Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness Walkthrough By MajesticMystic v1.00 [date] SPOILER WARNING: This guide is littered with spoilers, as I tend to try and be verbose when I write. Tread lightly if you hate them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Content ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1 - Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to my second attempt at writing something useful for a game I like. This time, I will be writing about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 (Explorers of Time/Darkness), and I hope you will find this document informative and helpful. Also, English is not my first language so please excuse any grammar errors you find. Aside from those, I have nothing more to say so... read on! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 2 - Version History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v1.00 The guide was created. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 3 - My Game Info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main Pokemon - Meowth (Seth) Partner - Pikachu (Pikachu) (I have no creativity. Sue me) Exploration Team Name - Anima Game Version - Darkness ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 4 - The Walkthrough itself (pre-credits) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 - Starter selection ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After selecting New Game, the game will welcome you into the world within, and start to hand out a questionnaire for you to fill. Your answers will determine what the game gives you for your starter. Keep in mind of one thing - Your starter is extremely important in the game, because until you beat the pre-credits part of the story, you're basically stuck with controlling your starter all the way. That being said, all the starters have their own strengths and weaknesses and each one of them can beat the game quite easily if you use them right, so if it's your first time playing through the game, just answer the questions truthfully and take what the game gives you. If you REALLY just want the one starter, though, there is an excell- ent FAQ on GameFAQs that explains all there is to know about choosing your own starter. For the record, the list of starters you can get is below: Grass Types: Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Turtwig Fire Types: Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Chimchar Water Types: Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, Piplup Normal Types: Meowth, Skitty, Munchlax The yellow rat that's everywhere: Pikachu So yeah. Once your starter has been decided (reset the game if you don't like the one the game gave you), you will then be asked to pick your partner. Like your starter, your partner is always going to be on your team, so your select- ion here is fairly important too. However, your partner tend to see far less action than your starter does, so it isn't *quite* as vital. Furthermore, you can actually directly choose your partner. All starters that is neither a normal type nor the same type as your starter can be chosen, though the game will only list seven possible choices at a time. To reset the list, choose any partner, then select "No", and the game will offer you a new list. Once you choose your partner, you will then be asked to name him/her (for the sake of convenience I will refer to your partner as a male from now on), and then the game starts! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2 - A Stormy Sea ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene. You start off with a conversation between two (desperate sounding) folks, a view to a storming sea, and then you will see your starter zonked out on a beach - the only thing that is on your mind is you will fall unconscious before you actually do. The scene will then turn to your partner, who seems to be desiring to enter a building with a footprint-based security system, but simply can't muster up the courage to do so. He takes out some sort of personal treasure, muses a bit, and walks off. You will then see a Zubat and a Koffing (remember, Poison types are BAD), who will make a plan on robbing your partner of his personal treasure. Back at the beach, looks like your partner has arrived too, ignorant of the undoubtfully fateful encounter he will take part in, and admires the scenery for a bit. However, he then notices you on the beach, and shakes you awake. A conversation will break out, during which your starter establishes the facts that 1) you have amnesia and 2) you were a human who had somehow turned into a [insert your starter species here]. You also get to name yourself now - keep in mind that, even if you don't feel creative, you should probably give your starter a human name because... well, to imagine that your starter was a human named "Meowth" is a bit... weird. Before you can talk too much, though, the aforementioned minor villains enter the scene and pull off their plan - they steal your partner's personal trea- sure thingy and run off to a cave nearby. Your partner, being too scared to chase after them on his own, asks you to help. Better lend your assistance. Dungeon - Beach Cave Length - 4 floors (+ Beach Cave Pit) Resident Pokemon - Kabuto, Shellder, Corsola, Shellos My levels upon entry - Seth (5), Pikachu (5) PMD2 does a significantly better job than PMD1 in getting your feet wet, so much that I really don't have much to explain here. Any time you pick up an item, the game will tell you what does it do. Keep in mind, however, you can only retain one item for now - make it a Sleep Seed if possible, or Blast Seed otherwise (If you can't find neither, Oran Berry will do). The monsters here are not tough - your startoff normal move should be able to kill Shellder and Shellos in one hit (unless you're Pikachu, in which case Thundershock won't kill Shellos), but Kabuto and Corsola, thanks to their rock typing, can resist your hit and probably survive it - follow it up with a standard A-button tackle to save PP. Eventually you'll traverse through the four floors, hopefully with a good item in hand, and make it to the bottom. At the bottom you will find Zubat and Koffing, staring into the horizon. Your partner demands them to give back his personal treasure, but the very mention of the fact that the rock thing could be a treasure makes it all but pointless to talk. Luckily, where words don't work, violence probably will. Boss Battle - Zubat + Koffing Difficulty - Somewhat easy Your opponents are not tough, for the matter. Koffing is slightly more durable, but Zubat possesses the dangerous Leech Life attack that can drain over half your HP away if you're a grass type, and heal half the damage back. If you have a Sleep Seed, start off by throwing it at Zubat, while both your partner and Koffing approaches you. A double attack from both you and your partner should knock Koffing out, and then you can simply walk forward and kill Zubat. If you don't have a Sleep Seed, stay your ground on the first turn (use Growl if you have it, or simply press B+A to wait a turn) while the two approaches, and then kill them with attacks. The fact that you only have one item holds you back a bit, but Zubat and Koffing dies easily so it's not a huge problem. Once those two are down, they'll drop the rock thing and run away. Your partner picks up his rock, and talks about it with you. Basically, he dreams of being an explorer to solve the mystery of his rock, but he's too chicken to actually sign up to the local explorer team guild (the one you saw him trying to get in earlier). He then asks you to form an exploration team with him. Obviously say yes, because No isn't going to get you anywhere. Congratulations, you have passed what is basically the "prologue" of the story. Save when prompted, and get in the habit of doing so too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3 - The New Guild Recruits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Both of you head back to the guild, and after a bit of trouble analyzing your footprints, you two get in. A Chatot comes out to greet you, and after a bit of conversation he brings you two to the guildmaster, Wigglytuff, to introduce you to him. Wigglytuff: ... Chatot: Guildmaster...uh...guildmaster? Wigglytuff: *suddenly turns around* Hiya! Well, since we're forming a team, we need a team name. Note that it is auto- matically prefixed with "Team", and you can name it anything you wish (or just the default PokePals - I named mine Anima.) Once that's done and over with, Wigglytuff gives you a bunch of stuff to start off - an official exploration team badge, a wonder map, and more importantly a treasure bag. The treasure bag means you can now hold 16 items instead of 1, and it comes with two items as well - a Zinc Band and a coloured ribbon. Both of them are hold items, meaning you have to manually have your team members hold them at the start of each dungeon (it gets annoying fast, but what can you do). The Zinc Band raises special defense by 8, while the coloured ribbon raises all four of your stats by 1 each. They're not spectacular, but they'll do for now. Anyways, since we're training in the guild, we'll be living inside it as well. Chatot shows you to a bedroom, and all too quickly it's bedtime. Your partner talks with you about the events of the day (get used to it - he does that a lot), and then you go to sleep. The next morning... Suffice it to say, you wake up, albeit not in a fashion that I would've chosen given a choice. The guild assembles, listen to Wigglytuff's "words of wisdom", and then sing the guild's anthem or something. Then, everyone will scatter and you are free to move - but not for long. As soon as you try to go anywhere past Chatot, he will stop you, and calls you to the job board, basically. He (and your partner) will explain some basic information about the dungeons you'll be facing, and the dangers of fainting, then gives your team the job of... retri- eving a Spoink's pearl. Your partner is less than impressed with the lack of excitement of your task, but you don't get a choice because you're apprentices. Oh well, time to move out. Dungeon - Drenched Bluff Length - 6 floors (+ 7F) Resident Pokemon - Anorith, Chingling, Lileep, Shellos My levels upon entry - Seth (6), Pikachu (6) The game will proceed to explain more basics to you, and I'll give you a tip too - much like how you fought the boss battle before, when a Pokemon is two panels away from you and you cannot attack it with some sort of ranged attack, wait a turn with B+A so the Pokemon will walk up to you and suffer your attack, instead of you going up and suffer one of ITS attacks. Got it? Good. You may pick up some Geo Pebbles in the dungeon, which is something the game doesn't automatically explain to you. Geo Pebbles are throwable items, and you can "set" one set of throwable items like how you set moves, and press L+R to throw one. Geo Pebbles can hit up to ten squares away from you for 10 damage, and the target doesn't have to be in a straight line with you either - if it is 3 squares above you and 1 square to your left, throwing a geo pebble while facing up will hit it. It's not something you want to do right now, because 10 damage is weak and you should use a move on a Pokemon anyways (killing a poke- mon that never had a move used on it will result in only half the experience), but it's useful for attacking from a distance if you ever need such a tool. There are also various pointy sticks you can pick up later - those will do more damage, but they can only be thrown in a straight line. Enough rambling about throwable items - Simply march on, find the staircase in each floor, and loot everything you can loot on the way. If you're playing Explorers of Darkness I'd recommend you save up the first two blue gummies you find (they're kind of rare in Darkness) to save you a lot of headaches later. The resident obstacles pose little threat - Anorith and Lileep resist normal still, but they can't do much back. Water users beware, though - If there is a Shellos anywhere on the floor who is not asleep, using a water attack will result in it being drained by the Shellos (due to its Storm Drain ability) and doing nothing. Shellos isn't much threat otherwise, however. Chingling has Wrap and can use it to immobilize you, causing you to take damage for a few turns while being helpless to being bashed by anything that can bash you, but given that nothing in the dungeon can really attack very well, it's not par- ticularly worrisome. Once you descend six floors under, you'll find the pearl automatically via a cutscene. No boss battle necessary. You then return to the guild. The Spoink is so excited about having its pearl back, it gives you a whole slew of goodies - three stat boosting items (they're very rare!) and a whooping 2000 Poke! (Poke is the currency of the world) Unfortunately, Chatot comes in at this point and point out that, since you're apprenticing under the guild, 90% of your cash income goes to the guild as well, so you actually only get 200P. Bah. At least you keep all your item rewards. Dinner time! And after that, it's bedtime for you (don't do those two in quick succession in real life unless you want to gain weight). Partner talk, blah blah blah, sleep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4 - The Scream ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning, Loudred, Anthem. Once again, Chatot will stop you from going anywhere, and this time he will give you a job from the *other* job board - the outlaw board. Basically, the jobs on the outlaw board involves you taking down a bad guy, and don't worry about how bad guys always hurt - there are always really petty thieves that will be of little trouble to you while you apprehend them. However, seeing that this is still a bit more of a deal than just finding some- one's lost items, Chatot calls in Bidoof, who is *just* your senior, to give you a tour of both the guild and the town. Basically, for now you have three service you can access in town - Duskull's bank, Kecleon's Shops, and Kangas- khan's Storage. You'll regain control in the town. Store all your money (you don't want to lose them by accidentally fainting, do you?), and any items you don't need immediately but will need in the future (chances are you don't really have anything to store at this point - status healing items are useless for the most part, and so are most orbs), and you should then visit Kecleon's Shop. Unless you have 800P there really isn't any- thing that's worth buying, but you should sell those useless items, and you kill two birds in one stone - you need to visit the shops to advance the story. Enter the Marill/Azurill brothers, who will buy an apple and get another one for free because they're so darn cute. Azurill, however, will trip, and while you lend your assistance, something *really* weird happens. Must be your day- dreaming, though - after all, it doesn��t seem like you're getting enough sleep lately. Go back to the first screen of the town for another cutscene, where you see a Drowzee offering assistance to the two little brothers in finding something they have lost. The brothers are more than happy to have help, and they walk past you. However, Drowzee accidentally bumps into you and BAM - another weird vision, this time starring Drowzee as the villain. But the vision must be false, right? I mean, Drowzee doesn't LOOK like a villain... Anyways, finish your business in town, and then head back to the guild to talk to Bidoof. Select Yes, and another cutscene will occur. You will see the job board's updater, Dugtrio in faction, and who should appear on the updated outlaw board but... Drowzee! You panic and rush off in a hurry to save Azurill. On your way past you see Marill who tells you that Drowzee and Azurill have headed for a place called Mt. Bristle, so that's where we'll be going next. Dungeon - Mt. Bristle Length - 9 floors (+ Mt Bristle Peak) Resident Pokemon - Doduo, Geodude, Machop, Nidorina, Nidorino, Spinarak, Starly My levels upon entry - Seth (8), Pikachu (8) This dungeon is basically the game's way of telling you "playtime's over". Re- member how those Pokemon you've met in the past two dungeon who can't really hurt you? Times change, my friend, and enter Doduo and Starly, who can make quite a dent in your HP bar with their normal moves (on the account that they actually get STAB). As you climb up you will find them using STAB flying moves too, which won't hurt Pikachu as much but equal to a world of pain for grass types. Doduo also has a nasty habit of running away when low on HP - that's where your Geo Pebbles will come in handy. Machop can also hit you with a STAB Low Kick, but since the starters are all so light it really can only hurt you much if it used Leer on you beforehand and/or you're a normal type. Geodude resists normal type like all rock types do but otherwise isn't much of a worry; Spinarak can slow you down with Spider Web and String Shot as well as sometimes poisoning you with STAB poison sting, but it doesn't really hurt unless you're a grass type. Finally, Nidorina and Nidorino lacks a good way of hurting you, but has the Poison Point ability which poisons you 30% of the time when you attack them with a move that makes contact. Poison is very annoying so watch yourself around them. As you make your way up, you should watch your levels. Ideally, you should be at least level 10 before you finish all nine floors. This is also probably the first dungeon where hunger can become a concern, but you should have enough apples and useless berries like Rawst to fill up your stomach. Ascend carefully but surely and you should be able to hit the top without too much trouble. At the top, you find Drowzee threatening Azurill into stealing something for him. You arrive as the heroes, but your confidence wavers somewhat. Drowzee notices that, and HIS confidence as the bad guy gets boosted. He then attacks you. Yay. Note that you are fully healed whenever you enter a boss fight. Boss Battle - Drowzee Difficulty: Middlish Drowzee has about 100 HP, and he can attack fairly well with STAB confusion, which can easily take out 30 HP. He can also use Hypnosis and Disable, which are both VERY bad if they hit, since two Confusion equals death basically. He can also use Pound though it's a bit of a waste of turns, since he can't hurt you nearly as well with it as it can with Confusion. If you have a Sleep Seed or an X-Eye seed, throw it at him - the time you buy is probably more than enough to beat all his HP down. If you don't, watch out for Confusion and heal quickly. Moves tend to not have perfect accuracy in this game, so you will get free turns here and there, and hopefully that's enough to bring him down. Don't be surprised if you get killed and have to do the dungeon again, but it is perfectly doable to win on your first try. After the fight, the local sheriff deputy, Magnezone, will introduce himself to you and take over from there. He also claims to have sent your reward on Drowzee's head to the guild. One teary reunion later, you return to the guild to find that, yup, 90% of your reward has been taken again, and you only get 300P out of the 3000P you could have got. No item reward this time, but ah well. You do get something even better though - an expansion of your Treasure Bag, and now you can hold 24 items instead of 16! Woot! You know the drill - dinner, talk, sleep. Tonight's topic is a bit more inter- esting though - You delve into the topic of Time Gears, which are supposedly instrumental in keeping the world's time in place, and not even the most wicked criminals will steal them - supposedly. Too bad right while you talk, one of the time gears are getting stolen by a Grovyle. Ruh-roh. Morning... Loudred... Assembly... and Chatot gives you your assignment of the day - look up the two job boards and do some posted work. In other words, you now have the freedom of choosing your own jobs. Yay! If you don't understand anything, go upstairs and talk to Swellow - she'll explain the basics. Also, keep in mind that you can do multiple jobs at the same time as long as they are all located in the same dungeon. The job bulletin board mostly consists of jobs that are like "retrieve item X" or "find Pokemon Y" on a specific floor, but sometimes it will also contain "give item Z to Pokemon W" jobs, in which case YOU have to provide the item. Look at its rewards and determine whether it's worth it to do those kind of jobs before you accept them. Outlaw hunts are simpler - on the floor the outlaw is in, as soon as you enter the outlaw (as a miniboss) will appear near you. They're no joke, so if you're doing out- law hunts in a tough dungeon (Mt Bristle, for example), pack Sleep/X-eye seeds to make your life easier. If you want to select jobs based on their rewards, look out for the ones with "uncertainties" in their prizes. You have a chance of getting multiple items (more than two) sometimes, and the ones with reward simply as "?????" can later on allow you to recruit the client at level 1, or get an egg. These are the ones that should have priority. Failing that, rewards containing useful TMs, gummies and Reviver Seeds are always good. Also take note that the cash shown on the reward section is the cash you will ACTUALLY get - if it says the job will reward you with 200P, the client will actually give 2000P, and then you get 200P (because everything else goes to Wigglytuff). Anyways, you need to do 2-3 missions before the story will advance, so try to pick as many as you can. Don't forget to save your items and money in town before setting off. For money management, I'd recommend you to save up about 8000P before starting to buying stuff from the green Kecleon, because sometimes you will want to buy a good TM from the purple Kecleon instead (if you see one, that is). While you're inside the dungeon, when you get on the specified floor a message will appear saying that you have reached a destination floor. This holds true even if you accept a Pokemon retrieval request that doesn't give you a specific floor. Finally, if you're doing multiple jobs in one dungeon, make sure you don't leave the dungeon until you've done everything. That is all. Have fun! You'll be repeating this day quite a bit later, in between story dungeons. Dinner... bed. Your partner doesn't have much to say in a "filler day" (as I call it). If you haven't finished enough mission you will have to repeat the day, but if you did, you'll move on to the next chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5 - Gatekeepers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning... Loudred... Assembly. Before Chatot can bark any orders at you, Lou- dred comes first and assigns you sentry duty, because Diglett had to fill in for Dugtrio who...is...not...there...for...some...reasons. I think. Anyways, off you go! The minigame is simple - You will see a footprint, and you must determine what Pokemon does the footprint belongs to. More hint will be shown as time passes, but the sooner you finishes the job, the more points you get, and the better rewards you get in the end. Have fun at it. At the end of the day, Chatot will give you some rewards based on your perfor- mance. If you get perfect, you get 500P and a bunch of stat boosting items. Yay. Dinner... Bed... Morning... Loudred... Assembly.... Filler day. Do some more missions. You should probably be at Bronze rank at the end of the day, which means your storage space went from 64 to 96. Yay. If you didn't... no matter, you can reach it at a later date. