-type moves lacking. You can also slap on TMs like Earthquake, Shadow Claw for taking on Psychic-types, or Rock Slide / Stone Edge to help take on Flying-types.

I've definitely gotta say that Heracross is an extremely good Pokemon to use should you be fortunate enough to catch one. It's great both for your in-game journey and for later online battles or battles versus other players. It does everything you need it to do, is really only weak to Flying-type attacks (4x weakness! Ouch!), and does so much damage it'll make your head spin. Guts is probably the best ability you could have for your Heracross, because it's most useful earlier in the game since the only Bug-type move it learns is Megahorn so late in the game.

Burmy  
-Level + Female => L20->

Burmy is a pretty unusual Pokemon. Female Burmy evolve into Wormadam, so let's check that one out for now. For starters, if your Burmy is knocked out while its on your team in a cave or a beach, it'll take on a new "cloak" called Sandy Cloak, which looks sort of tan; if its knocked out inside of a building, it'll take on the Trash Cloak, which looks sort of pinkish. Otherwise, your Burmy will be the normal variation, Plant Cloak. These different "cloaks" have no impact on Burmy directly, but they affect which form of Wormadam your Burmy will evolve into, since there are three variations of Wormadam — one for each cloak. Plant Cloak Wormadam is Bug/Grass-type, Sandy Cloak Wormadam is Bug/Ground-type, and Trash Cloak Wormadam is the unusual Bug/Steel-type.

For moves, Burmy starts with knowing only Protect until level 10, where it learns... Tackle. Great. At level 15, though, it learns Bug Bite, which will help it actually fight, even though it has absolutely horrible stats to be fighting with. At level 20, it'll evolve into Wormadam, so make sure that it is in whatever cloak you want your Wormadam to take on before it evolves, because there's no way for it to change cloak once it has become a Wormadam.

Plant Cloak Wormadam has more Sp. Def and Sp. Atk than the other forms. It'll learn Razor Leaf at level 23, which won't be all that great due to its lower Attack stat (Razor Leaf is Physical-based), but it's still something. Actually, it learns Confusion at level 23 as well, which you'll find more useful. It learns Growth at level 29, which is good for increasing Wormadam's damage potential for its Special-based moves — even though it really has only Confusion and maybe Hidden Power to take advantage of that. Fortunately it learns Psybeam at level 32, but a new Grass-type move would have been much better. Instead, you have to wait until level 47 for it to learn Leaf Storm, a very powerful Grass-type move, but one that lowers its Sp. Atk sharply afterwards, leaving you able to use it maybe only once or twice a battle before Wormadam becomes useless. Your best bet is to probably teach your Plant Cloak Wormadam Giga Drain with TM19 and just use that to attack with. It doesn't have a lot of PP, though. Overall, I'd say that Plant Cloak is pretty bad. It's also weak to 6 different types, including a 4x weakness to both Flying and Fire. No thank you!

Sandy Cloak Wormadam has more Defense and Attack than the other forms, and has low Sp. Atk in comparison. Thankfully, Sandy Cloak's higher Attack means it'll be able to use Bug Bite efficiently and it's a recommended move to have your Wormadam know. At level 23, it learns Rock Blast, which is a Rock-type move that hits 2 to 5 times at 25 power each. I don't usually like those unreliable moves that hit a random number of times, but you're almost guaranteed to get at least a base power of 50 out of it, so it's worth keeping. Confusion isn't really that great for the Sandy Cloak version, thanks to its lower Sp. Atk. The problem is, that's really the only useful move Sandy Cloak Wormadam learns — everything else is pretty weak or not all that useful in comparison. You can teach it TM26 for Earthquake or TM28 for Dig if you'd like to give it some real punch, but there's a lot better candidates for those moves out there. I'd still say its better than Plant Cloak, though.

Last up, we have Trash Cloak Wormadam. Its Attack and Sp. Atk are evenly balanced, as are its Defense and Sp. Def. Trash Cloak Wormadam is pretty balanced all around, except for its really low Speed that is common in all Wormadam forms. Fortunately Trash Cloak Wormadam has only one weakness: Fire. As long as you avoid Fire-types, you'll be able to withstand a lot of hits with your Trash Cloak Wormadam thanks to its well-rounded defensive stats and its resistance to a ton of different types. At level 23, it learns Mirror Shot (as well as Confusion), which is a good 65 power Steel-type move. It has enough Sp. Atk to use Confusion, Psybeam, and Psychic when it learns them, and it'll also have enough Attack to make use out of Iron Head when it learns it at level 47. Though really, you might find that Flash Cannon — which you get a TM for after the 6th Gym — is just as good for Wormadam if you don't want to wait that long. Trash Cloak Wormadam is probably the best choice if you're looking to use a Wormadam, but there's still a lot of other better choices for Pokemon out there.

Burmy   ()
-Level + Male => L20->

Let's not forget about those male Burmy out there that evolve into Mothim at level 20 rather than Wormadam. Fortunately, to avoid any confusion, Mothim doesn't have to worry about any different cloaks and whatever cloak Burmy is in when it evolves into Mothim won't make a difference in the end.

In comparison to Wormadam (any of them), Mothim is a lot more offense-oriented. It has lower defensive stats with slightly better HP to compensate for it, but it also has good Attack and Sp. Atk. Now, when I say good, I mean just good, not great or anything. It has some Speed and is faster than Wormadam by a lot, but it's still slower than a lot of things out there, so don't get too excited. Really, it has some pretty weak stats all around.

Mothim keeps up the tradition of learning Psychic-type moves at levels 23, 32, and 44 (Confusion, Psybeam, and Psychic respectively), and since it has the Sp. Atk to do something with them, you might as well use them. Gust and Bug Bite are both moves that will get STAB to do more damage and Bug Bite will probably be Mothim's main attack for awhile, though Silver Wind at level 38 and Air Slash at level 41 will eventually replace them. Mothim's final move, Bug Buzz at level 47, will do the most damage out of them all and is a great move for the bug thing to use. It's just too bad it learns it so late, because by then, Mothim's rather unforutnate stats will start catching up with it in comparison with the rest of your team.

You can teach your Mothim a wide range of different TMs to help increase its efficiency, if you'd like (though personally I think you're better off saving them for a better Pokemon). U-Turn works great on Mothim and lets it get out of there to something that can do even more damage, because after doing damage, you switch Mothim with one of your other Pokemon. It's not optional; you have to. It still has 70 base power, though, and you get STAB, so it'll be strong. Aerial Ace is better than Gust and you get it fairly early on in TM40.

Combee   /
-Level + Female => L21->

First, before I continue, you must make sure you catch a female Combee! Male Combee don't evolve and are basically worthless because of that. Sorry, but it's true. Combee evolves into Vespiquen at level 21 and is pretty much useless until then, knowing only Gust and Sweet Scent. It may take a bit of switch training to level it up to level 21 effectively, but then it'll likely be worth it.

