Welcome back everyone! We last left off with four badges acquired and four left to go! Now that we have Mega Evolution, it’s time for the plot with Team Flare to really heat up, so let’s get back to the action! If you haven’t read part 1 yet, you need to check it out here.

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Route 13:

Also known as the Lumiose Badlands, Route 13 is a barren wasteland that only houses a few Pokemon. Instead of being in small grass, the wild encounters are triggered from the small dust clouds that will chase you as you get close. This area is good for Dragon trainers who want to pick up Gible or Trapinch, both of which evolve into super strong Dragon/Ground-types. However, both Trapinch and Dugtrio can have the Arena Trap ability, which will prevent you from running away from them. It can get a bit annoying, but you’ll just have to suck it up. There are a few smashable rocks here that contain Graveler and Slugma, so feel free to hunt them down. All around the edges of the badlands, you can see different parts of the Power Plant. Every access point is locked and needs a special key to get in. Off to the west is a Team Flare Grunt who doesn’t seem to want you to get past. Naturally, we solve this issue with a battle, but they don’t seem to have their key card. You can pull out your Dowsing Machine if you want, but the key is right against the big rock right behind you, so grab it and head into the Power Plant.

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Kalos Power Plant:

Knock knock. Who’s there? It’s Team Flare. They’ve taken control of the Power Plant for some mysterious reason, and it’s up to us to stop them. There are Team Flare goons around every corner, and they’re sharing the same types you’d expect from the team of bad guys. You’ll probably need to switch your Pokemon out mid-battle to handle them all, since you can expect to see Mightyena, Scraggy, Golbat, Swalot, Liepard and Croagunk. At the heart of the Power Plant, we see two people that look a little different. One of them is a Team Flare Admin, and he’s got a Houndoom to take us on with. According to his partner, a Team Flare Scientist, they have all the power they need for whatever it is they’re doing. Her name is Aliana, and for a high-ranking Team Flare member, she only has a Mightyena, which is a little strange. Usually they get something that makes them special. The Team Galactic Admins all had Pokemon that no one else on the team did.

Once we deal with Team Flare, we are greeted by two masked people who look suspiciously similar to Professor Sycamore’s assistants. They were on their way here to deal with Team Flare, but I guess we beat them to it. As a reward, they give us a bunch of Full Restores that will come in handy later. If you check up on the scientists on the way out, they also have some rewards for you. The biggest reward of all is that the gate to Lumiose City is now open, as well as the power to the North side of the city being restored. The most important thing about that is now we can challenge the Gym there, so let’s get moving. Before we reach the city, we meet a strange, tall man. He mentions something about a flower Pokemon that has eternal life.

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Lumiose City:

Welcome back to Lumiose City! Now that the power is back, they’re going to light up the Prism Tower in the center of the city. You’ll want to head there, not only to see the sights, but because Prism Tower is also the Pokemon Gym. The Centrico Plaza around the tower is also one of the best places to hatch Pokemon eggs once you’re ready for that. I hate to make this part so short, but that’s really all there is to say about Lumiose City for now, so let’s get ready to battle Clemont! There’s a Pokemon Center nearby to heal up first, which wouldn’t be a terrible idea.

I hope you know a bit of trivia, because that’s what the Lumiose Gym is all about. Hosted by Clemont’s younger sister, Bonnie, this quiz game will see how much you know about Pokemon. Answer correctly and move on up; answer wrong and I have no clue what happens. No matter which answer you pick, you’ll still have to battle them, so I hope you brought your Ground-types. Unless there’s a secondary type, Electric is only weak to Ground; as long as you aren’t using Water- or Flying-types, you should be okay. I’m not telling you any of the answers; figure them out on your own. After a few rounds of (admittedly tough) trivia, we’re ready to take on Clemont. He leads with the always-annoying Emolga, but once you get past that he has Magneton and Heliolisk, who are both weak to Fighting moves as well as Ground. Since Emolga is part Flying, you’ll need to use Rock-type attacks like the Rock Tomb we got from Grant a few Gyms back. Beating Clemont not only lands you the Voltage Badge, but the coveted Thunderbolt TM! Easily one of the best Electric moves in the game, you should teach it to anything that can learn it.

With the Voltage Badge in hand, we should meet Professor Sycamore at Lysandre Cafe. Since it’s his cafe, Lysandre is there as well. It seems like they want to congratulate us on our success with Mega Evolution in person. While we’re here, we learn a little about the two Legendary Pokemon of Kalos and how they give and take life. Apparently, 3,000 years ago, the king of Kalos built a weapon that wiped out a lot of stuff. Lysandre continues to be super passionate about wiping away the old scum of the earth to make way for all the beautiful things. Still nothing a villain would say though. Look, he’s even giving us a King’s Rock. When held by a battling Pokemon, a King’s Rock can increase the chance of making the opponent flinch. It can also evolve any Poliwhirl or Slowpoke holding it when you trade them. That’s all Lumiose City has for us for now, unless there’s some sightseeing in the north part of town you want to do. It looks like the gang is all meeting up on Route 14. If you get lost on the way there, you can always catch a taxi to take you right to the gate leading to Route 14.

