PTD 2 Walkthrough: Story Mode: Silver & Route 29

Silver

Silver has three Pokémon in total, which seems like somewhat of an unfair advantage considering that you only have one beginner Pokémon to fight him with. Regardless of this, it is still possible to win the battle because his Pokémon are at lower levels than yours. Silver’s first is at level 5; I suggest you use all of your moves in this battle, relying on your primary attack (which in Cyndaquil’s case is ‘tackle’) to deal the damage. I found that I could not win the battle without using ‘Leer’, which reduces the opponents’ defence enough for you to deal enough damage to win. All you can do here is use your primary attack and your other moves to support this and hope for the best. After claiming your victory over Silver (suck on that; there is no such thing as a friendly contest), the professor will call you back to his laboratory since he forgetfully neglected to give you something that is apparently quite important.

Having battled your rival Silver, it proves difficult not to let a smug sense of satisfaction wash over you like a confident yet gentle breeze in the springtime.

Talk to him outside his laboratory, and he will lead you indoors, giving you your ‘Poképad’, which appears to be the 2012 equivalent of the original Pokédex, but for reasons of creativity and indeed copyright, I imagine the name had to be altered a little. I’m sure Apple will be most upset about this name, however. You are also provided with an infinite supply of a Pokéball-equivalent item, having the power of a Pokéball but with none of the quantity restrictions. All this is excellent news, but before you are overwhelmed by the generosity, you should exit the laboratory and continue your quest. You emerge to a scene where some heated words are being exchanged between Silver and the gentleman which is blocking the entrance to Route 29, who previously would have told you that he likes you but cannot let you pass and to come back in a week; Silver has saved you some time, acting as a distraction and allowing you to pass the two unnoticed as they verbally bash each other for your indirect benefit.

Route 29

I feel that the receiving of your Poképad and Pokéball gifts were not coincidental; seeing as you can now roam about freely in the wilderness where you can clearly see Pokémon scurrying about, and since you now conveniently possess the means to catch them and index them neatly, it feels like a higher power is telling you to expand your Pokémon collection. I am also telling you to do so because A) It is the purpose and premise if this entire game and indeed the principle of the Pokémon universe and B) You barely scraped by your first ‘friendly’ battle with your single starting Pokémon, so it benefits your ability to triumph over your opponents if you have more Pokémon. You should also feel free to battle wild Pokémon in order to gain experience points and as a result, allow your Pokémon the chance to level up.

Tiny Hint

[Now, as I stated at the beginning of the guide, I cannot possibly hope to coach you through all eventualities of the game depending on which Pokémon you initially choose and which ones you decide to capture and train for yourself. I can however, tell you a little bit about the procedure of battling/capturing wild Pokémon. You should currently be in an area which contains some wild Pokémon roaming about in the middle of the grass and foliage. If you wish to battle these Pokémon, simply walk up to them and the scuffle will ensue. More often than not, the battle will consist of a steady stream of the Pokémon which you chose to battle moving from left to right across the screen. You simply have to place your Pokémon in any one of the available positions in order to attack the passing creatures until their health bar diminishes enough to turn red. Once their health indicator has turned red, you are able to capture this Pokémon by delving into your backpack (click on the backpack icon in the right-hand corner of the screen and select your Pokéballs) and clicking/dragging the Pokéball onto the weakened Pokémon; the icon should change from closed to open, in which case the creature should be captured.

If you wish to vary the kinds of Pokémon you catch, then I suggest waiting until different times of day in the game’s relative system of time quantification, since different creatures are available for capture at different times of day. Some creatures are only seen in the daytime, whereas others can only be spotted at night or early in the morning.

Giving you a distinct advantage is the ability to change the position of your Pokémon during the wild battles, and also the ability to use multiple creatures to grind down the health of whichever Pokémon you wish to capture. Occasionally, you will happen upon a one on one battle with a Pokémon, making the situation much simpler and allowing you to focus your attacks on one opponent and control the amount of health which you take from it. Ensure that you use your Pokéball before the opponent Pokémon is defeated entirely, or your efforts will have been to no avail. With the above advice in mind, it is up to you to capture and train your Pokémon to the best of your ability]

Train ‘Em All, or At Least Those You Have

Before you continue, it is advisable that you proceed to enter your Pokémon into various wild battles for the primary purpose of gaining experience points in order to increase their levels, but also to capture more creatures and increase the size of your Pokémon posse as well. You can catch Pokémon such as Pidgey, Rattata and Sentret as they wander about gleefully in broad daylight, with the more exotic Pokemon appearing at different times of the day and night.  

When building a formidable Pokémon collection, the capturing of wild Pokémon is a good start. Encourage the creatures into the confines of your Pokeball, and don’t worry; the RSPCA doesn’t tend to operate in fictional tower defence games.

