Frequently Asked Story Questions and their Answers! - Hoenn

[Bhimoso]

Welcome to the Frequently Asked Story Questions Manual!

 

This manual is specifically made for Help chat helpers, Discord Moderators and anyone who is constantly helping in General Support or ingame or in Discord. This guide/manual aims to answer almost all possible story questions unrelated to specific pokemon, pvp stuff, bosses, or anything too in-depth. This guide just answers most Story questions that are repeated nonstop throughout Discord and Ingame. With this handbook, you should be able to help out any newbie! We don't tackle mechanics here, this will be tackled on in other guides.

 

This is the third part this guide will be divided in. This guide will try to cover Story related questions that are commonly asked nonstop everywhere. Here we will tackle the Hoenn Region, as the last region will be tackled in a future guide! I will be editing this with possible new questions that may arise in the future. (like Missions and other optional stuff) Let’s begin!

 

What should I carry to Hoenn before I enter the region?

Hoenn has several places where you will be hardstuck. Hoenn is also different to Johto: in Johto, when you defeat the 8^th badge, you’ll be able to go back to Kanto. However, once you enter Hoenn, you will NOT be able to go to any region until you defeat the Elite Four in Hoenn.

Before you enter Hoenn, stack up on healing items, Leppa Berries (AS MANY AS YOU CAN, pick them up EVERYWHERE in the other two regions), TM Toxic (get five of these if possible, OR MORE. They can be bought in Fuchsia Gym), TM Dig (get five of these if possible from Celadon Department Store). Buy other useful TM in some gyms you might need in the future (for example, TM Earthquake from Viridian Gym and TM Dig help against the first, third, fourth and fifth gym and VS a certain Legendary battle you will have in the region).

You will use 5 Geodudes with Sturdy to cheese Norman Gym Leader and the Legendary battle (unless you actually manage to pull it with your own Pokemon) and Mt Pyre has over 30 straight battles without healing, does not grant you EXP nor Pokedollars and if you go back before you beat them all, you have to start over again.

Which are the Hoenn Starters?

The Hoenn Starters are Mudkip, Torchic and Treecko.

Contrary to popular belief, this is probably the only region aside from Kanto where all three choices are good. The issue is that Torchic and Mudkip might need to evolve once to beat certain gyms if you intend to solo the region with your starter (I personally do NOT recommend you do this. Don’t evolve your pokemon and build a full team).

Mudkip is amazing if you can teach it TM Dig, Shadow Claw, Surf and Ice Beam (you can purchase these before you enter Hoenn). It will carry you through the story.

Torchic is amazing but it has a few issues. You HAVE to evolve it if you want to use Fighting type moves. If you evolve it, you will train it very slowly but it will gain access to an amazing moveset. It’s a risk-reward choice. Same with Mudkip.

Treecko is just there. It’s good and decent, it’s just not super good.

I can’t access Route 102, what do I do?

You need to defeat your rival in Route 103, then go back and speak to the Professor in the starting town. Then you’ll be able to get to Route 102.
 

What's this Wally guy? And this Norman guy? Why can't we challenge them now?

Wally is going to be an uninteresting and boring rival you’ll beat a few times in Hoenn Story. Petalburg Gym is actually the 5^th gym in the region. You’ll come back to fight (and hate this fight) later on.
 

Who are these team Magma and Aqua? What do they want?

It’s the two bad guy teams in Hoenn. You’ll later have to defeat both separately.
 

How do we easily beat Roxanne?

Roxanne is a complete pushover. Like Brock, she’s a Rock Type Gym leader. Her pokemon are weak to Ground, Fighting, Grass, Water and Steel. Grass and Water types are very easy to find in the routes before the first Gym, so you can defeat her easily.
 

How can we help this crying investigator and the Old man?

When you beat the Gym, talk to the investigator just outside. Now, go to the northeastern Route (116) and enter the Tunnel. Beat the grunt there, talk to the old man and go back and talk to the investigator. Now enter the big building to the left of the Gym. You need to reach the top floor and talk to the President.
 

How can we help the Devon director?

You need to carry a Letter for Steven. He will give it to you. You need to bring it to him in Dewford, in Granite Cave.
 

Where is this Steven guy?

