Favourite grinding spots in each game?

Toronbo

Toronbo

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Was wondering what everyone's grinding methods are for each game, especially if someone has something more unique to share.

For me, it's just Elite Four for gens 1 & 2 (although I have been considering setting up Trainer House in 2),
In any gen 3 game I like to move it into XD and take on Mt. Battle which will get 2 pokemon up to Lv100 by the end (even slow group ones usually), which also has the benefit of giving one of the special move Johto starters each time.
Then in 6 it's either battle chateau in XY or Blissey bases in ORAS.

My knowledge on the other games is a whole lot more spotty so i'd like to hear if people have something to share on those, or even just another method in 1/2/3/6.
 
I've done a lot of grinding in Victory Road in DPPt over the years. Pretty easy to take out Rock/Ground types with low SpD, and I can go down to the basement and Surf on the water if I am grinding Electric types.

I'd also grind for Audino in B2W2, as they give out hefty amounts of exp, similar to the Blissey bases in ORAS.

That said, I'm not as grindy as I was in the past lol. Exp. Share, affection and Exp Charm makes leveling up far easier in the later games. So I usually end up overleveled regardless of how much grinding I do.
 
Yeah I guess I should've expected Audino. Tbh I've barely played B2W2 (although I have played BW a ton) so I was hoping for something a little different I guess. Did you prefer Victory Road to the E4 or are you just talking about before-credits grinding?
 
Toronbo said:
Yeah I guess I should've expected Audino. Tbh I've barely played B2W2 (although I have played BW a ton) so I was hoping for something a little different I guess. Did you prefer Victory Road to the E4 or are you just talking about before-credits grinding?
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Ahhh pre-credits grinding for the E4. I usually do the bulk of my grinding around there. After credits I'm not usually grinding unless there's a post-game/DLC area that requires it. (Like the E4 challenge in the Terrarium)

Ngl I don't like grinding in the Gen 5 games, as the exp yield is hostile to grinding by design. Its probably why I haven't spent too much time with these games because you still need to grind in these games to proceed in the story, unless you want to be several levels below the trainers (as a challenge I guess?) Pokémon like Sawk and Throh that don't evolve are easy to get exp from in the early game, provided you're really careful that they don't KO you. But that might be perennial advice lol.

EDIT: Pressed post too quickly lmao.

Speaking of the Terrarium and Gen 9 in general. I often grind simply by running around and catching Pokémon. The addition of exp points by catching Pokémon in Gen 6 is easily my favorite QoL thing they've added to the game. In ZA I get exp points just by running around the Battle Zones. Grinding is so much less difficult in the newer games and I'm so happy for it.
 
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oh boy a thread practically made for me (i’ve done way too much pokemon level grinding in my life)

gen 1: E4 rematches or cerulean cave depending on my vibe. sometimes even if the E4 is more optimal, i prefer the rhythm of grinding on wild pokemon

gen 2: E4, but i want to set up a trainer house fight at some point (kind of a crime that i haven’t yet)

gen 3: this is probably the gen i’ve done the most grinding in because of preparing level 100s for the battle frontier and mt battle in the gamecube games and stuff. i have the lucky egg from XD’s orre colosseum which i’ve traded to my “main” leafgreen and i prepare all of my pokemon in games that aren’t leafgreen so i can trade them over to leafgreen for the exp boost and give them the lucky egg for Even More exp. instead of e4 rematches i will typically fight the two trainers near the bottom of sevault canyon because both teams have 5 pokemon in the level 50s and there’s a healing spot Right There in the house with the lucky chansey dance guy. i typically prefer the rhythm and ease of fighting these two with the vs seeker over e4 rematches but of course FRLG’s rematch e4 are incredibly high levels and are useful sometimes too. if i’m grinding all the way to 100, not just 50, and the pokemon i’m grinding are capable of beating the e4, sometimes i will swap to it. otherwise i usually just stay on the sevault canyon guys forever (i grinded a Smeargle to level 100 this way…) oh yeah and i typically have some pickup meowths on hand for spare rare candies

