Peninsula Of Power Leveling / Pokémon

Examples of a Peninsula of Power Leveling in Pokémon.

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Recurring Examples

• After the initial battle with them and becoming champion, the Pokémon League becomes a great place to grind both experience and money due to their high levels and payouts. In fact, in Gens I and II, it was the only reliable way to earn money once all of the game's standard trainers had been beaten. (Gen III is the first to allow rematches with run-of-the-mill trainers to avoid this).
• Rematches with Gym Leaders (such as the Battlegrounds in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) tend to yield lots of experience and money, even more so when a Pokémon holds the Amulet Coin/Luck Incense which boosts payouts.
• In generations starting from XY, there's a grooming minigame-like system for your Pokémon (Amie, Refresh, Camp, etc.). Patiently investing in these minigames gives your Pokémon a permanent experience boost, which stacks with other boosters (trade, Lucky Eggs, etc.). Doing so before battles that offer major experience payouts (Gym Leaders, Rival battles, the Elite Four) allows for some massive boosts.
• "Repel Grinding" uses a quirk of Repels to more easily encounter higher-level Pokémon in an area that also has lower-level ones. As Repel will only work against Pokémon of a lower level than your lead Pokémon, you can position one in that spot which is a higher level than the weaker, unevolved Pokémon in a given area but below the higher-leveled, rarer, often evolved Pokémon also present that may normally only have a 5-10% encounter rate. This makes them both easier to capture and grind against. Naturally, as your lead Pokémon will gain experience even if switched out, it will soon outlevel the Pokémon you want to encounter, but it can be switched out and the process repeated.

Generation I

Pokémon Red and Blue/Yellow

• Diglett's Cave is full of only Digletts and occasional Dugtrio, both of which are Fragile Speedsters, pure Ground type, and don't inflict any status effects. A strong Water or Grass attacker can wreck its way through them quite easily until it runs out of PP, then head back to heal without having to face any other wild encounters. Rinse and repeat.
• The Pokémon Tower has a "purified" space about halfway up that heals your Pokémon just by walking on them. This makes it a great place for midgame grinding as the local Gastly and Haunter are rather frail Glass Cannons who you can take down in a single hit with the right moves and Pokémon. Conveniently, you can teach the powerful Dig TM you get shortly before to something and one-shot the part Poison-type ghosts.
• The Power Plant is an optional area you can explore once you get the Surf HM. The Pokémon within are relatively high-leveled for that point, and best of all, everything within (except the legendary Zapdos) is weak to Ground-type moves for easy sweeping. The aforementioned Dig TM comes in handy once again.

Generation II

Pokémon Gold and Silver/Crystal

• The Bug Catching Contest is great for midgame grinding. For twenty minutes three times a week, you can farm Beedrill, Butterfree, Pinsir, and Scyther which are all in the low to mid teens, all of which can be one-shot with a decent Flying, Fire, or Rock-type move. The first three in particular are either fully evolved or do not evolve, meaning high experience payouts for defeating them.

Generation III

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Emerald

• Using the HM move Dive on Routes 124 and 126 will open up patches of seaweed with Clamperl and Relicanth. Each yields relatively high experience and both can easily be one-shot by any appropriately leveled Electric or Grass-type for easy grinding.

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

• As in the originals, the "purified" space returns, and provides even greater opportunities for grinding as the Pokémon in this generation have expanded movesets to more easily take down the Ghost-types present. On the downside, the Ghost-types now have the "Levitate" ability, which renders them immune to Ground-type attacks. Several Pokémon get around this by learning the Dark-type Bite, including the starter Squirtle and the ever-common Zubat, with Raticate and Arbok getting access to the even stronger Crunch before level 25.
• The "Vs. Seeker" appears for the first time in these games, which is an item allowing rematches with potentially any outdoor trainer and it is "charged" merely by taking steps. Using it in a place with numerous trainers in a small area guarantees at least a couple of rematches for easy grinding.
• One notable example that combines a healing spot and efficient usage of the Vs. Seeker is near the end of the main game on One Island. On Kindle Road, there is the Ember Spa which fully heals the player's party, and right outside the entrance to it, there is a spot where 4 fighting type trainers can be battled repeatedly. The walk from the entrance of the spa to the healing spot is enough steps to fully charge the Vs Seeker, which makes for very easy, virtually risk-free grinding.
• Another such leveling spot for endgame is on Seven Island. Towards the southern tip of the island, a trainer with a high-level Chansey appears, which gives a huge amount of experience points. Not too far from that, there is a house with an NPC who teaches the "Chansey Dance", which heals the party fully. A classic method to level-up Pokémon, especially for evolutions for Pokédex completion, is to use the Vs. Seeker to fight Chansey, then do the Chansey Dance, and repeat.