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Route 14:

Ladies and gentlemen you have just set foot on the best route ever. This route is home to the final member of my Dragon-type team, as well as my favorite Pokemon to come out of Generation 6. While nothing can ever beat Snivy for my all-time favorite, this one comes close. Here on this route you are able to catch the fantastic being that is Goomy! Goomy is a pure Dragon-type that some people may say looks ridiculous, but for some reason I can’t help but love the little guy. His final evolution is a Special Defense tank that takes hits like the boss he is. If you want to be lame and catch things other than Goomy, you can find Weepinbell, Haunter, Quagsire, Skorupi, Carnivine, Karrablast and Shelmet. In addition, you can find Stunfisk in the shallow water and Ekans and Bellsprout in hordes. Route 14 is one of the first routes we reach where it has a chance to rain, which means that Sweet Scent and Honey can’t be used to trigger hordes. A rainy route is also the evolution requirement to evolve Goomy to its final form. There is a possibility to get stuck in the swamp of Route 14, but just flail around like a fool and you’ll get free. You can also surf around in the deeper waters if the route to get more items.

For trainers on this route, Serena wants another fight. Other than evolving her starter, there’s no real changes to her lineup. However, this means you will need to be aware of a new secondary type from her. Chesnaught becomes Grass/Fighting, Delphox is Fire/Psychic and Greninja gets Water/Dark. Unlike the typing that Generation 4 had where your starter would have a type advantage over your opponents, this means that Serena will now be twice as good against your starter with hers. The solution is to just use another Pokemon, but it is interesting how they’ve done things this time around. As for other trainers on the route, there’s nothing really worth mentioning except the one awesome dude who’s using a Goomy. It’s best to just move on to Laverre City after you deal with plot things.

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Laverre City:

Before we head to the Gym, there are a few things in Laverre City to pick up. If you look for a Hex Maniac in town, she’ll give you a Gengarite which will Mega Evolve Gengar. This is pretty handy since we were just on a route where Haunter can be found. She’ll mention that you need to trade a Haunter in order to evolve it, which means you’ll either need a friend or meet a nice person who is willing to do an evolution trade with you. Here’s the thing about Pokemon: very few people are jerks when it comes to evolution trading. If you just grab a random passerby for a trade via the PSS and show them a Haunter, or anything else that needs to be traded to evolve for that matter, they will usually understand and offer something they need to evolve in response. It never hurts to try. After grabbing the Mega Stone, let’s hop over to the Gym.

I forget if I’ve given a crash course on Fairy-types yet, but here’s another one real quick. Fairy-types are weak to Steel and Poison, but Mawile and Klefki are both Steel-types, making them resistant to those. Bring Fire or Ground to deal with them. Other than that, Fairy resists Bug, Fighting and Dark-type attacks, as well as being strong against Dragon, Fighting and Dark Pokemon. Lastly, they are completely immune to Dragon-type attacks so don’t bother with them. The Gym layout is pretty much the same as Saffron City Gym from Generation 1. The best way to not get lost is to only move directly right or left from the warp tile you start at, unless you have to move to another one. Eventually you’ll make it to Valerie and her team of Fairies. She leads with Mawile, so be ready for that. Mr. Mime and Sylveon are pretty easy to deal with after Mawile’s out of the way. Taking her down will get you the Fairy Badge and a TM for the new Dazzling Gleam. A decent move to teach anything that can’t already learn the Fairy move Moonblast, it’ll take down Dragons that Ice-type attacks won’t deal with.

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Alright, let’s talk a little bit here about team building. By this point in the game you have six badges which means you either want to have a solid team of five, if not six, Pokemon. Since I did Y version first, I had access to Dragalge for my Dragon-type team that I used, but for this X playthrough I wanted to have a team ready to go from the start, so I bred my whole team and traded the eggs to X at the first possible chance. I hatched them there so they would have the same OT number and not disobey me when they got too high in level. If you’ve been having trouble catching Pokemon, this game gives you two starters, Lucario and Lapras if you don’t count the Torchic you can get until January. Even though I had a whole team of Dragons for Y version, it was still fairly varied in terms of attack types. In addition to Dragalge, I used Tyrantrum, Haxorus, Salamence, Garchomp and the mighty Goodra. My X team is Meowstic, Pangoro, Malamar, Sylveon, Noivern and Charizard because Mega Charizard X is super cool. It’s all a matter of preference, but if you pick up plenty of TMs you’ll be able to take down most things you come up against.