Vespiquen is a very, very solid Pokemon. It has a good amount of HP and tons of Defense and Sp. Def to back it up. Not only that, but both its Attack and Sp. Atk stats are workable, which is nice seeing as Vespiquen is more defensively based than offensively based. Unfortunately, it has very low Speed, but it'll at least be able to withstand plenty of hits, so you don't need to worry about it too much.

As soon as your Combee evolves into Vespiquen at level 21, it'll learn Power Gem, a 70 power Rock-type move that is Special-based. It's a little unusual having a Special-based Rock-type move in the first place, no less having it on a Bug/Flying-type that's 4x weak to Rock-type attacks, but it's still handy and gets the job done for doing some damage. At level 25, it learns Heal Order, which recovers Vespiquens HP by 50% of its maximum, but as I always suggest, unless you're planning on fighting your friends with it where you can't use items, just... use items, like Lemonade and Hyper Potions. Though, since Vespiquen learns Toxic at level 27, you might want to consider keeping Heal Order if you like the idea of using Toxic to eat away at your opponent's HP slowly while you just keep recovering your own each turn — I mean, you wouldn't want to use that many Potions on that, would you? I wouldn't. The real prize is Vespiquen's Attack Order at level 37, which has an astonishing 90 base power plus STAB, and it also has a high chance of getting a critical hit! It's an awesome move on Vespiquen and really the last move you'll need to teach it.

One thing about Vespiquen is that there's a few moves that you'll need to relearn in Pastoria City in order to get, such as Defend Order and Confuse Ray. Defend Order is an amazing move that raises both Vespiquen's Defense and Sp. Def! If you use that two or three times at the beginning of a fight, your Vespiquen will be nearly invincible! Just be wary of critical hits, which ignore those awesome defensive bonuses! Confuse Ray can be kind of nice to use before you start using Defend Order, as it'll keep your opponent's chances to hit you down while you set yourself up, but it's far from a necessary move.

Vespiquen makes a good addition to your team if you're looking for a more defense-oriented Pokemon. It can take a ton of hits, do enough damage (particularly after it gets Attack Order) to get by, though you'll probably find yourself wishing it could hit for just a bit more damage. You can always pump it up by using X Attacks or X Specials on it, too, remember that.

Cherubi  
-L25->

Here's another one of those unusual Pokemon. Cherubi itself isn't all that interesting, having rather poor stats and lacking any useful attacking moves until level 19, when it learns Magical Leaf, which will be pretty good on the little cherry thing. At level 22, it'll learn Sunny Day, which is definitely a move you'll want to keep on your Cherubi!

Once your little Cherubi reaches level 25, which might be a little bit difficult given its low stats and fighting ability, it'll evolve into Cherrim. Cherrim may look a little odd, like some sort of weird eggplant thing, but if you use Sunny Day, Cherrim will change its form into a much cheerier, happier looking thing. That's just an appearance change, though, and doesn't directly affect Cherrim.

The real effect takes place from Cherrim's ability, Flower Gift, which increases your party Pokemon's Attack and Sp. Defense while the weather is sunny out. That makes your Fire-type Pokemon like Infernape particularly powerful and helps counteract their weakness to Water-type attacks (well, at least Special-based ones). Remember, Sunny Day already raises the power of Fire-type attacks by 1.5x, so that extra Attack from Flower Gift helps make fiery attacks like Flame Wheel and Flare Blitz even stronger (just remember that it doesn't work for Special-based Fire-type attacks, like Flamethrower).

Other than that, Cherrim's stats aren't really too impressive, but they aren't really too bad, either. It's got pretty well-rounded stats all across the board. It has enough Speed to outrun more things than you'd think a little flower blossom Pokemon would, and ok enough Sp. Atk to do some damage. Its lowest stat is its Attack, which isn't even that awful.

For Cherrim's moves, it learns Petal Dance at level 25, which will be very powerful but will also leave you unable to switch out your Cherrim for 2 - 3 turns and will leave it confused afterwards. It's still a pretty good attack to learn that early, though. SolarBeam at level 43 is also pretty good and works well with Cherrim's Sunny Day, because SolarBeam has no charge time if the weather is sunny, so Cherrim can pop those things off left and right. Unfortunately, that's about the extent of Cherrim's usefulness in battle directly. It can learn Swords Dance via TM75 (which you can win at the Veilstone Game Corner) to raise its Attack by a lot on top of Flower Gift's effect, but it might be more hassle than its worth.

Munchlax  
-Happiness->

This little rascal can be pretty darn hard to find and you're generally considered lucky if you find one, so be sure to catch it if you do find it. Munchlax evolves into Snorlax if its happy enough when it levels up.

For stats, Munchlax has an absolute ton of HP, but it also has some pretty impressive Attack and Sp. Def, even for a baby Pokemon. Its Speed, however, is the lowest of any Pokemon in the Sinnoh Dex and nearly every single Pokemon out there will outspeed this snail.

Taking a look at Munchlax's attacks shows that it's possible for it to know no attacking moves if you catch one between level 9 and 11. If you can, try catch one outside of those levels so it'll know either Tackle (preferred) or Lick at level 12 (worse, but doable). Munchlax learns both Defense Curl and Amnesia early on, giving it the potential to become a wall and increase its defenses through the roof. Amnesia will shoot Munchlax's already high Sp. Def to the moon, which can be pretty helpful in your fight in the 3rd Gym. Screech can be helpful for softening up your opponents by lowering their Defense two stages, though Stockpile is particularly handy, as it raises Munchlax's Defense and Sp. Def each by 1 stage, allowing it to withstand tons of different hits. You can use Stockpile up to 3 times and can Swallow afterwards to heal HP based on how many times you used Stockpile, though I'd recommend not bothering with Swallow, since you can always just use Potions and stuff and that extra defense is way cooler.

At level 33, Munchlax finally learns another attacking move, Body Slam, and that's probably the best you can get for it. It gets STAB to help it do even more damage and it works perfectly with Munchlax's high Attack. The other moves it learns after that aren't really that worth it, though.

Probably the best time to evolve your Munchlax into Snorlax is after level 25, when it learns Stockpile, because that's a move that Snorlax can't learn on its own. Screech is another move that Snorlax can't learn, so if you'd like to keep Screech, make sure your Munchlax has it learned before you let it evolve!

Snorlax is a lot more powerful than Munchlax, possessing sky-high HP, tons of Attack and Sp. Def, and enough Defense to stand its ground. It's still slow as tar, but at least significantly faster than Munchlax. Not that it really matters.

The big chubby Snorlax learns a few different moves, quite a few of which are useful. At level 17, it learns Belly Drum, which cuts its HP in half but raises Snorlax's Attack all the way up to the maximum it can go to, or 3x its original Attack. Since Snorlax can easily take a hit or two, even with only half its HP, Belly Drum is a great move for Snorlax to help it rip teams apart, because you can just use a Hyper Potion the turn after you use Belly Drum and then just sweep away your opponent's team. Trust me, almost nothing in the game (outside of battles online and against friends) will be able to do that much damage to Snorlax.

