Pokémon Destiny - 

The road to the Icicle Badge is relatively long compared to what we had to do to acquire the last two badges. Remember -- all journeys start with one step! The first steps for us will bring us to Lake Valor and Lake Verity. Remember, you have to visit these two areas before continuing! We've been phasing out mentions of side quest-like expeditions at this point in the walkthrough (though you can visit the corresponding section of the guide for more on those!), since things are getting further separated. But visiting these two lakes is a must!

Once you walk out of the gym after acquiring the Mine Badge, you'll run into a friend who will tell you to head north to the library with him. He won't let you in to the library if you didn't visit Iron Island to grab HM04 near the entrance from a woman named Riley, so if you haven't done that yet, do so now and then return to the library thereafter (remember that Iron Island as a whole is an otherwise completely optional endeavor). Follow him and enter the library, where on the top floor you'll find some familiar faces. It's here that you'll be charged with your next quest, which after an unnaturally-occurring earthquake, will bring you to Lakes Valor and Verity.

Lake Valor is our first target. To get there, you'll need to utilize Fly and head to Route 213 via Pastoria City (simply enter the city and exit at the northeast). Once on Route 213, follow through familiar territory, going along the water as you head eastward and then northward. Heal at the resort if necessary as you pass through, and continue north. The entrance to Lake Valor will be on your left in the gathering of trees.

The scene at Lake Valor is a sad one. Dead Magikarp litter the ground as Galactic Grunts continually brag about their accomplishments... just look at the empty lake, where water once flowed! As you work your way through the Pokemon carnage, you'll need to do battle with a few Galactic Grunts. They are relatively easy and will throw at you nothing you should worry about. Commander Saturn, however, is another story entirely. He packs a level thirty-eight Golbat, a level thirty-eight Bronzor, and a level forty Toxicroak. Make sure to enter the battle with a fully-healed party, and of course, be ready to run back to the resort to the south to heal before fighting Commander Saturn if your party is hurting pre-battle.

After Commander Saturn is felled, you'll be free to head back up to Route 213. Once there, again utilize the Fly command to head to Twinleaf Town. Once there, go north, and then west, and north once more to reach Lake Verity (remember; this is where we visited extremely early in the game... and Twinleaf Town is your hometown!) Once in the vicinity of Lake Verity, the Professor will approach you and plead for you to help Dawn with the Galactic thugs in the area.

In this area, instead of fighting three Galactic Grunts like we did at Lake Valor, we'll instead fight in a pair of Galactic Grunts in two-Pokemon-per-side battles. The first pair will come at you with four Pokemon (a level thirty-seven, two level thirty-threes and a level thirty-six). Their Glameow and Croagunk, as well as their Murkrow and Golbat will put up a limited struggle. The other pair of Galactic Grunts are a little more difficult to deal with. They also have four Pokemon (a level thirty-four and three level thirty-five) -- Stunky, Glameow, and two Houndours. Deal with them, and then run back to a nearby town like Sandgem Town to use the Pokemon Center and heal your party. Then, return, and help Dawn out with Commander Mars. You'll have to deal with the foe yourself, but the frustrated commander's three Pokemon (a level thirty-eight Golbat, a level thirty-eight Bronzor, and a level forty Purugly) are stronger than the lesser Galactic representatives'.

After his defeat, learn about the much sought-after Pokemon Team Galactic is attempting to capture -- Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Then, it's time to continue on with our main quest. Off to Snowpoint City!

To get to Snowpoint City, we have to take a group of routes we've never encountered before -- Routes 216 and 217. To get there, however, you have to head to Route 211 and back to Mt. Coronet. Getting to Route 211 is simple -- just Fly to Celestic Town, and exit west out of the town, and boom!... you're on Route 211! This part of Route 211 is extremely small, though there are some enemies like Chinglings and Noctowls (at night, anyway) that you may want to deal with. There are also four trainers in the area, so be sure to take them all on (see the grid above for more information on them, as always).

