Minggu, 30 Mei 2010

Walkthrough

forums Oekaki HGSS Pokedex
Pokemon Platinum
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The Pokemon League
Opening

At the beginning of a new game, you will be greeted by Professor Rowan. He will then explain to you about Pokemon, and will instruct you to open a Poke Ball. A Poke Ball will appear on the touch screen. Simply touch the center of it, and a Buneary will pop out. After putting the Buneary away, you will be able to choose whether to play as a male or female character, both donning snazzy new clothes since their debut in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Just highlight the one you want to play as and press A. It makes no significant impact on the gameplay and is merely personal preference (to my knowledge). (For the sake of this Walkthrough, I am going to assume that you are playing as a male character.) You will then be prompted to enter a name, which can be up to 7 letters, numbers, or symbols.

After entering your name, your "rival" will be shown on screen and you will be prompted to give him a name as well. Same rules apply, except there are different default names for him. For the sake of this walkthough, I am going to refer to him as Rival. Yeah, pretty original nickname for him, huh?

You will then be shrunk into the game, and your journey will begin.

Twinleaf Town

The game starts up with the TV on, though rather than news about the Red Gyarados, it's talking some about Professor Rowan. After the TV show, you'll have temporary control over your character, but as soon as you move, Rival will run up the stairs. He'll check out your computer and then run off.

When you walk down the stairs, your mom will talk to you, and then before you leave, she'll say a few things before you head out.

Now you might notice that there's snow around Twinleaf Town, poking at the edges of it. Yep, the region has gotten much colder in Platinum. That'll be one of the first graphical changes you'll probably notice throughout your adventure.

Anyway, make your way over to Rival's house, which is the house in the northeast corner of town. Rival will bump into you as you open the door, will start to run off, but forgets something inside of his house. Head inside and up the stairs to see run off again, as he's so good at doing.

Now that Rival has run off, you can leave Twinleaf Town by taking the northern exit, heading on over to Route 201.

On Route 201, Rival is about to try running into the patch of tall grass, but is stopped by Professor Rowan who shows up on the scene saying some stuff and asking you if you love Pokemon. Say yes (or no, if you want) and then, eventually, Rowan will be persuaded to let you have a Pokemon. Dawn will then come over (or Lucas if you're playing as a girl, though I'm just going to refer to Rowan's assistant as Dawn for the purpose of this walkthrough) with the Professor's briefcase and will let you choose a Pokemon.

Important!

If you're looking for a starter Pokemon of a particular gender or nature, you can save your game after Dawn or Lucas brings out the briefcase. It's recommended that you save your game after you've taken a step towards the briefcase so that way if you don't like the Pokemon you chose or you don't like its stats, you can reset without having to go through all of that dialog.

What starting Pokemon should I choose?

This is a question that is asked by a lot of players. The Pokemon that you choose as your starter Pokemon does make a bit of an impact on your playthrough, because you are going to be likely to use that Pokemon in your team throughout the game. But which one is the best of these three to choose? Here are my opinions on the three starter Pokemon!

Turtwig
Turtwig Grass (Ground)
Turtwig -L18-> Grotle -L32-> Torterra
Turtwig, the Turtle Pokemon, is a pretty solid choice. It has great Attack and Defense, although it suffers from a low Speed stat. Turtwig and its evolutions are a lot less likely to outspeed Pokemon that you encounter throughout the game, but it can take a lot of hits.

Torterra, Turtwig's final evolution, is a Grass/Ground-type Pokemon, and it can learn Earthquake without using a TM, in addition to Razor Leaf and Crunch fairly early on. Curse is also a very useful move to have Torterra learn to raise its high Attack and Defense stats even further, at the cost of a decrease of Speed.

My personal ranking for Turtwig among the other starter Pokemon is second of the three starter Pokemon. Its low Speed is a let-down, but it learns really good moves and has solid stats to use them with in-game.
Chimchar
Chimchar Fire (Fighting)
Chimchar -L14-> Monferno -L36-> Infernape
Chimchar, the Monkey Pokemon, is fast and agile, although the weakest in Defense and Special Defense among the three Starter Pokemon. It evolves early on, at level 14, into the Fire/Fighting-type Monferno, and it gains a lot of strength with its second type. Contrary to popular belief, if you start with Chimchar, you won't have too much difficulty with the first Gym (a Rock-type Gym), since Fighting-type Pokemon are actually effective against Rock-types. Just as long as you let your Chimchar evolve before then, you will fare very well, so don't let that myth scare you.

Chimchar and its evolution line focus primarily on offense and speed, boasting high Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. Its Defense and Special Defense are low, but it has the power to take out most Pokemon in the game with one hit before they even get a chance to strike, so it's not a terrible situation.

Some of the moves I would recommend for Chimchar and its simian family are Flame Wheel, Close Combat, Mach Punch, and Flare Blitz. Strength and Brick Break are also options to consider if you are willing to use TMs and HMs on it.

In comparison to the other two starter Pokemon, Chimchar is my personal favorite. If a quick, powerful strike at the expense of weaker defenses is your thing, Chimchar will fit your style well.
Piplup
Piplup Water (Steel)
Piplup -L16-> Prinplup -L36-> Empoleon
Piplup, the Penguin Pokemon, is sturdy and good at attacking. It is fairly well-balanced in stats, although it will start lacking Speed as it eventually reaches its final stage, Empoleon. However, when it does reach that stage, it will also take on a new type: Steel-type. The addition of the Steel-type will give it a wide variety of resistances, making it take very little damage from quite a few attacks. Pretty much, only Electric-, Fighting-, and Ground-type attacks are what you need to worry about — most everything else is resisted.

Unfortunately, this nice typing comes at a cost: lack of good learned moves. Unless you use TMs, Empoleon doesn't learn a lot of great moves by itself. Metal Claw, Aqua Jet, Bubblebeam, Peck, and Drill Peck are pretty much among the best you'll see out of the Empoleon line, and with Empoleon's sub-par Attack stat, it is better off using Special-based attacks. If you are fine using TMs and HMs on Empoleon, Surf (HM03) and Flash Cannon (TM90) are both very powerful attacks for Empoleon to learn, and if you're willing to invest Flash Cannon on Empoleon (you only get one copy of that TM in the game, unless you trade), it will be a very good investment.

In comparison to the other two starters, my personal ranking for Piplup is third, so in other words it is my least favorite of the three. It will struggle with sub-par moves until you get the HM for Surf (right before the 5th Badge), but will then become much more useful, and very powerful after getting Flash Cannon. But I'm the type that doesn't like to use TMs... or wait.
The Pokemon that you choose as your starter Pokemon will be solid and strong regardless of which you choose, and any of the three of them are excellent choices. Really, it's just a matter of your preferences as to which you pick.

