Victory Road - Walkthrough

Entering the cave will bring you to Victory Road, the final dungeon-like area of the game before you take on the best trainers in the world at the Pokemon League, which is just on the other side of the cave. However, the cave is vast, and depending on the strength of your party, you may be hard-pressed to get through it in one push (with all of the trainers in the area, and all). If you feel like you might be too weak, bring healing items and Escape Ropes with you, that way your party is never in any real danger outside of battle.

As far as Pokemon you should expect to fight in the wild here, they're all of standard fare -- nothing new here, with some exceptions. As we mentioned earlier, there are a couple of Rock-types here (Onix and Graveler), as well as a Dragon-type (Gabite), a Water-type (Floatzel), a Flying-type (Golbat), an Electric/Steel-type (Magneton), and an annoying Steel-type (Steelix), plus more. You should have run into all of these Pokemon at least once in the past (and for all but the Steelix, many times) so you should know what to do with them. There are also a plethora of items on Victory Road, and a load of trainers too!... just look at that list! Well, on with the walkthrough! (Just as a friendly reminder, make sure you have Pokemon with you that, all together, know all of your HMs (minus any optional ones, like Defog, which is useless here).

As you begin, head north over the wooden bridge. On the other side, use Rock Climb to climb downward to the area below. Head to your left once down here to fight the first trainer in the area -- Psychic Bryce and his three Pokemon -- and then go north from him to get TM41, which will teach a Pokemon the skill Torment. Then, use Rock Climb to climb back up to the main area above, and then head eastward along the next bridge.

On this platform, take the stairs downward and circle around to battle another Trainer (Bird Keeper Hana and her Noctowl-Togetic combo). When her Pokemon are felled, cross the bridge to the north to grab the Max Repel sitting there, and then backtrack to the staircase, climb them, and go north over another bridge. Use Rock Climb to climb back down to the area below yet again. Then, carefully traverse the path heading left (making sure to not jump down to areas below that will cut you off from your route and force you to backtrack and do it all over again). When you reach a staircase on the far left end of this room, go up the stairs.

After climbing the stairs, head north to battle another trainer, and then go north all the way to find a Nugget. Then, use the stairs to your left to climb up once more, and go through the door. This will lead you to another part of the cave. Here, you will need to use Rock Smash and Strength, so be ready with both of those. Start by smashing and pushing your way leftward. You'll need to utilize your Bicycle at this point to jump over the obstacles using the ramp given. Then, turn around, head right, and do the same thing. This will eventually lead a path northward and westward to a Max Elixir. After adding that to your inventory, backtrack towards the entrance to this room, and this time, go south. Use Strength to push your way southward, and then circle around to fight Ace Trainer Omar, and his trio of Pokemon.

After Omar's Pokemon are slain, look at the rocks to your south that you need to use Strength on. Think carefully about how to do this -- if you do it wrong, and the rocks are pushed out of place, you'll need to head to the previous area and back again to reset their positions. What you need to do here is push the rock on the left down once, then circle around to the breakable rock below. Smash it, then push the same rock you just pushed down back up, and work your way through to the left. Push your way through yet again and fight a couple of more trainers. The area where you fight the second trainer (Veteran Clayton), go down the stairs nearby and then come back up. This will reset the rocks below so you can re-push them (just push the middle one down), giving you access to the secret area to your right.

What does the secret area to your right hold? Well, other than some minor treasures, there are also some powerful trainers that will undoubtedly want a piece of you posthaste (they'll fight you simultaneously). If you haven't yet noticed, you'll again need to break your Bicycle out to get through this area with any success. But when you do successfully accomplish the tedious Bicycle-related task, your rewards, you will find, will be well worth it. At the north end of the room, TM71 can be found, while on the left side, you can grab a Full Restore. With both of those in hand, you can then backtrack to the next area via the staircase by the aforementioned Veteran Clayton.

Head eastward across the bridge and use Rock Climb to scale down to the area below. Then, wrap around leftward, northward, and then rightward to another staircase leading further down into this cave (you'll fight Black Belt Miles and his Machamp en route). This dreary part of the cave is full of stagnant water that will necessitate your use of both Surf and Waterfall. No problem there, right? You may find problems, however, with the trainers in the area. For instance, Dragon Trainer Ondrej will come at you with a level forty-five Altaria and a level forty-seven Gabite. In all, there are four trainers to deal with in the area. You'll need to do a fair amount of rudimentary exploration in the room to find them all, but it shouldn't prove to be that difficult. You'll also find TM59 if you search hard enough. A hint -- it's on dry land.

Another feature of the watery room you may have noticed is that there are two ways out, other than where you came in (meaning, in other words, that there are three doors in and out). First take the door on the south end of the room by walking up some stairs and accessing the corridor heading leftward beyond it. Through that door, you will find yourself in a little nook of the initial area of Victory Road. You'll be able to find some all-valuable Rare Candy there. You can grab Calcium en route on the path leading to this door. Then, use the other (third) door out of the previous room to access another part of the primary room of Victory Road, being sure to grab the Ultra Ball on the right side of the room before using the waterfalls to scale upwards to the area above.

From here, it's relatively smooth sailing. There's only a couple of trainers remaining, and more items to grab. Begin by heading leftward down the corridor you find yourself on, taking out Veteran Edgar's three Pokemon en route. Then, swing south to find the Razor Claw once at the end of the leftward-headed pathway. Back near Veteran Edgar's position, head south. Go left and climb up the rockface with Rock Climb, and then head left over the bridge and through another door. This will lead you to another previous area of the cave, where another isolated item in TM79 can be found. Then, backtrack all the way to where you last used Rock Climb, and climb back down to the main area.

Behind Veteran Edgar is a staircase. Take that up and then go right over the bridge that goes over the area below (a place where you can walk). You won't be able to proceed through the door there (the person guarding it simply won't allow it), but you will be able to acquire some Zinc clearly sitting on the ground nearby. Now, we're ready to leave! Head back down and under the bridge, and this time head right. Use Rock Climb to reach the area above, and fight the final trainer of the area -- Dragon Tamer Clinton. After taking him on, you can simply head north and then west out of the cave. Congratulations! You've reached the Pokemon League building! Let's beat the game now!