16: Nimbasa City Part I

16: Nimbasa City Part I

There is plenty of opportunity coming up for you to put the finishing touches on your team before the next Gym Battle, getting the last few levels in, and picking up the odd bit of kit while exploring this new city and its surrounding zones, so no worries mate, she'll be right if you take your time.

Nimbasa City is a very unique place – a sort of anachronism in the world as its basic reason for existing is all about pleasure and recreation.  Thinking of it as Sydney makes total sense to me – the amusement park is Luna Park, the Musical Theater the Sydney Opera House, and the Institute and the other buildings are the CBD.  A lot of the opportunities for training and the like are not really available to us right now – so mark in your mind that this is one of the cities that you will be returning to later in the game, and in particular after you beat the Elite Four, right?

But we are not quite there yet, are we?  No, so standing in the Desert facing the eastern-most road that leads north-south, pass beneath the overpass and you will see that the weather clears slightly, and you notice a Backpacker standing in the center of the road ahead...  It is almost as if they are waiting for you.

Backpacker Jerome is his name, and while his Level 19 Pidove will not be all that much of a challenge to you, he is there to provide you with some XP, so I say take it!

After your battle with Jerome, a short hike down the road is the gate entrance – inside you will easily spot the Professor and Cheren waiting for you.  She gifts the two of you with some Ultra Balls – nice one!  Then she warns you that there are Pokemon you will encounter as you adventure that you may only ever encounter once -- suggesting that you use the best Poke Ball you own in these cases to help ensure that you do capture it... 

She takes her leave then, explaining that she has an appointment with Bianca, and you are once again on your own as Cheren heads back onto Route 4 to finish catching the Pokemon from that Route.  About that...

– A Subtle Message to You --

Cheren's heading back to get the rest of the Pokemon is meant to communicate a subtle message to you about the wisdom of capturing all of the Pokemon that a given area has to offer – but we have been doing that all along haven't we?   So it is good advice but advice we do not really need :)

You have been doing it tho, right?  Because honestly while it does add to the time you spend in each area, in the end this is the best way to be sure that you have gotten all that there is to be had from each area.  That, and as you see, following this guide brings you to points in the collecting process that we sort of keep track of, so the more you deviate from it the less sense things will make later...

After Cheren and the Professor depart, take a few seconds to check the News Ticker on the wall here for some useful information – you will get the weather report for the surrounding areas as well as a blurb about the famous Roller Coaster and Ferris Wheel located in Nimbasa, and the fact that you can reach Anville Town from the Gear Station – the first real indication that we have that those old train tracks we saw are a hint that there are functional trains as well...  That wraps up the Ticker Report!

Hint:  After we wrap up Nimbasa City and all that is related to it, you will find a section that consists of a 'Status Check' of your game.  There are a total of three of these in this guide, and each one provides a detailed list of Accomplishments, Kit, Pokemon and other items that you should have acquired at that point.  This is structured in the form of a ticklist, so that you can actually be certain that you have everything before you proceed from that point!

– Leveling Up Your Team --

If you have any Pokemon that are not at the team level you may be tempted to head back to the other side of Castelia City and use the Shaking Grass to level up – that may seem like a good idea right now, but trust me, it is not.  The reason for that is very simple – ahead of you there are several places and opportunities for you to progress, topping off your team levels and even leveling up your alternate members as well!

Getting the team level to anywhere north of Level 35 would be an excellent idea, as you have a Gym Battle coming up mate!  The thing is, backtracking and using the grass behind you will put you in an area where the Audino you pull in the Shaking Grass will be a lower level than your Pokemon pretty much consistently – and as the XP you receive for these battles is on a sliding scale that is based upon the level of your Pokemon, that is not a productive proposition, right?

The grass off of Route 16  ahead – we will shortly be visiting that Route – contains Audino that will be a higher level that the ones before Castelia City, and as there is a short list of new Pokemon that we will want to capture, and one of them is very very rare, we will be accomplish a lot of leveling in the process, so again, no worries there mate!

With that in mind, and assuming that you have obtained all of the Pokemon on the way here that you can have obtained (if not go do that now, we will wait for you), step through the north side of the gate and into Nimbasa!

– Nimbasa City --

As you step through the gate and on the streets of Nimbasa City directly ahead you see another pair of Team Plasma Grunts up to no good!  They have the old man who runs the Pokemon Day Care Center cornered, and they want the Pokemon he is raising!

The old man runs to you for help – and the Grunts warn you that if you get involved, why, they will just take your Pokemon too!  Now it is one thing to say that – doing it?  That is a Pokemon of a different color entirely!

