Pokémon Destiny - 

With all eight badges now in your possession, it's time for the endgame. Don't worry, of course -- there is a lot more game after we win the Pokemon championship. But for now, we have to take down the most powerful group of trainers, by far, that we've encountered in the game. You'll need to be ready for this trip to the top, and it all starts with the traversing of Route 223, which can be accessed from the northern shores of Sunyshore City. Thankfully, if you're following our walkthrough, you would have just defeated the gym leader of that very locale, so you'll be in good shape to continue. Heal your Pokemon, with party emphasis on powerful Pokemon who can deal with Water-types (and a Pokemon that can use the TM for Surf), and then surf upon Route 223 from the beach at the north end of town. Be absolutely certain to talk to the girl there and acquire HM07 - you'll need it before long.

Surf northward. If you haven't yet noticed, Route 223 is almost entirely made up of water that must be surfed upon (though there are shallow areas that permit walking here and there). Surf northward and you'll run into the first trainer resistance of the route. Swimmer Miranda and her lone level forty-five Lumineon will likely be your first engagement, but expect to fight Swimmers Aubree and Oscar thereafter. Stay on the left side of the water, working your way through the rocks you come across, in order to grab TM18 from the shallows you encounter. Then, backtrack and continue northward through the primary route.

Not surprisingly, it's straight-shooting from here. You'll only fight three varieties of wild Pokemon (Mantykes, Pelippers and Tentacruel, the latter in high volumes) and will have to deal with trainers that deal in primarily, but not exclusively, Water-type Pokemon. You can also find some items as you go. When you reach some shallows that stretch across the route with a large rock formation in the middle, work your way around on the right side to find an Ultra Ball (you'll need to backtrack around to the left to jump back in the water and continue northward). Then, simply battle more trainers as you head north to a waterfall. Two more items, in the form of a Dive Ball and Rare Candy can be found on your left and right respectively en route. Simply search the shallows to find them easily.

Your path seems blocked... but, remember the girl we met back on shore who handed over HM07? Well, that HM holds the skill "Waterfall" that must be taught to a Pokemon. Then, simply use it to scale the waterfall, reaching your next destination on the other side. Use the Pokemon Center there to heal your Pokemon, making any changes you may feel necessary (as there are lots of Rock-based Pokemon coming up, for instance). Then, save your game and run into the nearby cave.

Entering the cave will bring you to Victory Road, the final dungeon-like area of the game before you take on the best trainers in the world at the Pokemon League, which is just on the other side of the cave. However, the cave is vast, and depending on the strength of your party, you may be hard-pressed to get through it in one push (with all of the trainers in the area, and all). If you feel like you might be too weak, bring healing items and Escape Ropes with you, that way your party is never in any real danger outside of battle.

As far as Pokemon you should expect to fight in the wild here, they're all of standard fare -- nothing new here, with some exceptions. As we mentioned earlier, there are a couple of Rock-types here (Onix and Graveler), as well as a Dragon-type (Gabite), a Water-type (Floatzel), a Flying-type (Golbat), an Electric/Steel-type (Magneton), and an annoying Steel-type (Steelix), plus more. You should have run into all of these Pokemon at least once in the past (and for all but the Steelix, many times) so you should know what to do with them. There are also a plethora of items on Victory Road, and a load of trainers too!... just look at that list! Well, on with the walkthrough! (Just as a friendly reminder, make sure you have Pokemon with you that, all together, know all of your HMs (minus any optional ones, like Defog, which is useless here).

As you begin, head north over the wooden bridge. On the other side, use Rock Climb to climb downward to the area below. Head to your left once down here to fight the first trainer in the area -- Psychic Bryce and his three Pokemon -- and then go north from him to get TM41, which will teach a Pokemon the skill Torment. Then, use Rock Climb to climb back up to the main area above, and then head eastward along the next bridge.

On this platform, take the stairs downward and circle around to battle another Trainer (Bird Keeper Hana and her Noctowl-Togetic combo). When her Pokemon are felled, cross the bridge to the north to grab the Max Repel sitting there, and then backtrack to the staircase, climb them, and go north over another bridge. Use Rock Climb to climb back down to the area below yet again. Then, carefully traverse the path heading left (making sure to not jump down to areas below that will cut you off from your route and force you to backtrack and do it all over again). When you reach a staircase on the far left end of this room, go up the stairs.

After climbing the stairs, head north to battle another trainer, and then go north all the way to find a Nugget. Then, use the stairs to your left to climb up once more, and go through the door. This will lead you to another part of the cave. Here, you will need to use Rock Smash and Strength, so be ready with both of those. Start by smashing and pushing your way leftward. You'll need to utilize your Bicycle at this point to jump over the obstacles using the ramp given. Then, turn around, head right, and do the same thing. This will eventually lead a path northward and westward to a Max Elixir. After adding that to your inventory, backtrack towards the entrance to this room, and this time, go south. Use Strength to push your way southward, and then circle around to fight Ace Trainer Omar, and his trio of Pokemon.