Generation IV

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum

• There are several areas in which you'll be joined by an AI-controlled partner. While this partner is with you, you'll have all your health and power points restored after every battle, encouraging you to rack up tons of experience.
• The Vs. Seeker returns and Route 12 offers a particularly good target for easy money—a double battle with a a Gentleman and a Socialite who pay out 24,000 Pokédollars a pop.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

• The Bug Catching Contest returns from the originals and once again offers a great chance for a Pokémon strong against Bug-types (Fire, Flying, Rock) to rack up a ton of experience in a half hour.
• The poor leveling curve in the second half of Johto returns from the originals, but there is a helpful area added in these remakes just south of the new Safari Zone with Tauros, Fearow, and Gloom who provide relatively high experience payouts for their level.

Generation V

Generation-Wide Examples

• The games have a modified experience rate boost that allows low-leveled Pokémon to catch up really quickly. They also give Lucky Egg^note held item that boost experience gain of the Pokémon holding it fairly early on. There is also "shaking grass" which has a high chance of encountering Audino, a Pokémon that yields a high amount of experience, as well as dark grass which has tough Pokémon but grant better experience than the ones found on normal grass. Pinwheel Forest is particularly useful for shaking grass grinding in the early game; there are several areas where you can walk around on empty ground with ease until you see grass shake, there are two different Fighting-types capable of exploiting its main weakness nearby; even if you're not interested in those, you're given an unlimited-use TM of the Fighting-type move Rock Smash, and when things start to go south you can just walk out of the forest and talk to a nurse for an instant heal.
• While rematches have been removed, this Gen has many daily repeatable trainer matches like the Nimbasa Stadium. Black 2 and White 2 also have the Black Tower (for Black 2) and White Treehollow (for White 2). Both are the same areas which have a random, maze-like route with trainers you can fight leading up to the "boss" of the floor. You can repeatedly challenge the floor and lower floors net tougher enemies. Even better, the Pokémon Breeder trainers in this area have two members of the Chansey family, which (aside from Happiny) give out the most EXP in the games.

Pokémon Black and White

• Just outside of Pinwheel Forest, there is a patch of grass where the "rustling grass" has a 95% chance to be an Audino, who are easily defeated and drop plentiful experience. The other 5% of the time, depending on the version, is either a Sawk or Throh which do not evolve and have higher experience payouts as a result. Even better, just steps away from the entrance to the forest is a Nurse NPC who will heal your Pokémon once you defeat her.
• Route 6, just outside of Chargestone Cave, offers a patch of "dark grass" and a house with a woman who will heal your Pokémon just steps away. Almost everything in the grass has a weakness to Fire, Flying, or both for easy One-Hit KOs while the "dark" grass nature means you can enter double battles against the wild Pokémon for leveling up two at a time. Finally, the grass contains the evolved Tranquill and Swadloon for even more experience, while the "rustling" grass in the area may contain their final forms, Unfezant and Leavanny. Best of all, if visited after beating the Driftveil Gym, you will receive the experience-boosting held item "Lucky Egg". Add it all up and it's a great place for some mid-game Level Grinding.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

• A unique new mechanic added to all Breeders, a type of NPC trainer class you can battle, allows to you re-battle them whenever you leave the route or area they're encountering in. Breeders show up randomly in the Nimbasa stadiums after defeating the Champion, as they did in Black and White, and give out Rare Candies, an item that instantly boosts a Pokémon's level by 1, when defeated there. The kicker is that the rematching mechanic and the Rare Candy rewards are not mutually exclusive, nor are they restricted to once a day—you can effectively grind Rare Candies indefinitely if you're lucky enough to get a Breeder or two in one of the stadiums.
• Flocessy Ranch is the second area encountered in the game. The wife of the ranch owner will restore the health of your Pokémon just a few steps away from a grassy patch, allowing for some great early game Level Grinding.