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.6 - The First Official Exploration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning... Loudred... Assembly. After the song ends, Chatot announces that, egads - a time gear has been stolen! (Guess who's behind it?) It has some imm- ediate and rather traumatizing effect on the local wildlife, so the guild is asked to notify Magnezone immediately upon seeing any suspicious characters. Ah. But that's not something important now, because Chatot gives you your assign- ment for the day - to thoroughly investigate a waterfall that reportedly hides a secret. Woot, a proper exploration! About time! Oh and uh, keep note that you don't actually HAVE to go to the waterfall RIGHT NOW. You can actually go accept more jobs and do them and there will be no consequences beyond having your storyline delayed - this allows you to toughen yourself up before doing the storyline. That being said, as long as you play smartly with your head, there is no reason that you should need "toughening up" - not now, and not ever. Before you can go much farther, Chimecho will call out to you. To make a long story short, You can now recruit new team members and Chimecho will be respon- sible for assisting you to manage your team. How do you recruit new team mem- bers, you ask? Well, you beat the crap out of them, of course! Well, at least that's the most prominent way. I believe this is also the time where you can recruit members (albeit at level 1...) from some missions - the client will be the Pokemon you recruit. You can turn down offers to join up as well - in dungeons this will simply resulting the Pokemon going away, but in missions, if you decline a recruit you will get 1000P instead and get this - you get to keep ALL of them! No share for the big fat pink blob of annoyingness! (Just kidding - Wigglytuff is an awesome character. You'll see). You'll see more of what I mean when you actually get some hands on experience. Also note that you can summon Chimecho on the crossroads, as well - there will now be a bell, which you can ring to get her to come to you. This is pretty pointless right now, though, and Chimecho is such a nice person I'd much rather take the effort of going up to her instead. Also, in Treasure Town, Marowak's Dojo has opened up. It's right below the Duskull Bank, and basically provides you with "practice dungeons" to... level up in or something, I guess. It's really pointless, since the dungeons are all so short you tend to not get in many fights before you clear them, unless you purposely hang around to fight things - but that's bad for your stomach, and as you can't bring items in the dungeon. Stick to a real dungeon for your level up needs, instead. Anyways, if you want, finish some more missions before you head off to the secret waterfall - but I'm going to assume you just went to town to prepare and now headed straight for the waterfall. The two of you test the strength of the waterfall, and behold - another vision, this time starring a familiar-looking figure jumping straight through the waterfall. Your partner actually trusts this crazy vision this time, and you try it out as well. Behold, a new dungeon! Say hello to Waterfall Cave! Dungeon - Waterfall Cave Length - 8 floors (+ 9F) Resident Pokemon - Tangela, Whooper, Lotad, Grimer, Barboach, Psyduck, Surskit, Poliwag, Whiscash My levels upon entry - Seth (11), Pikachu (11) Lots of water types here, but there are some odd ones out. Grass types are awesome here against the water types, though Tangela and Grimer resists them. The Pokemon here are not especially dangerous, and since you're higher levelled STAB attacks don't hurt as much. Poliwag can be a nuisance with Hypnosis and a ranged Bubble, though, and Surskit's Bubble rather hurts too. Defensively speaking, Poliwag stands out (again) with Water Absorb - so don't use water moves on it - and Grimer has the Stench ability, which causes contact moves to sometimes trigger "a horrible stench", which basically cringes you for a few turns. The normal precaution will do fine in the dungeon - it's not a very hard one. Once you descend in the bottom, you'll see a giant gem. Trying to budge it gives no immediate results, but eventually triggers another vision and... Oh dear, it's a trap! Too late for you, though - a deluge sweeps in and you get carried far, far away, into a hot spring. You decide to relax before heading back for your report. Back in the guild, you report about what you've found in the waterfall, and surprisingly, Chatot doesn't care in the least that you couldn't bring back souvenirs, and praise you highly for your work! Your partner is all happy because of it, but you're not, because that figure you've seen in your vision is... familiar looking. It's round, has rabbit like ears, and a furball looking thing on its forehead and... Yup, it's everyone's favourite guildmaster, Wigg- lytuff! Chatot can't believe that Wigglytuff may have been to the cave before, seeing that Wigglytuff is the one who ordered you to investigate the place, but Chatot checks with him anyways. Wigglytuff: "Oh, memories! Sweet memories! YOOM...TAH!" Wigglytuff: *dances around a bit* Wigglytuff: "Yes, yes! When I think hard, maybe I did go there once!" Aww man, looks like your discovery was for naught, after all. Oh well, we did get as far as Wigglytuff did, so that must...be saying...something, right? Dinner, and more talking. Nothing interesting to talk about tonight except some personal mushiness, and more wondering about Seth's amazing visionary ability. You do figure out how these visions are triggered, though - that should come in handy sometimes. However, Chatot then interrupts you and calls you to Wiggly- tuff's chamber. Apparently, the guild is mounting an expedition soon, and even though rookies are never even considered to take part in the expedition, you make it anyways because of your exemplary performances lately. Yay! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.7 - Team Skull ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning, Loudred, Assembly. Chatot explains about the expedition to everyone, and everyone gets excited. Today's assignment, however, is simply the two boards again. Don't let it fool you into think everything that happens today is ordinary, though - as soon as you walk upstairs, who should you meet but your old friends(?) - Zubat and Koffing! You'd think they would run away with tails between their legs (metaphorically speaking, anyways - Koffing certainly have neither tails nor legs), but they don't. There's a good reason, too - introdu- cing the boss of the duo, Skuntank! Yeah. Skuntank *stinks* the crap out of everyone in the vicinity like a proper skunk would, and talks about the expedition almost as something that could fetch them profit. Some bad. Ah well, we can't let that keep our spirit down - time to do some jobs! I'll leave you to it. Yeah. The next day is sentry duty because it's Diglett's turn to not be responsible for his job. You know the drill - identify footprints, and get a reward if you do well. No stat boosting items this time around, though, but you do get a Reviver seed if you do perfectly. You can never have too many Reviver Seeds. In the next morning's assembly, you learn that Team Skull has somehow wiggled its way into your guild and will be allies for your expedition! What the hell, Wigglytuff and Chatot? Don't you care about our sense of smell? Everyone gives a rather lame hooray, which seems to upset Wigglytuff a great deal... better give a full spirited hooray, even if it hurts! Anyways, it's another filler day so get your gears working. Tip: if you're doing escort missions, you may want to keep a rollcall orb in possession - sometimes your client will get lost and wander off, so a rollcall orb is great for that situation. Once you're done for the day, you see a scene of Team Skull running around, looking for the food stock of the guild. The next morning, after the assembly, Chatot gives you your task of the day - forage for perfect apples, because for "some mysterious reasons" (cough) they have all disappeared. Chatot is even "begging" you to bring back some perfect apples! Wow. Better get to it. Your next destination: The Apple Woods. Unfortunately for you, Team Skull caught wind and is planning on doing something bad. Damn. In the town, a new shop has opened - The Electivire link shop. Basically, you can link two, three or even all four of your moves together, and doing so will allow you to use multiple moves in one turn. However, you cannot use one of the moves in the link alone without using the other moves as well, so you are basically trading versatility for power. Some may like the trade; I don't. You can decide for yourself whether it's worth it or not. It cost 500P per linking session. Electivire does, however, have a much more important use - remembering moves. You see, sometimes you may want to relearn a move you chose to delete, and Electivire can help you remember it. Much more important, how- ever, is accessing moves you would not have been able to access otherwise - sometimes you recruit Pokemon at too high a level, or with too many level 1 moves, or you want a move that is impossible to learn by level up after evo- lution. Electivire will allow you to access those moves. Remembering moves is free, but you can only remember moves that are learned by level-up, so if you chose to learn a TM and delete it later, you can't relearn it from Electivire and have to find the same TM again. Anyways, prepare yourself, and head off to Apple Woods. Dungeon - Apple Woods Length - 12 floors (+ Deep Apple Woods) Resident Pokemon - Beedrill, Budew, Burmy, Butterfree, Caterpie, Combee, Exe- ggutor, Gloom, Hoppip, Kakuna, Oddish, Paras, Weedle My levels upon entry - Seth (11), Pikachu (11) Grass and bug type Pokemon prevails here. Every single Pokemon in the region resists grass types and are weak to fire, so if you're a fire type you can have fun roasting everything through. However, several Pokemon here can fight back with poison, so stock up on Pecha berries or (if you're like me and dis- like status healing items) hurry up with those stairs. The Pokemon are also all weak to flying types, so if you managed to got yourself an Aerial Ace TM, it will be helpful here. Most Pokemon here tries to annoy you with poison and paralyze more than actu- ally trying to hurt you, so there's not much to worry about here. However, watch out for Beedrill and Exeggutor - Beedrill can fire Fury Attacks at you. Multi-hit attacks are not as dangerous as it has been in the first game, but that's only because their accuracy was nerfed - if you're unlucky enough that most of the Fury Attacks hit, you're in for a world of pain. Exeggutor has Hypnosis, and is strong enough to cause you problems while you're asleep with STAB Seed Bomb/Confusion and a fairly strong Stomp. Paras has Dry Skin which absorbs water damage like Water Absorb, but also gives it an even bigger fire weakness - a STAB fire attack will likely cause over 100 damage to it. Still, try to recruit one - it can learn spore eventually, which is very help- ful. Budew can put up Water Sport to put a damper in your pyromaniac tenden- cies, but that will merely delay a horrible burning death for a few turns. The dungeon is quite long, so watch your belly. However, as long as you can dodge threats well enough, this dungeon is quite easy to navigate. At the depth of the woods, you will see a tree with perfect apples. However, Team skull pops in at this point. They try to pull another fast one on you, but you are too smart for them this time, so they instead resort to yet another stink attack. It proves too much for your team to handle, and by the time you come to, all the perfect apples are gone! Damn. There is nothing you can do here, so let's head back. Chatot is besides himself upon hearing that you failed. Not only is he scared, he is also very angry at you - no dinner for you! Also, you have to go with him to report to Wigglytuff that there is no more Perfect Apples. Dinner time... but none for you, and none for Wigglytuff either it seems. You will then be in the guildmaster's room. Wigglytuff is still the happy go-lucky guy he always is, but then he hears that he have to do without perfect apples for a while, and... oh dear. Ever heard of the move Hyper Voice? Luckily(?), Team Skull walks in at this point and presents to Wigglytuff a perfect apple. Well, Wigglytuff is happy, but you're not, and neither is Chatot (With you at least). Blah. You now get to listen to Team Skull doing more plotting. Looks like they're targeting Wigglytuff now, and frankly, after what we have seen of Wigglytuff, we can't exactly predict the outcome of it all. Stay tuned. For now, though, you are hungry, sad, and have to sleep. In the next morning��s assembly, Chatot announces that the expedition members will be chosen soon. After the assembly he tells you to do the job boards, and (being the inconsiderate jerk he had always been) tells you that you should just give up trying to be chosen because Wigglytuff must be "Seething with anger inside" (somehow I find that a hard picture to imagine). Urgh. At this point, however, Bidoof calls you go to your room, and you'll see Sunflora and Chimecho as well - they are so nice they gave you some food to eat! They also give you words of encouragement. Once outside, Croagunk will call you and tell you about his new swap shop. Sad- ly, it's really useless to you right now, since you can't get anything that can be swapped, but I��ll tell you what he does when you can actually use his ser- vice. Time to work! You should know the drill by now. Keep in mind if you faint in a dungeon, all the jobs you've completed in the same dungeon will be nullified. Reviver Seeds are good! The next day... sentry duty! again, you should know the drill by now. You get better prizes if you beat your previous record, but the important thing - the Reviver Seed is there as long you get all six correctly. Work hard! (Note - I found that, if you get five of six correct, and still get over 7000 points (not a small feat for sure), you will get, amongst other things, a Nec- tar. Nectar gives double the amount of IQs as a gummi that correspond to the Pokemon's type, so if you don't need Reviver Seed desperately and you're good enough with the game, going for the Nectar might be a better option.) The next day... is another filler day. Yay. Again, look out for the ones with totally ????? as the reward, especially if you want the client - I got a Sur- skit this way, and any client you don't need to join up will give you 1000P instead, which is always good. Anyways, dinner time! But before you can eat, Chatot (much to everyone's cha- grin) announces that he... has an announcement to make. The list of people... er, Pokemon who will take part in the expedition will be announced in the next morning assembly! That shutted people up fine, but it's no longer necessary because it's chow time! At you room, your partner announces that since he gave his 110% after the perfect apple disaster, he will have no regrets even if he doesn't get picked. Yeah, right. Oh and... Grovyle: "There it is! Another Time Gear!" The next morning... It's the moment of truth! The first to go is... Loudred! The second to go is... Corphish! The third to go is... well that's a surprise, Bidoof! And then we have... Chimecho and Sunflora! And... those are the Pokemon that will be going on the expedition! Oh wait, looks like we're out. Damn. But then... hmm... oh wait, there are more people who are going? And they are... Diglett, Dugtrio, and Croagunk. Oh, and you and your partner too. Wait a minute... Yup, everyone is going. Chatot is a bit... put off at this, but Wigglytuff certainly seems to be having a lot of fun, and everyone else is very happy about it too. So now... it's time to prepare for the expedition. Basically, the expedition involves you going through a few dungeons in quick succession. You will have access to your storage, but not the bank or any other town/guild facilities. You will also not be able to use anyone you re- cruited - it's just you and your partner. Unless you got some movesets to make, there isn't really anything else you need to do to get ready. Just save all your money as usual, and pack your usual dungeon gears, and go. THIS would be a better opportunity to use the Marowak��s dojo if you want to do some last minute training, because you can't go to a real dungeon now. Oh and, before you start all that, your treasure bag is expanded again. It can now hold 32 items. Prepare yourself properly, and then talk to Chatot to ad- vance the story. So, the expedition will have its target set on Fogbound lake, a mysterious locate shrouded in perpetual fog. And a locate isn't mysterious enough without the rumour of a treasure of utmost beauty, too! Also, since so many people are going, they will be split in groups for better mobility: Sunflora, Loudred, Diglett and Croagunk will go together as one; Dugtrio, Chimecho and Corphish will go as a group; Wigglytuff will be going with Chatot (and Wigglytuff does not seem very happy with that); Team Skull will travel by themselves (thank goodness). As for you two... you are grouped with Bidoof. So, the expedition is fully underway! Woohoo! