Now that we’ve got the Rock Smash HM, we’re ready to head north of Jubilife. Take one of your common pokemon you’re not planning on using much and slap Rock Smash on them so that it won’t occupy a valuable skill slot of one of your better pokes. We suggest using a random Bidoof or Geodude for this purpose, since they’re common as dirt and easy to re-catch should you want another to actually build up as a fighter.

Along the way, you might want to use your newfound Rock Smash to get into the northern part of the cave to Oreburgh. There’s not much you can do in the basement yet without a bike, but you do have an opportunity to grab Psyduck here. They’re not essential, and they’ll be widely available later on, so it’s up to you if you want to take the side trip or not.

BASEMENT POKEMON:
Zubat - Levels 8-10 - Abundant
Psyduck - Levels 8-10 - Common
Geodude - Level 9 - Uncommon

You’ll wind up back in Jubilife. You’re going to need to head up towards route 204, but just before you get there, you’re going to run into trouble.

What is Pokemon without its organized crime syndicates? This time around the bad guys are a group called Team Galactic. As we leave Jubilife, we run into some hoodlums harassing the Professor and his assistant. They soon take notice of your presence, and attack you as a team. Time for your first 2 on 2 pokemon fight!

Judging from this battle, prerequisites for membership in Team Galactic are apparently ugly turquoise bowl cuts and gross incompetence. Their pokemon don’t put up much of a fight, and you should be able to take them down pretty easily. You’ll scare them off after you win – but not for long.

Above: Team Galactic is so stylish. Soon all the kids will be rockin' the turquoise helmet hair

You might want to duck inside the now-open Jubilife TV Tower before setting off northward. There’s some fun stuff inside, including a pokemon dress-up and photo center, and computers that will give you all kinds of statistics and records about your exploits up to this point.

Once you’re back on Route 204, you’ll find that the road north is pretty straightforward. Simply crush the rocks in the cave that are blocking your way when you encounter them. There will be a few more trainer encounters along the road, including another 2 on 2 fight, so keep your pokes in fine fighting condition.

You’ll soon reach the botanical village of Floaroma. The local industry is based around harvesting wild berries and selling honey. You can collect some berries around town, but since the berry plants vanish once they’ve been stripped, we recommend waiting a bit before you go on your picking spree. Talk to a lady inside the flower shop, and you’ll be given a Sprayduck watering can, which you can use on berry bushes and trees to help them grow and produce more fruit later on. Try feeding the berry plants you find with the Sprayduck regularly – after a day or two of regular watering, you’ll wind up with a larger harvest than you would have had otherwise. You can also trade berries for accessories at the flower shop, but you probably don’t have enough yet to get anything worthwhile.

Not much else to do here for now, so set out east to Route 205.

ROUTE 205 POKEMON:

Bidoof – Level 8 - uncommon
Pachirisu – Levels 7-8 - common
Buizel - Levels 7-9 - common
Shellos - Levels 7-9 - common

You’ll run into a little girl who’s clearly in distress. Seems that Team Galactic’s gone and set up operations in the nearby power plant, and her daddy’s trapped in there doing their bidding. Well, we can’t have that, now, can we?

Head east over to the Valley Windworks – with the giant windmills spinning outside, you can’t possibly miss it. If you aren’t up for another boss encounter just yet, you can romp through the shrubbery to build levels and try and catch some of the local species before you break in. Make sure you at least snag a Pachirisu with the Pick Up ability, as you can get some very good use out of it. Once you feel like you’re ready, head on over to the Windworks entrance and beat up the Galactic guarding the place. You should win with little effort, but as it turns out, you need a key to get in anyway. D’oh! Looks like we’ve got a little bit of backtracking to do.