Cheats, Tips and Tricks for Pokemon Sapphire

Fighting Pokemon

• Every Pokemon has a type, such as Fire, Water or Psychic. Additionally, each type has another type it is either strong against, weak against or immune to. For example, Fire types are weak to Water types, receiving twice the damage, but Steel types are immune to Poison types, receiving no damage. Fighting Pokemon effectively requires using attacks your opponent is weak against; often one attack against a weaker Pokemon can defeat it with ease.

Catching Pokemon

• If you want to catch new Pokemon, you must fight them until they nearly faint. This is indicated by your opponent's health bar turning red. At this point, you can throw a Pokeball at your opponent to try to capture it. Some Pokemon may put up a fight. For example, legendary Pokemon need a stronger Pokeball, such as an Ultra Ball. Depending on the situation of the battle, you can also use other balls to your advantage, such as Night Balls during the nighttime. Paralyzed or sleeping Pokemon also put up less of a fight, so using these status-affecting moves will help as well.

Using Items

• Many players forget that fighting Pokemon isn't just about attacks and luck. You can use a number of items to help escort your Pokemon to victory. For example, health potions give your Pokemon a boost, and you can use other potions to clear a Paralyzed or Sleeping status affecting your Pokemon's performance. Pokemon can also hold certain items and berries that boost their own attack stats, giving you even more of an edge in battle.

Evolving Pokemon

• As they gain levels, Pokemon change over time, evolving to newer and better Pokemon. If you allow your Pokemon to evolve, it will become stronger more quickly, but it will take longer for it to learn additional moves as it levels up. Alternatively, you can press "B" to cancel the evolution, allowing your Pokemon to learn moves at an earlier level than its evolved form would. Evolve your Pokemon once it learns the move you want, and it will be stronger than another Pokemon at the same level that evolved earlier and hasn't learned that move yet.