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Pokeball Factory:

After getting the Fairy Badge, it looks like everyone wants to check out the nearby Pokeball Factory. But once we get there, Shauna says there’s someone blocking the entrance. Turns out Team Flare is causing trouble here. too, and, after Trevor and Shauna get rid of the guard, Serena is gonna help up see what’s going on around here. Just like the Power Plant, Team Flare is all over the place, and it’s up to us to stop them. Other than Toxicroak, the evolved form of Croagunk, there’s nothing here from the Grunts you haven’t already seen. Once you make it to the President’s office, we’re greeted by not just one but two of Team Flare’s Scientists. Serena’s caught up to us and is willing team up in a double battle against Celosia and Bryony. Her Pokemon are still not that great, but they’ll do a good job of drawing fire away from your team. They both only have one Pokemon each, Manectric and Liepard so this shouldn’t be that tough. After taking down the Scientists, the President is going to reward us both with either a Master Ball or a Big Nugget. A Master Ball will catch any Pokemon without fail, and a Big Nugget is worth 10,000 bucks. Don’t worry if you want both, because he’s super generous and gives them to you and Serena. What a nice guy.

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Route 15:

We’re making our way down to Dendemille Town next. Route 15 is a fall colored path full of Hex Maniacs and Fairy Tale Girls. The piles of leaves can hide either items or trainers, so be careful of that. Even though we’ve seen them plenty on the side of Team Flare, this is your chance to get Mightyena in X or Liepard in Y. You can also find Watchog, Foongus, Pawniard and Klefki in the grass here. If you search for hordes, you might run into a Murkrow, or Lombre and Floatzel by using Surf. It’s a pretty straight shot to Dendemille Town, but instead I suggest heading south to Route 16 before we get there.

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Route 16:

I’m going to combine Route 16 with another area that you can access from both of these two routes. First off, Route 16 has all of the same Pokemon to find as Route 15, except it loses a few to make room for Phantump and Pumpkaboo. These are two new Ghost/Grass-types that evolve when traded, and Pumpkaboo can be found in four different sizes. In addition, the Fishing Spot is here, where you can pick up the Super Rod to catch stronger Water-types like Gyarados if you head back to Route 2. Near the connection between Routes 15 and 16 there are entrances to the Lost Hotel. This run down building has been taking over by punks and is full of new Pokemon to grab. Magneton, Electrode and Litwick can all be found while you’re down here, as well as Trubbish and Garbodor if you check the shaking trash cans. If you come here on Tuesday, there’s a chance Rotom will be in the trash cans as well. The punks have a boss here that will only meet you if you know all four special skate tricks, which can be learned from skaters in Lumiose City.

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Dendemille Town:

Once we get to Dendemille Town, the Professor has a few things he wants to share with us about the Legendary Pokemon of Kalos. Depending on which version you have, the Legendary Pokemon is said to either give or take life. Either way, once it runs out of energy it falls asleep for 1,000 years. Maybe we’ll get the chance to find it during our travels. After he leaves, Trevor catches up saying he wanted Sycamore to look at his Pokedex. I guess he’ll just have to wait for a better time, because we’ve got better things to do. If there’s a move you accidentally made your Pokemon forget, or want to get rid an HM move, head to the house on the east side of town near the little farm. The Move Deleter can make your Pokemon forget any move, mostly used for HM moves you want to be rid of. The Move Relearner is a little trickier. You’ll need to trade a Heart Scale in order to reteach your moves this way, but it’s a handy way to get access to moves that you may have missed without knowing it. After getting that taken care of, you can head north of town to see what’s going on over there.

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Frost Cavern:

Similar to how we used a Rhyhorn to get over the rocky path to Glittering Cave, the only way through Route 17 is on the back of a Mamoswine. However, Mamoswine seems worried about something going on in the Frost Cavern. With a name like Frost Cavern, you can expect there to be Ice-type Pokemon and ice sliding puzzles, so get ready for some fun. The single most important thing to remember is that you move in eight directions now, not just four. If it looks like you can’t get farther in an ice puzzle, just try moving diagonally. The trainers here vary from Ace Trainers testing their skill to Hikers that just like to explore. This means that there’s tons of different opponents to deal with. There are also plenty of wild Pokemon to encounter and catch. The frigid foes you can find are Jynx, Piloswine, Beartic, Bergmite and Cryogonal. You can also find Smoochum, Vanillite and Cubchoo in hordes. I actually found a shiny Cubchoo in a horde, which is pretty neat.

It shouldn’t be very surprising that Team Flare is behind whatever trouble is going on here. In this case, they’re busy harassing an Abomasnow to make the blizzard outside worse. It seems like they want to put all those Pokeballs they stole to good use by catching strong Pokemon. I guess it makes sense since most of the ones they have now aren’t much of a match for your team. Trevor may not be the best trainer, but he can hold his own against one of the two grunts here. That means we just have to deal with the other one and the fourth Team Flare Scientist, Mable. Mable only has a single Houndoom with her, so you shouldn’t have any trouble. After dealing with Team Flare, talk to the Abomasnow to get a Mega Stone for any Abomasnow you get of your own. Before you leave Frost Cavern, it’s important to note that hidden deep in the cave is a large icy rock. If you level up an Eevee in the room with this icy rock, it will evolve into Glaceon, but you’ll need to Surf to find it. I don’t think any Pokemon actually appear in that room, so you may need to bring a Rare Candy just in case.

