• A Friendly Competition

Professor Juniper will greet you and tell you a little more about the Pokedex and demonstrate how to catch a Pokemon. After this tutorial, you will be presented with your very own Pokeballs that will allow you to catch and train your very own Wild Pokemon! Bianca will propose that you have a Pokemon catching competition as you make your way to Accumula Town. Get those Pokeballs ready! Talk to the girl in the grass patch on the right as you progress upwards and she will give you a potion to make sure that your Pokemon are healthy.

Once you cover the distance between Route 1 and Accumula Town, you will be confronted by Bianca and Cheren again. After conversing about how many Pokemon you caught, the Xtransceiver will begin ringing. Professor Juniper will let you all know that she has something important to tell you at the Pokemon Center in Accumula Town, so let’s get going!

• The First Town and Team Plasma

Upon arriving in Accumula Town, we want to head straight and speak to Professor Juniper at the entrance of the Pokemon Center on our right. She will give you a quick tour of the Pokemon Center, which contains all of the essentials for a trainer. First she will lead you up the counter straight ahead. This is where you can heal your Pokemon should they faint or get low on health. After healing your Pokemon, Professor Juniper will show you the PC, which you can use to store Pokemon and track your progress on the Pokedex. Neat, huh? After this Professor Juniper will introduce you to the Pokemart, where you can purchase many essentials for your journey! If you buy 10 Pokeballs in one visit you will be given a free Premier Ball. You can stock up on whatever items you need and head back outside.

After you get outside, you will stop and witness a scene in the town plaza where a large crowd has gathered. Ghetsis will step forward and introduce himself to the crowd as a member of Team Plasma, and explain they are focusing on the liberation of Pokemon. After the speech Ghetsis and the rest of his Team Plasma members will exit Accumula Town and the crowd will discuss amongst itself. After the crowd has dispersed, you will be approached by the one person left; he will engage you in a conversation. He will introduce himself as N and claim that Pokemon speak to him; a battle will follow.

• Trainer Battle: N

N

• • • • •

500

Purrloin Lv. 7

• Scratch
• Growl

This battle with N is the first serious battle of the game, and his Purrloin will attempt to weaken your attack power with Growl and then defeat you by using Scratch. It is still a relatively easy battle, even though your Pokemon is likely at a level disadvantage if you didn’t train on any Wild Pokemon on Route 1. Upon his defeat, N will give a short statement and then walk away. Cheren will mention challenging the Gym Leader in the next city, which will be the next goal in our adventure! Enter the building just before Route 2 and head upstairs. Talk to the guy in this room and he will give you a Poke Ball he collected in his past as a Pokemon Trainer.

• A New Route and a Surprise Encounter

As we take our first few steps out into the Route 2, leaving Accumula Town behind, the Xtransceiver rings again. Your mom wants to know how you’ve been doing and tests out the Xtransceiver. After hanging up, your mom appears right behind you, coming from Accumula Town. She gives you the Running Shoes, which are going to be a big help in the adventures ahead. Walking around everywhere gets pretty slow and boring.

Following the path of the route, we will run into a potion in the first patch of grass and three relatively easy trainers. After beating the last trainer Youngster Roland, move to the right instead of exiting the Route. Walk up the stairs and down the path to find two items, a potion and a Poke Ball. Now we can move on. As you approach Striaton City, however, Bianca will stop you to test her new Pokemon’s skills.

This battle should be relatively easy for your Pokemon. Since your starter should have already learned its type move, there shouldn’t be a problem taking down the second Pokemon, and the first isn’t a challenge. After winning the battle you will be rewarded with 700 Poke and Bianca will make a comment about how strong you are as she makes her way back to Accumula Town. We are now free to take our adventure to Striaton City!

• Leader Absence and Item Schooling

Taking our first few steps into the peaceful Striaton City, we notice it’s the largest city we’ve entered so far. Heading left from the entrance, behind the fence, we will find an X Speed. Now, moving straight up from our starting point we encounter a Gym, but somebody is blocking the entrance. A quick conversation with this man lets us know that the Gym Leader is currently absent, but he advises that we check the Trainer’s School located on the far left of the city. If you took some damage during the trip, head on over to the Pokemon Center on our way, we’ve got a battle coming up. Before we make our way over to the Trainer’s School, though, we have a couple items to collect. Head along the path to the side of the buildings to the right of the entrance of the city. There is a guy back here who will give us a Dusk Ball. On the other side of this alley, in the very bottommost building, there is a man directly to the right as you enter that will give you a Great Ball.

Upon entering the school, we will see our friend Cheren at the head of the classroom, standing by the board. Talking to him will reveal he has apparently been studying the mechanics of Pokemon battling. Accepting his challenge to test his newfound items in battle will mark the next Rival battle in our journey.

For this battle Cheren will be using his starter first, so if you feel uncomfortable using the Pokemon he has a type advantage over, don’t lead with your starter. His Oshawott will use primarily Water Gun and Tail Whip, so you should be able to lower his stats or just attack him until Oshawott is down. The next Pokemon in is Purrloin, which is also level 8. The only real threat here is Assist. If you have your starter out, be wary of your HP because one Assist can lead to a Water Gun, which can make quick work of Tepig! Cheren will give you three Oran Berries for your own personal use. If you wish, you may give these items to your Pokemon or use it during or outside of battle. It will heal your Pokemon’s HP by 10 points.

If you wish, you may take a look around the Trainer’s School. The people located here will give you some advice on the mechanics of Pokemon battling. If you’re a beginner who is curious about the system, this may be worth your time. There is also a boy who will give you a quiz, and, if you pass, he will reward you with a Full Heal. Exiting the Trainer’s School, you will notice that the Gym Leader has taken the place of the man who blocked the entrance earlier. Speak with him and he will suggest going to the Dreamyard to train your Pokemon, and that’s just what we will do.

• Dreamyard and Elemental Monkeys

The Dreamyard is a small, serene place with a few trainers. We will meet our first challenger right upon entering the Dreamyard and moving forward. Her as well as the next trainer should both be relatively easy battles for your level. Ignoring the tree, since we can’t use Cut right now, proceed and talk to the girl at the end of the Dreamyard. She will offer you a Pokemon to cover your weakness, great! Now we can challenge the Striaton City Gym without having to worry about a weakness. After talking to her, pick up the X Defend found just to the northeast of her.