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8 The Guild's Big Expedition ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You arrive at a cave entrance, complete with a Kangaskhan Rock which allows you to save and access your storage. Don't ask how a rock allows you to access a storage a good a third of a way across the continent - you'll see them in even weirder places. Also, there are two entrances you can take at this point, Craggy Coast and Side Path. I'll list both dungeons: Dungeon - Side Path Length - 5 floors Resident Pokemon - Gastrodon, Spheal, Wingull My levels upon entry - Didn't actually go Dungeon - Craggy Coast Length - 9 floors Resident Pokemon - Dratini, Gastrodon, Krabby, Sealeo, Spheal, Wingull My levels upon entry - Seth (13), Pikachu (13) When you take the Side Path, upon finishing five floors you will simply loop back to the entrance again - This allows you to train for a bit and collect more supplies, if needed. Craggy Coast is what you must take to advance the story. Anyways, whichever path you take, you'll have a level 14 Bidoof as an ally. If you've done any escort missions, Bidoof is kind of like an escort, except... well, he's level 14, so he can actually do some fighting. He can use Headbutt, which (backed up by STAB) can do some decent damage, and his stat up/down moves (Growl and Defense Curl) are doubly as effective due to his Simple abilities. However, you cannot control what moves he use or what tactics he uses, and he does not gain experience/level/IQ. Treat him like an escort - he can take a couple of hits and dish back some pain, but if you leave him alone he'll still get killed quickly. He's also the first NPC you've seen that has IQ skills - you'll probably see his PP Saver activate sometimes. For the residents, Gastrodon (like their pre-evolved form Shellos) can absorb water attacks on the floor, and they have also gained a ground typing to block electrical assaults. The real danger of the dungeons, however, are Spheal and its evolution Sealeo, since they can use Powder Snow, a move that hits the entire room (much like Growl) for some pain, and they come with Thick Fat to halve Fire damage. Dratini is also an annoyance with Thunder Wave, Wrap, and a fairly damaging STAB Twister, but everything else are mostly pushovers. Take note that starting from this dungeon, enemies will sometimes randomly drop boxes. You cannot open them yet, but when you can, they will sometimes contain useful one-use items (gummies, seeds, and so on), but most of the time they have a type of rare item - items that you can simply keep in your inventory to give various bonuses to a whole species of Pokemon. Make sure to keep all the boxes you find. Craggy Coast isn't very long, so you should be through in no time. Well, now that we're done with the first dungeon of the expedition, it's time to tackle the second one! After all, we still need to get to the base camp, and there's one mountain that's ahead of us. Once again, there will be two entrances - Mt Horn (your destination), and Rock Path (another training out- let). It would do you good to first use the Kangaskhan rock, though. Dungeon - Rock Path Length - 5 floors Resident Pokemon - Bonsly, Natu, Shroomish My levels upon entry - Didn't actually go Dungeon - Mt. Horn Length - 14 floors Resident Pokemon - Aerodactyl, Ariados, Beautifly, Bonsly, Cascoon, Natu, Para- sect, Pineco, Shroomish, Venomoth My levels upon entry - Seth (14), Pikachu (14) A bit more complex, this time. Mt. Horn is really the first dungeon you've encountered so far that is somewhat multi-type. Bug and Flying types are common here, though, so rock type attacks are great - if you have some (you probably don't). Most of the Pokemon in the dungeon are pretty docile, though some can inflict you with annoying status (Parasect and Venomoth, mostly). Bidoof also has magically gained a level, so he'll be of a *bit* more help... but not by much. Venomoth can hit you with a STAB Silver Wind, which is another roomwide move - it doesn��t hurt much more than powder snow, though water pokes doesn't resist it, and (more importantly) there's a chance Venomoth speeds up PLUS gets a +1 to every stat EACH TIME IT STRUCK SOMEONE. It also has a bunch of status moves so take it out first. As far as abilities goes, Natu's Synchronize can catch you by surprise if you managed to status it, and Aerodactyl eats your PP up twice as quickly with Pressure. Otherwise, fairly easy dungeon, and though lengthy each floor is simple and you'll have no problems with it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.9 Groudon's Heart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looks like we're finally in the base camp. Yay. Oh wait, we were REALLY late in arriving... boo. Ah well, the important thing is that everyone's here safely now, right? Because it's time to set off on the expedition itself! Before the briefing starts, though, you have a strange feeling... of seeing this place before (get used to this scene, because if you haven't caught on yet, Chunsoft considers us to be incapable of having a short term memory, and this scene will be flashback'd a LOT). Nothing anyone can do about that though. Anyways, Chimecho puts an interesting topic on the table in the briefing - the lake is supposedly home to the legendary Pokemon Uxie, who has the power to wipe memories by opening his eyes (Yes, *his*. Legendaries have genders in this game, at least some of them do). Could this have to do with you? Anyways, since the area is shrouded in such a thick fog, maybe it would help if we can lift this fog. Everyone is off, and we should be, too. Use the Kangaskhan rock if you so wish. Again, there will be two paths - Forest Path is the levelling track, and Foggy Forest is your destination. Dungeon - Forest Path Length - 5 floors Resident Pokemon - Pinsir, Dunsparce, Swinub, Houndour, Linoone, Kricketot My levels upon entry - Seth (15), Pikachu (15) Dungeon - Foggy Forest Length - 11 floors Resident Pokemon - Hoothoot, Skiploom, Dunsparce, Smeargle, Zigzagoon, Pachi- risu (T), Cherubi, Noctowl, Buneary (D), Stantler, Pinsir, Breloom My levels upon entry - Seth (15), Pikachu (15) (Pachirisu is only in Explorer of Time and Buneary is only in Explorer of Dark- ness, hence the (T) and (D).) Whether you choose to move on to Foggy Forest or train in Forest Path, there'll be a scene where your partner finds a shiny red rock. Nobody knows what it's for, but RPG wisdom dictates that it's going to be useful because it's in a but scene, and conventional wisdom tells us that shiny = good. So let's be off! The first thing you'll notice is that Bidoof is no longer with you. The second thing you'll notice is that the dungeon is covered in thick fog, and in PMD2 Fog means electrical attack's effectiveness is cut in halve. If you have a Pikachu, stick to using Quick Attack for the most part unless your target is weak to electric, as Quick Attack will likely do superior damage. Also, I highly recommend you to visit the side path this time at least once. Swinub appears at the path and not again for a while, and this will allow it to be a potential recruit/outlaw target. Swinub is quite easy as an outlaw due to its weakness to all three starter elements, and it's good as a recruit due to learning Powder Snow early. Anyways, out of the local resident, there is something you should actually look out for now - Noctowl can use Sky Attack, which needs a turn to recharge, but when the move hits, it can almost always 1HKO you if you're a grass type, and do severe damage otherwise (Pikachu resists it though). Worse, it has a high critical ratio, which usually will give it that extra oomph needed to 1HKO non- grassers. You can avoid the attack by getting out of the way, but it's not possible to do in hallways without endangering your partner. If you're caught in a situation like that, try to status it. Failing it, never let Noctowl hit first in a hallway, so you can get two hits on it before it can execute Sky Attack, which *should* be enough to KO it. Noctowl can also use Hypnosis, which only serves to give it more turns to Sky Attack you into oblivion. Watch out. The other inhabitants of the dungeon are more forgiving. Buneary in Darkness can hit you with Frustration which does 45 set damage, but aside form that (and Noctowl's Sky Attack) there's nothing that hurts you more than what you've experienced before. Buneary (and Pachirisu in Time) can also use Endure, which in PMD2 lasts several turns to make sure you never take their last HP, which can get annoying. Stantler has several status moves and can hit you with a powerful Stomp; Cherubi has Helping Hand which is more annoying (when there are lots of hostile Pokemon in the room) than harmful. That about sums up the real threats of the dungeon, I think. The dungeon is only 11 floors long, but the floor design is horrible - you will waste a lot of times in loops. Try not to linger around the floors - take the staircase when you see it. Once you're through, you'll be in a clearing with a lot of waterfalls. Where did all the water come from? It's hard to tell with all the fog around. Enter Corphish, who points out some sort of weird statue to you - a statue of Grou- don (though nobody here have even heard of Groudon apparently). Some inscrip- tions on the statue confirm that this statue has to do with the fogbound lake and its many mysteries, but how so? You attempt to get a visionary reading from it, which gives you some dialogue - apparently you need to put some sort of "stone" in Groudon's "heart". Know what stone we're talking about here? Yup, that pretty shiny warm red rock your partner picked up earlier. Put it on and presto, the fog lifts! And with the fog gone, something also made itself quite visible - a plateau, where all the water was coming from. Time to find a way up! Oh wait, we forgot Team Skull. Now that we solved the mysteries, they no longer have any need for us, and now they're ready to execute that instant-kill stink bomb. Yikes. Good thing Wigglytuff just *happens* to stroll in. Enjoy the scene that occurs after - it's so funny I won't spoil it, but you get off scot free, and now have to find a way up. Team Skull, however, has a new target now - Wigglytuff himself! How will Wigglytuff fare? Only time will tell. For now... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10 The Mystery of Fogbound Lake ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You're at the entrance of a dungeon again, with another Kangaskhan rock. Ready yourself up, then enter. There will be no side paths this time, but don't worry - you can still level yourself up if you want to. Pack some Sleep/X-eye Seeds, because a boss fight is coming up. Meanwhile... Back at the Groudon Statue... more funny scenes between Wigglytuff and Team Skull. Team Skull also finally works up the courage to unleash their stink bomb on Wigglytuff! Ouch... Dungeon - Steam Cave + Upper Steam Cave Length - 8 + 7 + Steam Cave Peak Resident Pokemon - Slugma, Snubull, Kricketune, Yanma, Numel, Farfetch'd, Magby, Volbeat, Illumise, Magmar, Granbull, Shuckle. My levels upon entry - Seth (17), Pikachu (17) It's a double dungeon, and the first one you've encountered too. This basically means you get a breather floor somewhere in the middle, where you are auto- matically fully healed. You can also save the game and choose to go back if you so wish. The "upper" part of the dungeon also has different music, and missions in these dungeons only pertain to the lower half of the dungeon. These apply to friend rescue too - if you faint on the upper part of the dungeon, you will NOT be eligible for friend rescues - rather, you will be send back to the relay point, with all your money and half your items gone, and you can choose to either move on or go back to the base of the dungeon to prepare again. Anyways, in the lower half of the dungeon, watch out for Numel mainly - it can hit you with Magnitude, which hits the entire room for damage dependent on the strength of the magnitude. Magnitude 4-5 will probably be just shrugged off, but it can go all the way up to 10, and on the higher scales it can easily 1HKO fire types and Pikachu. Other Pokemon in the dungeon aren't so tough, but they can probably take a STAB attack without dying unless they're weak to the move, so you'll "enjoy" Flame Body on Magby, Magmar and Slugma sometimes. A water type can remove burn by entering a water square, and a fire type is immune to burns, but other Pokemon are not so lucky. Snubull runs away in low health like Dodrio owing to the Run Away ability, so have some geo pebbles ready. While in the interlude floor, you will hear some unidentified roaring. What could it be? Regardless, there is no way to go but up (unless you're like me who lost my reviver seeds due to a Magnitude 10 - don't go up there without reviver seeds, trust me). Oh yeah, and SAVE. This is one place you REALLY want to save. The upper dungeon isn't tough at all, with the Volbeat and Illumise intending more to buff themselves than to actually attack you, and with nobody having dangerous attacks in general. It'll be quite easy to make your way up. Once you ascend the top, you will hear the roaring again! Something is coming! Before that, though, you get to see the guild (without you or Wigglytuff) assembling together, and finding their way up. You will also see team skull, being very so totally pwnt by Wigglytuff. Ha ha. Back at the peak, you will soon find what was roaring at you - Groudon itself! And it does NOT look happy. You will then see the crew again, going through steam cave (watch out for Magnitude, Croagunk!). Chatot will explain the strength of the legendary Groudon, while you get to look at your team facing against the Pokemon equivalent of Colossus himself. Ahh. But this is no time to get scared! Time to fight! Oh, and Chatot sucks at analogies. Big surprise. Boss Battle: Groudon Difficulty: Hard Groudon has Drought, which automatically summons sunny weather. It basically nullifies its water weakness, though grass types are still effective against it (and ice type too, if you have such an attack for some reason). It doesn't actually have a STAB attack (so the Pikachu of your team is safe), but it does have Ancientpower, a rock type attack, to hit your fire types for super effec- tive damage, and it randomly boosts every one of his stats by one (which would pretty much be gg). It can also use Slash, Bulk Up, and Scary Face. Yeah, it's got a good balance of attack and defense with its moveset. Funny how it's ac- tually what a level 30 Groudon would have with their natural moveset anyways, but you should still feel lucky, as if Groudon is even one level less, he will have Mud Shot instead of Bulk Up, which will hurt a LOT more. Oh, and Groudon has some IQ skills, too - Defender cause it to take less damage and deal less in return, though don't expect him to hurt a lot less because of it; Counter- hitter sometimes returns a quarter of the damage you inflict back to yourself, which isn't always severe since Groudon is very defensive, but still watch out for it. ANYWAYS, the trick to fighting Groudon is to deny a chance for him to attack. Inflict him with a status if you can (Thunder Wave works on it, since ground type doesn't totally nullify electric attack in this game) - an X-eye seed is always there if you don't have any moves to inflict status. Once Groudon is under a status, the fight is a lot easier - just keep up the pressure and hit him hard, hopefully before he can recover. Otherwise, I hope you have reviver seeds. Groudon isn't an incredibly difficult boss, owing to that Defender really makes it deal less damage than it could have, and that it's automati- cally slower than normal, but it ain't no walk in the park, either. Remember again - status ailment is your friend. I had Pikachu kept him paralyzed with continous Thunder Wave while I hit him with Fake Out after Fake Out. He didn't get off a lot of attacks at all. After the fight, Groudon... disappears in a burst of light. What the hell? Uxie comes in at this point, and tells you that the Groudon you defeated is merely an illusion projected by Uxie (an illusion that can do everything a real Grou- don can do, apparently). A VERY long cutscene happens afterwards. Basically, Uxie points out that he protects the lake because it hosts an impor- tant MacGauffin - A time gear. The lake itself is a spectacular sight, as well, so I guess Uxie has good benefits for his job. You feel a really weird sensation upon seeing the Time Gear, though. God knows why - Uxie certainly doesn't, since he claims that he can only wipe memories of Fogbound Lake, not EVERYTHING, and he certainly can't (and won't) turn humans to Pokemon. The rest of your guild arrives at this point (Wigglytuff being as funny as always), and now you get to enjoy a spectacular sight, complete with a spectacular back- ground music. Guess treasures don't always have to be material. Anyways, Uxie states that the lake's secret must be kept as, well, a secret, especially in light of what happened recently. Time to go back home! And don't feel bad that you didn't get any treasure, since you get something even better - an expanded bag! Now you can hold 40 items. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.11 Dusknoir ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guess what comes in the morning? Yup. Loudred. And the assembly, of course. Before Chatot can give you your task of the day, though, Loudred and Diglett start arguing because Diglett can't identify a footprint. Turns out the owner of the footprint is Dusknoir (who doesn't HAVE a footprint, to boot), and he wants to visit the guildmaster. So what's the big deal about Dusknoir? Well, apparently he is a REALLY great explorer that knows everything and is so powerful he flies solo. Add in that he basically came out of nowhere, and you got one tough customer. Anyways, Some conversations are exchanged, and Dusknoir announces that he will stay in Trea- sure town for a while. Everyone certainly seems happy about that. Anyways, Chatot finally comes around to give you your work of the day - the two boards. Yay. On the job board, you can now find missions that asks you to explore new dun- geons. Take those ASAP - New dungeons are not that easy to unlock, so the soon- er you get them done, the better. Anyways, there are lots of things you can do in town. Two new shops opened - Chansey's day care and Xatu's Appraisal. Basically, now the missions with ??? as a reward can now give you an egg as well, and when that happens Chansey will take care of it for you, free of charge. Xatu's basically there to open all those boxes you get in dungeons for 150 gold a pop. Also, now that you can open the boxes, take note that the rare species enhancing items you can get are objects that can be swapped with Croagunk. It works like this: If you have two objects that boost the same species, say Shinx Fang and Shinx Claw (note they both have one star on their item description), you can trade them in for a First Crest (which has two stars on its item description). Once you collect another set of one-star rare items, you can trade in those two one- stars PLUS the two-star for a third-star item, which is very hard to come by and provides some sort of major boost to the species in question. Note that Croagunk can access your storage, so simply leave any items you don't need to keep in your storage. Now that you're back from the expedition, you probably have lots to do - open all boxes, sell any unwanted loot to free up storage, and so on. Also, remember to call your other team members again if you're intent on using them. Onwards with your jobs for today! After bedtime, you will see a scene with team skull. They want to get back at Wigglytuff for owning them so badly, but they can't figure out how to beat him, so they resolved to mess you around instead. What a bunch of jerks. The next day... Chatot asks you to run to the Kecleon market and see if they plan on stocking Perfect Apples, because Wigglytuff and the number of perfect apples in the larder don't get along very well. And who should you meet in the market but... Dusknoir! He was having a nice chat with the Kecleon brothers, and you pitch in too - Looks like Kecleon isn't planning on stocking perfect apples. You also see the Marill brothers who inform us that they have been looking for a Water Float (it's a three-star item for Azurill), and someone had reported that it was on the beach. Team Skull jumps in on the information too, however, so it looks like trouble's a-brewing. But first... the report. Chatot isn't too happy to hear the news, but hey, it's not your fault and he knows it. Though, sending you to get perfect apples is out of the question given how you failed rather badly last time. Ah well, he'll take charge of it this time and you will be back to doing bulletin jobs. So do them! Dinner time! But wait, Chatot has another announcement! Another time gear was stolen! Not Uxie's one, though - you remember, don't you? The unguarded one in the underground lake. Chatot reiterates that we must never, ever, tell anyone else of the secret of Fogbound lake. Sounds easy enough to do. In the night, your partner starts talking about the stolen time gears, and then wonders Uxie is doing well. You will then realize that no, Uxie isn't doing well. Grovyle found him, killed his illusion, and took the time gear anyways - though at least he had the decency of not shoving blame on us. The next morning... we have a visitor! Marill and Azurill tell you that, when they went to the beach, they found a threatening note instead of the water float. Apparently, someone (and we all have a very shrewd idea of who) took the water float and placed in the depth of Amp Plains. Amp Plains is home to a lot of electric Pokemon, and Marill and Azurill, being water types, can't even get anywhere close to it. Of course, it's up to you to help, even if you are a water type. Restock and stuff in town. If you have Totter Orb, Foe-Fear Orb, Foe-Seal Orb, or some similar orb that disables an entire room, you might want to bring one or three. Also try to ready a move that can hit the entire room. Vacuum Cut is the only one you can legitimately get at this point, I think - it's a bit on the weak side, but it will do. Dungeon - Amp Plains + Far Amp Plains Length - 10 + 9 + Amp Plains Clearing Resident Pokemon - Elekid, Phanpy, Mareep, Plsule, Shinx, Girafarig, Flaffy, Yanmega, Minun (Far Amp Plains) - Electrike, Ampharos, Flaffy, Dodrio, Tauros, Electabuzz My levels upon entry - Seth (19), Pikachu (20) Yup, lots of electric types about, so expect paralyze. One thing you should realize, though, is that Amp Plains in the first dungeon where it's possible to encounter traps - well, sort of. Wonder Tile is a kind of trap, but it's mostly helpful and always visible, and is only classified as a trap for the purpose of some trap-centric IQ skills. Real traps are invisible till you step on them, and they do all sorts of nasty things. Watch out. Amp Plains is also the first dungeon to potentially home MONSTER HOUSES. They are rooms with quite a bit of items inside, but as soon as you step in, a crap- load of Pokemon drop in out of nowhere and starts beating you up. Now, you should know that while killing a couple of Pokemon is no big deal, it IS a big deal when you have 15 Pokemon all rushing at you. That's why I told you to carry room-control moves and orbs - with those you can disable the monster house Pokemon, and more or less beat them up at your leisure. If you don't have those orbs (left), then... I guess you'll have to tough it out. Hopefully you have reviver seeds. Also, if you suspect a room may be a monster house before entering it, try using the "Stay where you are" tactics for your teammates in the middle of the hallway leading to it. This way, if the room turns out to be a house, you can quickly retreat in the hallway and handle the threat one by one. As far as residents go, the only really dangerous attack here is Phanpy's Roll- out, since it will continue to hit you, with each hit being stronger than the last, until one hit misses or five hits have been registered. Like all multihit moves, Rollout