17. Driftveil City

Driftveil City

Not much at the very entrance, but as you head to the west, you'll find Cheren talking to a dude in a cowboy hat. It's the Gym Leader, Clay. He's complaining that because you lowered the drawbridge, some of the Team Plasma goons they had held up were set free, so now he's making it your responsibility to find them before he'll accept your challenge in the Gym.

There's a dude in the second house from the entrance that will teach your starter Pokemon (or any region's starter Pokemon, for that matter) one of three different moves that's based off its type. It'll teach Grass-type starters Grass Pledge, Fire-type starters Fire Pledge, and Water-type starters Water Pledge. These are 50-power Special-based moves, but their power apparently increases and they combine and stuff if you combine them in battle — probably through Double or Triple Battles. I don't recommend teaching it to your Pokemon right now, though.

The Pokemon Center can be found by heading north. They finally sell Dusk Balls for $1000 each, which may seem pricy, but it's twice as effective as an Ultra Ball which costs $1200 later on, so that's not bad if you like playing at night. You can also talk to the dude up the stairs by the Union Room lady and he'll give you a Repeat Ball, which has a great catch rate if you use it on a Pokemon already in your Pokedex.

Inside of the house to the southeast of the Pokemon Center, you can trade a Minccino for aBasculin (that spiky fish thing), which is a great deal because you can get Minccino pretty often in Route 5 just across the bridge. You'll get the red-striped version in Black and the blue-striped version in White. The guy next to him also checks to see how many Pokemon you've seen on your Pokedex, and if you've got at least 50, he'll give you the Shell Bell, a held item that restores a small amount of HP relative to the amount of damage the bearer did with its attack.

Pokemon Review: Basculin

Click to view the review!

Want to try something fun? Go behind the Marketplace and talk to Charles, the Motorcyclist, back there and he'll offer to do a Rotation Battle in Black or a Triple Battle in White. He uses aKrokorok L27, a Basculin L27, and a Zebstrika L27.

Triple Battles!

Triple Battles are one of the cool new battle modes of Pokemon Black and White! Throughout the game, there will be a few Trainers that will engage you in these sorts of battles, although they are more common in Pokemon White.

Basically, it is a lot like a Double Battle, except you have three Pokemon out rather than two. The Pokemon on the far-left of your team can only attack the Pokemon directly in front of it or the Pokemon to the right, but not the one on the far end of your opponent's team. Attacks that attack all Pokemon like Surf or Earthquake just affect the adjacent Pokemon. However, the Pokemon in the middle is able to attack any of the opponent's Pokemon, but it also means any of the opponent's Pokemon is able to strike it as well!

It's a really fun format and adds a whole new level of strategy to the tried and true mix.

Rotation Battles!

What's a Rotation Battle, you ask? Well, it's like a Triple Battle, except only one Pokemon uses an attack each turn. You'll see all 3 of your opponent's Pokemon in the battle, as well as yours, but each Trainer can rotate their Pokemon to use a different one's attack.

Think of it even more like a game of rock-paper-scissors, because you don't know for sure if your opponent will have another Pokemon absorb your hit or not. You can rotate your Pokemon to use its attack for the turn by pressing the little rotation symbols in the Fight menu. Rotating does not use up your turn! (But switching Pokemon obviously does.)

The battles play out like Single Battles other than that whole rotating feature. It's a fun new way to battle that adds an extra strategy element to the tried-and-true battle formula!

In the house directly to the west of the Pokemon Center, there's a lady inside that will want to see a specific move. She'll tell you which move she wants to see, and then you'll need to show her a Pokemon that knows that move. She'll only ask for TM or HM moves, making it easy to learn the moves she's looking for, but you'll still need to find a Pokemon that can learn it. If you show her that move, she'll give you a Heart Scale, and you can do this every day in the future to get more.

Now, one sweet part is in the western part of town. There's a big marketplace set up there, and you can buy a lot of different stuff!

Bazaar of Goodies

• The lady in the northwestern corner of the shop sells you Moomoo Milk for $500 a bottle. She sells it individually (first option) or by the dozen (second option). Since this heals a staggering 100 HP, it's highly recommend you buy these over Super or Hyper Potions, at least for now while your Pokemon don't have that much HP. Go ahead and pick up a dozen... you'll be glad you did.
• If you talk to the shady guy with a suit in the northeastern part (well, east, and then facing north) with a Pokemon that's at least level 30, he'll give you the Expert Belt, a great held item that powers up your Super Effective attacks by 20%. Yes, any of the bearer's Super Effective hits will hit for 20% more, so put it on something rather diverse.
• The guy directly south of the Expert Belt guy, in the southeast block (if you will), sells you some medicine. It's very bitter medicine, though, that lowers your Pokemon's happiness when you use the item on it. That's not as bad as it sounds, because it doesn't affect that much, and it isn't a permanent thing by any means. He sells the following items:
  • Heal Powder for $450 (like a Full Heal)
  • EnergyPowder for $500 (like a Super Potion ... Moomoo Milk is the same price and heals 2x as much)
  • Energy Root for $800 (like a Hyper Potion)
  • Revival Herb for $2800 (like a Max Revive, which is actually handy)
  The only thing really worth buying is the Revival Herb, just because Max Revives can't be bought and the healing-back-to-full part is really handy if you don't care about sacrificing a Pokemon's happiness (so what, Return does less damage?). Obviously don't do this for anything that evolves through happiness or anything you've taught Return to.

By the way, you can sneak in the west side of the building from the outside. Just hug the wall and press right over by Charles until you get in. You can get a Big Pearl back there. Don't let the guilt of stealing deter you, though!

Speaking of Charles, there's a girl setting up a stand of goodies in the southern end of the marketplace, although she's all sold out because Charles bought all of her items. However, use your Dowsing Machine and you'll find there's a hidden Heart Scale precisely one step south of where you would stand to talk to her. What a heartbreaker!

Anyway, the Gym is in the far northeast corner of town, but the Gym Leader isn't gonna take you on until after you've vanquished Team Plasma, since it was apparently your doing they went free.

There's one more item hiding in the city. Go to the very northwest part of it and then sneak through that break in the trees up there and you'll find an Ultra Ball.

Now, you can either go to Route 6 in the northeastern part of town, or you can go down to the Cold Storage to the south.