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Route 17:

In order to get through the snow covered Route 17, you’ll need to hop on the back of Mamoswine here. Just like riding on the back of Rhyhorn, wild Pokemon can pop out of the snow to attack you. This route is home to one of my all-time favorites: Sneasel. In addition to Sneasel, you can find Delibird, Snover or a fully grown Abomasnow if you’re really lucky. You’re welcome to search the sides of the route for any items, but once you’re all set you can head straight for Anistar City.

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Anistar City:

Just like back in Coumarine City, Serena wants to face us in another battle in front of the Gym. This time she’s added a new member to her team. Depending on which starter you chose, she’ll have an Eeveelution of the same type except for those who picked Chespin. This means that those who picked Froakie will see Vaporeon, Chespin users will fight Jolteon and the people who got Fennekin will have to face Flareoen. Other than battling Serena, there is a Hex Maniac in the Pokemon Center who will give you a random TM every day. This is where you will have a chance to get the TM for Flamethrower, which is one of the best Fire-type moves to teach to your team. You might not get it on your first try, but check back every day to fill up your collection.

The Anistar Gym is probably my favorite in terms of design. Stepping on the center of the pattern on the floor will reveal the Gym’s true form. Instead of an empty room, it’s a 3D psychedelic maze that you will have to navigate to reach the Gym Leader. Each of the trainers here only has one Pokemon each, but Olympia is keeping up the trend of having a team of three. She leads with Sigilyph that I think might have the potential to use Tailwind that will make the rest of her team faster, but I’m always able to knock it out first. After that, she just has Slowking and Meowstic, so you can handle her pretty simply. Beating her will get you the Psychic Badge and the TM for Calm Mind, which is really only useful for competitive battles. Once you leave the Gym, Serena congratulates you before there’s a regionwide message sent out on the Holo Caster. It turns out that Lysandre has decided to kill everyone that isn’t Team Flare because it turns out he’s actually the villain. It’s up to us to put a stop to his evil plan, but we’ll have to find Lysandre Labs first.

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Lysandre Labs:

So you remember that cafe we met Sycamore and Lysandre in after we beat Clemont? The red one that has Lysandre’s name on it? The easiest way to find Lysandre Cafe is to fly to the center Pokemon Center of Lumiose City and move slightly forward to make the camera spin to show the cafe. Inside there are two disguised Team Flare members who will each tell you an important piece of information. Once you know that there is a hidden door and the password to it, check the case next to the Grunt in the back to reveal the entrance to Lysandre Labs. Step inside to meet the boss man himself, who will challenge you to a battle. Lysandre has a really nice sounding battle theme, which is a remix of the Team Flare theme, as well as a decent team of Mienfoo, Murkrow, Pyroar and Gyarados. Once you beat him, he commends you on your strength but asks you to wait a little longer before completely stopping him. You’ll have to hunt the elevator key down from one of the four Scientists anyway, so it’s time to go hunting.

As you spin around on the arrow panels and warp through the tiles. Aliana will block your way halfway through with an additional Pokemon on her team. In addition to the Mightyena she had back at the Power Plant, she’s also added a Druddigon to her team. One of the side rooms is full of beds that you can use to heal your team, and another has Celosia and Bryony in it. While you don’t have to face them both at the same time, they will battle you one after another. Celosia has added Drapion to join her Manectric, while Bryony has paired her Liepard with a Bisharp. Beating them won’t get you the key to the elevator, but they will tell you that, in addition to all the electricity they leeched from the Power Plant, they also need the Legendary Pokemon to unleash the ultimate weapon. After a little more running around, you’ll find Mable who it feels like we just saw a few minutes ago. She now has a Weavile to go with her Houndoom, so be careful of that. Once you get the elevator key, you can head down tot he basement to stop Lysandre’s scheme.

It’s time for some super plot heavy back story, so watch out for spoilers. Three thousand years ago, there was a big war that took the life of a man’s best friend Pokemon. He built a machine to bring it back to life, but he was still mad, so he converted the machine to take life instead of giving it. The destruction ended the war, but in exchange his Pokemon left him forever. The tall man we met back on Route 13 is named AZ and it seems he is an ancient king who used the ultimate weapon all those years ago. Head deeper into the lab to find Lysandre talking to his final Scientist. Before we can try to stop Lysandre, we have to battle Xerosic with his Crobat and Malamar. Just like the Malamar I use, his has Contrary, which will reverse any stat changes you use on it. This also means the negative effects of Superpower will make it stronger so you want to take it out fast. I hope you’re good at making really hard choices, because it’s up to us to pick the right color button. One will fire the ultimate weapon, the other will do nothing and Lysandre will be stopped. Although it doesn’t matter which you choose, because Xerosic is a jerk and activate it anyway. The weapon isn’t going to fire yet though; it’ll just knock over some houses in Geosenge Town. We’ll have to head there to try and stop Lysandre again.

