Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness Walkthrough
By MajesticMystic
v1.02
June 8, 2009
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, or you know, just play
without using a walkthrough.
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Table of Content
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Section 1 - Introduction
Section 2 - Version History
Section 3 - My Game Info
Section 4 - The Walkthrough itself (pre-credits)
4.1 Starter Selection
4.2 A Stormy Sea
4.3 The New Guild Recruits
4.4 The Scream
4.5 Gatekeepers
4.6 The First Official Exploration
4.7 Team Skull
4.8 The Guild's Big Expedition
4.9 Groudon's Heart
4.10 The Mystery of Fogbound Lake
4.11 Dusknoir
4.12 Grovyle the Thief
4.13 The Only Option
4.14 Dusknoir's Secret
4.15 Into the Future
4.16 The Secret of the Planet's Paralysis
4.17 A New Dawn
4.18 The Guild's Crew
4.19 Lapras
4.20 To the Hidden Land
4.21 The Last Adventure
Section 5 - Walkthrough for post-credits
5.1 Graduation from the Guild
5.2 The lost explorer of fame, Scizor
5.3 The Prince of the Sea - Manaphy
5.4 The Fabulous Team Charm
5.5 The distortion of space, and the dastardly plot of Darkrai
5.6 The last of your storyline
Section 6 - Optional Dungeons
6.1 Mission Unlocked Dungeons
6.2 Seven Treasure Dungeons
6.3 Storyline unlocked dungeons
Section 7 - FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Section 8 - Not-so-boring Legal Stuff
Section 9 - Contact Me
Section 10 - Credits
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Section 1 - Introduction
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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!
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Section 2 - Version History
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v1.00 The guide was created.
v1.01 Added one question and fixed one GLARING OVERSIGHT. Seriously, how did
you guys not notice that I forgot to write a Table of Contents? Also, I
realized I forgot to mention key chambers in some dungeons, so I added them.
(I never publicized this version BTW)
v1.02 Added the seven treasure dungeons and Final Maze, and corrected tidbits
here and there. I'll be working on the mission unlocked dungeons next.
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Section 3 - My Game Info
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Main Pokemon - Meowth (Seth)
Partner - Pikachu (Pikachu) (I have no creativity. Sue me)
Exploration Team Name - Anima
Game Version - Darkness
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Section 4 - The Walkthrough itself (pre-credits)
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4.1 - Starter selection
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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!
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4.2 - A Stormy Sea
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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.
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4.3 - The New Guild Recruits
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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.
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4.4 - The Scream
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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.
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4.5 - Gatekeepers
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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.
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4.6 - The First Official Exploration
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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
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 worry 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!