After Omar's Pokemon are slain, look at the rocks to your south that you need to use Strength on. Think carefully about how to do this -- if you do it wrong, and the rocks are pushed out of place, you'll need to head to the previous area and back again to reset their positions. What you need to do here is push the rock on the left down once, then circle around to the breakable rock below. Smash it, then push the same rock you just pushed down back up, and work your way through to the left. Push your way through yet again and fight a couple of more trainers. The area where you fight the second trainer (Veteran Clayton), go down the stairs nearby and then come back up. This will reset the rocks below so you can re-push them (just push the middle one down), giving you access to the secret area to your right.

What does the secret area to your right hold? Well, other than some minor treasures, there are also some powerful trainers that will undoubtedly want a piece of you posthaste (they'll fight you simultaneously). If you haven't yet noticed, you'll again need to break your Bicycle out to get through this area with any success. But when you do successfully accomplish the tedious Bicycle-related task, your rewards, you will find, will be well worth it. At the north end of the room, TM71 can be found, while on the left side, you can grab a Full Restore. With both of those in hand, you can then backtrack to the next area via the staircase by the aforementioned Veteran Clayton.

Head eastward across the bridge and use Rock Climb to scale down to the area below. Then, wrap around leftward, northward, and then rightward to another staircase leading further down into this cave (you'll fight Black Belt Miles and his Machamp en route). This dreary part of the cave is full of stagnant water that will necessitate your use of both Surf and Waterfall. No problem there, right? You may find problems, however, with the trainers in the area. For instance, Dragon Trainer Ondrej will come at you with a level forty-five Altaria and a level forty-seven Gabite. In all, there are four trainers to deal with in the area. You'll need to do a fair amount of rudimentary exploration in the room to find them all, but it shouldn't prove to be that difficult. You'll also find TM59 if you search hard enough. A hint -- it's on dry land.

Another feature of the watery room you may have noticed is that there are two ways out, other than where you came in (meaning, in other words, that there are three doors in and out). First take the door on the south end of the room by walking up some stairs and accessing the corridor heading leftward beyond it. Through that door, you will find yourself in a little nook of the initial area of Victory Road. You'll be able to find some all-valuable Rare Candy there. You can grab Calcium en route on the path leading to this door. Then, use the other (third) door out of the previous room to access another part of the primary room of Victory Road, being sure to grab the Ultra Ball on the right side of the room before using the waterfalls to scale upwards to the area above.

From here, it's relatively smooth sailing. There's only a couple of trainers remaining, and more items to grab. Begin by heading leftward down the corridor you find yourself on, taking out Veteran Edgar's three Pokemon en route. Then, swing south to find the Razor Claw once at the end of the leftward-headed pathway. Back near Veteran Edgar's position, head south. Go left and climb up the rockface with Rock Climb, and then head left over the bridge and through another door. This will lead you to another previous area of the cave, where another isolated item in TM79 can be found. Then, backtrack all the way to where you last used Rock Climb, and climb back down to the main area.

Behind Veteran Edgar is a staircase. Take that up and then go right over the bridge that goes over the area below (a place where you can walk). You won't be able to proceed through the door there (the person guarding it simply won't allow it), but you will be able to acquire some Zinc clearly sitting on the ground nearby. Now, we're ready to leave! Head back down and under the bridge, and this time head right. Use Rock Climb to reach the area above, and fight the final trainer of the area -- Dragon Tamer Clinton. After taking him on, you can simply head north and then west out of the cave. Congratulations! You've reached the Pokemon League building! Let's beat the game now!

Ah yes, the Pokemon League! Now this is the final area of the main quest. Are you excited!? Well, if you aren't, you should be. To access the main building in the area, simply head north, use Surf, then use Waterfall, and proceed to the building. Simple, right?

Now, you'll soon find that being successful at the Pokemon League is all about preparation. If you're not prepared, you're simply not going to do well here. In fact, you're going to get the floor wiped with your Pokemon. Start here by going to the right side of the building and buying all of the items you need. Have at least ten of all status-healing items (to get rid of things such as Burn, Freeze, Poison, et cetera). Also, have at least 40 Hyper Potions, lots of Revives, and basically anything you can afford. The going is truly going to get tough here.

So what's the premise of the Pokemon League? What do you do? Well, it's really quite simple. After battling your friend for the last time near the north end of the small room (remembering, of course, that his party will vary depending on which Pokemon you chose at the beginning of the game), you'll have access to the League rooms where the great masters of the land are waiting for you to challenge them. But these trainers, known as the Elite Four (with their leader, a fifth member named Champion Cynthia) are no joke. Not only will you have to battle their Pokemon, all five battles, with the same Pokemon which you cannot switch nor bring to a Pokemon Center to heal, but you'll only have an opportunity to heal your Pokemon with the items you previously bought. Remember -- we told you this part is truly all about preparation!

