After earning three Gym Badges and trekking through the Wild Area, you’ll be able to enter Hammerlocke, a gigantic castle town with many scenic buildings and points of interest for you to check out.
Since this is such a massive city with a lot to do in it, this page will be broken up into several different sections to make it easier to follow.
Getting Through Hammerlocke
There’s actually a lot of optional stuff to do in Hammerlocke, so feel free to read further below to make sure you don’t miss out. However, there are a few things you’ll actually need to do in Hammerlocke, so make sure you do these first and foremost.
Also, keep in mind that there may be some items along the way for you to pick up, but most of these will be pointed out in the appropriate section afterwards—feel free to pick them up along the way, though. And, of course, some of these will still be pointed out here just because that’s the most convenient spot for them.
- Go to the center part of town, directly north of the entrance, and you’ll run into Bede talking with Chairman Rose and Oleana. After some talking amongst the characters, Bede and Oleana will head into the Hammerlocke Stadium in the back, and Chairman Rose will invite you to join him.
- Follow him inside and he’ll tell you about how the Energy Plant in Hammerlocke Stadium works to provide power to the city. He’ll then tell you to check out the vault next, which is near Route 6.
- Before leaving the Stadium, be sure to talk to your friend, the Ball Guy, and he’ll give you a Level Ball, which is a rare ball that works better against lower-level Pokémon. These are very rare, so it’s best to just hold onto it for something specific.
- Leave the Stadium and continue towards the western part of town. You’ll run into Leon and he’ll ask what happened to Hop, since he seemed down. Answer whichever answer you’d like and he will tell you to go to the vault on the way to Route 6 to talk to Raihan.
- Go to the western part of town and you’ll find Raihan in front of the vault. Talk to him and he’ll let you into the vault and give you Raihan’s League Card.
- Go up the stairs to the left and you’ll be outside, on a balcony of sorts leading up to the tapestry room. Keep going up the stairs, but before climbing up the final set of stairs leading to the door, keep going alongside the edge of the wall on the lower section and you’ll find TM29 Charm there, which is a helpful move that lowers the target’s Attack by two stages and that’s can be very useful against Physical-based attackers, especially against stronger Pokémon, such as the ones Gym Leaders use.
- Continue inside of the tapestry room and you’ll find Sonia. She’ll show the tapestries on the wall and tell you a bit about their story, then will ask you what you think stands out the most about them. Either answer is fine, though she’ll offer a bit of different dialogue and explanation based on what you say. She’ll give you 2 Revives afterwards as well.
- Now you’ll be free to head west onto Route 6 and make your way to Stow-on-Side. Leave the balcony and the vault—Raihan will stop you on the way out to tell you where you’re headed—and then keep heading west to arrive in Route 6. (However, there’s still a bunch to do in town, so keep reading to make sure you don’t miss anything!)
Navigating Hammerlocke
Now that you’ve gotten the business end of things taken care of in Hammerlocke, although you could just go straight to Route 6, there’s quite a lot more to do in the city. To make things easier, this walkthrough has broken up Hammerlocke into three distinct parts: the Central part of town, which is where the Pokémon Center and Stadium were; the Western part of town, which is where the vault was, along with the path to Route 6; and then the Eastern part of town, which is to the east of the Pokémon Center.
Central Hammerlocke
The central part of town consists of Hammerlocke Stadium, the Pokémon Center, and a few other buildings that you can enter.
- There’s a hidden Nugget behind the sign near the center of town, closer to the bridge than the sign (it’s a bit hard to find, but it’s there).
- The Pokémon Center has a BP Shop which you can use to spend your BP (Battle Points) on. Talk to the woman with shades below the Poké Mart to access it. This won’t be of any use to you just yet, though.
- There’s also a second clerk in the Poké Mart that has a few items to buy, such as Dusk Balls, Timer Balls, and different X Items. Keep in mind that it is most likely more efficient for you to buy Dusk Balls with Watts in the Wild Area, but this is still convenient.
| Secondary Poké Mart Shop (Central Pokémon Center) | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
Dive Ball |  1000 |
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Dusk Ball | 1000 |
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Timer Ball | 1000 |
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X Speed | 1000 |
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X Accuracy | 1000 |
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Guard Spec. | 1500 |
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Dire Hit | 1000 |
| BP Shop (Central Pokémon Center) | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
Rare Candy | 20 BP |
 |
PP Up | 10 BP |
 |
Power Bracer | 10 BP |
 |
Power Belt | 10 BP |
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Power Lens | 10 BP |
 |
Power Band | 10 BP |
 |
Power Anklet | 10 BP |
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Power Weight | 10 BP |
 |
Macho Brace | 10 BP |
 |
Destiny Knot | 10 BP |
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Razor Claw | 10 BP |
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Protector | 10 BP |
 |
Reaper Cloth | 10 BP |
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Whipped Dream | 10 BP |
 |
Sachet | 10 BP |
 |
HP Up | 2 BP |
 |
Protein | 2 BP |
 |
Iron | 2 BP |
 |
Calcium | 2 BP |
 |
Zinc | 2 BP |
 |
Carbos | 2 BP |
- The house directly to the left of the Pokémon Center has a man inside, Mr. Focus, that you can battle. He uses a Cottonee at level 2, but it holds a Focus Sash, which will keep it from fainting as long as it had full HP when it took damage (you can use something like Double Kick or Fury Swipes to get around this), and it will then use Endeavor to reduce your HP to 1. He’ll give you the Focus Sash after beating him.
