Table of contents
GOLDENLEAF TOWN
The people here aren’t very friendly, but there’s new Pokémon.
Goldenleaf Town Grass
| GRASS: MORN | % | GRASS: DAY | % | GRASS: NIGHT | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phanpy | 32% | Spoink | 32% | Pumpkaboor | 32% |
| Alolan Meowth | 35% | Alolan Meowth | 35% | Drowzee | 45% |
| Bunnelby | 15% | Bunnelby | 15% | Noctowl | 10% |
| Pineco | 10% | Pineco | 10% | Hypno | 4% |
| Diggersby | 4% | Diggersby | 4% | Drifloon | 4% |
| Cubone | 4% | Cubone | 6% |
Goldenleaf Town Water
| GRASS: MORN | % |
|---|---|
| Wooper | 100% |
Remember to catch a Drifloon for Zumi!
Grab the Honey in the pumpkin to the left. In the house above it there’s an artist that wants to work, so we’ll keep him in mind for later. Go down and fight the guy in front of the garden to gain access to it and the cell in there at nighttime. Grab the Rash Mint and the hidden Moon Stone and Rare Candy.
ZCell 022: Goldenleaf Town (Night)
Exit the garden and keep going left. Grab the hidden Ghost Gem in the orange flowers and the Dark Gem slightly more to the left. Enter the house with the mailbox above it. Watch the cutscene and head upstairs to grab the wisp in Ren’s room. Go to Reina’s room and read her journal, then check under the couch for $500. Exit the house and go behind it to grab the Red Shard.
Go left and say hi to Aelita but don’t go to the gym yet. Cut the tree and grab the Big Mushroom at the end of the path. There’s a hidden Super Potion and Ability Capsule on the tables in front of the Poké Mart. Speaking of…
Goldenleaf Mart
| ITEM | PRICE |
|---|---|
| Great Ball | $600 |
| Super Potion | $700 |
| Gourmet Treat | $1500 |
| Repel | $350 |
| Super Repel | $500 |
| Escape Rope | $550 |
Go left toward the cemetery and grab TM59 - Incinerate. In the cemetery itself grab the wisp, the cell, and the hidden Chesto Berry.
ZCell 023: Goldenleaf Town
If you have a starter who’s final evolution has a Hisuian form and you’re wondering how to evolve it, wonder no longer! If you’ve met him in Gearen Park, Mr. Luck will be standing in front of the theatre and will give you Ancient Teachings, an item to evolve your starter into Hisuian Samurott, Typhlosion, or Decidueye.
Go toward the theatre/gym and talk to the woman in front of it and follow her to her home, but not before grabbing the hidden Rawst Berry in front of it.
Enjoy yourself with some fun cutscenes. When you have control over yourself again grab the cell on Narcissa’s balcony when it’s nighttime.
ZCell 024: Goldenleaf Town (Night)
Leave Narcissa’s house. Let’s go down the stairs, then right and up to a new area before following after Ren and Aelita.
Forgotten Path
The path has the same encounters with the same percentages as Goldenleaf town, just more grass to roam around in.
Grab the Green Shard and the Super Potion on the way up then go right and cut the tree to climb the vines. Grab the wisp, the Blue Shard behind the wisp, and TM39 - Rock Tomb. Go back down and grab the cell here.
ZCell 025: Forgotten Path
Go up and grab the hidden Ether, Ghost Gem, Burn Heal, and Great Ball.
That’s all we can do in this area, so let’s follow Ren and Aelita down to Wispy Path, left of Goldenleaf Town.
Wispy Path and Tower
Let’s hold off on going to the tower and explore a bit.
Wispy Path Misc.
| LAND | % | LAND | % | OLD ROD | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pumpkaboo | 35% | Phanpy | 32% | Basculin | 100% |
| Spewpa | 10% | Mightyena | 4% | ||
| Spoink | 10% | Glarian Linoone | 4% | ||
| Galarian Zigzagoon | 10% | Drifloon | 4% |
Head down at the fork in the road and pass through the gate. Grab the Reverse Candy, the cell, the wisp, and the hidden Tiny Mushroom and Lemonade.
ZCell 026: Wispy Path
Talk to the blonde guy in front of the house to hear Espurr’s story. We’re gonna play with Espurr for a bit to get it to trust us. You can take it for a walk, play on the slide, or give it an ice cream! If you don’t have any ice cream you can always buy some at the Route 3 festival. You can also chat with Espurr too, and I’ll list the responses that give more points below:
- I’m having fun too!
- Same.
- Profess your love, Espurr!
- Whoa?! No way!
It’ll take a bit to get it to trust you, but you can check your progress by leaving the gated area and seeing how Espurr responds. Once it trusts you completely you’ll be able to add Espurr onto your team! (+1 Karma)
Leave the gated area and go left to grab the hidden Hyper Potion and Ability Capsule, then keep going up and around for the Green Shard, the Careful Mint, the Rawst Berry, and the Ghost Gem. Go through the north gate, we’re going to ignore the west gate until after the gym.
While we’re technically in a new area, we can’t catch any Pokémon here just yet so I’ll be holding off on putting a section for it and listing the Pokémon. For now, grab the Bold Mint to the right and enter the tower to watch the cutscene.
Friendship Value Choices
- I accept! (Aelita +2, Narcissa +4)
- I dunno… (Aelita -1, Narcissa -2)
You can read the tombstones around here if you’d like, just go back to the Pokémon Center when you’re done exploring and talk to Aelita.