Generation VI

Pokémon X and Y

• The Battle Chateau is one of the few places where players can battle NPCs infinitely. What's more, the trainers all give much higher payouts than other trainers their level, and there are several Furisode Girls who only use Audino. Plus, as you defeat Trainers, your rank will increase, as will the rank of your opponents. Higher-ranked Trainers have stronger Pokémon. This makes it a very good place for grinding money and levels, especially if one uses Writs to fight richer or stronger trainers, O-Powers to increase the rewards, and items to boost them even further.
• Speaking of Audino, if you have a friend or access to multiple devices, you can set up Friend Safari to spawn endless Audino. You can mindlessly defeat them in droves for incredible experience payouts.
• The Restaurants in Lumiose City likewise offer indefinite battles, allowing for easy money and level grinding. The earliest accessible, Restaurant Le Nah, is a Downplayed example as it only has unevolved level 10 Pokémon and the potential earnings barely surpass the 3000 PokéDollar meal cost. Restaurant Le Yeah, accessible once power has been restored to the city after the 4th gym, is a straight example. While it has a 15,000 PokéDollar meal cost, that is easily recouped by beating the four trainers offered (and then some if using an Amulet Coin and/or a reward-increasing O-power). The opposing Pokémon are all either fully evolved or are ones that do not evolve, meaning high experience payouts as well. Finally, by completing each battle in the recommended number of turns, you can receive up to 20 Big Mushrooms at the end which can be sold for up to an additional 50,000 PokéDollars. Spending some time there as soon as it can be accessed will ensure your team and wallet will be set for some time to come. (The post-game opens up two more restaurant options - Restaurant Le Wow and the Sushi High Roller - both of which offer amazing experience and monetary rewards as well, though there is far less to do in the post-game to give grinding there purpose.)
• Similar to Gen V's Pass Powers, O-Powers are temporary bonuses that grow more potent with each use. Normally, a player could only use one O-Power type at a time. With these games, giving them to any acquaintances in the PSS also counts to its growth level, and with less energy used. In no time will you have your Hatching, Befriending, Experience, Prize Money, etc. Powers reach optimum levels.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

• Players can create one themselves through Secret Bases, which can then be shared with other players. In particular, making a base with a full team of Blisseys all knowing nothing but Healing Wish, a move that KOs the user as long as it is not the last Pokémon left, is an effective and perfectly safe way to train weak Pokémon very quickly.

Generation VII

Pokémon Sun and Moon

• Just after the first Kahuna, Ten Carat Hill opens up. While it mostly has low-level, first stage Pokémon, you'll want to seek out the Carbink. As single-stage Pokémon that don't evolve, they pay out more experience upon defeat.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

• The Ultra Warp Ride. After a point in the game, you can use this minigame to go through Ultra Space, and enemies encountered within are all consistently Level 60 and evolved^note evolved Pokémon yield higher experience than their base forms even if they're the same level. This is one of the only safe ways outside of the Elite Four and Bonus Bosses for late- and post-game Level Grinding.
• Wild Chansey can be found at Poni Plains in the postgame—as a base encounter, unlike in the previous game where they were S.O.S.-only. This means that a weakened Chansey with an Adrenaline Orb in play will constantly S.O.S. other Chansey into the fight that give massive amounts of experience, or sometimes even a Blissey which is even better. With a Lucky Egg (which is a rare drop from Blissey herself) and Roto Experience Points active, the amount of experience you gain becomes out of hand very quickly.

Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!

• Because chain catching the same species of Pokémon offers major experience bonuses, anywhere that you can easily encounter and catch the same kind of Pokémon can become of these. An especially prominent example is Diglett's Cave, which only spawns Diglett, Zubat, and (rarely) Dugtrio. Diglett aren't very difficult to catch, aren't likely to run away, and because very little else spawns there, it's easy to avoid disrupting your combo. If you chain together a few dozen Diglett captures as soon as the cave can be accessed, your party will be swimming in easy experience.
• Chansey, exclusive to the Safari Zone in the previous Kanto games until after beating the Elite Four, can now appear as a "Rare Spawn" nearly anywhere as early as Mt. Moon. Because Pokémon in these games are overworld encounters, you can wait for a Chansey, catch it, and then avoid everything else in order to chain them together. As you catch more and your combo increases, they become more likely to spawn as well. Once you've strung together 20-30 Chanseys, you can pull in 10,000+ experience per battle (and they drop HP Candy to further buff your party).
• As "hidden" items respawn daily (something not mentioned anywhere in the game itself), locations that have quite a few of them can be farmed to give you huge advantages. Balls and berries for catching (and thus Level Grinding against wild Pokémon plus candy), stones for evolution (especially the Moon Stones in Mt. Moon which can give you a early, beefy team of the Nidos, Clefable, and Wigglytuff), and Shop Fodder items (like Nuggets and Pearls) to buy anything else you could need can be found via thorough search each day. The two Underground Paths are particularly flush with the latter items, letting you walk away with an easy 10,000+ Pokédollars (at least) each day.