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Team Flare HQ:

Once you fly to Geosenge Town, head to the northwest part of the town to find a Grunt blocking the path. Taking him down gives Serena enough time to catch up because she wants to help out. Head into the base and have a chat with Lysandre about how he’s sad about wiping out all Pokemon, but how it must be done for the good of the planet or something. Since we still think he’s dumb for trying to kill everyone, it’s time for another battle. Not much has changed about Lysandre’s team except that, in the time we last faced him, he’s evolved his Mienfoo and Murkrow into Mienshao and Honchkrow. Beating him again will let us access the basement where the sleeping Legendary Pokemon is feeding power to the ultimate weapon. It’s up to us to go pull the plug.

In order to reach the basement, we’ll have to go through a gauntlet of Team Flare minions, both Grunts and Admins. The first few you’ll take on two at a time with Serena by your side. While her Meowstic may not be as strong as the rest of your team, it’s still great for drawing fire and occasionally using Fake Out to stun the enemy. She’ll also heal you after every battle to keep you feeling fresh. About halfway down, Shauna will join you for moral support because she wants to feel useful too. I recommend saving before you go through this last door, because things are about to get a little tough. Also make sure you have plenty of Ultra Balls since it’s almost time to catch a Legendary Pokemon! You only get one shot at it, so let’s jump right in. Before we can do that, though, we have to battle four more Team Flare Admins. They don’t have anything new, but you will have to face them all before you trigger the cutscene for Xerneas or Yveltal. Whichever version you are playing, the Legendary Pokemon will be at level 50 regardless. In the past, the Legendary Pokemon was something you got around this time that pretty much made the Elite Four a cakewalk, but I’m going to drop a quick spoiler on you: the highest level Pokemon in the Elite Four is 68. This means that you’ll need to train Xerneas or Yveltal quite a bit for them to be of much use to you, but I don’t even bother with them personally. Whether you’re up against the Fairy-type Xerneas or the Dark/Flying-type Yveltal, both are fairly easy to catch. Most Ultra Balls will do the trick; just make sure you don’t waste your Master Ball. There are better things to catch with that one.

It seems Lysandre isn’t too happy with us taking away his power source. He’s also added a few things to his outfit, although I’m not really sure what the point of them is. The main thing you need to know is that it’s time for another battle. Just like before, he uses the same team of Mienshao, Pyroar, Honchkrow and Gyarados, but he’s decided to up the ante with a Mega Evolution of his own. Mega Gyarados changes its type from Water/Flying to Water/Dark and it also changes abilities from Intimidate to Mold Breaker. This means that anything you have with Levitate will be hit by its Earthquake attack, so watch out for that.

And so with that final defeat, Lysandre was shown the error of his ways and decided to live out a life of good trying to help everyone share what little resources they have. Just kidding, he hits the fire button and destroys the weapon, taking himself down with it, never to be seen again. That’s pretty much the end of Team Flare to be dealt with, so now it’s back to the quest for our final badge. Fly back to Anistar City and you’ll be able to pick back up where you left off.

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Route 18:

Still more version exclusives to be picked up this late in the game. You can get either Lairon or Pupitar, as well as Sandslash, Torkoal, Gurdurr, Heatmor and Durant. There’s still the chance to find Graveler in rocks, but you can also try to get yourself a Shuckle as well. One thing you want to watch out for with these Graveler and the ones you can find in Terminus Cave is that they are high enough level to be using Selfdestruct. This means that if you get one down to the last of its health because it has the Sturdy ability, it’ll just blow up in your face. The best way to deal with this is with a Ghost-type that isn’t hurt by Selfdestruct at all. In the house just outside the entrance to Terminus Cave is a Psychic who has a unique type of battle to try once a day. An Inverse Battle can only be done here and will make super-effective moves weak and vice versa. This means that Dragons are suddenly very bad to use and Electric-types can hit Ground-types. You’re welcome to try it if you want something new. I suggest heading into Terminus Cave for some goodies before meeting up with the Professor in Couriway Town.

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Terminus Cave:

There are a few entrances to the cave, but there’s good things to be found all throughout it. You definitely will want to get the two TMs lying around, because Brick Break and Shadow Ball are great moves to have. There’s also a few evolution items to be found like Dusk Stone and Reaper Cloth. The main reason I want to come in here is to find a Noibat that can drop down from the shadows. Most of the time I only found Ariados dropping on me, but Noibat is definitely a strong Pokemon to have on your team if you need a final spot filled. In the deepest part of the cave there is a person blocking our path until we become the Champion, so we’ll have to come back later for that.

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Couriway Town:

Couriway Town is just a small little town with a train station and some nice looking waterfalls. The main point of stopping here is to heal up and then head south to meet Professor Sycamore. He came all this way to personally thank us for stopping Lysandre and his nefarious plot, but he also wants to battle us again. This time he’ll be using the final evolutions of the Kanto starters: Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise. They shouldn’t be too hard for you to handle, especially if you’ve been using your own Kanto starter this whole time.