Other than some berries in the area (we found a Pecha Berry, Aspear Berry and Grepa Berry), there are no items to find other than a Carbos in the middle of the grass, so you can simply run westward towards Mt. Coronet (be sure to talk to the woman on the ridge at the north end of the area to get TM77 as well). Also be sure to have Pokemon that can use both Strength and Rock Smash here, as Mt. Coronet will necessitate you use both.

We'll ruin the suspense right away -- the small part of Mt. Coronet you explored earlier in the game is on the west side of the initial room you encounter, and you shouldn't bother trying to go south, as the rock you'll need to push around will hinder your progress. Instead, start by going south to grab the Escape Rope, and then plug onward to the west. Use Strength to push further westward, and then northward, and claim TM 69 in the northwest corner. Then, backtrack towards the entrance we took into Mt. Coronet, and this time, go north.

Again push through with Strength, and then breach the small corridor heading westward with Rock Smash, grabbing the Rare Candy at the end. Then, go north, down some stairs, and head westward. This will bring you deeper into Mt. Coronet. In this area, head to the left, break through with Rock Smash, and grab Ultra Ball. Then, go north to the first staircase on your right. This area is indeed very foggy, which will make both your Pokemon and the enemy Pokemon miss some attacks. This can be remedied with Defog, but you may not have it, in which case you'll simply have to deal!

When you go down the first staircase, you can Surf on the water you find. Surf to the island in the middle of the water, where some Light Clay can be found. Then, Surf northward towards dry land. In the righthand corner, you can find a Max Elixir. Afterwards, run leftward, turn around and go right and up some stairs, and again breach an item's surroundings to grab the Revive. Continue around the far end of this thing corridor along water to grab a Full Restore. Then, backtrack and go leftward, down the stairs, up another set of stairs, and southward, to a staircase in the middle we ignored. Go down those stairs and head northward up the small ridge, where you can find Soft Sand. Then, go north up the prior corridor, and leave Mt. Coronet via the next small area. Be sure to explore the small room adjacent to the exit out of the cave, where an item called NeverMeltIce can be found.

Leaving Mt. Coronet in such a fashion as we just did will bring us directly to Route 216. Route 216 is the first cold weather, snow-covered area in the entire game, and most enemies in the area will thrive in these conditions. On Route 216, all you really have to worry about is some patches of deep snow (that will hinder you from going very fast) and four trainers in the area. Surprisingly, many of these trainers aren't necessarily Ice-based, so don't go into battle with them as you might with wild Pokemon in the area.

You'll no doubt notice that Route 216 is split in between two main areas -- a lower area where four of the trainers are (leading up to a small house where you can sleep in the bed to heal your Pokemon), and an upper area with wooden bridges crossing the large chasm between platforms. Trainers can be found up there as well, but without a special HM we don't yet have, all you can do up there is grab a Full Heal on one side and a Revive on the other.

As you work your way north to Route 217, the weather will drastically change. Hail will bombard any Pokemon in battle (friend or foe) that isn't Ice-based each round of battle, doing little bits of damage. It's certainly off-set by the fact that both sides are equally affected, but still, it's something you're going to want to keep an eye on. Heal as necessary and switch out Pokemon if needed (and of course, you can always backtrack to the aforementioned house to heal). Deep snow is also an annoyance in this area, but it's really the snow and hail blocking your vision that will make your visit to Route 217 a pesky one.

Thankfully, Route 217 does have a couple of draws, amongst them a couple of new Pokemon and some items for your inventory. Snovers, Swinubs and Snorunts can all be captured on Route 217 by traversing through the grass at the north end. You'll also need to deal with trainers as you go (some hidden, so be prepared!) If you head due north, you'll run first into some Iron, then TM07, and finally a small cabin with the all-important HM08 sitting in the snow behind it. The lone man inside the cabin will allude to losing HM08 if you haven't yet found it.

After the cabin, there are no items to find, though you can grab a Spell Tag from the woman inside the second cabin in the area, on the east side near the top of the route. After speaking with her and fending off more trainers, you can follow the winding pathway from left to right, leading northward through some grass, and to the Acuity Lakefront. Be sure you didn't miss other items in the previous area before continuing, since there's a Rare Candy and a Blue Shard lying around as well. We'll spend more time here later -- in the meantime, head east (making sure to grab the Ultra Ball north of the entrance to the nearby town), and enter Snowpoint City, the location of the next gym.