After you pick your Pokemon, Rival will challenge you to a Pokemon battle right on the spot, using the Pokemon he just received. This is a good chance for you to test your skills as a Pokemon Trainer! (Not really, because it's your first battle, but still it's a good warm up.)

Boss Fight
PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Turtwig) $500
Chimchar Chimchar M Fire Lv. 5
69 EXP

PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Chimchar) $500
Piplup Piplup M Water Lv. 5
69 EXP

PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Piplup) $500
Turtwig Turtwig M Grass Lv. 5
67 EXP

Rival's Pokemon will likely waste time using either Withdraw, Leer, or Growl. If you want to win this fight, only use Scratch, Tackle, or Pound. Don't bother with your Pokemon's other attack. After a few hits, you should knock out Rival's starting Pokemon and earn yourself a tidy sum of EXP — enough to get you to level 6.

After your fight, you'll be taken back to your house and your mom will tell you to go to Sandgem Town after Rival. She'll also give you the Running Shoes which let you run while you hold down the B button.

When you return to Route 201, you'll see Rival there and he'll talk to you for a little bit and will then want you to go check out Lake Verity, off to the east. At Lake Verity, you and Rival see Cyrus, a strange person in blue hair, talking to himself over at the lake's edge. He'll leave, leaving just you and Rival at the lake, and you'll hear the cry of the lake's Legendary Pokemon which excites Rival. However, Rival realizes that neither of you have any Poke Balls, so he suggests you head to Sandgem Town to get some from Professor Rowan.

Sounds like a good idea. After all, we all do want Pokemon, right? Make your way back to Route 201 and then head east towards Sandgem Town. Now that you have a Pokemon to fight with, you can actually proceed.

Route 201
Route 201
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Starly Starly Normal / Flying Lv. 2 ~ 3
EXP: 15 ~ 23
50% 50% 40%
Bidoof Bidoof Normal Lv. 2 ~ 3
EXP: 15 ~ 23
40% 50% 50%
Kricketot Kricketot Bug Lv. 3
EXP: 22
10% 0% 10%

For now, since you don't have any Poke Balls to catch these Pokemon with, you can only fight them to get EXP. Head east to Sandgem Town and try to get your Pokemon up to level 7 along the way, which should only take about 3 or 4 fights.

Sandgem Town

Upon arriving in Sandgem Town, Dawn will be waiting for you there, and she will lead you to the Professor's Lab. Rival will then walk out just then and will run off. Dawn will take you inside. Inside, after a bit of talking, the Professor will decide to give you the Pokemon you chose. You can then give it a nickname, if you desire. Eventually, he will ask you if you want to travel throughout Sinnoh and catalog information on the different Pokemon in it. Say yes, and you will receive the Pokedex.

Immediately after you leave the building, Professor Rowan will stop you and give you TM27 (Return). That's a useful TM you might want to use on your starting Pokemon to help give it some extra oomph to its attacks, particularly later on in the game, when it really likes you a lot. Or you can save it for another Pokemon, like Starly or Bidoof.

Dawn will then show you around the town, showing you where the Pokemon Center is, where the Poke Mart is, and will then run off to the north after showing you the Poke Mart to show you how to catch a Pokemon.

But before you follow her, you should head back to your house in Twinleaf Town and talk to your mother to let her know you'll be going on a journey. After you get tell her, Rival's mother will walk in and she'll give you the Parcel, which you'll need to deliver to Rival in Jubilife City.

Now that you've done that, head back to where Dawn headed off to, just north of Sandgem Town on Route 202.

Route 202

On Route 202, head into the patch of grass and Dawn will show you how to catch a Pokemon. In her case, she'll try and catch a Bidoof. Naturally, she'll catch it without any problems. She'll give you 5 Poke Balls afterwards, though, which will give you a good start to catching some Pokemon of your own.

Let's take a look at some of the Pokemon you can find on Route 202!

Route 202
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Shinx Shinx Electric Lv. 3 ~ 4
EXP: 24 ~ 33
30% 30% 30%
Bidoof Bidoof Normal Lv. 2 ~ 4
EXP: 15 ~ 32
30% 30% 30%
Starly Starly Normal / Flying Lv. 2 ~ 4
EXP: 15 ~ 31
30% 40% 20%
Kricketot Kricketot Bug Lv. 3 ~ 4
EXP: 22 ~ 29
10% 0% 20%
Gotta Catch 'em Early!

Often times, you'll want to train the first few Pokemon you catch in the game. That makes it fun, but it's also important to remember that there are more Pokemon later in the game! Sometimes it's nice to leave space open for more useful Pokemon than bring 'slackers' onto your team only to tell them goodbye later on. Let's check out the first four Pokemon you might encounter while traveling through Route 202 and the first ones you'll consider adding to your team!

Bidoof
Bidoof Normal (Water)
Bidoof -L15-> Bibarel
Unfortunately, poor Bidoof — nor its evolution, Bibarel — really excel in their stats or moves. They're really easy to catch, but they lack the offensive power of a stronger Normal-type Pokemon like Starly and you'll eventually find that even if you evolve it into Bibarel, it will be falling behind the rest of your team.

Not to say it doesn't have its uses, though. Bibarel is one of the most versatile Pokemon out there for teaching HMs! It can be taught Cut, Surf, Strength, Rock Smash, Waterfall, and Rock Climb! You may not have a need for all of these just yet, but do remember little Bibarel down the road, because I strongly recommend having one with the HM moves: Strength, Surf, Waterfall, and Rock Climb. Those are the most useful for getting through things.

Bidoof and Bibarel also have Yawn, which puts their opponents to sleep at the end of the following turn. That can be very helpful for catching Pokemon. If your Bidoof has the ability Simple, its moves Defense Curl and Amnesia will both have double their effectiveness, and if you use them early on in the fights, your Bibarel can take a lot of hits. Offensively, it may be a bit lacking, but it can help pump up its defenses with those moves — but only if it has the Simple ability.

Starly
Starly Normal / Flying
Starly -L14-> Staravia -L34-> Staraptor
Starly, on the other hand, makes an excellent addition to your team and is useful for nearly the entire game — particularly its top evolution, Staraptor.

Early game, in comparison to other Normal-types like Bidoof, Starly has a lot more of an offensive kick. Quick Attack (Level 5) and Wing Attack (Level 9) are both learned very early on and do a lot of damage. You'll find that Wing Attack is the most powerful move in Starly's roster for awhile, though, which makes its time as Staravia pack a little less of a punch than it could if it learned a slightly stronger move. Once your Staravia becomes a Staraptor, its Attack and Speed will go through the roof! Not only that, but it'll learn the most powerful Fighting-type move in the game, Close Combat, to help give it an edge against an even wider range of foes. Brave Bird is also a very, very strong attack, but you'll want to avoid using it except in emergencies, because it does one-third of the damage dealt to your own Staraptor!