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Route 19:

Route 19 is another route with a swamp, which means that we have access to most of the same Pokemon from Route 14. The major difference is that, instead of Skorupi and Goomy, you can find Drapion and Sliggoo. There’s also a few Gligar to be found in the bushes via hordes. Other than that there’s not much to be found that’s new. If you take the time to muck about in the swamp, you can loop back around to get the TM for Sludge Bomb, which is a much better move to have now that Fairy is weak to it.

Once you reach the big rope bridge, you’ll get stopped by Shauna. I hope you’re still warmed up from your battle with Sycamore, because we’ve got three rival battles in a row with Shauna, Tierno and Trevor. You’ll get healed after your battle with Tierno, so don’t worry about burning out too much. Shauna will be using Delcatty, Goodra and the final form of her starter. Tierno has Talonflame, Roserade and Crawdaunt, and Trevor has Raichu, Aerodactyl and Florges. This is a good chance to see some Pokemon you might not have added to your Pokedex yet, since most of them need stones or special evolution methods. Once you finish proving to your friends why they call you Boss, you can continue on to Snowbelle City after getting the HM for Waterfall from Shauna.

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Snowbelle City:

While we can’t challenge the Gym yet, there are still a few important things to know about Snowbelle City. Well, actually, it’s just that this is the place to buy all of the special Pokeballs you could ever need. You may want to invest in some Quick Balls if you want to go back and catch things you missed out on, as well as Dusk Balls for people who mostly play at night or need to some cave exploring. Quick Balls will work about 60% of the time if you just throw them first on whatever you encounter, and Dusk Balls are four times more effective than Ultra Balls at night or in caves. There’s also the Repeat Balls to make it easier to catch a bunch of something you already have. Once you’re all stocked up, head to the forest on the south side of town.

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Route 20:

Route 20 is a confusing forest that I’m still not completely sure how to get around in. Just wander around aimlessly until you see the dirt path that will lead you out of the forest. While you’re here you can find some cool new things like Jigglypuff, Noctowl, Zoroark, Gothorita, Amoonguss and Trevenant. There is also the funniest thing I have seen in a Pokemon game yet, even beating out the fact that your first battle in Black/White destroys your room. If you run into a horde of Trevenant, there’s a chance you can find a Sudowoodo trying to blend in. It’s hilarious because he’s a Rock-type pretending to be a tree so you don’t use Water-type attacks on him.

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Pokemon Village:

Welcome to the Pokemon Village, a safe haven for Pokemon who were mistreated or abandoned by their trainers. Wulfric, the Snowbelle Gym Leader, looks after them, but he also mentions that there are a select few that are simply too strong to be around others, so they seclude themselves here. We’ll get more into that later. The wild Pokemon that can be found here are almost exactly the same as in the forest, except for one major exception. Pokemon Village is where Ditto can be found, so get breeding folks! Also, like the trash cans back in the Lost Hotel, you can find Garbodor, except on Thursday where you have the chance to find Banette. After you beat Wulfric and get the ability to use Waterfall, you’ll want to come back with Surf, Cut and Waterfall to get the TM for Psychic. Easily one of the best moves in the game, you’ll want to have it for the Elite Four and competitive battles. Talking to some of the Pokemon will also get you some handy items like a Chople Berry. Once you have everything you need, you can fly right back to Snowbelle City to challenge Wulfric

This may be my favorite Gym design ever. The puzzle itself isn’t the hardest I’ve ever done, but it is a little tricky. You’ll need to rotate the different colors to make it farther and make it to Wulfric while still paying attention to where the connections actually are. The trainers here shouldn’t be too tough to beat, since Ice-type Pokemon are pretty fragile. Wulfric only has three Pokemon, just like the other Gym Leaders after Grant, and only one of them is something you might not have seen in the wild yet. His Abomasnow will cause the weather to become Hail for the first five turns, which will slowly damage you unless you’re using an Ice-type of your own. I think Cryogonal and Avalugg have decent defenses for Ice-types, but you still be able to melt through them. Beating Wulfric will get you the Iceberg Badge and the TM for Ice Beam, which everyone should be using on things that can learn it because it’s a great move.

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Route 21:

Now that we have all eight badges, it’s time for the journey to Victory Road. Luckily, there’s only one route between us and it, so we’ve got one last chance to pick up a few things before we head into the cave. The Pokemon you can find here range from the super cool Scyther and Ursaring to the mediocre Spinda and Altaria. You can pick up Swablu in hordes, but the most notable Pokemon are the route are Dratini and Dragonair if you fish with a Good Rod or Super Rod, respectively. Once you pass through the gate you will be at the entrance to Victory Road. Unlike previous games, there’s actually someone here who wants to battle us before we even get to the official badge check. Think of him as a quick warm up.

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Victory Road:

It’s time to take on the ascending gauntlet known as Victory Road: a final trial where the winners move on to become Champion and the losers stick around to suck their thumbs. Only a few new wild Pokemon to be found here, but there are some decent ones if you still haven’t filled that last spot in your team. You can find Lickitung, Gurdurr, Druddigon and Zweilous in the cave sections, but in the few times you’re outside you can have Fearow, Skarmory or Hydreigon swoop down on you from above. You will need Surf to make it through, and I also recommend having Strength to make shortcuts back to the entrance for later explorations in Victory Road.

