タチワキシティ

East of the Pokécenter is a tunnel leading north. This apparently leads to ポケウッド, which after careful deliberation I believe is supposed to be a play on Hollywood “Pokéwood” as it were. You can’t enter the tunnel yet. From what I surmise, they’re holding auditions there for something and you can’t enter without the permission of the 船長 or his relative (ah! So I think the gym leader-ホミカ is his daughter). It leads me to wonder if he’s really a ship captain, or more the Gilligan’s Island variety. Time will tell.

The house to the right of the tunnel has a pokéball in it that holds a ポケじゃらし—a poké-toy.

If you keep going around the town in a clockwise direction you’ll find a lady who loves her little watchog that’s been with her forever, and one of ホミカ’s band members.

Southeast is the harbor, but the 船長 is in ポケウッド　so there’s no going anywhere yet. Maybe after the gym battle? I think it goes to Hiun city when it does run. I love boat rides!

To the south lies the next Gym. I didn’t enter yet, but talked to the guy outside. He tells you that the gym leader uses poison and that you can catch a コイル—a magnemite (since they’re steel they’re unaffected by poison) at the コンビナート. Ah! Mom mentioned something about that on the phone, but I didn’t know what it was. Apparently it means “industrial complex” from Russian ‘kombinat’. Oh, and he gives you a pokéball to help you catch one.

Before we go to the complex though, there’s a house all the way to the west that looks like it might be a daycare center or something. A lady in there will give you a やけどなおし—burn heal. And outside, to the left of the house there’s a trash can. For once there’s something inside, a どくけし—poison heal.

タチワキコンビナート

Wild Pokémon

• マメパト – pidove
• ミネズミ – patrat
• エレキッド – elekid
• コイル – magnemite
• ガーディ – growlithe
• ドガース – koffing
• タブンネ – audino (shaking grass)

The ball in the grass holds a ヨクアタール—X-Accuracy.

If you go southeast you’ll see a guy standing downstairs by the water. He wants to trade your standard pokéball for his great ball and says to come again tomorrow. So I assume each day you can ditch one regular ball for a great ball. Good to know.

Further south you enter the complex proper. There are trainers in there to help level you for the gym.

To get to the dark grass in the northeast corner go south to about where there stairs to go up to the beams are, then head east. Follow the south side of the green-roofed dome and then head north and voila! Dark grass. Took me forever to figure that out… At the tall cylindrical building in the dark grass there’s a lab-coat wearing man seemingly talking to himself. When he notices you listening he quickly leaves. But he doesn’t go far. Go talk to him again just left of the stairs (in front of some orange and white smokestack things).

If you climb the stairs and follow the narrow metal beams all the way southeast you’ll find TM46 どろぼう—thief waiting to be snatched up. The trainer barring your way may poison you, have that magnemite at the ready.

At the very south end of the complex there’s a little park. The blond girl there wants to know what pokémon she can find in the complex. If you speak to her after you’ve located all of the indigenous pokémon (ie, you got a stamp in your 生息地 list in the pokédex) she gives you a great ball. If you’ve talked to the lab-coat wearing man twice, you’ll find him one more time in the park talking to himself. He’ll give you a ピーピーエイド—ether for showing your interest in his research.

タチワキ　ポケモンジム

I finally decided to investigate the little gym. Inside it’s a grungy neon lit club called ライブハウス. It’s awesome and rocking. ww The first couple of people inside aren’t trainers. Everyone up on stage is though.

The drummer, クック has two pokémon, a level 14 grimer who likes to block your moves so you can’t use them again, and another level 14 koffing. If you got a magnemite from the industrial complex you should have absolutely no problem with those two.

The guitarist, ルーガ also has two pokémon. She has a level 14 venipede. If you’re feeling saucy you can use your tepig or a growlithe and scorch that little poison spewing bug. The next one she sent out was a level 14 koffing. Easily subdued by magnemite. Bring on the gym leader.

ジムリーダーのホミカ

She started off with a level 16 koffing. All he did was tackle my poor magnemite, which didn’t hurt much. I found that sonic boom, while usually an extraordinarily crappy move, worked well for this low level fight. Don’t rest on your laurels too much, ホミカ will use one super potion when you’ve gotten her pokémon’s health whittled down. The next pokémon is a level 18 ホイガー—whirlipede. Now might be another chance for a fire pokémon. I didn’t adequately level my growlithe, so I had to switch in my overused magnemite. Whirlipede likes to use protect (to annoy you). Venoshock is its signature move, but I laughed at it as it tried to poison me. He also tried to use Pursuit—おいうち without much success. Suffice it to say I had a much easier time with this gym than with the last one.

After souring ホミカ‘s notes, she’ll give you the トキシックバッジ. Pokémon up to level 30 will obey you. She also gives you TM09 ベノショック—Venoshock. Venoshock’s damage double if the target is already poisoned. I suppose it could be really nasty. But against steel pokémon—not so much.

Exit stage left and be on your way. It’s never that simple though is it? Apparently your performance fight impressed the blond dude (that was guarding the gate to Pokéwood). You’ve been invited there.

Stay tuned for Pokéwood and beyond!