R/S/E Tips and Tricks

Tips

Tips are not cheats; they are simply helpful things that players tend to overlook or mere strategical advice. They will never spoil the enjoyment you will get out of your game.

Effort training

Ah, effort training. So frustrating, yet so fun. If you don't know what effort points or effort training are, you should look here. (Just as a note, I don't have Emerald effort training stuff yet, so none of this applies to Emerald at the moment. =/)

Effort points for Attack

If you have Sapphire, train in Mt. Pyre. Shuppet give one Attack effort point each. "Only" 252 of them to max out Attack. If you have Ruby, you're luckier; train on Route 114, where Zangoose and Nuzleaf give two Effort points to Attack each.

Effort points for Defense

When underwater, you can fight Clamperl for one Defense effort point each. Relicanth and Chinchou are worth nothing except if you want Special defense too.

Effort points for Speed

On Route 118, everything will give you Speed except Kecleon - Wingull, Zigzagoon and Electrike give one, Manectric and Linoone give two.

Effort points for Special Attack

Remember the route with the ashfall? Route 113? The one with the ash in the grass? The one full of Spinda? Spinda gives one Special Attack effort point, so just battle a lot of them.

Effort points for Special Defense

Tentacool gives one Special Defense effort point. Basically, surf.

Effort points for Hit Points

Rusturf tunnel will only give you Whismur, and Whismur will give you HP effort points (one per Whismur you beat). Marill gives two HP effort points, though, so try the water on Route 117.

Keeping count of effort points

I have a very good way to know how many Effort Points you have without always having to count. However, this requires you to have a strong Pokémon with an attack which takes out all the effort Pokémon in one hit, and you must make sure that all the Pokémon you battle give the same amount of Effort Points (which means I don't recommend using this technique when training for Speed; some of the Pokémon on Route 118 give one in Speed and others give two). First, you make sure to know how many PP your strong Pokémon's attack has (or if you have many attacks you use, how many they have in total). Then, attach the Macho Brace to your Pokémon-in-training, and when you encounter a Pokémon that will give you the effort you want, switch to the strong Pokémon. Now, let's assume that each of the Pokémon you battle gives one Effort Point in the category you're training for. Your attack's used PP will always equal the number of Pokémon you've beaten, since you will not return to the Pokémon Center until exactly when you have finished the PP. Because of the Macho Brace, you multiply the PP by two. Voila, you have the number of Effort Points you're going to have each time you return to the Pokémon Center. That's all you need to count, and it's pretty easy to keep track of it. You can write the numbers down on a piece of paper to have an easier time remembering how often you've gone to the Pokémon Center.

Saving time and money

Who doesn't want to save time and Pokédollars?

Skip credits

You can hold down B while the credits are playing to make them go faster. Alternatively, you can skip them altogether by pressing Start + Select + A + B while they're going on.

Free Premier ball

At any Pokémart, buy ten or more Poké Balls (not Great or Ultra Balls). The shopkeeper will give you a free Premier Ball additionally.

Obtaining Pokémon

Here I have tips on obtaining certain Pokémon that have people confused.

Feebas

Feebas is found in exactly six tiles on Route 119 by fishing. These tiles are random, and are re-randomized every time you change the trendy phrase in Dewford. The best way to find Feebas is simply to start at the top of the route, fish once in each tile, move on to the next one and go through the whole route like that. Sure, you MIGHT miss a Feebas tile if you only fish once, but Feebas is so common in the Feebas tiles that odds are it will appear plus that there are six tiles anyway, and most importantly, you'll actually feel like you're making some progress. When I was first searching for Feebas on my Sapphire, I fished five times in each tile, and it made me practically abandon the game for months. Don't do that - fish once, and you'll be happier. (That sounded like some kind of a "Don't do drugs" ad... or it might just be me.)

Shedinja

Train a Nincada to level 19, and deposit one of the Pokémon in your team so that you have a free slot. When it reaches level 20, it will try to evolve into Ninjask. Now, do not be fooled: You have not done anything wrong. Just let it evolve into Ninjask, and when you check your party, your empty slot will have a level 20 Shedinja that knows the same moves as your Ninjask. Ta-da. No, you do not need a spare Pokéball in the third generation.

Tricks

These can potentially spoil your game. They do not require any cheating devices, but might employ game glitches. Use them at your own risk.

Unlimited Safari Zone time

Wouldn't we all like to be able to walk around in the Safari Zone forever while looking for a rare Pokémon? Unfortunately you can't walk around forever - but you can keep on finding Pokémon forever as long as you stay in the same spot. All of them of course require you to get to the area your target Pokémon is found in.

Using Sweet Scent

Bring a Pokémon that knows the move Sweet Scent - it is learned by Oddish, for example. Sweet Scent, when used, can make a Pokémon appear without having to walk anywhere, so just stand in the same spot and use Sweet Scent over and over until you find the Pokémon you want. Unfortunately this method is a little bit time-consuming.