At level 36, Snorlax actually learns a pretty useful utility move, Block. Block prevents the opponent from switching out their Pokemon and prevents wild Pokemon from fleeing, which is really helpful against two Pokemon you'll encounter later on in the game that do that — Mesprit and Cresselia. It also learns Yawn at level 20, which is great because it puts your opponent to sleep at the end of the turn after you use it. Since sleeping Pokemon are much easier to catch, Yawn is a pretty effective move for Snorlax to have, though it doesn't make good use of its really high Attack.

Crunch is another nice move that Snorlax learns at level 44. It's an 80 power Dark-type move that'll hit Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokemon for a huge chunk of damage, and since none of Snorlax's Normal-type moves can hit Ghost-type Pokemon (well, unless you kept Odor Sleuth from Munchlax... but why would you do that?), that's a big help. Giga Impact at level 49 is ridiculously strong, but you have to recharge a turn after you use it. Since Snorlax has a lot of HP and defensive stats, you can probably get away with using it in a pinch, but I tend to advise staying away from moves that leave you vulnerable on the turn after you use them.

One other nice thing about Snorlax is the sheer number of different TMs it can learn. It can learn moves from Ice Beam to Flamethrower to Thunderbolt to Psychic. I mean, it just learns a whole ton of different things. Remember, though, it doesn't have a lot of Sp. Atk, so you're best teaching it good Physical-based attacks like Earthquake, Brick Break, or Rock Slide.

My final verdict is that Snorlax is a great Pokemon to help you get through the game. It's a pain to catch and raise, but the time invested in it will be soooooo worth it. That Belly Drum + Hyper Potion trick is really awesome against the Elite 4 and other tough battles in the game that you can use items in. It obviously won't work in online battles or in the Battle Frontier, though, where you can't use items, but Snorlax is still a good Pokemon there, too.

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of different Pokemon you can find only on the honey trees scattered around Sinnoh, but as you can see, quite a few of them can turn out to be pretty useful additions to your team.

Use the Works Key on the door in the Valley Windworks to get into the building. As you get in, the Galactic Grunt that locked you out will run off to the back to alert the others. Guess they know you're here, now, so might as well make the best of it and smash 'em as you make your way through to find that little girl's papa!

Trainers at Valley Windworks
	Galactic Grunt			$520
		Zubat	/	Lv. 13 149 EXP
	Galactic Grunt			$440
		Glameow		Lv. 11 167 EXP
		Stunky	/	Lv. 11 186 EXP

There's just two Grunts here to fight and neither of them are too difficult. The real fight is lurking for you at the end, where you'll find the first of the Galactic Commanders, Mars, guarding the girl's papa. Time to take on the Galactic Commander, Mars!

Boss Fight
	Commander Mars			$1360
		Zubat	/	Lv. 15 172 EXP
		Purugly		Lv. 17 666 EXP

Mars' Zubat isn't particularly threatening, but Bite has a chance of making your Pokemon flinch and Toxic also badly poisons your Pokemon, causing them to take a lot of poison damage in a rather short amount of time. Try and switch out your Pokemon after taking out Zubat if it was afflicted with Toxic and heal it later with an Antidote or Pecha Berry.

Her Purugly is particularly rough and it likes to open up the fight with Fake Out, which always strikes first and always causes the target to flinch, but it can only be used on the first turn its sent out. What you can do is send out something like a Bidoof for the first turn while you heal up your other Pokemon, then you don't have to worry about the damage from Fake Out. Scratch and Faint Attack will both hit pretty hard, because Purugly has a lot of Attack, but if you handle it with care and heal up when necessary, you should be able to take it out and reap a whole ton of EXP as a reward.

After the fight, Mars will argue with her colleague there, Charon, and those two will run off saying that the boss won't be happy. Then, the little girl will run in and be glad to see her papa, even remarking about how he needs a shower. Ah, how nice that she missed him.

Anyway, now that you've rid Team Galactic from the area for now, you can finally go move through Route 205. As you leave the building, Looker will be waiting outside for you, and he'll then talk to the people inside to find out that there's another Galactic base up in Eterna City that he should check out, then he runs off immediately. What a weird person.

Oh well, that's your next stop anyway, but also remember that you can now run into Drifloon at the Valley Windworks every Friday!

Route 205 (South) Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Shellos		Lv. 9 ~ 12 EXP: 93 ~ 125	65%	65%	65%
	Buizel		Lv. 10 ~ 11 EXP: 107 ~ 117	15%	15%	15%
	Bidoof		Lv. 10 EXP: 81	10%	10%	10%
	Pachirisu		Lv. 9, 11 EXP: 153 ~ 187	10%	10%	10%

Trainers at Route 205 (South)
	Camper Jacob			$224
		Ponyta		Lv. 14 455 EXP
	Hiker Daniel			$384
		Geodude	/	Lv. 10 156 EXP
		Geodude	/	Lv. 11 172 EXP
		Geodude	/	Lv. 12 187 EXP
	Aroma Lady Elizabeth			$448
		Roselia	/	Lv. 14 455 EXP
	Picnicker Siena			$192
		Bidoof		Lv. 12 148 EXP
		Pachirisu		Lv. 12 307 EXP
	Camper Zackary			$224
		Aipom		Lv. 14 281 EXP
	Hiker Nicholas			$448
		Onix	/	Lv. 14 323 EXP
	Battle Girl Kelsey			$240
		Machop		Lv. 15 241 EXP
	Picnicker Karina			$224
		Piplup		Lv. 14 197 EXP

No real new Pokemon for you to encounter along the route, but there are plenty of Trainers for you to fight as you make your way north to Eterna City.

When you reach a house on more of a hilly terrain, you can go inside and heal up your Pokemon for free, which is a nice refreshment after having to fight all of those Trainers.

Whenever you're ready, walk into the forest to enter Eterna Forest.

Eterna Forest Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Buneary		Lv. 11, 13 EXP: 131 ~ 155	24%	24%	24%
	Budew	/	Lv. 10 ~ 12 EXP: 96 ~ 115	30%	40%	30%
	Wurmple		Lv. 10 EXP: 76	10%	10%	0%
	Kricketot		Lv. 10, 12 EXP: 76 ~ 91	10%	0%	10%
	Bidoof		Lv. 12 EXP: 98	10%	10%	10%
	Silcoon		Lv. 12 EXP: 122	5%	5%	5%
	Cascoon		Lv. 12 EXP: 122	5%	5%	5%
	Gastly	/	Lv. 13 EXP: 176	4%	4%	4%
	Beautifly	/	Lv. 14 EXP: 322	1%	1%	1%
	Dustox	/	Lv. 14 EXP: 322	1%	1%	1%
	Hoothoot	/	Lv. 12 EXP: 98	0%	0%	10%

Trainers at Eterna Forest
	Bug Catcher Jack and Lass Briana			$496
		Wurmple		Lv. 11 126 EXP
		Silcoon		Lv. 13 199 EXP
		Beautifly	/	Lv. 15 517 EXP
		Pachirisu		Lv. 16 410 EXP
	Psychic Elijah			$544
		Abra		Lv. 17 273 EXP
	Psychic Lindsey			$544
		Abra		Lv. 17 273 EXP
	Bug Catcher Phillip			$240
		Wurmple		Lv. 11 126 EXP
		Cascoon		Lv. 13 199 EXP
		Dustox	/	Lv. 15 517 EXP
	Bug Catcher Donald			$224
		Burmy		Lv. 14 183 EXP
		Burmy		Lv. 14 183 EXP
	Psychic Kody			$544
		Meditite	/	Lv. 17 331 EXP
	Psychic Rachael			$544
		Psyduck		Lv. 17 290 EXP

Forest Dwellers

Eterna Forest has quite a large selection of Pokemon in it for you to fight, but three of them are possible new additions to your team. Let's take a chance to check 'em out!

