West of Hammerlocke lies Route 6, a rather sandy, rocky route that leads to the town of Stow-on-Side. You’ll need to travel through here in order to reach the town of the fourth Gym Badge.
| Encounters in the area | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overworld Encounter | ||||
| Pokémon | Types | Level | Rarity | |
 |
Galarian Yamask | 29–33 | 35% | |
 |
Helioptile | 29–33 | 29% | |
 |
Dugtrio | 29–33 | 20% | |
 |
Maractus | 29–33 | 10% | |
 |
Axew | 29–33 | Sw: 5%Sh: 1% | |
 |
Trapinch | 29–33 | Sw: 1%Sh: 5% | |
| Random Encounter | ||||
| Pokémon | Types | Level | Rarity | |
 |
Silicobra | 28–30 | 30% | |
 |
Durant | 28–30 | Sw: 20%Sh: 5% | |
 |
Heatmor | 28–30 | Sw: 5%Sh: 20% | |
 |
Duskull | 28–30 | 18% | |
 |
Skorupi | 28–30 | 10% | |
 |
Hippopotas | 28–30 | 10% | |
 |
Torkoal | 28–30 | 5% | |
 |
Hawlucha | 28–30 | 2% | |
| While Fishing | ||||
| Pokémon | Types | Level | Rarity | |
 |
Magikarp | 28–30 | 70% | |
 |
Drednaw | 28–30 | 20% | |
 |
Goldeen | 28–30 | 10% | |
| Shaking Trees | ||||
| Pokémon | Types | Level | Rarity | |
 |
Greedent | 28–30 | 100% | |
After crossing the bridge connecting Route 6 with Hammerlocke, you’ll run into two Team Yell Grunts examining a sleeping Silicobra. They’ll fight you in order to ensure the Silicobra can stay sleeping, for some reason.
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Go ahead and take the two of them down, back to back, and then Hop will tell you about how badly he got beaten by Bede. He’ll definitely seem a bit down about it and will then head off. Shortly afterwards, the Silicobra will wander off as well, and you’ll be greeted by an elderly lady who introduces herself as Opal and gives you her league card, Opal’s League Card, then leaves after saying she’ll keep her eye on you.
Now you’re pretty much free to explore Route 6. It’s a route with all sorts of paths to explore and cliffs to scale, so this walkthrough will guide you through it in a way to obtain all of the items and points of interest to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Also, keep in mind that the weather will be under harsh sunlight, meaning Water-type moves will be only half as effective while Fire-type moves are 50% stronger. Something else important: watch out for wild Dugtrio, as some of them have the Arena Trap Ability, which prevents grounded Pokémon (Pokémon that aren’t Flying-type or have Levitate) from running away, so you’ll want to have either a Pokémon immune to the effects of Arena Trap or something that can fight Dugtrio.
After fighting Beauty Anita, head through the grass, but jump down the ledge on the southern edge to reach 3 Ultra Balls—which have 2× the catch rate of ordinary Poké Balls—then continue through the grass down there until you reach the ladder. You can either climb the ladder to find a small fishing pond, but unless you’re in the mood for some fishing, you’ll want to continue further west.
You’ll find Medical Team Iwan and Evelyn over there along with two ladders. Both ladders take you up to the same place, though in order to get to the end of Route 6, you’ll want to take the right ladder and the rightmost ladder up on the next level as well.
Campsite and Cara Liss (Left Ladders)
However, there’s quite a bit to explore up the optional leftmost ladder. You’ll find Backpacker Diane between the two ladders on the second level, and then up the second leftmost ladder you’ll find a campsite—Cam’s Pokémon Camp—along with TM15 Dig, an 80 power Physical-based Ground-type move that causes the user to bury itself in the ground for the first turn, rendering it invulnerable to most attacks, and then doing damage on the second turn. It’s not a bad option for Ground-type coverage and a lot of non-Ground-type Pokémon can learn it, too, but just keep in mind that you’ll be giving your opponent a chance to set up while underground.
Inside of the camp, you’ll find a bunch of Fighting-type Pokémon such as Tyrogue (Tyregent), Hitmonlee (Kickoff), Hitmonchan (Knuckles), Hitmontop (Roundhouse), Machoke (Chokehold), and Gurdurr (Durr), as well as a Mudbray (Mudbeast) and Steelix (Cold Steel).
To the left of the campsite is a strange lady known as Cara Liss. She’ll revive fossils and turn them into Pokémon that you can add to your team, although this is a bit different from previous games as she doesn’t take just one fossil, but takes two fossils to create one Pokémon.
There are a total of four possible fossils: the Fossilized Bird, the Fossilized Fish, the Fossilized Drake, and the Fossilized Dino. When combining fossils, the Fossilized Bird and Fish are both mutually exclusive, and the Fossilized Drake and Dino are also mutually exclusive, meaning you can only use one from each pair of mutually exclusive fossils.
