Lake Verity is home to the legendary Pokemon Mesprit. Alot of events happen here and the player swing by here often to investigate it whats going on.
Lake gazing[edit]
Once you go to Lake Verity you will see Dawn or Lucas (depends on which gender you choose) and a professor standing by the lake and they talking about recent events. They will thereafter exit, politely asking you to move aside so they may leave. Your rival notices that they left behind a bag of some kind. He says there's no harm in going into the grass for a second to see what's in the bag. That turns out to be a terrible idea as you are attacked by a level 2 Starly which you have to defeat.
Starter Pokémon Choices[edit]
To fend off the Starly, you are given a choice of three Pokémon: Piplup, Chimchar, and Turtwig. Piplup is a great starter for defensively minded players, as its evolved form, Empoleon, has resistance up to 12 of the 17 types. Turtwig, although not especially powerful, is easy to raise. Chimchar is hard to raise, but is a great attacker. It would also be good to note that Chimchar is one of the only 5 fire Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex, and since 3 of those are Chimchar and its evolutions, and the other 2 being in the Ponyta and its evolution, there is a shortage of Fire types until you get the National Pokédex.
Watch the cutscene, and you'll be forced into the tall grass, and into a battle. Choose your starter!
Turtwig is an effective all-around balanced Pokémon, knowing Withdraw and Tackle right from the start, and learns Absorb and Razor Leaf at Levels 9 and 13 respectively. Coupled with the Overgrow ability, which allows it's Grass attacks to increase in power by 1.5x when it's HP is low making it an effective early fighter. It evolves into Grotle at Level 18 and into Torterra at Level 32, the latter of which will be Grass/Ground type, and will be effective in Gyms 1, 4, 5, and 8. Turtwig has 5 weaknesses, which are fire, ice, poison, flying and bug. After it evolves into Torterra, it's weakness to poison is eliminated. Beware of Ice types, however, as Torterra has a quadruple weakness to them. Stone Edge and Earthquake are good for knocking out Fire types. The former can also be used against Ice, Flying, and Bug types, and the latter for Poison types. He can also learn Crunch, Energy Ball, Outrage, Superpower, and Iron Tail. Turtwig is perfect for players who are interested in teambuilding and competitive multiplayer battles.
Chimchar focuses on attack, and starts off with Scratch and Leer. It can learn Taunt, Facade, and Calm Mind later on as well as a variety of other physical and Fire attacks. His Attack and Speed are unparalleled, and he can learn extremely powerful attacks. The ability Blaze allows his Fire attacks to deal 1.5x damage at low HP, but it's real claim to fame is is that it evolves at Level 14 to Monferno (though it only evolves to Infernape at Level 36). These latter two forms are also Fighting type, much like the previous generation's Fire-starter's evolution chain. This makes him useful in Gyms 1 (once evolved), 2, 5, 6, and 7. Also, keep in mind that besides Ponyta/Rapidash, he is the ONLY Fire-type that you will be able to obtain in the game until you have seen all 150 Sinnoh Pokémon (Unless you're playing Platinum), and Fire-types are very much needed in the regular game of Diamond/Pearl. Its main weaknesses after evolving are Water, Ground, and Flying and they can be countered with Solar Beam, Grass Knot, Stone Edge. Beware of Psychic types, however, as Infernape has almost nothing to counter them. He doesn't have much in terms of defense, but he can learn other great moves such as Close Combat, Earthquake, Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Gunk Shot, and Iron Tail. He shouldn't be the centerpiece of your team, but experts can learn to use him effectively as a situational technician. If you are a speedrunner, and are trying to beat the game as quickly as possible, Chimchar is the Pokemon for you.
Piplup is basically the "advanced player's Pokémon" of the Diamond/Pearl generation, with a very poor early move pool starting with Pound and Growl then ranging from Bubble to Bide which isn't exactly the greatest variety. It has the ability Torrent, which powers up its Water-type moves when it is low health. However, once he evolves to Prinplup at level 16, things look up a bit, with attacks such as Metal Claw and Bubblebeam, and Empoleon (whom is evolved to at Level 36) has a second type of Steel, and can learn good attacks such as Aqua Jet, Mist, and Drill Peck. Thus, this Pokémon is generally not very useful in gyms, likely only being effective in Gyms 1, 5, 6, and 7. In all three evolution stages, Piplup has a versatile, albeit not very powerful movepool, and his relatively poor Attack stat doesn't help, but as an Empoleon, it has 11 different resistances, including a complete immunity to poison. Its mere 3 weaknesses (Electric, Ground, and Fighting) can easily be countered, as Empoleon can learn Earthquake, Surf/Hydro Pump, and Drill Peck, respectively. He can also learn Ice Beam, Brick Break, Flash Cannon, and a whole slew of other moves. If you are a casual gamer, and you just want the main storyline of the game to be as easy as possible, then Piplup is the choice for you.
Choose whichever one you feel is the best or your favorite, as they will all help you in your journey.
The Battle[edit]
Keep slamming it with attacks until it's defeated. Each of the starters start with a damaging move (Scratch, Tackle or Pound) and a stat reducing move (Growl or Leer). Starly should be defeated fairly easily.
After the Battle[edit]
After you defeat the Starly (and gain some Exp. Points), Dawn/Lucas will come back to fetch the briefcase, and sees that you both took a Pokémon each. He/She is worried about explaining this to the professor and rushes off. You should exit as well and head back to Route 201.