08: Slateport City

08: Slateport City

When you arrive it becomes very clear that this is not a small no-consequence place!  In fact it appears to be a major resort destination of the sort Dewford can only dream to be!

First get the exploration bit out of the way but talking with everyone and battling the trainers here on the beach.  A young bather gives you Soft Sand, and if you walk in just right you get a Double battle that could have been a triple if the game allowed it!

There is a second Double near the Treasure Ball, with the two trainers hidden under beach brollies, so you do get some decent XP from this beach!  Inside the Treasure Ball is a Potion, so be sure to grab that.

You get a call from Roxanne as you approach the Seashore House -- go inside to have some more trainer battles and learn where Paris Hilton learned the phrase "That's Hot!" from.

After you beat all of the trainers talk to the bloke in the back and he will give you some free soda pop as he is very impressed by your battling.

-- Slateport Market --

North of the Seashore House is the Slateport Market, a place that should be of considerable interest to any Pokemon Trainer!

Among the items that you can purchase here are plush stuffed Pokemon Dolls (something to remember for decorating your secret hideout later), special stat-altering items like Protein, Iron, and etc.  Next to the bloke who sells the stat items is a woman who will award your fully-trained Pokemon with the Effort Ribbon if they have earned it.

A bloke who belongs to the Secret Power Consortium who will only sell to you if you have that, and a woman who will give you an important Key Item called a Powder Jar that you will use for making Berry items.

Pop into the Pokemon Fan Club to learn the move Swagger, be interviewed on TV, and if your Pokemon really loves you, a girl in the back will give you a Soothe Bell held item.  Be sure to chat up the Chairmen (sitting on the couch) before you leave.

Visit the Name Rater's house to have him consider the names you have chosen and, if he thinks you can do better, help you change a name.  Visit the Battle Tent and talk to the trainers there to obtain TM41, Torment, and learn how the events work by chatting up the bloke at the counter.  If you want to battle here go ahead, I will wait for you.

Ready to go?  Excellent! 

Hit the Poke Mart to stock up on kit -- including Great Balls --  and then the Center to heal and save.  Now for the interesting bits...  Make sure you buy a Harbor Mail while you are here, I will explain why later.

Walk past the long line of Aqua Thugs to the boat building building, and chat up the Engineer, who will ask you to go find Captain Stern,  That sounds like a great idea! 

He was not upstairs in the boat building building -- God I love saying that -- boat building building... Muahahahaha!  So I went to the Museum and saw that the line was gone, so what the heck!  Why not go inside?

On the second floor we find Captain Stern, who is happy to get the package we came to deliver, but just when we think we have done well along comes Team Aqua to screw up our day!

Well obviously that cannot be allowed to happen.  Battle Mode!

If you trained your team into the 20's this guy was a push-over.  And so was his buddy!  The leader -- Archie -- shows up to tell you off, then you deliver the goods to Stern and he takes off, and hey, mission accomplished!

When you go downstairs one of the Aqua Grunts has remained behind -- if you talk to him he gives you TM46, Thief, because he feels guilty for what he tried to do to you!

As you leave the museum, Scott, the bloke who insulted us and is looking for Pokemon Masters walks up to have a chat.  He swaps PokeNav numbers with you and then takes off.  Odd bloke that Scott!

The real reward for delivering the Package!

-- Collecting the Real Reward --

Now before we do anything else, we need to head back to Mr. Briney and take his boat back to Dewford, and then to Rustboro.  I know, every other guide in the world tells you to head north from here to continue on your adventure, right?  Yeah, well those guides were written by Trainers who do not understand the importance of the item we are going to be rewarded with. 

Because of that, and their failure to return and collect our rightful reward, they made the game 10 times harder on all the poor trainers who used THEIR guide!  So trust me mate, this is worth the effort and the time it will take.  Head back to Briney and take his boat back to his Cottage now.

Run through the spooky forest, over the bridge, into town, and up to the President's Office to tell him of your success, and he will be pleased!  So pleased, in fact, that he rewards you with what has to be the most time-saving uber item in the game: the held item EXPERIENCE SHARE!

"What's it do mate?"   I hear you asking.  I will tell you that, yes I will!  What it does is give the Pokemon that is holding it HALF of the XP from ANY BATTLE.  Whether they were in the battle or not.  Now, think on that a minute mate.  You can now power level your weaker Pokemon using your stronger ones without having to swap them out! 

This will not only make it easier to complete your Dex, it will make leveling your Team easier, especially later in the game when you need to swap in new members that have to be leveled up to the team's level!

You don't have to thank me, mate.  It is my job to give you the good info, so just say "Good Job!" and we will leave it at that!

Right, now we have to go back to Mr. Briney and use his boat to get back to Slateport -- but along the way I want you to pay close attention to the people and the objects that we pass, as this will become important later.

There are a LOT of trainers on the water here, and once we get the move Surf we will be able to milk them for XP and money, but there is also a wrecked cruise ship on the shore between Dewford and Slateport that will be very important to us later, and I want its location fixed in your mind now.

Right, so back to Slateport now, get!