Buneary  
-Happiness->

The cute rabbit Pokemon, Buneary, may look rather weak and docile, but it's actually... well, it actually is. In its unevolved state, Buneary has modest stats, with fair Attack and actually pretty darn high Speed. Its Defense is a bit lacking, as is its Sp. Atk, so that limits its options.

Buneary starts with a bunch of rather unexciting moves when you catch it. Splash? Endure? Foresight? What is this?! The only useful thing it will have to attack with is Pound for a few levels, until level 13 (which you might have caught it at), when it learns Frustration, and then 16, when it learns Quick Attack. Not all that impressive. The two most useful moves that Buneary will pick up are Jump Kick, which is a decent Fighting-type move, and Dizzy Punch, which is still dwarfed by even an HM move, Strength.

If your Buneary is happy enough when it gains a level, it will evolve into Lopunny, and gain a lot more Speed and Attack, as well as some alright Defense. Its Defense and Sp. Def actually allow it to take more hits than you'd think, and since it is only weak to Fighting-type moves, that goes a long way. Unfortunately it still lacks a lot of good moves, though it can learn Magic Coat and Mirror Coat (as well as Return) if you take it to the Move Tutor in Pastoria City with a Heart Scale. Magic Coat is probably a waste of Lopunny's time, but Mirror Coat can be kind of fun for bouncing Special-based attacks back at Lopunny's opponent, and since Lopunny can take a few hits... not too shabby for in-game purposes.

Where Lopunny has an advantage is in its wide selection of TM moves. It can learn moves from a ton of different TMs! Since its Sp. Atk is rather low, that narrows a lot of useful ones (though you still might enjoy teaching it Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Charge Beam, etc.). The moves you'd probably want to consider teaching your Lopunny are Dig, to give it a solid Ground-type move, or Return, for a very solid Normal-type attack that Lopunny also gets STAB from. Giga Impact is a possibility for when you need to do massive damage, but that recharge time is a bit inconvenient (thankfully Lopunny should be able to take a hit afterward). Additionally, you can teach it Ice Punch, Fire Punch, or Thunderpunch from a Move Tutor in Route 212. Now those are very helpful moves for your Lopunny to learn that give it a good amount of type coverage!

Oh, one thing about Buneary and Lopunny: make sure you don't get one with the Klutz ability! Klutz makes it so Lopunny's Held Item has zero effect and is never used. Why would you want that over Cute Charm, which has a chance of infatuating any Pokemon of the opposite gender that hits it? For competitive battling purposes, it lets you use Switcheroo, but for in-game purposes, that's not necessary at all.

All and all, I like Buneary and Lopunny, they're pretty cool and adorable Pokemon, but they're not exactly exceptional. They're not exactly horrible and you might have a fun time using them, particularly if you're looking to try something rather underused for playing through the game. Just don't expect too much out of them.

Gastly   /
-L25-> -Trade->

First of all, if you're having a hard time finding a Gastly in Eterna Forest, return here after getting the Forest Badge and go to the Old Chateau by using Cut on the trees on the northern end of the forest. Gastly can be found 100% of the time in there. But you can also still find them here if you'd like.

Anyway, Gastly is one of those Pokemon that's been around for a very long time. It's been in every version except for Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, and it's only gotten better with each incarnation. Well, at least its final evolution, Gengar, has. Gastly by itself is puny and weak, having very low HP and defensive stats, but absolutely monstrous Sp. Atk for a totally unevolved Pokemon and great Speed to go along with it.

Gastly evolves into Haunter at level 25, so you'll need to baby your Gastly for a few levels before it evolves. As soon as it evolves into Haunter, you can trade it with a trusted friend that will trade it back to you (or another of your games using two Nintendo DS's) to evolve it into Gengar. There is no reason at all to hold off on evolving Haunter into Gengar, because it'll still learn the same moves at the same levels. It'll just have much better stats.

Gengar has an unbelievably high amount of Sp. Atk and Speed, able to outspeed and overpower tons of Pokemon. It's an absolutely wonderful Pokemon to have on your team for that reason alone. It's slightly lacking in defensive stats, but not so much that it's totally frail.

Early on, Gastly is limited to very few good moves. Lick and Night Shade are about as good as it gets. You may need to give your Gastly some support from your other Pokemon. It learns Confuse Ray at level 15 and Sucker Punch at level 22, which only works if your opponent is using an offensive move (otherwise it fails).

At level 25, when Gastly evolves into Haunter, it'll learn Shadow Punch. It's an alright Ghost-type move that will probably be Haunter's (or Gengar's) best option until level 33, when it learns one of the best moves for it, Shadow Ball. Once it learns Shadow Ball, you'll never want to stop using it, until, perhaps, you get the TM for Sludge Bomb after you've gotten the 7th Badge, which is another awesome move for Gengar. Actually, other than Dark Pulse at level 44, you're not going to have any other good moves for Gengar outside of TMs. Not really. And you don't even need Dark Pulse. Gengar can learn Thunderbolt, Focus Blast (low accuracy, but pretty powerful still and good in a pinch), and Sludge Bomb from TMs, and can learn Icy Wind from the Move Tutor in Pastoria City for an extra advantage against any Grass-, Ground-, or Dragon-type Pokemon (you should already have Thunderbolt for Flying-types).

Although its pool of really useful moves is rather limited, Gengar does its job very well. What's its job? Taking just about anything out before it even has a chance to strike. Just keep it away from Dark-type Pokemon and be careful around Psychic-types, because Psychic is super effective against Gengar's Poison-type.

Hoothoot   /
-L20->

Hoothoot isn't just bad, it's really bad. It has no redeemable stats as Hoothoot and it could learn the most useful moves in the world and you couldn't care less due to its stats early on. Sorry, but it's the truth. Hoothoot alone is not going to be responsible for knocking anything out. It has Hypnosis, which is pretty helpful, and it learns Peck and Uproar fairly early on. But since Uproar and Hypnosis sort of don't work together, you know, it's not really that viable of an option because Hypnosis is really the best thing you've got going for it.

On the bright side, Hoothoot can learn Pluck from a TM that you get in Floaroma Town, which is going to be its best move for a long time. It also learns Reflect at level 17, which can be helpful for your other Pokemon.

The good news is that at level 20, Hoothoot evolves into Noctowl. It goes from "dang this thing stinks" to "dang this thing has a lot of HP". Noctowl does have a lot of HP and a lot of Sp. Def to boot, as well as fair Speed and Sp. Atk. You could actually use it for attacking now if you wanted to.

