Sprout Tower, Route 32, Ruins of Alph and Union Cave
By Iceduck

It might look like a lot, but these four locations won't keep you busy for long at this point - two of them will make you come back for more, though.

Your first stop is Sprout Tower. Beating this place isn't completely necessary for finishing the game, but it provides easy experience, a new Pokémon and HM05, Flash. Flash is useful for exploring Dark Cave and catching Marill later on. Its almost certainly required for getting a Tyrogue - you could work out your way without Flash, but its not worth the bother.

Sprout tower is pretty easy. So easy, that it provides easy experience for your ever-growing Zubat. Send Zubat up first, then switch for a Pidgey to use Gust or Spearow to use Peck. All the trainers here use Bellsprouts (except for two that have a HootHoot each), so flying attacks will be super-effective against them. HootHoot's are also easily taken out by any strong attacks - you should find them easy after beating Falkner's gym. Beat the leader for HM05, and remember to pick up the escape rope in the corner.

NOTE: Escape rope can be quite useful for escaping dungeons (i.e. places such as towers and caves), but very few people use them for some reason. I found several unused escape ropes on my PC in Blue - if you never use them, sell them! You only get half the price, but its still better than letting them rot in your PC.

You can catch a Gastly during the night. The only other Pokémon here is Rattata, so its more interesting to come in the night.

Route 32 is directly south of Violet gym. There's a Psncureberry tree here - it works like a Berry, but it cures poison instead of restoring 10HP. These are more useful than Berries, because as your Pokémon get stronger, 10HP will make less of a difference, but a Pokémon can get poisoned at any level.

Here's what you can find in Route 32s grass:

Mareep will help you quite a bit in the near future, as the first electric type you can catch for a while. It won know any electric moves when you catch it, so take your time to train it. Hoppip doesn't have any attacking moves, so the only way to train it is to send it up first in battle, and then switch Pokémon straight away. It'll take a while, but it learns Tackle at around :L10.

There's a Poke Center at the end of the Route. You'll have to fight a few trainers first, though. A picnicker here has a Nidoran(f), which'll help you complete your Pokedex - if you check the area of any Pokémon you've seen (or caught for that matter), it'll show you where you can catch them. The picnicker will also ask you for your phone number. If you plan on training psychic types in the future, it could be a good idea. Otherwise, its not worth the effort. Trainers phone you all the time to discuss pointless subjects, and only occasionally ask for another battle.

Once you get to the Poke Center, you'll see a fisher (wearing a hat). Talk to him, and answer yes to his question - he'll give you his Old Rod! Press start, select Pack, and go across to the Key Items pocket. Select it, and choose SEL. This means all you have to do is press select next to water to use the Old Rod.

Because its old and battered, you won catch anything too strong. You'll hook Magikarp by the dozens, but occasionally you'll find a Tentacool. Catch the Tentacool, as its quite useful. Magikarp can do anything. Remember this - its information that every Pokémon trainer should know. It can only learn Splash and Tackle - Tackle isn't useful because Magikarp has a low attack, and Splash doesn't do anything. Evolve it into Gyarados at :L20, and you'll have one of the games most versatile Pokémon. Until then, Magikarp can't do ANYTHING!

If you have a grass type you want to train (or if Mareep learns an electric move), there are many fishers on the bridge above the Poke Center. Two things to remember - one, Magikarp can't do ANYTHING! Send your weakest Pokémon against them, as they'll be able to take them out with little effort. Two, get Ralph's phone number! After beating Ralph, talk to him. If he phones you to discuss Qwilfish, make your way back to Route 32 straight away - it means there's a swarm of Qwilfish (a very rare Pokémon otherwise) in the water, but you'll need a better rod first.

Halfway up (or down) Route 32 is a small building similar to the one on Route 29 that lead to Route 46 (containing Geodudes, Spearows and Jigglypuffs). This one leads to the Ruins of Alph. This can be one of the most tedious areas of the game.

You'll meet wild Natus and Smeargles in the long grass outside, but you can get to it yet. Inside, however, you'll only find one type of Pokémon. To gain access to the ruins, you have to complete one of four puzzles. They're basically jigsaws of rare Pokémon - Ho-oh, Omastar, Kabuto or Aerodactyl. Complete one, and you'll fall through the floor.

Wild Unown attack on this floor. There are 26 different Unown shapes - one for each letter of the alphabet (Ruins of ALPH - see?). Catch 'em all (where have I heard this before?) to unlock a mega-useful...Unown font. Erm...yes. And you'll have at least twenty-six of the worst Pokémon in the game as well. At least Magikarp can evolve! Unown? Rubbish.

Anyway, don try and catch all the Unown yet - it'll be very expensive Pokéball-wise. Wait until you have more money. If you want, you can catch one for the Pokedex. Catch three different versions, and a man in a house outside will give you an Unowndex. You can access it from your Pokedex.

Once you've done what you want to do, go south to Union Cave (you have to leave the ruins first, and follow Route 32 past the PokéCenter).

Because caves aren't affected by day or night, the table of Pokémon is quite simple:

Make your way through the cave. Its quite straightforward, as long as you remember that you don have to go down any ladders to reach the exit. If you do go down a ladder, you'll meet the same Pokémon, only at higher levels.

Page written by Psythor.

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