After you have increased the size of your Pokémon collection and have managed to level them up sufficiently (levelling up to ten or above and collecting a minimum of three creatures will stand you in good stead for your future battles), then talk to the girl that appears to be furiously pacing up and down to the right of the clearing of trees. Her name is Zai and she proves to extremely useful during various battles in the game. Upon talking to her you learn that she is simply attempting to defend her Oran berries against attacks from wild Pokémon; her dramatically speedy pace seems like an overreaction to the situations, but since this is primarily a tower defence game, it seems pretty obvious what you have to do. The battle begins and you realise why the girl was pacing around so frantically in the first place.

Big Trouble over Little Berries

The defence of the Zai’s Oran berries is actually quite difficult and is a step up in complexity from the previous battles. The offending Pokémon enter from below from the left and the right, meaning that it is beneficial for you to have a minimum of three high-level (roughly level  9 or above) Pokémon at hand, placing two on one side of the area and one on the opposite side. If your levels are high enough, you should have little problem defending against the waves of attacks; even though they are Pokémon of relatively low levels, the sheer quantity of them means that you will be unlikely to win if your Pokémon are not strong enough or are still at a level that is too low to face up to the music.

Should you find yourself slipping into a little bit of Pokémon-related peril in the battle then try not to panic too violently; there is no penalty for losing, and you can simply enter the battle repeatedly until you get the results that are satisfactory to you. However, if you are the kind of person who equates the accepting of bitter defeat to the experience of watching an episode of ‘Take Me Out’ without blinking or repeatedly stabbing your eardrums and eyeballs with the nearest object suitable for the job, then you always have the option of healing your Pokémon. The girl for whom you are entering into this battle in the first place has the ability to heal any of your flagging Pokémon; if you see any of them struggling in the health department, simply drag it over to one of the three squares underneath her and drop it there and she will (by the power of Pokémon medicinal knowledge or possibly supernatural ability) heal your Pokémon back to full health.  Just be sure to take your Pokémon out of the line of fire before it faints, since fainted Pokémon are no longer in play and cannot be moved or used until the next battle.

The healing powers of Zai are second to none; the girl exhibits the supernatural ability to nurse your Pokémon back to health (forgive the darkness but blame the day-night cycle of the game in addition to my distinct lack of desire to wait for daybreak).

It may annoy you to realise that there is no final reward for defending the Oran berries, but you should be grateful for the experience points gained in the carnage. It is also possible to capture a Shadow Pidgey during the battle (he appears at a frequency that is set by the mechanics of the game, deep in the code and hidden in the mathematical probabilities/variables of the game’s design; keep your eye out for it and go about capturing it in the usual fashion; simply wear its health down until it turns red and capture it with your Pokéball. It is a difficult battle because there are so many distractions but if you fight it correctly you will end up with a shiny new Shadow Pidgey to show for it.

Entrance to Mountain Road (Sort of)

If you explore to the north of this area, you should stumble upon a relatively wide building with a roomy entrance; going through the entrance leads you to the relatively hidden-away area simply known at this stage as the entrance to the entrance of Mountain Road. You cannot progress further north from here; this area is simply a clear opportunity for you to catch a few new wild Pokémon for you to furnish your collection with, enhancing your battling capabilities, and well, making you look like more of an experience Pokémon trainer than you perhaps may be at this stage.

Just a few of the different kinds of Pokémon available in the area that precedes Mountain Road. The Phanphy with his back rudely turned to me was a welcome surprise; he was promptly ushered in a forcible fashion to the confines of a Pokéball shortly after this shot was taken.

You will find Pokémon such of the likes of Phanphy, Spearow, Geodude (these are becoming ten a penny at this stage), Rattata, and occasionally a Jigglypuff. I could go on all day about the benefits of catching these Pokémon and expanding your collection, but this is all pretty much common Pokémon sense and is a tactic that should always be in the back of your mind when encountering new wild Pokémon. It always helps to have a diverse range of creatures to pull out of the bag in any battle, and this holds particularly true in boss/trainer battles. I caught one of each of the Pokémon in this area that were not already in my collection, and trained them up to a minimum of level  13.

Onwards, Leftwards

If you head to the left of the area, a little before you get to the exit at the extreme left, you will encounter another hat-wearing gentleman who appears to be guarding a building. Upon speaking to him, he lets it slip that Route 46 is under investigation for appearances of Shadow Pokémon and that the Deep Forest contains large numbers of them at night. Feel free to wander around and bring some variety to your Pokémon collection, which can be a little lacking in variation if you stick to the Pokémon that are seen only in the daytime.

Head to the extreme left of the level until you find another hat-wearing gentleman blocking your way yet again; upon approaching and talking to him, three excitable characters sidle in from the right and come to inform you that there has been a sighting of the legendary birds in Cherrygrove and that they wish for you to accompany them in their mission to catch one. After some sweet talking of the guard, you are allowed to pass and enter the next zone.

Back to New Bark Town | Continue on to Cherry Grove, Route 30 & Route 31