gen 4: the same deal with gen 3 to be honest. i prepare all my pokemon in hgss when possible (especially because the breeding mechanics are better there) and trade them to platinum which has better exp yields for actual training. typically i fight the two ace trainers immediately west of veilstone with the VS seeker because i rarely have a need to go to level 100 in gen 4 but i use the league Sometimes. i have a ridiculous amount of lucky eggs in gen 4 because of farming them off a chansey swarm in hgss with compoundeyes thief butterfree so that’s not a problem at all.

gen 5: same old boring audino strategy but my main white 2 file has a maxed out entree (that i grinded myself via controlling two DS consoles for funfest missions at once, one per hand) so i’m able to increase the spawn chance of shaking grass pretty significantly and also give myself a huge exp boost. i have a really funny video of me applying every single exp boost to a level 1 oshawott in white 2 (traded + alternate language, lucky egg, maximum entree power) and taking out the highest level wild audino in the game. even though i had to switch into another pokemon to KO the audino so the exp was split, the oshawott still gets to level 37 instantly LOL
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as a result gen 5 grinding is actually insanely fast for the vast majority of purposes but it takes a lot of setup.

gen 6: blissey bases babey. i mean i’ll use battle chateau in xy if i have to for some reason but there’s pretty much no reason to not use blissey bases ever. i also pop an o power

gen 7: chansey (and occasional blissey) SOS chains on poni island in the USUM postgame. i never grind in the original SM. i have done this so much that i have found multiple shinies on accident while doing it. if going for level 100, typically i will get pokemon to level 89 (or 80, or 71, etc etc going down 9 levels at a time, whatever i feel like tolerating in terms of timesink) and then i’ll use 5 star rare kitchens in festival plaza to finish up the levels up until level 98 in which i just pop a couple rare candies to finish the job to 100. i grinded out finding and importing these rare kitchens into my main ultra moon file via offline FC grinding in ultra sun since i set up these files post-wifi shutdown. i cannot say i recommend doing this but it is really convenient

lgpe: a lot of my grinding is done passively while shiny hunting in this game but chansey catch combos in cerulean cave are the way to go

swsh/sv/plza: exp candy lol i have Plenty from doing other things. even in plza where it’s not as easy to get a ton of it. hyper training doesn’t even require level 100 anymore so i’m rarely going above 50 anyway

bdsp/pla: idk the last time i grinded levels in these games but i think i just fought some stuff in the grand underground without thinking last time i grinded in bdsp and like... idk if i’ve grinded at all in PLA ever. because of the convenience of being able to move pokemon back and forth between gen 8-9 games, i think i do most of my “grinding” on bdsp/pla pokemon just… in another game with xp candy when i can.
 
Oh right, I almost totally forgot about the Entree lol. Used to have a save witha high level one but i'll have to be sure to regrow it. Don't think it took that long to get what I want.

Thanks for the FRLG tips too, honestly pretty big gap in knowledge there even though I played them a bunch as a kid. Didn't even know they had the rematch E4 buffs lol. (Now that i'm checking it looks like that was the game which introduced it which makes sense ig)
 
I hated grinding in general, especially in any of the games before Black/White. I don't have a favorite grinding spot per se, but I remember Nimbasa City being a great place to level grind in Gen 5.
 
Toronbo said:
Didn't even know they had the rematch E4 buffs lol
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honestly the e4 buffs in FRLG are kind of nuts. i wish emerald had something similar. i pretty much never rematch the emerald league for any reason because FRLG is right there. i don't even use it for money grinding most of the time
 
Gen IV

For strictly quick money grinding, I have always used Rich Boy Trey on Route 222 with the Vs. Seeker/Amulet Coin.

I'm sure there's better NPCs/outcomes, but he just has a Luxio & pays nearly 15k per win. Easily got a few hundred thousand quickly.
 
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