http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVwCtjpj8nE
First of all…the video is there if you want an idea of how the run goes or what you’ll experience etc etc. I apologize for the watermark on the video and I know it’s showing some other product which could be counted as advertising so if anybody has a problem with it let me know and I will remove the video from this post. I must also apologize for the fact that at some parts the recorder completely messed up the rendering of red text.
This is my first guide or whatever you want to call this, hopefully I did a good job.
Anyways, the guide. I don’t fully follow it myself, I just view it as better choices.
How to get to Sauna Cavern from Grassroot Town: You will need Cut, and if you don’t have Rock Smash you will have to go through a dungeon called Winden Pass Take the north exit out of grassroot town and keep going north. You’ll quickly be by a road that goes to the west, ignore that and continue north. Eventually the path cuts off to the left, just move across the grass and you’ll see it at the north again, and continue on. If the game has labeled the area as “Exbel Plains, Loch Lenile”, you’ve been following directions correctly so far. It’ll eventually just go back to “Exbel Plains” as you progress. The road diverges into a bridge at the north, a road to the east, and a road to the west. Take the west path now. It’ll shift to a north road, keep going. Eventually another west road will appear, but keep going north. It shifts into an East path now, continue. Now back to a north path. If you see some stairs, then great. you’ve still followed directions. The game will show the area named as “Exbel Plains, Winden Passage” Go up then move east, then move up stairs again. Use Cut on the branch and continue on the shifting road. Up the next set of stairs, and continue north, ignore the west road. Up the next set of stairs and…stop. Now, if you brought Rock Smash, go up the easternmost stairs and start Rock smashing your way into Winden, Nivenath Outpost. There will be a couple of Snorunts, but they’re nothing difficult. If you didn’t bring Rock Smash, go west and then up the multiple flight of stairs, because you have to go through Winden Pass now. It’s a 10 floor dungeon, not too difficult, and gives good EXP once you’re at floor 7 and above. If you went through Winden Pass, afterwards go up the road, east until you see the path up north, advance across that and you’ll be at the outpost. If you went through the Rock Smash path, go west until you see the path up north, advance across that and you’ll be at the outpost. Theres a Chimecho assembly and a Kangaskhan storage here. Keep going north into a cave-like…thing… Keep advancing north until you see a ladder to your right and go down it (you can also keep going north to find a Kecleon shop and a place with other NPCS, one that utilizes Heart Scales.). Now go down the flight of stairs, then the next and keep going down until you see another ladder. That leads you into Sauna Cavern.
Recommended items: Bring some Leppa berries or Ethers, you will find quite a bit of ethers in this dungeon but it is better to have a pre-made stock just in case. Apples are needed as this is a long dungeon, so your pokemon will become hungry. Some Oran berries are useful if you’re on the run an are weakened.
Note: Rest is a highly useful move here, as there is a high variety of status effects that can be afflicted upon you. You can obtain a TM quite often from Winden Pass, the dungeon just before this.
Recommended team: An electric type, a grass type, a water type, and a flying type, or just a pokemon that knows levitate. Hint: if you’re just here mainly for the treasure hunting, you should bring along a Ghost pokemon that can go through walls (I don’t think some can in official mystery dungeon games, but maybe in this game all of them can) You will need to teach a pokemon rock smash to fully complete this dungeon. You obtain the HM from a Rhydon.
First part: This is where an electric type is handy. There will be many Zubats and Slowpokes around along with some Machops and a couple of Marills. For some reason, the Machops know no moves though so they only regular attack. The Zubats can Confuse Ray you, so it is better to keep your distance with a move like electro ball. They are easily one-shotted with an electric move, and the same probably applies with a psychic move. The Slowpokes usually know water pulse which has a chance to confuse, and water pulse has a long range so you must be careful. Slowpokes usually die from one or two electric attacks though. Dark types would most likely slay them fast as well. Machops are simple seeing as how they don’t know a single move. It may be better not to waste your PP on them, but it is your choice. Marills are not much of a threat as they are not so powerful. They do know bubble which is long range as well. Snubbulls(spellcheck) are not high on defense/special defense and are not very powerful either. Easy kill. During the daytime, you may encounter some Snorunts…but they’re barely even a threat. I’ve never seen them use a good move or attack, and they’re not high on HP or defenses.
Second part: You’ll notice the floor change here and it is almost always foggy weather. This can kind of hurt your eyes. In addition, the water will now BURN you if you move on to it, so I would avoid navigating this place with a water (or possibly flying) type. Everything above still applies, but now you’ve got some new challengers. Gulpin…they spam amnesia a lot, so make sure you hit them with a physical move due to them constantly raising their special defense. They seem to have more health than others here. Slightly deeper through here you will find a rare occurance of Gravelers. This is where you have to start playing it safe, electric or fire types can be doomed if the Graveler starts spamming Magnitude. You could start using a grass, water, or flying type and switch between an electric type. Just keep in mind, the Zubats do know moves like Air Cutter, so don’t go using something like a grass type when they’re around. Air Cutter has about as much range as Bubble I believe. No Snorunts here or any further. There are rare occurances of Swinub though, and they know Powder Snow which is very long range and is not a one-direction attack, it’s a full area one so you could end up frozen. If that happens, mash F and hope you get out before you’re killed. Swinub are not strong is defense or HP, they’ll go down fairly quick if you get to them.