Snowpoint City is a small town with little to do. Other than visiting the Poke Mart and Pokemon Center in town to buy items and heal your Pokemon respectively, there's little to do before visiting the gym and attempting to get your seventh badge. The woman in the house at the northwest corner of town will be interested in trading her Haunter for a Medicham if you're interested (remember -- you can find one in the grass on Route 217 or the briefly-visited Acuity Lakefront), but other than that, you should heal your Pokemon and head straight for the gym (after saving, of course). And if you missed the rather blatantly-sitting item to the right of the entrance into town, be sure to grab it. It's a very valuable Ultra Ball, and you'll want to throw that in your inventory.

Not surprisingly, you're going to want to have some Pokemon handy that will prove to be useful against Ice-based Pokemon. We stuck with a party that relied on Fighting and Flying attacks, which meant our Machoke, Onix and Staraptor played key parts in the battles here. Similar Pokemon will thrive here; just be sure to save your game after each lesser trainer battle and go back to the Pokemon Center before battling Gym Leader Candice herself.

Getting to Gym Leader Candice isn't as easy as it may seem, however. Her gym is literally coated in ice, and the only way to get to her is to slip and slide around, fighting the six trainers in the area and plowing through the snowballs in the middle of the area going up the staircase towards her. Only by doing this can you then walk the series of staircases to the gym leader battle. Use the snowballs and snowy patches to move around -- it's far easier to figure it out yourself than to read an explanation, though it may frustrate you at first.

Gym Leader Candice herself has four Pokemon (most gym leaders only have three), so her battle is inherently more difficult than most. She'll also use at least one Hyper Potion and one Full Restore in battle, meaning that you're going to be fighting six Pokemon (two will simply be healed when they're near death). We recommend heading into battle with a Fighting-type like Machoke, resorting to a Flying-type like Staraptor if the going gets tough. Obviously, Fire-types work here really well also, but we had none.

Candice has a level forty Sneasel, a level forty Piloswine, a level forty-two Abomasnow, and a level forty-four Froslass. The latter might give you the most trouble, because his Ghost-lean means that Fighting attacks won't work on him. For him, we switched to our Luxray and unleashed Dark-type attacks on him. The other three Pokemon she comes at you with should be easy enough to kill with our aforementioned skill sets. When you do manage to destroy them, not only will you claim the Icicle Badge for yourself, but you'll receive TM72 from the humbled gym leader as well.

Our next destination from here is to Lake Acuity, which we previously passed through at the west end of town. Now that you have the Icicle Badge, you can use Rock Climb outside of battle, which will allow you to climb various rockfaces around Sinnoh that show themselves to be climbable. Two such areas of the rockface surrounding the elevated Lake Acuity will be seen when you leave Snowpoint City. As you traverse the surrounding area, working your way through the grass, you'll come to the lake itself after climbing upwards; just be sure to grab the Reaper Cloth sitting conspicuously in the snow en route. You'll run into your friend when you reach the lake itself, who will be speaking with a Galactic Commander. The Commander will jettison the area shortly thereafter, leaving you to follow in pursuit. If you haven't guessed it yet, our next destination is the Galactic Headquarters in Veilstone City.

Use Fly to get to Veilstone City easily. Go to the northeast part of town, where the Galactic HQ is located. You'll find an anonymous Galactic Grunt in front of the building, who will run off after talking to you. After he scampers off, your mysterious friend Looker, from the International Police, will show up. He'll tell you that he's procured the key to get into Team Galactic's headquarters. However, he'll inform you that you'll need to meet him at the Team Galactic warehouse on the west side of town. Work your way to the other side of town, and go to the Galactic Warehouse there. Looker will use the key on the room inside. Grab the Dusk Stone on the other side of the door, and then take the staircase down, into a part of the Galactic Headquarters itself.

