Author: The Editor

The last post regarding starter Pokemon!

The final 2 places for you Pokemon team in our opinion are:

Onix is a rock type pokemon required for your adventure. We use it for the Rock smash and Rock climb and Strength HMs. Onix is easy to catch. Mind you you could also use Geodude but we prefer Onix. Once you get them you don’t have to level them up if you don’t want to they are just needed to progress to the various locations in the game.

The last place in the team we give to Ponyta. Now, there is nothing special about it until it evolves into Rapidash but we like to have a pure fire type in the group. There are lots of wild Pokemon encounters weak to fire types so that’s why we have it. Furthermore its the only fire you can get in the wild.

We leveled up and evolved all the pokemon to level 50 except for our Empoleon and Bronzong which we took to 70. Yes it is a bit tedious but we gave them rare candy which Pachirisu picked up quite often for some reason after it reached level 50. We pickup 50 or so before the elite 4 match. Speaking of which we didn’t give rare candies to the others until they reached level 50. Our Pachirisu also had a tendency to pick up rare candy, dusk and dawn stones very often in the caves. Mind you in each game the Pachirisu didn’t always do that. One of our Pach’s always picked up the largely useless Escape rope. We collect over 70 of them – you only need to keep 2 or 3 on hand.

So that’s our team!

Piplup
Starly
Bronzor
Pachirisu
Onix
Ponyta

It’s NOT the most effective team in the world but it will let you finish the game in a smart fashion.

For the next series of posts we will detail the moves and items we used.

This post details the basic team to complete Pokemon diamond and pearl series without too many problems.

We chose easy to catch regular Pokemon team that require no trading or prior games.

Which is the best starter Pokemon?

We liked Piplup because when we completed the game with it was easier than the other Turtwig or Chimchar. Its final evolution into Empoleon which is water and steel type means it sturdy against physical and physic moves and water protects its against steels weakness to fire moves. It only has issues with electric moves, but considering that there’s only 2 main electric types in the game its not a great problem. One other bonus is that it can learn the Surf or Waterfall HM moves which means you don’t need to carry additional Pokemon. Very useful since there are lots on caves and ground types in this game.

Which are the best starter Pokemon team?
Starly which evolves into Staraptor is essential as its the only flying type you can get easily in the game. You need to teach it Fly and Defog to complete the game. Mind you Defog is a pretty useless combat move.. It can also learn the close combat move which makes cave crawling an easier task.

Bronzor which evolves into Bronzong is a really good one to get as well. It’s a steel and physic type which is very handy. Steel more than compensates for the physic type flaws. However you have to selective about this one. It has 2 different characteristics – it comes with levitate or heatproof. I prefer heat proof as it renders fire moves, its only true weakness to minimal damage. The only moves truly effective against this Pokemon with the heat proof ability are earthquake or magnitude, which you rarely encounter. What’s more it really handy with hypnosis, physic, confuse ray moves for catching legendaries that are in the game.

Pachirisu is another essential team member since it’s one of 2 electric types you can get. It also has the pickup ability which is useful for getting bonus items through the game. The higher the level it is the better items it collects. It’s a fast one too which helps in battles. It is also one of the few that can enter the Hearthome garden which you can pick up even more items for free. One more thing it is one for the few that can be taught the Cut HM early in the game.

We’ll discuss the final 2 members of a basic Pokemon team in the next post!

Here’s chapter 1 of Glu’s Stranded game walk through. We did a story-esque write up as a step by step write up as it doesn’t do the game justice. You really must immerse yourself in the character and situation you find your self in.

Chapter 1 – Strangers

The game starts off with a dream sequence.
It’s about who you’ll recognize as Ian and Emily at some stones shaped as heads.
Emily is about to be sacrificed!
Ian suddenly sees you! – the dream ends abruptly

You wake up surrounded by 3 others.
It’s Mike, Ian and a lady yet unnamed as yet. (Although for you it’s Isabelle)
You play a character called Mark.
There’s a short dialog that follows to establish the character types.