Generation VIII

Pokémon Sword and Shield

• The Wild Area offers the greatest variety of wild Pokémon in a particular area in the series to this point. As such, there will always be an area for you to go where the Pokémon you’re trying to grind will have a significant advantage against the local wild Pokémon. Some specific examples:
  • A very early prominent example is the respawning level 25 Onix just down the hill from the train station. Intended as a Beef Gate like the other "really strong" overworld Pokémon, it has sub-par offensive power with easily exploited 4x weaknesses to the Water and Grass-types, meaning you can take it down with far lower-leveled Pokémon and really beef up your team before you've even reached the first gym.
  • Across the Lake of Outrage just a short distance away from the Hammerlocke gate is a small area with a set of standing stones with grassy areas on three sides. These areas spawn some of the most powerful Pokémon in the Wild Area (as high as level 65) and are almost all final evolutions, making for a great source of late-game grinding. As you can see the preexisting encounters before engaging them, you can always ensure you have a Pokémon strong against them ready to make short work of the battle.
• In addition to the experience you'll get from fighting Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed Pokémon in Max Raid Battles, they will also drop Experience Candy. Grind the battles for a while then feed the experience candy to your Pokémon for extremely fast leveling.
• The Motostoke Outskirts (between Motostoke and Galar Mine #2) have Noctowl as a common "visible encounter". They're fully evolved so they hand out higher experience than most other recurring encounters to that point, are offensively challenged with poor movepools at the levels encountered, and can be dropped easily by any of the Flying-type's multiple weaknesses. They make for a great opportunity to beef up your team before heading to the third gym.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

• The remakes offer the expanded Grand Underground. There are prime Level Grinding opportunities as the Pokémon Level Scale based on the number of badges you have (in contrast to the fixed levels of overworld Pokémon encounters) meaning you earn more experience per battle. Additionally, as you can see the Pokémon on screen before engaging them, you can ensure you have your best counter ready to defeat them quickly. Additionally, as the Grand Underground offers rare spawns and Pokémon with potentially powerful Egg Moves, you can catch them to pick up a Crutch Character or even Disc-One Nuke if you engage with the underground as soon as you can access it.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

• The early game Nature's Pantry area spawns a level 30 fixed Alpha Parasect with a convenient grass patch just a Pokéball's throw away. Due to its typing, it has a massive 4x weakness to Fire and Flying-types. Catch it "unawares" by hiding in the grass patch until it turns its back, guaranteeing (at least) two free attacks on it, and you should be able to take it down with much lower-level Pokémon using a move of one of those types before it can strike back. Like all Alpha Pokémon, it offers massive experience upon defeat and drops some experience candy on top of it, making it great for early game Level Grinding.
• A level 45 Alpha Snorlax is blocking access to an area of the Obsidian Fieldlands with high level Pokémon for that point in the game. It's possible to ride straight past the Snorlax on Wyrdeer without aggroing it letting you battle the Pokémon on the other side for a lot of experience.
• Unlocking Sneasler allows you to access an section of the Obsidian Fieldlands with a fixed Alpha Blissey. Being an Alpha, it attacks you instead of fleeing, and being a high-level Blissey, it gives a ton of experience if defeated or caught. It's also a fixed spawn, meaning it will respawn regularly for you to repeat the process.
• After quelling Electrode, Ingo remains at the Training Grounds to referee Pokémon battles with a few Security Corps members. After the credits roll, the fight roster expands to include Akari/Rei, Kamado, Beni, and Ingo himself. All combatants can be rematched freely and endlessly, and as in previous core series games, Trainer battles have an experience bonus compared to battling wild Pokémon, making it ideal location for any Level Grinding you might want to do in your quest to complete your Pokédex.
• For Pokédex Research Task grinding, the humble Magikarp is a great opponent and they can be found in large numbers at lower levels near the Worn Bridge in the Obsidian Fieldlands (among other bodies of water, though this is the most convenient). They will only use Splash, which has no effect, while you can use non-damaging moves repeatedly or let very weak Pokémon chip away at them to fill "number of times seen using [X move]" Pokédex tasks. Plus, you'll fill Magikarp's Pokédex entry easily as well, including the otherwise very annoying "see it use Splash 100 times" task.