This place can get a bit confusing, so following our specific directions here is absolutely necessary if you're going to follow our walkthrough for this area. Begin by heading right through this area (going north to speak with the scientist if you so desire), fighting two Galactic Grunts as you go. You can also find a Zinc tucked in a northern corner before going up some stairs into the next area. Here, simply take another staircase up even further into the headquarters.

Here, you'll be thrust into a couple of more Pokemon battles with Galactic Grunts. You'll also be introduced to the seemingly-complicated (but in reality quite simplistic) warp system that will help you navigate around the gigantic headquarters building. In this first room with warps, take the one on the right to another room to grab TM49, and then take the one on the left to head to yet another room. Take the only other warp in this room, and then take the staircase up in the next room. (Following us so far? Good!)

After fighting the next Galactic Grunt and his Glameow-Murkrow-Croagunk trio, take the warp on the left (ignoring the staircase in the room), and then go down the stairs in the room you end up in. From here, go left, then right, then go down another set of stairs. Here, you'll fight Scientist Fredrick and his Kirlia and Kadabra. After felling the Pokemon foes, go left and grab the Dubious Disc sitting there, then go left once more. There's a staircase leading down to a new room here. Head down here and go leftward, grabbing TM36 and the Galactic Key down here. The Galactic Grunt down here won't fight you, so no worries there. With this in hand, you can essentially leave the part of the headquarters you're in now (via the door on your left, which will bring you towards the entrance). But we implore you to do some more exploring briefly before doing that.

Start by heading back to the right, going back upstairs, and backtracking all the way to the room with the yellow warp in the northwest corner of the room (with a guy in the middle you previously fought, a staircase in the middle of the room leading down, and stairs in the northeast corner leading up). Take the stairs in the northeast corner (we told you to ignore it previously), and then head left, fighting another Galactic Grunt as you go. Circle down the linear pathway thereafter, and then go right to fight another Galactic Grunt. Open the door he was guarding at the end of the hallway to find TM21. Then, backtrack to leave the building completely (by backtracking to the staircase, going down the stairs, going down another flight of stairs, taking the warp, warping again, going down and around the linear pathway, and then heading back to the warehouse entrance... follow all of that?)

Once back outside in Veilstone City, it'd be a good idea to heal at the Pokemon Center and save your game. Then, go to the northeast corner of town and enter the main Galactic Headquarters entrance. With the Galactic Key, you can breach the door there to explore a whole new section of the headquarters.

Go upstairs after going through the first door. Galactic Grunts and Scientists will want to battle you en masse here, so get ready for some difficult, trying battles. If you find yourself in trouble, use an Escape Rope or backtrack out of the building in order to heal and save back in town. You should also have a good supply of healing items here, just in case.

Go right down the corridor, fighting as you go. Bear northward into a room with a television, where a Scientist can be fought. Then, backtrack to the main corridor and go to your right. You'll end up in a kitchen. There are two warps here. The northern warp leads to a small, isolated room which contains a Green Shard. Grab it, and then head back to the kitchen and take the southernmost warp. This will lead to another room with warps -- take the warp on the right to find a Max Revive, and then backtrack to the room next to the kitchen with the television. This warp leads to a room full of Galactic Grunts watching a speech from their leader, Cyrus. You'll run into Looker here. Watch the mysterious speech. You'll regain control hereafter, as Looker bids you adieu and the Grunts clear the way for you to proceed leftward. There's a warp here. Take that warp to another room with stairs and some beds. Naturally, you should heal by taking a rest in one of the beds before going upstairs. Saving your game couldn't hurt, either. Be sure to search the rightmost bed for a Poke Doll, too!

As you follow the linear pathway, you'll be forced to fight more Galactic Grunts. They'll be nothing compared to what you have to soon deal with, however. After fighting a pair of Galactic Grunts, you'll find three warps at the end of the corridor they were guarding. The warp on the right leads to a small room with a semi-obscured Protein. The middle warp leads to a large dead end room, but there's a Max Elixir there to add to your inventory. And finally, the warp on the left will bring you to a room with a staircase, and after that, a locked door. Through the door is Galactic Boss Cyrus.

