Dae asks: Secret Bases

Slow news period again. It’s the calm before the storm I guess. Corocoro is still a bit off seeing as it releases on the 12th of August. Be patient, my dear friends!

In the meantime, let’s talk about something else than X&Y for a bit, and let’s discuss Secret Bases! Everyone’s favorite side-mechanic from Ruby and Sapphire (and DPPt) I guess. I kinda hope it makes a return in X&Y, but somehow I doubt that and I believe they’ll hold it out for a bit longer until the remakes hit. Secret bases work perfectly combined with Streetpass, as opposed to having to link your GBA with those nasty link cables. Anyway, back to Secret Bases. Do you like them? Do you prefer the underground version above the Hoenn version? What was your favorite location for secret bases? (Mine was in the ‘hidden’ route on the left of Hoenn, which was basically the best spot for secret bases) And do you think they should return in the newer games?

We’ll be back tomorrow with some Smash coverage. In the meantime, you can comment on this article or ask us a question in the new Ask PJN. Happy commenting!

~Dae~

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251 thoughts on “Dae asks: Secret Bases”

  1. I hope they do have secret bases again, I loved them! Also this is making me think how awesome the RSE remakes would be… can’t wait for news in general 🙂

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  2. I really loved the secret bases and I thought they were improved in diamond and pearl. I was absolutely devastated when I heard they weren’t gonna be in black and white, so I’m hoping they make their triumphant return in X and Y. It’ll make me a very happy fan 🙂

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  3. I really liked Secret Bases. They were fun. I enjoyed putting Furniture, Toys, etc. inside it! It really occupied my time as a kid! It was like a mini-home! Hopefully they return in X & Y!

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  4. We only have 2 Corocor megazine, this month and september 😀 I hopping the next Corocor they will show something about the pokedex I hope soo

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  5. I did prefer them in RSE a lot more than DPPT. But I never really got the chance to enjoy them, as there weren’t that many friends that lived nearby.

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    • That has a low chance of happening. The likely-hood is small. Then you would need to have the National Dex early. Which means the Kalos Pokedex (Data), isn’t needed. It would be cool, but it stops the challenge. You can trade over a Lv. 100 Charizard and beat all the Trainers, Gyms, Evil Team, and Elite Four, quickly and easily. It wouldn’t be a smart game design.

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  6. Ahhhh secret bases, my favourite spot was either just before the dessert (or was it after)…one of the two and also just outside the safari zone next to the double battle girls
    I did like the concept however I’m not that fussed…but maybe if the 3D pokedolls did something cool or maybe if the mats were more interactable….

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  7. I LOVED secret bases!!!! They were the best in Hoenn. They were so cool to decorate, to mix records and go searching for your friends secret bases, and then battle them for some great experience!
    I remember this place north of Rustboro City (You had to surf to get there), it had a whole bunch of secret base locations. My friends and I had nicknamed it Champion Island xD But I left that location because I had found a place I liked more. West of Fortree City, go all the way down, all the way down that water route, still down further, there’s a tree Secret Base. Mine was right there in the left side of the tree ^_^
    I would be so excited if they brought this great idea back for X and Y. Though I do believe they’ll hold off and save it for Hoenn remakes.

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    • I’m thinking if they bring back Secret Bases they should do something special if someone’s Secret Base is in the same place as yours. Like next time you walk into yours a “!” appears over your head and you walk up to someone who remarks about how this is where their Secret Base is, and then you battle. Maybe to make up for the fact that all you get is a battle rather than another Base they can give you a Protein or a rare Berry, something kind of nice.