The Grunt has a Level 18 Watchog, and a Level 18 Trubbish, and pays off $720 for being taught this lesson.  Not too bad!

As a token of his appreciation for what you have done in defending him, the Day Care Man gifts you with a new bike!  Excellent!  I wondered how we would end up scoring a bike in this game, and here we are!  He points out that the Day Care Center on Route 3 is his – we have actually been there already,  so cool, we now have a tight connection there!

As he departs, Bianca appears, says hello, and then heads off to take in a Musical, leaving you once again on your own.  There is a lot to do in the city – if you check your map you will see that among the points of interest there is the Gym of course, and the Battle Subway, the Pokemon Center, the Big Stadium. Small Court, and Music Theater.  There is actually quite a bit more here we want to do, it is just that most of it is not part of the map...

So from here head to the north and read the sign ahead that proclaims 'Nimbasa City: Lit by the Flash of Lightning!'  I hope that is not foreshadowing!

The Mystery of N Partially Solved

– The Nimbassa N-Battle --

From the sign head directly east over the short bridge to find N waiting for us!  He asks if you are looking for Team Plasma and then leads you to the Amusement Park where they ran to.    As he cannot find the Team Plasma Grunts he convinces you to ride the Ferris Wheel with him, and during the ride he reveals that he is in fact the King of Team Plasma!  Gasp!

He makes a rather silly observation, and then when the ride ends you find yourself in front of the Ferris Wheel with that ominous music playing, and the Plasma Grunts show up and confirm what N told you by addressing him as 'My Lord N!'

I don't know about you but I certainly did not follow the gobbledygook he calls logic, so I said 'No' to his question – and the battle ensued!   He makes it plain that this battle is intended to cover the retreat of his troops – so be it!

N has a Level 22 Sandile, Level 22 Darumaka, Level 22 Scraggy, and a Level 22 Sigilyph.  His Sigilyph is by far the more challenging if his team, if just due to its Psybeam that can confuse your Pokemon.  

When you have beaten him you get a nice close-up and learn that his plan is to become the Regional Champ and then force all Trainers to release their Pokemon.  Is this guy a nutter or what??  With that revelation he runs away and you are once again free to wander!

Nearby there are some vending machines if you need to re-stock your kit – and of course there is the Ferris Wheel here but you cannot actually ride it again, which is too bad as I like Ferris Wheels!  In the southwest corner of the park here is a treasure ball that contains an X Atttack, so grab that now.  If you have the Dowsing Machine turned on you will see that there is a Super Repel in the southeast corner.

Back to the west is a clown who likes to spin, and north of the clown is the entrance to the City Gym, but we are not ready for that at the moment...  To the west you will see a couple of Trainers to chat with and a clown promoting the Roller Coaster – and a very large statue of a yellow Pikachu is here that is very similar to the one in the real life Poke Park in Japan (which is what this park is loosely modeled upon).

Head back over the bridge to the west and continue past the Battle Subway to chat up the clown ahead who provides a tip.  Now pop into the Pokemon Center ahead and heal and save, then chat up the Trainers here. There is a girl with a Minccino, and at the top of the stairs a bloke who tells you that he was given the HM for Strength for free from a man near the Pokemon Center. 

– The Poke Mart Counter --

As you expect to, you find a Poke Mart Counter in the Nimbasa Pokemon Center, but what you may not be expecting to find is a very wide selection of TM's for same there!  There are the standard pair of countermen...

The left-hand counterman has the usual items for same, but it is the right-hand counterman who has a rather stand-out difference in stock this time!  Checking his list of items for sale reveals that in place of the usual selection of mail and odd Poke Balls, he has instead:

Frustration (TM21) $10,000
Gyro Ball (TM74) $10,000
Light Screen (TM16) $30,000
Reflect (TM33) $30,000
Return (TM27) $10,000
Safeguard (TM20) $30,000
Thunder Wave (TM73) $10,000

Obviously we do not have the money at the moment to take advantage of this treasure trove of TM's but at least we know where they are now – so when we do have the extra money we can return here to grab them as we need them!  Of these TM's, the ones that strike me as being the most useful at the moment are Reflect and Return – though the others are useful as well! 

– Pokemon Battle Institute --

Directly to the west is the Pokemon Battle Institute, where you can go to test your Trainer Skills by taking tests.  You take the tests by using three Pokemon for Singles Battles and four Pokemon for Doubles Battles.  You cannot use duplicate Pokemon or held items, and all of the Pokemon you use must be Level 50.  You battle five trainers in a row, and the bloke in the lab coat is the judge of the battles. 