At level 22, it'll learn Confusion, which won't be quite as good as Uproar or Pluck, but still useful for covering different types. it learns the very nice Air Slash at level 32, which will be your Noctowl's favorite move for sure. It's powerful, has a high chance of a critical hit, and is Flying-type like Noctowl. Great move. Won't do tons of damage like, say, a Gengar, but at least Noctowl is pretty sturdy and you might get lucky with those critical hits.

In addition to Air Slash, Noctowl learns Zen Headbutt at level 37, Extrasensory at level 42 (I recommend it over Zen Headbutt), and then some other moves that aren't too helpful. Well actually Roost at level 52 is alright, but that can be taught via TM as well and I prefer just using Potions and Moomoo Milks to heal since you don't have to worry about Speed.

As far as TMs and stuff go, there are a few options. Since Noctowl has low Attack, you'll want to go with Special-based moves for sure. That makes Psychic (better than Extrasensory, but not by too much) and Shadow Ball your best options. It can learn Silver Wind, but it has low PP and isn't overly strong. You can also teach Noctowl Swift by taking it to the Move Tutor in Snowpoint City. It's not the strongest move in the world, but it's a little better than Uproar and you get STAB off of it as well.

If you're looking for a more defensive Pokemon, Noctowl is an alright choice. Not the greatest and it's far from being a total wall, but it at least has a lot of HP and Sp. Def and can annoy in-game opponents fairly well.

Eterna Forest is a pretty big place, so you'll want some help getting through it. Thankfully you're not alone, because Cheryl, a Trainer looking to get through Eterna Forest as well, would love some company to help escort her through the forest and keep her safe from Team Galactic. She'll join your party during the forest and will heal your Pokemon after every fight, which is very convenient and makes the Eterna Forest a good place to train while she's in your party.

She'll use a level 20 Chansey that isn't overly strong offensively, but it can take plenty of hits and it'll help add to the damage done against your opponents. Every fight against wild Pokemon will be a Double Battle while she's in your party. Remember, if you want to catch a Pokemon in a Double Battle, you need to Knock Out the Pokemon you do not want to catch! You can only throw a Poke Ball when there's one Pokemon left on the field.

The forest isn't really as intimidating as it might seem at first. Just head northeast a little bit, then south, then sort of keep heading in the northeast direction until you can go more north. From there, go north, then head west, north, and finally east to get out of there. It's not as tough as I'm making it sound, don't worry!

All of the Trainers here can be fought in a Double Battle with Cheryl in your party, or you can take all of them on (except for the first Bug Catcher and Lass, which you MUST fight in a Double Battle) in a Single Battle if you'd rather by talking to them individually instead of running through their line of sight. It's your choice. Since you get healed between each fight, it's not a big deal. You'll get the same amount of EXP either way.

You can find a few assorted items scattered along the forest, though nothing really too noteworthy. When you reach the end of the forest, Cheryl will give you a Soothe Bell, which will increase the rate the Pokemon holding it gains its happiness — very useful to give to the Pokemon you taught (or are going to teach) Return to, or to a Zubat, Budew, or Munchax (or any other future Pokemon you catch that evolve from happiness).

Route 205 (North) Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Bidoof		Lv. 12 ~ 14 EXP: 98 ~ 115	30%	30%	30%
	Budew	/	Lv. 12 ~ 14 EXP: 115 ~ 135	28%	38%	28%
	Wurmple		Lv. 13 EXP: 99	10%	10%	0%
	Kricketot		Lv. 12 ~ 13 EXP: 91 ~ 99	10%	0%	10%
	Silcoon		Lv. 14 EXP: 143	10%	10%	10%
	Cascoon		Lv. 14 EXP: 143	10%	10%	10%
	Beautifly	/	Lv. 15 EXP: 345	1%	1%	1%
	Dustox	/	Lv. 15 EXP: 345	1%	1%	1%
	Hoothoot	/	Lv. 12 EXP: 98	0%	0%	10%

Trainers at Route 205 (South)
	Fisherman Joseph			$544
		Goldeen		Lv. 17 404 EXP
	Fisherman Andrew			$512
		Magikarp		Lv. 8 33 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 10 41 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 12 50 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 12 50 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 14 59 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 16 67 EXP
	Fisherman Zachary			$448
		Magikarp		Lv. 14 59 EXP
		Goldeen		Lv. 16 380 EXP
		Magikarp		Lv. 14 59 EXP

There's a few wild Pokemon for you to fight in the tall grass. It's a different mix from the Pokemon you fought earlier in the route, before Eterna Forest. Nothing too exciting, though, don't worry. There's also three Fisherman for you to fight on your way to Eterna City, one of which being rather... annoying and unrewarding for the time being.

Just make your way east until you get to Eterna City, picking up some of the items on the way if you'd like.

There's quite a bit for you to do in Eterna City, so let's start with the most important stuff first. Start out by heading north of the Pokemon Center and around the path. Rival will spot you and then take you over to the Pokemon Statue, where you'll see that creepy Cyrus guy from earlier. He'll be just as creepy as always, and will then head off to do who knows what. Rival will head off shortly afterward.

As you head back to the Pokemon Center or to the main part of Eterna City, a blonde-haired girl in dark clothes will approach you and introduce herself as Cynthia. She's investigating old folklore and myths and seems to have some connection to Professor Rowan. Hmmm, interesting. Fortunately for you, she's quite friendly and gives you HM01, which contains the move Cut. It's a really weak Normal-type move, but you'll need to teach it to something in order to cut down those funny looking trees nearby (and all over Sinnoh). You have to have the Forest Badge before you can use it outside of battle, though.

Before getting the Forest Badge, there's a few other things you can check out in town. The house just to the west of the Pokemon Statue sells inexpensive herbal medicine. It's fairly cheap, but it lowers your Pokemon's happiness by a lot. Although happiness doesn't really matter at all unless you're trying to evolve it by happiness or are using Return (there's a few other instances that it affects). I mean, it's not like your Pokemon is going to disobey you or anything if it's unhappy, so it's really up to you if you want to use them or not. There are better deals for healing later in the game, so you might not even want to get any now, but if you're having trouble with the Gym, perhaps some of those Revival Herbs might come in handy, since you can't buy Revives just yet.

Inside of the house right next to the Pokemon Center is the Underground Man's house. You'll need to get the Explorer Kit from the old man inside in order to continue, so make sure you get it now before you forget! That'll let you go dig underground, where you can get a bunch of different items, like Shards and even Fossils. It's a pretty fun mini-game!

By talking to a girl inside of the Pokemon Center, you can get yourself the Friendship Checker Poketch App. That application shows you your Pokemon floating around, and if you tap them, you might see a heart above its head if it is friendly towards you. Maxed out happiness is when it shows two big hearts, so keep that in mind!

Chatty Little Charap

In the condominium next to the Poke Mart, you can find a little boy who will trade you his Chatot for your Buizel. You can catch Buizel just to the west of Eterna City and it's pretty easy to catch, so why not trade for a Chatot, which you couldn't otherwise catch until much later in the game?

