Route 201 is the first place in the game to catch Pokémon, but more will come soon. Connecting Twinleaf Town to Sandgem Town, Route 201 tests the power of new trainers and their Pokémon
Events
First Time
When you first arrive to Route 201, you will bump into Barry and he will ask you if you saw the news about the Red Gyarados and he will say that there must be a mysterious pokémon in the nearby lake and he wants to check it out with you
As your first outing, you have no Pokémon, meaning if you even attempt to go in the grass, your mom will come and tell you not to go in the grass so go to the left, to come to Verity Lakefront, and continue from there.
Second Time
On your second visit to this route, go back towards Twinleaf, and Rowan and his assistant will be in your way, apparently very annoyed. The assistant says to come see them at their laboratory in Sandgem Town. The game cuts out and you are back home in Twinleaf Town.
Third Time
On your third visit, instead of taking the left path, start through the grass, talking to the Poké Mart salesman to receive a free potion. Continue up through the grass, and to the right to reach Sandgem Town.
Since you have your starter pokémon now, you can fight wild pokémon and level it up. You can't catch any pokémon yet until you visit Professor Rowan. You will only run into Starly and Bidoof.
Platinum
First Time
When you meet your rival here, he will attempt to make a run through the long grass, stating "If we jump over to the next patch of grass before a pokemon attacks we'll make it to sandgem town in no time!". Before he can go however, Prof. Rowan and Dawn (if the player is a boy) or Lucas (if the player is a girl) appear. Prof. Rowan gives you and your rival a Pokémon after some discussion.
Items
- Potion - given to you by the woman in the grass
Pokémon found
| Diamond and Pearl | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon | Level | Morn. | Day | Night | |
|
Starly | 2-3 | 50% | 50% | 40% |
|
Bidoof | 2-3 | 50% | 50% | 60% |
|
Kricketot | - | - | - | - |
| Platinum | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon | Level | Morn. | Day | Night | |
|
|
Starly | 2-3 | 50% | 50% | 40% |
|
|
Bidoof | 2-4 | 40% | 50% | 50% |
|
|
Kricketot | 3 | 10% | 0% | 10% |
New Pokémon
Starly are the basic Normal/Flying Pokémon in this game. Like Pidgey from earlier games, Starly evolves twice, making it a good Pokémon to pick up when you can. The Flying attacks it learns will be helpful throughout the game, and we also need a Fly and Defog slave for this game.
Bidoof is a strange little Pokémon, similar to Rattata in the sense that they are annoying and actually evolve into something useful. Picking one of these guys up also wouldn't hurt, especially as a HM slave.
Straight out of the box Kricketot isn't worth a Safari ball, let alone the Poké Ball you caught it with. Its one saving grace is at level 10 it evolves into the fairly decent, pure bug type, Kricketune.