Exploring the Area and Learning from Bianca

Exploring the Area and Learning from Bianca

Now that you have your starter and Pokedex, it is time to say ‘Hey!’ to your rival, who will be jealous of your Pokedex, and he is not shy about demanding that Bianca give him one too! She is impressed that he plans to make a journey, and so gives him a Pokedex as well, but of course she doesn’t know about his secret plan, and come to think of it, neither do we!  Bianca then suggests that you and your rival have a battle, and so another tradition in the world of Pokemon is observed!

-- Your first Rival Battle --

The only advice that I can give is to try to win? Seriously, no matter which starter you choose, your rival will have chosen a Pokemon with a slight edge over yours – that is just how it works, but with a little luck (you don’t have a potion, do you?) You will deliver more damage than you take, and so win the day – or the battle! The good part of that is a win will cause your starter to level-up! Not only that, but your rival will have to fork over $500 for losing, which is sweet justice!

Bear in mind that your Pokemon is now injured and weakened, so your next stop should be the Pokemon Center, where you can hand it over to Nurse Joy to be healed! Bianca advises you to have more battles to make your Pokemon stronger (level it up) and then she takes you to the Pokemon Center, and shows you how to get your Pokemon healed. After that Bianca introduces you to the public PCs, which do much more than play Minesweeper and surf YouTube!

The Pokemart is her next reveal, and even more important she explains that the Pokemart is where you buy Pokeballs! She gifts you with x10 Pokeballs, and asks you to follow her so she can show you how to use them. Go ahead and follow her now, and when you go outside your Mom shows up, introduces herself to Bianca, and gifts you with a pair of Running Shoes – nice one!  Now you can run or walk, your choice. Hugh’s sister also has a gift for you: a Town Map! Actually she gives you two, one for you and one she wants you to give to your rival (her brother).

- Route 19 –

As you pass through the Gate, the guard inside sees you finally have a Pokemon and give you the gift of a Potion, which can be used in battle to heal your Pokemon. Bianca is waiting for you outside at the start of Route 19; she leads you into the tall grass and you see her battle with a wild Purrloin, which she makes short work of. You witness her weaken it and then capture it in a Pokeball, and then she explains to you what you just witnessed. With that final lesson delivered she heads off, leaving you to try out your new Pokeballs and capture a Pokemon!

Before you head into the grass bear in mind that while you only need one Pokemon of each type for your Pokedex, if you plan on breeding later, you will need a mate and an alternate. Just saying… For now though, why not jump in and capture yourself a Purrloin now?  Once you do, you get to see its Pokedex record get filled in, and then you get to name it – pick a good name, right?

If your Pokemon took damage, you should make a quick trip back to the Pokemon Center to heal your team up, and you might want to purchase more Pokeballs.   If you buy them ten at a time, you will get a free Premier Ball as a bonus – and hey, free is good so you should try to always buy the regular Pokeballs 10 at a time.

With that managed you may want to hit Route 19 again because in addition to Purrloin, it also offers you a Wild Patrat, and in the second grass patch, your first Trainer encounter, which though not a battle encounter (they will not all be battles) does clue you in that tall grass is where wild encounters happen – but you already knew that. What you may not have known is that running through tall grass increases the likelihood of a Wild Pokemon encounter.

At the third grass patch is a trainer who will tell you all about ledge jumping and even show you how it works. See that Pokeball in the third patch? Walk over and use the action button on it to obtain a Potion from your first Treasure Ball! Well done!

Collecting your First Legendary and First Wondercard Reward

At the moment your priority should be leveling up your new Pokemon so that they are all at least a as high a level as your starter.  In fact this is a regular thing for you to remember: You want to try to keep all the members of your team at or close to the same level. And speaking of levels, as you gain them, you will reach a point where your Pokemon stop obeying your commands. This will begin to happen when they hit the mid-to-upper teens. The reason for that is due to the fact that you lack the first Gym Badge. In the world of Pokemon, each Gym Badge that you win will raise the level of Pokemon who will obey your commands, so obtaining that first Gym Badge will soon be very important to us, but for now building and leveling our team to at least Level 10 is what is really important!

-- Putting Together Your Team --

To start with level your Purrloin and Patrat to match your starter, and once they are in parity, continue along Route 19 past the third patch, where you will be stopped by Alder, who shares his philosophy with you. He asks you to follow him and you do, right into Floccesy Town! Hey, clearly you have added a new town to your world! He tells you that his house is near, but invites you to visit the Pokemon Center first if you like. Either way, when you head up to follow him, he comments on your two maps and tells you where you can find your rival, telling you to deliver that map first.

-- Route 20 --

At the bridge is your first Trainer Battle with Youngster Terrell, who has a Level 4 Patrat for you to battle. In addition to the XP, you also win $64 for beating him. Above Terrell is a set of ledges you are on the bottom side of, so cannot pass.  Cross the bridge for another trainer battle, this time with Lass Isabel, who has a Level 4 Purrloin, and beating it gains you some XP and another $64. In the grass above is a Treasure Ball with a Paralyze Heal in it, and the Youngster Petey, with his Level 4 Patrat to beat. You get another $64, which is nice, but you also have the opportunity to add a Sunkern to your team in this grass patch, and there is your fourth team member!

A Note on Trainer Battles: The point to these is not just to gain XP, which you do in abundance since they tend to have a bit of an extra bonus amount, but also to win money, which you will need plenty of as you progress through your adventure, and that is why it is generally considered a very good idea to have every Trainer Battle you can.  Just saying.

The Hiker past the patch points out to you that a trainer without a single Gym Badge really has no business going any farther along the Route, or down the stairs here…  To emphasize that point he blocks you from going down the stairs at all, so that way is not open to you just yet.