This is part ten of our official Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl complete guide and walkthrough, which picks up right after you finally reach Pastoria City, home of The Great Marsh and Crasher Wake.
Now that you’re in Pastoria City, it’s about time you earned your fourth gym badge. First, however, you might want to consider a wander around the illustrious Great Marsh, which is essentially Sinnoh’s version of the beloved Safari Zone from earlier generations.
The Great Marsh is accessible through a conspicuously placed building at the top of the city, which is one of the first points of interest you’ll see coming from Route 213. While the idea of a Safari Zone-esque area teeming with all kinds of rare Pokemon is exciting, it’s important not to rush in. Once you enter the building, take the stairs up to the upper level and use the binoculars repeatedly until you find a Pokemon you want. This allows you to pinpoint exactly where you can encounter the Pokemon you’re after. If you see nothing you like, don’t be too discouraged - some of the Pokemon here are rotated in and out on a daily basis, so you can just come back and try again tomorrow. On top of that, the first time you go you'll always get something of value anyway given that the green-haired person next to the entrance gifts you the HM for Defog. That's not to mention that the Great Marsh is clearly Pastoria's pride and joy.
Well, maybe that’s not a fair statement. As with most local gym leaders, Crasher Wake is a popular character among the citizens of Pastoria. Specialising in Water Pokemon, you might reckon Wake isn’t going to pack too much of a punch - nobody ever has trouble with Misty and Wallace is traditionally seen as one of the weakest final gym leaders in the entire series. Wake, however, is made of different stuff to his aqueous associates. As he clearly states before your battle, he has every intention of pulling you under.
If you’re having trouble with Crasher Wake, don’t beat yourself up. The vast majority of people - particularly those who are on their first adventure through Sinnoh - hit a major roadblock in Pastoria Gym. All you really need to know is that Roselia is a brilliant counter to his team after Gyarados goes down. If you use a Luxio to score a 4x Electric hit on Gyarados, and then swap to Roselia to take down Quagsire with a 4x Mega or Giga Drain, you've basically won the game without even trying, right?
After you beat Wake and earn the Fen Badge, it’s time to head back out into Pastoria City. In order to advance the storyline, you need to head towards The Great Marsh and speak to the Galactic grunt next to the entrance, although it’s important to make sure you heal up at the Pokemon Centre first. After you talk to the grunt, he’ll run away and tell you not to follow him, which means you should obviously follow him. You’ll bump into him again just a short walk to the east, at which time he’ll run away again and your rival will challenge you to a fight. At this point they should have a level 26 Starly and level 31 middle evolution starters, as well as two of either Roselia, Ponyta, or Buizel, which will be levels 26 and 27. After beating Wake, this should be a bit of a cakewalk, so I wouldn’t fret too much about it.
After beating your rival, continue through to Route 213 and keep heading east until you meet the Galactic grunt again. Follow him repeatedly until you get to Valor Lakefront, at which point he will challenge you to a battle. He’s not particularly tough so you’ll likely make short work of him. After you win, Cynthia will show up and give you the Secret Medicine necessary for moving the Psyduck from Route 210.
Now that you’ve beaten Pastoria Gym, explored The Great Marsh, and finally moved those dastardly Psyduck out of the way, it’s time to press on to part 11 of our official Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl walkthrough: Celestic Town and how to beat Fantina.