Local Trainers Pokémon¶

Once you leave the Institute - be sure you healed again at the beds! - go east, across the bridge, then downstairs. Surf southeastward from here and keep doing so until you land on the east shore. There will be a small hole in the grass - use the Dowsing Machine to find a hidden Ultra Ball !

Further downriver, you’ll find a Leaf Stone near the rock barrier. If you go upriver from where you first Surfed, you’ll find a waterfall; land on the east shore and examine the northernmost grassy tile for a Max Ether .

Now, return to proper land and head north of the Surfing spot. As you do, your rival will come up and, seeing your Mega Bracelet, throw you into a battle!

BOSS: Pokémon Trainer Brendan/May¶

Rewards: $1,320

To be honest, not a lot has changed in your rival since Route 110 other than their Pokémon’s levels. But there are new ways to circumvent their Pokémon! There’s also the fact that it is Rainy right now, which can affect your strategy as well as theirs.

Much of your strategy, from a different angle, could just consist of nuking with Mega Latias/Latios and just spamming Surf or Luster Purge.

Shroomish : The usual here: a Grass move and a few status moves. You should probably have a Flying Pokémon or a Bug by now that’ll have little trouble handling this one. Generic STAB moves work well enough here, he’s not much of a worry unless you have Swampert as a lead.

Wailmer : This Pokémon will be able to take great advantage of the Rain: accounting for STAB, too, his Water moves are at 2.25x power, stronger than your generic super-effective hit. It is therefore best to take him out with extreme prejudice.

Which probably means Pikachu with Discharge/Thunderbolt/Thunder if you’ve kept up with him. Breloom, Sceptile or other Grass Pokémon also work well and you can always just throw out Swampert since you can wall him by taking in Water damage while using Ground moves back.

Slugma : Surf + Rain = One-Hit KO in this case. Even without STAB this situation equates to 300% damage, and STAB to 450% or even 540% with the Expert Belt. You seriously didn’t switch out your Surf user, did you? In that case, you can bring back your Latios/Latias from your PC and teach it Surf.

Even untrained, Latios/Latias can still One-Hit KO this sucker, and there’s always Ground moves as well from Swampert or Fighting moves from Blaziken. In fact, most Water, Ground, and/or Fighting Pokémon won’t have trouble here; after all, his Fire moves are weakened.

Grovyle : This is another situation where you simply can set up a direct (preferably non-Fire) counter and win outright. Your Lati will work pretty well here, being able to resist Grass while throwing back a nuking Luster Purge or the like. Generic Flying and Bug Pokémon also work, nothing special.

Combusken : Nuke with your Latios/Latias or a Water Pokémon and move on; there’s no real threat with this guy in the rain.

Marshtomp : Definitely a threat in the rain. Although Bide just leaves it wide open to a KO. In any case, a good Grass Pokémon or Pokémon with such moves will more than suffice here for a One-Hit KO, eg. Breloom, Gardevoir with Magical Leaf or Gallade with Leaf Blade.

You can also just do another walling thing with your Latios/Latias; they’ll resist Water and are immune to Ground, so just use Surf or Luster Purge. (Surf is stronger due to the Rain than Luster Purge, even with STAB.)

After the battle, you’ll be handed HM02 (Fly). Fly is a semi-decent move in battle that takes two turns to execute; it’s better used in the field for Flying around to previously-visited towns though you’ll need the Feather Badge!

That bit aside, continue further along the path. As you get atop the final plateau - you’ll see a few signs nearby and a few Berry trees in the distance - you’ll be able to battle a not-so-easily-hidden Ninja Boy.

Of course, pick the three sets of Pomeg Berries to the north, too. Ah, we remember the glitches these caused. Further to the east will be Fortree.