Mike’s a policeman and slave driver and Ian’s a cook and is nice but has issues and the lady is a doctor and clearly disturbed.
The lady, Isabelle loves drama and tells you she’s seeing things moving on cliffs and so forth.
Mike has the knife ohhh … And he’s going to make raft.
Since you’re not doing anything you are required to help make a fire.
Once you finish the fire task Mike ‘commands’ you to start fishing.
Task 1 collect 3 drift wood.
Task 2 collect fishing line and hooks.
Ian gives you an apple because he rescued you and probably thinks you’re cute (assumed).
Just walk along the beach till you collect all the said items and return to camp.
Also collect any thing else you manage to find.
Ripples in the water means that there is usually something to collect eg. shells.
Shells are the currency of the island.
Yes inflationary, like using tree leaves for money but this is a game.

Mike will now make a fishing rod for you and instructions on how to fish.
He’s got the knife you see…
Anyway he’s way to busy to raft making for such a trivial task.
He wants 5 pieces to make a raft.
(Don’t ask me how these small pieces could possibly make a raft – its only a game guys).
He’ll mentions that he’ll try to find a shovel – thank you for getting off your butt.
If you’ve been collecting everything you should have enough driftwood to complete his next task.

He then freaks out when there’s some movement on the beach.
Yes your surrounded by very easily freaked people.

So due to the unstable personalities of all the survivors it is up to you Mark Keane to do all the hard work walking around and getting yourself into danger.
Walk along the beach till you too see movement.
Yes you discover a another lady called Emily.
She needs water before she go anywhere.
So go back to camp and get some.
Isabelle as usual will freak out because there’s not much left.
Kinda of selfish for a doctor – hmm.

Cut scene of Emily’s arrival.
She is carrying on about her missing daughter Stephie.
Talk to everyone there to receive the shovel from Mike or Isabelle dependent on version?
No its not to hit him with but to knock some sense into the easily freaked lady.
(Just kidding violence is not the answer.)
Out of the blue Ian now wants a mackeral.

So your new tasks are to find the missing girl and go fishing.
Fishing is easy but tedious.
You’ll need bait – easily collected by digging at conviently placed bare patches of ground.
You may not get worms or bait everytime you dig either…
You don’t have to do this task straight away but it is necessary to familiarize your self with how to cook on the camp fire and digging and of course restoring your health bar.
I say do it quickly so that you can get the story moving.

When you return with the fish talk to the others including the easily freaked lady who happens to be a doctor.
She’s not happy because she’s s now lost her medicines and she freaking out again.
She says to look in a cavern up the beach for it.
Why can’t she go there her self?
If she lost them why does she suggest ‘the cave’?
Cook or smoke the fish so you can recover the health bar before you head off.

Now go to the cavern and recover her missing but empty dangerous medicines.
Don’t forget to do more fishing and cooking so that the next part of the game is easier.
Collect say – 10 fish of various types and cook/smoke them.
Doing worry about running out of space in your bag because you won’t.
I’ve had 50 logs, 150 wood, 500 arrows etc… Plenty of space.
Sure it physically impossible but this is a game and it is a sensible ‘flaw’.

Once you’ve found and returned the medicine the next area will open…

Walkthrough Chapter 2

You will need some basic pokemon in your party to train with HMs. So the recommended set of Pokemon for beginners are:

Starter pokemon given to you by Prof Rowan. Any of the 3 are fine.

Next Buziel or it’s evolution Floatzel needed a one to handle the HMs Surf, Strength, Waterfall, Rock Smash.  Mind you we prefer another solution – see the post on our recommended starter team.

Next A Starly or its evolutions Staravia, Staraptor to handle the HM Fly, Defog.

The final HM Cut in my opinion can be given to Pachirisu with the Pick-up ability. Why? its an electric pokemon that pickups a variety of useful items after a Pokemon battle. Futhermore there aren’t many Electric types in DP. Sure its not the most powerful but worth leveling esp for its speed and special defense.

You won’t need these HM pokemon except for these move so it’s be up to you whether you want to level them up further or just keep them in your party for these moves.

The latest version of the Pokemon series of games (Nintendo DS) have lots of hard to find features. We decided to list some of the here!

-There is a hidden cave entrance under the cycling bridge!

-Rub the your treasured gym badges with the stylus to make them colorful again.