Galactic Boss Cyrus has three powerful Pokemon at his disposal. He has a level forty-four Sneasel, a level forty-four Crobat, and a level forty-six Honchkrow. Flying and Fire Pokemon are especially useful in this battle, though others (such as Fighting) will also fair well. As always, a well-balanced party is ultimately your best bet. After taking out his three Pokemon, you will get the Master Ball for your troubles. After fighting him, we implore you to backtrack to the beds to heal, and save your game... and then, continue.

Go to where you fought Galactic Boss Cyrus, and use the warp at the northeast end of the room. Thereafter, walk through the eerie Pokemon research area (very much like the Esper Research Facility in Final Fantasy VI, no?), and go north. You'll run into Commander Saturn here. It's odd that they make you fight Saturn after Cyrus, considering he's much easier to fell than Cyrus. Unlike Cyrus, however, Saturn won't use healing items like Super Potions that will piss you off when you think an enemy Pokemon is on the ropes! Nonetheless, take on Saturn's level forty-two Golbat, level forty-two Bronzor, and level forty-four Toxicroak. When this weakling's Pokemon are no more, he'll allow you to press the button on the nearby machine to free the three enslaved Pokemon, and then you'll be free to backtrack through the headquarters. You'll run into an area that was previously off limits that's now open -- the green warp in this area will bring you back outside of the headquarters. It's time to continue our mission!

The Distortion World is a bit of a wash. After all, there are no wild Pokemon to fight whatsoever, and there are no items to find either. As a result, getting through this mysterious space-in-between-spaces is all about being patient enough to find your way around. While there are no random encounters, trainers or stuff to add to your inventory, it's still easy to get lost, turned-around and outright frustrated here. Of course, that's where we come in!

Because things are skewed, specific directions aren't really possible. In fact, they're counter-productive, because finding your way around the Distortion World isn't so much difficult as it is frustrating. But with a few key points ever-fresh in your mind as you move forward, you should have little trouble navigating your way through The Distortion World.

The first thing to keep in mind is the plane of travel. You won't only be traveling on a single plane. In other words, while your perspective won't change, where you'll be walking often will, so expect to be walking on walls and ceilings in addition to regular floors. To travel between platforms, seek out grayed-out circles. Not all of them correlate to another platform or area, but many of them do. So, to jump across a chasm to another platform, you can often do so if one of the aforementioned circles are there. And a good general rule of thumb, though it isn't always true in the Distortion World, is that if the platform is moving vertically instead of horizontally, going downward is a good thing and going upward is a bad thing. Since you're trying to reach the center of the Distortion World, going downward towards it is the key.

Another thing to mention is that you will run into Cynthia and Cyrus multiple times en route to your ultimate destination. Running into them is a good thing -- it means you're on the right track. And remember -- you'll need to use both Surf and Strength here. Those three pushable rocks you run into should be shoved, once each, through a nearby hole to the area below. Then, when you access the area below, you'll see three legendary Pokemon -- Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie. Push each stone through the hole closest to each Pokemon. If you do this properly, the rocks will get stuck in the hole, but do it improperly, and they'll fly into the ether, forcing you to backtrack and try again.

After each rock is activated (yes; use Surf on that waterfall to reach and push down the third one!), you'll be able to reunite with Cynthia and ultimately take on Cyrus. Be sure to save before fighting him, because he's extremely difficult -- easily stronger than any of the seven Gym Leaders you've battle thusfar. His Pokemon, of which there are five, span levels from forty-five to forty-eight. He'll come at you with a Houndoom, Gyarados, Weavile, Crobat and Honchkrow. So constantly mix it up to give yourself distinct type advantages, heal when necessary, and throw everything you have at Cyrus.

When Cyrus's Pokemon are downed, he'll retreat, leaving you to deal with the ultimate Pokemon, Giratina. Giratina can be confronted by moving forward after regaining control following the fight with Cyrus. When you finally confront Giratina, you'll be thrust into battle with it. This is an it, and not a type. Don't expect to fight another one of these. So, if you want to capture it, do so, but keep in mind that you're going to likely have to waste myriad Poke Balls of all varieties to even have a prayer in catching this sucker. Save before confronting it and try over and over again if necessary.