He’s in the deepest floor and room in Granite Cave, the cave to the northwest of Dewford Town.

 

Where do I find the abandoned pokemon?

The abandoned Onix is inside of the cave.
 

What do we have to do now?

When you have given him the letter, you now can defeat Dewford Gym!
 

How do we defeat the gym?

This gym is easy to fight. The Fighting Type gym is weak to Flying, Fairy and Psychic types. You have access to a few pokemon of each type in the starting routes. Catch a few and use them against the Gym Trainers!
 

I’m a bit confused on what to do now. Where do I go?

First you need to talk to the Old Man and go back to Rustboro with the Boat. You need to talk to the President and ask him to give you the Devon Goods to deliver in Slateport. You can go to Slateport by talking to the Old Man, going in the boat to Dewford, then going to Slateport from there.

Who do we speak to in Slateport?

Devon is in a House just below the Museum. He’s the first investigator you should find there. If you can’t find him, just keep breaking in people’s houses and talk to the NPCs inside. One of them will pick up your Goods. Then, you can visit the Museum!
 

Who do we have to defeat?

You gotta defeat the Grunts in the Slateport Museum now. They’re bad guys! Defeat two of them to be able to move on.
 

What's this Trick House?

The Trick House is a lategame side area where you can obtain the Houndoomite and farm some other items. Visit it later!

Is the Rival fight here hard?

Thankfully, it’s not as hard as in the original games
 

What's this New Mauville?

It’s a lategame area you will visit to do many sidequests! For now, it remains locked until you complete Hoenn’s Elite Four.

What type is the third gym?

The third gym is the Ground type gym. It’s very easy to beat with Geodude and other Ground Types you might’ve caught in previously in your adventure. This is why I recommend you buy a few TM Dig before you enter the region. A lot of pokemon can learn this move and defeat the gym easily. There’s a lot of trainers before the third gym, so you should be able to farm properly!

How do I cross these barriers?

You have to defeat the trainers and interact with the barriers. These barriers are a bit bugged and sometimes they do not work properly. You need to interact with them and find the correct combination so that you eventually get to the Gym Leader. Spoiler alert: they will not cooperate.

 

Is there anything interesting in this Verdanturf Town?

Not at all. Unfortunately, Verdanturf is as boring as it was in the original games.

How can I go to the eastern route? I don’t have Surf!

You don’t have to go there, you have to head north after Mauville.

 

Where can I get Rock Smash here?

In Mauville City, there is a NPC in the southeastern house (similar to the original games) that sells you a Rock Smash TM.

 

I’m kinda lost in Route 111 and Route 112. Where do I go?

Route 111 is just the way from Mauville to Mt Chimney and Fiery Path. Get to Route 112 going northwest from 111. Ignore the northeastern desert for now. In Route 112, there’s a transport house that you can use to travel to Mt Chimney (just above the 4^th gym town) or there’s also Fiery Path.

I can't go to Mt Chimney! Where do I go?

See that cave next to the dudes sleeping in front of the house? Yea, go in there, in Fiery Path. You’ll have to keep heading north and exit through the other side.

What’s this Excavation thing?

It’s a lategame daily activity you can use to hunt really rare pokemon and make STOINKS. I’ll leave a guide linked here. Ignore this for now.

 

Alright, I got to the other side. What now?

You can heal up in a house here if you talk to the old lady (yes, because intruding someone’s house and using it as a Pokecenter is a completely normal thing). Then, head northwest to Route 113. You’ll need to continue to Fallarbor Town and then west and south to 114 and Meteor Falls.
 

What is this Jackson dude doing in Meteor Falls?

PLOT CONVENIENCE. Just defeat him.
 

Where did the Grunts go?

They went to Mt Chimney. You have two choices now: you either backtrack all the way to Fiery Path’s entrance, or you go south from Meteor Falls and go through Route 115, Rustboro, Route 116, Verdanturf Tunnel, Mauville City, 111, 112 and you use the transport.

They’re hard to defeat! What do I do?

Git gud. They’re mainly Dark type users, so you can use some Fighting pokemon you found along the way. Numel, Machop and Makuhita (Numel for Poison types) will help you a lot.

I defeated them, what now?

