To Mahogany Town and Beyond!

To Mahogany Town and Beyond!

Capturing the Red Gyarados

From here head east through the gate house and onto Route 42.

Route 42 Beasties List

-- Aipom #123 (Any) Headbutt
-- Flaaffy #054 (Any) Normal
-- Goldeen #078 (Any) Fishing
-- Goldeen #078 (Any) Surfing
-- Heracross #114 (Any) Headbutt
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Fishing
-- Mankey #136 (Any) Normal
-- Mareep #053 (Any) Normal
-- Seaking #079 (Any) Fishing
-- Seaking #079 (Any) Surfing
-- Spearow #013 (Any) Headbutt
-- Spearow #013 (Any) Normal

As you exit the gate house on to the Route you will spy a treasure ball above by the cliff -- grab that to get TM65, Shadow Claw, then move east and a bloke will pop out of the cave entrance and give you HM04, Strength.  This is obviously a good thing!  If you have not already done so teach Surf to one of your team, and then Surf east across the water here to the other side. 

Cut the tree here and go south to gather the three Apricorn trees -- a Pink, a Green, and a Yellow one.  Head up and east to grab the Super Potion from the treasure ball,  For now we are ignoring Mt. Mortar and continue east, fighting the trainers we encounter.  I am no longer going to list the trainers and their teams since you have reached the point in developing your team where you no longer need to fear these encounters.

After you cross and fight the fisherman you will notice a small section of grass below the path with a boulder that you have to use Surf to reach -- go there and target the boulder with A to find a hidden Max Potion -- always a good thing to find.  Now, back on the trail heading east, fight two more trainers and we arrive in Mahogany Town!

-- Mahogany Town  --

Hit the Center to heal and save then talk to the bloke standing in front of the Town Gym.  Okay, Team Rocket is clearly active in this town -- and that Souvenir Shop sure looks suspicious!   Inside you can buy a few items -- I topped-off my potions and regular balls -- and you will note a radio in the left corner that, when you click on it, makes a strange signal.  Head outside and load your radio -- it is already picking up the strange signal!  What could that be??

Head east up to the bloke standing by the house and he will offer to sell you a Rage Candy Bar -- I bought one -- you should too!  Now head into the house and talk to the mother to learn what is really going on...  A rare Red Gyarados?!  Hey, that means it is a Shiny!  We have to investigate this!

-- Route 43 --

Route 43 Beasties List

-- Exeggcute #105 (Any) Headbutt
-- Flaaffy #054 (Any) Normal
-- Girafarig #149 (Any) Normal
-- Hoothoot #015 (Any) Headbutt
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Fishing
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Surfing
-- Mareep #053 (Any) Normal
-- Noctowl #016 (Night) Normal
-- Pidgeotto #011 (Morn/Day) Normal
-- Pineco #093 (Any) Headbutt
-- Poliwag #072 (Any) Fishing
-- Venonat #109 (Any) Headbutt
-- Venonat #109 (Morn/Night) Normal

Head back into town and follow the north path, and talk to the guard in the gate house to learn he is looking for a red scale.  Continue on to the north and we have a trainer battle, then head up the tall grass path to the west of the gate above -- this is a perfect opportunity to snag a Girafarig by the way!  Fight the trainer here, and then the trainer above, before turning south to grab the Max Ether -- yes I know you could have just gone through the gate to grab that but where is the fun in that?!

Backtrack to the pond to the west and Surf out onto that and up to take on another trainer -- you should be finding this a really easy leveling spot for your starter!  Follow the northwest path to reach the entrance to the Lake of Rage.

-- Lake of Rage --

Lake of Rage Beasties List

-- Exeggcute #105 (Any) Headbutt
-- Gyarados #077 (Any) Fishing
-- Gyarados #077 (Any) Surfing
-- Hoothoot #015 (Any) Headbutt
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Fishing
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Surfing
-- Pineco #093 (Any) Headbutt
-- Venonat #109 (Any) Headbutt

At the entrance use Surf to the left (west) to grab the Red Flute from the treasure ball there.  Now follow the path north and loop around through the water maze to reach the area above, where there is a house.  Inside is a bloke who will give you TM10, Hidden Power.  Now backtrack a bit and head north again and grab TM43, Secret Power, from the treasure ball above.  Now work your way east, but avoid confronting the Red Gyarados, all the way to the eastern shore and then head north, grabbing the Choice Specs from the treasure ball there.

Now we need to return to the eastern shore, following the path south to the Fishing Guru's House -- inside you talk to the Guru, and he fills you in on his take on the situation.  At this point you have to decide if you are going to take down the Red Gyarados -- and when I say take down, I mean capture!  Come on, this is a Shiny!  You cannot NOT catch it!  But if you are set to do that, heed this warning:

He is a Level 30, and you cannot use electrical moves like Thunder safely on him, because he is both a Water and a Flying Type, which means that those moves will probably kill it.  You will want your team to be at LEAST level 30 across the board, but you should be close to that now anyway.  So if you are not ready, go level up, and when you have leveled up, go get a bunch of Great Balls and maybe five Net Balls..

