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The obligatory earlygame forest, inhabited by Pokémon and trainers alike.

Pokémon Encounters¶

Name	Type	Location	Encounter Rate
Cascoon	Bug	Grass	10%
Shroomish	Grass	Grass/Horde	10%, 5% (Horde)
Silcoon	Bug	Grass	10%
Slakoth	Normal	Grass	5%
Taillow	Normal/Flying	Grass	5%
Wurmple	Bug	Grass/Horde	30%, 60% (Horde)
Zigzagoon	Normal	Grass/Horde	30%, 35% (Horde)

Local Trainers Pokémon¶

Name	Money	Party
Bug Catcher Lyle	80	Wurmple Lv. 5, Wurmple Lv. 5, Wurmple Lv. 5
Team Aqua/Magma Grunt	360	Poochyena Lv. 9
Bug Catcher James	128	Nincada Lv. 8

Pokémon Evaluations¶

Nothing new or impressive at this point; it’s mostly a Pokédex-filling effort for now.

Slakoth and its final evolution Slaking have Truant, making you attack only once every two turns. (Though if you set the Battle Mode to Switch, you use a powerful move like Giga Impact, then switch out when the foe dies.) Slakoth’s first evolution Vigoroth is pretty below par, too.

Shroomish is somewhat better. Breloom is a great Pokémon to have for Single Battles since it’s fast and decently powerful. The Spore move it can learn makes it all the better - a 100% chance to put the foe to sleep, then pound away on them. It’s potent.

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See a suspicious spot? Try hammering the A button there.

When you arrive, you’ll be - more or less - at a four-way. Begin by going east and south. As you do, speak with the kid nearby, who mentions that things can be found on the ground.

While this will be easier to manage later when you get the Dowsing Machine, go ahead and into the hole in the patch of grass to the east. Examine the top-left tile of it to find a Potion . Then go south, sort of out of the forest for the moment.

Route 104¶

Go south along the path to find a Poké Ball , then return into the forest.

Petalburg Woods¶

Go west back to the entrance and then battle the Bug Catcher further to the west. From there, go northwest and pick up the Paralyze Heal on the ground and then begin heading eastward. As you turn north, you’ll find a scientist who seems to have been searching for a Shroomish.

Suddenly, a man in a red/blue hood walks up, intending to mug this Devon Corp. researcher! The researcher suddenly cowers behind you. Well. A grown man placing his life in the hands of a 10-year-old. That’s reassuring. Anyhow, take out the Team Aqua/Magma Grunt and end this amusingly pathetic scene.

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Exp. Share removes most of the difficulty from battles, which can be good or bad.

After the battle, the Grunt lets you off with the hint of more going on in Rustboro. As thanks, you’ll earn the valuable Exp. Share ! This Key Item will allow all Pokémon in the party to share in the EXP earned from battle!

Actually, the Exp. Share is rather overpowered, and will severely overlevel your Pokémon by the game’s end, just like in Pokémon X/Y (10-20 levels above the Elite Four without grinding), but do as you will. You’ll also have a healed party.

Continue along the linear path for a bit. As you turn north from the westbound path, you can fight the nearby Bug Catcher, then hug the western side of the area. Go south and examine the last tile you can walk on with A to find a Balm Mushroom .

Now, go north and grab the Ether . Go a bit more to the east and then north, out of the forest. There will be a rather ominous cutscene as you do so.