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  8. I loved Secret Bases so much, that was probably the best individual feature of Hoenn (with the region design and Battle Frontier close behind). I used multiple save files and co-operation from my friends to fill up most of that Route above Rustboro that you mention, it was so much fun. It was a “Trainer Town,” if you will. And even aside from that, I simply loved decorating it! Even getting new decorations was lots of fun. I remember how ridiculous of a wait I had to go through for that stinkin’ Department Store sale to come along… Then in Sinnoh they kind of ruined them with the rocks and fact that they were no longer surprises you could stumble upon during the regular game. And the fact that the battles were gone. Now that the overworld is completely 3D, I don’t look for Secret Bases to return for a while. Perhaps after they’ve learned better compression techniques and such they can put the feature in, but most likely not in X and Y. I’m not too disappointed, I’m happy we finally got Trainer customization! I could see them allowing us to decorate our room again like in G/S/C and R/S/E, which I would enjoy, but that is as close to seeing the return of Secret Bases as I think we’ll get for some time. I’d sooner expect the return of Join Avenue.

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    • I believe it was something like route 115? My base was one of the two above the sandy slope. Can’t remember which one exactly. 🙂

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      • Yes, Route 115 😀 I know exactly what you’re talking about, that’s where my original secret base was. Same place as yours, there were two above the bike slope, one immediately to the right, and another down further. Mine was the one which was down further. Then I eventually moved to a different location 🙂

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    • Man that Department Store sale was annoying! Lol I remember checking every freaking day and every TV in the REGION just to see the news broadcast about the sale being around.

      But the wait was worth it because my crib near Fortree City had slides and statues, it looked like a Amusement Park Gym.

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  9. Message to everyone: this is a Dae asks about Secret Bases. You can use the Jungle Talk to talk offtopic if you wish. I will ban everyone who derails the thread too much from now on.

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  10. :l why pokemon removed the secretbase on pokemon diamond, pearl, platinum( the best game I’ve ever played), SS AND GL,black and with, B AND W 2?

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  11. I liked the secret bases and the capture the flag thing in d/p/pt. If they had something like that in x&y and maybe to make them drop the flag you have to catch them and challenge/ beat them in a battle that’ll be great! BUt at the very least the trap tiles would be fun.

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  12. I haven’t pre-ordered x or y yet. I’m hoping to get more info on version exclusives, besides pokemon in the next corocoro that will decide once and for all x or y. I hope I don’t end up even more confused than I started.

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  13. Loved secret bases, I would spend ages making mine, collecting the dolls, although I never got them regi dolls :/. I think it could be possible for them to return, Paris has catacombs which could be a cool twist to the secret base.

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  14. Seeing how Pokemon Emerald is my all time favorite Pokemon game, it would make sense that one of my favorite features would be the Secret Base.

    I used the Secret Base all the time, whether if it was just for chilling and playing around on my slides and bubbles before I headed off to Fortree City, or if I was using the link cable to connect with all my cousins and face off with them in their homes. It was always such a freaking awesome experience.

    As stated, Streetpass would working perfectly with Secret Bases, and the fact that it’s a 3D world now, villas/bases/homes/whatever are going to be bigger than ever now, which makes it all the more worthwhile.

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    • Emerald was your favorite game too, huh? I like your taste. I forgot about the Villa, but that was pretty cool. That feature seems a little more likely to be brought back, especially with this French-inspired region. Here’s hoping we can get an amazing 3D Villa all our own if not Secret Bases!

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  15. Imagine you are about to go to sleep, you have done so many things that day; trained your Pokemon hardly and battled with other players. Now that you are tired, it’s time to stop playing. You use fly, go to your secret base, you enter the base, skim through the objects, try different ornaments, walk around a bit,then save your game there and finally quit the game. Oh, memories… I really loved secret bases, they always had that home feeling, they were special save-spots too.

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    • This

      I did this all the time, whenever I stopped one of Team Magma(Or both in Emerald)’s plans or defeated a gym, instead of going to the Pokemon Center and heading to the next city, I would just climb up my vines, get to my secret home in a tree, and chill there with my pogeymanz.

      That was the life..

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  16. I really hope secret bases return for X and Y, and like you said, they would work perfectly for Street Pass. Maybe they could include some furniture or PokeDolls available for your base that you can download for a certain period of time. Sort of like in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. To me, the best location for my secret base was Northern Route 115 in Hoenn. It required you to have Surf and you had to make it past a few trainers to reach it.

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    • You just made me realize with the Poké Doll downloading remark, I bet the Dream World home is the reason Secret Bases were excluded for this Generation. I like the home, but it’s just not the same. Hopefully GAME FREAK will agree someday!