If you need to level up, follow the path south back to town as there are some trainers here that we can battle -- this is the proper gate path by the way, that we avoided by following the grass path to the west.  Anyway, fight them, get leveled, hit the Center to heal and save, and be sure that you have the balls that you need for this capture!  Ready?  Excellent!  Let's go get that Shiny Red Gyarados!

-- The Red Gyarados --

The way that I approached this fight was to pick a fairly higher-level Pokemon -- my Sableye, Leli, who is at Level 44, and knows the moves Faint Attack, Knock Off, Confuse Ray, and Shadow Ball.  This is part of the three teams that I imported after winning the last Gym Battle in order to save time and not have to level my starting team here.  Obviously Confuse Ray would be a bad move to use, as would any move that will either damage over time or allow the target to damage itself.  I decided to go with Faint Attack because it carves away health in predictable amounts.

As you watch the video, you will see that three hits took it into the red -- maybe not as far into the red as I would have preferred but you work with what you have.  If the health had been more reduced I very likely would have used Great Balls for this capture, but as there was still a meaningful chunk of health there, I went with a Net Ball, which as we all know, has a small advantage at catching Water-types.  I did not re-shoot this video, I really did capture it on the first toss, and yes, that is rare!  You can expect to go through quite a few balls catching this one, I just got really lucky here.

After you capture it, you receive the Red Scale, a Key Item that you are going to want to hold on to as it has a specific and valuable use that we cover in the next section!

-- Back to Mahogany Town --

Now that we have completed this area, it is time to head back to shore -- where you will encounter Lance, who you may recall was a member of the Elite Four in the last four games!  He fills you in on his take of what has happened here, and then asks for your help, telling you that he thinks you are a serious trainer.  Coming from Lance that is something of a good compliment!

Follow Lance back to town and enter the Shop, where you find him frantically searching for the secret entrance that he knows is there.  If you need to, hit the Center, heal and then save before you enter the Shop.  Lance opens the secret entrance, and we follow him downstairs, tripping the first alarm and having our first fight!  Basically we want to fight our way through this secret headquarters,

That first alarm earns us a series of fights.  At the first junction head south and then east, past the next junction, tripping another alarm.  Do these fights, then grab the Hyper Potion from the treasure ball.  Backtrack to the previous junction and follow it south and east, where you will battle Scientist Gregg, then grab the Guard Spec.

Backtrack to the junction and head east and south, then west to the next alarm.  After these fights, continue west and grab the Nugget from the treasure ball, then trip the next alarm to the west.  If you are using the same team member you are probably burning through PP at an alarming rate, so you may want to switch-out your lead after every few alarms, right?

Ahead is a teleport pad, some stairs going down, and north is a grid of squares that can spawn wild battles.  If you do not have a Voltorb, this is a place that you can get one!  If you head straight up you meet up with the original hallway that we entered the headquarters by.  There is a grunt above you can fight for the XP and another alarm that you can trigger for some more XP.  After you wrap up these fights, head back down and use the stairs (the teleport pad just takes you back to the entrance). 

Lance is waiting for you -- he heals your team so you now have your PP fully recharged -- and Lance heads down the hall.  Follow him, but head south at the juncture and click on the middle crate to the west, for a Full Heal, then head back up to the first hall and fight the grunt, then down and east to fight another grunt before using the stairs to go down to the next level.

Lance is waiting and has figured out how we can get the door on the level above open -- we need the Executives voice to do it. As he is hiding in the leader's office, well... We are going to need several passwords to make all this happen! 

Head into the room north of you and beat the scientist and thug there -- beating the grunt gets you the first password!  There is a Full Heal in the east hall so grab that and then continue west to the next room and defeat the scientist and thug there for the second password.  At the back of the room is a pair of treasure balls -- one with X-Special, one with a Protein.   At the top of the hall to the north is a treasure ball with TM49, Snatch. 

Now head to the northeast corner of the level and up the stairs, then follow the hall west, beat the grunt, and head down the stairs here.  Head south and around the corner and you will be confronted by your Rival, who will give you a piece of his mind -- and his new doubts about himself.  Hmmm.  Then he leaves -- what?! No fight??

Grab the Ultra Ball ahead and then open the doors here, then take out the fake Giovanni, and the battle is on!  A short fight and the Rocket Exec takes off, and the Murkrow in the corner reveals that it can mimic his voice.  Follow the Murkrow to the door and it will open it for you, which triggers yet another confrontation!

You fight Ariana and a Grunt with Lance as your partner, and the fight is rather one-sided, as you and Lance have much higher teams than they do.  All you need to do now is defeat the Electrode on your side to disable the machine and save the day!  Lance gives you HM05, Whirlpool.  Before you leave do the stairs to get to the dead end and grab the treasure ball with TM46, Thief.

Return to town and the Center, heal and save, then head over to the Gym!

-- Mahogany Town Gym --

This is an Ice-Type Gym, so bring your flamer and cut him loose!  As long as you trained your team up to Level 30 minimum -- and you should have already done that to get the Red Gyarados.  I used a combination of Fire-Type and Water-Type to get through the sub-leaders, and then Water-Type to do in the Gym Leader with no real challenge here.

After defeating the Gym Leader you are awarded the Glacier Badge, and the ability to use Whirlpool outside of battle!   He also gives us TM07, Hail.  Congrats on your 5th Gym Badge!  Head over to the Center, heal and save!