Our First Gym Battle

When you return to town as you near Alder he will step out to talk with you, observing that you have delivered the second Town Map to Hugh. Alder is impressed by the rate that you have leveled your Team up and increased its size, and declares that he no longer needs to train you at all! But that does not mean that he is done with you, as he tells you that he needs your help...

Before you follow after him to his home and Gym hit the Pokemon Center to heal up and resupply, then head back to Alder's and follow him inside where he will introduce us to his two students, School Kid Seymour, and School Kid Cassie, who you are going to battle.

BEFORE you do that, check your team and make sure that you use any of your Pokemon who are below Level 12 first, since that will help in leveling them up, as you basically want your entire team to be at least Level 12 for the upcoming Gym Battle but NOT more than Level 13.

The battle starts with a Level 9 Pansear and after you defeat it, Alder heals your team and you face a Level 9 Pansage with both offering prizes of $180 along with a chunk of XP as your reward. Alder again heals your party while Briefing you on type-strategy.

Mister Medal and the Medal Rally

Meeting Mister Medal

After you exit the Gym a stranger is waiting for you outside and makes a present of a new item container that is called the Medal Box. The Medal Box goes into the Key Items case in your bag. The stranger reveals that his name is actually Mr. Medal. (or that’s what people call him anyway) and after touching upon the purpose of the Medal Box, he awards you with your first four medals to be put in the box.

Mr. Medal now briefs you on the subject of the Medal Rally, which is an event that evaluates various activities of Trainers – activities he will only generally cover, and then he passes you your first two Hint Medals as well as explains that additional medals will be awarded when you earn them by meeting their conditions, adding that to obtain them you simply must find and talk to him at a Pokemon Center.

If you assumed that the first Gym Battle would be here in Floccesy town with Alder that was a premature assumption. Though we did imply that Alder would lead us to the first Gym battle, and he will, it will just be via an indirect path because as you will shortly learn a new Pokemon Gym has opened in our hometown while we were away!

If you go along the outside left side of Alder's house you will find a Treasure Ball that has an X Speed in it – this is an item that raises the Speed Stat for a Pokemon in battle. It wears off as soon as the Pokemon is withdrawn from battle, so you want to use it right away at the start of the battle.

If you head along the right-hand side of Alder's house you will find a path that leads to the first Hidden Glade we have encountered. At the very back are two ponds and a large rock with three sharp marks carved into it. We cannot actually do anything here at the moment, I just wanted you to see this for future reference... So after you take a look around, backtrack to the entrance and go through, then head for the Pokemon Center and Route 19.

Leaving Floccesy Town

As we depart the town heading west Alder stops us again!

It seems he forgot to tell us something – first he gifts us with some Oran Berries which we place in our Berry Case; Alder tells you about the berries and how they can be used, then he touches upon the Gym Leader Challenge for each city before once again walking off. All that is left is to head back to our home and our destiny! Sort of...

If your Team is not at or around Level 12 at this point, this is going to be one of those times when you will want to do some marathon leveling, but as the Grass Patches between here and home are filled with relatively low-level Pokemon, it would be smarter to return to Floccesy Ranch to level there first, as you will gain levels faster there.

It is important for us to level our entire team to a uniform Level 13 since that is the highest Level of Pokemon that we will face when we have the final battle with the Gym Leader, who in this case is a bloke named Cheren. Do not level the entire Team to Level 13 though, since you still have to battle and defeat his Assistant Gym Leaders, who will be paying out a fair bit of XP. No, Level 12 is more the mark for the team at this point. With any luck the Assistant Gym Leader Battles will be sufficient to push the team to Level 13 – if not you can always level the odd Level 12 member to Level 13 if you like, though it is not critical as long as your main and two others are Level 13.

If you are new to the games there is something you really need to know about why you are working on obtaining Gym Badges as a constant part of your Adventure, and that is control.

Specifically the ability to control your Pokemon. In addition to that though, gaining the first Gym Badge also opens up the ability to use the trade system in the Pokemon Centers to trade Pokemon between games, and other badges have other additional issues to them. But control is the key issue, and this is how it works:

• 1 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 20;

• 2 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 30;

• 3 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 40;

• 4 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 50;

• 5 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 60;

• 6 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 70;

• 7 Badges - Pokemon are obedient up to level 80;

• 8 Badges - All Pokemon are obedient.

What that means is that, for example, if you have only 1 Badge and you have Pokemon who are greater than Level 20 they will usually refuse to obey your commands. Not only that but the closer you get to the cut-off point, the more likely they are to just decide to do something else or nothing at all! So as you can see, gaining these Badges is a crucial step to becoming a Master Trainer. And then there is the fact that you must possess all 8 Badges in order to battle the Elite 4 and become The Master Trainer for the Region.

So head outside of town into the tall grass and level-up your team, and once they have all reached Level 12 head back to town, heal up and save your game, and then head for the Gym!

Aspertia Gym

To reach the new Gym first we have to head next door to the Pokemon School, as the Gym is accessed through it, being outside and in back. If you have played the previous games this new Gym is really a new Gym, since it is outside – in the past games the Gyms were all buildings with indoor battle areas so this is rather unusual to say the least.

Before you head inside use the action button on the statue thingies outside and you will see that they identify this building as the Aspertia City Pokemon Gym, and the Gym Leader is Cheren. Inside the School you should talk to all of the Trainers here, as one of them will ask if you use items in battle? He will then gift you with an X-Defend. The other Trainer will make an observation about Pokemon holding items, and the Blackboard explains the various Status Ailments that Pokemon can suffer in battle – if you are not familiar with these you should read that blackboard...