Using the Acro Bike

Bring the Acro Bike. (This, of course, outrules looking for Pokémon in the Mach Bike areas.) Get on the bike when you're in your grass patch, and press and hold down B to do a bunny hop. The hops do not count as steps, but they can allow you to encounter wild Pokémon nonetheless.

Using neither

This method is hardest, most time-consuming and most annoying, but you need neither Sweet Scent nor the Acro Bike for it. It might also only prolong your time in the Safari Zone unless your patch of grass happens to have the right conditions, namely a tile with at least two sides surrounded by objects you can't walk through, as you'll always make mistakes sometimes. Basically, stand on that tile, and then tap the D-pad in a direction facing an object. Next, tap it in a direction facing another object. Repeat this until you find a Pokémon - if done correctly, you'll turn without actually attempting to take a step, and that will enable you to find a wild Pokémon, but if you hold the button a bit too long, the character will attempt to walk but hit the wall, neither finding a Pokémon nor wasting a step.

Cloning Pokémon

Emerald only

Finally, the Advance successor to the infamous G/S/C cloning trick, and unlike its predecessor, it does not involve turning your game off right when it says "SAVING... DON'T TURN OFF THE POWER", so it's a lot more of a feel-good cheat to use (well, the main practical good thing about this is that you need no more timing circus tricks and there is no risk of corrupting your save file).

The way to perform this trick, which allows you to duplicate up to five Pokémon at a time, is very simple, but requires you to have access to the Battle Frontier.

  1. Go to the Battle Tower (go up and right from the Pokémon Center in the Battle Frontier) and go to the computer on the right of the room.
  2. If a Pokémon you want to clone is in your party, log on to the computer and deposit it. (The box where the Pokémon you want to clone are placed does not matter, but I personally like to keep them organized by putting them all in the same box.) If the Pokémon you want to clone are in boxes already, you don't need to do anything with them, but you should then always make sure that you have room for all the Pokémon you want to clone in empty slots in your party. Then log off the computer.
  3. Save your game in front of the computer. There is no need to turn it off; just save it.
  4. Withdraw all the Pokémon you want to clone. If you deposit any Pokémon at this point and then continue with the trick, it will be IRREVERSIBLY DELETED! If you discover at this stage that you forgot to make room for all the Pokémon you wanted to clone, you can either go ahead with those you do have room for and then do the trick again for the rest, or you can simply go back to step two, make room properly and save again.
  5. Talk to the lady on the counter closest to the computer (the one with the Link Multi Battle Rooms) and choose Challenge, with whichever level you like (however, you need to have Pokémon eligible for it in your party).
  6. Select some random two of your Pokémon to be entered.
  7. The game will ask "Before entering a Battle Room, your progress must be saved. Is that okay?" Say YES.
  8. The game should pause for a second at this point; your Pokémon is now cloned.
  9. It will bring up the normal Save prompt ("Would you like to save the game?") after this pause, but select NO here.
  10. Now you can safely turn your game off (although I personally prefer not to turn it off until she's finished talking; it's a psychological thing). Remember not to save; just turn it off.
  11. Turn it back on and you will be situated in front of the counter. Your Pokémon will be both in your party and in the box on the PC. Ta-da.

Be absolutely sure that you save with the Pokémon on the PC and then withdraw it before you talk to the lady, not save with the Pokémon in your party and then deposit it before talking to the lady! If you do the latter, your Pokémon will be DELETED forever!

This happens because when you agree to saving before taking a Battle Tower challenge, the game immediately overwrites the data for the Pokémon in your party in the save file (since you are going to be using those in the Battle Tower challenge and it needs those saved), so the file will now contain the Pokémon you withdrew in your stored party. However, it will not overwrite the data for the Pokémon in your PC boxes until you actually save normally, and if you say no when it asks you to save normally, that will never happen. Therefore, when you've turned it off without further saving, the game will know that the Pokémon is now in your party, but not that it is now no longer in your PC box. Similar to the G/S/C cloning trick in principle, really, except that there you needed to turn your game off after it saves the Pokémon on your PC but before it saves the Pokémon in your party, but now it will save only the Pokémon in your party for you.

Cloning Items

Rather obviously, you can clone items by giving them to the Pokémon you're going to clone before you do the cloning trick. Less obviously, you can also perform the cloning trick as above except by using the "Move Items" option to move items to/from Pokémon on the PC instead of depositing/withdrawing Pokémon; this allows you to clone more than six items at a time. Like in the Pokémon cloning trick, the key is to save with the items on the PC, then withdraw them into your bag before talking to the lady.

Page last modified August 13 2016 at 02:34 UTC