has poor accuracy, but like all multi-hit moves, if it hits you are in for a world of pain. Try to avoid giving Phanpy the chance to unleash its fury on you. Otherwise, several things here knows Thunder Wave which is annoying, but none of the things here have overly dangerous attacks. Ability- wise, Shinx has Intimidate so physical hits don't work well on them, and a bunch of things have Static. Try to use special-based moves if possible. Plusle and Minun can use Helping Hand, which just SUCKS in a monster house (have fun waiting two minutes for all the messages to finish showing), but isn't really much of a threat. You get a breather in the middle of the dungeon. Meanwhile, at the treasure town, the Marill brothers are spreading good words about you, and good words have reached Dusknoir's ears. However, Dusknoir knows something else no one had known so far - you are now in grave danger! What the hell? Well, let's stay in character - your team has no idea of whatever danger you're putting yourself in, so just march onward! Nothing much dangerous in the upper floors, either. Dodrio is a nuisance with Pluck - if hits you, it will randomly eat a food from your inventory, and woe betide you if it eat a violent seed or something like that, or it can just infuriate you by eating a valuable reviver seed. Otherwise, mostly the same as you have seen before. Electrike has Lightningrod, which nullifies all elec- tric attacks coming from you as long as it and your electric user is on the same floor. At the top of the clearing, you will see the water float, but then you get attacked, by Luxray and his tribe of Luxio. Damn. Boss Fight: Luxray + 7 Luxio Difficulty: Very hard There are EIGHT opponents to bring down this time, and since it's a boss floor no orbs for you. If you brought a level 17+ Paras like me, though, then you'll be in luck - Spore is basically a Slumber Orb that can be used here, turning this normally menacing fight into more or less of a joke. However, chances are you don't. Anyways, Park Luxray out of the fight ASAP with some sort of status (hopefully in the form of a seed), then wail on the Luxio. They can hurt you a lot when they're together, but as you kill them one by one you'll be safer. When it's finally just Luxray left, then just treat it as a normal outlaw fight as Luxray isn't incredibly tough by himself, since his only real damaging move is Bite, which has no STAB and hits no one for Super-effective damage (unless you happen to have a Girafarig here...) Anything that can use Mud Sport is helpful here, too, to soften the STAB Sparks the Luxio fling your way. After the fight, looks like Luxray is merely down, not out - he charges up and prepares some sort of attack on you, but Dusknoir comes at the nick of the time and blocks the assault. He then exchange words with Luxray, who is finally convinced that you aren't here to grab their territory, and retreats. So, Amp Plains is a place where Luxray and his tribe likes, but since once upon a time they were attacked without warning, they become very xenophobic. Anyways, now you can claim the water float. How did it get here, though? Dusknoir points out that "someone" had put it there deliberately, and that "someone" also happens to be nearby. I think you should know who is that someone by now, but the game tells you anyways. Team Skull shows up, and Dusknoir challenges them, but to no avail - Team Skull is quite good at, er, "Skedaddling". Ah well, you got the Marill brother their items back; you conquered a difficult dungeon; you're happy; everyone's happy. Anyways, back at the town, the topic somehow shifts to your vision abilities. Dusknoir calls the ability the "dimensional scream" (a weird name for certain), and then you'll be at the beach, with you telling Dusknoir of your past. Dusk- noir acts somewhat weirdly at this point, but he says he doesn't know anything about you. Suddenly, Pelliper start flying around, and Bidoof comes out to call you back to the guild, because there's an important announcement. I think we know what it is, already... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.12 Grovyle the Thief ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yup, another time gear was stolen, and we all know which time gear that was - it's the one from Uxie in the Fogbound Lake! Everyone's in a state of panic and confusion. Also, everyone now knows a Grovyle had did it. Wigglytuff gets majorly upset and pissed by this, anyways, and now the guild's objective is now to catch Grovyle, and now we must prepare to set out to catch him. Don't worry, this is not another expedition, at least not like the last one. You just get more storyline dungeons to do is all. Anyways, once you're done "preparing", go back to the guild. Chatot will assign the guild to several locations: Eastern Forest, Crystal Caves, and (for us) Northern Desert. Note how Crystal Caves and Northern Desert are in a different colour, yet the Eastern Forest isn't? Anyways, You ARE allowed to go off and do jobs and stuff like usual if you feel the need. I don't, so I'm heading straight for Northern Desert. You can stop by the crossroads, though - Looks like Dugtrio has wandered off on his own. If you go all the way west past the town, you will find Dugtrio apparently PRAYING to the SEA. Funny. Dungeon - Northern Desert Length - 16 Resident Pokemon - Aron, Baltoy, Cacnea, Cacturne, Carnivine, Cubone, Lairon, Larvitar, Rhyhorn, Sandshrew, Trapinch My levels upon entry - Seth (23), Pikachu (23) Sandstorm rages in floor 6, 10, 11 Yeah. There are sandstorm on some floors, and the only resident Pokemon that takes damage from it is Carnivine (What the hell is Carnivine doing here any- ways? It's a swamp Pokemon for God's sakes). A bunch of things here also have Sand Veil to boost their evasion in the sand, and it is VERY infuriating to try and kill those Pokemon (Cacnea, Cacturne, Sandshrew). In terms of attack, though, there aren't that many things that can hurt you well. Sandshrew has Fury Attack and Cacnea/Cacturne have Pin Missile, and while they don't get STAB on them both can stay around long enough in the sand to annoy you a lot with those moves. On higher up floors Sandshrew can also use Rollout, though it tends to be slightly less effective than Fury Attack unless it hits a weakness. Anyways, this dungeon is quite taxing on your resources due to sandstorm and multi-hit moves everywhere, yet for the most part it is a taste of what is to come. If you can't handle Northern Desert, you should probably level up some more before heading to the next dungeon. At the end, you will see pits of Quicksand. Obviously there is nothing here, but not so obviously you have the same deja-vu sensation here as the one you had back in foggy forest. We'll figure that out later though, because death by quicksand is not something we want to experience right now. Back at the guild, looks like everyone else have turned up empty-handed except Bidoof, who grabbed a chunk of crystal as a piece of souvenir. After a bit of a blame game, it's decided that we have to wait until tomorrow to devise a better strategy or something. Next morning... Chatot asks everyone to search on their own. However, where should we go? You decided to expand on your sense of deja vu, so off to Quick- sand Desert we go! Don't worry, you don't need to go through Northern Desert again. Now, you and your partner stands before the quicksand again. There appears to be no route forward, but then you came up with a crazy idea - jump into the quick- sand pits! Your partner took that unbelievably well, and the plan is put in motion. And of course, instead of drowning in quicksand, you find out that the pits leads to a dungeon instead. Dungeon - Quicksand Caves + Quicksand Cave Pit + Underground Lake Length - 10 + 10 Resident Pokemon - Sandslash, Pupitar, Nincada, Vibrava, Skorupi, Mawile (Quicksand Cave Pit) - Sandslash, Pupitar, Skorupi, Mawile, Tyranitar, Hippo- potas, Ninjask My levels upon entry - Seth (25), Pikachu (25). Yes, it's another sand dungeon. The top ten floors is very easy, since there is no natural sandstorm, and though Pupitar can start one with the move Sandstorm, its duration is limited. Skorupi can fire those Pin Missiles, however, and it (unlike Cacnea and Cacturne) receives STAB on the move, so they hurt a lot more. Sandslash can use Fury Swipes as well, and Mawile, though being no threat on their own, can use Sweet Scent to make Pin Missile and Fury Swipes hit more accurately on you - seek a wonder tile as soon as possible after taking Sweet Scent. Past the relay point, however, things get MUCH harder. Sandstorm is there on almost every floor due to the fact that Hippopotas and Tyranitar both have Sand Stream, which automatically starts a sandstorm. Sandslash is the only Sand Veiler around, but in a sandstorm they can be nightmarishly difficult to take down. Good luck here. Once you make it to the bottom, you will find... an underground lake, with something glowing in the middle. It's a time gear! However, as soon as you try get close, Mesprit jumps out of the lake! And she attacks! Boss Battle: Mesprit Difficulty: Easy Mesprit is more annoying than she is harmful. She has STAB confusion which does sting a bit, but she tends to try and set her damage with Future Sight, which turns her damage to 30 only. She does, however, have Protect and Imprison, two annoying moves that restricts your ability to attack. Status ailment is your friend (again), and beyond that, she's not so tough - just heal and trade blows with her. she'll go down soon. After the fight, you finally got to around that you're not the thief. Who is the thief, then? "That would probably be... me". Yup, Grovyle's here. And here you have been spending so much energy fighting each other, you don't stand a snowball's chance in burning hell against him. He knocks all of you aside rather effortlessly, and takes the time gear! Oh no! And remember kids, when a time gear is taken, time stops. Better runs before we're trapped in the still time! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.13 The Only Option ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back at the guild, more discussions. We found Grovyle, but fat good it did us now that he took the time gear and we're back in square one. We do have an additional clue now - if Uxie and Mesprit are guarding two of the time gears, who do you think will be guarding the final time gear? Also, think about where those three were found in the main games. It makes sense that that Azelf will be in a lake as well. But where is that lake? Most likely not somewhere obvious given how well hidden Fogbound Lake and the Quicksand Lake (named by me!) are. Anyways, Dusknoir borrows Bidoof's crystal so you may try to get a Dimensional Scream reading on it. And a reading you obtained, as well - You see Grovyle stealing the time gear from Azelf! Yikes! Well, it could have happened in the past (in which we're all too late, and we should all just eat and drink and be merry for we die tomorrow), or it could have been something that happens in the future (in which case we must go now to see what we can do, which we probably can since the vision doesn't involve us getting our asses kicked again). Also, since Mesprit knew about Uxie's time gear being stolen, but none of them heard anything about Azelf's time gear being stolen... it's probably something that happened in the future. So, our next destination: Crystal Caves! Now all that remains is for the guildmaster to give the call to duty, except... the next scene is just for fun, and you get to see Chatot being pwnt too. Anyways, do your usual preparation and then go in Crystal Caves. Dungeon - Crystal Cave + Crystal Crossing + Crystal Lake Length - 11 + 13 Resident Pokemon - Graveler, Seviper, Beldum, Wormadam(Sand), Riolu(T), Cran- idos, Donphan, Shieldon, Golem (Crystal Crossing) - Bagon, Wormadam(Grass), Floatzel, Glameow, Absol, Glalie, Froslass(After completing Mystifying Forest) My levels upon entry - Seth (27), Pikachu (27). Crystal Caves is quite a long dungeon, but there is no sandstorm or overly difficult to bring down foes, so you're lucky off on this part. As far as move- set goes, Wormadam can use Protect to annoy you, and Graveler/Golem can use Selfdestruct - it doesn't faint itself, however, just deals damage to both it- self and everyone around, and quite heavy damage too, plus it blasts open walls (cool) and destroys unclaimed items (not so cool). Other than that, nothing much to worry about on the top part except Golem - STAB Rock Blast, STAB Magni- tude, STAB Rollout, the aforementioned Selfdestruct - All makes it a mean opponent. Weakness to water and grass means it will go down rather quickly if you have those moves, but if you don't - watch out. At the relay point, you have to solve a small puzzle of sorts. There are three crystals which you have to change into the correct colour, but since the puzzle is so bland I'll just give you the answer - change 'em all blue. Note that the statue in THIS relay point can be used to check storage too - might want to make use of that. Anyways, time to move on! The next part of the dungeon isn't as dangerous as it is annoying. Nothing here has much killing power, but you will see LOTs of Absol, and they will eat up your PP VERY quickly with Pressure. Other than that, nothing much to say because it's such an easy dungeon. You'll make it to the end in no time. At the end, you'll see another lake, and you'll see Grovyle, who is just done with Azelf. However, Azelf realized he *could* get his butt kicked (heh heh), and he set up a failsafe security system - he covered the lake with crystals and now Grovyle can't get to the time gear! Grovyle gets REALLY pissed off by this, but before he can do anything bad to Azelf you come along. Grovyle orders you to move out of the way, but you don't, so it's time for a boss battle! Boss Battle - Grovyle Difficulty - Somewhat hard Keep in mind that you don't have to win the battle - even if you win, Grovyle will knock you out in the following scene. That being said, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to win the battle. Grovyle is pretty powerful, yes - Leaf Blade hurts a ton and can easily 1HKO water types, but he is still sus- ceptible to status attacks, and he isn't incredibly tough. He is a good deal harder than Mesprit, yes, but he'll go down quickly as long as you keep him asleep or paralyzed or the like. Regardless of whether you win or lose the battle, Grovyle will knock you out, and your partner refuses to get out of his way even after losing. Just as he is about to get seriously injured/killed, Dusknoir pops out and saves you. He exchanges words with Grovyle (revealing that those two knew each other from before), and in the ensuing fight Grovyle teleports off. Dusknoir then tele- ports off too, hot in pursuit. The rest of the guild arrives at this point, and carries you all back to guild to heal. At the guild, you are nursed back to health and everyone is happy about it. Azelf is alright too. Before you can talk too much, though, Magnezone issues an emergency call for everyone to go to the town square. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14 Dusknoir's Secret ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the town square, the lake trio reunites, and Dusknoir calls everyone because he has an announcement. And the announcement goes something like this: -Grovyle is a Pokemon from the future, and what's more - he is a notorious criminal. He comes to the past to paralyze the world. -A world that is paralyzed is BAD. It will basically fall to a world of "unre- lenting darkness, and neither spring nor summer comes. (I guess the world will only paralyze in a winter night?) -Dusknoir, too, is a Pokemon from the future. That's how he got to know Grovyle and all the knowledge of this world. He is here to capture Grovyle. -The plan to capture Grovyle now is to lay a trap. Spread rumours that the lake trio is sealing the last time gear so it may never be taken, and then lay an ambush. -Dusknoir wants to work alone for this part, so everyone else (that includes you) will simply go back to their daily schedules, while spreading the rumour where possible. -Your daily schedule = job board time. I trust you can handle jobs on your own by now. You will have to do two days worth of jobs. On the third day... There will be another announcement. Dusknoir had CAPTURED GROVYLE! Woot. There is a dimensional hole in the town square, and Dusknoir and his Sableye send Grovyle into it. He entrusts the lake trio with the time gears, then says fare- well to everyone. Before he goes, however, he wants to talk to two Pokemon in particular - you and your partner. It is sad, but we must say farewell and move on. A bittersweet ending. ... ... ... ... Did you fall for that? No? Good. Dusknoir grabs the two of you into the hole. What just happened? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.15 Into the future ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, I'm sure you all have a million questions in your mind (assuming this is your first play through), but they will all be answered in due time. For now, you are locked in a cell, as a quick test on the gate will confirm. There is a sufficient amount of facts to ascertain that we are in the future. But why are we here? Why did Dusknoir drag us here? Before you can think about it more, Some Sableye enters and blindfold you, and by the time you regain your sight, both you and your partner found yourself incarcerated on poles. You're not the only ones that are here, though - Grovyle is here too! And he brings news most dire - we are about to be EXECUTED. But... why are WE getting executed along with Grovyle? We didn't do anything wrong. Arguing won't do us any good though, because at this moment six Sableye will enter, and so will Dusknoir. And indeed your execution is called. What can we do in this hopeless situation? The answer is to... attack. That is, to use a normal attack. Anyways, Sableye attack with Fury Swipes, and knowing how inaccurate multi-hit moves are, they will likely slash open the ropes amidst their frenzy, and THAT is where you use your normal attack to get an opening. Everything is still cutscene, BTW, so you (the player behind the screen) don't have to lift a finger. And the plan works! All three of you get a moment of respite, and instantly Grovyle lets loose a Luminous Orb, blinding the ghost type Pokemon. When the light dissipates, you guys are gone! They run out to chase you away, but it turns out that Grovyle simply used Dig to hide you guys. We're not out of the woods yet, though - we must run. Soon, you'll find yourself outside wherever you were in, and now you get to bask in the full glory(?) that is the future. But... how can it be? The world is... paralyzed. No time to mull over it, though - Sableye are still chasing us and we gotta RUN. Soon you'll find yourself in the entrance of a dungeon. Your partner expresses his doubts on Grovyle at this point, but Dusknoir's actions are VERY highly incoherent. Grovyle is too cool to waste his time with the likes of you, so he goes off ahead while you figure out what's going on. Oops, you still don't have time to mull it over. Better get in the dungeon and get a move on. Oh yeah, the future is basically expedition Mk. 2. Again, there's a series of dungeon where you must go through without access to your town. Those Kangaskhan rocks are still there, though - and yeah. The rocks care neither space nor time and you will be able to access the storage you had in the PAST. What kind of rocks are those things? Anyways, you will not be able to recruit in the future dungeons (obviously), and you cannot revisit these dungeons once your errands here are done - except on friend rescues. These dungeons also don't have side paths, so I hope you're tough to survive them... Though I guess there's always the option of going without equipments so you don't lose any. Dungeon - Chasm Cave Length - 8 Resident Pokemon - Magnemite, Ditto, Skarmory, Grumpig, Onix, Drifloon, Drif- blim My levels upon entry - Seth (30), Pikachu (30) Ditto can transform into any Pokemon in the dungeon, but it has no PP on their moves apparently so it will simply Struggle, and for some reason those Struggle HURTS. Aside from that, there's nothing much to worry about in the dungeon. Grumpig's ability halves fire and ice damage though - keep that in mind. Also, Drifloon and Drifblim has aftermath, which causes it to explode when defeated, so keep your HP high around them or finish them off with a ranged move. The most interesting feature of this dungeon is its floor layout. Most of the floors are designed something like this: room room | | room---------------------------room | | room---------------------------room | | room room Kind of like a star shaped floor. It's VERY time consuming to walk through it, and with the fact that hallways and rooms are surrounded by air tiles (most of the pokes here can travel in air tiles), you'll get annoyed rather quickly. Try to stick to the edges when you search the rooms. And yeah, even though Chasm Cave only has eight floors, it can take a while to traverse through due to this floor layout. Once you hit the end, you'll be in a clearing. There's a frozen water fountain here. Your partner had the bright idea of trying to get a scream reading off it, but you weren't able to get anything off it. Too bad. Better move on before the Sableye catch up. Dungeon - Dark Hills Length - 15 Resident Pokemon - Banette, Claydol, Dusclops, Gastly, Gengar, Gliscor, Haunt- er, Misdreavus My levels upon entry - Seth (30), Pikachu (30) Lots of ghost types. LOTS and LOTS of ghost types. Ghost