Although all four fossils are available in both Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, they are rarer in some versions than others. You can get these fossils at a few places in the Galar region, but after you’ve gotten freebies, you’ll need to visit the Digging Duo in the Wild Area in order to dig them up, and it will cost you Watts in order to do so. You’ll have the best chances by using the skilled brother to do the digging.
If you don’t have any fossils at the moment, don’t worry, as long as you’ve visited the Campsite, you can quickly fly back here whenever you’d like to have her create a Pokémon from fossils, which is handy because you’ll be getting some for free once you arrive in Stow-on-Side.
More Common in Pokémon Sword
The Fossilized Bird is common in Pokémon Sword and is rather rare in Pokémon Shield. The Fossilized Dino is uncommon in Pokémon Sword and is very rare in Pokémon Shield. As such, these are the two fossil Pokémon you’re most likely to get in Pokémon Sword…
Arctovish is a fairly well-balanced Water/Ice-type Pokémon that is a bit on the slow side, but otherwise is a bit more defensive. It’s capable of learning Fishious Rend at level 63, but without the speed to outspeed most opponents, you’ll need to rely on the Choice Scarf most of the time to make the most of it.
Arctozolt is a fairly well-balanced Electric/Ice-type Pokémon that is similarly rather slow, but has a bit more of a focus on Attack. It gets Bolt Beak at level 63, but since it is a bit on the slower side, you’ll also likely need to make use of the Choice Scarf to get around that.
More Common in Pokémon Shield
The Fossilized Fish is common in Pokémon Shield and is rather rare in Pokémon Sword. The Fossilized Drake is uncommon in Pokémon Shield and is very rare in Pokémon Sword. As such, these are the two fossil Pokémon you’re most likely to get in Pokémon Shield…
Dracovish is a terrifying-looking Pokémon that has also become pretty well-known for its Fishious Rend move. It’s a useful Water/Dragon-type and more of a physical attacker. It also has higher Speed than its cousin, Arctovish, meaning it can pull off Fishious Rend a bit more reliably, though a Choice Scarf is still recommended for it if you go that route.
Dracozolt is an odd Pokémon to look at for sure, but it has a useful Electric/Dragon-type, giving it very few weaknesses like its cousin, Dracovish. It can also make better use of Bolt Beak at level 63 than Arctozolt can due to its higher Speed stat. It is more of a physical attacker, but it has enough Sp. Atk and moves that it could also do some damage that way as well.
Before making your way back to the two ladders to the south of the campsite, be sure to go to the west of the ladders (basically directly south from Cara Liss, except down the cliff). There are either 2 Fossilized Dinos (Pokémon Sword) or 2 Fossilized Fish (Pokémon Shield), depending on which version you’re playing, that are hidden by the rock between some ladders.
Keep going past that, to another ladder (the “true” leftmost ladder, perhaps?). Climb down that and then go across the patch of grass to find a Light Clay, a held item which increases the duration of Light Screen, Reflect, and Aurora Veil to 8 turns instead of 5 turns when the Pokémon holding it uses one of those moves. That’s incredibly helpful as reducing Physical- or Special-based damage for your whole team by 50% for 8 turns is fantastic, so definitely consider this.
Now you can jump down the ledge and that will take you back to where you fought Backpacker Diane, where you can just head east past her and then climb the ladder, taking you along the rightmost path and leading you towards the exit after climbing up the ladder.
Continuing Through Route 6 (Right Ladders)
Up the right ladder near Backpacker Diane, you’ll find Model Nicola. Fight her and then pick up the 2 Rare Bones hidden amidst the rocks directly to the west of her. These can be sold for some money in shops.
Keep going north until you are able to pass through a giant stone arch, although before continuing through it and reaching Stow-on-Side, head to the right and go down the “true” rightmost ladder. Be careful not to jump down the ledge down there just yet and instead make your way over to Backpacker Ruth.
There’s a berry tree you can shake to get some berries in. Go ahead and shake that if you want, and then jump down the ledge directly south of Backpacker Ruth and head to the left, which leads you to TM30 Steel Wing, a Physical-based Steel-type with 70 power that also has a chance of raising the user’s Defense. It’s not great, but it might be useful for some Pokémon.
Now head back up the path and go to the southwest area by climbing down another ladder, which leads you to the other side of the fishing pond from earlier. There’s not really anything here other than a sign and a hidden Rare Candy by the rock at the cliff’s edge.
Ok, enough sidetracking—go back up the ladders until you’re at that rocky cliff arch and then pass through it, fighting against Artist Duncan before continuing along the path and finally arriving in Stow-on-Side. (You can also press A near the Diglett statues in the background to investigate them for some flavor text, although this is totally optional!)