- The Focus Sash is a single-use held item that prevents the holder from being knocked out in one hit if its HP was full while it was being hit. It’s situational and can be very good for competitive battling or the Battle Tower after beating the game, but since it is a single-use item, it’s a better idea not to equip it while adventuring through the game.
Trainer Battles
Black Belt Brian
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- The house to the right of the Pokémon Center has a kid inside of it that will check to see how friendly your Pokémon is towards you, as well as a woman that will check to see how the EV Training progress of your Pokémon is coming along. If either of these are maxed, your Pokémon will receive a corresponding ribbon. You can also get the Soothe Bell by talking to a girl inside of that house, which is a held item that increases the rate that the holder gains its friendship, making it become friendlier faster.
- Talk to Ball Guy in the Stadium to receive a Level Ball, if you haven’t already.
Western Hammerlocke
The western part of town consists of everything to the west of the house west of the Pokémon Center, where the path begins to bend at a 45º angle. It contains the Boutique, Battle Café, Salon, and the vault.
- The Boutique is the first building on the west side of town you can enter and it has a selection of more clothes to purchase, including some sweatshirts. It’s more expensive than the previous one, but should still have a decent selection.
- The building just past that is another Battle Café, where you can battle against the Café Master in there. If you beat him, he’ll give you some random sweets or rewards, some of which might include the items to evolve Milcery into Alcremie, or some might be Exp. Candies, similar to the one back in Motostoke. However, this is in a Double Battle and he uses two level 37 Fairy-type Pokémon, so be careful! You can challenge him once per day.
- There’s a Salon in the building directly to the west of the Battle Café, which you can use to change your hairstyle or other cosmetics on your face, such as face paint. This is the same as in any other town, though.
- Just past the salon, to the right of where there are some hopscotch markings on the ground, is a hidden Super Repel, and there are also 2 Hyper Potions that are up against the northern wall by the markings and Noibat. The Super Repel keeps wild Pokémon away for a greater amount of steps compared to a normal Repel, while Hyper Potions heal a respectable 120 HP when used, which should likely be enough to fully heal your Pokémon at this point.
- Keep going to the west, cross the bridge, and you’ll find another Pokémon Center. Before you go inside, though, pick up 2 X Attacks that are hidden by the fence to the west of it. This Pokémon Center has a secondary Poké Mart clerk that sells TMs.
| Secondary Poké Mart Shop (Western Pokémon Center) | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
TM50 Bullet Seed | 10000 |
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TM13 Fire Spin | 10000 |
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TM55 Brine | 10000 |
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TM23 Thief | 10000 |
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TM32 Sandstorm | 10000 |
|
TM33 Rain Dance | 10000 |
|
TM34 Sunny Day | 10000 |
 |
TM35 Hail | 10000 |
- There’s a Muscle Band sitting behind the easternmost benches just past the Pokémon Center, in the little courtyard area. This increases the power of the Pokémon’s Physical-based moves by 10% when equipped as a held item, making it less powerful than the ones that boost a specific type’s power, but more versatile since it doesn’t boost just a single type.
- In that same courtyard area, talk to the lady in the bottom-left corner and she’ll offer to trade a Togepi for your Toxel. Although it’s possible to find Toxel in the Wild Area in some areas during thunderstorms, it’s probably a Pokémon you only have the one you got from the Pokémon Nursery on Route 5. The good news is you can catch them quite commonly on Route 7, which is accessible after getting your fifth Gym Badge. This is important because, if you’re looking to actually use a Toxel or Toxtricity, you’re really better off just waiting until then to get a higher level one than the one you got for free, meaning you can trade your gifted Toxel for this Togepi if you want. It’s totally optional, though; you can always wait until later.
- If you do trade, you’ll get “Snips” the Togepi, which has a nice Timid nature and the Serene Grace ability. It is male and level 25 as well. Just raise its friendship enough (that new Soothe Bell you got in town will help with that!) and level it up to evolve it into Togetic, and then give it a Shiny Stone to evolve it into Togekiss, which is a fantastic Pokémon. Being a traded Pokémon, it also gains Exp. Points 50% faster, too.
