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One of the neater new features of HeartGold and SoulSilver is the Pokewalker accessory which can travel along with you during the day, counting your steps and converting them to watts. Below I've tried to compile all the relevant info I can on the Pokewalker and its uses!

Important Note - if you're in class or at work and you have your pokewalker with you, it's probably a good idea to turn the sound OFF. To do so, press the large center button, then use the buttons to the left and right to scroll to the Settings. From there, you can set the sound - off, low, or high - and the shade -lighter or darker.

The Four Modes of the Pokewalker

1. Stroll - Your pokemon walks along in time with and reacts to the number of steps you take. For example: If you've taken a lot of steps, your pokemon will be happy. But if you've been relatively still, your pokemon will take a nap.

The steps you take are converted to watts, with 20 steps = 1 watt. If you don't spend all your watts on the Poke Radar or Dowsing, the extra watts will be transferred to your game when you connect the pokewalker and game cartridge. Unused watts are transformed into experience points, which can help your pokemon grow faster. And, the more watts you have saved up, the more routes you can unlock! (See the lists below!)

2. Poke Radar - Once you have some watts stored up, you can use the poke radar to encounter and capture pokemon that can be traded back to your game. It costs 10 watts per attempt, and when you do the grass will display "!", "!!", or "!!!". Use the left and right buttons to move to the rustling grass, then the large center button to attempt an encounter. You may have to "search" the bushes a few times to initiate the encounter.

Once you've encountered a pokemon, you can choose to "Attack," "Evade," or "Capture." If you ATTACK, your pokemon will attack the opponent's pokemon. If it hits, you'll either do one point of damage or two if it's a critical hit. If you EVADE, your pokemon will dodge the foe's attack and then counter-attack. If both pokemon evade, they will simply stare each other down - no one loses HP.

Catching pokemon in the pokewalker can be tricky...you have to wear them down from 4 HP to 1 HP (they'll flee if they lose all HP) before attempting capture, or else the capture will almost always fail. If the capture fails, the pokemon will immediately flee. Also, if you take too many turns to wear them down, the wild pokemon is more likely to flee.

You can only have up to 3 captured pokemon at a time. If you want to catch more, you'll have to send those pokemon back to the game first.

3. Dowsing - Dowsing is a great way to get hard to find items early in the game! Unfortunately, it's also somewhat difficult to win. It only costs 3 watts to play, but it make take several attempts to win. You can only carry three gifts at a time, so once you've gotten those, you have to transfer them to your game to keep playing.

In the dowsing game, you get two chances to find a single item in six patches of grass. If you don't get it right the first time, you'll get a hint about where to look - either "It's near!" or "It's far away...". If the answer is "It's near!" look at the patches of grass immediately to the left or right of the patch you chose. If it's "It's far away..." there will be at least one patch of grass between the patch you chose and the one where the item is hidden.

The strategy I've been using is to divide the screen in half, three patches on one side, three on the other. Then I pick the center patch of one side and determine where to look next. For example, if I pick the center patch on the left, and "It's near," then I now it's one of the two patches on the left. But if the answer is "It's far away..." then I know it's in one of the three patches on the right. This is as opposed to picking one of the middle patches of the six, which, if it's far away, would leave you with one patch on one side of the screen and one or two patches on the other.

4. Connect - The connect feature allows you to connect your pokewalker to your DS and move items and pokemon back to your game, or send a new pokemon on a stroll. But in addition to that, you can also connect your pokewalker to another trainer's pokewalker! When you connect to another pokewalker, your pokeman can play together, and when your pokemon returns, it will bring a gift back with it.

You can only connect with the same pokewalker once per day, and you can receive and carry up to 10 gifts from other pokewalkers. After that, you only get watts instead of gifts.


So those are the basics of the pokewalker. Below, find a list of the pokemon routes that are immediately available to you, and further down, some info on the routes that unlock after you get the National Pokedex!

ALL POKEMON AND ITEMS REQUIRE 0-2,000 STEPS TO APPEAR UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED!

