I made great progress today. Got to the town of the 8th Gym (have 7 badges, so when I'm ready I'll just fly back to fight for it)

I caught Palkia and two of the three "Legendaries" Uxie and Azelf (not that bad of a strategy either: Use Palkia to weaken them to red HP level then use nest balls on them since they're in a cave)

Also, as far as females being better, pokemon like Combee can ONLY evolve if they are female.

This is the first pokemon game i ever played and was wondering which pokemon do you catch. Do you try to catch all the pokemon you see or only the rare ones. Any guide out there to start out a newbie? Thank you

i try to catch all of them, females being the most preferred ones.

having a diverse team is really the way to go

Gotta catch them all!

I read about male and female pokemon. How can you tell if they're female or male. I check the description and it doesn't say.

if you look right above their health bar, you should see the male/female symbol


ya know, the one that kinda looks like Prince's symbol. The girls are red/pink and the guys are blue

Just got my 3rd badge today... Has anyone yet lost a battle? What exactly happens if you do end up losing?

nothing


you pay em like 100 bucks or so, and you're fine.

I got close to losing a gym battle, my starter (Torterra) was fainted twice (dumb super effective Ice Punch) during my 7th battle. Good thing I picked up some revives, though I did have to sacrifice most of my team to keep reviving him and getting his health up all the way so he'd stand a better chance when I put him back in

Assuming it's like every other Pokemon game I've played, you lose a little bit of cash and you end up back at the Pokemon Center with a group of fully healed (but slightly upset) pokemon.

I always restart when I die. I like going through the game undefeated for some strange reason.

Anyway, I'm 31 hours in and have 6 badges. I found the deleter guy at the docks on the far left of the map BTW. Can't get it until you get surf.

My pokedex is at 99 right now. Can't wait to get the national one so I can import my stuff from the GBA carts. I stood in line with my kid for an hour to get Mew so I really want that one imported to the DS version.

I am at the 46 hour point and have all 8 badges. I'm currently going through victory road. Catching all four Legendaries was a bitch, but I finished that as well.

I'm figuring I will finish the main game in 4-5 more hours. 50 hours for the main adventure and still a lot to do in the game. Definitely no complaints on the value of this one.

No kidding on the value part. I just got my 2nd badge and I'm just over 10 hours already. This one is playing much longer than the previous games. Time to go explore on my new bike.

I'm @ 15 hours with two badges (wish I had more time to play :() I've probably got a few more hours left to level up before I go after badge #3 (except for one that I'm just early in leveling up, all of my current pokemon are around lv 25, think the next gym is a couple of levels over that?). It's definitely taking longer than older Pokemon games, but I like that.

im at like 34 hours, and just got my 5th badge.


i'm gearing up for the new Wii game, so i can see 100+ hrs from this title alone

Finished up the main game tonight at 51 hours.

Won with the following:
Empoleon Level 71
Diagla Level 71
Abomasnow Level 70
Gastrodon Level 65
Roselia Level 65
Psyduck Level 65

I was way too heavy on water pokemon, but had no trouble. Empoleon is resistant to pretty much everything but Lighting and Diagla can do one hit kills with the roar of time. I mostly used the top three.

I also got the National Pokedex and started importing. You can import six Pokemon a day. I added my Mew, Mewtwo, Swampert, Moltres, Zapdos and Rayquaza. The Pal Park thing is weird, but they are easy to catch and it only takes a few minutes.

All I can say is bring on the Wii battle arena.

Man Im going to be screwed because I dont have any of the other games and dont know anyone else playing this. So I dont know how Im going to get everyone in my pokedex. Im about to go get my 4th badge. But hopefully Ill be ready for when the Wii one comes out. Too bad that this game wasnt a special Nintendo game to be played on 360 or PS3 because it would be fun as hell seeing Pokemon battle in HD :).

You can trade without needing friend codes. Go to the global trading center and put up some pokemon for trade. You can pick the ones you want in return. I plan to do this to fill in the ones missing from this version.

BTW, you can import 6 a day from any GBA cart. So I imported six from green and six from sapphire. I didn't realize what an upgrade the DS graphics were until I booted up the GBA games again. I'm working on the battle tower area now. Don't see myself stopping for awhile. There is still a lot to do.

are you waiting to evolve your psyduck/roselia?


I'm infatuated with my Gengar :D

I never evolve Psyduck. That is kind of my set pokemon I always have in my party in every game. I guess he is my pikachu. I have always liked that stupid duck and own an embarasing amount of his merchandise.

I actually need to evolve roselia though. I kind of forgot about it. BTW, the island with the battle mountain and resort has opportunities to catch many pokemon from the earlier games so you have lots of chances to complete the pokedex. This may be the first game where I make a real effort to do it. I usually get tired of it on the Game Boy versions half way.

i purchased green leaf version and sapphire (coming in the mail) to be able to fill up my pokedex even more. honestly, I'm gearing up for the Wii version

I try to capture any pokemon i don't have. I want at least one of of each and I want to complete the pokedex thingy. I'm not sure there is enough room to have one of each though.

That little kid and her fighting pokemon hurt my boys pretty bad but we made it through. Have lost a match yet. Actually her fighting pokemon weren't the problem it was that meditate guy that cut down most of my group. Once he was gone my Kadabby what's it thingy with the spoon cut a path of mental death through her pokemon.

There's enough room in the boxes to have multiples of each.