3rd Gen The Shoal Cave

In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, north of Mossdeep City you can find your way to a cave known as the Shoal Cave. In this cave, the tide changes based on what time of day it is registered as in your game. From 9 to 3, it resides on high tide and you can use Surf to find yourself Shoal Shells. But from 3 to 9 it's on land and you go through it and at the bottom of the cave, there's an icy area that presents you with a chance to find an elusive Ice-type Pokémon, Snorunt. And there are Shoal Salts instead. Getting four of both will allow the old man at the entrance to make you a Shell Bell, which is basically the poor man's Leftovers.

What did you think of the Shoal Cave? Did you ever end up getting Shell Bells? And what did you think of the tide mechanic? Was it something you thought made it worth revisiting? Discuss.

I believe the shoal cave is an amazing unique place, making it one of my favorite locations in Hoenn. I really wish more places like this were made.
I didn't immediately notice there was a cave north of Mossdeep. I found out a little later (sometime after my seventh badge I believe) when checking the map there was a route there. At first after entering the cave, I didn't know the changing of tides and this made it impossible to find a Snorunt anywhere. When I later returned I found the hidden ice cave and collected the shoal salts to trade along with the shells for a shell bell. Because I thought this was a really useful item I returned a couple of times to obtain a second and a third shell bell.

I kinda loved the Shoal Cave, because of its unique tide mechanic where it changed which parts of the cave you were able to explore. It was also pretty much the only place in Hoenn where you could actually catch Ice-type Pokemon, and I guess it was because the cave was the only place with a cold enough climate to house them.

I did in fact collect the Shoal Salts and Shoal Shells and got a Shell Bell. Never used it much, but at least in the remakes they made you have a better incentive for wanting to get it, considering you now get a Slowbronite as well.

This area was a pain.. I didn't like waiting to be able to get all the items inside it and the Shell Bell wasn't too useful for me since it recovered too little HP for my kid self's taste. Usually almost always skipped by it in later files I made. :(

It was more of a pain to try and find the items and pokemon than to explore cause yeah, you'd have to wait for the tides to come in at specific times.. ugh. I'll give it this though, I think it's a pretty interesting place, and right now I'm thinking that they should of done something like this for the Seafoam Islands and such.

But yeah, after some time I managed to gather the items for the Shell Bell, but ultimately, it was just a collectors item for me, haha. For small recovery, I mostly relied on Leftovers anyhow.

One of the unique features that was introduced by RS was Shoal Cave! It changes its internal layout depending on the time.

Though it makes me wonder why aren't the we able to use Dive in the cave during the evening till night hours.

Don't lick the ice over there, it's salty. #How2Meme

It was a unique place to visit, but it was never really very fun to me. There wasn't any rare Pokemon there to reward you for your exploration, and exploring the place in its entirety was a very tedious and boring task, which I never managed to complete. The item you get out of collecting the Shoal Salts and Shells wasn't anything special either, which felt like a slap to the face.

The fact the Shoal Cave changed tides based on what time it is gave it a reason to want to come back so you can collect both the Shoal Salt and Shoal Shells. It does sadden me that we never had a location with similar mechanics since.

I liked the Shoal Cave, it made you want to go back to get what you needed at the right time. Plus, the items were actually useful. Furthermore, the unique Pokemon obtainable there are two I admire; Snorunt and Spheal. Considering Snorunt was rarer it made it more desirable to people, I believe, rather than if it was always available to capture in the cave or elsewhere on the map.