Chatot   /

Ah, good old Charap. If you trade for Charap, remember that it will gain EXP 1.5x as fast, though you'll need to keep it below a certain level if you want it to obey you, depending on how many badges you have. You'll probably want to get your Forest Badge before dealing with Charap, because otherwise it may disobey you — which is a shame, because it would have been pretty helpful in the Eterna Gym. It'll stay loyal up to level 30 with 2 badges, level 50 with 4 badges, level 70 with 6 badges, and will never disobey once you get all 8. Since you probably won't have a level 50 Chatot by the time you get 4 badges or level 70 by the time you get 6, you really just need to avoid letting it go above level 30 before getting your 4th Badge.

But is Charap the Chatot really worth it? On the plus side, since it's traded, it'll level up really fast, which is nice, but still... Let's take a look!

First of all, you'll notice that Chatot has decent Speed and Sp. Atk. Actually its HP isn't too shabby, either. But that's about it. It's not really amazing in any of those stats, though since it doesn't evolve, it's alright. It doesn't have a lot of useful moves early on, except perhaps Sing at level 13. If you're looking for a move to attack with, you might want to teach it Pluck with the TM you got in Floaroma Town, because that'll be your best bet until level 21. At level 21, Chatot learns perhaps the funnest move in the game, Chatter. It's a Flying-type move that has a chance of inflicting confusion on the target, but what's really fun is that you get to record your voice and it'll play (although a little distorted) whenever you use the attack. That's pretty fun, I have to say. But that's about it for worthwhile attacking moves that Chatot learns until level 45, when it learns the pretty useful Hyper Voice, which is a 90 power Normal-type move that Chatot gets STAB off of. Oh yeah, it's Special-based, too. Sweet.

Chatot is really more of a novelty in all actuality. It's not exceptionally great (though a few steps up from a total failure), but can be fun to use. I'd still recommend Staraptor over Chatot, but Chatter is pretty fun...

You can also find the Name Rater inside of that same building. He's the old man in there and he'll let you rename any of your Pokemon that you caught. Keep in mind that he won't let you rename Pokemon that you didn't catch, such as ones you received in a trade. Yep, you're stuck with Charap if you traded for that kid's Chatot.

Also in that building, you can talk to the old lady on the second floor and she'll give you TM67 (Recycle). When used, it reattaches the user's held item if it was consumed or used in any other way by the user. It can be helpful for some berries, but it probably isn't worth it unless you want to use a lot of berries or use moves like Fling a lot.

Whenever you're ready, head on south to the Gym and talk to the Gym Leader, Gardenia, right outside.

Route 211 (West) Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Meditite	/	Lv. 13 ~ 15 EXP: 169 ~ 195	40%	40%	20%
	Bidoof		Lv. 14 EXP: 115	20%	20%	20%
	Chingling		Lv. 14, 16 EXP: 147 ~ 168	15%	15%	15%
	Machop		Lv. 14 ~ 15 EXP: 150 ~ 160	15%	15%	15%
	Bronzor	/	Lv. 14, 16 EXP: 143 ~ 163	10%	10%	10%
	Zubat	/	Lv. 14 EXP: 107	0%	0%	10%
	Hoothoot	/	Lv. 15 EXP: 123	0%	0%	10%

Trainers at Route 211 (West)
	Ninja Boy Zach			$112
		Zubat	/	Lv. 14 161 EXP
		Zubat	/	Lv. 14 161 EXP
		Zubat	/	Lv. 14 161 EXP
	Hiker Louis			$576
		Geodude	/	Lv. 14 219 EXP
		Onix	/	Lv. 18 415 EXP
	Bird Keeper Alexandra			$544
		Starly	/	Lv. 17 203 EXP
		Hoothoot	/	Lv. 17 210 EXP

A Real Steel!

Three new Pokemon can be found on Route 211, so it might be worth your while stopping by on that fact alone! On Route 211, you can find yourself a Meditite, a Chingling, and even a Bronzor. How do they stack up, though?

Meditite   /
-L37->

I strongly advise getting yourself a Meditite at this point in the game. You can find Medicham later on, fully evolved and ready to go, when you scale Mt. Coronet after getting the 7th Badge. Just pick it up then, because Meditite has bad stats and learns no good moves early on.

If you absolutely must have a Meditite right now, read this paragraph; otherwise, just skip ahead and save yourself some time (Medicham, unlike Meditite, is actually pretty good). First of all, Meditite has no remarkable stats at all. It has extremely low HP, though with at least some Defense and Sp. Def to back it up. It has low Attack and Sp. Atk, though its Attack is actually much higher than it seems due to its Pure Power ability, which effectively doubles its Attack stat. But like I said, it doesn't learn any good moves at all until Force Palm at level 29 (!) and Hi Jump Kick at level 32. Hi Jump Kick is great and extremely powerful, but it's just so far away. It'll drive you crazy. There are also no TM moves you can teach it that help other than Return and Rock Tomb, neither of which will be all that great early on.

So if you decided to be smart and waited to catch a Medicham later on, you'll be a lot more impressed. Medicham has decent Defense and Sp. Def, pretty good Speed, and... well, low Attack, but since it still has Pure Power, it'll actually hit like it has a TON of Attack, so don't feel too depressed when you see its Attack stat. When you catch it, at around level 37 or 39 or so, it'll have Hi Jump Kick and Force Palm in its roster of moves, but you can really make your Medicham awesome by ditching Force Palm and going to the Move Tutor in Pastoria City with some Heart Scales to teach it Fire Punch, Ice Punch, or Thunderpunch. You can also teach it Meditate to raise its massively high Attack stat even more before proceeding to sweep an entire team of Pokemon. And if you want some extra oomph, take it to the Move Tutor on Route 212 with some Shards to teach it Zen Headbutt, a strong Physical-based Psychic-type move that Medicham will greatly appreciate.

I'd recommend giving your Medicham the following moveset to help you through the game:

• Hi Jump Kick or Brick Break (good against Normal, Ice, Steel, Dark, and Rock)
• Ice Punch (good against Grass, Flying, Ground, and Dragon)
• Zen Headbutt (good against Fighting and Poison)

That gives it a super effective attack against 11 different types! Plus you have one more move you can teach it, and I'd recommend one of the following, depending on your style:

• Fire Punch (gives an advantage against Bug-types or some Bronzong)
• Thunderpunch (gives an advantage against Water-types)
• Meditate (takes a turn, but then Medicham does even more damage; combine with an X Speed to sweep through the Elite Four; though you could just buy X Attacks, too...)
• Drain Punch (two Fighting-type moves makes it slightly redundant, but free healing while knocking things out is cool)

If you wait until you can catch wild Medicham or have unbelievable patience to level up a Meditite to level 37 to evolve it, you probably won't be disappointed with Medicham. It hits extremely hard and learns a wide variety of moves.

Chingling  
-Happiness + Nighttime->

There's close to nothing good about Chingling. It doesn't learn very many moves at all as a Chingling and has some pretty poor stats, having only moderately alright Sp. Atk. It evolves when it is very happy and gains a level, though only at night. Is it worth making it happy to evolve? Well... Chimecho is certainly a lot better than Chingling. Try and evolve it as soon as possible.

