Well my idea is a fairly simple one. It involves how to connect the HM dungeons and act as a tutorial to guide you through Grassroot.
You meet up with an exploration team, maybe in an easy dungeon like Tiny Grotto. They’ll pretty much tell you where they plan on going after they clear the dungeon, which acts as a hint as to where the player might want to go next. I’d say that the team itself actually has a lot of experienced members, however the reason why they are going through all these beginner dungeons is because they accept a new member to their team an are training them.
[spoilerexample:c7zio1jp]Team Leader: "Oh hey! Are you a new explorer? Well, we"re actually training a new recruit as well! I have an idea! Since you"re here, why don"t I explain some things to you as well?
New recruit: Do we have to?
Team Leader: Now, don"t be like that!
Team Leader: Tiny Grotto is a fairly easy dungeon, perfect for any new explorer! Of course, the dungeon is actually split into two parts, once you reach the beginning of the second part you have the option to leave… Needless to say the second part might be a bit more difficult than how it was at the beginning of the dungeon.
Team Leader: Poison is also a factor in there as well, so you might want to try stocking up on some Pecha berries or Lum berries. You might find a few in the dungeon, but it"s sometimes better not to rely on luck too much.
Team Leader: Hmm, well… if you find this dungeon to hard for you at the time, there is a dungeon called Pebble cave just to the east of the Crossroads, you might have an easier time training there. Especially if you have really low levels with you like a level one Pokémon!
New Recruit: Um, can we get going? I kind of want to go train some right now…
Team Leader: Right, right… after this we"re going to Sour Root, it"s a bit northeast of Grassroot town, which is just above the Crossroads. That way we can get the HM Cut in order to go through even tougher dungeons!
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That’s pretty much how I imagine conversations with this team would go, when you meet them at Sour Root they talk about the dungeon some, then they talk about Cliffside Cave, where it is, and how they could get a Tablet for the new recruit so he/she could evolve, and where to in order to do so. They’d also mention that it might be a little tough, so they should stop by the Dojo in town to train some more.
Perhaps after you beat Marowak in the Gold Dojo, they run into you in the boss room, and tell you about Skylift and where it is, and how you can get HM Fly from there and that’s it’s a great place for training even further.
When you head to Skylift they talk about running through Winden Pass and going to Sauna Cavern in order to get rock Smash, and that Sauna is fairly tough so they should make sure to train a good bit before going.
At Sauna they might tell you about Mineral Cavern, where you get Surf, and at MC they might tell you about how SS is a good place to train for certain types.
Then they might tell you about CI when you get through SS, and how it might be a fairly tough dungeon (Since it’s usually for 50/60s I’ve found) maybe tell you to go through Tanren Tunnel and then Tanren Mines to get Rock Climb, and of course tell you about the honey shop and how you can use honeys for training!
Then maybe later on in one of the end game dungeons, the entire team and of course the new recruit are the boss of said dungeon. I think that would be a nice touch. owo