Leave Floccesy Ranch and return to Floccesy Town. Once there, Alder will note that you've grown and ask for your help. Grab the X Speed sitting on the left side of Alder's home, heal if your team is weakened from exploring the Ranch, then head inside. Alder will pit you against two young trainers, one after the other.

School Kid Seymour
  • Panpour (if you chose Snivy), level 9
  • Pansage (if you chose Tepig), level 9
  • Pansear (if you chose Oshawatt), level 9
Reward: 180 P

School Kid Cassie
  • Pansear (if you chose Snivy), level 9
  • Panpour (if you chose Tepig), level 9
  • Pansage (if you chose Oshawatt), level 9
Reward: 180 P

In short, your starter's weakness and strength. Both are easy battles if you could take on Floccesy Ranch, and Alder will even heal you between fights. Piece of cake.


Leave the house afterward and you'll find an odd man standing outside. He will abruptly give you a Medal Box and six Hint Medals. This is Mr. Medal, and you can find him in Pokémon Centers across Unova. He'll give you Medals in exchange for achieving certain benchmarks in your journey. These are basically the Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 equivalent of achievements, and won't contribute much to your adventure. 

Before you leave Alder's home, take a trip down the path to the right of the front door. It'll take you into a place called Pledge Grove. There's no immediately-obvious function for this place just yet, but if you come back here once you have Keldeo - if you ever get a Keldeo - you can use this spot to teach it the move Secret Sword, and transform it into its Resolute Form.

Make tracks back to Aspertia City as Alder suggested. You have your first gym to challenge... though before you can leave Floccesy Town, Alder will stop you one last time to give you five Oran Berries. You can equip these on your Pokémon as Held Items which they'll use automatically if the right conditions are met in battle (in this case, losing too much HP). They'll prove handy for the battle to come.


Once you're back in Aspertia City, check the building beside the Pokémon Center. This is the Aspertia Gym, where you'll face your first gym challenge. Go inside and talk to the boy beside the chalkboard for an X Defend, then go out the back door to the training yard. You'll be approached by Clyde, a fixture of gym challenges. Speak to him for a Fresh Water.

You'll also meet Cheren, the gym leader, who will agree to fight you - after you take on his two gym trainer subordinates. This is a Normal-type gym, so if you've been training a Riolu from Floccesy Ranch - or if you've power-leveled your Tepig into Pignite - battling through the foes ahead a walk in the park. For your starter or any other Pokémon the gym will be a simple endurance test.

Youngster Pedro
  • Patrat, level 9
  • Lillipup, level 9
Reward: 144 P

Youngster Serena
  • Lillipup, level 9
  • Patrat, level 9
Reward: 144 P

A walk in the park. Cheren, on the other hand, is a fair bit tougher, as he's got stronger Pokémon at his heel - and they've got a particular move that can be a real pain in the butt.


Leader Cheren
  • Patrat, level 11
  • Lillipup, level 13
Reward: 1,560 P

Both of Cheren's Pokémon are standard fare, but they have one move other Pokémon their predecessors lack: Work Up. Work Up bolsters their Attack and Special Attack, making their physical attacks much more dangerous. Your tactics shouldn't be much different from usual, however - pound them down with your strongest moves. Lowering their Defense one level isn't a bad idea, either, as you'll allow weaker Pokémon on your team to do more damage if your big attacker falls. Mareep is a great Pokémon for this fight, as Static will activate often and paralyze your opponents. 

The other thing to note about the battle with Cheren is his use of Potions. More notable trainers will typically use restorative items on their Pokémon when one is low on health. Cheren's Potions seldom restore his Pokémon to full, but trainers later on will use stronger variations of the Potion that always bring the Pokémon back to full health. Trainers will only use an item once on a single Pokémon, so your foes won't last much longer than normal.

Beating Cheren earns you the Basic Badge, your very first gym badge. Excellent. He'll also give you TM83 Work Up, which is a great move to bestow on your own Pokémon in the early areas of the game.