The Blackboard @ the Pokemon School

The Pokemon School is where eager trainers go to get their formal education, and the blackboard at the school today contains a listing of the different effects that a Pokemon can receive in battle, which are:

Poison: If poisoned, a Pokemon steadily loses HP when battling. The poison lingers after the battle. To cure it, use an Antidote.

Paralysis: Paralysis reduces the Speed stat and may prevent movement. It remains after battle, so use a Paralyze Heal.

Sleep: If a Pokemon falls asleep, it will be unable to attack. The Pokemon may wake up on its own, but if a battle ends while it is sleeping, it will stay asleep. Wake it up using an Awakening.

Burn: A burn reduces the Attack stat and steadily reduces the victim's HP. A burn lingers after battle. Cure a burn using a Burn Heal.

Frozen: If a Pokemon is frozen, it becomes completely helpless. The Pokemon may thaw out on its own, but if a battle ends while it is frozen, it will stay frozen. Thaw it out using an Ice Heal.

The Trainer in the back will give you some helpful advice about battle with Normal-type Pokemon – the reason he tells you that is that this Gym is a Normal-type one, and that is the type you will be facing. Fortunately you have your Riolu from the Ranch and it is nicely leveled up! This should be a cake walk then!

The girl Trainer to the left of the exit tells you about canceling evolution in case you do not want your Pokemon to evolve when it hits the key level – that is good information to know!

Your first Gym Battle for the Basic Badge

The Gym Battle

As you step outside the first thing you notice is a bloke named Clyde – who tells you that he is the guide for Trainers who are challenging Gyms – will walk up to talk to you. He gifts you with an item called Fresh Water, which basically has the same effect as a Potion – it heals your Pokemon. Thanks Clyde!

Cheren then greets you and welcomes you to the Gym, telling you that you have to defeat his two Assistants before you are considered worthy to battle the Gym Leader – him.

The first battle is with Youngster Pedro, who has a Level 9 Patrat and a Level 9 Lillipup. Beating him gains you a reward of $144 and the satisfaction of one down, two to go!

The second battle is with Lass Serena, who has a Level 9 Lillipup and a Level 9 Patrat, and pays you a reward of $144.

Now before you battle Cheren, if you took damage and you want to heal you do NOT have to use a Potion or other med – you are actually allowed to come and go as often as you like during the Gym Battles, so you can quickly pop into the Pokemon Center and have your team healed and I suggest you do that and save the healing items for when you really need them.

With your team healed up it is time to battle Cheren, who has a Level 11 Patrat and a Level 13 Lillipup. Bearing in mind that his Gym features Normal-type Pokemon you will find that you obtain the best results here by using your Riolu and your Starter, as between the two you should have very little trouble with this battle as long as you leveled your Team to at least 12.

Winning the battle with him nets you $1560, your first Gym Badge – The Basic Badge – and TM83 Workup. If you look at your Trainer Card now, you will note that you can open the Badge Case by tapping the icon on the bottom left of the screen and see the Badges you have unlocked, or in this case the Badge.

Each of the Badges plays a musical note when it is tapped, so you can play music on them. In addition to that they will each tarnish over time, so you will need to open the case and polish them every so often to keep them bright and shiny! With this Badge won you can now trade between games, and Pokemon up to Level 20 will obey your commands! Well done mates!

A Note on Leveling

Getting your entire team to Level 13 was not really necessary for this first Gym Battle, but it was really necessary for another reason – the next Gym Battle. What I mean by that is that while this one was not really all that hard considering that the Gym Leader only had the two Pokemon, you probably would have done fine with just two of your own at Level 13, but it will be very necessary for you to get your team leveled to Level 18 for the next Gym Battle, as that one can easily go pear-shaped if you are unlucky or make a mistake.

That being the case I thought I should explain why it really was important to get your entire team to Level 13 – just as it is very important to time this so that you get your entire team to Level 18 for the next Gym Battle but NOT higher than that! Once they get to Level 19 there is a chance they will disobey you – a small one but still – so what you want to do is hold off any concerted leveling from here on until you reach the next town and Gym Battle, at which point then you will pause to level up your team to 18 and take that one down! Nuff said.

After the Battle

When you exit the School after the battle you will find that Bianca is waiting outside, and she is very excited that you have triumphed in your first Gym Battle, and earned your first Gym Badge. In fact she is so pleased with the progress you have made considering that you only just started out on your big Adventure that she gifts you with TM27 Return!

Experiencing the Entralink System via your C-Gear

After she gives you that gift who should pop-out but Cheren! He chats up Bianca, and this is where you learn about registering trainers in your Xtranceiver, which allows you to ring them up and have a video chat any time you like... Cheren steps up and you and he exchange Xtranceiver codes and then Bianca does the same with you. Just then your Xtranceiver rings and, when you answer it, you see that it is a conference call with Professor Juniper, Cheren, and Bianca!

The Professor thanks you for accepting the Pokedex and for agreeing to participate in her research; she then thanks her assistant Bianca for taking on this errand, and chats up Cheren as well, commenting that his new position as Gym Leader is Aspertia must be exciting.

After the call ends Bianca explains to you that you can ring up the Professor to have her evaluate your progress with your Pokedex and the Pokemon you are training, the evolution process, and how well you are relating to your Pokemon.

Cheren then shares the fact that ringing him up can also result in Hints, Tips, and information from him – and then Hugh (or whatever your friend's name is) shows up, and challenges Cheren to battle (that is actually an interesting factoid since in previous games we usually discovered upon arriving at a Gym that our Rival had been there before us and had already beaten the Gym Leader and obtained that badge, so at least in this Adventure we are a bit ahead of the Rivalry curve!).