10: Picking up Some Dex Entries

10: Picking up Some Dex Entries

Mauville is a crossroads town, with Routes heading in every direction, so before we continue along the way on our adventure, we are going to grab the Pokemon that each of the three new Routes has to offer us along with the items and Trainer Battle XP they can deliver.  So hit the Center to heal and save, hit the Mart to restock kit, and then we will start by heading north out of town!

Keep an eye out for your chance to be on TV!

-- Route 111 ---

This is one of the major Routes in the region, connecting Mauville with Route 113 and Mount Chimney, presenting one of the most interesting experiences in the game when it comes to the type of land you will experience, going from the green of city to open fields, then rockier terrain that leads to a desert with an endless sandstorm, and finally into the mountains.  But that is not what we are setting out to experience here mate, we just want the Pokemon it can give us!

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Route 111 Area Pokemon Report

-- #343 Baltoy (R)
-- #339 Barboach (C) Fishing: Good/Super Rod
-- #074 Geodude (U) Rock Smash
-- #118 Goldeen (U) Fishing: Old/Good Rod & Surf
-- #129 Magikarp (C) Fishing: Old Rod
-- #183 Marill (C) Surf
-- #027 Sandshrew (C)
-- #328 Trapinch (U)

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The Route begins nicely with a Doubles Battle - I wish they all did that - that pays us in some decent XP, and the money ($1024) is not bad either!  With that battle out of the way you have opened up access to the Route, so head north and you will find stairs leading up the plateau.

To the left you will see a Treasure Ball and two trainers near it.  You want to approach the left-hand trainer head-on so that you trigger another Doubles Battle, which will also pay off nicely in XP and money!  The Treasure Ball contains an Elixir -- always nice to find -- so be sure to grab that.

-- The Winstrate Family Challenge --

The trainer walking above will tell you about the Winstrate Family, who come at you in four sequential matches -- and baby that sounds right up our alley!  They live in that house there, so why don't we go over and introduce ourselves?

The Winstrate Family -- Pokemon Trainers One and All!

These people offer you an excellent opportunity to pick up good XP and money -- they appear to be a very wealthy family!

Each of the Pokemon you face have Oran Berries, so they can (and will) heal themselves when you hit them especially hard.  As you beat each trainer a new one comes out of the house to face you, one after the other, so be prepared to use potions and/or switch out Pokemon.  I used potions because this was too good an opportunity to power level one of my team!

After you beat them they invite you to come into their home -- do that!  Talk to each of them around the table clockwise to learn about their powerful grandson/son/brother and receive a new hold item, called a Macho Brace, as a reward for besting them.  Check the TV to see if there is anything on, then you may want to head back to the Pokemon Center to heal and save!

Ahead is your first opportunity to use the HM Rock Smash outside of battle to smash a few rocks blocking our path -- so do that!  There is a small chance that inside one of the rocks will be a Pokemon like Geodude!

Just beyond the rocks is another TV crew, only this time instead of asking you questions they want to film you in action!  Talking to them initiates a battle, and the payoff -- in addition to good XP -- is a massive $1632 in payolla!  After the battle comes the interview, which means we are certain to be on TV again!  How about that?

Just past the TV crew in the middle of the Route is a Girl Scout looking for a fight, so oblige her, but keep an eye on your team levels as you do NOT want them going above Level 28 or 29, because once they hit 31 you can no longer reliably control them, and you will need them for the next Gym Battle to actually listen to your commands.

Further up the Route is a path that branches to the left (west) and, at the branch is a Boy Scout who is also looking for a battle!   Man the Scouts in Hoenn are a tough lot!  The split to the left leads to Route 112 -- and as the road ahead goes right into a sandstorm that is so bad we cannot penetrate it, what do you say we head to the left?

-- Route 112 --

This is the preferred path used to get around the perpetual sandstorm that is on the northern section of Route 111, and it connects onward via the Fiery Path.  In addition you can use the cable cars on this Route to access both Mt. Chimney and the Jagged Pass.

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Route 112 Area Pokemon Report

-- #183 Marill (C)
-- #322 Numel (C)

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In addition to providing a bypass, this Route also features two Pokemon in its Tall Grass -- one we should already have, another not.  If you do not have a Marill at this point, now is the time to grab both a Numel and a Marill!

You can access the Tall Grass here without having to fight the Trainer on the lower path, but why would you want to do that?!  Go ahead and beat on him for a bit and then the one past him above for the new Dex entries we get for our trouble!

