[areaitems]
[areaitem i=hm-fighting n=”HM06 Rock Smash”]Talk to the guy near the dancing tree to the west.[/areaitem]
[areaitem i=hard-stone n=”Hard Stone”]Talk to Arthur hiding in the forest behind the Pokémon Center. (Thursdays only.)[/areaitem]
[/areaitems]
After beating Falkner, talk to the guy standing by the sign (a bit to the west) and he’ll give you HM06 Rock Smash. Now you can smash some of the rocks that have been blocking your way! On top of that, now that you can use Flash to illuminate the Dark Cave, you might want to check that place out again! (Bellsprout can learn Flash just fine, and Rattata is an OK choice to learn Rock Smash, though so is Geodude or Onix.)
Actually, there’s nothing really new in there until you get Strength or Surf, so you might want to just pass for now unless you feel like going on a dungeon exploration! Or unless you’re looking for Dunsparce. You can use Rock Smash on the rocks inside of there to have a much better chance of finding one.
[info class=”special” title=”Hello There, Arthur of Thursday”]On Thursdays, Arthur, one of the Day-of-the-Week Siblings, will be here for you to talk to. If you talk to him, he’ll give you the Hard Stone. If you have met him once before, along with all of his other siblings, he’ll give your Pokémon the Careless Ribbon instead.[/info]
Unfortunately, that’s all there is to do on this route. The route’s blocked due to a dancing Sudowoodo. How irritating! (Though amusing at the same time.)
However, the way south is still open, and you’ll find down there the mysterious Ruins of Alph. It, too, is optional, but fun to explore.
[Explore the Ruins of Alph (optional)]
[Just go to Route 32 instead]