Friendship Value Choices
- It was nothing… (Aelita +2, Ren +2)
- Kinda uncomfortable. (Aelita +1, Ren +1)
- Uhh what’s happening? (Neutral)
You’ll have to battle Sariah afterwards but her Pokémon are fairly weak and she only has two of them. Go sleep upstairs when you’re done for the day… Except not quite! You’ll be pulled into an attack on the Pokémon Center. Defeat the “ghost Pokémon” downstairs then return upstairs and watch the cutscenes.
Friendship Value Choices
- How’d you know? (Neutral)
- I want to go home. (Mosely -2)
- Time to whoop ass! (Neutral, even though it seems like you get +2)
Go to Wispy Tower! You’ll have to watch a cutscene before getting to where we actually wanna go, but make sure to grab the wisp at the top of the room before following Mosely!
FORSAKEN LABORATORY
Go to floor ??? and witness Ren try to battle… something. You’ll learn about group talk! Not only are the cutscenes from group talk very fun to watch, a lot of the time they’re necessary to progress with the information that they hold. Press ‘A’ every time you’re in a new room with Narcy and Mosely to see!
Forsaken Laboratory Grass
| LAND | % | LAND | % | LAND | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alolan Diglett | 32% | Dunsparce | 12% | Geodude | 10% |
| Graveler | 14% | Alolan Dugtrio | 9% |
There’s a couple of grunts here with shadow Pokémon but our snag machine is still broken. :(
Look around all the rooms for journals that you’re able to read. They provide a lot of interesting context and information about the building. The first one is near the computers in the main room.
Enter the room on the left, read the journal, and group talk. Interact with the poster to get a password: UNBOUND. Exit and enter the room even further left to grab a Revive. That’s all we can do here for now so after some group talk head all the way to the right.
There’s a panel waiting for the password we just got. Don’t forget you can heal your Pokémon with the recovery component up top! Cross the gate and go all the way down the hallway to grab an Ether. Enter the open room we just passed. Talk to the Dusknoir poster to get another password: SOUL.
Go right and enter the password into the panel. Enter the next room and interact with the poster on the wall once more.
Friendship Value Choices
- Gregory? (Neutral)
- Sirius hid this. (Neutral)
- You seriously didn’t know? (Mosely -2, Narcissa -2)
When you’re ready head up through the gate that was just opened and prepare for a battle.
EliAndSharonBattle
Just in case you didn’t notice before, Sharon and Eli aren’t an actual double battle. Meaning they act as one trainer so you can’t focus down one side of the Pokémon to fight 2v1. It usually doesn’t make that big of a difference, especially not with their first fight, but it’s relatively important to know going forward as the battles get harder.
Anyway, this fight is your typical bulky Pokémon wanting to weaken you before their hard hitters can come in and sweep. If your stats get too low I’d recommend just straight up switching out before Honchkrow and Mismagius come in. Luckily Honchkrow doesn’t have Sucker Punch yet, but there’s still a reason to fear it with Drill Peck and Mismagius’ Mystical Fire. Their Pokémon don’t benefit from the field all that much, so you should be good on that end.
Once you beat them, you’re home free to enter the next room! Except… Not really. Eli and Sharon were just a prelude for what’s to come. Watch the cutscene and get ready for a mini gauntlet.
GiratinaBoss
What’s there really to say about this? Giratina hits hard and has decent defenses and resistances, shock horror. Your best bet is strong dark types since they can take advantage of the field with some of their moves and can resist STAB Shadow Claw. Lowering its stats could also be helpful, just remember that they clear on the first shield break which might mean that you can try spamming stat lowering moves after that has already happened. Alternatively, you can switch to Factory Field with a Discharge. It won’t do much damage, but it’ll get rid of the boost that Shadow Claw gets which is always going to be Giratina’s preferred move to use. Consider some Cheri Berries too, since Dragon Breath has a tendency to paralyze and you always want to move faster than it.
By this point you should also have at least 2 Pokémon that learn Destiny Bond (Banette and Qwilfish off the top of my head), which can be used to break a shield instantly. It only works once, but it’s a solid strategy if you’re really struggling to get through this. Toxic is also a valid strategy here too if you’ve got it and don’t want to paralyze Giratina to make sure your Pokémon go first.
We’re not done yet though. While not a true gauntlet where your Pokémon aren’t healed, you won’t be able to switch out your team between Giratina and Geara’s fight. Consider spamming the ‘D’ key to quicksave in between cutscenes if you’re worried you might not be able to beat Geara on your first try.
GearaBattle
I’m not sure if this is a popular opinion but Geara’s first fight does feel like the moment where someone will point and go “the real Pokémon Rejuvenation experience starts here.” It’s a well balanced, well put together doubles team and the first battle where all the Pokémon have decent items. Persian, if it can help it, is going to hit first with a gem boosted Covet and let Marowak finish up, so plan with that by either putting a Pokémon with Intimidate up front or having an even faster Pokémon go first to lower attack. Geara’s team benefits quite well with the field too, boosting Haunter, Clefairy, and Morgrem who will try its best to stall your onslaught with Prankster screens.
I recommend Obstagoon for this fight if you’re struggling putting together a team. Not only does it do good with Giratina’s boss battle from before, but it can block the screens and has field boosted Night Slash to take out anything it wants. Just be careful of Dazzling Gleam, but Clefairy and Morgrem are slower than it so you should be fine. Once again, changing the field to the Factory Field might be your friend here to stop those boosts and boost your own Pokémon’s electric moves.
It’s only going to get harder from here, so take advantage of the frail Pokémon on his team and hit them fast and hard, and don’t let Masquerain lower your attack if you can. Thankfully most of his Pokémon, save for Haunter and Persian, aren’t that fast, so you have some wiggle room here.
Be treated to some satisfying cutscenes when you win and have a lovely dinner! You deserve the break, especially since we have one more big fight coming up!