13: Route 4 to Nimbasa City

13: Route 4 to Nimbasa City

On your way to the gate to exit the city you may notice that on the street near the gate is a pedestrian who does not behave quite the same as all of the other people on the street – she stops and stands still, and walks sideways as well – so why not chat her up?  Doing so will get you a tip: 'Pokemon Trainers on Route 4 show combinations with Pokemon even during road construction!'

That is a rather odd tip..  We will have to see if it makes sense later after we have some experience with the Route.

As you exit the city and enter Route 4 the first thing that you are likely to notice is that this side of the city is a roaring desert whereas the south side is green forest, an oddly disturbing change.  On the Route ahead are Trainers – you should chat them all up as they have interesting observations to offer – like the Hiker who calls your attention to the dark spots in the sand that are the special tiles for this environment being where the wild encounters can occur.

Off to the left you will see a treasure ball – the sand is a wild encounter zone, but that is OK because there are some Pokemon here that we want to capture!  Before we take our leisure and hike along Route 4 what do you say we step off to the left here, now, and do that?

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Route 4 Area Pokemon Report

Dex No.    Pokemon     Rarity     Season     Capture Note
#057/551   Sandile     (C)        All        Sand
#060/554   Darumaka    (C)        All        Sand
#065/559   Scraggy     (R)        All        Sand
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We can start by grabbing the X Accuracy from the treasure ball here, then trolling for standard encounters in the sand!  Obviously the Duramaka and Sandile will be easy and quick captures – the Scraggy not so much, but it is worth the effort to add these three to our collection.

You do not really see the difference in the two types of sand until you head west through that narrow passage past the cones and onto the lighter sand – and the lack of any of the special item or Pokemon tiles here is something of a disappointment – but what can you do?

If you keep your Dowsing Machine open and active as you work your way around the area trolling for wild encounters you will notice that near the cones to the west along the edge you get a ding!  Following the arrows will take you down the flight of stairs and back south, where you will find a Pearl – nice one!

In this same area are two Fisherman/Trainers to battle – Fisherman Andrew who has a team of four Level 16 Basculin, and Fisherman Hubert who has a pair of Level 18 Basculin, which are collectively worth a nice chunk of XP!

Coming up the stairs head north towards the fences and you will pick up another Dowsing signal – that takes you to the small fenced in area where you find an Ultra Ball.  You should have noticed two treasure balls in the process – one to the north of where you found the Ultra Ball and one we passed getting here – so head back west to grab the first one, and grab the Great Ball from it.

Now backtrack to the gate and you will encounter Parasol Lady April, who has a pair of Level 18 Tympole.  Inside the fencing to the right (east) is the treasure ball we saw that has a Hyper Potion – and I should point out that you really do not have to troll much to get the three Pokemon from the sand here, as moving between the various objects is more than enough traveling to troll them up!

Moving north through the construction area triggers another ding on the Dowsing Machine, but first you get to battle Worker Gus, who has a pair of Level 17 Roggenrola, and a Level 17 Timburr.  A sign just past Gus tells you that 'Tired workers should head to the prefab house by Castelia City' which we can take it to mean that the shed-like structure just off of the road to the south is a resting spot!

After you have captured all three – or if you need to now – you may want to hit the Prefab House to heal and save now, depending on how much PP you burned through in the doing of it.  Once you do that, head back to the sign so we can work our way deeper into the construction site.

Hidden Treasure in the Route 4 Construction Site

– The Construction Site --

Past the sign is a wild-encounter area that leads down a flight of stairs, north, and then up another flight of stairs – and while you are working your way along here and having your battles, remember not to allow any member of your team individually to get too close to Level 40, as we do not want to have control issues when we go into the next Gym Battle!  If any of your A-Team is getting close – say around Level 38 – it might be an idea to hit the Pokemon Center and swap in some of your alternates so you can level them as well, right? 

Following the Dowser you can grab a Burn Heal near the pile of steel, and you will then notice another hit on the Dowser, so head back east and along the ledge here before going back down the stairs to grab an Ether – nice one!

Now head down the stairs and battle Worker Shelby who has a Level 19 Timburr, and then make your way up the nearby stairs to the treasure ball by the barricades to grab TM41, Torment – a move that when used prevents your opponent from using the same move twice in a row!

– Back on Route 4 --

Now we need to backtrack all the way to the road by the Prefab House – and you may as well duck in there to heal and save, right?  Exit the House and head south along the barrier to get back on Route 4, and have another friends battle with Cheren, who is standing in the middle of Route 4 waiting for you to appear with your Insect Badge!

Oh, and speaking of badges, did you know that you can polish them up in your badge case just like in the previous games?  Well, you can, so be sure that you do!

This time around Cheren has a Level 20 Pidove, Level 22 Dewott, Level 20 Pansear, and Level 20 Liepard,  paying off $2200 for the privilege of being beaten by you.  It is nice to see that he is not only increasing his team size but also evolving them as well as training them up!

As you are wrapping up the post-fight chat your XT rings – it is the Professor – who tells you that she will be waiting for you at the gate to Nimbasa City, but does not tell you why.  Cheren takes off north up the Route, which of course leads to the city gates, and you follow... Sort of.

At the end of the paved surface is some barricades and a bloke who tells you that 'Deep in the desert ahead of here, at the Desert Resort, there are some ruins that have become a little tourist destination!'  Interesting bit of news isn't it?  Before you step into the desert to continue the adventure, take a few moments to check your kit – did you use up any of the healing items we got from the vending machine?  If you did, now is a convenient time to dodge back and replace those.  Do you have an adequate supply of Poke Balls?  If not, stock up on those as well!