NOTE: This thread is for discussion of both Heart Gold and Soul Silver.

I don't know how many people here are playing the new Pokemon games, but I figured there has to be SOME people here who are, and what better way to discuss than with an official thread? Not only that, saves me from reading the horrendous GameFAQS boards for sure...UGH...cesspool over there. Also, would give people the chance to share some of their adventures (and frustrations) so far in the games. So, with that in mind I shall start off first:


I started the game off and eventually settled on going for Cyndaquil as my starter, since Chikorita really sucks against most of the gyms, and I never liked Totodile since I knew I could find reliable Water types farily early. Thought about resetting a bunch for a female, but then decided against it since I could use a Ditto later on if I REALLY wanted to. Knew the first gym was going to be Falkner so I did all of the storyline stuff while leveling Cyndaquil up and caught a Pidgey and Bellsprout. The Bellsprout was for a trade so I could get an Onix...didn't ever use him except to teach him Rock Smash so I wouldn't waste a valuable slot on the Pokemon I would use for battle. Falkner didn't prove to be too much trouble as I have a bit of an over-leveling passion in me, so I didn't face him until my Cyndaquil became a Quilava. Only his Pidgeotto was being annoying by using Roost a few times in a few to recover HP and lower the power of the next attack against it, but Quilava's Ember overwhelmed it eventually.

With the first badge in my pocket I traveled the routes until I made it to Azalea Town where I had to go and save the Slowpokes. Funny, since earlier some idiot offered me a Slowpoke Tail for 1,000,000...which I sure didn't have and even IF I did I wouldn't have bought it. in the Union Cave I decided to nab a Wooper since I didn't have a Water Pokemon, and his Water/Ground hybrid type would help me out a lot later on. Kurt is a lot more useful in terms of making the special Pokéballs no; it still takes him a day, but if you hand him 5 Black Apricorns he will give you 5 of the corresponding balls the next day...nifty and much better than the original one-a-day from the older games. Bugsy was changed a bit in that the the path leading to him was changed, but it wasn't too hard to solve the puzzle to get to him, though he himself changed a bit. His first Pokemon were extremely easy, but his Scyther didn't come at me with Fury Cutter, and instead it knew U-Turn, though it never used the attack. Came a little too close to beating my Quilava, but I had Pidgeotto as backup since I evolved my Pidgey earlier, and really...coulda leveled up Quilava a bit until he learned Flame Wheel and that would've CRUSHED Scyther. Needless to say I got my second badge, goodies, and headed to the Illex Forest.

Keep in mind, my Rival (who I named Gary) battled me right before I went into the forest, and I pretty much trounced him, and the time before...his Totodile/Croconaw were way too weak. Anyways, after he left in a huff I managed to sneak up on some Farfetch'd, returned them to their owner, and got the Charcoal hold item, which went on Quilava. That is, when he wasn't holding the Shell Bell for HP regen during fights...that thing comes in a lot of handy when leveling to be sure. In the forest I found a guy that will teach pretty much any Pokemon the move Headbutt, and he will do it an unlimited amount of times. Not only good for bashing trees, but it is nice to have a move that does decent damage and can cause a flinch opportunity in battle, and I've visited him a few times already. I did go through the Ruins of the Alph, but haven't done anything major there, leaving it for later.

Next stop was Goldenrod City, though I took my time collecting items, battling trainers, and took a quick look in the Daycare Center, which I know I'll use later. Managed to get a Ditto, as well, and for now he's sitting in my PC to be used as a breeding Pokemon when needed. Oh, couldn't mention it earlier without really making a paragraph a bit too big, but I had also captured a Mareep and had been leveling it up, and by now it had turned into a Flaaffy, and knowing both Thundershock and Thunder Wave meant I had a mostly reliable paralyze-inflicting Pokemon unless the type didn't permit it. Goldenrod City is still the big city it once was in the original games, and it still offers A LOT of goodies. Items, TMs, a free Bicycle for faster traveling, and much, much more. Sadly, didn't have a lot of money at this point so I couldn't splurge on much. I did try the new Voltorb Flip-Card game in the game corner, and while I have gotten better...it's still frustrating at times and luck is involved. I won't go into a whole strategy thing, but needless to say, I didn't have enough coins to buy a nice Dratini, which I kinda wanted.

Moving along, I did some heavy training along the southern route and eventually went to battle Whitney. Those of you who played the original G/S/C might remember her as being a right pain in the ass due to her Miltank. Well, it's still a pain, but at least I had a better arsenal of Pokemon this time as well as far more knowledge than what I did originally. Still, that damn cow was very annoying with Attract, as most of my Pokemon were male, and it spammed Milk Drink a lot. I finally got lucky with my Flaaffy getting off a Thunder Wave, a few lucky paralysis turns, and downed her, and luckily Flaaffy and my Quilava survived since my Pidgeotto wouldn't have lasted too long against Rollout. After getting the badge I proceeded with more story events, got the nifty new Berry Pots along with the Squirtle-shaped watering can, which I promptly used to get that blasted Sudowoodo out of the way. From there I did a little bit of training and headed to Ecruteak City.

