Upon entering the route, your friend will be there with his or her (I’m just going to refer to him/her as the girl, Lyra) Marill, and she will want to show you how to catch Pokémon to show off her awesomeness points. No more Dude, regrettably, to show you how to catch Pokémon like back in the days of Gold and Silver.
Lyra will fight a Rattata L2, do an attack, and then toss a Poké Ball at it. You might want to pay attention to what she’s doing so you’ll be able to navigate the windows, since that’s exactly what you do to catch Pokémon. You didn’t even need me to tell you that!
After she catches her Rattata, she’ll give you some Poké Balls (5 to be exact) so you can now catch Pokémon at your leisure. Sweet! Then she’ll just leave.
[areaitems title=”Route 29″]
[areaitem i=poke-ball n=”Poké Ball”]Lyra or Ethan gives you 5 Poké Balls after demonstrating how to catch Pokémon.[/areaitem]
[/areaitems]
Go ahead and catch some Pokémon if you want. Hoothoot is pretty sweet because it learns Hypnosis at level 5, which is great for putting Pokémon to sleep and helping you catch them (and good against tough Trainer fights), and it also learns Peck at level 9 (35-power move) and Uproar at level 13 (50-power move). Rattata learns Quick Attack at level 4, which will be pretty powerful until it learns Hyper Fang at level 16. It also learns Bite along the way and generally learns a ton of Normal- and Dark-type attacking moves. Pidgey hits a little harder than Hoothoot, but Hoothoot is probably better earlier on. Sentret is also an option, but it hits a little lighter than Rattata does.
On your way to Cherrygrove City, you might want to check out that building that I told you not to go to now, because there are some Pokémon there for you to catch if you so desire.
[link to Route 46 (Optional)]
[link to Cherrygrove City (3rd Visit)]