Pick up the meteorite from the machine and go south. Go south through Jagged Pass (remember that here is the secret Magma Grunt base, spoiler alert for a 18 year old game, so you will have to go back later). Now, you’ll end up in 112, but over the small hill. Go left to Lavaridge.

What the hell is this puzzle? I can’t get to the gym leader?

Let me explain how this works: Lavaridge’s Fire Type gym is divided in two adjacent maps, one ontop of the other. If you jump in a hole, you’ll fall in the map below. If you step on another hole, you’ll be teleported upwards. You have to keep guessing which hole is the right one (that’s what she said) to teleport into the correct places in the gym. Keep in mind you will have to remember which path you took the last time so you can know where you need to fall to progress. It is going to be very repetitive, so if needed, draw a map on a paper sheet so you can know where to fall and where not to.
 

What can we use to beat the gym leader?
 

This gym leader is a complete pushover. She’s extremely weak to Ground, Rock and Water types, as she mainly uses Fire type pokemon. These pokemon are literally everywhere, and not only that, since you have the HM Surf, you can teach it to all Water Type pokemon and run over her team. You should never be stuck here.
 

What's this guard blocking in Lavaridge?

Valley of Steel, which is an extra area for the lategame. Ignore this for now!
 

Where's the 5th gym?

The 5^th gym is back in Petalburg. Yes, that small town at the beginning. And, spoiler alert, the Normal Type gym leader is your dad! (The only dad in the entire series that went to buy milk and actually came back).

What's the fastest way to reach the leader?

Alright, you can really get to the leader by just going straight all the way. However, I REALLY recommend you just fight ALL the trainers for extra experience. Don’t avoid anyone because you will need this experience for later.

 

I keep being beaten, this gym leader is too strong!

Alright, this gym leader is a bit special and there are ways to cheese this. You can use Ghost Types (which are immune to his Normal type attacks) and use moves such as Curse to deal % damage every turn or Toxic to slowly wear them down. Confuse Ray and Hypnosis can also help out. Otherwise, you can bruteforce through it with Fighting Types. They’re really useful here.

How do I beat the Slakings?

For the Slakings, I will explain how their ability works. Truant makes them only attack once every two turns. Thus, they will work like this:
Slaking attacks.
Now it doesn’t.
Slaking attacks.
Now it doesn’t.
Slaking attacks.
Now it doesn’t.

If you listened to my advice in the literal first question and you bought TM Toxic and TM Dig, continue reading. Otherwise, skip this part. The way you can cheese them is with low level Geodude with Sturdy. I’ll explain how. Teach TM Dig and TM Toxic to your Geodude with Sturdy at a low level. You will do this.

In the first turn, you will Toxic and Slaking will attack you. If you succeeded and he is poisoned, click Dig in the second turn. He will be unable to attack and you will dig down. In the third turn, he will attack first, but since you’re underground, he can’t touch you. You will attack last. In the fourth turn, he can’t attack, and you can Dig again. This cycle repeats until he faints. You can repeat this for the other Slaking and you’ll get through it!

I won! Now, where do I go?

Head back to Mauville by surfing through Route 103 to Route 110 and walk north to it. Then, head east to Route 118 and keep going northeast to find Route 119. This route is long and it’s divided in two parts!
 

What do I have to do in the Weather Institute?

You have to defeat the leader of the Grunts. Most of the Grunts are optional, but you should definitely fight them for some extra experience! After you defeat them, talk to the investigators, leave and head northeast to Fortree City!
 

I can't access the 6th gym! How can I enter it?

Head to Route 120 (east of Fortree City), talk to Steven and fight the wild Kecleon. Kecleon has some spawns so you don’t have to worry about capturing it. Just beat it! (Beat it, beat it, beat it beat iiiit)
Now you can head back to the Gym.

How do I navigate the gym?

The Flying Type Gym has some weird puzzles. You only have to step on the right arrows and go around the bushes in the gym until you make your way to the Gym Leader.
 

How do I easily defeat the Flying Type Gym?

You can stomp her easily with Electric, Rock and Ice types. Using a Rock type (and setting up Stealth Rocks) will demolish her. Electric types are also a good extra as they are also able to paralyse her pokemon. Ice types are way too rare at this point though.

I found some Grunts in Route 121 next to the Safari, what do I have to do now?