When you read the menu you will notice that there is a selection marked 'Download' that you can pick now – though when it connects it just says it cannot locate any items to download at the moment – which is because there are none.  That is supposed to change though, with different downloadable scenarios planned to be available later in the year.  When that happens we will edit this section to reflect them.

As this requires Level 50 Pokemon that  means we cannot do this right now anyway – but what the    bloke in the lab coat fails to tell you is that the Institute does not become functional until AFTER we beat the Elite Four!  When it does become available you should be aware that the same restrictions that apply to the Battle Subway apply here – no Legendary Pokemon allowed, in other words.

The scoring system in use at the Institute is pretty simple – after you complete a test by fighting all of the Trainers that are part of it, you step out of the ring and are given your assessment based upon your total performance, which includes:

? The success of your strategies
? How many times yor Pokemon were KO'd
? How many of their Pokemon you KO'd

This is all translated into points, and the points are then used to determine your Rank results:

1-Star    Beginner Rank (0 to 999 Points)
2-Stars  Novice Rank (1000 to 1999 Points)
3-Stars  Normal Rank (2000 to 2999 Points)
4-Stars  Super Rank (3000 to 3999 Points)
5-Stars  Hyper Rank (4000 top 4999 Points)
6-Stars  Elite Rank (5000 to 5999 Points)

If this all sounds sort of familiar you will recall that some of the contests in the previous generations games used a similar system of ranking, and if you are getting the idea that the Institute is past of the translation of contests into the new game, well...

That pretty much wraps up the details for here – and while we cannot use these facilities right now, we should remember it for later, right?

To the right of the bloke in the lab coat is a Pokemon Storage System PC, and to the right of that is a display you can use to review the test results in case you wondered what that was all about!.

– Back on the Town --

North of the Institute are a pair of buildings – enter the left-hand one to chat with Trainers and learn about some of what the city has to offer, like the Musicals and the fact that while Castelia City is the heart of business in the region, Nimbasa is the heart of leisure and recreation!  Obtain a free copy of HM04, Strength from the Trainer at the table in the upper left corner – and how cool is that? 

Upstairs is a woman who gifts you the hold item Soothe Bell because your Pokemon likes you – that hold item will increase the amount that Pokemon on your team like you, which will come in handy later.  One of the Trainers here tells you about the Small Court – where you can find tennis and basketball, while the other tells you about Big Stadium, which features football and baseball naturally.

In the building next door you will find a young girl Trainer who comments on the fact that Shiny Pokemon look as if they are gleaming when they come out of the grass.  If this is the first you are hearing about Shiny Pokemon be sure to read the Appendix entry on those! 

Upstairs is a bloke who gifts you a Sun Stone, and after you leave it, cross the short bridge to the north and head west so that as you approach the gate it triggers another encounter with Bianca, who takes you to the Musical Theater, where you meet the owner, who gifts you both with Prop Cases so you can play Pokemon dress-up!  You are then prompted to pick a Pokemon and you get the dress-up tutorial. 

– Pokemon Musical Theater --

Like the contests in the previous version, the Musical is an opportunity for you to participate in an activity with your Pokemon.  This can actually be fun!

Pokemon wearing props (hence the case and tutorial) perform on stage, and anyone can participate.  An audience is present to help you learn how well you did, and you can join in the production from the reception area in front.

The center slot is for participating alone, the left slot is for putting on a production with your mates, and the right slot is for dress-up play only.  You can only use the Pokemon in your party to dress-up and perform, and if you have any doubts about whether they can wear the props you want to use, there is a dressing room you can use to try them out. 

Props are collected as you adventure, and how well you use them and how well they fit the particular Pokemon you are using has a lot to do with how well you score in the process.

The girl to the right of the Pokemon Storage System Computer will gift you with TM49, Echoed Voice, when you chat her up, which nicely wraps up the Musical Theater portion of our tour of the city!

When you exit you will spot Bianca outside and oh my God!  Is that her father?!  Oh, this will not be good...  He is there to bring her home – and Bianca is having nothing to do with that idea!  Just when it looks like things are going to go from bad to worse, Elesa shows up – in case you are confused, Elesa is the Pokemon Gym Leader for the Nimbasa City Gym.

With Elesa's help Bianca and her Da have a heart-to-heart and her Da finally gets it...  He asks you to take care of his little girl and then he goes home.  Thank God!  I thought he would NEVER leave!  Elesa is now Bianca's new hero – which makes sense, you know, empowered woman and young girl looking for her place and all that...