Topic: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

@NintendoByNature They will return to obeying you once you get the right gym badge so best approach seems to be @Eel's suggestion about rotating your team every so often.

@NintendoByNature you could try keeping a bit of a level gradient going on, so you can always keep a healthy array of pokemon at appropriate levels. Eventually your strongest pokemon will be the next in line to return as the weakest.

Or just swap them in and out as you see fit, that works too.

Since you can swap pokemon in and out of your team at any moment (out of battle), it's quite easy. I try to keep my "main" pokemon in the last box of the pc, so I have quick access to them.

@Eel sounds good thanks. I'm almost at the second gym so I'm fairly early in the game.

Do you get anything for catching all the Pokémon in the Sinnoh pokedex, I don't mean just getting all the entries and getting the national dex, I mean does anything actually happen when you catch them all in the Sinnoh Pokedex?

I'd like to know if the grand underground has anything story related or required that I need to get? I've only explored a little but it's pretty sprawling so I doubt I'll do a ton of exploring unless I need to.

@Bmartin001 probably a charm. But I can’t say for sure.

@NintendoByNature You are free to completely ignore it if you so desire.

Unless you want fossils, or the other Pokémon found there.

@Eel
What is the purpose of fossil from Pokemon BDSP ?
Are they prehistoric Pokemon that can be revived like Fossil Fighters games ?

@Anti-Matter yes

@thiz- @Eel now maybe ill explore this lol

I might be mistaken but I think the battle point rewards get incrementally bigger the more matches you win.

To “fill” the Pokédex you just need to see all 150 Sinnoh Pokémon, you can do that by battling most trainers in the region, except maybe Drifloon which is easily missable (being an optional gym trainer Pokémon), but you can catch those on Fridays next to Floaroma town.

Why do you need to spend 99% of your time underground anyway?

Edit: it seems you get a 20 point prize after your 21st battle, then it goes back to 3 every 7 battles, and then 20 again on the 49th, then 7 points every 7 battles after that.

So yeah, a bit stingy with the points. Should’ve been at least one point per battle or something like that.

Apparently the fastest way to get many points is restarting the challenge after the 21st battle. Or sending the battle points from Home once that comes around.

I'm taking forever to beat this game LMAO, been busy with AOC, But I will fight the Elite four later so... wish me luck.

@X-Slayer you probably just need more grass type statues in general

@Minskin : You must be new to the series. At least the Pokétch app lets you see where it is at a glance instead of having to open up the Pokédex between routes... every... friggin'... time, which was what we had to do when this infuriating mechanic was introduced in Gen II.

When Mesprit disappeared from the cave, I thought, "Oh, no... not again", as it's a mechanic that's been buried in my subconscious as I too hate it so much.

I'd recommend cloning a Master Ball and catching it as soon as you encounter it (though if you've updated to the latest version, the duplication glitches have allegedly been patched out). Otherwise, all you can do is be patient and persistent. I normally wouldn't advocate using Master Balls on legendaries otherwise, as they would be better utilised on random shiny encounters where the Pokémon has the potential to kill itself with Self-Destruct, Explosion, Memento etc.

The easiest way to deal with these roaming legendaries is to find the exact point where two routes meet (which you can gauge by the pop-up of the route's name on the top left of the screen) as each transition to a new route will cause Mesprit to spawn in a new location, and you can hopefully isolate it to either of the two routes that you're in. I haven't started hunting for Mesprit yet, so I don't recall which two routes I would have hopped back and forth between 14 years ago. Best of luck.

@Minskin A leap backwards? It was a game on the DS so what did you think? If anything it does everything sword and Shield got wrong LMAO.

I haven't catch'd it yet, So how does it work? does it go from route to route or? its just you have an issue catching them? if so what balls do you use?

@Silly_G Is catching it that bad?

Just weaken it and use quick balls.

Or train a Pokémon with mean look or block to prevent it from escaping at all.

@Eel those works only at first turn, second and later it works as normal Poké Ball. Better try Dusk Balls, because they are in caverns, but don't know if it counts like that, so for extra insurance wait till night time (8 PM - 4 AM).

@SViper since they (mesprit and cresselia) run away immediately, then next turn will the first turn too!