Once Giratina is either captured or slain, you'll be able to leave the Distortion World. Doing so will bring you and Cynthia back to reality, in a location known as Sendoff Spring. Circle around the spring after climbing up the nearby rockface. This will allow you to rejoin Route 214. From here, you should use Fly to get to Sandgem Town, visit with Professor Rowan to let him know that you're doing okay, and then move on. It's time to finally go after the eighth and final Gym Badge. If you want to capture Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie as well, consult our Side Quests section, because now's the time to do that as well. After all, they've been freed from Cyrus's clutches and from the Distortion World.

Getting to Route 222, our next destination, is a simple endeavor. Use Fly to get to Pastoria City instantly, and go east out of the town to Route 213. Follow the many-time-traveled Route 213 eastward, northward through the resort, and then eastward some more. A pathway that was previously obscured is now open to explore. On the other side of the opened pathway is Route 222.

Route 222 is a small, easily-navigated route. This is great, since on the other side is Sunyshore City (that's right, one N!) and your eighth and final badge before you can finally challenge the Pokemon League itself. Route 222 is split into two main parts, both of which head west to east. The bottom path is along the beach, where a plethora of trainers can be found. Two houses can also be found, though neither are of any real consequence (though the house on the left along the water is full of Pikachu, one of which is actually a trainer in disguise!)

Along the northern path, you can initially pick some berries (we found two Wiki Berries, two Mago Berries, two Aguav Berries, and a Qualot Berry.) Further east, if you stay along the south end of the path, you can find some Full Restore as well, though it will ultimately lead to a dead end. What's great about this route is that you can avoid grassy wild Pokemon-ridden areas completely, and since there are few new Pokemon in the area to capture, this works out rather well indeed! Also, be sure to find the woman along this route that, when spoken to, will cough up a free TM56. Pretty sweet! There's a Quick Ball to find as well, and a PP Up, too. The Quick Ball is found on an isolated grassy patch near the entrance to town, while PP Up is slightly-obscured in between the two beachfront houses.

Fend off trainers as you head east. Be sure to grab the Carbos by taking the north part of the route eastward (you'll need Cut to access it), and then simply walk east into Sunyshore City. The city has little to see right now -- you can find a Thunderstone on the east side of town, but otherwise there's very little to see. You'll want to head to the lighthouse, ultimately, at the southeast part of town, where Volkner can be found. Volkner is the Gym Leader of town, though completely disenchanted by his work (as suggested by the Pokemon League fighter you encounter automatically when entering the town). Go talk to him at the lighthouse, and he'll return to the gym so you can fight him.

Navigating the gym is surprisingly easy considering how complicated it looks. There are eight lesser trainers to fight in the area, but the really interesting part of getting through the gym is the utilization of all the mechanisms. You'll need to press switches to make platforms appear and reappear, so you can move from area to area. This sounds and looks complicated, but like so many of the pseudo-puzzles in this game, it's easier for you to figure it out on your own than for us to explain it to you. The latter would likely confuse you!

When you finally get to Volkner, make sure your party is fully healed and you've saved (leaving to heal and save before fighting Volkner but after defeating all eight lesser trainers is probably a smart idea). Volkner has four powerful Pokemon, the most powerful we've encountered in the game so far. He has a level forty-six Raichu, a level forty-six Jolteon, a level forty-eight Luxray, and a level fifty Electivire. Go into battle with Ground-based Pokemon if possible, though a versatile party of many styles and types will survive the battle most easily. Bringing our own Luxray into battle, for instance, allowed us to survive a barrage of electric-based attacks, since each of his Pokemon is strictly Electric-type. Be prepared for his incessant use of healing items on his Pokemon (like many of his predecessors), which will no doubt frustrate you to no end. When he's felled, you'll get the Beacon Badge and TM57. That's all eight badges! Congratulations!