Suburban Area

Watts needed to unlock: 500
Useful Pokemon types: Fighting, Normal, Psychic

Group A Pokemon
Elekid - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Magnemite - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Average

Group B Pokemon
Magnemite - Often
Murkrow - Average

Group C Pokemon
Hoothoot - Often
Rattata - Often

Items
Dire Hit - Rare
Guard Spec. - Rare
Potion - Often
PP Up - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
X Accuracy - Rare
X Attack - Rare
X Defend - Rare
X Sp. Def - Rare
X Special - Rare
X Speed - Rare

Dim Cave

Watts needed to unlock: 1,000
Useful Pokemon types: Water, Dark, Rock

Group A Pokemon
Gastly - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Rare
Smoochum - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Average

Group B Pokemon
Gastly - Often
Onix - Often

Group C Pokemon
Machop - Often
Zubat - Often

Items
Elixir - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Ether - Rare
Hyper Potion - Rare
Max Ether - Almost Never
Max Potion - Almost Never
Persim Berry - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Rare
SilverPowder - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Sitrus Berry - Often
TM18 - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Rare
Yellow Shard - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Rare

Blue Lake

Watts needed to unlock: 2,000
Useful Pokemon types: Grass, Electric, Dragon

Group A Pokemon
Dratini - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Rare
Poliwag - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Often

Group B Pokemon
Krabby - Often
Shellder - Often

Group C Pokemon
Goldeen - Often
Tentacool - Often

Items
Dive Ball - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Fresh Water - Often
Leppa Berry - Rare
Lum Berry - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Net Ball - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Pearl - Almost Never
Sitrus Berry - Rare
Star Piece - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never
Stardust - Rare
TM11 - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Rare

Town Outskirts

Watts needed to unlock: 3,000
Useful Pokemon types: Fighting, Ghost, Normal

Group A Pokemon
Abra - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Average
Voltorb - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Often

Group B Pokemon
Grimer - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Often
Koffing - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Often

Group C Pokemon
Furret - Often
Rattata - Often

Items
Dire Hit - Rare
Great Ball - Almost Never
Guard Spec. - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Rare
Lum Berry - Rare
Poke Ball - Often
TM37 - 5,000-8,999 steps to appear, Rare
Ultra Ball - Rare
X Accuracy - Rare
X Attack - Rare
X Sp. Def - 2,001-4,999 steps to appear, Almost Never

post-National Pokedex Routes

I don't have complete information on the post-National Pokedex routes, but I've posted everything I do have. This info will be edited and updated as soon as I know more!

Scary Cave

Watts needed to unlock: 20,000
Useful Pokemon types: ???

Group A Pokemon
Marowak - ???
Tauros - ???

Group B Pokemon
Golbat - ???
Natu - ???

Group C Pokemon
Gastly - ???
Machop - ???

Items
Blue Shard - ???
Dusk Ball - ???
Green Shard - ???
Iron - ???
Old Gateau - ???
Petaya Berry - ???
Red Shard - ???
Repel - ???
Thick Club - ???
Yellow Shard - ???

Sinnoh Field

Watts needed to unlock: 25,000
Useful Pokemon types: ???

Group A Pokemon
Combee - ???
Mime Jr. - ???

Group B Pokemon
Budew - ???
Shinx - ???

Group C Pokemon
Bidoof - ???
Kricketot - ???

Items
Full Heal - ???
Full Restore - ???
Hyper Potion - ???
Max Potion - ???
Nest Ball - ???
Rare Candy - ???
Repeat Ball - ???
Revive - ???
Super Potion - ???
Timer Ball - ???

Icy Mountain Road

Watts needed to unlock: 30,000
Useful Pokemon types: ???

Group A Pokemon
Snorunt - ???
Snover - ???

Group B Pokemon
Bronzor - ???
Sneasel - ???

Group C Pokemon
Mareep - ???
Swinub - ???

Items
Damp Rock - ???
Full Heal - ???
Heat Rock - ???
Icy Rock - ???
Max Repel - ???
Rindo Berry - ???
Smooth Rock - ???
TM07 - ???
X Defend - ???
Yache Berry - ???

Big Forest

Watts needed to unlock: 40,000
Useful Pokemon types: ???

Group A Pokemon
Bonsly - ???
Tropius - ???

Group B Pokemon
Bibarel - ???
Tangela - ???

Group C Pokemon
Exeggcute - ???
Mareep - ???

Items
Belue Berry - ???
Big Mushroom - ???
Bluk Berry - ???
Durin Berry - ???
Grepa Berry - ???
Hondew Berry - ???
Honey - ???
Qualot Berry - ???
Tamato Berry - ???
TinyMushroom - ???