Generation IX

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

• Exp Candy and Rare Candy are scattered throughout the game world at a much higher frequency than in previous games. Due to the open-world nature, it is entirely possible to run around collecting candy before you do most of the game's objectives, then cram them all into your Pokémon to rapidly gain levels. You can then proceed to stomp the rest of the game using your super overleveled Pokémon. For example, Speed Run strategies employ optimized candy routing to pump a Flamigo caught at the start of the game up to Level 50+ within the first hour of gameplay, then promptly steamroll all of the game's challenges.
• South Area Province One, essentially a Green Hill Zone full of low-level Pokémon before you even reach the academy in Mesagoza, has a set of ruins in its far eastern section that almost exclusively spawn hordes of Drowzee. Take one of the early game Bug-types like Torountula or Scatterbug, spend some time grinding against the weak Psychic-type Drowzee, and you can stroll into Mesagoza with a full team of Pokémon with double digit levels before the game has even truly started.
• East Province Area One is readily accessible after your first visit to Mesagoza and spawns herds of Tauros, whose Paldean form is Fighting-type. As a relatively strong single-stage Pokémon, they hand out tons of experience relative to anything else that early and can be taken down with ease in auto-battles using one of the plentiful early game Flying-, Psychic-, or Fairy- types for quickly racking up experience for your team. Noted Disc-One Nuke Flamigo is a prime choice for the task while beefing itself up.
• The entrance to Alfornada Cavern can be accessed from West Province Area One immediately after passing through Cortonado. The Pokémon within range from level 38-44 (for comparison, the West Province Area One wild Pokémon range from 13-21). They've very challenging if accessed right away, but can be defeated by exploiting type advantages and catching them "off guard" to get an extra turn, leading to tons of experience for grinding a lower-leveled team. In particular, the cavern entrance frequently spawns Toxtricity, a fully evolved Pokémon (meaning even more experience) with an easily exploited 4x weakness to Ground-types.
• A cave near Research Station 3 in the Great Crater (the same one that spawns Roaring Moon in Scarlet and Iron Valiant in Violet) has a high spawn rate for Chansey. They are easy to defeat by nearly any physical attacker, have poor movesets, lack the Attack to support the one decent move they do have, and pay out tons of experience upon defeat, more than enough to max out even high-level teams and/or raise lower-leveled Pokémon for Pokédex completion. The cave also has numerous other fully evolved Pokémon to kill time between Chansey spawns and is only a short ride away from healing at the Research Station. You can also eat a meal that increases Normal-type encounter rates to really flood the place the Chansey.
• North Province Area Three (outside the Fairy-type Team Star base) has a higher rate of Chansey appearing, and also a rare chance of Blissey, and it can be reached the moment the player is able to travel freely from Mesagoza. Notably, Chansey and Blissey are the only Normal-type encounters in the grassy areas. So making a simple Ham Sandwich at a picnic, or eating anything with "Encounter Power: Normal", is enough to flood the area with herds of Chansey for buckets of experience. Even better, their only attacking moves are also Normal-type - by using a Ghost-type with a non-Ghost-type attacking move, they can do no damage to you unless they exhaust all their PP and have to resort to Struggle.

Other

• Pokémon Uranium:
  • In the first Pokémon Center you encounter, there's a trainer who will rematch you as many times as you want. His Pokémon are very weak, but healing after each battle is only a few steps away.
  • Your rival, Theo, will join you several times to double-battle your way through an area, and will fully heal all your Pokémon after each battle, making it easy to continue Level Grinding for as long as you want.
  • Theo will also hang around near the Labyrinth for infinite rematches, until you advance the plot. He's strong, but predictable; with a good counter for each of his Pokémon, you can advance levels quite quickly.
  • After completing the optional Ninja Reunion side-quest, you can have as many rematches as you want against six different ninja, each using 5 copies of a single Pokémon species (one for each type of Effort Value), or directly train Effort Values for each stat for free. This is especially helpful because since they only use one species each, it's very easy to play Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors and quickly defeat them all over and over again until you've run out of PP. Training up to level 100 becomes quite feasible.

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