15: The Relic Castle

15: The Relic Castle

As you enter the underground area here be aware that this whole area is a wild-encounter area, so you can troll up battles with wild Pokemon – but that is OK because we actually came here in part to do just that!

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Relic Castle Area Pokemon Report

Dex No.    Pokemon     Rarity     Season         Capture Note
#057/551   Sandile     (C)        All                 Sand
#068/562   Yamask      (C)        All                 Sand
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First thing you should do upon entering is go ahead and capture a Yamask – and once you have done that, save the game.  Don't worry over finding one, you will find lots of them as they are completely common.

The first bloke you see and chat with in here – wearing a lab coat – explains how you deal with quicksand, which is to walk, not run.  You also avoid the hole in the middle unless you actually want to fall in. 

Psychic Perry has a Level 24 Sigilyph that is a fairly easy battle.

Psychic Dua has a Level 23 Woobat, and a Level 23 Munna, and while you will not have much trouble with the Woobat, the Munna has a wicked combination of moves like Moonlight that heals it, and the ability to lock down some of your moves, and put your Pokemon to sleep, making it a particularly annoying one to battle in this configuration, so you may want to blitz attack it just to get it over with...

On the other side of the wall is a Backpacker girl who tells you that she has been carrying around a pair of fossils – and that you can have one if you want.  Obviously you want – so you have to choose between a Cover Fossil and a Plume Fossil.

The Cover Fossil will give you a Tirtouga, the Plume Fossil an Archen when you trade them to the assistant at the Musem back in Nacrene – remember the person at the counter of the Museum who mentioned fossil research when we first entered? 

The choice you make here is entirely yours – the Tirtouga is a Water/Rock-type, while Archen is a Flying/Rock-type, so the decision here mostly comes down to whether you want a Flying or Water type?  Both have weaknesses and strengths to them which makes which one you choose pretty much a coin toss...  To help you make that decision, here are the stats for each:

#070 Tirtouga – Level 25 – Water/Rock-type
Very slow but has a strong Defence.
At Level 37 Tirtouga evolves into its final form, #71 Carracosta.
Carracosta cannot be one-hit killed which is its special trait.

#072 Archen – Level 25 – Rock/Flying-type
Very fast but also very weak, having a low Defence.
At Level 37 Archen evolves into its final form, #73 Archeops.
Archeops is fast and is an excellent blitzing Pokemon, which is its strength.

As you level both up these weaknesses improve but never entirely go away.

Once you have made your choice and pocketed the fossil, you can chat with the bloke near the stairs, but he is there to prevent you from actually using the stairs, he refuses to let you pass.  Drop down the nearby quicksand trap – trust me on this.  Once you drop down to the lower level you will see a treasure ball with a Revive – grab that – and then there is only one way for you to go –  which is up the stairs to the northeast.

Right now there is nothing else that you can do here, so head outside and back to the gate.  In theory you are ready to head to Nimbasa, but we are going to do a detour first, and run all the way back to Nacrene City and turn this fossil over to the Museum to get it revived first, because that is how we think, right?  Yeah!  Besides you gotta see your newest Pokemon don't you?? Yeah!!

Reviving a Fossil into a Rare Pokemon

– Briefly Back to Nacrene --

Just run as fast as you can back to the city – as you can see in the video above, the magic of Pokemon allows us to simply exit the ruins and be at the Museum just like that!  Pretty cool, eh? 

Before you actually enter the Museum you will want to pop on into the Poke Center, as you will need to free up a slot on your team before you attempt to get your fossil revitalized.  Naturally you have to have an open slot to accept the Pokemon that is revived from the fossil – in my case that was Archen, the Flying/Rock-type, which is the one I chose because I want to replace my current Flying-type, my Tranquill – which I evolved from my Pidove earlier.

The reason that I chose to replace my Tranquill with the Archen is largely due to my dual-type scheme that I have been working out all along.  My current Flyer is Tranquill, which is a Normal/Flying-type, but as there are some much stronger Normal/Other-type combinations a little deeper into the game, it makes sense to replace him with a Flying/Rock-type now, and that gives me the opportunity to level my newest team member up to the team level before the next Gym Battle as well!

Eventually I want my entire team to be made up of multiple-type Pokemon, and I have a good start towards that goal now!  My current team consists of:

#005 Pignite (Spyderpig) Fire/Fight-type
#016 Liepard (Kit) Dark-type
#017 Pansage (Freebie) Grass-type
#029 Zebstrika (Coalhoof) Electric-type
#042 Palpitoad (Flip) Water/Ground-type
#072 Archen (Rocky) Rock/Flying-type

As you can see I already have half of my A-Team selections for the dual-type scheme – you do not have to follow this plan, doing so is strictly optional, but a case can be made that having a wider variety of types in your team makes it much more effective, so it is something to think about, right?

