Need a Light? Pick Chimchar
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Tips & Tricks
The original Diamond and Pearl games infamously had a severe lack of Fire Pokemon. There are very few native Fire Pokemon in the Sinnoh region and if you wanted to add one to your team, you were limited to mostly very poor options such as Ponyta. While this has somewhat been alleviated in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, it’s still slim pickings. For more tips and tricks, check out our Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl guide wiki.
There is, however, one very good native Fire Pokemon in Sinnoh and it’s Chimchar, one of the three starters you can pick from in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. If you do not have an emotional attachment to one of the other two starters, we highly recommend picking up Chimchar at the start of the game.
Not only does it give you so much-needed balance as a Fire Pokemon, but it also eventually becomes a Fighting-type as well and can learn all of the various elemental punch moves which are very helpful. It’s fast and powerful with both Physical and Special attacks and it should make your life as a beginner much easier.
Use Your Poketch
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Tips & Tricks
The Poketch is rife with a lot of silly apps, like a Calculator that it’s easy to just write it off as being useless. However, intermixed with the silly apps are ones that are actually useful and that you should keep an eye on from time to time.
The first one is the friendship checker. This app tells you how much your Pokemon loves you. If a Pokemon has two large hearts above them that means that the friendship is maxed out and, if they evolve via max friendship, they will evolve the next chance they have.
The Dowsing Machine is a big one as that’s what lets you find hidden items, which can include useful things like evolution stones or even Rare Candies. There’s also the Berry Searcher which tells you when there are Berries ready to be harvested on the map.
Definitely play around with your Poketch as you get new apps and try them out.
Hatch Your Eggs Faster
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Tips & Tricks
If you’re going to wade into the waters of competitive Pokemon battling, or just want to breed for fun, you’re going to have to definitely learn the ways of breeding and hatching eggs. The biggest tip we can give you right now is to make sure that you find a Pokemon with the ability Flame Body or Magma Armor.
Slugma and its evolution Magcargo have Magma Armor, as does Camerupt. While Ponyta, Rapidash, and the Magmar line can have Flame Body. With one of these Pokemon in your party with an egg from the Pokemon daycare, you’ll be able to hatch your eggs in half the time that you normally would. We highly recommend just loading up your party with eggs and one of those Pokemon above and going all out if you’re trying to find a particular Pokemon with just the right stats and ability.
Consider Adding Sneasel or Swinub Before the Elite Four
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Tips & Tricks
Most of the trainers you go up against, even the gym leaders and the Elite Four, in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are scrubs. You should be able to dispatch them easily as long as you’re keeping remotely up with training your Pokemon.
That said, the Sinnoh champion Cynthia is no joke. She and her Garchomp will rip through your team like Kleenex if you come unprepared for the fight.
Perhaps the best way to deal with her team, and especially her Garchomp if you’re having trouble or anticipate that you might is to add a Sneasel or Swinub to your team and evolve them to their final forms: Weavile and Mamoswine.
These are two of the most powerful Ice Pokemon in all the game. There aren’t a lot of great Ice Pokemon if we’re being honest, but these two consistently rank towards the top and they both happen to be in the Sinnoh region. Weavile is extremely fast and has a shot of going before Garchomp and 1HKOing it with a powerful Ice attack that takes advantage of its crippling 4x weakness to Ice.
Mamoswine on the other hand is much bulkier, still packs a punch too, and has a shot of taking some hits from Garchomp and can learn the move Ice Shard which allows it to go first with a powerful Ice attack.
Visit Pokemon Hideaways
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Tips & Tricks
Pokemon Hideaways are a new feature to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl that are part of the Grand Underground. This feature will allow you to visit different, type-themed, hidden away areas in the Underground that will have lots of Pokemon across a couple of types.
What’s nice about this area is that it’s a great spot to find hard-to-find Pokemon or find a specific type that would really pull your team together.
You just need your Explorer Kit which you’ll get when reaching Eterna City. Use the kit in different towns and areas (see above for the map) around the world and you’ll be taken to certain Hideaways with unique Pokemon to discover.