Double Team is very useful and can really help save you in a lot of the Gym fights if you're lucky, though don't depend on it. Teaching your Starly Return (the TM you got from Rowan) early on will make it grow into a very strong attack later on and will give your future Staraptor the possibility of a moveset like this: Close Combat, Return (Strength works well, too), Brave Bird, Aerial Ace (or Fly or Double Team).
Shinx
Shinx Electric
Shinx -L15-> Luxio -L30-> Luxray
Shinx is one of those Pokemon that'll either make a great addition to your team or you'll find it incredibly lacking. Early on, it'll only know Tackle. At level 13, it'll learn Spark, a Physical-based Electric-type attack that'll be pretty strong for the little guy. Is it worth waiting through about 10 or so levels without a lot of good attack power? That's just a matter of how patient you are, really.

After Shinx evolves into Luxio at level 15, it'll learn Bite at level 18 to help it combat Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokemon, but that's about it until it evolves into Luxray at level 30. It learns a few other moves, like Roar and Swagger along the way, but you'll find that neither are really too helpful in getting you through the game, so I wouldn't bother with either. Lastly, as Luxray, the only real useful moves it learns are Thunder Fang at level 35 (which is only marginally more powerful than Spark) and Crunch at level 42. Discharge, at level 56, is too weak to be effective by the time you get it — not to mention it's a Special-based move, meaning it uses Luxray's comparitively low Sp. Atk stat to deal the damage.

Intimidate is a nice ability to have on your Shinx, but Starly learns it as well. Rivalry helps your Shinx do more damage against Pokemon of the same gender as your Shinx, but its attacks will be weaker against Pokemon of the opposite gender as your Shinx, so is it really worth that inconsistency? Needless to say, it's still a pretty solid Pokemon and makes a fair addition to your team. Just consider you may want to hold off for other Pokemon before you put too much hope in Shinx.
Kricketot
Kricketot Bug
Kricketot -L10-> Kricketune
If you let your conscience be your guide, you'll hear it telling you that should avoid using Kricketot. The little cricket leaves much to be desired, even in its evolved form, Kricketune. At least Kricketot evolves pretty early, evolving at level 10, where Kricketune will seem good for a bit. Shouldn't be too tough evolving it, right? Wrong! Kricketot only knows Growl and Bide, and that's all it'll know until you evolve it (unless you have the patience to wait until level 16, where it learns a pretty good Bug-type move, Bug Bite). Bide is very unreliable for training, so you'll really just need to baby your Kricketot by switching it out for a stronger Pokemon on your team to split the EXP.

After you've gotten it up to a Kricketune, it learns Fury Cutter upon evolution and Leech Life at level 14 — both of which are very weak Bug-type moves. It isn't until level 26 that it learns something else you can actually use to attack with, Slash. In Diamond and Pearl, it learned X-Scissor then, but now you have to wait until level 30 to get it, and by then, you'll find you're not doing as much damage as you'd hope for in a Bug-type.

My ultimate verdict is to hold off until you reach Eterna Forest, which is a bit after getting your 1st Gym Badge. You'll find much better candidates for Bug-type Pokemon in there. But if you'd like to use a Kricketot or Kricketune, by all means, go ahead, just don't say I didn't warn you.
Of course, feel free to use whatever Pokemon you'd like. That's one of the fun things about Pokemon is that you can use whoever you'd like on your team! I'd recommend at least catching a Starly and a Bidoof, because both are helpful for holding HM moves when you get them.
Trainers at Route 202
Youngster Youngster Tristan $80
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 5
59 EXP

Lass Lass Natalie $80
Bidoof Bidoof F Normal Lv. 5
61 EXP

Youngster Youngster Logan $80
Burmy Burmy M Bug Lv. 5
65 EXP

Make your way through the Trainers along the way. They use Pokemon a little more powerful than the ones you've been fighting in the tall grass, but they give a lot more EXP. There's just three Trainers on the route and you should be able to take them out with your starter Pokemon without much difficulty.

Training Tip!

Are the new Pokemon you caught taking too long to knock out the Pokemon they're fighting? Are they the ones getting knocked out instead? Here's a tip to help make your training sessions go a little bit faster and easier for your new little Pokemon to keep your trips to the Pokemon Center to a minimum!

First, make sure you have the Pokemon you want to train in the first position in your party. Then, when a battle starts, switch that Pokemon to a stronger one, like your starter Pokemon! The stronger Pokemon will probably take a hit switching into the fight, but it'll hurt a lot less than it would have for the Pokemon you're training. Then just have the strong Pokemon knock out the Pokemon you're fighting and both Pokemon will get 50% of the EXP, even though the weaker one didn't land a single blow.

Remember to do that, particularly when you're training up a new Pokemon to use that hasn't gotten used to the rest of your team yet!

Jubilife City

Right when you enter Jubilife City, you'll be ambushed by Dawn, and she takes you over to the center of town, where you see an unusual man lurking about the lampposts. His codename is Looker and he's undercover. He gives you the Battle Recorder, which lets you record the last battle that you fought in so you can view it later. He then runs off, and Dawn finishes showing you the Pokemon School.

Inside of the Pokemon School, you'll find Rival. When you give him the Parcel, there'll be two Town Maps inside for him, so he gives you one. How cool is that? Yeah, now you can see where you are on the map.

Anyway, while you're inside of the Pokemon School, you can fight the two Trainers on the right side of the school.

Trainers at Jubilife City - Pokemon School
School Kid School Kid Harrison $120
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 6
71 EXP

School Kid School Kid Christine $120
Bidoof Bidoof F Normal Lv. 6
73 EXP

The School Boy will use an X Attack on his Starly to make its attacks even stronger, so be careful! If you beat them, you can talk to the School Boy and he'll give you a Potion. Woohoo.

Now, when you leave the Pokemon School and try to head north, you'll be interrupted by the President of the Poketch (short for Poke Watch — get it?) Company. If you can track down the three campaign clowns and get coupons from each of them, he'll give you a free Poketch. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

You can find the three campaign clowns in the following locations:

  • Behind the Pokemon Center
  • Outside of the Poketch Company (west side of town)
  • In front of the TV Station (north side of town)
You can just answer yes to all of their questions to get the coupon.

After you've gotten them all, go back to the guy and he'll give you the Poketch as promised. Awesome!

Now there are a few things you can do right now. You can skim ahead and check out Route 204, to the north, and fight a few Trainers there. You can also head west of Jubilife City and talk to a fisherman inside of the building between Jubilife City and Route 218 and he'll give you the Old Rod, which will let you fish for some Pokemon. You'll mostly catch Magikarp, which evolve into Gyarados at level 20... but they're pretty near useless until then, so you might want to pass on it for now and train one up later on.

Make sure your Pokemon are fully healed and your starting Pokemon is at least level 9 before continuing east onto Route 203.