- Talk to a guy in the western side of town, near the drawbridge, and he’ll ask if you’ve heard the rumor. Answer that you haven’t heard the rumor and he’ll tell you about Applin along with how it evolves. He’ll then ask you to find and give him an Applin. You can catch Applin back on Route 5.
- Once you’ve got the Applin, offer to give it to him and you’ll trigger a bit of a scene. The ultimate result is that he won’t need the Applin (you get yours back, don’t worry!) and will instead give you the item necessary to evolve your Applin into one of its evolutions, depending on which version you’re playing. If you’re playing Sword, he’ll give you the Tart Apple to evolve it into Flapple; if you’re playing Shield, he’ll give you the Sweet Apple to evolve it into Appletun.
- These evolutionary items are version-exclusive, so you can only find them in the respective versions. You can find them in certain areas in the Wild Area, but they require access to crossing the water to reach, as they’re beneath trees on Axew’s Eye in the middle of the lake in the southwestern part of the Wild Area, so this is a way to evolve one of your Applin a bit earlier.
- The Move Tutor for the special battle-combo moves—Grass Pledge, Fire Pledge, and Water Pledge—can be found on the western side, down the steps near the drawbridge (by the Applin guy). Talk to him and he’ll offer to teach your starter Pokémon a move of the corresponding type.
- These moves all are Special-based and have 80 power, so they’re a good replacement for some of your weaker moves like Ember or Water Gun if you still have those around. They have special effects if you have two Pokémon each use a Pledge move in a Double Battle, but that’s extremely unlikely to matter while going through the game, so instead just treat these as basic 80 power Special-based moves instead with no other effects, which isn’t the worst thing out there, but all of your starter Pokémon eventually get better moves anyway.
Keep going past all of that and you’ll reach the drawbridge, leading further west onto Route 6, which should be your next destination. However, you’ll probably still want to check out the Eastern part of town.
Eastern Hammerlocke
The eastern part of Hammerlocke is everything east of the house to the right of the Pokémon Center. There are quite a few buildings you can enter and talk to the inhabitants inside. There’s a third Pokémon Center in the far eastern part, but it is blocked by Team Yell, preventing you from checking out everything.
Here’s a look at what you can find in the Eastern Hammerlocke:
- Just as the road begins to turn at a 45º angle, against the black wall, there’s a hidden Dire Hit, which temporarily raises the Pokémon’s critical hit rate by 2 stages, meaning most hits will have a 50% chance of scoring a critical hit.
- The second house along the row of houses has a gentleman inside that will ask if you’re interested in the weather. Say yes and he’ll tell you all about a certain weather condition, including its effects, which moves it powers up or affects, and more, and then he’ll give you a rock that increases the duration of that weather condition from 5 turns to 8 turns when the holder activates that condition.
- He’ll first give you the Heat Rock and talk about sunny weather. You can visit him once per day, and he’ll give you the Icy Rock, followed by the Smooth Rock, and finally the Damp Rock when you talk to him on subsequent days, which prolong hail, sandstorm, and rain respectively.
- You can also buy the TMs to activate these weather conditions in the western Pokémon Center for 10,000 each, should you so desire.
- Past the row of houses, climb up the stairs to find a Strawberry Sweet up there, which you can use to evolve your Milcery into an Alcremie. This is handy in case you weren’t able to get any sweets from the Battle Cafés and just want to evolve your Milcery.
- There’s a hidden Rare Candy northeast from the Poké Ball statue up those stairs, against the corner of the building.
- There’s also a pair of Wise Glasses upstairs, to the east, near the doors of that large building up there. These are similar to the Muscle Band, except they work for Special-based moves instead, powering up the holder’s Special-based moves by 10% regardless of their type.
- The last thing to do up these stairs is talk to the little girl outside of the large building. She’ll ask you to deliver a love letter, introducing herself as Paula and asking you to deliver the Old Letter to someone in Ballonlea named Frank. You haven’t been to Ballonlea yet, but you’ll be there while getting your fifth Gym Badge, so picking this up now is a good idea.
- If you do this when you arrive in Ballonlea, you’ll be rewarded with the Choice Scarf, so it’s definitely worthwhile to grab the Old Letter while you’re here.
- Lastly, there’s the Hammerlocke Station down the stairs and to the east. It offers transit to Motostoke, Wedgehurst, and the Wild Area currently, but since you can also just use the Flying Taxi (aka Fly) to travel to any of these areas, it’s not too necessary. There are also vending machines in here along with a basic Poké Mart.
- Team Yell is blocking off the path leading further east, so you won’t be able to proceed much further past the Hammerlocke Station, but there isn’t really that much down there other than a Pokémon Center anyway, so don’t worry too much about it. You’ll be able to go through there later.