Chimecho learns Yawn at level 25, which is helpful for catching Pokemon by putting them to sleep after a turn. It also learns Heal Bell, which heals all status conditions on all of your Pokemon. Handy, but so are Full Heals. Extrasensory is about the only thing worthwhile on Chimecho's movelist other than Yawn. Too bad it learns it at level 46...

It has decent Sp. Atk, alright Defense and Sp. Def, but it's not really that fast. For that matter, it's not really exceptional in even the stats that are its high points. Why you would want a Chimecho over a Kadabra or Alakazam is really beyond me, other than perhaps the added Defense.

You're really going to have to use some TMs if you want Chimecho to be remotely useful. One thing that it can do actually fairly well is set up Reflect or Light Screen. Give it the Soft Clay that you find in the basement of Mt. Coronet and it'll half the damage received by Physical-based attacks for 8 turns (5 without the Soft Clay) with Reflect for all of your Pokemon, or half the damage received by Special-based attacks by 8 turns by using Light Screen. That can be helpful during fights against Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, though not really for the majority of Trainers you come across. And even then, you have to train the thing... It can also learn moves like Shadow Ball, Shock Wave, Grass Knot, and Charge Beam. Psychic is also a bit better than Extrasensory, too.

In the end, Chimecho isn't really that exceptional. It's more defensive for sure, but not enough to make it solid enough. You're better off with other defensive Psychic-types that also happen to be part Steel-type, like, say...

Bronzor   /
-L33->

Bronzor... what an odd Pokemon. Bronzor and its evolution are almost entirely defensive walls. They lack both Attack and Sp. Atk, but make up for it in massive defensive stats and an amazing Psychic/Steel-type with either the Levitate ability to give it just a weakness to Fire (and immunity to Ground, yay!), or the Heatproof ability to reduce the damage Bronzor or Bronzong receives by Fire-type attacks by half, effectively just making it weak to Ground-type attacks. Levitate is your best bet, but either make good choices — just make sure you know which one you have so you can switch your metal wall out if it's exposed to danger.

As far as moves go, Bronzor starts off with annoying moves like Confusion, Hypnosis, and Confuse Ray. It learns Extrasensory at only level 19, which is actually a pretty strong Psychic-type move to be learning that early. Don't be thinking that it's going to be doing a lot of damage, though, because Bronzor still has dismal Sp. Atk, but it's at least something to hit for. You might want to keep Confusion as well, because Bronzor will use up more PP to knock out opponents and you don't want to run out all the time.

At level 26, Bronzor learns Iron Defense, which raises its Defense by two stages. Just in case it wasn't taking hits well enough. That's also a rather useful move for Bronzor for taking on Gyms. You could give it Iron Defense and Light Screen (via TM), or Light Screen and Reflect (also via TM), or any number of different things to make it stick around for a long time. Actually Bronzor and Bronzong are way better than Chimecho at setting up Reflect and Light Screen.

Finally, at level 33, your Bronzor will evolve into Bronzong and will gain some much-needed offensive power. It'll have actually pretty nice Attack and decent Sp. Atk, along with astounding Defense and Sp. Defense coupled with a huge amount of resistances. The only real down side to Bronzong is its horrible Speed, but that can actually work to its advantage.

When it evolves, it'll learn Block, which prevents the foe from retreating or switching. Don't let it learn that, because unless you're fighting other players, the only time you'd need to use that sort of move is against fleeing Legendary Pokemon, and you'd need to attack first — and with Bronzong's Speed, that's not happening. But it'll learn Gyro Ball shortly afterward, at level 38, which is a great move for Bronzong to learn. It'll probably have the power equivalent of 50 to 100, before applying STAB, and that's not too shabby. You can make it hold an Iron Ball or a Macho Brace to half its Speed and increase the amount of damage you do even more.

There are so many TMs and moves you can teach Bronzong you'll wish you had more than four moves for it! Earthquake is a pretty good move you can teach Bronzong rather early in the game if you use a TM on it. Psychic or Flash Cannon are good moves that hit pretty hard, though you'll probably find Gyro Ball does just a bit more than Flash Cannon.

Also, like the whole Meditite and Medicham problem, you can skip Bronzor entirely and just wait until you go to Mt. Coronet after getting the 7th Badge to go directly to Bronzong. That might not be a bad idea, since Bronzor lacks any offensive power, whereas Bronzong can actually fight pretty well in addition to having the equivalent of an invincibility cheat on thanks to its defenses. But hey, if you've got the patience, go ahead and get Bronzor.

There's not all that much excitement over on Route 211, but there's a few Trainers you can battle before taking on the Eterna Gym. You can also pick up TM12, which contains Taunt, a move that forces the target to only use attacking moves (instead of support moves). I wouldn't recommend it for your in-game purposes, though, because 99% of the time you'll be better off just destroying your opponent with your strongest attacks or using moves that raise your stats. Save it for fights against other players.

While you're here, you can also stop in Mt. Coronet, but there's really nothing you can do there except catch a few Pokemon.

Mt. Coronet (North Entrance) Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon		Type(s)	Level(s)	Morn.	Day	Night
	Bronzor	/	Lv. 14 EXP: 143	20%	20%	20%
	Geodude	/	Lv. 13, 15 EXP: 135 ~ 156	20%	30%	20%
	Meditite	/	Lv. 14, 16 EXP: 182 ~ 208	20%	20%	10%
	Cleffa		Lv. 13 EXP: 68	10%	0%	10%
	Machop		Lv. 16 EXP: 171	10%	10%	10%
	Chingling		Lv. 13, 15 EXP: 136 ~ 157	10%	10%	10%
	Nosepass		Lv. 14 EXP: 215	5%	5%	5%
	Zubat	/	Lv. 14 ~ 15 EXP: 107 ~ 114	5%	5%	15%

Nosy, are we?

The fun doesn't stop at Route 211; there are also two new Pokemon you can find inside of Mt. Coronet.

Cleffa  
-Happiness-> -Moon Stone->

These little moon fairy things may look rather pink and docile, but are they a worthwhile addition to your team of Pokemon? Let's take a peek!

Cleffa on its own is miserably weak. Period. You'll want to evolve it by happiness as soon as possible. Thankfully it starts out with more base happiness than most Pokemon, so it should be a little less hassle getting it to evolve, though it'll still take some work. Cleffa learns some annoying moves like Charm, Encore, Sing, and Sweet Kiss. It also learns Magical Leaf, a Special-based Grass-type move that has perfect accuracy, at level 16. But that's it for Cleffa. You're going to have to evolve it to Clefairy before it will learn any other moves or be useful in any way.

Once you've got yourself a Clefairy, you'll be able to evolve it into Clefable immediately if you use a Moon Stone on it, which can be found by digging underground. When you evolve your Clefairy is really important, though, because Clefable will not learn any moves by leveling up after you've evolved it. Since Clefairy also doesn't have very good stats at all, possessing only mild Sp. Atk and Sp. Def (it actually has some decent HP), you'll really be itching to evolve it into Clefable with every level it gains.