One thing that'd be good is to check out Route 204 to the north before you proceed any further, or at the very least before you make your way over to Oreburgh City. You'll find three Trainers you can fight up there for a little bit of money and EXP, though you won't be able to proceed any further until after you've gotten your first badge.

Route 204
Route 204 (South)
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Starly Starly Normal / Flying Lv. 4 ~ 6
EXP: 31 ~ 47
25% 25% 25%
Bidoof Bidoof Normal Lv. 4 ~ 6
EXP: 32 ~ 48
25% 25% 25%
Wurmple Wurmple Bug Lv. 4
EXP: 29
10% 10% 0%
Kricketot Kricketot Bug Lv. 3 ~ 4
EXP: 22 ~ 29
10% 0% 10%
Budew Budew Grass / Poison Lv. 3 ~ 5
EXP: 28 ~ 47
15% 25% 15%
Shinx Shinx Electric Lv. 4 ~ 5
EXP: 33 ~ 41
15% 15% 15%
Zubat Zubat Poison / Flying Lv. 3
EXP: 22
0% 0% 10%
Trainers at Route 204
Lass Lass Sarah $112
Shinx Shinx F Electric Lv. 7
89 EXP

Youngster Youngster Tyler $128
Magikarp Magikarp M Water Lv. 8
33 EXP

Lass Lass Samantha $112
Budew Budew F Grass / Poison Lv. 7
101 EXP

There are three Trainers you can fight up here, each having only one Pokemon at level 7 or 8. The Youngster with a Magikarp should be particularly easy, but won't really give you that much EXP for your efforts.

You can also find yourself a few new Pokemon on this route: Budew, Wurmple, and Zubat. All are decent additions to your team. Budew is particularly nice if you train it well and need a good Grass-type Pokemon for your team, because its final evolution, Roserade, is pretty powerful.

Budding Team

While you're here, you can find two more Pokemon that you haven't yet encountered yet that might make good additions to your team. One of them is a Grass/Poison-type and the other is a Bug-type. Let's check 'em out!

Wurmple
Wurmple Bug (Flying)
Wurmple -Level (or to Cascoon) => L7-> Silcoon -L10-> Beautifly
Wurmple is pretty unimpressive from the start; all it can learn is Tackle, String Shot, and then Poison Sting at level 5. It becomes even more worthless after it evolves at level 7 into either Silcoon or Cascoon (it's essentially random), but then when it becomes either Beautifly (if it evolved into Silcoon) or Dustox (if it evolved into Cascoon), well, it can become alright.

Assuming your Wurmple evolved into Silcoon, you'll be looking at a Beautifly before too long. Level 10 is really, really early on and Beautifly will probably have some pretty nice stats then. Later on in the game, you'll notice Beautifly's stats really falling behind, though — the only thing worth mentioning is its Sp. Atk, and even that isn't too impressive. But still, it gets the job done.

As soon as your Silcoon evolves, it'll learn Absorb, which isn't really that useful, but you'll want to have something other than Poison Sting and Tackle. Thankfully, it learns Gust at only level 13, and that'll be its main source of damage for quite awhile. Get used to it. It learns the debilitating Stun Spore at level 17, which paralyzes the foe, and also learns Attract at level 31, which I wouldn't advise since it's a little too unreliable due to having to be the opposite gender in order for it to work. It isn't until level 34 that Beautifly learns Silver Wind, a welcome Bug-type move that will do some alright damage and has a chance of raising all of Beautifly's stats by one stage. It's only a 10% chance, though, so don't count on it. At level 38, it learns Giga Drain, a solid Grass-type move that heals Beautifly's HP, but the cream of the crop is at level 41, where Beautifly learns its final move, Bug Buzz. Bug Buzz is a really good move. 90 base power, perfect accuracy, and it has a 10% chance of lowering the target's Sp. Def by a stage. That's absolutely great! Too bad it learns it so late...

I like Beautifly better than Kricketune, that's for sure. It lacks a bit in moves, but does alright for a Bug-type Pokemon.
Wurmple
Wurmple Bug (Poison)
Wurmple -Level (or to Silcoon) => L7-> Cascoon -L10-> Dustox
...but what if your Wurmple evolves into a Cascoon instead? Well, then you'll wind up with a Dustox at level 10! How does Dustox stack up to its counterpart, Beautifly? For starters, Dustox learns a few more offensive moves, such as Confusion at level 10 rather than the wimpy Absorb. It learns Gust at level 13, but then learns Psybeam at level 24. Like Beautifly, Dustox learns the ever awesome Bug Buzz at level 41 with Silver Wind just a few levels behind it at 34. Other than that, Dustox's moves a just slightly less disruptive... I think. It's a weird mix.

But here's the catch: Dustox has a lot worse Sp. Atk. In fact, Dustox's offensive stats and defensive stats were switched if you compare them to Beautifly's. That's not good, because Dustox learns stronger moves, but it probably makes Dustox a little more versatile in the earlier levels where the stronger moves make up for the lower Sp. Atk. By the time both get Bug Buzz, though, Beautifly will likely be the clear winner in terms of strength, but Dustox will be able to effectively take a few more hits than Beautifly could, especially Special-based ones.

Ah well. Both are alright. Neither are amazing, but either would make an ok Bug-type Pokemon for your team. You can always use them early in the game and then trade them off for a stronger Pokemon when their stats start falling behind.
Budew
Budew Grass / Poison
Budew -Happiness + Daytime-> Roselia -Shiny Stone-> Roserade
Budew is probably the first Grass-type Pokemon you'll be able to catch if you didn't start with Turtwig, though unfortunately unless you give it the proper care, it'll remain a rather weak Budew. What you need to do if you really want your Budew to shine is to evolve it into Roselia as soon as you possibly can! It can be a little hard to do, though, since you have to have your Budew really happy and level it up during the day in order to evolve it.

