This is a part of series about my current/recent playthrough of Pokémon Pearl. While some Fan terminology and some more advanced techniques will be mentioned, this post or a previous post will provide a summary of said topic.
Day 7
I head east out of Floraroma Town, and get stopped by a girl asking if I could save her dad at the Valley Windworks Power Plant. I soon find a Team Galactic Grunt outside the Valley Windworks entrance. This Galactic Grunt Challenges me. Predictably, he looses.
However, this Galactic Grunt doesn’t accept defeat easily, and runs behind the door and locking himself in.. but also telling me that his buddy, on the other side of Floraroma Town, has the other key.
As I make my way to the other side of Floraroma Town, I find a Path and I soon find the a pair of Galactic Grunts getting physical with a old man. I get spotted and they want to stop me, and force me in to a series Pokémon Fight back to back. I win both fights.
Mike’s Thoughts
Team Galactic is back, but I’m really going to cover my thoughts on why they’re there next week, when I return to the Valley Windworks.
This time, I’m going to be talking about Honey and Honey trees. These Trees have a unique Sprite. (I’d expect that in the Switch Remake these Trees get a unique Model.) At this time, I have access to 1 of the 21 available trees.
Slathering Honey on a Tree will atract a limited number of Pokémon, after 6 hours. This would allow me to obtain a small list of Pokémon. Two of this list are really worth looking at:
Combee
Combee is one of the new Pokémon that was added for Diamond and Pearl. This Pokémon is only available via Honey Trees. (Later games don’t have Honey trees, so Combees are random encounters for the most part.) This isn’t a major issue when they’re somewhat commonly found. While Combee has a less than great move-set, it’s evolution, Vespiquen does have a somewhat decent moveset.
The issue is that Vespiquen only evolves from a Female Combee, but Combee have a 7 to 1 Male to female gender ratio. In other words, Most of the Combee you find will be male. This one of those fact that I found some what annoying. At least Female Combee look different…
Gender Differences?
After Nidoran line, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl was the first time they chose to make most Pokémon show differences. Many of the older Pokémon got Minor changes. In the case of Pikachu, the girls have heart shaped tail tip. In the case of Combee, the Bottom head has a red mark on it.
Other Pokémon have other visual differences that is not determined by Gender, including two other Honey tree Pokémon.
Munchlax
Like Combee, the only place to catch a Munchlax is via a Honey tree. However unlike most other Honey Tree Pokémon, Munchlax can appear on only a certain 4 Trees out of the 21 Trees in Sinnoh. The way the game choose the 4 trees are set at the start of the game.
Smart players have already worked that the Trainer ID, a visible number can tell you at least two of the 4 Trees that Munchlax could be on. This means you can concentrate on a certain pair, compared to running around Sinnoh trying to slather all 21 every 6 hours.
The Big issue is that Muchnlax is the rarest Pokémon on a Muchlax chosen Tree at 1%, and to make worse you can only find out after 6 hours.. that means if you’re serious, you’d be slathering Honey at breakfast, just after lunch, and supper, for a few weeks. Technicality, you squeeze a forth Slathering a day, by being exactly 6 hours apart, but I wouldn’t recommend it for health reasons, as the possible multiple weeks you may need.
However, there is another way to get Munchlax in Diamond and Pearl, Breed a Snorlax while it hold a Full incense. At Diamond and Pearls launch, most player transferred one of their Snorlax from their copy of Leaf Green or Fire Red. Later on one could find a Snorelax in HeartGold and SoulSilver and trade their caught Snorlax, or just breed for Munchlax in HeartGold and SoulSilver.
EDIT: The Banner image was added in 2024, using Pokémon Brilliant Diamond.