Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl's New 'Grand Underground' Map Looks Epic

Wow, that’s pretty impressive. We’re basically getting two maps in one!

@Mauzuri You could always train a Gible up and feed it a Fire type TM.

I never even touched the underground in the original version of the game, mostly because I didn't quite understand the purpose.

This might be a huge incentive to me to buy, but I'm still on the fence a little. Ultimately I never cared for Gen4, so diving in would be a gamble, and I don't know if I want to throw $60 on a gamble anymore...

@Mauzuri nummel and houndour are already confirmed to be catchable.

As a Gen 4 veteran, I'm digging the change. If you look closely you can see that the original map is divided into six sections. Each section does not connect to the others and can only be accessed from certain areas in the overworld.

It was difficult to tell what overworld locations led to which Underground section. Many times I've popped into the Underground to tend to my Secret Base and found myself in a place where I could not reach my base. I'd have to leave, fly to a different town, and try again.

And often when I played multiplayer down there (which was required to upgrade the base and catch Spiritomb) we'd end up running around for a few minutes before realizing that our bases were in unconnected areas. I'd have to move my base to a more accessible location, which required a consumable item and reset the base's decorations.

The new map has a clear 1-for-1 match-up with the overworld. And the different biomes make it easy to identify what section someone's base is in. I'm hoping that they either let us have one base in each section or give us a way to go to different sections without needing to return to the overworld.

Just seeing the original underground map gives me goosebumps. Soooooo much fun memories. Stealing flags, mining items, setting traps, playing tag with like 6 of us every day and afterwards doing a Pokémon battle tournament.

So much fun and such a fun place to run around in, and I already was a fan of secret bases in gen 3 that we also used a lot, this expanded that to so much more.

I was pleased to see Houndoom. It's one of if not my top favorite fire types and I was sad it was absent in Sword/Shield.

It's like the Lost World of Sinnoh.

I LOVED the Underground in the original game. It was fun tunneling around down there with my cousin through local wireless play. Very pleased it's returning with plenty of enhancements!

@Mauzuri Slugma and Magby are also available according to the map, along with the aforementioned Ponyta, Houndour, and Numel. That's most of the non-starter/legendary fire types in the first four gens save Vulpix and Growlithe.

Edit: also Heat Rotom should be available too.. at some point in the game. Oh and Torkoal isn't confirmed yet, I forgot he exists though lol

@Mauzuri Christ, it was only a suggestion. You’re out of luck in Sinnoh.

So it's like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, but fun?

@Tyranexx I also really loved the Underground section of the game. I remember when my buddy and I used to farm the fossils to trade for other stuff at school since they never found them or wanted the others. I also remember looking up how to get Spiritomb and finding out that it's locked behind the Underground system.
The game was a lot of fun

@Mauzuri That’s massively untrue, especially for certain types. STAB has its place but depth of typing is just as important. Staraptor learning Close Combat is a good example, it’s fast enough that you can outmanoeuvre certain rock types and one shot them. Plenty water types learn ice moves too, which can be useful for coverage. It’s just a bit silly to only have STAB moves on your Pokemon. It’s quite literally the opposite of stupid to have wide coverage on your move set.

@Mauzuri @nessisonett Especially as Fire is a counter to Ice, one of Dragon's main weaknesses...

From what I understand, they may be incorporating Pokemon from Platinum for the remake since Houndoom wasn't in Diamond and Pearl originally.

This game is looking better with each article. And people not liking the art style, well, that's okay. But I really do like how it's used here.

Planning, like I do for all of the last few Pokémon game, to do a monotype run. I'd been planning on doing Ground with Turtwig, although Steel with Piplup was another run I was considering. Curious to see what all Pokémon are down there (and which are version exclusive) so I can decide soon.

@Torakaka Houndour/doom were in the postgame of Pearl. Given the inclusion of other Pokémon such as Numel and Slugma, I think it’s more just to do with the fact that they’re making more Pokémon accessible throughout the game via the revamped underground, more than it is about making it more like Platinum.

@Nephestinus Digging for the fossil Pokemon was definitely a highlight! It was always a thrill when I discovered it was a fossil I wanted. Designing secret bases was fun too. It's something I'm glad they refined and brought over from R/S/E.

Pity the release date means it'll be months before I get to it.

Definitely grabbing this at some point, though. I never gave this gen the chance it probably deserved.

I think it looks good. Wish the models looked more like Link’s Awakening but whatev

@Mauzuri

Houndoom confirmed

@nessisonett Yeah especially on a dragon type. Fire coverage is always appreciated. Stab is only a 50% boost. Fire is my favorite type but I would never run all fire stab.

@LUIGITORNADO Such a great art style that is so far left unused, outside of links awakening of course. If we don’t get a new top down Zelda using this great style, yeah that will be a huge waste.

@alpha5099 monotype run sounds like fun. Bug seems like a silly one to give a try, I just might do that.

@anzzjam I've really enjoyed them. They make battles much more challenging sometimes, it makes team planning a nice puzzle to solve, and in some ways, I actually find it more immersive--it feels more like being a real trainer or gym leader. Practically everyone else in the Pokeworld is playing Monotype.

I started doing them in Sun, with Water Monotype, which is probably one of the easiest monotypes, Ghost for UltraMoon, Fighting for White 2 (still need to finish both of those), and Ice for Shield.

The Wild Area made a HUGE difference in Shield, with some simple weather manipulation I was able to have a full party of Ice Pokémon shortly after getting to the Wild Area. A few of 'em were duds like Delibird I dropped when I got better options later, but a lot of my core team got caught early on. It's super rare that Ice is even a viable monotype, let alone that you can a full team early in the game.

I'm really excited for this! But I wish they showed a clip of Capture the Flag in the new trailer!!! That was my favorite part about the underground. It was so much fun with friends, and with the online capabilities of the Switch it would be epic. It would actually force me to buy the Nintendo online membership.

Huh, well this is interesting. I can only hope it’ll be easier to get Spiritomb in BDSP than it was in DPP.

As for the Pokémon that appear in the Grand Underground I have a mix of Pokémon native to Platinum’s Pokédex, hard-to-get Pokémon (Munchlax, the HARDEST Pokemon to get via the Honey Tree mechanic, is present in the trailer), and Pokémon found using DPP’s dual-slot method (In Diamond and Pearl, Magby can only be found in the wild using this method and can only be obtained in Platinum via breeding).

But then again, I have a feeling the Pokémon selection could altered via online functions like Raid Dens are in SWSH.

I'm more interested in this game than I am the big open world one. That being said, Pokemon is really losing it's appeal to me so I don't even know what I want from the series, it's probably more franchise fatigue than anything.

@Mauzuri What about Magcargo or Camerupt?

Sinnoh Underground was a huge part of my childhood. Me and my cousins used to get together each Sunday to steal flags from each other. Oh to be able to relive that though with a new group 😭

Even though I completed it I didn't really get into Diamond & Pearl at the time but think I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time around.

@Mauzuri Just get a Chimchar with online trading...

Trying to figure out a Nuzlocke ruleset that would fairly incorporate this enhanced underground. Any suggestions?

I'm getting more and more interested in this, and I was on the skip train real bad when it was announced.

@Mauzuri Kind of a weird comment to make considering they've already shown off a volcanic region, and it seems to be by far the biggest den area of them all judging by the official image. I think it's safe to say that yes, there will be more fire types available this time around.