First, cry. You don’t know what you are going to go through emotionally and physically, but just so you can know: gather as many Leppa Berries (and all possible Berries) in ALL Hoenn Routes, navigate all optional routes (Surf Routes below 104 and Slateport), fight all trainers, navigate Route 123 and beat them all, gather more and more berries and healing items if possible. When you have done that, go back to Route 121, enter Lilycove, heal up and get ready for PRO’s most obnoxious, hard and tough challenge.

 

I can’t access the Aqua Grunt Hideout in Lilycove City and I can’t go east either, what do I do?

Head south from Route 121, surf to the southeast and enter Mt Pyre. Beat all the trainers in all floors, heal up in Lilycove, and then come back. Head to Mt Pyre 3F, exit to the south and now read the next question very carefully.

How do I beat these trainers?

Alright, listen. You now have to beat OVER THIRTY CONSECUTIVE TRAINERS WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO LEAVE. You CAN heal up inbetween fights, but if you leave at any point before you fight ALL of them, YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. This means that if you beat 28, and there are 2 more trainers left, and you leave the map, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT THESE 28 AGAIN.

To beat this, you have to hope your internet does not crash in the middle of a fight, the server doesn’t crash in the middle of a fight, carry a LOT of Leppa Berries, Ethers, Elixirs, Leftovers and other healing items to get through all of these. But this is not the worst part.

The trainer pokemon levels are very high, AND THEY DO NOT AWARD ANY EXPERIENCE NOR POKEDOLLARS WHEN YOU DEFEAT THEM. Doesn’t sound fun, is it? BECAUSE IT’S NOT.
Prepare yourself, plan ahead, have a full team of high level pokemon and fill yourself up with healing items to get through it. You might be stuck here for days.
 

I finally made it to the top! What are these Orbs?

 

You will be able to rest after you get a pop up message that says “You can now go and heal”. This is a confirmation that you’ve successfully gone through all of that. Beat the last grunts and talk to the Elder. You will need these Orbs to infiltrate each Team Headquarters.
 

Where do we go now?

When the Old Man has given you both orbs, you need to head to Jagged Pass, back in Mt Chimney, north of Mauville. Go down Mt Chimney, and in the middle of Jagged Pass, you will notice a small cave, shut by some rocks. Interact with it and you’ll be teleported inside.

WARNING: THIS HEADQUARTER IS SPECIAL. Once you have beaten the leader of the grunts, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GO BACK INSIDE. Beat all the trainers for the experience and beat their leader, pick up all the pokeballs, and when everything is done, walk out triumphantly.

Now go back to Lilycove City. Aqua’s Headquarters are way more complicated than Magma’s. In Aqua, you have to defeat both team subleaders, defeat most of the trainers in it, pick up a lot of items and go through all teleporters in the place. It’s a gigantic teleporting maze. Remember this: the main point is to defeat both the MAGMA and the AQUA Subleaders. When you defeat both, the Aqua Subleader will use its submarine and they will escape. You’ll then be able to escape.

Also, there’s no Master Ball here, so don’t spend your time looking for it.
 

Where do we go now?

East from Lilycove, through Route 124, to Mossdeep City.

What now?

You need to defeat the 7^th gym, the Psychic Type gym. The gym in general is very weak to Ghost, Dark and Bug types, but both Leaders (yes, both, there’s two leaders you must fight here) carry a few surprises. One leader uses Gardevoir, whose Fairy type defends it from Bug and Dark, and the other one uses Gallade, which defends him from Bug and Dark types too.

It is kinda easy to cheese this gym with a few Poochyena/Mightyena spamming Sucker Punch, but from the info above, I think you can get the gist of it. The leaders can be extremely tough though, it’s just that the Gym trainers are pushovers.

The gym is a small teleporting maze combined with spinning trainers. It’s very easy to get through it all. You shouldn’t have any issues getting to the end point.
 

How can we get HM Dive?

After you defeat the Leader, go to Mossdeep Space Center. Talk to Steven and he will give you HM Dive.
 

I am a bit confused. Where do I have to head now? Sootopolis or the cave?

