Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Rustboro City

Rustboro City is a big city, filled with people who mostly seem to work for Devon Corporation.

Take Some Items
At the entrance of the city, go right and cross the small path between the fence and woods to get X Defend. The building west of the entrance is quarters for those working at Devon Corporation. On the second floor, talk to the little boy to get a Premier Ball. Head east past the Center to the Pokémon Trainer's School. Talk to the teacher to get the Quick Claw.

Take the HM 01
To the west of the Pokémon Center is the Cutter's house. Talk to the Cutter in the house to get HM01 (Cut). Cut is not a powerful attack, but it will help you cut down trees. However, you can't use it outside of battle until you get the Stone Badge.

A Pokémon Trading
Next to the gym is a residence where you may speak with the child. Depending on the version you are playing, she will exchange a Pokémon for one of yours of a specific kind. In Ruby and Sapphire, she will ask for a in exchange for a. In Emerald she will offer you a for your. Note that you can get a in the ../Petalburg Woods/ if desired.

Rustboro Gym

 * Gym Leader: Roxanne
 * Badge: Stone Badge

Be sure to buy some potions, because the gym is full of strong trainers. X Defend can also be quite useful, as it increases your defense (1 Battle). This gym is based on Rock-type Pokémon, so any Grass-, Water-, Fight-, Steel- or Ground-type Pokémon will do. If you chose or  will not have difficulties, but if you have Torchic, will have some difficulty. A good strategy is to evolve your to  which when evolves, learns Double Kick, an attack that is the fighting type. You can also catch a or, as they will be very useful.






 * NOTE: Depending how you interact with Tommy and Marc, you can fight both of them at once in a Double Battle. To do this, you come directly in the line of sight of both of them at once. You can do that, if you want, by coming straight up on the left side of the maze.

Once you beat Roxanne, you'll get your first badge, TM39 (Rock Tomb) and a possibility to use HM01 (Cut) outside the battle.

After the gym
Now that you have your first badge, step outside, to see the same Magma or Aqua grunt that you fought in the forest running away from Devon Corp. and the worker you saw earlier running after him. You can head over to the Pokémon Center and heal if you want. Then head up to the north where you'll meet the worker, who'll give you a job to do - pursue the Aqua/Magma Grunt, who stole some Devon goods, and retrieve it from him! To get to the grunt though, you'll have to traverse through Route 116.

Emerald Players have the privilege of fighting their rival near the Poké Mart after they run their errand for the Devon Corp. man. This battle isn't mandatory, since he/she will ask you if you want to fight him/her.

Items found

 * X Defend - In the southern part of the city, behind the fence
 * Quick Claw - From the teacher of the Pokémon Trainer's School
 * HM 01 - From the Cutter in the Cutter's house near the Pokémon Center
 * TM 39 - From Roxanne after you defeat her
 * Premier Ball - Small kid in the Devon Apartments on the second floor. These are rare, so save them.