Now here is where it got GOOD. I got my hands on the new "Itemfinder" or "Dowsing Machine", and holy smokes is it WONDERFUL! You use it, it brings up a radar, and you just hold and drag the stylus around and listen and watch for the beeps. As the beeps get faster the section of the radar goes from a dull red to a progressively stronger orange, and then white until you see a dot where the item is. Line it up so it's next to the center dot (you), hit the Check Buttom and POOF! You got yourself a hidden item, and the machine is so easy to use I keep it on constantly. MUCH, MUCH better than any previous item-locating device. Anyways, did more story events, released the three Legendary Beasts/Dogs/Cats/WHATEVER, beat up my rival, but most important...went back to Goldenrod and got a free Eevee from Bill. I DID reset until I got a female since I wanted one badly enough and it only took about 20 resets to get it, at which point I started leveling it up.

Here's where it gets interesting...I wanted it to evolve quickly into an Espeon because I needed a strong Psychic Pokemon on my team and I didn't want an Abra, or Drowzee. It refused to evolve thanks to the 'happiness' thing, and by the time it was at level 30 I was about to give up. Then I saw Eevee had learned Bite and I stopped...and grinned. Eevee is a Normal type Pokemon, Bite is a Dark type attack...and the next Gym Leader was Morty, who uses GHOST Pokemon! Now, I had heard some bad stories from my friends about Morty's Gengar and its powerful Shadow Ball attack literally ripping them new ones, as well as Curse really sucking, too. Since Eevee was a Normal type, I BLAZED through the entire gym and Morty's Gengar could do nothing to stop me. Oh, it tried to use Hypnosis and the Dark type Sucker Punch attack, but that Bite proceeded to rip into the poor ghost without mercy. I walked away with minimal damage and a new gym badge, as well as an evolved Quagsire with Surf, which I knew I'd need to progress soon.

Off to Olivine City, more story stuff, Surf to Cianwood City to get the potion for the poor Ampharos in the lighthouse, and lots of training for the next gym there. Flaaffy had evolved into an Ampharos, Quilava was now a Typhlosion, Quagsire was fairly sturdy, that traded Onix was taking up space, Eevee was chilling out to slow down the leveling, and that only left Pidgeotto. Now, seeing as the Cianwood City gym is Fighting Pokemon heavy I figured Pidgeotto wouldn't have too tough a time. I stupidly forgot that Pidgeotto was dual Flying/Normal, and had weak Defense, so the first Hitmonlee that nailed it with a Hi-Jump Kick OHKO'd the poor bird and I got pissed. Ran back out the Pokemon Center to heal up, hopped on Quagsire and surfed up and down the shore fighting Tentacool/Cruel until I had an evolved Pidgeot with Wing Attack. With a much better Flying type attack than Gust, and with a big stat boost thanks to the levels and evolution I tore that gym apart. Chuck's Primeape was one-shotted, and his Poliwrath got lucky with a Body Slam paralysis, but Paralyze Heal to the rescue and Wing Attack spam brought him down and won me the next bade.

Picked up the Fly HM, which I was extremely glad to get and went back to Olivine City to challenge Jasmine after curing the sick Ampharos. Quagsire took down her two Magnemite without so much as a single point of damage thanks to his Ground affinity, and Typhlosion OHKO'd Steelix with a Lava Plume...GG good Special Attak vs. a Pokemon with low Special Defense. Now, I spent a little bit of time leveling Eevee once more, and with the proper 'happiness' level I FINALLY got my Espeon, and leveled it until it learned Psybeam at level 36. By now, my team was all around the mid to high 30s, save Onix, but he was replaced by the free Shuckle I got, and currently serving as an "HM slave", and I did a little more training before doing more story events, flying back to Ecruteak, and then heading for Mahogany Town. Once at the Lake of Rage I picked up some goodies, as well as the shiny Red Gyarados, who promptly replaced Quagsire as my surfing Water Pokemon, and I'm finding out he's actually very solid. Just have to avoid Electric Pokemon like the plague for now.

Anyways, more story with fighting Team Rocket, more leveling, and ripping through everything with my strong team and showing Lance that I really didn't need the assistance of his 'haxxord' Dragonite, but it was appreciated. Espeon did most of the work since Psybeam is godly against Poison Pokemon, which TR uses heavily, and with high Special Attack, she shreds them with ease. After all of that I finally get to fight Pryce at the gym, and a combination of Typhlosion and Ampharos make quick work of his team, which nets me another badge, and only one more to go. BUT, before heading to Blackthorn City I had to detour back to Goldenrod City to stop Team Rocket from taking over the Radio Tower. Bounced around a few places in Goldenrod to get everything done, but by the end of it I had driven them out of town and most of my team was sitting in the low 40s as far as levels are concerned, save Shuckle and Gyarados, but I'm working on it.

Back to Mahogany Town, east down the route to fight some trainers, and then through the Ice Cave. Surprisingly, the encounter rate in there was either lowered a lot than what I remember, or I just got lucky, but I had few random battles compared to your standard grass patch stuff. Solved the boulder puzzles, got spiffy loot, and exited into Blackthorn City where I now currently have my game saved. Going to do a little exploring and leveling up to ensure victory at the gym, as well as getting Gyarados up as a surprise attacker because he recently learned Ice Fang. Since it works off the physical Attack stat, he can hit VERY hard with it despite not getting the STAB when using it, and seeing as Dragon Pokemon positively HATE Ice type attacks...not to mention he has Twister, too, though I got rid of that for now. Might get it back later, but Ice Fang should work for now.

And...that's where I stand as of now. I would type more about some of the improvements that I REALLY like, but this has already gone on far enough. I'll post those at a later date.

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