8. Striaton City

Striaton City

As soon as you exit the Gym, you'll be approached by a rather odd character named Fennel. She has something that Prof. Juniper wanted to give you or something like that, so she takes you back to her house and then takes you upstairs... There's some weird contraption hooked up to a bed there. Yes, this sounds rather peculiar, but all becomes well when she gives youHM01 (Cut), which teaches your Pokemon Cut. Now that you have the Trio Badge, you can use it outside of battle, too. Woohoo!

Anyway, she tells you some stuff about being college friends with Prof. Juniper and asks you to find some Dream Mist for her in the Dreamyard. Hmm, odd. Anyway, she'll then just sort of leave you up there. Talk to the other girl in the room and she'll introduce herself as Amanita. She's a lot like the Bill, Lanette, and Bebe of the older generations. She puts her name on the box menu now, so it'll be "Amanita's PC" now rather than just someone's. She also tells you about the new Battle Box feature, which can be used to store your team of Pokemon in for quick and easy access to battle, for battles from the menu screen (before hitting Continue) and probably some other battles.

So now that we have the HM for Cut and the badge it goes with, where should we go with our newfound powers? Well, on the northern part of Route 2, there's a shrub you can cut that leads you to a Super Potion and a Great Ball. That's kinda cool. But where you really want to check out is the Dreamyard. Yeah, you know you totally saw that shrub blocking your path earlier, so go heal your Pokemon and check it out, Trainer!

Oh, also, while you're healing your Pokemon, you might want to take a peek at the Poke Mart items available. They're now selling Great Balls, Super Potions, Escape Ropes, status healing items, and Repels.

Dreamyard

Go ahead and cut down that shrub now that you're able to. As soon as you do, Bianca will come over and be amazed at the ruined place, but also have a suspicious feeling. After walking a little further, you'll hear something, and then walking even further will reveal one of thoseMunna things that Fennel was talking about earlier.

Things seem alright, but then two Team Plasma Grunts show up and want to take the Munna. They even kick it and stuff! Now it's time for you to kick some Team Plasma behind for your first time! One of them will start off by taking you on, showing a really cool Team Plasma intro scene. Gotta love that, as well as the epic music!

The first Plasma grunt has a Patrat L10 while the second one has a Purrloin L10. Neither are too tough, but the Patrat can hit for a good chunk of damage.

Once you've beaten them, they'll continue to harass the Munna. All of a sudden, though, Ghetsis shows up! And then... well, then another Ghetsis shows up...? Then he does some teleport thing and appears as one in front of the Munna, saying they should never harm Pokemon. That's enough to scare the socks off of those lowly Plasma goons, because they go running! Oddly enough, Ghetsis just disappears afterwards.

Now the Munna's parent or something — a Musharna — appears and goes near the Munna. It turns out it was just a dream! Fennel appears a few seconds later, saying what the Pokemon is. The two Pokemon leave, but leave behind the Dream Mist Fennel was looking for. She takes it and then says she'll be waiting for you back in her house. However, before you leave, there's a patch of grass that could use your attention, as well as some other stuff to explore.

Dreamyard
Wild Pokemon		Types	Level(s)	Rarity
	Patrat		Lv. 8 ~ 11	40%
	Purrloin		Lv. 8 ~ 11	40%
	Munna		Lv. 8, 10	20%
Shaking Grass / Swirling Dust			Level(s)	Rarity
	Audino		Lv. 8 ~ 11	95%
	Musharna		Lv. 11	5%

Did that grass just shake?!

One new feature introduced to Pokemon Black and White is the mysterious "rustling grass patches," which you'll be able to encounter on any route with tall grass on it after you've earned the Trio Badge. If you hear a rustling, like you're walking through grass when you're not, stop moving! Then, look around at all of the nearby patches of grass. Are any of them shaking suspiciously? If so, you're going to want to head directly to that shaking patch, because there's a rare Pokemon in there!

Early on, this is usually the healing Pokemon, Audino, which is fortunate because you gain a lot of EXP if you knock it out (and you can catch it if you want, too), but later on, you can find some pretty cool stuff in those rustling patches.

It is always good to have a couple of Repels on hand just in case you see a rustling patch, because if you get into a battle between here and there, you'll lose the rustling patch!

Oh yeah, and in different terrains, like caves and water, it'll be different, so just be on the lookout for them! Inside of caves, you'll see a little dust cloud swirling around (referred to as "dust cloud"), while in the water, you'll see a little blue circle signifying a ripple near the surface (referred to as "rippling water").

If you want to encounter some rustling grass, the best way to do so is to run up and down directly outside of the tall grass. Right along the border of it. Keep doing that, preferably with your volume up, and you should see some grass shake within a minute or two at the most. If you're not seeing it shake and have tried for several minutes, perhaps leave the area and come back later.

There's a Poke Ball to the left of where the Team Plasma fight was, inside one of the patches of grass. A Parlyz Heal can be found over by the window on the right side of the building's remains. Climb the stairs and walk over to the southwest to pick up a Potion. And if you go to the eastern side upstairs, you can get yourself a Repel.

Well, that's about all there is to see here. Move along, folks, move along.

Actually, after doing all of this, you'll want to go back to Fennel's house in Striaton City. Talk to her and she'll be all excited, then will give you the awesomely cool C-Gear, which can be used to do various things.

Basically, this C-Gear kinda shows you some stuff for battling players and lets you hook up to places right away. Amanita also gives you the Pal Pad afterwards, allowing you to exchange Friend Codes with other players and deal with them over the internet. Yeah, you can battle and trade with your friends online now!

The C-Gear does have its uses, though, don't get me wrong. But if you're not looking to quickly interact with other players through all of its uses and you're just a casual player for now, you should press that little Power Off button in the bottom-right corner of the DS touch screen. It will help conserve your DS's battery life much more than if you had it on.

When you Continue your game from now on, a screen will pop up asking you Yes or No. It'll just be asking if you want to start the game with the DS wireless functions on, allowing the C Gear to interact with other nearby players and also receive updates if you're connected to Wi-Fi. It warns you that you shouldn't enable this on airplanes, in hospitals, or in other places where wireless transmissions are restricted. Hit Yes when continuing your game to proceed with it on or hit No and then Yes again (just confirming it) and you'll start with the C-Gear turned off. Again, this can help save battery life leaving it off if you have no interest in connecting with friends.

I'll cover all this stuff later. For now, you're probably itching to do more exploring, so off to the west of Striaton City you go! Once in the gardens, head north onto Route 3!