Overleveling: how to?

[Cerberus87]

I follow various threads on people completing the games, as well as LPs on YouTube, just to see what random stuff people use to finish the game. I tend to use the same team over and over, only trying something new when I'm forced to (like in BW). I like to beat the games on my first try and obviously I prepare beforehand by carefully choosing my team of six from the available Pokémon.

In many of these playthroughs, I've seen people with incredibly overleveled Pokémon.

Of course, many of the challenges in this forum almost require you to overlevel, because otherwise the game is nearly impossible to finish. My question is, how to reach such high levels? I've seen people say they had Pokémon in their mid-50's during the E4 in HGSS, but I don't know how feasible this is, when I usually reach the Victory Road with L42 Pokémon. Same thing in FRLG, in one walkthrough on GameFAQs the guy had L60 Pokémon at the E4 while I barely make it to the 50's...

I want to find this magical formula of grinding in the games! Where could I possibly grind in each game to reach such high levels?

I opened this thread in this section because I wish to discuss all Pokémon games, I play them all so I'm naturally interested in all of them.

[cloud354]

Usually I find it isn't specific places, its a lot of patience. Like, I'm overlevelled in my current playthrough of heartgold, as you call it, just because I spent so long in a specific place looking for a specific pokemon.

[Sydian]

Here are my rules of thumb, and I usually don't have to grind because of this:

- No Repels
- Don't run from wild Pokemon
- Don't skip trainers
- Don't skip side areas, since that usually means you're skipping trainers or wild Pokemon and even items
- When you get a new party member, catch them up to your other Pokemon's levels completely before progressing (that obviously takes grinding but it's not too bad)

That's really all there is to it for me. And not a general rule, but it helps a LOT if you don't obtain your team all in one sitting. If you plan out a team and they're all pretty spread out, say you want to use Oshawott and Petilil, which you can obtain relatively close together, but your next party member is...we'll use Gothita. That's pretty far off enough to give Oshawott and Petilil a big level advantage by the time you can get Gothita.

Slowflake is probably the best LPer to watch and see how he gets overleveled really, lol.

[Sweets Witch]

Basically the easiest trick is to grind as you go. There may be times when you've ended up using a party member more than others and it's significantly stronger. Bring the rest of your party up to its level before you continue or you'll end up with one ridiculously strong Pokemon and a so-so party.

Grinding's pretty simple. Use move type advantages when you can and aim for things that are common but yield decent experience. It's better to take down 50 Pidoves instead of solely hunting for an Audino. Also if you're playing a game with a VS Seeker, don't be afraid to abuse it.

[AdrianD]

I limit how many pokemon to use. Generally 2 or 3. If training 6 pokemon at once is quite difficult. If you battle each trainer your team should be 50+ each

[Aeon]

Battle everything you can. Generally when I do that my levels are on par with the leader's if not over leveled. However, some people will just grind like crazy and not be fulfilled until their team is above that of the leader's.

[HaiImNate]

The way that I level up fast to beat the E4 is that:

First I train two or three Pokemon so that there levels are super high. I do this until about the sixth gym, then I find an exp. share then add it to the lower level Pokemon. Or, I put the weak Pokemon first, then use the strong Pokemon to take out the opponent or wild Pokemon. This way it gives both my weak and strong Pokemon points.I u sed this strategy in White, Black and Black 2. It worked fairly well.

Besides that, you can always "grind as you go". All the good trainers know where all the spots to level up the fastest are. Also, make sure that you battle as many trainers as you can, because that can level you up quickly too. Also, it will give you money for the E4 as well.

My biggest place for training is normally Victory Road.

[SNOR(es)LAX]

Originally Posted by Sydian

- No Repels
- Don't run from wild Pokemon
- Don't skip trainers
- Don't skip side areas, since that usually means you're skipping trainers or wild Pokemon and even items
- When you get a new party member, catch them up to your other Pokemon's levels completely before progressing (that obviously takes grinding but it's not too bad)

Here are my thoughts really, but I guess those video-makers grind a lot as well before the face the Elite Four. However I don't really grind and I try to level the lowest level Pokemon using EXP Share/making that Pokemon have more chances in the team.

[wygar]

hg and ss don't have a really good place to train pre-e4, however, as soon as you beat it for the first time, it really gets better since you can easily access saffron for gym leader rematches and the lowest lvl pokemon you'll fight is lv48 while the strongest is 72.
don't forget i'm talking about trainer pokemon not wild ones. also, note that you can rematch them over and over again throughout the whole day.

now for the 5th gen games.. it's much harder to get really overleveled even by grinding a lot because of the new exp. system.
but at the same time it got much easier to train a pokemon from scratch up to the average lvl of the AI.
i'd say your best bet is to hunt for audinos.

that said, i don't really see much point in going "overkill" unless it's for something like a speed run, in which case all you have to do is use the starter for battles and nothing else.
and if all you want to do is to be able to get your pokemon to high levels, why not wait until post-game?