At level 19, it learns Minimize, though you can teach it Double Team by using a TM that you can buy, so it's not really a big deal. Clefairy learns the pretty useful Cosmic Power at level 25, which raises both its Defense and Sp. Def by one stage. That can help Clefairy take a few extra hits and you can use it multiple times in case you really want to make sure Clefairy can absorb the damage. That's probably the best time to evolve your Clefairy, because the only other really helpful move it learns is Meteor Mash at level 43, and you don't really want to wait around to level 43 if you don't have to.

Evolve your Clefairy into Clefable and then take a look at all of the TMs that you can teach it. Clefable has a bit higher Sp. Atk than Attack, but it can use either just fine. It can learn moves of just about any type, so good options for attacking moves that you can get before the Elite Four are Ice Beam, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, Dig, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, Flamethrower (or Fire Blast), Focus Blast, Charge Beam, or even Grass Knot. You could also teach it Hyper Beam if you don't mind recharging a turn, though try to use it only in emergencies if you do, and certainly don't use it in fights against other players. Clefable can also learn a lot of moves from the various Move Tutors in the game, such as Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch (though you're better off with Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt respectively), Zen Headbutt (better off with Psychic), and Signal Beam (that's pretty darn cool).

Clefable doesn't really have amazing stats or anything. It has a lot of HP and a bit lacking Speed, but everything else is right smack dab in the middle of mediocre. But since Clefable can use Cosmic Power to raise both of its defensive stats at once and can use close to a million types of different moves for maximum type coverage, Clefable can easily fill in the void for any specific types you're looking to fill.

Also, just a quick note: you can catch Clefairy later in the game, at level 37, when going back to Mt. Coronet after getting the 7th Gym Badge. You might want to wait until then to get a Clefairy if you really, really want Meteor Mash.

Nosepass   ()
-Level Up at Mt. Coronet->

What unusual Pokemon. These rocky nose compass things are now available in Platinum early on. Are they any good, though? Well what's nice is that you can get a Probopass right away — all you need to do is just level up the Nosepass you caught inside of Mt. Coronet and it'll evolve. Too bad Nosepass are rather rare to encounter there. But hey, at least you can.

So since you can effectively get Probopass right away — which I highly recommend you do, seeing as Probopass is much, much better and doesn't really miss out on any moves — I'm just going to skip to reviewing that rather than Nosepass. First of all, Probopass has Defense and Sp. Def that would make Bronzong cry. Not only that, but it is also Steel/Rock-type, so it is resistant to tons of different types. It is very, very weak to Fighting- and Ground-type attacks, so you have to be extra careful to avoid exposing it to any Pokemon that you think might be using those types against it! Water-type attacks also hurt a lot, but it should be able to take one or two thanks to its very high Sp. Def.

Probopass has much better Sp. Atk than Attack, so you're best off using Special-based moves. It's a shame it doesn't learn any until level 49, though. Oh well, you can get by until then. If you take Probopass to the Move Tutor in Pastoria City and give him a Heart Scale, you can relearn Magnet Bomb, which is probably a smart thing to do when you get to Pastoria City for the first time. Until then, you'll have to put up with the likes of Rock Throw to do damage.

At level 49, Probopass will learn Power Gem, a Special-based Rock-type move that is very fitting for Probopass. It'll learn Discharge at level 55 and then Stone Edge at level 61. Power Gem will probably still do more damage in the long run, though. It also learns a few other moves that aren't really worth it, ending its moveset roster with Earth Power at level 79 (!). You're probably going to be long done with the game by that point, though, so don't count on it.

To get by, you'll probably want to teach Probopass some TM moves to increase its usefulness. Thunderbolt is a very awesome option to help abuse its Sp. Atk stat, though try not to get too bold around Water-types with it, because they can still hit Probopass for super effective damage (though it does have a lot of defenses). Earthquake may be Physical-based, but it's still very strong and a good complement to Probopass' moveset. Lastly, Flash Cannon is great to put on Probopass as soon as you get it and will be its main attacking move throughout the game.

I'd really have to say that Probopass isn't as bad as it is unusual. Thank goodness. It's not the strongest Pokemon in the world, but it does a good job at taking billions of hits and learns enough moves to get by in the usefulness department.

There isn't really that much for you to do in here except for catching some new Pokemon. Nosepass is new to Platinum, but it's still pretty tough to find, appearing only 5% of the time. You can also press A against one of the rocks in here to find a hidden item, remember that! But you'll want to come back here later in the game, after you can use Strength outside of battle to pick up that item you see looming on the ledge.

They've changed Eterna Gym entirely. Rather than trying to track down the Trainers, you now have to fight them in order, and after beating each one, the giant flower clock in the middle of the Gym will spin around and allow you to access another Trainer. There are three Trainers in all, and you'll to fight them all before you can get to Gardenia!

Trainers at Eterna Gym
	Lass Caroline			$272
		Cherubi		Lv. 17 246 EXP
		Roselia	/	Lv. 17 552 EXP
	Aroma Lady Jenna			$544
		Budew	/	Lv. 15 217 EXP
		Budew	/	Lv. 16 232 EXP
		Budew	/	Lv. 17 246 EXP
	Aroma Lady Angela			$608
		Roselia	/	Lv. 19 617 EXP

None of these Trainers are avoidable, so you'll have to take all three of them on if you want a shot at Gardenia. Fortunately that'll give you some good practice for the real fight, so make sure you use that opportunity to test to see how you do against the Gym's Grass-type Pokemon! If you're struggling, there are a few Pokemon you might want to consider catching:

• Starly (on the northern part of Route 204). Level it up to around level 18 to 20 and make sure it knows Wing Attack and Double Team.
• Ponyta (on Route 207 just to the north of Oreburgh City). Level it up to at least level 18 and make sure it knows Flame Wheel and, optionally, Ember.
• Dustox or Beautifly (evolve from Wurmple, Cascoon, or Silcoon, and you can catch those in Eterna Forest or just west of Eterna City). Level it up to at least level 19 and make sure it knows Gust. You don't have to keep it afterward, but both Dustox and Beautifly take only 1/4th the usual damage from Gardenia's Grass-type attacks, making you essentially invincible.

Anyway, getting through the Gym is surprisingly straightforward. Just walk along on the clock and fight the Trainers. That's not so tough, is it? After beating the 2nd and 3rd Trainer, the water fountains near them will lower so you can run to the Pokemon Center if you want to. I'd recommend healing up before taking on Gardenia at the back of the Gym!

Boss Fight
	Leader Gardenia			$1680
		Turtwig		Lv. 20 273 EXP
		Cherrim		Lv. 20 570 EXP
		Roserade	/	Lv. 22 960 EXP

After beating Gardenia, she'll give you the Forest Badge, which makes it so Pokemon that you receive in a trade that are level 30 or less will obey you and won't slack off and stuff in the middle of a fight. She'll also give you TM86, which contains Grass Knot. It's a Special-based Grass-type move that does more damage to heavier Pokemon. Teach it to your Pokemon if you'd like, but it's probably not necessary for in-game purposes.