Halfway though the climb up Victory Road is a person who won’t challenge you as you pass by. Instead she will heal you, and I suggest you take this chance. Not just because it’s a good idea in general, but because Serena is here to challenge us again. She still has the same team she used back in Anistar City except for the addition of Altaria to her team. It’s really not even worth adding the images that I normally do, so I’m not even going to bother. As you make your way to the the end of Victory Road there will be a cave that you have to Surf into. Instead of going straight, you can look around to pick up the TM for Dragon Claw, one last good move before you challenge the Elite Four.

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Pokemon League:

The Pokemon League is the final test that we’ve all been working up to. Once you heal up and make it inside, you’re greeted by Malva of the Elite Four. She’ll tell you that you can choose any door you want in any order, but she won’t say what type is through which door. I’m actually going to randomize the list I have here and talk about them in that order. I will warn you that the levels are no lower than 63, so make sure your team is strong enough to handle them.

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Siebold is the Water-type member of the Elite Four. It seems like he’s also either an artist or a chef and will ask you if Pokemon Battles can be considered art. Since they are the Elite Four, they have four Pokemon each and Siebold uses Clawitzer, Starmie, Gyarados and Barbarcle. Gyarados has Dragon Dance, so make sure you can knock it out in one hit. Other than that, you should be able to wash away his fish and move on to the next room.

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Malva may look familiar to some people if you actually paid attention to the news announcements on the Holo Caster. In addition to her fiery attitude, she has a team of Fire-type Pokemon that shouldn’t be too hot for you to handle. Malva uses the female version of Pyroar as well as Torkoal, Chandelure and Talonflame. The only difference between male and female Pyroar is their mane, but it’s nice that you’ve had the chance to see both between Lysandre and Malva. Talonflame can be a little tough and like to swoop in with the powerful Brave Bird attack. Douse Malva’s flames and move on to the next room.

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Drasna is the stereotypical old woman member of the Elite Four. In addition to her elderly appearance, she also uses the ancient power of Dragon-type Pokemon. Dragons are weak to Ice-, Dragon-, and Fairy-types, so try to pack at least one of those. It seems like the main purpose of Drasna’s lead Pokemon is to help fill your Pokedex, since Dragalge is only available in Y. She also has Altaria, Druddigon and Noivern. Her Noivern doesn’t really show off the full potential of the species, so you should grab your own and teach it Boomburst to destroy everything in your path. Once you’re all done with Drasna, you’ll be all set to move on, but she will stop you to say goodbye one last time. On repeat challenges, she mentions that her grandparents came from an old town devoted to legends of dragons, so I’m pretty sure she’s from Celestic Town in Sinnoh.

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The last member of the Elite Four is the regal Wikstrom. A knight in shining armor with Steel-type Pokemon to match, Wikstrom will lead off with Klefki. It goes down pretty easily to Fire-type attacks, as does Scizor, but Probopass can be a little trickier. The biggest thing to worry about with Probopass is its Sturdy ability that will prevent you from knocking it out in one shot. This means you either need to do about half its health in one shot to take it down with two hits or just keep blasting it while Wikstrom heals it. The ace of this team is the mighty Aegislash that will change forme once it’s damaged. Since the Shield Forme has very high defenses, it’s very unlikely that you’ll take it down with one hit, which means that you’ll need to be careful of the Iron Head attack that’s sure to follow. I’ve only ever had it use Iron Head on my when it isn’t using it’s special King’s Shield, so I’m not sure what other moves it might have.

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Once you’ve beaten all four opponents, you’re ready to take on the Champion of the Pokemon League. It’s a little bit of a surprise to see Diantha filling the role since we only saw her twice, but it is a nice touch. Her battle music is really pretty and very fitting, but not really my favorite. Her team honestly isn’t that impressive either. For some reason she leads with a Hawlucha, which Korrina also had, so there’s not any real reason for us to see it. It does have the Flying Press move that is dual-typed, so I guess it’s playing on the novelty of that. She also has both Tyrantrum and Aurorus so you can see the final version of the fossil you didn’t pick, but Grant already had both their first forms. Then there’s her Goodra, which is great to use as a tank, but Shauna has one, so we’ve seen that too. The only thing you might not have seen yet is a Gourgeist because you need to trade a Pumpkaboo to evolve it. Her final Pokemon, the strongest that any Champion has ever used, is her Gardevoir that will Mega Evolve right away. If you aren’t prepared to deal with her level 68 power house, she’ll use it to decimate your team with Moonblast, Psychic, Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball. If you can manage to weather the storm of Diantha’s team, you will be recognized as the Pokemon League Champion! Congratulations!