First you need to head to the cave in Route 128. To access it, you first need to teach a pokemon the HM Dive. Then, head south from Mossdeep to Route 127. Dive in the gigantic vertical divespot (dude, if you can’t find it you really need to get glasses) and keep surfing south until you reach Route 128 underwater. In that part you just need to find a cave entrance. Note that you will need Rock Smash in this cave (as far as I know, there is one way to skip a bit of this puzzle, but it’s a bit annoying to find).

Make your way through until the end, defeat all the trainers and get to the end. You’ll see one of the bad boys about to wake up Kyogre. Defeat him, Kyogre will wake up due to plot convenience, like Groudon did in the Magma Hideout, and go back to Mossdeep.
 

How can we enter Sootopolis?

To find Sootopolis, we are going to do part of the same sequence. Head to Route 127 from Mossdeep.
However, instead of diving anywhere, now we’re going to head to the northwest of the route. Eventually, you will find a small water spot where you can go to the west and enter Route 126.

In this route, you need to keep heading southwest, until you find a swimmer called Swimmer Denzel. He will have a divespot directly above him, enclosed by rocks. THAT is the Divespot you need. Dive in it and head directly southeast. You should find an NPC blocking a cave. Talk to her so she leaves and head in. Then, dive out. You’ll be in Sootopolis!

What now?

Heal up if you want in the Pokecenter. Then, head to the northwestern part of the city, and go clockwise. You will see Steven and a white dressed dude (the leader) in front of a cave. Talk to them. They will ask you to go to Sky Pillar, in Route 131. If you haven’t noticed yet, we haven’t really explored 128, 129, 130 or 131. That’s gonna be a long way. Go back to the pokecenter. Now, you can travel all the way back to Mossdeep, just backtracking through the same way (dude, don’t you just love backtracking thirty times in a row?).

When you’re in Mossdeep, head south to Route 127. Now head south to 128. Now head southwest to Route 129. Now southwest to 130. Now pay attention and stay swimming in the northern part of Route 130. You will eventually find an entrance to Sky Pillar between Routes 130 and 131 in the northern part of the Route.

Before you enter Sky Pillar, keep surfing west until you find Pacifidog Town, a town in the middle of the water. There, pick up the Geodudes in the PC in the Pokecenter (if you used them) that you used to cheese Slaking in the 5^th gym. If you don’t want to play dirty though, just go to Sky Pillar with your team. You only need to walk your way to the top.

You will find Jackson. Here, you will have to fight him AND FREAKING RAYQUAZA, BECAUSE SOMEHOW HE HAS IT. He will also reveal that, SURPRISE SURPRISE, HE WAS A FBI AGENT ALL ALONG, FROM PALLET TOWN TO HOENN, HE WAS ALWAYS AN FBI TRAINED SNIPER ACTION SPECIAL UNITS AGENT THAT HAD TO STOP WORLD’S DESTRUCTION.

Yes, this sounds like I’m making a joke in the middle of the guide, but no, IT’S REAL. This is the literal Plot of Jackson, even though it makes NO sense, because there are side missions where you can find him again and his plot there completely contradicts this. Also, A TEN YEAR OLD FBI AGENT.

Back to the topic. RAYQUAZA. You have to fight his entire team AND HIS RAYQUAZA. Rayquaza is 4 times weak to Ice. If you hadn’t paid a visit to Shoal Cave (north of Mossdeep City, surfing, Route 125), go back to it after he completely runs over your team and capture a few Ice Type pokemon with Ice Shard (priority move from the Ice Type). His team is not difficult to beat, IT’S JUST THAT HE HAS A RAYQUAZA.

 

When you finally defeat him (after I don’t know how many attempts), go back to Pacifidog to heal. Now, capture a few Spinarak in Sky Pillar at very high levels, who will have Sucker Punch in their moveset. To be exact, capture six of them. Make them fight wild pokemon in Sky Pillar and evolve them immediately with Sucker Punch learned. If you see they don’t have this move, you can travel back (AGAIN) to Mossdeep City and relearn it. You will use this to cheese Deoxys.

 

How can we defeat Deoxys? Where can we find Rayquaza?

Talk to Rayquaza in Sky Pillar when you’re ready. You will be teleported TO THE LITERAL MOON (play the Ducktales OST here, if you want). You will have to navigate through the caves clockwise going up and down ladders and exiting and entering caves until you appear just behind Deoxys.