types are unlike other types in that they can automatically travel INSIDE WALLS, and they cannot be hit while they're inside it. If a ghost type starts attacking you from inside a wall, you have no choice but to draw them out of it by moving on. It's really annoying. Add in Dusclops's Pressure and you got a seriously annoying dungeon that rivals Quicksand Cave Pits. As far as attacks are concerned none of them are life-endangering, but since they are liable to get free hit on you from inside walls they can add up. Watch your HP and don't be afraid to use items. Dark and Ghost types rock in this dungeon if you have them, but they tend to be limited in PP, and with Dusclops flying around you won't be able to use them too many times without having to use several Max Elixirs. Thankfully, the dungeon layout is a lot more straight forward and less time wasting, so you will be able to get by rather easily. Don't stick around to look for items - just get through as quickly as possible. At the end of the path, your partner and you will wonder what to do next. After all, you have ran this far because you fear for your life... but where do we go in this world of darkness? The only light you see is from... the stockade. Is that the only light in this dark post-apocalyptic world? Surely not. But where is our hope? There will be some talking. It doesn't matter what you pick in the dialogue, as there is only one logical conclusion: find Grovyle. After all, Dusknoir and Grovyle are the only Pokemon you know in the future, and with Dusknoir so in- tent on getting rid of you, Grovyle is your only hope left. Despite the evil he had done in the past/present, he is only Pokemon who can even possibly get us out of this jam. Now you move on, with a new resolve. You'll be outside yet another dungeon. There will be a boss battle in the end. It's not a overwhelmingly difficult battle, but still, pack accordingly. Dungeon - Sealed Ruins + Deep Sealed Ruins + Sealed Ruins Pit Length - 8 + 6 + Resident Pokemon - Muk, Forretress, Shelgon, Metang, Tangrowth, Probopass My levels upon entry - Seth (31), Pikachu (31) Not much to worry about here from the residents - none of them have spectacular attack OR defense. Shelgon is a bit tough to take down and that's about it. Also, with simplistic floor layout, this is one of the easier dungeons in the future. Also, the upper dungeons have the same Pokemon as the lower dungeon, for some reasons, so you'll still have an easy time up there. At the relay point, you will see Grovyle, who is ahead of you. However, he ran into a bit of a trouble with a Spiritomb... similar to the trouble we ran into with Luxray back then. Guess it's our turn to do the rescuing? At the bottom, you will see Grovyle, who is surrounded in some sort of weird force field. He warns us of the location of the Spiritomb so it can't use a sneak attack on us. Ah well, time to fight! Boss Battle: Spiritomb Difficulty: Average Spiritomb has a couple of tricks up its sleeves - It can utilize the Hypnosis/ Dream Eater Combo to do a lot of damage plus heal itself, and it can also use Ominous Wind to hit both your Pokemon for a sizable chunk of damage PLUS boost its own stats at a certain rate. It is just as vulnerable to status attacks, however. Also, keep in mind that it has no type weaknesses, but it DOES have resistances ("immunity" to normal, fighting, psychic and resistance to poison), so turn off your partner's normal/fighting/psychic moves. Not an overly diffi- cult fight, but if you allow him to get off attacks you CAN get in trouble. Afterwards, Grovyle explains that the Spiritomb is normally a timid Pokemon that was merely frightened of you (and Grovyle himself) trespassing near him, and lost control of itself, and that Pokemon like Spiritomb is common in the future. Now, it's time for Grovyle to 'fess up, about himself, the world, and his intention in the past. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16 The Secret of the Planet's Paralysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Grovyle's version of the story: -The planet's paralysis started in the past (your time), when the Temporal Tower, Dialga's domain, collapsed. -With the collapse of the Temporal Tower, the time went out of whack and even- tually stopped. -Dialga, whose fate is tied with the Temporal Tower, also lost most of his reasoning. Now, he is a mere shadow of his former self - a being that feels no emotion, outside of his own self preservation. Thus, he seeks to prevent the history from changing. -That's why Grovyle and Dialga is at odds, because Grovyle wants to set right what once went wrong. Dusknoir is an agent of the new Primal Dialga, sent to the past (your present) to stop Grovyle. -Grovyle was taking the time gears only because he needs to put them in the Temporal Tower, to fix the ROOT of the problem. It's his badass attitude that misguided people. -Grovyle will go back to the past again - with the help of Celebi. Your partner found it REALLY hard to believe that Dusknoir is a villain, and struggles with himself. Grovyle apparently has no interest in helping him sort out his emotions, but you will eventually have decided to trust Grovyle and follow him. Meanwhile, you get to see Dusknoir and Primal Dialga again. Apparently, the stage is set and now the main players (you) just have to walk in, and they will capture you! We'll see about that. Now, you re in front of another dungeon. You may recognize this place as the future of your base camp back at the expedition, so I guess Dusk Forest here is the future version of Foggy Forest. Anyways, save, prepare, whatever, then enter. Dungeon - Dusk Forest Length - 8 Resident Pokemon - Gabite, Jumpluff, Mismagius, Mothim My levels upon entry - Seth (33), Pikachu (33) Lol, a dungeon with 4 types of Pokemon. Anyways, for the dungeon you will have the help of Grovyle who is level 46(!), with a moveset of Absorb, Quick Attack, Leaf Blade, Dig. He kind of lacks range, but unlike Bidoof (or those pesky escorts...) he can take out all sort of crap by himself, and is not running danger of being KO'd any time soon. A great ally to have around indeed - if he is behind you instead of your partner and you run into trouble, displace him and let 'im fly. Anyways, the dungeon doesn't have foggy weather like Foggy Forest, so your electric moves are safe. The residents here don't hit too hard so you're pretty safe, though Mismagius being a ghost type can travel through walls. Jumpluff can hit with STAB bullet seed, so watch out for that too. The dungeon is rather short, and with Grovyle around you're not going to have a hard time killing things. At the end of the dungeon, you will meet Celebi herself. She is quite a funny gal, and provides some much needed comic relief in the series of events, so I won't spoil the scene. Anyways, our next destination is to march on, so Celebi can teleport us back to the past. Celebi seems to know something weird about you that nobody else realizes, though... but she shrugs it off. So, yeah. Prepare, save, whatever. Oh and, make sure you talk to Celebi before you enter the dungeon! Dungeon - Deep Dusk Forest Length - 12 Resident Pokemon - Vulpix, Rhydon, Steelix, Aggron, Leafeon, Hippowdon My levels upon entry - Seth (33), Pikachu (33) Wow. As if travelling with a level 46 Grovyle is not easy enough, we now have an ADDITIONAL level 45 Celebi. Celebi can use Magical Leaf and Ancientpower to attack, Heal Bell to cure status for the entire team, and Recover to, well, recover her own HP (not that she needs to, but hey...). Given that Magical Leaf is ranged and hit half the dungeon for super effective damage... As for the residents, Rhydon can hit you with STAB Rock Blast and... that's about it. Nothing hard here, though Hippowdon has Sand Stream and can be annoying. At the top of the forest, you see the passage of time. But then, Dusknoir shows up in front you to block your progress. Looks like there's no other choice... we must fight! Oh wait, Dialga is here too. Crap. We're screwed now. But hope is still alive, or so says Grovyle - for a human travelled with him the first time he went in the past! There was an accident that separated the human and Grovyle, but the human must still be in the past, working diligently to stop the planet's paralysis. Who is that human, you (or rather, Dusknoir) asks? It is none other than [your starter's name]! ... ... ... WAIT. WTF? But you're right here! Dusknoir steps in now. He knew for a long time that you was Grovyle's partner, and though he does not know how you came to be, your amnesia made it quite easy for Dusknoir to manipulate you. So, this is the grand plan for Dusknoir - to trash your hope in the end. Despair doesn't get much better than this. Your partner isn't about to give up, though - Celebi, take us and travel even for a short while in time! Never mind that Dialga is here and will laugh at any puny attempt to mess with time (the passage of time is not puny so Dialga can't laugh at it), it's enough for you to get an opening and get in the passage. Good job, partner. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17 A New Dawn ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You wake up on the same beach you woke up so long ago. Grovyle is there, too - looks like THIS attempt at time travel went off without a hitch. Anyways, we need a place to crash and talk, and Wigglytuff��s guild is an obvious location for that but... remember, Grovyle is with you. How will he be received in the guild? Not very well we'd think. Good thing your partner has a plan B - there's a place where he lived in before he joined the guild, to the west of the town (that's where you saw Dugtrio praying to the sea). That will do for now. During the night, Grovyle will talk about Seth, his Dimensional Scream, and so on. It definitely solves a good past of the puzzle about your and Grovyle's past, but not all questions are answered. For now, though, we should rest up, for we still have to finish the task - get the time gears again, and put them in the temporal tower. SO, where to go first? Underground lake is the closest one, but Grovyle suggests to go after the one in Treeshroud Forest first (the place where Grovyle got the first time gear), since there is no guardian to that one. So, off to Treeshroud forest we go! Yeah, even though we're back in the past/present, we still don't have access to the town yet, so there's another Kangaskhan rock and a chance to get ready. Grovyle says that this place feels different somehow, but he can't pinpoint the reason, so let's see if we can find out anything about it. Dungeon - Treeshroud Forest Length - 20 Resident Pokemon - Kadabra, Houndoom, Ralts, Cherrim, Kirlia, Vespiqueen, Ala- kazam, Ninetails My levels upon entry - Seth (34), Pikachu (34) Treeshroud forest is REALLY long. 20 floors without savepoints, and the floor design isn't exactly simple either. You still have Grovyle, but the difficulty of the dungeon will take a toll on you. Make sure you carry a lot of supplies and an Escape Orb. The inhabitants of the dungeon can be taxing for you, as well - Vespiqueen has Pressure, the ability you've grown to know and hate. Ralts and Kirlia can use Double Team, and if they get a chance to spam it more than a couple times it gets really ridiculous. Worst of all, is Cherrim - Aside from all the status moves Grass types tend to get, Cherrim can use Sunny Day to trigger its ability to boost special attack for EVERY hostile Pokemon nearby, then hit you with a super powerful Petal Dance. It's another multi-hit move so it has poor accu- racy, but it's REALLY strong, and if all three hits register while Cherrim is boosted by Flower Gift, it spells death if you're a water type or have taken any amount of prior damage. Sunny Day will also boost the fire moves Houndoom use, which is bad for grass types as well (even Grovyle can take a beating from abuse like this). Thankfully, Cherrim only appears on the lower floors, but don't let you guard down around them. Once you hit the end, you will find out that... for some reason, time REMAINED stopped, even though the time gear is there. Grovyle takes the time gear (as it is pretty useless sitting there right now), and asks your partner to gather some news around town (while laying low). The news are... not very good. Appar- ently, time is stopping in an ever increasing area and everyone is upset be- cause they don't know what went wrong. Grovyle says that it's because the Tem- poral Tower is already collapsing. We better act soon! One problem, however, still exists: The temporal tower is supposedly in a place called Hidden Land, which is aptly hidden. Where is it? Nobody knows. Grovyle doesn't, but we need to find it as soon as possible. Thus, Grovyle will be off to collect more time gears, while you go figure out how to reach Hidden Land. Yeah, Grovyle shoved the hard task on you - at least he know where he's going; you don't have a clue what to do. What to do? Hmm, you can't figure out how to get there on our own. You need everyone's help. You make the decision to go back to Wigglytuff's guild. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.18 The Guild's Crew ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's just like the first day - the weather looks the same, and you're outside the guild again. How will they accept you? You don't know, but you NEED their help - there is no choice, and nothing to back away to. Diglett: Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected! Loudred: Whose footprint? Whose footprint? Diglett: The footprint belongs to... The f-f-footprint belongs to... It's a very touching scene. Everyone practically floods out of the guild to greet you, and then Wigglytuff appears, acting surprisingly mature. You are welcomed back with open arms! Inside the guild, as expected, your story makes quite an impact. Chatot gives a fairly amusing summary of your story up to this point, and as expected, ev- eryone doubts the veracity of your story at first. However, eventually Dusk- noir's unusual behaviour in the end got brought up, and the guild chose to believe you. It's quite touching, again. Chatot is isolated quickly, and had to basically get rescued By Wigglytuff. Anyways, it's a good idea that we chose to rely on everyone rather than ourselves - not only do we now have everyone's help on Hidden Land, we also just made Grovyle's job a good deal easier and less violent by giving the lake trio as well as everyone else a heads up on the new info. See? Being a badass loner is not always better. Remember kids! Anyways, Wigglytuff has a suggestion for us - talk to Torkoal, the town elder, because he is the oldest and wisest Pokemon in town. He usually hangs out in the hot springs, and we got there by climbing waterfall caves, so we will be going there again from the caves, basically. However, for now, it's late, so let's eat! Next morning... Loudred again. Yup, we're fully back! And you can now access the town in its full glory, as well (no longer do I have to worry about the 20k coins or so I've gathered from the future). Do some missions if you like, then go through Waterfall Caves again - note that you can not do any jobs on your trip though. Seeing that you went through the dungeon just fine when you were 25 levels younger, I dare say that you'll have no problems traversing through it again. At the hot spring, talk to Torkoal. He responds that yes, he have heard of Hidden Land, and to enter there you need qualifications. What qualifications? Err...um...he forgot. Oh wait, he just remembered - you need proof. What proof? Err...um...he forgot again. Lol. Well, too bad. We better go back. At the guild, there's no good news about hidden land, but everyone remain as perky as ever. Dinner, bed. Morning comes, and before you can go anywhere, Torkoal pays you a visit! And he remembered something about the proof you need! Apparently, it has a "certain pattern" of inscription on it. It's very... unique, though, and really hard to describe. It doesn't take long to figure out that your partner's Relic Fragment bears an inscription that fits the bill perfectly. Your partner shows Torkoal the fragment and lo' and behold, the pattern fits! What's more, Wigglytuff and Chatot had seen the pattern before! Wow. The pattern was see in a place called Brine Cave. However, a vicious bandit lurks there, so it's not going to be exactly easy. The thought of the bandit isn't enough to scare everyone, though. Wigglytuff and Chatot speaks a bit based on their past experience in the cave (in other words, you have no idea what the hell are they talking about), and Chatot gets assigned to your team! So, as it stands, your non-guild members may not go along, and you will be teamed up with Chatot. The pressure... Anyways, you're sent to prepare yourself. Before you can arrive in town, you get to see a scene with team skull coercing Torkoal. Anyways, now to prepare yourselves! Before you can leave town, your partner calls you to check out Sharpedo Bluff to see if Grovyle came back yet. Turns out he didn't, but he left you a letter. He seems appreciative of your non-badass loner attitude, and told you that he will either meet you in the bluff or in the beach. Let's go check out the beach! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.19 Lapras ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grovyle isn't in the beach, and for some reason neither are the bubble blowing Krabby that are normally supposed to be here. You two do some reminiscing - it's the relic fragment that started your team and adventurers, and now we've gone full circle back to the fragment again. Before you go back, you get to see the faint outline of a Lapras swimming through the sea, though your team (Being the ignorant louts they are) don't know what it is. You also get to see more Team Skull plotting - looks like THEIR adventure had came full circle too. Remember how your first adventure started because team skull stole the relic fragment? They're planning on doing that again. In the night, you get to see more memory-based conversation, this time between Wigglytuff and the Lapras you saw earlier. Whatever the conversation may be, it kept Wigglytuff from going back to the guild in the morning, apparently. Chatot is ready to take charge of the matter, but everyone else isn't so sure about him doing that... initially. There is no other choice, though - for now, Chatot will lead us. At the entrance of Brine Cave, Chatot gives us a briefing. Everyone wonders how Chatot knows so much about the dungeon - did he come here before? The answer is yes, he did. However, he can't tell us anything about the "vicious bandit" because he got knocked out so quick, he didn't get ANY information on them, other than that they're most likely water types. Wait... they? Yeah, there's more than ONE of them. Ruh-roh. Anyways, it's too dangerous to face unknown foes alone, so groups will be formed, and of course Chatot will be with you as per Wigglytuff's command. Let's go! Oh and, Team Skull will be following. Bah. Dungeon - Brine Cave + Brine Cave Pit Length - 9 + 5 Resident Pokemon - Seel, Kingler, Omanyte, Pelipper, Gastrodon, Tentacool, Dew- gong, Staryu, Dragonair (Brine Cave Pit) - Gastrodon, Tentacool, Dewgong, Staryu, Dragonair, Walrein My levels upon entry - Seth (36), Pikachu (36) It's been a while since you had a good water dungeon, no? This place almost feels something like Craggy Coast Mk 2. None of the enemies here are overly dangerous, though they do have good STAB attacks - water will hurt your fire types badly, ice will hurt your grass, and there are some other assortment of attacks too like Tentacool's Poison Jab and Gastrodon's Mud Bomb. Speaking of Gastrodon, it absorbs water attack as usual per Storm Drain, so refrain from using water attacks. Watch out for Brine from Dewgong, Omanyte and Seel though, as they do double damage when your HP is down to half, which is enough to 1HKO at that point. You will have Chatot in the dungeon with you. Chatot is at level 36, and he knows Peck, Fury Attack, Roost, and the very broken Mirror Move. He can attack fairly well with his STAB attacks, and Roost means he can support himself quite a bit. While he can't support you like Grovyle can, he can hold his own easily. At the relay point, Team Skull bum rushes your partner and steals the Relic Fragment (again). Chatot is very surprised to see Team Skull, and apparently is STILL thinking Team Skull to be a kind helpful team. And boy, is he mad when he figures out the truth - he just rushes forward without caring anything (like a certain band of vicious bandits). Well, that's... nice. Now we got a few more things to care about (as if saving the world isn't enough of a burden). The lower caves are mostly the same as above, with the same Pokemon and all. Gastrodon doesn't appear from B2F and on, so water attacks will be safe to use again (though they still hit everything for NVE damage). You no longer have Chatot with you, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. March on to the end of the dungeon! At the end, you will see Team Skull, who look really beat up. Did Chatot do this? No... turns out it's the bandits. Chatot just passed right by them, gave them a good tongue lashing, and ran off. Team Skull is SOO mad at Chatot, they refuse to give up and die. Then, you come along, and actually cared for Team Skull, so they gingerly gave back the Relic Fragment for you. Anyways, Chatot is still in danger from those bandits, so we better go off! In the next clearing, you see Chatot standing, trying to see where the bandits have hid themselves to. But where are they? Suddenly Chatot figures it out - they're right on top of you! And they strike! However, Chatot blocks the attack for you, and he collapses. Now, time to fight! Boss battle: Kabutops + 2 Omastar Difficulty: Average Like with all boss fights with multiple enemies, you want to park Kabutops out the way with a status (X-eye seeds work fine), then work on his underlings. Kabutops can hit you two squares away with Aqua Jet while Omastar has STAB Rollout and Brine to work with, so you don't want to leave them alive for too long. Anyways, it's a pretty average fight, just watch your HP carefully since those guys do hurt quite a bit. Wigglytuff, Grovyle, and the rest of the guild arrive at this point. Wigglytuff is very upset about how hurt Chatot is, mainly because Chatot did the same thing last time - he shielded Wigglytuff from Kabutops and Omastar's attack. Anyways, he is in quite a bit of danger, so the rest of the guild will bring Chatot back home, while you and Grovyle must move on. At the very depth of the cave, you find out that it opens to the sea. You also spots the strange pattern on the wall. Your partner brings out the Relic Frag- ment, and the two inscriptions react, sending a beam of light in the sea. Soon, a figure approaches - it's Lapras! Lapras claims himself to be the guide to Hidden Land, and that he was informed of your arrival by Wigglytuff. Now, step on Lapras's back, because he will carry you there! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.20 To the Hidden Land ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What follows is a cool scene. Lapras and Wigglytuff describe the time they met to their respective audience (Lapras to your team, Wigglytuff to the rest of the guild), and the scene alternates between them so you get the full picture. Lapras and Wigglytuff also reveals that the Relic Fragment is the only key to entering the Hidden Land, and it chooses who to go. The Pokemon it chose is... your partner, who had a pure heart. From now on, to save the temporal tower and the world... it is your team's burden to bear. Look at the sea - see where the waves are different? We're almost there. Lapras begins to take flight (holy ****!) and brings your team there. The Temporal Tower is right ahead of you! But... it's floating in the sky? How are we going to get up there? Lapras explains that you need to take the Rainbow Stoneship, far ahead in the Old Ruins. First, preparations. At this point, you can talk to Lapras again, and he will bring you back to Treasure Town. You can do missions as well use the town and guild's facilities, which will allow you to prepare yourself much more extensively than a Kangaskhan rock. Talk to Lapras to bring you back to the Hidden Land. Ready? March on! Dungeon - Hidden Land + Hidden Highland + Old Ruins Length - 15 + 8 Resident Pokemon - Dragonite, Manectric, Tropius, Rampardos, Bastiodon, Purug- ly, Garchomp, Abomasnow, Magmortar (Hidden Highland) - same as above My levels upon entry - Seth (36), Pikachu (37) Sunny weather in floor 6, 10 (There might be more floors with weather effects, but Abomasnow's Snow Warning overwrites them. Contributions are welcome) You'll have Grovyle with you in the dungeon again, and it's good because this dungeon is fairly difficult. Dragonite and Garchomp hit hard and are hard to defeat; Purugly doesn't hit as hard but can last just as long; Abomasnow has Snow Warning which starts an auto-hail, and Tropius has Chlorophyll and Solar Power allowing it to move fast and hit hard in the sun. The other Pokemon are not as tough to kill, but still take caution - it's very easy to get killed here, since the enemies are all rather powerful. Bring a LOT of Oran berries, and double your normal supplies. You��ll need a lot of them to get through this dungeon successfully. At the end of the dungeon (nothing interesting happens in the relay point), you will see murals of some legendary Pokemon, then what appears to be a temple ground. At the top of the temple you see the strange pattern inscribed to the ground, and a stone tablet with inscriptions in Unown language. Looks like the whole temple ground thingy is the rainbow Stoneship! Now your partner just have to fit the Relic Fragment in the indentation on the ground. However, Dusknoir arrives at this point. Yeah, he's still after you, and he basically laid an ambush for you right here. However, you are obviously not going back without a fight. So, it's time to finally kick Dusknoir's ass, right here, right now! Boss Battle: Dusknoir + Sableye * 6 Difficulty: Average All I can say is, if you've made it this far, you can beat this battle. Park Dusknoir with a status seed, then simply wail on the Sableye, then Dusknoir - pretty standard multi-boss sequence, really. The Sableye won't put up much of a fight, so it's just Dusknoir - who only has ghost type moves. If you are a normal type, the battle is quite a joke more or less. If you're not... keep him parked with status and attack him. Not much to say here. keep in mind of his Pressure ability, though. Somehow, Dusknoir recovers from all those overwhelming attacks you've placed on him and knocks you all aside. He then starts to charge up for what looks like Shadow Ball, from the mouth on his stomach. It's not the end yet, however! Your partner comes up with a plan and forces the attack right back at him, which does quite a number of him (remember kids, Ghost attacks are super effective against Ghost type itself), and that FINALLY knocks him out. The Sableye fled in disbelief, and now we can get the ship working! Grovyle sends your partner to get to work, while you two keep an eye on Dusknoir. At this point, Dusknoir speaks up again. Is this what you really want? If you change the future, the future as you know it will cease to exist... and so will you and Grovyle, as you are from that doomed future. However, does it matter? You, Grovyle, Celebi - all of you started this campaign, determined to change the past even if you were to disappear. Yes, even you - though your memory of the resolve have disappeared, your heart have not. However, what about your partner? Should you disappear, your partner will surely be emotionally crushed. Time to save. Your partner puts the Relic Fragment in the indentation, and the whole inscri- ption begins glowing! The Stoneship is about to take off! Not so fast, though - Dusknoir gets up. Looks like he still got some fight left in him. Before he can hit you with his surprise attack, though - Grovyle jumps in and blocks the blow! But he isn't out, either - he begins pushing Dusknoir back to the dimen- sional hole. He drops the time gears for you, tell you that the rest is up to your team, now, and both Dusknoir and him disappears in the portal. There's no time for you to mourn, either - the Stoneship is activating and it will soon take off! Your partner is determined to see the mission succeed, so he can change the world for Grovyle - but what about what Dusknoir said? After all, Both Grovyle and you will disappear. Looks like your next adventure will... be your final one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21 The Last Adventure ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Stoneship is activated, and the two of you go off to the sky. Looks like Temporal Tower is finally within our reach. The top of the tower is glowing red, though, and the tower itself is trembling. Could it be collapsing already? We must hurry! Anyways, preparation time. Beware - while you CAN leave, you will go back to the entrance of Hidden Land before going for Treasure TOwn, meaning that you will have to go through Hidden Land AGAIN - without Grovyle to boot - to get back to the tower. I'd only suggest you do this if you're REALLY out of resources. Anyways, there's nowhere to go but forward, so let's go! Dungeon - Temporal Tower + Temporal Spire + Temporal Pinnacles Length - 13 + 10 Resident Pokemon - Bronzor, Lunatone, Porygon, Solrock (Temporal Spire) - Porygon2, Porygon-Z, Salamence, Bronzong, Metagross My levels upon entry - Seth (40), Pikachu (40) Sunny weather on floor 4, 9 Hidden Land was tough, and Temporal Tower is... not quite as tough but very close. You cannot recruit any Pokemon here; you cannot bring any Pokemon here, unlike the Sky Tower in the last game. It's just you, your partner, the tower, and the boss in the end. Good luck. Anyways, Bronzor is a pain in the butt to go down. Its typing means it only is weak to fire and earth - and its ability all but nullifies its fire weakness and gives it a real ground immunity. Stick to neutral hits if you can. It can use Future Sight to set its damage to 30, too. Porygon can use Discharge to hit the entire room, which is dangerous to water types. Lunatone and Solrock are not very tough, though they can use Rock Polish to close in quickly. You get a relay point in the middle. You should check your resources at this point - you shouldn't have expended too many of them in the lower part. If you did, you should probably head back and resupply - you don't want to do the top ten floors without a LOT of resources. Anyways, if you do have enough supplies, get ready to go back up. Never mind the horrible tremors :) The top of the tower is tougher. Much tougher. Salamence in particular will be a pain, sporting the same resistance as Dragonite in Hidden Land, except instead of a close range Dragon Rush it will hit you with a LONG range Dragon- breath instead. Bronzong is much like Bronzor on the bottom, and Porygon2 plus Porygon-Z mirrors Porygon of lower floors. Metagross is a new addition, with powerful attacks from both spectrum, though at least it isn't a pain to bring down like Bronzor/Bronzong. You should mostly just watch out Salamence here - with handy resistances, a super powerful Dragonbreath, each one will take quite a toll on you - unless you happen to have some ice/rock attacks (I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't have a dragon attack yet). At the top of the tower (which looks quite a bit like the Spear Pillar), you will find the indentations to insert time gears in. However, Primal Dialga appears at this point! It doesn't seem as "primal" as the one in future (at least this one can talk), but it also doesn't seem any more friendly than the other one either. Still, for the future of mank-er, Pokemon-kind, we must fight it! Boss Battle: Primal Dialga Difficulty: Hard For a final fight, Dialga is a little bit off putting. Stories abound of people trying [insert high number] rounds here before finally killing him, when an X-eye seed is all you need. That being said, Dialga is nowhere near as docile as the other bosses - It can attack you with a wide variety of type (though it isn't exactly smart when it comes to choosing attacks), can use Roar of Time which hits the entire team, and it HURTS (thank god Dialga must recharge after using it), and basically blast you with all sorts of unfriendly attacks. Also, it has an excellent typing, and it's not uncommon for it to wall entire move- sets. Still, status will keep it from able to attack you, and as long as you keep up the pressure you can win quite easily. Dialga has the Intimidator IQ skill, which randomly stops a "foe in front" move from being able to hit him as long as you are in front of him. If at all possible, try to take him down from a range (beware Roar of Time though). Dialga is down! This gives you enough time to put in the time gear, but... the tower is still shaking? The lightning is stronger than ever, too - are you too late? You're not. When you regain consciousness, the tower is still standing, Dialga is blue again, and he uses telepathy to show you the peace of the rest- ored world. It is time to go back home! But there's still the problem of you disappearing, remember? Anyways, this is the ending. I won't spoil it for you, so enjoy and cry your heart out. Don't worry, you will have your starter back - there is still post-story to work on, remember? But that will be in a whole section. For now, you have defeated everything pre-credits. Congratulations! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 5 - Walkthrough for post-credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, there are more storyline stuff to come. Since there are no more chapters, I will give subsections as I see fit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 Graduation from the Guild ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "As a result of [starter] and [partner]'s heroic actions... the destruction of time was stopped... and peace returned to the world of Pokemon. Of course, not everything returned to normal right away. Some places remained where time was still out of control... But overall, thing were becoming better everywhere. As for [starter] and [partner]... They returned to Wigglytuff's Guild... and fell back into their daily routine of vigorous training. One morning, several months later..." Graduation? Yup, you heard it right. Once graduated, you will no longer be apprentices under the guild, and you no longer have to do stuff Wigglytuff and Chatot tell you to do (which doesn't make much of an impact gameplay-wise...). However, you must still pass the graduation exam first before all that happens. Corphish pipes up and ask why are you offered the chance to graduate when most of the other guild Pokemon, who have been around for far longer, weren't. The answer is simple - Who else in the guild have saved the world from destruction? Anyways, Loudred apparently took the exam last year and failed rather spectac- ularly. So what's the exam? Wigglytuff comes at this point, and tells you to explore the depths of a place called Mystifying Forest, find a place called Luminous Spring, and bring back the treasure within. However, you have to watch out for one thing - a frightening strong enemy: The Grand Master of All Things Bad. (Who makes up these names, really?) It's a horrifying enemy no one ever wants to meet... so good luck with that! Asking Loudred for hints gets you no- where fast because he is sworn to silence, except that "you're in for a dread- ful, terrifying time." Anyways, set off to prepare if you will. If you ask around, you will find out one thing quickly - The guild speaks of him as a terrible presence, one that threatens to flatten you. As for everyone else, they speak of him as... wait, who the hell is him? There's even a cutscene with Teddiursa and Ursaring to tell you that apparently no one not from the guild have heard of him. What the hell is going on here? You can't do much about it though - do your normal thing to prepare, before you set off. Again, only you and your partner can come to the dungeon. Dungeon - Mystifying Forest Length - 13 Resident Pokemon - Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Metapod, Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, NidoranM, NidoranF, Venonat, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Exeggcute, Koffing, Scyther, Eevee, Chikorita, Bayleef, Aipom, Teddiursa, Wurmple, Seedot, Nuzleaf, Roselia, Gulpin, Flygon, Turtwig, Grotle, Torterra, Bidoof, Stun- ky, Skuntank, Munchlax, Kricketot My levels upon entry - Seth (41), Pikachu (41) Fog in Floor 3, 5 Cloud in Floor 8, 9 Welcome to your first post-story dungeon. And let me warn ya - these dungeons are a WHOLE different ball game than the ones you encounter pre-credits. As you can see above, there are a whole slew of things you can encounter in the dungeon, and only up to 14 Pokemon will be available at any given floor. Also, the levels of the Pokemon are much more diverse - the first stage starters are weak enough that you can just shove over with a normal attack. Finally, in post-story dungeons normal Pokemon you encounter are CAPABLE OF LEARNING IQ SKILLS, so expect to see them used against you. Don't be surprised to have several hits fail in a row (due to some evasion up IQ skills), enemies using items against you (Item Master), or you killing yourself on a blow (Counter Basher), or stuff like that. Something to get used to, I guess. Anyways, Stunky and Skuntank can blow up when dead with Aftermath, and the elemental starters do crapload of damage at low HP due to their ability (which can be bad if they also have Clutch Dodger, thus dodging the majority of blows you send their way, or if they're protected by something with Bodyguard). You don't have much to fear aside form those, but be cautious nevertheless. At the end of the dungeon, you will find a clearing. You will meet Teddiursa and Ursaring again, who goes off to Luminous Spring. You follow them - but falls in a pit trap instead. Oh dear... looks like you have encountered the grand master of all things bad and... Hey, what the hell? No spoilers will be given about the scene (it's too funny...), but suffice it to say, you will fight! Boss Battle: The Grand Master of All things Bad + Minions * 7 Difficulty: Very hard Yikes. This is one difficult battle. It's kind of like those big boss + minion battle you've had before, but the minions are actually DIFFERENT, and they all have their own talents to hit you with. OK, not really. Not many of them have talents worth mentioning, but one of them can use Earth Power (the smaller ground-type), and another one gets STAB on Fury Attack (You should know who has it). One of them can also hit you with Sucker Punch from two tiles away (the poison-type). And finally, of course, we have the grand master himself to deal with. Thankfully, he does not have much to use against you, but he can inflict status with Sing and Disable, and STAB Double Slap is instant death if even two of them connects. Roomwide moves are awesome as always, but if you don't have a good one - try to park GMoATB out of the way first, then beat on the more dangerous one - the ones I mentioned above (Earth Power user absolutely MUST go first if you have a fire/electric type). You'll likely go through several Reviver Seeds - hope you have some ready. Good luck. Once you're done, you move forward. There will be a treasure chest, something that is *quite* new to the Teddiursa... brothers/family/whatever. Anyways, you try out your dimensional scream on it, and it turns out that Wigglytuff had put it here, so it should be safe to open (barring any more surprises from the GMoATB...). The chest turns out to contain... a perfect apple. It suits Wiggly- tuff, I guess. Suddenly, sunlight is cast on Luminous Spring ahead. Pokemon can once again evolve there! Teddiursa volunteers to be the first to try out and indeed, he becomes an Ursaring. Your partner is eager to try it out but... the spring rejects you, even though you likely have already met the requirement (unless you're a Pikachu and you, unlike me, didn't steal from a shop full of evolution items back in Mystifying Forest). Why is it? It's because of a distortion in the fabric of space apparently. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Anyways, it's too bad that you cannot evolve. However, opening up this location means everyone else on your team will be able to evolve if their requirements are met. Back at the guild, Wigglytuff happily announces that you have graduated from the guild! You have brought back a fantastic treasure in perfect apple, and defeated the horrifying GMoATB! Wait, how did he know we defeated GMoATB? (cough) Wigglytuff: "...Um...We heard it somewhere?" Also, wasn't Wigglytuff the grand master? Wigglytuff denies it, though, and so do everyone else from the guild (though it's quite clear that they're having just as much fun with this charade as Wigglytuff is) Anyways, this means we are no longer bound by the guild's regulations, though like I said, it doesn't make much of an impact to you gameplay wise, mainly because the next topic - you STILL have to give 90% of your income to the guild, because you are still affiliated with it and can only operate because of it. Still, your graduation is an excellent feat - congratulations! Now, how about some REAL awards for your graduation? You get your final inven- tory upgrade (48 items), a whooping 10000P as help for startup. Also, you now no longer room in the guild, so you will live in Sharpedo Bluff now. This means no more Loudred every morning (gotta love that). You will have to save manually from now on, though - there will be no automatic prompt for you to save in the morning. In town, if you go to Marowak Dojo, you will find a new maze have opened - The Final Maze! Like all training mazes, you cannot bring any items in there, but you WILL lose items if you die inside. Still, you can find several HMs in there and stuff you can ONLY find in there, making it pretty much the saving grace for the dojo there. At the crossroads, you will find Chimecho, who will tell you that from now on, your team can be composed of ANY Pokemon - which means you no longer NEED to use your starter and your partner... for the most part anyways. There are still some dungeons where only your starter and your partner may go, though. Also, if you talk to Loudred, you will be able to volunteer for sentry duty, with the usual prize line-up (Reviver seed!). Finally, the Zero Isles open up for you to explore any time. They are *very, very* tough and you shouldn't even think about exploring them without some proper strategy going. This section only deals with storyline stuff post-credits, so check the Optional Dungeon section for more details, instead. Anyways, you will have to simply do jobs or do whatever for a couple of days, before the next storyline dungeon can be unlocked. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2. The lost explorer of fame, Scizor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a couple of days, you will notice a Mr. Mime standing beside the Kecleon Stalls. talk to him, and he will tell you of a tale - one of a great explorer named Scizor, who went missing in Blizzard Island years ago. Many rescue teams set out to find him, but none succeeded. Perhaps we can go and complete what others cannot complete? In any case, Blizzard Island is now open for you. You can go at any time, of course, but what makes it different from before? I'd go explore it as soon as you have the resources to. Dungeon - Blizzard Island Length - 20 Resident Pokemon - Golduck, Marill, Azumarill, Sneasel, Piloswine, Delibird, Smoochum, Vigoroth, Azurill, Nosepass, Swablu, Snorunt, Piplup, Castform Snow on floor 4, 8 (There may be more weather changes, but Golduck nullifies them with Cloud Nine) (I will no longer list "my levels upon entry" for dungeons where you can enter with a team that isn't composed solely of your starter and partner.) Ice-theme dungeon here, complete with post-story difficulty in enemies. Cast- form is the #1 source for alarm, as it can set up a weather, then proceed to 1HKO you with Weather Ball (it can easily do 100+ damage on a NEUTRAL hit w/o critical, and I've seen it does 250+ damage to something that happens to weak to the weather ball in question). Sometimes you'll get lucky and a Golduck will be on the floor, nullifying all attempts to change weather with its Cloud Nine ability, but it's far more reliable to bring a Psyduck/Golduck of your own if you're paranoid about it (Psyduck is found in Waterfall Cave). Aside from that, the Marill family has Huge Power which randomly doubles damage on a physical attack, and a rain boosted Aqua Tail from Azumarill is DANGEROUS when it's boosted. Vigoroth is also fairly powerful, with both Slash and Fury Swipes hurting for 50-60 damage per attack (and remember - Slash has a high critical ratio and Fury Swipes can strike more than once), and while you can do a lot of damage back, Counter Basher can make your life miserable if it activates. Anyways, there are snowfalls on certain floors, which does nothing to damage but gives all ice-types extra speed ala agility. At the end of the dungeon, you will not find Scizor - rather, you will find the entrance to another dungeon, Crevice Cave. You can move on now if you want, but it would make much more sense to go back town to properly prepare. Anyways, once you are ready, enter the new dungeon. Dungeon - Crevice Cave + Lower Crevice Cave + Crevice Cave Pit Length - 10 + 4 Resident Pokemon - Golduck, Jynx, Marill, Azumarill, Sneasel, Swinub, Pilo- swine, Delibird, Smoochum, Slakoth, Vigoroth, Slaking, Azurill, Nosepass, Swablu, Altaria, Zangoose, Snorunt, Piplup, Prinplup, Empoleon, Snover, Weavile, Glaceon, Mamoswine Fog on Floor 3, 6, 10 Castform is gone (thank goodness), but the Marill family and Vigoroth is still there. Zangoose is also something to watch out for, since it has similar attack power to Vigoroth, but Crush Claw can also lower defense (and it happens rather frequently). Weavile can also put hurt on with STAB Night Slash, which has a high critical ratio to boot, and it has pressure to eat up your PP. Finally, Glaceon isn't particularly dangerous when it comes to attack, but it can be difficult to hit in hail due to Snow Cloak, and Snover will gladly provide hail with its snow warning ability. Those are basically the most of what you have to watch out in the cave. At the end of the cave, you will find Scizor, frozen in Ice. A figure then appears, reveals herself to be Froslass, and attacks you. Boss battle - Froslass Difficulty - Very Easy Froslass doesn't have anything powerful to hit you with, but she can be pretty annoying - she sets up hail to activate snow cloak, then double teams until you really can't hit her any more. She can also use Captivate to lower special attack. Hit her with your best attacks, and hopefully you'll be able to bring her down before she can rack up too many DTs down her belt. once you defeat Froslass, Scizor will be defrosted. Back at treasure town, he decides to thank you by bestowing the Special Rank on your team, which means from now on you can do the Seven Treasures dungeon by accepting special wonder mails. The seven treasure dungeon will be explained in the Optional Dungeons section, as usual, since they have no place in the second storyline. Again, two days or so need to be passed before your next storyline dungeon un- locks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3 The Prince of the Sea - Manaphy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will be able to unlock this part of the storyline once you see Sunflora in the guild (downstairs). She will tell you something about Surrounded Sea, an ocean dungeon, which will promptly be unlocked for you. Get your diving gears ready, because we are going to make a splash! Dungeon - Surrounded Sea Length - 20 Resident Pokemon - Tentacruel, Slowbro, Shellder, Horsea, Seadra, Starmie, Lapras, Slowking, Qwilfish, Remoraid, Octillery, Kingdra, Carvanha, Wail- mer, Clamperl, Finneon Like Brine Cave, you get to see water tiles in room too, and sometimes they "moat up" an item. If your leader can't cross water but you brought an ally who can, try telling them to "Go the other way" and *hope* they walk across the items. Aside from that, most (ok, all) of the Pokemon in the dungeon are water types, so bringing something with storm drain will make your life easier. Speaking of Storm Drain, Finneon has it so don't bother with water type moves (they hit not very effective damage on everything here anyways...) Kingdra is your main concern here, as it hits pretty hard with those hydro pumps, and it's difficult to play the type advantage game with him when he's only weak to dra- gon. The other Pokemon are not *quite* as dangerous but still keep a sharp look out. This is a pretty easy dungeon anyways for post-story. At the end of the dungeon (20th floor), you will find three Deluxe Boxes, and a blue egg thing. Make sure you pick up the blue egg. The next morning... Just as you two talk about the egg, it hatches! As it's the case with legendary Pokemon in this game, while you may recognize it as a Manaphy, the heroes have no idea what it is. They do agree, however, that it's really cute. Time to pay a visit to Chatot to see if he knows what the heroes don't know. And the wise Chatot comes and saves the day! He knows it to be a Manaphy, a very rare Pokemon that normally are sea-faring. Suddenly, Manaphy starts to cry - he must be hungry, or so says Chatot. You will then be asked to give it a Blue Gummi. Time version players can easily find those by running Craggy Coast a couple of times (I think... I don't play time), but Darkness version players will have a HUGE problem finding those on a timely basis. I DID warn you to save two blue gummies for this occasion, didn't I? If you didn't save them, try using wonder mails for them. Here are two I have for you (one taken straight from the Wonder Mail FAQ, and the other one generated so you can get two from the same dungeon) Client: Pelipper Objective: Rescue Linoone. Place: Quicksand Cave B6F Restrictions: None Difficulty: Who cares Reward: Blue Gummi Wonder Mail: W & + 7 4 4 T 8 N 2 & = - M 2 # M S Q K 0 Q + H Client: Magnezone Objective: Arrest Onix. Place: Quicksand Cave B8F Restrictions: None Difficulty: *1 (100) Reward: Blue Gummi + ? Wonder Mail: P 2 C 6 Y R T X # 7 S 6 M M 1 1 W 7 N T S Q 7 - Got 'em? Good. Feed one to Manaphy now. Manaphy goes totally ecstatic over the Blue Gummi, and starts dancing around. Your partner then proposes to watch over Manaphy for a while. Chatot doesn't think much of the idea because Manaphy is supposed to grow up in the sea, and that we know next to nothing about him. However, your partner manages to convince Chatot, so we get to look after him for a while. Back at Sharpedo Bluff, Manaphy wants yet another Blue Gummi, so give him your other one. Now that he's all full up, he goes to sleep. And so do you, appar- ently. The next day, nothing much happens - you just gotta take Manaphy to the beach. Manaphy is very excited to see the sea (After all, it was born in the sea), and you three spends the day away playing on the beach. In the night... The next morning, you find that Manaphy is gone! How could this have happened? Better go look for him! Walk past Treasure town, and at the crossroads you will see Chatot. Uh oh. He isn't very happy that you lost Manaphy, but he will help you search. Go to the beach now. It's Manaphy, and he's unwell - he got a high fever. Enter the wise Chatot again, who will tell you to find Phione Dew from Phione in Miracle Sea. A new dungeon unlocks. Dungeon - Miracle Sea + Deep Miracle Sea + Miracle Seabed Length - 18 + 4 Resident Pokemon - Tentacruel, Slowbro, Cloyster, Horsea, Seadra, Starmie, Chinchou, Lanturn, Slowking, Qwilfish, Remoraid, Octillery, Mantine, Shar- pedo, Wailmer, Cradily, Clamperl, Huntail, Gorebyss, Relicanth, Luvdisc, Finneon, Lumineon, Mantyke Take Surrounded Sea, add in a few Pokemon, and you got Miracle Sea. Sadly, it's the additions that are most dangerous. Mantine's STAB Wing Attack HURTS, and its STAB bounce hurts even more. Sharpedo can reflect half the damage back with Rough Skin, and Chinchou absorbs electric attacks with Volt Absorb, then hit back with a room-wide Discharge. All in all, it's a rather tough dungeon for anyone, but especially water types and fire types, so be careful here. Also, maybe it's just me, but the dungoen seems to be littered with traps. I was using eyedrop seeds in the dungeon and it seems there are a lot of rooms with 2-3 traps in it, so watch yourself - don't dilly in the rooms, and don't go out of your way to pick up stuff you don't need anyways (like sticks). At the end of the dungeon, you find the Phione playing around. However, as if on cue, a Gyarados come out of nowhere and declares the Phione now work for him. Obviously we can't let that happen, so it's time to fight! Boss Battle - Gyarados Difficulty - Easy Again, if you can get here, you can beat him. Gyarados IS powerful - if you let him attack you, his Hydro Pump and Aqua Tail can easily cause 80+ damage to neutral pokes, and 120+ at least to Pokemon weak to water. However, simply keep him under status. The only other thing you need to watch out for is Counter Basher IQ Skill - make sure you have more HP than you're dishing out damage to avoid getting killed by it. The Phione are grateful for your help and gives you a Phione Dew for free. Time to take it back to Manaphy! As a side note, the next time you clear Miracle Sea you will get a Phione to join your team. Back at Sharpedo Bluff, the Phione dew works its magic and Manaphy is healthy again. However, the inevitable still comes - Manaphy must go back to the sea to be raised there. The farewell is rather sad. Again, two days must pass before the next storyline event will take place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3 The Fabulous Team Charm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the third day, if you go to the guild, you will find that the entire guild is surrounding some new figures on the bottom floor. Who are they? Why, they are Team Charm, a really famous team who had earned the Master Rank, and are basically just really good at exploring and really strong, too. You then find out that, surprise! Wigglytuff was a part of this team once. Anyways, Team Charm isn't here just to catch up on old times - they are here to retrieve a key they found a long time ago, because only now they have found the keyhole for the key (I guess that does qualify for catching up on old times after all). There are some slight difficulties in getting Wigglytuff to cooperate, but Team Charm knows how to handle him (and so should you). Before they go, however, your partner speaks up and asks to explore the dungeon with Team Charm. Every- one else are also very excited about the idea, and who are Team Charm to say no to such earnestness? A new dungeon unlocks for you. Loudred's sentry duty will be off limits until you clear it, BTW. Also, if you have a Pokemon with the ability Illuminate, I would recommend bringing it along. Dungeon - Ice Aegis Cave + Rock Aegis Cave + Steel Aegis Cave + Aegis Cave Pits Length - 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 Resident Pokemon - Zubat, Golbat, Machoke, Machamp, Crobat, Unown (all 28 kind) This is probably the easiest post-story dungeon, since Unown can only hit you with a weak Hidden Power they often don't get STAB on, and the other pokes are not much trouble. Sadly, "easy" and "annoying" are not mutually exclusive terms because this also happens to be the most annoying dungeon in the game for many. The basic gist of the cave is - Unown litter throughout the caverns, and it's up to you to beat the crap out of them. They may drop an Unown stone upon de- feat, which will correspond with the shape of the Unown itself. Your job is to collect "certain" stones to move on to the next part. You will need ICE, ROCK, and STEEL to move on. In other words, you will need the following: C*2, E*3, I*1, K*1, L*1, O*1, R*1, S*1, T*1 Unown stones in general make nice throwing weapons as they do a fixed 60 damage per hit, and if you have power pitcher it can do 90 (which is just short of 1HKOing them, sadly). However, they don't stack and can pile up quickly, so throw the useless ones ASAP. And you'll be getting a LOT of the useless ones, seeing that only 14 kind of Pokemon can appear in one floor (use Recruitment Search to see what Unown you can find in this floor). You may go through a section a HUGE number of times before you get that ONE stone you need to pro- ceed, earning Aegis Cave the dubious fame as the most annoying dungeon ever. You will simply loop in the same part of Aegis Cave until you collect the re- quired stones to move on to the next part, at which point you will have to defeat a boss, then start looping in the next part of the dungeon, and so on. Boss battle information now: Boss battle - Regice Difficulty - Easy Not a hard battle, since Regice likes to hamper itself as much as it attacks you with moves like Explosion and Curse (and as far as I can tell, it has no moves to take advantage of the "attack up" effect of Curse, just Ancientpower). Status works well on it as usual. Boss Battle - Regirock Difficulty - Easy Again, not hard. Regirock can use Explosion too, which hurts itself more than it hurts any of you. It does get STAB on Ancientpower though, unlike Regice, so that move will sting more. not hard. Boss Battle - Registeel Difficulty - Somewhat Easy Registeel gets a bit higher difficulty just because it's difficult to score even neutral hits on it due to its typing. Other than that, it's not hard to deal with either. Mostly the same moves as before. At the end of the cave, you will be in Regigigas chamber. However, this time you will not be fighting Regigigas alone... in more ways than one. Boss Battle - Regigigas + Hitmonlee*4 + Bronzong*4 Difficulty - Somewhat hard Probably the biggest battle of the century, lol. On the other side you have nine Pokemon, and on your side Team Charm will help you out - so there are a lot of Pokemon involved by this game's standard. Anyways, Team Charm can handle themselves no problem, and there's no penalty for letting them die. They will hold up a couple of minions without difficulty, and Regigigas is slowed for the first couple of turns due to its ability Slow Start. This gives you plenty of time to wipe out whatever minions you can before Team Charm dies off and/or Regigigas shakes off Slow Start, assuming you don't just wipe out everything with a room-wide move. Regigigas himself is not a huge trouble - Mega Punch hurts, but its other moves don't get STAB and are all weak unless it hits a weakness. However, Bronzong can use Safeguard, which will likely render status useless for the duration of the battle. Once Regigigas is down, a stone marker appears and instructs you to close your eyes and let your aura flow to the ground. Opt to close your eyes, and your aura will indeed flow. Regigigas then gets up and causes a HUGE earthquake, forcing all of you to get the heck out of there. However, this exploration was not for vain - a new dungeon opens. Woopeedo. Since that dungeon is unimportant to the storyline, it will not be listed in this section. Explore it whenever you feel like. Two days later... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.4 The distortion of space, and the dastardly plot of Darkrai ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the night of the second day since the Aegis Cave expedition, you will see a storm and somehow be reminded of the fact that neither of you can evolve due to a "distortion in space". What's that mean? In the mean time, you get to see some soliloquies between the prey, Darkrai, who seems bent on destroying space now that he failed to destroy time (!!!), and the quarry, Cresselia, who vows to catch Darkrai if it's the last thing she does. Hmm... things are getting interesting again. But first, you must go and spend the day doing whatever you feel like. During the night, you have a strange dream, of Cresselia... who informs you that your very existence is bringing the world to ruins due to the space dis- tortion thingyamajig. Whatever. Your partner is certainly peppy about the up- coming day, so be peppy with him/her! One more day of normal routine. Dream again in the night, and Cresselia explains that, as you are a Pokemon from the future, you're not of this world - a presence that exists yet should be impossible to exist, which interferes with the fabric of space (Huh? How?) Your partner is still peppy as ever in the morning, though. Time for another day of normal missions! Wait... or not. Bidoof runs up and informs you of a big trouble about Azurill. Better hurry to the guild to see what's going on with Azurill. Turns out he is having a strange nightmare, and is somehow LOCKED in it, so he can't get out. What can we do to end it? Bidoof pipes up and comes up with the idea of finding out what the nightmare is about by entering the nightmare, but how the hell do we do that? Chatot enters the conversation at this point and suggest you to go find Drowzee. Yeah, that guy you arrested WAAAAY back, and he happens to have the (somewhat dubious) honour of being your first capture, too. Sadly, Drowzee isn't in a jail or something - since he expressed remorse, they let him go, and while it is not NECESSARILY a bad thing for the community at large, it's a bad thing to you because now you have to go through a whole dungeon - Mt. Travail, to reach him. Bah. Oh well, we are the heroes - we have to do the job. Oh and, Loudred's Sentry Duty is off limits again, because you have much more pressing matters at hand than trying to obtain Reviver Seeds and Nectars. Finally, you will have to go to Mt. Travail with just your starter and your partner. Dungeon - Mt. Travail Length - 19 Resident Pokemon - Fearow, Mankey, Primeape, Onix, Marowak, Hitmonchan, Kanga- skhan, Mr. Mime, Sentret, Furret, Ledyba, Ledian, Scizor, Heracross, Ur- saring, Tyrogue, Shedinja, Meditite, Medicham, Bibarel My levels upon entry - Seth (49), Pikachu (49) Rain on floor 2 Fog on floor 3, 11 Cloudy on floor 5, 6 Sun on floor 8, 9 Seriously complicated weather here, but except for Cloudy they don't help the residents much since this dungeon is composed of predominantly normal types. However, you do face danger in the dungeon. Marowak can draw away electric attacks with Lightningrod; Hitmonchan can hit you with seriously powerful moves that aren't even under STAB, and will probably demolish anyone weak to them; Kangaskhan can hit you with a double hit that can do over 100 damage without criticals (and they're not affected by Cloudy weathers); Medicham has Huge Power and can dish out a lot of hurt with its STAB moves. Special mention also goes to Shedinja - it isn't really dangerous as it is annoying, but 1) it's a ghost and thus is known to hog walls to avoid hits and 2) Wonder Guard limits the amount of actions you can do to hit it. The best Shedinja swatter out there are thrown items, but if you are Skitty then you'll have to rely on your part- ner to take them out. At the top of the mountain, you will find Drowzee, who is indeed reformed, and is only too glad to be given a chance to make up for what he had done to Azu- rill (though to be fair, he didn't do much to Azurill back then, just scared him a bit). Anyways, at the guild headquarters, Drowzee tells you that it is indeed possible for you to enter Azurill's Nightmare. However, for reasons that is best left unsaid, Azurill's nightmare is a FREAKING DUNGEON, so you better get stocked up for it, because there's something rotten about Azurill's Night- mare. SO yeah. Go stock up. Sentry is still off duty, so you'll have to just go explore dungeons for items you need if you can't get them elsewhere. Once you're ready, talk to Drowzee again to enter Azurill's dream. Dungeon - The Nightmare Length - 17 Resident Pokemon - Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Meowth, Lickitung, Cleffa, Espeon, Wo- bbuffet, Miltank, Blissey, Whismur, Skitty, Swalot, Spoink, Spinda, Wy- naut, Mime Jr., Croagunk, Persian, Igglybuff, Lickilicky, Grumpig, Happiny Clefable, Wigglytuff, Chansey My levels upon entry - Seth (50), Pikachu (50) Azurill is apparently having a nightmare of a 17 floors mystery dungeon, com- plete with REAL ITEMS you can bring outside once done, REAL POKEMON that can hurt you very well, REAL traps that annoy the heck out of you just like the ones you can find in some other temple of doom. If this is not pure evil, I don't know what is. The dungeon isn't a hard one, but there are still some dangers. Wobbuffet wan- der about in the nightmare (I guess its face is scary), and aside from all the countering techniques it can use Destiny Bond, which surprisingly is just like a counter