Castelia City

Right off the bat, you want to go south to a small pier. The black-haired man in the scientist coat will discuss the three monkeys and tell you about their evolutions. He will offer you a stone based on the Pokemon you select. I recommend evolving them as soon as they earn their Level 22 move. No higher, no lower.
 * Water Stone for Panpour
 * Leaf Stone for Pansage
 * Fire Stone for Pansear

Exploring The City
Let's start off by visiting the Pokemon Center. It's a straight shot from where you entered the city. There will be a girl blocking the desk. It's not particularly important, but regardless, she'll tell you about Geonet.

See the guy to the left? He'll give you rewards for trading with lots of people. Trade with 50 people and you'll get a Master Ball.

Go to the building to the left of the Pokemon Center. You will be at the Battle Company. A man introduces it and then travels into the elevator. Hop in and go to the 47th floor.

On the 47th Floor, there's a clerk with a Timburr at Level 19. Another clerk has a Herdier of the same level. The nearby man will give you 3 Quick Balls, which works extremely well if you toss it during the first 5 turns of the battle. He also gives you 3 Timer Balls, which is quite the opposite — the more turns that elapsed in the battle, the better it is, but it eventually caps and is useless still.

There's a scientist with a Roggenrola at Level 19, although he likes to use an X Sp. Def to raise his Roggenrola's Sp. Def right away. The clerk to the left of the scientist has a Petilil at Level 18 and a Cottonee Level 18. Right by her, you can pick up a Revive, which may be incredibly helpful. Now, over on the right side of the room, there's another clerk and he has three Basculin at Level 17, which are strange Water-types you probably haven't seen yet. They give a ton of EXP, though, so it's well worth it.

After all of that, talk to the scientist at the end and he'll give you the Scope Lens held item, which raises a Pokemon's critical hit rate when its held. If you've got a Pokemon that isn't holding anything, you might as well give it that for now. Now let's go to the 55th floor.

Right south of the elevator door is a Hyper Potion, which is actually way too powerful of a Potion for you to get right now, so don't worry about using it yet. To your left, there's a clerk with a Woobat Level 20. Dark-type moves are your friend. Then there's a Scientist right beneath him with a Munna at Level 20, which will easily fall to the same tactics. She'll probably start the fight by using an X Special to boost her Munna's Sp. Atk. At the very bottom of the room, there's a Scientist that has a Sewaddle Level 20, plus he boosts its critical hit rate right away by using a Dire Hit.

"I was about to take a break, then I met you."

- Clerk Wade's pickup line

Now there's another Clerk (Male) guarding the boss guy. Yeah, had to. Anyway, he uses a Pansear L19, a Pansage L19, and a Panpour L19. Last but not least, you'll have to take on the chairman himself, who is disguised as a janitor.

He uses a Trubbish at Level 20, the trashbag looking thing. He also has a Minccino Level 20. After beating him, you'll win the EXP. Share item, which is invaluable for training up new Pokemon as it splits the EXP you earn with the combatant Pokemon and the bearer of that, even if the bearer didn't fight.

That was fun! Let's go down to the ground floor again. Head to the far west around the city, and then go into the alleyway. Try to enter the building to your right. Cheren will appear, and he's already won his badge. He leaves, and it turns out Team Plasma is up to no good. Burgh heads off and suggests you follow him to the pier. For now, let's go get into some shenanigans.

Follow the alleyway to the central plaza. Fight the dancer's Level 21 Pansage. He'll ask you to regroup his dancing team. Narrow Street and Unity Pier... GO! The narrowest road is obviously Narrow Street. The dancer will fight with his Panpour. Make your way out the other end of the alley. A man will appear from behind a dumpster and give you Flash. The next dancer is on a pier similar to the one we checked out to get our stone. It's right outside where you will emerge from in the alley, and the dancer uses Pansear as you probably guessed. Defeat it and return to the fountain. The middle dancer will give you the Amulet Coin!

The Playmates
Go to the middle right pier, where you will find Burgh, Bianca, and the gym leader Iris. Munna's been stolen from Bianca, so it's your job to get him/her back.

Burgh realizes they are stationed outside his gym. Go ahead and fight them. The one you have to fight uses two Sandiles at Level 17. He's not too tough, don't worry, but the Sand-Attack spam can get annoying.

After beating the trio of Grunts, they'll retreat into the building. Bianca and Iris show up afterwards, and then the three enter the building to see what's going on.

Inside, you'll see Ghetsis, two other Erotic Sages, and some more playmates. Yikes! After a lengthy discussion, they decide to give Bianca's Munna back to her. Then, just like that, the whole lot of Plasma dudes vanish, leaving only an item behind in their stead. After even more dialogue, Iris gives you a Yache Berry, which is useful if your Pokemon has a weakness to Ice — like a lot of Dragon-types do, for instance. It reduces the first Super Effective Ice-type hit to only half the damage (making it normal damage unless they're 4x weak), but it's consumed after use, so you don't want to just use it right away.

Anyway, then Iris and Bianca, the two new best friends, will leave, leaving Burgh to do the manly thing and go take care of his Gym. Oh, but before you leave, be sure to pick up the Smoke Ball, which, when held by a Pokemon, allows it to run from any wild Pokemon fight, regardless of its Speed stat. That can be very handy.

Burgh: Down With The Ship
Talk to your personal trainer for some water. This gym is very simple to get through, just walk through the center of the honey and push all the switches. You'll have to fight about three trainers along the way, but that's okay. You got this. Burgh is through the final wall, so heal up and get to work. Burgh's Bug-type Pokemon are fairly diverse in their types. He's also the first Gym Leader to have 3 Pokemon in his team so far, so that alone will prove to be somewhat challenging. Thankfully, his levels aren't too drastically high compared to what you've been fighting, although his attacks are pretty solid.

His Whirlipede is quite a defensive Pokemon. It will soften your Pokemon up with stat lowering moves before striking hard. The Dwebble is a little difficult with its typing, but it is weak to Water-type attacks, so try to utilize those if you have them in your arsenal. If you don't, just slug it with neutral attacks and hope for the best.

Leavanny is the main attacker on Burgh's team. It is quick, nimble, and hits pretty hard. Razor Leaf punishes any Rock-types that try to take it down, so be on guard for that! It is very weak to Fire- or Flying-type attacks, though, so if you have any, you'll be in business. Bug- or Rock-type attacks will also do a good amount of damage. Just beware, because Burgh is capable of healing if his Pokemon get into the red zone HP wise.

After beating Burgh, you'll be rewarded with the Insect Badge, which enables all traded Pokemon up to level 40 to obey you. He also gives you TM76 (Struggle Bug), which hits for a small amount of damage, but it always lowers the target's Sp. Atk.

As you leave the Gym, Bianca will call you on the Xtransceiver and say she wants to battle you after getting some tips from Iris! Go ahead and take her up on her challenge, but be sure to stop by the Pokemon Center to heal up your weary Pokemon first!

VS. Bianca
Head north from the fountain and enter the building. Bianca will appear behind you. She uses a Herdier, Munna, monkey, and starter. This should be a simple fight. Keep in mind she has two Super Potions. Go back to the Pokemon Center and heal, because up ahead we have another battle on our hands.

Go to: Route 4