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After the credits roll, we have once last battle to attend to. During a parade in your honor for becoming the Champion, AZ will approach you and ask him to show you what a trainer really is. After beating his team of Torkoal, Golurk and Sigilyph, he will thank you for restoring his spirit as a person and then his Floette will come back to him. Reunited with his friend after 3,000 years, we never see him again. It’s a very touching ending to a plot that we didn’t really get to see that much of, and I’ve heard that some people even cried over it. The important thing is that we were able to help AZ and Floette reunite.

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There are a few things to deal with in the post-game that are kinda neat so I’ll go over them super quick. First is that Shauna will trade you a base form of the starter Pokemon she chose, either Chespin, Fennekin or Froakie. She’ll happily take anything you give her but the Pokemon she gives you has a silly nickname. If you head to Lumiose City in the cafe where you first met Diantha, she will also take anything in exchange for a Ralts that is holding the Mega Stone for Gardevoir. After you’re done with that, you can head to the train station to meet up with the Professor to get a ticket to Kiloude City. Hop on the train and head on down.

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Kiloude City:

The first thing that you want to check out on Kiloude City is the Friend Safari. Every friend on your 3DS list represents a type of Pokemon you can find. If that 3DS friend has also played Pokemon and beaten the Elite Four, you can find three special Pokemon instead of just two. This is a great place to find special Pokemon or ones you already have with Hidden Abilities. You can post your 3DS friend code in the forums here. Once you’re all set with that, head to the building in the center of town to check out the Battle Maison. Similar to the Battle Frontier or Battle Subway, the Maison is a place to test your skills in order to win Battle Points, or BP, that you can exchange for fabulous prizes. Some TMs can only be found here, as well as items that you will need to evolve Pokemon like Sneasel and Gligar. Once you complete at least one battle here, Serena will show up at the north side of town near the small pond. Now she will challenge you to a daily battle, which is good for quick experience if you don’t want to go through the whole Elite Four again. In addition to her normal set she’s been using this whole time, she’s also added a Clefable and her Absol can now Mega Evolve. After you beat her, she’ll give you the Mega Stone for Absol too, as well as mentioning that the Professor wanted to see you at the giant sundial in Anistar City

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Mega Stone Hunting:

When you go to meet up with the Professor, he’ll have you hold your Mega Ring up to the sundial. This acts as an upgrade that will let you find Mega Stones lying around Kalos, but only between the hours of 8 and 9 PM. I haven’t bothered to look for them all, but some can only be obtained in X or Y version and will need to be traded for. Even if you know the location of a Mega Stone, you can only pick it up during that one hour time frame, so either make sure you’re available or change the clock on your 3DS. Some Mega Stones are more useful than others, so if you have some you don’t want you may be able to use them as bargaining chips on Pokemon forums or something.

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Unknown Dungeon:

If you head back to Pokemon Village, there’s a cave that was blocked off before that we couldn’t enter until we were as strong as the Champion. That’s because there’s a super strong Pokemon in here just like Wulfric said when we first met him. That Pokemon is Mewtwo, and he will challenge anyone who approaches him. If you still have that Master Ball, this is a great time to use it because few Pokemon are as cool to have as Mewtwo. Once you catch Mewtwo to use for your own personal gain, you will also receive the corresponding Mega Stone to the version you’re playing. Mega Mewtwo X becomes part Fighting-type and has higher attack power, making him better with moves like Psycho Cut, while Mega Mewtwo Y gets an even stronger boost to his already impressive special attack stat. Both are great to use if you want to have a Legendary battle or just feel like abusing some strong Pokemon against random challengers.

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Pokemon Z:

Remember back when I said we would have to come back to explore the deepest part of Terminus Cave? That time is now, and there’s a few things other than just a Legandary pokemon to pick up down here. In the sections of the bottom level of the cave, there are three orbs. One is Adamant, one is Lustrous and the final is Griseous. These three items are meant to be held by Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, but since you won’t be able to send Items through the Pokemon Bank, they’re here instead. Once you have the orbs you can approach the large green Pokemon. The third Legendary Pokemon for Gen 6 and the cause of all the rumors of a Pokemon Z game eventually coming out is called Zygarde. Similar to Rayquaza’s relationship with Groudon and Kyogre, Zygarde’s ability will reverse the effects of Xerneas and Yveltal’s. While it is a Dragon/Ground-type, Zygarde will almost definitely use its Camouflage attack that will change it to a Rock-type. It also has some pretty strong moves, so be careful unless you’re planning to save your Master Ball for it instead of Mewtwo. Dusk Balls will work wonders here, as will Timer Balls if the battle starts to drag on for too long.

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Once you have Zygarde in your Pokedex, the rest of the game is up to you. Hunt down Shiny Pokemon, trample the Battle Maison, build your competitive team, or just fill up the Pokedex. Pokemon is all about variety, and there’s no wrong way to play it. Personally, I like to build up a team of things that I like and try to tackle the Battle Maison or whatever the gauntlet happens to be called. Since breeding has become even easier, anyone can make the strongest Pokemon to challenge friends and foes with, so enjoy!