Side Series Home | Ranger Home | Guardian Signs Home | Past Missions Home

Mission 10: Graveler's Terrible Rocks

Check out WarriorGallade's post on this Mission for more specific tips.

Overview

• Difficulty: 2.5 stars
• Recommended level: 16+
• Time limit: 5:15 min
• Goal: Capture eight Pokémon

Rank Rewards

Wild Pokémon

Pokémon		Quantity	Group	Friendship Gauge	AP	Slates
	Zubat	5 (Patterns 1 & 3)	Poison	494	2	Zubat (80%) Golbat (20%)
	Golbat	1 (Patterns 1 & 3)	Poison	950	3	Golbat (80%) Crobat (20%)
	Graveler	3 (Patterns 1, 2, & 4) 6 (Pattern 3)	Rock	1,140	4	Graveler (80%) Geodude (19%) Golem (1%)
	Quilava	3 (Pattern 2)	Fire	616	2	Quilava (95%) Typhlosion (5%)
	Shuckle	4 (Patterns 2 & 4)	Rock	3,360	3	Shuckle (100%)
	Teddiursa	5 (Patterns 2 & 4)	Normal	364	1	Teddiursa (80%) Ursaring (20%)
	Ursaring	5 (Patterns 1 & 2) 1 (Patterns 3 & 4)	Normal	1,596	4	Ursaring (80%) Teddiursa (20%)
	Mightyena	1	Dark	2,850	6	Mightyena (80%) Poochyena (20%)
	Hariyama	1 (Pattern 2) 4 (Pattern 3) 5 (Pattern 4)	Fighting	1,890	4	Makuhita (80%) Hariyama (20%)
	Shieldon	4 (Patterns 1 & 3)	Steel	1,330	2	Shieldon (80%) Bastiodon (20%)
	Croagunk	3 (Patterns 1 & 4)	Poison	494	2	Croagunk (80%) Toxicroak (20%)

Boss

Pokémon		Group	Friendship Gauge	Agitated Gauge	AP
	Tyranitar	Rock	7,125	1,215	11

Strategy and Map

Text of this section & map image are taken from WarriorGallade's post on the subject, supplemented with information from the official Prima guide book, and condensed/reorganized slightly. Used with permission.

Map

This Mission contains four different patterns of wild Pokémon that can appear. Click a thumbnail below to view that pattern's map.

Pattern 1 Pattern 2 Pattern 3 Pattern 4

Legend:

• Blue tile: The player's start point.
• Red tile: Takes the player to the boss room, once the condition has been met.
• Green tile: Teleports the player to another specific location on the map.
• Yellow tile: Standing on this tile makes a bridge appear between separate platforms. Tiles that need multiple players are marked with red dots that indicate how many players are needed.
• Orange circle (around a Pokémon): This Pokémon is angry and will chase the player on sight.
• Brown circle (around a Pokémon): This Pokémon is angry and will launch projectiles toward the player on sight.
• Icons like this (darker) give the player extra seconds, determined by the number.
• Icons like this (lighter) restore the player's Styler by the specified number of energy.

The ability to get an S-rank on this Mission depends on its layout. If Shuckle appears in the first room, consider resetting, since Shuckle's huge HP wastes valuable time compared to Shieldon's. Even though the goal of the Mission is to capture 8 Pokémon, the isolated teleporter room with 6 easy captures is a time sink and should be ignored.

The route you should take instead is this: from the first room's teleporter, navigate the long hallway with Graveler throwing rocks at you to a tile switch and teleporter. Activate the switch, pass by the Hariyama/Ursaring, and reach the room with two switches. Activate both, then either avoid or capture Mightyena (they yield a nice 6 AP, but are tough to capture) and grap the 90-second time powerup. Turn around, capturing pretty much every Pokémon you run into from here. There should be 3 in the first chamber (2 Shieldon and 1 Zubat/Teddiursa) and 5 in the second (3 Graveler, 1 Shieldon, and 1 Hariyama/Ursaring): one of these can be skipped if Mightyena has been captured, but it is preferable to not engage Mightyena. Continuing north past the 90-second time power up wastes a lot of time with the amount of teleporters and spread-out nature of this section.

In this Mission, the locations of powerups and species of Pokémon are different depending on the pattern. Given that this Mission simply requires capturing Pokémon, aiming for a pattern whose Pokémon are easy to capture for your playstyle or Poké Assist can help with getting through the Mission quickly.

• In the first room, the player first sees Zubat and Shieldon: Pattern 1 or 3.
• In the first room, the player first sees Teddiursa and Shuckle: Pattern 2 or 4.
• On a Shieldon pattern, the Pokémon immediately to the top-left of the teleporter in the third room is an Ursaring: Pattern 1.
• On a Shieldon pattern, the Pokémon immediately to the top-left of the teleporter in the third room is a Hariyama: Pattern 3.
• On a Shuckle pattern, the Pokémon immediately to the top-left of the teleporter in the third room is an Ursaring: Pattern 2.
• On a Shuckle pattern, the Pokémon immediately to the top-left of the teleporter in the third room is a Hariyama: Pattern 4.

Boss

Unlike other boss Pokémon, Tyranitar does not clear its Friendship Gauge gradually when it is not looped, but instead recovers in chunks (about 4% every 4-5 seconds). Try to prevent this by finding time for loops where possible or using Assists.

• Ground split (!): Raises a line of rocks in the direction it is facing that fade after a few seconds. Extends to the edge of the screen. 8 damage per hit. Impossible to loop around.
• Drops rocks (!!): Drops rocks randomly on the screen, with about a 0.4 second delay between them. About 8 rocks dropped on average. 6 damage per hit. Possible to loop around if you get lucky with positioning.
• Dark shock wave (!!!): A wave of dark pulses around it in a large radius. 4 damage per hit. Impossible to loop around until they start to clear (about 3 seconds).
• Ground split (!!!!): Raises lines of rocks in a V shape in the direction it is facing, expanding outwards. Does not extend to the edge of the screen. 4 damage per hit. Impossible to loop around.

S-Rank Tips

For a Shieldon layout (recommended), expect a B-rank on your first try. Save the S-rank attempt for after you have had some time to level up your Partner. Using the route outlined above can help save time on this Mission. AP farming starts to become less efficient here since clearing the mission yields more AP than individual captures.

Partner Choice

Close-range Assists are strong against Tyranitar, as it is unusually slow, but long-range Assists are good at helping prevent it from clearing its Friendship Gauge when attacks prevent the player from being able to loop it. Preventing its clearing its gauge is more important than the raw damage of Assists. Piplup remains reliable for this reason and its slowing effect. Hariyama's Stop effect is also good for helping prevent attacks, and Hitmonlee's Assist also offers good damage and range.