How do you make your Budew happy enough to evolve? Well, there are a few ways to go about it! Remember, you need to gain a total of 150 happiness points (it's an invisible number that you can't actually see, so you'll just need to kind of guess or keep track) in order to have enough happiness to evolve your Budew.
  • Here's the cheap, but boring way! As soon as you catch your Budew, just run around Jubilife City for 20 - 30 mins, holding down B to run the whole time. You'll need to walk a total of 38,400 steps in order to have your Budew be happy enough to evolve. You can use the Pedometer application on your Poketch to track the steps if you'd like. Every 256 steps you take will add +1 to its happiness. If you wait until after you get the 2nd Gym Badge, you'll get the Bicycle, which will make this a lot faster. (Not to mention you'll probably have walked 5,000 - 10,000 steps to get there.)
  • Use healing items on your Budew, like Potions, as often as you can! You'll need to use a total of 150 Potions if you do nothing but do this. Each Potion or other healing item will add +1 to its happiness.
  • Got any of the following: HP Up, Protein, Iron, Carbos, Calcium, or Zinc? Well, you might not want to use all of them on your Budew, but if you use a total of 75 of them on it, it'll have enough happiness to evolve. Otherwise, you're getting +2 happiness for each of these items you use.
  • Otherwise, each level your Budew gains will give it +2 happiness. You obviously don't want to have to gain 75 levels just to get a Roselia, though, so mix it up a bit! You could do something like gain 10 levels (+20 happiness), give it 5 of the vitamins (+20 happiness, or 40/150), use 20 Potions on it (+20 happiness, or 60/150), then just run around for 22,528 steps (+88 happiness) to give it just one level's worth of happiness to go until it's happy enough to evolve into Roselia.
At level 10 as either Budew or Roselia, it'll learn Stun Spore, which is nice for paralyzing the foe. If you can, try and make sure you evolve your Budew before level 19, even if that means walking around with it for awhile, because it learns Magical Leaf then, which will be one of the best moves for it for along time and has double the PP of Giga Drain, which it learns at level 25. Actually Giga Drain is a good move for Roselia and heals your HP frequently. After that, though, Roselia learns very little of use — just a bunch of support moves that you'll probably be better off just attacking than using. Petal Dance at level 40 is nice for a good powerful punch in a pinch, though you'll be unable to switch out or use items until the attack's 2 - 3 turn length is over, and you'll have a confused Roselia afterwards. Still, the power is worth it.

You can evolve your Roselia into Roserade if you use a Shiny Stone on it. You can find a Shiny Stone on Iron Island, which you can go to around the time of your 6th Gym Badge. Roserade doesn't learn any new moves, though, but since Roselia doesn't really learn anything that worthy except maybe Petal Dance, you don't need to be too reluctant to evolve your Roselia. You can always give the Move Tutor in Pastoria City some Heart Scales to relearn moves like Magical Leaf for Roserade, but you can't relearn Giga Drain as a Roserade — you'll need to make sure you relearn it as a Roselia before you evolve in case your Budew was a late bloomer.

Roserade has an amazingly high Sp. Atk stat, with some awesome Sp. Def and surprisingly high Speed to back it up. It's a bit lacking physically, bearing low Attack and particularly Defense, but it does a lot of damage and is a really good Grass-type Pokemon if you invest the time in raising it up. TM36, which contains Sludge Bomb, is a great TM to teach your Roserade to give it a very strong Poison-type move, and you can get that TM after getting your 7th badge. Poison Jab may seem tempting, but since Roserade doesn't have great Attack, it may do less damage than you'd like.

When training a Budew, you need to think of the time you spend with it as an investment to the future. If you don't want to take the time to make that investment, move on to another Pokemon. You'll still be fine. But if you do have the patience to make your Budew happy enough to become a Roselia and then deal with Roselia long enough to get that Shiny Stone, you probably won't be disappointed in the fighting flower known as Roserade that you've now got on your team.
Route 203

As soon as you enter the route, you're going to have to fight against Rival again!

Boss Fight
PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Turtwig) $900
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 7
83 EXP
Chimchar Chimchar M Fire Lv. 9
125 EXP
PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Chimchar) $900
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 7
83 EXP
Piplup Piplup M Water Lv. 9
126 EXP
PKMN  Trainer PKMN Trainer Rival (if you picked Piplup) $900
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 7
83 EXP
Turtwig Turtwig M Grass Lv. 9
122 EXP

He's gotten a little bit tougher from the last time you fought him, but so have you, so he shouldn't be too much of a concern. Potions can help if you're low on HP, but you shouldn't need them as long as your starting Pokemon is at least level 9 and you do nothing but use its strongest attack. If you're using Turtwig, you might want to be extra careful when dealing with Rival's Chimchar, because Ember hits for a lot of damage, is super effective, and does even more damage if Chimchar has 1/3rd of its HP left or less.

After he's out of the way, he'll run off towards Oreburgh City to take on the Gym Leader. That happens to be where you're headed as well, so make your way east, fighting the Trainers and wild Pokemon along the way.

Route 203
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Starly Starly Normal / Flying Lv. 4 ~ 7
EXP: 31 ~ 55
35% 35% 25%
Shinx Shinx Electric Lv. 4 ~ 5
EXP: 33 ~ 41
25% 25% 25%
Kricketot Kricketot Bug Lv. 4 ~ 5
EXP: 29 ~ 37
10% 0% 10%
Bidoof Bidoof Normal Lv. 4 ~ 7
EXP: 32 ~ 57
15% 25% 15%
Abra Abra Psychic Lv. 4 ~ 5
EXP: 42 ~ 53
15% 15% 15%
Zubat Zubat Poison / Flying Lv. 4
EXP: 29
0% 0% 10%
Trainers at Route 203
Youngster Youngster Michael $96
Kricketot Kricketot M Bug Lv. 7
80 EXP
Zubat Zubat M Poison / Flying Lv. 6
68 EXP
Youngster Youngster Dallas $128
Shinx Shinx M Electric Lv. 8
101 EXP

Youngster Youngster Sebastian $128
Machop Machop M Fighting Lv. 8
128 EXP

Lass Lass Kaitlin $64
Bidoof Bidoof F Normal Lv. 4
48 EXP
Budew Budew F Grass / Poison Lv. 4
57 EXP
Starly Starly F Normal / Flying Lv. 4
47 EXP
Abra Abra M Psychic Lv. 4
64 EXP
Lass Lass Madeline $128
Psyduck Psyduck F Water Lv. 8
136 EXP

Abra Kadabra

There's a new Pokemon on Route 203 that, if you have the patience to catch and train, can be a very valuable asset to your team!

Abra
Abra Psychic
Abra -L16-> Kadabra -Trade-> Alakazam
Finding an Abra in the first place is a little tricky, since there's only a 15% chance of finding one on Route 203. Not only that, but the only move it knows is Teleport, so it'll most likely Teleport away on the first turn in the fight against it!

If you started with Turtwig or Piplup, catching an Abra is a little bit more difficult and your best bet is to just toss a Poke Ball at it on the first turn of the battle and hope to get lucky. However, if you started with Chimchar and you leveled it up to at least level 9, use Taunt on the first turn of the fight against Abra, and then Abra will be unable to use Teleport since Taunt prevents the opponent from using any attacks that don't do damage. I personally find that Taunt isn't very useful in-game after catching Abra, so you shouldn't worry about keeping that move when your Chimchar levels up.

So what makes Abra so special? Well, until level 16, it's not going to be too useful. All it can do is Teleport. In Diamond and Pearl, you could at least teach it Hidden Power by giving it the TM10 you picked up in the Trainer's School, but you don't even get that option in Platinum since they changed where it is. If you kept your TM27 (Return), you could teach it that, but don't expect it to do much damage at all. I'd really advise against teaching it Return. Just use the "tag team" method of training until it reaches level 16.