Third part: This and beyond is where you have to be seriously aware and on top of your game. The floor is now lava, so if you’re using a fire type, you can walk on that. Obviously it will burn your flying type. Zubats, Gulpins, Snubbulls, Slowpokes, Marills, and Machops are all gone now, and they are replaced with a of a lot more Gravelers along with some new challengers. This is where water types shine, if they’re reliable. If not, I recommend switching between using it and a grass type. If you have neither…better absorb these details and strategize for the best. We’ve got Torkoal, who is really good with defense. Some will use Iron Defense before getting to you or some will smokescreen you to reduce your accuracy. I recommend special attack vs them. Slugma are now in play, and they will burn you with flame body for sure if you physical attack too much. They also know recover. Kill them fast or they’ll heal. Their ai is not intelligent though, so they will use recover even if they are full. It has a longer than usual recovery time, so you can use that to your advantage to kill them off. Something else I’d like to note: The Graveler do not care about their allies survival, they will magnitude even if their allies are around, so they will damage them as well. If you brought a flying type to the party, or a pokemon with levitate, you can kind of abuse this. Also, I’m sure this is obvious, but do not bring an electric type out much at this point. I used mine here mostly to kill off Slugmas or Torkoals because I don’t trust Bibarel, but my team isn’t the best anyways.
Boss 1: Rhydon. Rush up to him before he earthquakes or magnitudes the place and start spamming a water or grass or fighting move and you’ll kill him quick. He’s not that hard, but it’s not good to let him have the initiative. After you defeat him, he should drop HM Rock Smash. You NEED this move to get through the next part of the dungeon.
Now that you’ve defeated Rhydon, you’ve got a good ol’ Kanghaskan Rock to use in a rest area. Storage is available here, you can store important stuff or things you can’t use right now and get some helpful items. I would seriously recommend Oran berries/Ethers for this next part, Depending on how lucky you are…you may need them.
Sauna Cavern Depths: Let me just start this by saying… THIS PLACE IS RIDICULOUS. I mean, it may not look so bad in the video, but many other times I’ve been here, nearly every floor would spawn you right on top of like, 5 enemies. You can hit them even if they’re under you using any move though, and you still have your invisibility/invincibility thing due to spawning, so take that time to plan how you’re going to deal with it. Me? I spammed Absorb for my life. You have to use Rock Smash a lot here on the rocks to get past, but it does not consume PP so you won’t run out unless you use it 16 times on an enemy. New challengers here as well. First off, Rhydons are normal enemies here now. They don’t seem to be like the boss though, less powerful moves as far as I know. Graveler are still here and will still magnitude, but they seem to do that less often. I see Rock Polish being needlessly spammed. They’re also more reliant on Rock Blasting you. Magcargo are now here instead of Slugma. While I never found them to be a big deal, they no doubt know better fire moves than Slugma, but I think they forget Recover. Torkoal are still around, and I have not noticed any difference in them or their behavior. The main reason why this part of the dungeon has killed me so many times though, is that occasionally it seems like you will miss one of the many pokemon that spawned below you, and then they’ll hit you which does stun you for a while, giving all the other pokemon enough time to gang up on you. It’s harsh, it’s cruel, and it works in killing you like your pokemon is nothing. Furthermore, if that pokemon was your rock smash pokemon, your fate is sealed. Eventually you will end up with the path to the stairs blocked no matter where you go. I didn’t actually mean for Grovyle to have Rock Smash since Bibarel had it, but I taught him it in a previous runthrough of this (that I didn’t record) and forgot to make him relearn Leaf Blade. Oh well.
Boss 2: Rhyperior. I used the same strategy that I did vs Rhydon…rush in right away. Don’t let him get the initiative. I can’t really describe this boss unfortunately because I have not gotten through the Sauna Cavern depths that much, and when I do I’m never in the mood to take chances of life and death just so that I can see his moveset. He is the most endurant pokemon in the dungeon though. This boss…I’m not sure if he’s supposed to drop some big hidden item, but alls I ever get is a mushroom, if anything at all.
That’s the dungeon for you. It’s really fun to go through though. There are quite a bit of TMs you can find here as well. The ones I recall are…
TM Flash
TM Psych Up
TM Rock Tomb
TM Solarbeam (rare)
TM Brick Break (not entirely sure, but if it is then it’s kind of rare, but not as much as Solarbeam)
TM Facade
TM Attract
There is also the item called “Herbal Tea” which I do not recall seeing in any other dungeon. It restores all your PP and some HP, but it has a chance to make your pokemon drowsy (it’ll fall asleep after you execute a couple of attacks or item uses)
and of course, HM Rock Smash. It can only be found in Sauna Cavern. With this you’ll be able to navigate the PMU world more, and you won’t have to wait for someone to smash that rock in your way,
because you’ll be fully capable of it yourself! :D
This could contain some errors, I’m not perfect. Feel free to correct anything I may have said wrong or point out anything I missed.