After you beat them both, troll the Tall Grass and grab our new Pokemon, then use the stairs to head up to the plateau and take on the trainers here for XP and money.  To the left on the first plateau is a cave entrance, and if you go inside there, you discover that you have found the entrance to the Fiery Path!

The Fiery Path will be on our list of destinations -- but it is not for now -- so turn around and leave mate!  It is time to head back to Mauville because we do not want to go any further here just yet, especially not up that mountain, so just head back now, umkay?  Excellent!

Back in town, hit the Poke Center to heal and save, and then head to the east for our next Route explore and Dex additions!

-- Route 118 --

Route 118 is the only Route in the entire world that has two sets of background music on it, an oddity that has no explanation that I am aware of, but interesting nonetheless!  This is going to be a much shorter explore than the previous Route, so grab your kit and your Poke Balls and get going!

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Route 118 Area Pokemon Report

-- #318 Carvanha (C) Fishing: Good/Super Rod
-- #309 Electrike (C)
-- #352 Kacleon (R)
-- #264 Linoone (U)
-- #129 Magikarp (C) Fishing: Old Rod
-- #310 Manectric (U)
-- #279 Pelipper (R)
-- #319 Sharpedo (U) Fishing: Super Rod
-- #072 Tentacool (C) Fishing: Good Rod & Surf
-- #278 Wingull (U) Grass and Surf
-- #263 Zigzagoon (C)

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As you can see above there are a fair amount of Pokemon here that we need -- but sadly not as many that we have the ability to capture now as we could like.  Still, consult your Dex to see what you have not captured from the list and get what you can as we explore this stub-end of the route, yes?

Starting with a Doubles Battle makes this a better Route in my book!  And so we do!  There are two more trainer battles on the shore, but as we do not have Surf this pretty much ends our exploration of this Route... For now.  Sadly the Tall Grass is on the other side of the water, so you cannot add any Pokemon on that part for now either, so just return to the Center to heal and save, and then head west from town for the final phase of our exploration -- and I promise that this one will be more fun and more productive with respect to our Dex!

-- Route 117 --

The only claim to fame that this Route has is the fact that its east-west path links Mauvill with Verdanturf Town -- well that and its pretty flower gardens and ponds.  It also happens to be the home of the Pokemon Daycare Center, a very important structure that you will grow to love later in the game, as it is going to be the source of a lot of the entries in your Dex!

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Route 117 Area Pokemon Report

-- #341 Corphish (C)  Fishing: Good/Super Rod
-- #118 Goldeen (U) Fishing: Old/Good Rod & Surf
-- #314 Illumise (C)
-- #129 Magikarp (C) Fishing: Old Rod
-- #183 Marill (U) Grass & Surf
-- #043 Oddish (C)
-- #261 Poochyena (C)
-- #273 Seedot (R)
-- #313 Volbeat (R)

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Exiting the Mauvill Pokemon Center you simply follow the road to the west, and you quickly pass on to Route 117 right where the Daycare Center sits.  We are going to take a short recess while we explore the Daycare Center and what it can do for you, OK?

The Pokemon Daycare Center

-- The Pokemon Daycare Center --

First, go inside, and you will see a nice reception and waiting area with a counter that is staffed by the wife of the husband and wife team that operate this valuable service to Trainers everywhere!  In the corner is a PC that is hooked to the PokeNet, which will come in handy when you start to really use this place for its intended purpose.

Now that you have seen the inside, head back outside and take a good long look and tell me what you see?  Yes, that is the husband of the team standing by the break in the fence -- a break in the fence that has an actualy purpose other than to allow him to go in and out I want to add.

How it works is simple enough -- when you have two Pokemon you want to breed you leave them at the Daycare Center and, if they succeed in breeding with each other, that success will produce a Pokemon Egg.  When an egg has been created the bloke outside there will step through the fence and stand on the side of the road there, which is the visual indication that you need to know an egg is ready!

Simply go and chat him up, and he will give you the egg!  Then you can go inside and swap out the Pokemon you have lodged there if you do not want them to produce another egg.   When you have an egg, the hatching process is simple: you put it in your party and take a certain number of steps.

The detailed information on breeding your Pokemon is way beyond the scope of this Guide, however there is plenty of breeding information available online -- and if you decide that you simply have to have a proper guide to this, you will need to email the admin at SuperCheats and tell them you need a proper breeding guide written.  If enough of you do that, the admin will send me an email saying: "Oy! We need you to write a breeding guide!"  Then I will do it!