So what of a party? Well, naturally, you're going to need to have an extremely well-balanced party. Our party consisted of the following six diverse Pokemon -- Staraptor, Kricketune, Empoleon, Machoke, Onix, and Luxray. Try to make a similar party that you will feel comfortable with. There should be no type-mixing -- that is to say, if you have Luxray in your party, filling another slot with another Electric-type Pokemon is not only a waste of space, but will probably cost you the title. Oh, and a word on leveling as well. Your Pokemon should be at least at level 60. If they're not there, you're probably going to have trouble. Many suggest to battle no earlier than level 55, but believe us, level 55 is suicide. Trust us. You'll be able to get through the first couple of trainers, but beating the Pokemon Champion with level 55 Pokemon is essentially impossible.

And so, we battle. You'll have to face each trainer, one after another, healing as you go. Here's a word of advice -- DO NOT SAVE. If you save the game after confidently defeating one or two trainers just to find out the last three can easily stymie your advance, you're going to ruin your save file. You don't want to do that. Instead, go for broke here. Blow through all five trainers at once, and then the game will be saved automatically after the ending for you. Nifty! (One more word of advice: equip each Pokemon with your best HP-healing Berries so you don't waste precious turns with any healing). One thing to keep in mind, also -- all of the trainers will use at least one Full Restore in battle. This is, of course, a major pain… but don't get too frustrated! Just wait until Champion Cynthia uses four or five!

First up is Elite Four Aaron and his five Pokemon mainly of the Bug type. This is where our Staraptor came in, although any Flying Pokemon can really do just as much damage. His Yanmega, Scizor, Vespiquen and Heracross are all going to be in a lot of trouble really fast with your Flying-type Pokemon, so that's the route we suggest you take with him (as far as his Drapion, do what you will with it, although well-placed Flying attacks will take him out in mere rounds as well).

Second up is Elite Four Bertha. Bertha's strange array of Pokemon have a common weakness since they're all Rock or Ground-based. Our Empoleon with its Water-strength draining attacks did a number on her party. Whiscash came out first against our party and gave us a hard time immediately, since Empoleon's water attacks didn't do much to it. Golem and Hippowdon came out afterwards, however, and fell quickly. Gliscor and Rhyperior, which came out last against us, gave us the biggest problem. Be ready to heal here if necessary, and don't let your Water-type die here (if you're even using one), because it will really give you a major edge in this battle.

Coming up third is Elite Four Flint and his pesky group of enemy Pokemon. With Fire-types galore in his party, we went with our Empoleon for this battle, because he knew two uber-powerful Water attacks in Surf and Waterfall. We took all of his Pokemon with those attacks with little trouble. Believe it or not, this is the hardest of the four enemy parties you'll encounter from the Elite Four, even though it's not the last or best-leveled. His five Pokemon are damage dynamos, so be ready to heal.

The fourth and final Elite Four representative we will fight is Elite Four Lucian. Because all five of Lucian's Pokemon are of the highly-invulnerable and awfully-powerful Psychic type, we ran headlong into this battle using a smattering of different Pokemon. However, we relied mostly on the Dark attacks of Luxray, concentrating on keeping him healed when we could. We did the best we can, having to heal often and change Pokemon up randomly in order to salvage the party, but his Pokemon soon fell. The biggest challenge he'll throw at you is his level 54 Bronzong, who is not only a hard hitter but impervious to many attacks. Thankfully for us, however, our confidence was quickly ridden when he was the second of our opponent's five defeats. He didn't want to save the best for last, but in case he decides to do just that with you, be prepared!

And finally, we come to the cream of the crop herself, Champion Cynthia. Unlike her Elite Four cohorts, Cynthia won't come to battle with five Pokemon, giving you the inherent advantage. Instead, she eliminates that advantage by battling ruthlessly with six ultra-powerful Pokemon of her own, with the lowest level being 58 and the highest being a staggering 62. Her party is as well-mixed as yours should be (especially if you got this far), so defeat Cynthia at her own battle of wits. As we mentioned earlier, Cynthia will use Full Restores liberally (she used one four times in battle with us), but don't lose your head. Keep your party as well-healed as you can and try to bring out Pokemon that you think will do well against her set-up as needed. Spiritomb will always come out at you first, but after that, it's a crapshoot. We especially implore you to keep an eye out for the level 62 Garchamp. If you're not careful, he can make your party disappear in no time at all.

When Champion Cynthia is defeated, you become the new Pokemon Champion! And just like that, the main quest is over. After watching and enjoying the ending (making sure the game automatically saves your quest for you at the end before shutting it off), you'll soon find there's much more to do. Don't worry, though! IGN Guides has your back there, too. Check out the Side Quests section in this very guide for more on what you can do after the Pokemon Championship is yours.