move. Ditto with Wynaut. Wigglytuff is also here (haha, go figure) and can hit you with disabling moves like Sing/Disable and hit you hard with Double Slap. Not much else to go on with. At the end of the dungeon, the screen suddenly turns black, and a voice starts to ring out. Who is it? It's Cresselia! (Though isn't she supposed to CURE Nightmares?) She is surprised to see you here, but happy too because she wants to have a good talk with you, and you basically just went to her. She explains that, because of your space distortion thing, you're locking Pokemon into these everlasting Nightmares such as the one Azurill is having, and the nightmare will eventually spread. How can we stop this? By disappearing, or so says she. And she wants to do it... now. You're not allowed to fight back, either, be- cause this is supposedly for a good cause. Damn. Suddenly, Drowzee interferes and starts to calling out, and Cresselia began to retreat, but not before bid- ding you to make yourself disappear first (wow... and this is supposed to be a children's game?) Anyways, it's time to go back to the guild. Back at the guild, you two report your findings and what Cresselia had said, except for the part where you must suicide or die either way to make things right. Chatot explains some basic facts about Cresselia, though they don't seem to match up with the Cresselia you have been meeting. Anyways, the guild is perky as ever about saving the world (don't they know that it's the HERO'S JOB to do that?) But you are not. You can't decide on what to do, and going to sleep certainly doesn't help you because you can't fall asleep. After thinking about what your partner is going through, though, you get the resolve to keep your spirit strong and to see things through. You sleep for a while but finds your partner's bed empty, so you go out and have a talk with him. A discussion about the situation you're in follows - shouldn't we have the resolve to sacri- fice ourselves for the world, since you had that in Temporal Tower? But... you have different ideas. Something is wrong with this scenario. Last time, you sacrificed yourself because you know for sure that the world will become peace- ful, but this time you would be sacrificing because of something Cresselia said, which is not a proven truth. The sunrise reminds your partner of the last time he saw it - with Grovyle, and the eventual outcome of his resolve is that he should not be crushed. There's gotta be another way! So let us find it! Anyways, since last time it was time that was at risk and now it's space, there might be some connections. Lapras might know a thing or two - let's go find him at the beach! Sadly, Lapras does not know much, but he DOES know that just as Dialga governs time, so does a Pokemon governs space. That Pokemon... is Pal- kia. Palkia lives in Spacial Rift, but Lapras can't bring you there. Maybe we will try to investigate more tomorrow - except something more important will happen tonight. Palkia pays you a personal visit, and after yelling at you for being naughty with space, it whisks you off to Spacial Rift, where it prepares to attack you. In a desperate bid for your life, you jump off a pit... and somehow land in the entrance to the dungeon of Spacial Pit. Uh. Whatever. Anyways, a new dungeon means that you have to go conquer it, so let's hustle! Use the Kangaskhan rock to prepare (geez, it's been a while since we've seen one), and let's go! Dungeon - Spacial Rift, Deep Spacial Rift Length - 15+9 Resident Pokemon - Bronzor, Charizard, Chatot, Chimecho, Drapion, Drowzee, Dusknoir, Electivire, Gallade, Gligar, Honchkrow, Hypno, Jolteon, Kadabra, Lunatone, Magnezone, Porygon, Sableye, Solrock, Spiritomb, Toxicroak, Tropius, Xatu My levels upon entry - Seth (50), Pikachu (50) Cloudy on Floor 3, 4, 10 Sunny on Floor 8, 14, D5 Fog on Floor 12, D1 Rain on D9 More complicated weather, but not much Pokemon that can make use of them again. The only Pokemon that can do that is Tropius, who (as you may remember from Hidden Land) attacks twice AND get a power up from the sun. The residents are all dangerous enough without the weather, however. Magnezone and Electivire will annoy you to death with STAB discharge, and Spiritomb and Sableye, the two "no weakness" Pokemon are both here. Charizard can also pour a world of hurt at low HP due to blaze, and Chatot can rip you apart with Fury Attack. Don��t under- estimate the foes here, and conserve your resources because a boss fight is coming up. At the end of the dungeon, Palkia will have caught up with you, and you will fight! Boss Battle - Palkia Difficulty - Average Palkia has less resistances than Dialga, but less weaknesses as well. Besides, chances are, you don't have any dragon moves to hit him with. Palkia can hit you with Ancientpower and Spacial Rend. Ancientpower is something you should be familiar with after battling so many legends, but Spacial Rend you probably is not - it's basically Dialga's Roar of time with slightly less power but no re- charge turn and a high critical ratio, so it's actually a lot more dangerous. Palkia can also randomly block you with Intimidator. Otherwise, fairly routine single boss battle in which status owns, and shows you why other RPGS make their bosses immune to status. Palkia lets out a tortured roar upon defeat and suddenly stops moving. A voice then rings out saying that, it too, has fallen into a deep nightmare, so you should enter Palkia's Nightmare, and you do so, somehow. Don't worry, Palkia is nice enough to not dream up a whole tangible dungeon (though it would be funny because there had to be a Kangaskhan Rock, which would REALLY add on to the ridiculousness). Instead, you go straight for the cutscene - Palkia is clueless on why it's dreaming, and upon knowing it's in a nightmare, it gets REALLY angry and tries to attack you again. You then asks Palkia why is he attacking you, and the answer is obvious - you are distorting space, and Palkia is basically doing its job. But why can't Palkia just bend space back? Seems Palkia himself isn't sure why, but he IS sure that you are the cause. Damn. Looks like we should just give ourselves up. Cresselia shows up to observe the execution... or rather, she shows up to be the executioner. Your partner has one last question - will our death really bring the world to peace? Seems like it will, or so says Cresselia. Suddenly Palkia pipes up - Cresselia has been telling him that you two are REALLY bad Pokemon, but you certainly aren't act- ing up to Cresselia's alleged accusations. Something is not right here... It seems everything so far have happened purely on Cresselia's claims! And right on cue, ANOTHER Cresselia shows up with seemingly brighter colours, and she emits some sort of weird light that exposes the first Cresselia for what she... or rather, he, truly is - Darkrai! The real Cresselia promptly explains about Darkrai's treacheries - seems like HE is the one that is distorting space, and he simply have been masquerading as Cresselia so you can get isolated and eli- minated from the picture. Darkrai then challenges you to stop him in Dark Crater, then disappears. Well, glad THAT's cleared up. At the town, Cresselia cures Azurill, then explains that Darkrai only meets you and everyone else in dreams, and set up highly realistic illusion to fool everyone. Also, Cresselia explains that the one who is behind the crisis of time, as well, is none other than Darkrai. Also, the distortion you two are causing in the space is extremely small, just big enough so you can't evolve and the developer don't have to make emotional face pictures and sprites for all the evolution of starters as well. Finally, the motive behind Darkrai's Gauntlet is questioned - why is he challenging you, when his style is to work in the shadows and flee when found? It is definitely a trap, but we have no choice but to spring it. Cresselia will accompany you, too. Back to town to prepare! For no coherent reason, sentry duty is open to you again even though you know, you're supposed to be saving the world (again) and all. But hey, more power to you if you think you need more Reviver Seeds or Nectar. Anyways, once you are ready, talk to Cresselia and we are off! Dungeon - Dark Crater + Deep Dark Crater Length - 15 + 14 Resident Pokemon - Charmander, Cyndaquil, Chimchar, Hippowdon, Numel, Slugma, Growlithe, Ponyta, Torchic, Charmeleon, Flareon, Quilava, Combusken, Monferno, Camerupt, Radpiash, Arcanine, Magcargo, Magmortar, Charizard, Typhlosion, Infernape, Torkoal, Mismagius, Blaziken My levels upon entry - Seth (50), Pikachu (51) You will have Cresselia's help in this dungeon. At level 47, she knows the following moves: Confusion, Double Team, Aurora Beam, and Slash. Anyways, the crater is damn long, with 29 total floors. It's also a fire dungeon - something that is rather rare in the remake. Expect lots and lots of fire moves flung your way, and they *will* sting on a grass type. You should know the deal with elemental starters by now - leave them at low HP and you'll be sorry when they smack your ass to next week with the help of Blaze. Combusken also knows the highly broken Mirror Move which reflects ANY moves (and orbs count as moves, too) as long as you are in front of it. Aside from them, Camerupt can use Earth Power to nail you rather consistently for 60 or so damage if you're weak to the move, and it hits the entire room. Finally, Rhyperior knows Horn Drill, which is an OHKO move, so be EXTRA careful around it. Cresselia is not going to be of much offensive help in the dungeon, since pretty much half the dungeon resists Aurora Beam, but if you are on low HP and Cresselia is behind you, she can really save your ass with Bodyguard, and a habit of abusing Double Team when she does not have anything else in her range of her other attacks. At the end of the crater, Darkrai appears. He explains that indeed, he was the one behind the crisis of Time, and he was also the one that attacks the time tunnel you and Grovyle used to get to the world. So basically speaking he was behind your amnesia and transformation to a Pokemon, all along. He explains that he did it to prevent you and Grovyle from changing the future, but sadly, the best made plans are foiled by fate. Therefore, he decided to get rid of you FIRST this time, by breaking your spirits using a Cresselia impostor. However, he had a change of heart - if you would be so kind as to join him to rule in Darkness, he will accept it. Your partner at this point decides that it is use- less to resist, so he will choose to join Darkrai. Will you go with your part- ner? Choose your answer carefully. Actually, either way turns out to the same. This is not real - it is just a nightmare, another one of Darkrai's illusion! Too bad for him. Guess there is no more thing to talk about but fight - well, one teesy detail that wasn't made clear before is that, Darkrai had allies - Arbok, Magmortar, Rhyperior, Aggron, Magcargo, and Mismagius. We'll have to fight them all together. Boss Battle: Darkrai + Minions Difficulty: Very Hard Another hard fight, kind of like the Grand Master fight. Use multi-target moves to get rid of the minions as always, but beware that Discharge will not work as long as Rhyperior is on the field - Get rid of him first. Magmortar has an annoying habit of spamming Confuse Ray to keep your allies out of battle, too, so expect to go over a Reviver Seed or three. Once you get rid of the minions, however, the fight becomes much more straight forward. Darkrai is down, but not out - he had a plan B, too. He opens up a dimensional hole and gets ready to warp himself to some other age to continue his plan. However, just as he is about to travel, Palkia appears and blast the hole to smithereens, with Darkrai still inside. What happened to him? Well we know for sure that he's hurt badly, and also - since your starter underwent the same suffering and ended up losing your memory, that may have happened to Darkrai as well - he will simply wander around the world, with no memory of his dastardly plot to take over the world in darkness. Our job... is done. Time for the second ending. It is nowhere near as emotional as the first one, but it is still fairly nice. Enjoy. The next morning, you will find Cresselia outside your base, wondering about what she will do next. Her decision is... to join your team. You can choose to refuse her, but it's much more sensible to accept (even if you plan on using her, you can just leave her to rot in Chimecho Assembly, and this is your only chance at getting Cresselia). After that, it's daily business as usual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5 The last of your storyline ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next couple of event seems to be triggered after a certain amount of rescue missions, so don't just go around recruiting bosses - do missions! A few days later, When you emerge from Sharpedo Bluff, Chatot will run in, all out of breath. Someone is back on the beach... it's Manaphy! Manaphy is all grown up, and more than happy to see you both. After an emotional reunion, Ma- naphy offers to join your team. Again, choose to accept because this is your only chance at getting Manaphy in your team. Another few days later, Manaphy will run up to you much in the same manner as Chatot did. He informs you of a location he found full of delicious gummies - Marine Resort. At this point, your storyline is done - as long as you have recruited Palkia (by revisiting Spacial Rift and defeating him), your starter and your partner will finally be able to evolve. Congratulations! You can pretty much consider yourself have beaten the game fully at this point, although like the main series there are still much more for you to do - dungeons that are not part of any storyline, Pokemon to be found in these dungeons, and of course, the friend rescues. I can't cover friend rescues, but I can and will cover the non-storyline dungeons. In the next section, that is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 6 - Optional Dungeons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will mention the two dungeons you unlock via the storyline first (Concealed Ruins and Marine Resort), followed by all the mission-unlocked ones, and fina- lly Zero Isle (You'll likely have to wait for a long time to North, though). Dungeon - Concealed Ruins Length - 30 Resident Pokemon - Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Nidoqueen, Voltorb, Electrode, Weezing, Umbreon, Murkrow, Poochyena, Mightyena, Taillow, Swellow, Lou- dred, Exploud, Delcatty One of the more annoying dungeons in the game, the reason for that can easily be summarised in three words: Earth Power Nidoqueen. It gets STAB, is really strong, hits the entire room, and Nidoqueen are freaking everywhere. Aside from Nidoqueen however, not much else pose much of a threat in the dungeon (though watch out for the Pidgey family, who can use both Tailwind and Agility for a very high chance of speed boosting the rest of the dungeon), but given that it's quite a long dungeon, the reward is pretty pitiful - 6 deluxe boxes. Pokemon with levitate are recommended here, as they can avoid Earth Power al- together. Dungeon - Marine Resort Length - 19 Resident Pokemon - Cleffa, Clefairy, Clefable, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff, Slowbro, Krabby, Lickitung, Kabuto, Kabutops, Dratini, Bellossom, Espeon, Wobbu- ffet, Snubull, Corsola, Phanpy, Smeargle, Miltank, Wingull, Pelipper, Whismur, Swalot, Spoink, Spinda, Wynaut, Ambipom, Croagunk, Lickilicky, Igglybuff Cloudy on Floor 3, 9 Sunny on Floor 4, 8 Foggy on Floor 5 Marine Resort is, as per Manaphy's description, the best place in the game to find gummies. In addition, the dungeon is quite easy yet still gives decent experience, making it a good dungeon to "baby" low level Pokemon you want to level up. Wobbuffet can put up Counter, Mirror Coat or Destiny Bond to reflect damage, but other than that all the Pokemon in the dungeon are quite easy, especially given how you should have beaten Darkrai by this point. Consider it a good place to relax and raise the IQ of a Pokemon you want to raise. At the end of the dungeon you will find four Deluxe Boxes, all very likely to contain gummies, including ones that are normally rare in your version. Rest shall come soon! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7 - FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to the "question" section on GameFAQs, I can actually rack up questions without having them asked of me! Woohoo! Q: How do I beat Dialga? A: Status, basically. X-eye seed > Dialga. It also helps (though it's not nece- ssary) to have moves that can actually hit neutral/super effective on him, since he walls a lot of types. Fighting and Ground (Dig) hits him for super-effective damage, while fire, ice, and dragon scores neutral. Chances are you don't have a Dragon move though. Q: How do I evolve my starter? A: Finish everything in the storyline and recruit Palkia. Q: Where do I find [insert item here]? A: Wonder Mail is your best friend. Look for them on the Wonder Mail FAQ on GameFAQs, or use a generator (find one on the Internet somewhere - use a search engine like google). Q: How do I recruit [insert Pokemon here]? A: Again, Wonder Mail is your best friend - you can get most Pokemon you want with guaranteed success, albeit at level 1. Q: I got an egg from a mission. What now? A: Check with Chansey Day Care in town. She will be caring for your egg until it hatches. An egg will hatch into a level 1 random Pokemon from the floor where the mission for the egg was completed at. The advantage with hatched Pokemon is that they can know some "Egg moves", which means you can either know certain moves before having to reach the level where you normally get it, or moves that the Pokemon otherwise could not have gotten at all. Q: How do I deal with monster houses? A: Room-wide moves like Blizzard and Discharge works great, especially if you can back it up with STAB. Failing that, use room-wide orbs like Foe-fear, Foe-seal, Totter, and Slumber to park things for a while, then back into a hallway and take things on one by one. If your partner is attacking rather than retreating with you, turn off all of his/her moves and turn the IQ skill "Exclusive move-user" on, so your partner follows you instead. Q: What moves should I teach to my team? A: For every Pokemon, make sure it has a STAB move, which will be your main way of causing damage since STAB gets 50% more power compared to other moves. Your other moves should consist of either moves for "coverage" (IE doing super-effective or at least neutral damage to things that resist your STAB move), or support moves. It really depends on what you're trying to do with each Pokemon. Q: What do I do with a Key? A: Certain dungeons have a locked door on a floor containing items. Face the door, use a key, open it, grab the treasure, and move on. Q: What do I do with Mystery Part/Secret Slab? A: Bring it in your explorations. You can encounter certain legendaries this way, and by defeating them there's a chance they'll ask to join you. Q: I want this cool IQ skill I saw from [insert Pokemon here]. How come my Pokemon doesn't get it? A: Each Pokemon have different IQ groups in which they learn skills from. Each group have different IQ skills available to them and thus they can only learn stuff from their own group. That Charizard of yours is never going to be able to learn PP Saver, Deep Breather or Multitalent, and that Blastoise isn't going to get Nonsleeper no matter how many gummies you shove down his throat. Sorry. More to come when I get/see more questions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 8 - Not-so-boring Legal Stuff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide was made by me, Wenqi Yang, aka MajesticMystic. I hereby grant you permission to modify and redistribute it as you see fit, provided that the two following conditions are met: 1) The Legal Stuff section is not modified. This way people know that *I* wrote this stuff, and they know what they can do with it. 2) The redistribution must NOT be for profit. If you're making money off my work, then I better get some of it too. That about sums up the gist of it. I welcome any website to host this FAQ, yes ANY website, as long as those two conditions are met. Keep in mind though that if I update this FAQ, it will only be done on GameFAQs - I can't keep track of every website that hosts this guide and I won't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 9 - Contact Me ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can e-mail me to this address: [email protected] To those people who know what this means, I never use this phrase seriously in context, so don't think less of me because of it. If you have questions, suggestions, constructive criticisms, constructive *anything*, feel free to e-mail me there. Try to make your e-mail title relevant - It's a lot clearer to me what this mail is about if it's titled "a suggestion to your guide" than if it's titled "hi". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 10 - Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CarlosPit, DarkStar Ripclaw, Bulby101 - It's always good to have references when writing a walkthrough, and references their walkthrough gladly provides. ZombieInfection - One of the wonder mails I used was from his FAQ. Chunsoft - For making this game. Game Freak - For coming up with the idea of Pokemon. Cherry - No particular reasons relevant to this guide. Her presence is enough to be thankful for. God - For reasons I won't go into further, lest I be lynched by angry atheists. And, that's it. I had a blast, and I hope you did too.