4th Gen Your Grinding Areas

[curiousnathan]

In HGSS there was a variety of different routes all differing in their appearance and their wildlife. (Wild Pokemon) And, personally, if not all, most were quite enjoyable to play through. But when it comes down to the real business of Pokemon -- training your team, which routes or spots did you find incredibly useful to grind in? On this matter, did you ever find yourself needing to grind to defeat a gym leader or win a certain battle? (Team Rocket Executive etc)

For most of my playthrough, my levels were quite on par with that of the level range at each stage of the game, but at some points, especially facing Whitney, it was crucial to gain those extra levels to pip her and her miltank at their posts. (And even then, they proved to be powerful -- defeating me a few more times before I actually bet her.) As a reuslt I found myself training around the Pokemon Daycare and route 36.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Pre-E4, I grinded at Victory Road becausei it was the area that had the highest leveled Pokemon at that point in the game. Before battling Red, I trained in Mt. Silver's mountain for the exact same reason.

 

[Zephele]

There's really only four times I can think of when I've really need to grind levels:

1/ When I've recently caught someone, and need to make them catch up
2/ Before Clair
3/ Before the Elite Four
4/ Before Red​

For the first, it really depends on where I'm up to in the game. Typically, I'll just go to the area with the highest level Pokemon available.

For the second, I usually level up a bit in the patch of grass before Safari Zone, in Route 48. The levels of the Pokemon there are somewhat comparable to those found in Route 45 below Blackthorn, if a tad lower. But they still give slightly higher experience for the most part, and there's a greater variety of Pokemon to compensate, in case whoever I'm training can't hit Rock/Ground types very well.

After that, I essentially stop using wild Pokemon. Against the Elite Four, I usually just repeatedly challenge them for experience, until I feel confident that I can actually defeat them all without much trouble. I typically get my Pokemon to around ~45 before I'm able to fight and defeat all four as well as Lance in a satisfactory manner. Or I accidentally get up to Lance easily without realising, then I go ahead and challenge him because why not.

The second time around, I either repeatedly challenge them as before, or use the Gym Leader rematches. This is typically the lag phase of my playthrough, since the latter can get quite finicky, and/or I get lazy at times, so it takes a while to level up.

And finally, against Red, I also rely on rematching the Elite Four after I've gotten all the badges.

I guess, unless I was doing a challenge that prevented me from doing so, I typically grinded against trainers instead of wild Pokemon since they give more experience. Also, money. Not that it's much of an issue in the games, but it's a nice bonus.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I didn't have a true grinding area for SS until post game which was Mt.Silver since it has the highest leveled Pokémon to battle against in the game.