Deoxys is an extremely hard fight for a newbie. He hits extremely fast and hard. However, there are ways to cheese this. Deoxys has pathetic defenses. He is weak to Ghost, Bug and Dark type attacks. Coincidentally, there are two moves that have increased priority and that will always attack first before Deoxys can attack. Which are they? Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch! (There’s more, but it’s to keep the guide simple. I’m already burning my hands at 9 pages long, jeez.)

We will use 6 Ariados for this fight. We will simply click Sucker Punch. Deoxys will eventually faint before he is able to faint all of our Ariados. Around the third to fourth Ariados, Deoxys should faint.

When he has lost, you need to navigate through the caves AGAIN, looking for Rayquaza. Keep in mind he will be hidden in one of them and you will suddenly encounter him there, being a gigantic green serpent. When you find him, talk to him, and you’ll be teleported back to Sootopolis. Congrats!

Heal up in the pokecenter, go clockwise in the city again and talk to Steven, Jackson and the Leader. You’ll now be able to challenge the Gym!

How do I get HM Waterfall?

VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE, PICK UP HM WATERFALL HERE. HM Waterfall is ACTUALLY optional (for some reason) in Hoenn, but it’s an amazing move. You will need this for Hoenn and Sinnoh Elite 4. It is possible to skip this by having a friend teach you the move onto a pokemon, but you will need it later anyway. SO PICK IT UP. It’s in Cave of Origins B3F, that cave where Steven, Jackson and the Leader were just blocking.
 

How do we defeat the 8th gym leader? How do we get to the leader?

Getting to the leader is a bit confusing. You need to walk on a bit of a maze and you might also have to slide around. If you feel like cheating, whenever you’re sliding, press the ESCAPE key. It will stop you in the middle of the sliding animation and you can skip the puzzles. The floor below is INFESTED with trainers. You need to defeat both leaders (one on each floor) to earn the badge. The Water Type gym is pretty fun and easy to beat. You just need strong Grass and Electric types. Bruteforce all the way through and congratulations, you just beat all Hoenn Gyms!
 

Now that we've done all of this, can we go back to previous regions?

Haha! Of course!

NOT. You need to defeat Hoenn’s Elite Four to be able to go back to previous regions. Git gud.
 

How do we reach the Hoenn Elite Four?

Travel from Sootopolis to Mossdeep (at this point you should know how, just read above).
Surf south to 127. Surf south to 128. Now, surf southEAST until you enter a new map called “Ever Grande City” (no, not Ariana Grande City, EVERGRANDE City). Use Waterfall there and heal up. Talk to the hole in front of the cave, you can use it later to teleport through it. Go in the cave and it’s a very easy one to get through. The Hoenn Victory Road is way easier to travel than other region’s Victory Roads (the easiest of all is Sinnoh, if you know the way to go, you’ll only need 30 seconds to cross it entirely). You only need to defeat the trainers if you want extra experience. Keep in mind that after you defeat Hoenn’s 8^th Gym, you can use your old pokemon from previous regions!

What types do they have?
The Hoenn Elite 4 uses Dark, Ghost, Ice, Dragon and Steel Types. The best way to counter this Elite 4 is with Fighting types that also learn Ice Punch and Knock Off (or a strong Dark Type/Ghost Type move). Fighting wins against Dark, Ice and Steel, Ice Punch will take care of the Dragon Type Elite 4 and Dark type moves will take care of the Ghost Type Elite 4.

Personally, I used Machamp with No Guard, I picked up a lot of Leppa Berries and I simply clicked Dynamicpunch, Ice Punch and Knock Off, and everything fainted in a single hit. If you still want a few more tips:
Dark is weak against Fairy, Bug and Fighting.
Ghost is weak against Ghost and Dark.
Ice is weak againt Steel, Rock and Fire.
Dragon is weak against Ice, Dragon and Fairy.
Steel is weak against Fire, Ground and Fighting.

Good luck!

 

How do we access Sinnoh now? Who do we talk to? What do we have to do?

When you finally have beaten Sinnoh, you can start the Sinnoh Access Quest by talking to the NPC Paul in Lilycove City. You will need 6 pokemon at level 80 or above to begin this quest. Keep in mind you will have to fight and beat a strong Boss, so be ready!