Pokemon Pokewalker Guide
Introduction
How it Works
Getting Pokemon onto your 'Walker
Acquiring Watts
Using the Pokewalker
Poke Radar
Drowsing
Connect
Trainer Card
Pokemon & Items
Settings
The Available Pokemon and Items
Courses and Favored Types
Retrieving and Resetting your Pokewalker
Introduction
Just like when Gold and Silver came out, there is an accompanying pedometer that helps you with the game. The Pokewalker can be put in your Pocket or with a little effort, and a small Phillips Head Screwdriver, you can replace the default back with a belt clip. Either way, once you have it set up, just move a Pokemon into it from your in-game PC. While the Pokemon is in there, they will gain experience and eventually gain one level. As you walk, in addition to the experience points, you will accumulate Watts, the currency used for the Pokewalker's functions. Once you have enough Watts, you can find items and Pokemon which can be transferred back onto your game cartridge. This is especially helpful early in the game when money is scare and Poke Balls need to be used sparingly. It also helps you get some rare Pokemon that can only be found in other games or some unique ones if you can get the right courses.
How it Works
Getting Pokemon Onto Your 'Walker:
You cannot immediately load a Pokemon into the Pokewalker when you start the game. You need to complete a small number of things for people before you can finally load Pokemon onto it. Once you have finished the errand to Mr. Pokemon and your neighbor has shown you how to catch Pokemon you will be able to load Pokemon onto your Pokewalker. You cannot load any Pokemon on your team onto the Pokewalker they must be in your PC for you to select them and get them into your Pokewalker. Once you choose a Pokemon, you will be asked to select one of your available courses. This list starts off small, but as you gain Watts and make progress in the game, you will be able to gain access to more courses.
PokeRadar
Once you have built up 10 watts, you can play the Poke Radar minigame. You will see 4 patches of grass and a bubble with an exclamation point will appear above it. You want to align your cursor, using the left and right arrows to move, and the center button to select that patch of grass. Depending on the number of steps taken, you may have to repeat this a few times. The number of exclamation points indicates the rarity of the Pokemon found. 1 will get you a Pokemon from Group C, the second single exclamation will be from C or B, 2 will be from B or A and 3 will be from Group A. From here, the game shifts to something close to the traditional Pokemon battle. Each Pokemon has 4 bars of health for this. If a Pokemon reaches 0 bars, it will flee from the fight. In this part of the game, you have 3 options: Attack, Evade and Catch. Attack will have your Pokemon do just that, likely inflicting 1 bar of damage (sometimes 2 if it inflicts a critical hit). Evade will have your Pokemon dodge an incoming then attack, again inflicting 1 bar of damage. The Pokeon you encounter has the same move set, but it has the option to run. As always, catch means throwing a Poke Ball to try to capture the Pokemon you are facing down and the less health the other Pokemon has the more likely you are to catch it. Be sure about throwing the Poke Ball as you get one shot. Note that a Pokewalker can store up to 3 captured Pokemon. If you catch any above this, you will need to choose to replace 1 of those 3.
Drowsing
Once you have built up 3 Watts you can play this game. Unlike the Poke Radar game, you have unlimited time to select 2 of the 6 patches. You will be given 1 of 2 messages if you do not find the item outright. The first is “It's near!” meaning it is in one of the patches of grass next to the one you just searched. The second is “It's far away ...” meaning it is more than one patch of grass away. Just like the Poke Radar, you can only get 3 items before you need to start replacing the items you have found with it.
Connect
This feature is self explanatory. This allows your Pokewalker to connect with your cartridge's infrared and other 'Walkers to receive gifts. You will only have a few seconds per use of Connect to have the 'Walkers connect. Make sure to align the sensors properly or else they will not register each other. Again, there is a maximum of 10 gifts, after that you will start receiving Watts opposed to gifts.
Trainer Card
This lets you review the information for the Pokewalker like your Trainer Name, what course you are on and the present time in your Pokemon game. By scrolling to the right, you can review information from the past days with the Pokewalker, like total number of Steps, Days or Steps taken on a previous day up to a week ago.
Pokemon & Items
This lets you review what Pokemon you have on the Pokewalker. It also lets you see what Items and Pokemon you have caught/found. Scrolling to the right lets you review what gifts you have received so far.
Settings
This option lets you change the volume of your Pokewalker or the Shade of the display. There are 3 volume options: Mute, Low and High. Shade has a few more options. Scroll left or right to find what works best for you.
Gaining Watts
Time to dive into the technical side of the Pokewalker. Everything with it functions from some simple principles:
Experience Points:
1 EXP per 1 Step
Watts:
1 Watt per 10 Steps
The Available Pokemon and Items:
As you walk farther throughout the day and build up more steps, different Pokemon will become available. Some Pokemon and items can only be acquired once you have built up enough steps. These vary on the different routes, so all of that will be listed with the corresponding route. Each Route has a total of six Pokemon, broken up into groups of two by rarity commonly referred to as Groups A, B and C, that can be found on it. However only three of the six can be found at any given time. This means that one Pokemon from each group will be selected and made available when you load your Pokemon into the 'Walker.
Courses and Favored Types
If you are having trouble getting enough steps to gain access to the Uncommon or Rare Pokemon on a course, consider looking into the favored type of each course. By putting a Pokemon of one of the favored types onto the course, it will reduce the number of steps needed by 25%, making it a lot easier to get some of the Pokemon. Each course has three favored types of Pokemon, so think about that a little when you are putting a Pokemon onto your Pokewalker.
Retrieving and Resetting your Pokewalker
Sooner or later the battery will run out in the Pokewalker or perhaps you lose your Pokewalker. In either case, you can still get your Pokemon back by going to the Pokewalker Connection Screen and by pressing and holding Up+Select+R. Once you do this, your Pokewalker will be reset and your Pokemon will be restored to your PC box.
If you find your Pokewalker, you will need to reset it directly. Again go to the Pokewalker Connection Screen and press and hold: Down+X+L. Using this will allow to either set another Pokewalker to your DS cartridge or just restore the original one to it.
