This is the first route in the game where you will encounter trainer battles and berries. If you walk in front of a trainer (or if you talk to one), an exclamation mark will appear above his head and he will challenge you to a battle that you cannot refuse. The positive side of this is that you gain more experience by defeating trainers than random encounters and you are rewarded money. The downside is that, should you lose, you will be returned to the most recent Poké Center you were at and you will lose some money. If desired, you can avoid some of them by walking behind or beside them - they only challenge you if they are directly looking at you.
The trainers on this region are low level, and may carry one or two Pokémon around level 5. They will mostly be Pokémon you fought previously, with the exception of two, the Taillow and the Shroomish.
During your travels you may encounter oddly shaped trees that contain berries. There are many different types of berries in the game that do different things. For example, on Route 102 you will find Oran Berries and Pecha Berries. The Oran berry will heal a Pokémon 10 HP and the Pecha berry will cure poison. The best part is that if you allow your Pokémon to hold the berry, it will be used automatically and you won't waste a turn using an item of your own. Remember, once you pick the berries you will have to plant a berry to make it grown into another full tree to get more.
As you traverse Route 102, fighting trainers along the way will allow you to pick up some money and experience. Also, keep an eye out for a Potion in the grass just before Petalburg City.
For Sapphire and Emerald Players, this is one of the first version exclusive Pokémon that you will encounter, with its counterpart being Seedot in Ruby. This little guy is a Grass/Water type, a rare combination, that protects against some of its weaknesses. It also comes with Astonish, a Ghost-type move that can hit anyone except for Normal-type Pokémon, so don't bother trying to hit Zigzagoon with it. Lotad isn't very useful for now, but its fully evolved form, Ludicolo can be quite annoying to the opponents, so it's up to you if you want it now or later.
Now this Pokémon is worth watching out for! Being Psychic-type, it's open to a powerful array of moves. It is available in all three versions, so everybody can take advantage of its abilities. Ralts is quite rare, and it can be encountered only this area, but is easy to capture since it only knows Growl when you encounter him. Ralts's final form, Gardevoir, is one of the most powerful Psychic-type Pokémon in the game. However, Ralts is going to be difficult to train since it needs lot of experience to level up and its base stats are pretty poor before evolving into its final form. Nevertheless, Ralts is worth capturing.
#273 Seedot
#283 Surskit
This Pokémon is exclusive to Ruby and Emerald, though it is quite rare in Emerald. It is a defensive Pokémon that relies on decreasing damage against it and retaliating with Bide. Seedot's main use in the late game is where its evolved form, Nuzleaf, gets a powerful Psychic attack unique to it called Extrasensory. Like Lotad, it is more effective later in the game.
Surskit is Bug/Water-type Pokémon, a unique combo that gives it useful resistances. However, Surskit is very weak, so using it in the battle isn't recommended. This Pokémon is incredibly rare on all versions, and so rare in Emerald that you can only find them in swarms after you beat the game! Due to their high rarity it is advised that you catch the first one you see so that you can spare yourself hours searching for it, even if finding one now isn't on your mind.
Items
Oran Berry x2 (In the soft soil patch in the center of the route)
Pecha Berry x2 (In the soft soil patch in the center of the route)
Zigzagoon
Lotad
Ralts