[RedWing]

Originally Posted by Sydian

Here are my rules of thumb, and I usually don't have to grind because of this:

- No Repels
- Don't run from wild Pokemon
- Don't skip trainers
- Don't skip side areas, since that usually means you're skipping trainers or wild Pokemon and even items
- When you get a new party member, catch them up to your other Pokemon's levels completely before progressing (that obviously takes grinding but it's not too bad)

My sentiments, exactly.

If you purposely run through every patch of grass, battle every single wild Pokemon, battle every Trainer and explore every out-of-the-way location on your journey, then you'll definitely be beefed up by the time you face the Elite 4.

I fondly remember starting my newest file in FireRed and getting a Venusaur to Lv.42 by the time I fought Lt.Surge, and then proceeding to gather the rest of my team and bring them up to speed.

Really, the only potential draw back is that if your desired team consists of your starter and five Pokemon that are unobtainable until much later on, your starter will severely out-level your other party members and be doomed to remain idle while you play catch-up. A simple remedy, however, is to have Pokemon ready to trade at their lowest stage and level and add them progressively as you go. This does two things for you: Makes them gain an insane amount of experience thanks to trading and their low level (In B/W) and also allows you to build your team at your own pace without having to overlevel a single member on your way to gather the rest.

[Killjoy]

Originally Posted by Sydian

Here are my rules of thumb, and I usually don't have to grind because of this:

- No Repels
- Don't run from wild Pokemon
- Don't skip trainers
- Don't skip side areas, since that usually means you're skipping trainers or wild Pokemon and even items
- When you get a new party member, catch them up to your other Pokemon's levels completely before progressing (that obviously takes grinding but it's not too bad)

That's really all there is to it for me. And not a general rule, but it helps a LOT if you don't obtain your team all in one sitting. If you plan out a team and they're all pretty spread out, say you want to use Oshawott and Petilil, which you can obtain relatively close together, but your next party member is...we'll use Gothita. That's pretty far off enough to give Oshawott and Petilil a big level advantage by the time you can get Gothita.

Slowflake is probably the best LPer to watch and see how he gets overleveled really, lol.

Yep, I like this. The only thing I would add is to set goals for yourself, if you need to. It's a lot easier to say, "I'm gunna have my whole team up to level x before I move to the next town, and then level y by the one after that", than to wait till the league and say "I'm 10 levels short of where I want my pokemon to be, so I have 60 levels total to grind now".

Generaly, In HGSS, I have my team (Usually of 3 at this point) At level 20 by the second gym, then my whole team (By this time 6) level 30+ by the fighting gym, 40ish by Ice gym, and then just let it go from there.

[Cerberus87]

Hmmm, I think grinding as you go is the answer, then.

Usually the first E4 member is 2-3 levels higher than the last gym leader, but aiming for the first E4 member is not a good thing because the Champion can have 10 levels over that.

All my questions are because, when I play, I'm usually just a tiny bit overleveled. I'm not a player who takes on challenges underleveled. But I don't understand how there are people who can easily level up. Maybe they just play more than me?

The only region I found it was easy to level up was, ironically, Unova, with the new exp system. Audinos make grinding much less of a pain. I wonder what XY will have in terms of grinding.

[dungeonmaster201]

you want to grind till over level? make sure your team are at least level 20 before you fight your first gym, then before each and every gym +10 levels to all your pokemon before getting the next badge. Yeah I know its boring, but youll have your overpower before you know it.

[Caelus]

I just battle every wild pokemon and trainer I see. Once I get near the halfway mark I start avoiding some wild battles but I still battle every trainer that I see. Once I get a vs seeker I find the trainers that give me the most experience and battle them over and over. That's what I do to overpower my pokemon.

[Kitrigar]

It's pretty easy to overlevel. Just takes a bit of time.
Like what you see in HGSS; people often train on route 47, up the waterfall. The spawn there gives a good amount of EXP to easily grind to the 50s and 60s.

I usually over-grind in these areas for each game pre-Elite Four:

R/B/Y - Victory Road/Pokemon Mansion/Patch of grass south of Pallet Town.
G/S/C- South of Blackthorn/Outside of Victory Road
R/S/E- Chase Gaby and Ty/ Use Trainer's Eye
FR/LG- VS Seeker on bikers to the left of Celadon/Trainers outside Ember Spa.
D/P/Pt- Use VS Seeker on the lady north of Solaceon Town. She has a Happiny that gives ~1k exp.
HG/SS- Route 47. Take the waterfall up to a small patch of grass.
B(2)/W(2)- Audino in moving grass.

Spending an hour or 2 on these places are worth the time

You could also attach a Lucky Egg if you've got one on your Pokemon to speed things up. Only available for 2nd gen and up though.