In addition to using the Daycare Center for breeding, some trainers like to use it to level their Pokemon.  You heard me, I said Level Their Pokemon!  You see for every step you take in the world, any Pokemon you have lodged in the Daycare Center age a little bit.  Take enough steps, they raise a level. 

When you get lower-level Pokemon that you want to be able to swap in and out of your party for utility purposes, this is the best way to get their levels up as long as it does not matter what moves they get on leveling -- because you will not be there to decide what gets got and what gets deleted.  But as long as you have been saving TM's that should not matter much to you.

Right, so that is the quick and dirty tour of the Pokemon Daycare Center, the fixture nearby Mauville that makes the town more than just a travel hub, but a destination!

-- Back on Route 117 --

The south fork has a Trainer and some berry trees, so go battle him and then clear the berries, replanting as you like, then hit the north fork for a Doubles Battle and then hit the section where the fork rejoins for another easy chunk of XP and money!

This Route presents one of the densest concentrations of trainers encountered so far, presenting an excellent source for power-leveling a single team member. 

Along the top edge of the narrow flower garden is a path you can reach by cutting a tree that has a Treasure Ball on it -- grab the Revive from here (our first) -- a marvelously useful tool in your battling that will allow you to bring an incapacitated Pokemon back into the battle!  I wish we had dozens of these, but rare they are right now!

You can use the Tall Grass here to capture any of the Pokemon on this Route that you do not have in your Dex already -- and when you are done doing that, look to the south part of the road and you will see another Treasure Ball behind a fence.  Work your way over to that and grab the Great Ball in it, then move to the far west of this narrow area and search the ground at the end there for a hidden Repel.  Now resume your trek west entering Verdanturf Town.

-- Verdanturf Town --

"A windswept highlands with the sweet fragrance of grass" touts the sign that greets you as you enter the town, and while there really is not a lot to do, it appears that the people here are happy! 

Start our visit with a trip to the Poke Center to heal and save, chat up the occupants for a chance to have one of your Pokemon learn the move Fury Cutter, and then dodge next door to the Mart to resupply our kit.  You should probably grab a few Nest Balls as this is the only place in the Region that they can by bought.  You can also buy Burn and Ice Heals here -- and probably should -- and perhaps a Fluffy Tail or two, as it will allow you to instantly flee a wild battle even if you have been trapped in it.

In the lower-left house is a woman who can evaluate your Pokemon to tell you how much they like you, and if you check the TV in her house there should be something good on!

Go in to the Battle Tent and chat up the Trainers there to get TM45, Attract.  Now head into the Rusturf Tunnel for a quick look around!

-- Rusturf Tunnel --

As you will recall we have already been in the other end of this tunnel -- we trapped that Aqua Grunt there and met Mr. Brimey there.  Well, we need to be in this end, as there is an HM here we need to get, so go ahead and work your way along to the north first, fight the sole trainer, and then grab the Max Ether in the Treasure Ball ahead.

When we reach the area that is still blocked of we find the two lovers separated by the boulders.  The only thing for it?  We have to smash those boulders!

To show how grateful he is, the boyfriend gives us HM04, Strength, a move we will find very useful later on!  The pair leaves for Wanda's House, and we backtrack to the entrance then head west and down to reach Route 116!

The hidden paradise on Route 116

-- Route 116?! --

This hidden area is a lost stub of Route 116 -- the Route at the other end of the tunnel!  It seems that this tiny paradise is the secret recreation spot and home base for the team that is in charge of the Tunnel Drilling project!  As you know, Route 116 happens to be the only place in the region where Skitty and Nincada can be captured together in the wild -- but we should already have them...  If you do not, and you should check your Dex now please -- head all the way through the tunnel to the other side where Route 116 is, and capture them now!

Actually before you do that, you should first go help that bloke find his glasses, OK?  Using the Item Finder you should get to them lickity-quick!  It turns out that the glasses you find -- Black Glasses -- are not his, and he decides that they must not be here anyway and leaves!  Well good for us!  We have a new hold item!

Now head up the stairs and grab the HP Up from the Treasure Ball here before you discover that this is a dead-end!  We have to find the other side of this Route because there is no Tall Grass here!

Head back to Mauville now, then north to Route 112, because it is now time...