Once your Abra reaches level 16, it'll evolve into Kadabra and will learn Confusion. Kadabra has a TON of Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, so Confusion is going to be doing a lot of damage. And, better yet, Kadabra learns even more powerful moves later on, such as Psybeam and Psychic. It also learns Recover and Reflect, both of which are very useful moves that help support your Kadabra and the rest of your team. Recover heals 50% of Kadabra's HP, though personally I think that you're better off using Potions and healing items rather than wasting a slot on healing (unless you're fighting against another player, where you can't use items). Reflect is nice because it cuts the damage done by all of your opponent's Physical-based attacks by half for 5 turns, and since Kadabra doesn't have a lot of Defense in the first place, that's a big help.

Got a friend that you trust? Trade your Kadabra to your friend and it'll evolve into an even more powerful Alakazam! Alakazam has some of the highest Sp. Atk and Speed stats in the game. Since Alakazam learns all of its moves at the same level as Kadabra — except learns the extremely useful Calm Mind at level 36 rather than Kadabra's Role Play — I recommend evolving your Kadabra as soon as you get it, if you can. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

The only thing I'd caution you about is Alakazam's low HP and Defense. It can't take a lot of damage or hits from stronger Pokemon, so be very aware of what you're fighting!

For an ideal moveset to help get you through the game, I'd recommend something like: Psybeam, Psychic, Calm Mind, and something like Focus Blast, Energy Ball, Shock Wave, Shadow Ball, or Charge Beam (all but Focus Blast are limited-copy TMs, so you might not want to use them on Alakazam). Psybeam and Psychic may seem a bit redundant, but you'll find you run out of PP way too fast if you only have one, so try to save Psychic for the stronger foes that can't be knocked out in one hit by Psybeam. Don't use Psycho Cut because Kadabra and Alakazam don't have the Attack stat to use it! (It's a Physical-based move.)

Catch an Abra or any other Pokemon if you'd like, then head into the cave on the end of the route. If your Pokemon get weak after some fighting, you can run back to Jubilife City and heal them up at the Pokemon Center.

Oreburgh Gate

When you enter the Oreburgh Gate, the Hiker right near the entrance will give you HM06 (Rock Smash). You won't be able to use it outside of battle just yet, but you can still use it on any of your Pokemon to teach them Rock Smash. Don't worry, you can use it in battle even if you don't have the Gym Badge from Oreburgh City yet.

Hidden Machines 101

You can use that HM on any of your Pokemon as many times as you'd like — it has unlimited uses. But beware! Once you teach a Pokemon an HM move, you can't remove that move from the Pokemon's learned moves until much later in the game! Because of that, don't teach your main Pokemon weak HM moves! This is really important, because if you do that, you're going to be unable to remove them when your Pokemon learn much better moves.

How do you get around that? Pokemon that you have in your party that you don't train as much or even at all make good HM Pokemon. Just teach them all of your HMs that you need to use so the main Pokemon on your team aren't stuck with lousy moves.

Some HMs later in the game — like Surf, Waterfall, and Strength — aren't too bad. Fly and Rock Climb are alright. The others are bad. Really bad. Just remember that as you're playing through the game, ok?

Oreburgh Gate 1F
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Zubat Zubat Poison / Flying Lv. 5 ~ 8
EXP: 37 ~ 60
50% 50% 50%
Psyduck Psyduck Water Lv. 5 ~ 7
EXP: 56 ~ 79
35% 35% 35%
Geodude Geodude Rock / Ground Lv. 5, 7
EXP: 52 ~ 73
15% 15% 15%
Trainers at Route 203
Camper Camper Curtis $112
Starly Starly M Normal / Flying Lv. 7
83 EXP
Shinx Shinx M Electric Lv. 7
89 EXP
Picnicker Picnicker Diana $144
Bidoof Bidoof F Normal Lv. 9
110 EXP

Cavern Dwellers

Oreburgh Gate has three new Pokemon for you to encounter (well, you could have found Zubat earlier on Route 203, but only rarely and only at night). Let's take a look at Zubat and Psyduck right now, since you'll be seeing plenty of Geodude in an upcoming location. Besides, Geodude is a little harder to encounter right now than it is later on.

Zubat
Zubat Poison / Flying
Zubat -L22-> Golbat -Happiness-> Crobat
Ah, the ever-present Zubat. Regardless of which Pokemon game you've played, there's always been one lurking in a cave somewhere. Usually really early on, too. Is Zubat worth your time training, though? Let's find out!

First of all, Zubat's initial moves — Leech Life and Supersonic — aren't too impressive, but it's at least better than a few other Pokemon you've encountered since it actually has something it can attack with. At level 9, it learns Astonish, which is a Ghost-type move, but it's also pretty weak (only 30 power). Once it gets to level 13, though, it learns Bite, which should start putting Zubat to use. After that, it learns Wing Attack, which will probably be the strongest move it'll know unless you teach it Fly (and even then, you're better off with Wing Attack).

It does learn some pretty cool, disruptive moves like Confuse Ray — a 100% accuracy confusion-inducing move — and Mean Look. Mean Look is particularly helpful later on, because it can trap fleeing Legendary Pokemon. Other than that, though, it's not too useful and is usually just a wasted slot on your moveset.

Zubat evolves into Golbat at level 22, where it gets a notable bump in all of its stats. Its Attack and Speed will be alright at that point. If you level up your Golbat when it is happy enough (probably around level 30 - 35, but it depends on how much you use it and how often its in your party), it'll evolve into Crobat and its Speed will shoot through the roof! Crobat is pretty solid. The only downside is that it'll lack any really powerful moves, unless you use TMs to spice things up.
Psyduck
Psyduck Water
Psyduck -L33-> Golduck
Nothing quacks mediocrity quite like Psyduck, but at least Psyduck isn't really that bad, either. I'd say it's a solid Water-type Pokemon that you can add to your team early on.

For starters, Psyduck learns Water Gun at level 9, so it'll be able to be useful fairly early on and will hit for a nice amount of damage. At level 18, it'll learn Confusion, which gives it a bit of diversity and is a nice, solid Psychic-type move to take advantage of Psyduck's fairly good Sp. Atk stat. And almost immediately afterward, at level 22, it learns Water Pulse, a pretty nice Water-type attack (60 power) that will be Psyduck's most powerful attack until you get the HM for Surf later on in the game. Well, ok, it can learn Hydro Pump as well, but you're still much better off with Surf than you are Hydro Pump.

Unfortunately Psyduck doesn't evolve into Golduck until level 33, so Psyduck will start falling behind your other evolved Pokemon that evolved at a much lower level. By the time your Psyduck evolves, your starting Pokemon will nearly be at its final evolution! (Or may already be, depending on who you chose and how quickly you leveled it.) And since Golduck's stats are pretty mediocre or average, you might feel a little disappointed later on.