– Nacrene Museum --

When you arrive at the Museum – having opened a slot in your team – you simply need to approach the girl behind the right-hand counter and chat her up.  She will be surprised to see that you actually paid attention to her from before and have brought her a fossil of course, but will happily take the fossil from you nonetheless!

In the previous generation of games you would have needed to drop the fossil off and then return one game-day later to get your new revived Pokemon, or you would have had to exit the building/zone and then return in order to get the new Pokemon, but in the 5th Generation of games we have moved beyond the need to reload the zone to make this happen!

No indeed, the young lady takes your fossil and, ducking into the back room, does something magic and scientific to it, and then returns with your revived Pokemon!  As mentioned above, in my case that is Archen – watch the video to see that wonderful Flying/Rock-type in all its colorful glory.

Colorful birds are a part of nature that I grew up with in Australia – it was very common to see Galahs, Lorikeets, and Rosellas in our back yard, with the occasional Firetail, King Parrot, and Spinebills putting in an appearance – but having lived in North America and Europe over the course of the last two decades I understand that colorful birds like those outside of the pet shop or zoo are mostly unheard of, so hey, take your colorful birds where you can find them, right?

– Visiting the Professor in her Lab --

After you finish up in the Museum, exit and head to the main street (the one the Pokemon Center is on) and then head east to the gate and through it.  We are going to make a quick run back to Nuvema Town!  That is right, we are going home!

When you arrive, stop by and say hello to Mum, and check out the really great job she did repairing your room!  Nice one!  When you are done here, head to the Professor's Lab, and chat her up.  When she asks to examine your Pokedex let her – she will note that you have seen X number of Pokemon – and give you a special reward!  The reward is based on the number of Pokemon you have seen, and right now she gives you TM54, False Swipe! 

The gifts that she will give you include:

? 30 Pokemon in Dex: TM54, False Swipe.
? 60 Pokemon in Dex: TM17 Protect
? 100 Pokemon in Dex: TM10 Hidden Power.

Of the three reward TM's you can obtain in this way, the most valuable is False Swipe – a move that when used by a strong enough Pokemon can reduce your foe to just 1 HP with the guarantee of not KO'ing it!   Obviously this move is incredibly valuable for capturing Pokemon, and in particular for capturing Legendary Pokemon, as using it to bring them down to 1HP maximizes your chances for a single-throw capture, so be sure that you get this one!

For a complete guide to the TM locations in the game please consult the appropriate Appendix.

– Preparing for the next Gym Battle --

Now that we have the brief detour to the Museum and we have checked in with Mum and the Professor back in Nuvema Town, backtrack all the way to just before the south gate of Castelia City, where we need to pause to think for a moment...  What is the level of your team?  Are all of the team members at or near the same level?

We have a Gym Battle coming up soon, and we will want to be at our best for it.  The highest levels we should face from the Gym Leader and AGL's is Level 27 – and that will be the level of the Gym Leader's best Pokemon, so that is what we need to prepare for. 

Getting your team anywhere between Levels 30 and 33 should be more than adequate in preparing you for this battle.  Remember that with the three badges we possess we can control any Pokemon up to Level 40 – and after this battle that will climb to Level 50!  Depending on your personality and your philosophy as a Trainer, you may want to spend the extra time that it takes to get your team closer to the limit break – that is how I operate, so I am going in with a well-advanced team.  You don't have to do that to stay in focus with this guide, I want you to know that.

If you do need to level up some of your team, your best approach is to use the tall grass just before the city gates..  You will notice that you get the best XP from Audino – the other Shaking Grass Pokemon do not give anywhere near the XP that Audino does or as consistently.  So concentrate on pulling up Shaking Grass tiles, and level up to whatever you think is best for you!

When you enter the City you should probably stop to visit the Poke Center to heal and save, and restock your kit as you are sure to have used some of it up.  Check your Poke Ball supply in case that needs topping-off, and if you have picked up any Pokemon you want to trade drop in to the Global Trade Center while you are here – there is nothing so cool as getting your first few dots on the GeoNet Globe!  Now is a good time to organize your boxes as well, moving your newly acquired Pokemon to their proper type boxes.

When you have completed whatever you decide to do here, continue to the north and Route 4, but this time instead of heading all the way to the west and going under the far overpass to reach the entrance to the Desert Resort, use the eastern path that passes beneath the highway – the one with the three orange traffic cones on the left side, but really as it is the only other route to the north it is rather obvious...