Yshtolae

Only played for 2 days, so nothing has reset yet. I just did the mind-numbing low level Pokemon grind until I was able to beat Surge. Normally I would have used Dugtrio in Diglett's Cave to help get levels faster, but that was blocked off. My only issue is when they block off access to areas that would help with leveling, to make things harder. Which is what seems to be the case here. MMO Grind isn't really an excuse for stuff like that, to me. Like Diglett's Cave was a common leveling area before Surge in the games, but that's been denied to inflate the difficulty (or more accurately, the grind time) Doing that in later regions, after you've had time to acclimate, seems reasonable. But it's less so with Kanto. And the issue I faced was not realizing I was blocked out from getting a Diglett to use against Surge. So instead I had to walk ALL the way back to Mt. Moon to get a Sandshrew, then train that one up to help against him. Stuff like this seems like it needs to be addressed. Especially with how bikes are locked behind $60k (unless you wait until you can catch a Ditto, which is around the time you are able to go to Cinnabar, iirc.) It's not that it's difficult. It's just the artificial roadblocks imposed. In the original design you could have gone towards Rock Tunnel to help level, even if you don't have flash to actually get through the tunnel. But the devs of this deliberately blocked that area off to stop this and make progress take longer. They did the same with Diglett's Cave, which was always designed as a place to pick up a Ground-type if you needed it, before Surge. But again, they blocked that access off with really no good reason behind it. Aside from "Pay us so you can get boosted XP, so your leveling is more akin to normal and not a grinding slog." Just seems like it's not a good look for beginners to run up against stuff like that.

Yeah, no. Doesn't work like that in this game. The devs put deliberate roadblocks to prevent stuff like this from happening. You cannot go east of Cerulean because it tells you that you need Flash. You cannot get Flash or use it without beating Surge. You can't even enter Diglett's Cave because they put an NPC in to stop you and force you to face Surge first.

Having a lot of issues since I just started. Tried looking online. The guides all seem full of misinformation, at best. I'm up to Lt. Surge. Problem is, I'm blocked out of Diglett's Cave entirely because some random NPC won't let me proceed farther. In the normal games, at the very least I can enter the cave to get a Diglett for leveling. But in this case, I seemingly have to go ALL the way back to Mt. Moon which is a horrible design, at best. Just to get a low level Sandshrew/Geodude, then find a place to train them. But...where? XP share is going, but I need somewhere to actually use a Ground/Rock to level. Guides online are no help. Viridian Forest is too weak. Trying areas around Cerulean by the type matching sucks and from what someone else is saying, switching out (the traditional method in the games, is broken in PRO to where you get drastically less XP if you do this, something about the formula used) 10-20 it says Route 6 as my only option, but that's no good because it's full of grass/flying/water pokemon and I'm trying to level ground/rock. And I'm needing level 30 or so for Surge. But 20-30 the guides say Pokemon Tower or Diglett Cave. Which, I can't enter either of these, because the Tower is off beyond Rock Tunnel, iirc. And Diglet's Cave has been blocked by the game devs. I can get the game is supposed to be grindy. But why the arbitrary roadblocks for new members to make them struggle more? It's not exactly fun.