Ultimately I'd say that Psyduck and Golduck serve their role as a Water-type Pokemon. They may not excel in anything in particular, but they learn naturally some pretty solid moves, and you can always make them more useful by teaching them TMs like Psychic, Focus Blast, or particularly Ice Beam / Blizzard.

Let's just put it this way: there are a lot worse of choices you could make.

Not really all that much to see in the cave for now. A few new Pokemon for you to fight and catch if you'd like, as well as two Trainers that'll provide some EXP to help out for the upcoming Oreburgh Gym fight. After taking on the Oreburgh Gym and earing your Coal Badge, you can use Rock Smash on the rock blocking your way on to the northern part of the cave (the basement).

Just barrel through the Trainers and exit into Oreburgh City.

Oreburgh City

Almost as soon as you arrive in Oreburgh City, a Trainer will show you to the Gym to keep you from being a total noob (actually they removed that line that he used in Diamond and Pearl, oh well). Waiting at the Gym is Rival, who mentions that the Gym Leader is off in the Oreburgh Mine.

Unfortunately this means that you won't be able to take on the Oreburgh Gym until you go fetch the Gym Leader. Yeah, he's not going to go back to the Gym by himself...

Trading Opportunity!

AbraInside one of the houses in the northwest part of Oreburgh City, you can trade a Machop for an Abra at the same level as the Machop you trade. Since you can catch a Machop up north on Route 207, it's a good way for you to get an Abra without the hassle of catching one. They do Teleport a lot, those annoying little Abras. Not only that, but since its a traded Pokemon, it'll gain 1.5x as much EXP from each fight as it would normally, helping it level up even faster! If you couldn't get yourself an Abra earlier, now's a great time to get one. Just remember it may be disobedient towards you until you get the 2nd Badge, which will keep it from slacking off and disobeying only until level 30. The 4th Badge will raise that limit to 50, the 6th Badge raises the limit to 70, and then the final Gym Badge will make sure that they're always loyal and won't disobey.

Heal up your Pokemon, restock your items if you'd like, then head south to Oreburgh Mine.

Oreburgh Mine
Oreburgh Coal Mine B1F
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Geodude Geodude Rock / Ground Lv. 4 ~ 8
EXP: 41 ~ 83
65% 65% 65%
Zubat Zubat Poison / Flying Lv. 5 ~ 7
EXP: 37 ~ 53
25% 25% 25%
Onix Onix Rock / Ground Lv. 6, 8
EXP: 91 ~ 122
10% 10% 10%
Oreburgh Coal Mine B2F
Enc. Rate: 30
Wild Pokemon Type(s) Level(s) Morn. Day Night
Geodude Geodude Rock / Ground Lv. 5 ~ 9
EXP: 52 ~ 93
65% 65% 65%
Zubat Zubat Poison / Flying Lv. 6 ~ 8
EXP: 45 ~ 60
25% 25% 25%
Onix Onix Rock / Ground Lv. 7, 9
EXP: 107 ~ 137
10% 10% 10%

Nothing quite like a mine, right? The first floor has nothing at all exciting. Just a bunch of stairs leading down. Oh, and some people up at the top, too. Just head down the stairs and you'll get into the basement.

In the basement, Roark, the Gym Leader, is at the very back of the cave. The quickest way to reach him is by taking a left at the first fork you come to, then hopping down the ledge, and heading east until you're there. But there's also two Workers that you can fight for some extra EXP, which I recommend. A little EXP never hurt!

Trainers at Oreburgh Mine - Basement
Worker Worker Mason $360
Geodude Geodude M Rock / Ground Lv. 9
140 EXP

Worker Worker Colin $320
Geodude Geodude M Rock / Ground Lv. 6
93 EXP
Machop Machop M Fighting Lv. 8
128 EXP

When you find Roark, he'll show off his rock smashing skills, smashing some rocks before your very eyes! He'll then return to his duties and head back to his Gym. After you've picked up the items down here and fought the Trainers, you should follow him back to the Gym.

Rock Out!

If you haven't run into Geodude before, you'll definitely run into one now. They're pretty common down here. There's also a rarer Onix lurking down in the depths of the Oreburgh Mine, as well as your old friend Zubat. Let's take a look to see how these Pokemon perform if you want to use them on your team!

Geodude
Geodude Rock / Ground
Geodude -L25-> Graveler -Trade-> Golem
Geodude is another classic, gracing about every cave and dungeon since the days of Red and Blue. Geodude has definitely improved since those older generations and now has a move that helps compensate for one of its flaws — its Speed. Yeah, Geodude is about as slow as a tar-covered brick. Not only that, but it's 4x weak to two common types: Water and Grass! And it doesn't exactly have a lot of Sp. Def to withstand many Special-based attacks, even if they aren't Water- or Grass-type.

But enough about Geodude's weaknesses. Let's talk about its strengths! First of all, Geodude's Defense stat is through the roof! Even unevolved, it'll have significantly higher Defense than the rest of the Pokemon on your team. Not only that, but it also has a bunch of Attack to give it a powerful punch!

Ok, so Geodude hits pretty hard and can take a bunch of Physical-based hits. It really can take just about any Physical-based attack, even Fighting- and Steel-type ones, though it'll do best against the ever common Normal-type attacks.

One move that is extremely useful for Geodude that it learns really early is Rock Polish, which is like a Rock-type Agility! Yep, that's right, it doubles Geodude's Speed! Use that on the first turn of the battle and Geodude will actually outspeed quite a few things. Not everything, but it at least helps cover that pretty awful Speed it has. It'll learn it at level 8, which is early enough to make it useful.

Geodude learns its first Rock-type attack, Rock Throw, at level 11. That'll be its primary Rock-type attack for a long time, unless you feel like using the more inconsistent Rollout or Rock Blast at level 22 and 25 respectively. Actually Rollout is pretty nice if you use Defense Curl first, because then Rollout does 2x the damage it normally would each turn, and that adds up pretty fast! But just remember, only use Rollout if you use Defense Curl first. Got it?

At level 15, Geodude learns Magnitude, an inconsistent but strong Ground-type move that has the potential to do a ton of damage. Hold onto it until level 33 as a Graveler where it'll learn the uber-powerful Earthquake. As a Graveler, it'll learn Double-edge at 44, which I'd only recommend learning if your Graveler has the Rock Head ability so you don't take any recoil damage from Double-edge. It also learns its last move, Stone Edge, at level 49, and that's a great Rock-type move for it to learn. Oh, and don't bother with Selfdestruct or Explosion.

Geodude evolves into Graveler at level 25, which is a bit longer than some of your other Pokemon evolve, but since you can trade to evolve it to Golem immediately afterward (and I recommend you do so, because it learns the same moves at the same levels and has better stats). Golem has a ton of Attack and Defense, a solid amount of HP, and as long as you keep it away from Special-based attackers and Water- or Grass-type moves, Golem will serve you very well.
Onix
Onix Rock / Ground
Onix -Trade while holding Metal Coat-> Steelix
The best thing you could compare this massive rock snake would be Geodude, because both will be fighting for the position of Rock-type Pokemon on your team. Both are solid, but there's some definite differences between the two. First, Onix is a lot harder to catch and much rarer to encounter. Catching an Onix early on in the game is a pretty big accomplishment, because you can expect to waste 10+ Poke Balls trying to catch it, even if you weaken it.

In comparison to Geodude, Onix is actually pretty fast. Actually Onix is surprisingly fast in general, almost as fast as Monferno and faster than any of the other starter Pokemon. It has pretty low HP, but a gigantic amount of Defense to help it withstand just about any Physical-based attack that could be thrown at it. Unfortunately, though, Onix lacks the pretty impressive Attack stat that Geodude has, so while Onix will be a bit better at taking Physical-based hits, it'll be a lot worse at actually delivering the final blow.

Move-wise, Onix starts with a full set of moves: Tackle, Harden, Bind, and Screech. Harden seems pretty redundant, Bind is pretty awful and should be replaced immediately, but Screech is very handy for lowering the opponent's Defense by a huge amount so Onix can actually do some damage. At level 9, Onix will learn Rock Throw, which will hopefully help it increase its damage potential — but it won't come close to your other attackers or, say, Geodude. Unfortunately, Onix doesn't learn any other really useful moves until Curse at level 38, which is very useful because it lowers Onix's Speed, but then raises its Attack and monstrous Defense by a stage, too. Very helpful for making Onix even more of a tank and you'll find the Speed isn't that big of a deal. Other than that, it learns Iron Tail at level 41, Double-edge at level 46 (only use it if your Onix has the Rock Head ability), and Stone Edge at level 54, so you're going to have to either rely on TMs or put up with rather mediocre damage for quite awhile.

Onix really shines when you evolve it into Steelix (no pun intended), which you do by trading your Onix that's holding Metal Coat — hopefully to a trusted friend (or yourself if you have two DS's) that'll trade it back to you after it evolves. As a Steelix, it becomes Steel/Ground-type, giving it tons of resistances and immunities, and leaving it weak to only Fighting-, Ground-, Fire-, and Water-type attacks. Not only that, but its stats really improve, gaining a stupidly large amount of Defense, enough Attack to finally do some damage, a solid amount of HP, but all at the cost of nearly all of its decent Speed. But Steelix can take so many hits you won't need to worry about that Speed as much. Also, if you bring Heart Scales to the Move Tutor later on in the game (he's the guy that lets your Pokemon relearn any move it can learn by leveling up), you can teach your Steelix Fire Fang, Ice Fang, and/or Thunder Fang, giving it a lot of diversity in its attacks!

The downside is you have to wait until after you've gotten the 6th Gym Badge before you'll get the Metal Coat to evolve your Onix into Steelix, and you can fight wild Steelix in the place you get the Metal Coat... so it's basically putting up with an Onix for 30 levels for no reason. Is that something that you'd like to do? I'd recommend either using Geodude instead of Onix or just waiting until you get to Iron Island and catch a wild Steelix there.
Oreburgh Gym

Before entering the Gym, make sure your Pokemon are fully healed! If you started with Chimchar and it hasn't evolved into Monferno yet (level 14), either level it up until it evolves and learns Mach Punch, or go back to the Oreburgh Gate and catch a Psyduck, then train it until it's level 10 or so. If you're using Piplup or Turtwig, you should do fine against the Rock-type Gym.

Trainers at Oreburgh Gym
Youngster Youngster Jonathon $176
Geodude Geodude M Rock / Ground Lv. 11
172 EXP

Youngster Youngster Darius $144
Geodude Geodude M Rock / Ground Lv. 9
140 EXP
Onix Onix M Rock / Ground Lv. 9
207 EXP

You can totally avoid fighting these two Trainers if you'd like by just climbing the stairs, walking across the bridge, and weaving your way over to the Gym Leader — but why would you want to do that? Miss out on valuable EXP? I don't think so! Fight the two Youngsters to get some practice for Roark, the Gym Leader. If you're having difficulty beating either of them, you seriously need to go back and do some training or listen to the advice I just gave you on catching that Psyduck.

At the very back of the Gym, you'll find Roark waiting for you. Go back to the Pokemon Center to heal your Pokemon then save your game right before you talk to him, just to be on the safe side. Make sure you have a Pokemon with a Water- or Grass-type move as your lead Pokemon — or Monferno with Mach Punch.

Boss Fight
Leader Leader Roark $1680
Geodude Geodude M Rock / Ground Lv. 12
187 EXP
Onix Onix M Rock / Ground Lv. 12
276 EXP
Cranidos Cranidos M Rock Lv. 14
297 EXP
Taking on Roark!

GeodudeRoark's Geodude shouldn't be too much more difficult than any other Geodude you've fought so far. Its only moves are Rock Throw and Stealth Rock. Stealth Rock, when used, makes it so any time you switch Pokemon in a fight, the Pokemon that comes out will receive a bit of damage — 1/8th its max HP if it isn't weak to Rock-type attacks at all. The weaker the Pokemon is to Rock-type attacks, the more damage Stealth Rock will do; and the opposite holds true in reverse — the more resistant a Pokemon is, the less damage they'll receive. Don't let it scare you, though, as you shouldn't be switching all that much anyway.

Take out Roark's Geodude with a Bubble, Water Gun, Razor Leaf, Absorb, or Mach Punch. It should go down in one or two hits without much trouble at all.

OnixThe next Pokemon Roark sends out is his Onix, which has the same moves as Geodude, except with the addition of Screech. If Onix hits your Pokemon with Screech, you may want to consider switching it out before finishing off Onix, because that lower Defense will really cause Roark's Cranidos to hit you for a ton. Onix, on the other hand, won't really do much to you other than that, so don't worry.

CranidosThe Cranidos is what you want to worry about, because it has a scary amount of Attack and can do a lot of damage with Headbutt or Pursuit. Be very careful if you have to switch against Cranidos, because if you switch on the turn it uses Pursuit, it'll hit the Pokemon you're switching out for 2x the amount of damage Pursuit would have done otherwise! It doesn't have any Rock-type attacks, but Headbutt will still do a lot of damage, especially if it uses Leer against you first.

Try and be as swift as possible in taking on that Cranidos, focusing on super effective hits. You can use moves like Growl if you'd like to try and soften its blows, but you may need to use a Potion or two afterward, since it won't be taking a break.

After you've beaten Roark's Pokemon, you'll earn a tidy sum of money. He'll give you the Coal Badge, which lets you use Rock Smash outside of battle. In addition to that, he'll give you TM76, which contains Stealth Rock. Personally, I wouldn't recommend teaching Stealth Rock to anything you're going to use in-game. It's a cool TM for online play and requires a lot of strategy, but for getting through the game, you're not going to need it. Trust me.