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  17. I love secret bases! One of my more favorite features of R/S/E. In fact I just visited my secret base thanks to this post, lol. I would tell you where it is but then it wouldn’t be much of a secret 😉 I took a picture, though so you might be able to figure out where it is. (Below this might give away where it’s at, but Wynaut) Secret bases would one of the many reasons why I would like R/S remakes soo much! To be honest I hated the underground secret bases in D/P/Pt more. I never really enjoyed them. My secret base is rather small I’m thinking of moving to a larger secret base I think already know where (When I wrote this I got a happy feeling inside of me like when I was younger :’) (ノ^_^)ノ Nostalgia!)

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      • I just moved my secret base like 10 mins ago into the same one as yours, lol. I was looking for the biggest one. Now I am looking for the planks so I can walk on the dark squares. 😀 It looks awesome!

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        • Lmao, cool! Gee, it’s been a while, I honestly forget where to get the planks xD I wanna say the Department store sale on the rooftop, but I may be wrong :S

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          • I just have to wait for the Mega mart sale on the Lilycove department store so yes you are right. Did you get those statues at the sale, too?

          • I’m trying to decorate but it doesn’t let me 🙁 It says that it can’t be placed anywhere.. is it that I have to place the planks before anything?

          • I think if you’re trying to decorate in an area only accessible by placing a plank, you have to place the plank first.

            Edit: Just tried it in my game, what I had said isn’t true. You can decorate in places that are only accessible via the plank without the plank having to be there.

          • I just placed a Pokemon desk in one of the areas only accessible by planks lol. I can’t place my Mudkip doll or a cushion anywhere though..

          • Ohhhh, the dolls and cushions! The dolls can only be placed on a table or rug, the cushions can only be placed on a rug (forget if they can go on a table too).

          • MY GAME JUST GLITCHED AND IS MAKING THIS WIERD NOISE!! Edit: It’s fine. Wheww..Turned it off then back on and it stopped doing that.

          • Wheww.. That was scary I thought my file would have been corrupted and I would have had to start over, luckily that wasn’t the case but I didn’t save during the whole secret base thing so I have to start over, I remember how it looked though, so that should be easy. I was trying to take a picture of the game to show you and the game went into the slot too far and it made this noise and it was frozen D: THANK YOU!

          • Hehe, I know exactly what you’re talking about. That’s happened to my game a few times, but only because back then I would drop the freaking system -_- It froze and was like this screeching/repeating noise, so just shut off and turn on haha.

          • I told you then I thought about it but I couldn’t do anything since it was frozen so it was my only choice, but still thank you! 🙂 I have a question though- how do you get to put more than 16 items in your secret base? My limit is 16.

          • They should definitely take off the limit or maybe that would be too crowded. Maybe they should at least make the limit higher and the bases bigger in the remakes!

          • Haha, no worries about the quality. Looks great! I like how the Blue Tent leads into the base! Just gotta get a couple planks now so you can get to those other areas 😀

          • Wait wouldn’t that sale count as a time based event since it’s on certain days? My battery has run dry D:

          • Oh crap…do you have Pokemon Colosseum? If you do and you’re able to connect to that, I believe that every time you do that it sets your clock to that time on your console (Be it Wii or GameCube). Something like that.

          • I don’t have Colosseum :/. I think what you’re talking about is the berry glitch, though.

          • Now the only thing I would be afraid of is losing all of my precious time.. I think I should move to another base that doesn’t need planks 🙁 but thank you sooo much! You have been a huge help 😀 🙂

          • Hehe I feel like I’m buying a house. 😛 Let the search… begin (if you know of any good big places that need planks but don’t interfere with accessibility or don’t need planks in general but is roomy just tell me! =] )

          • Go to Rustboro City, head north to Route 115. Surf all the way up. When you get on land, there will be a split with the trees, take the left path. There will be a tree secret base. Open up the right side 🙂

  18. I feel it should be a mixture between 3rd and 4th gens secret bases. You make the base above and if you want you can connect the base to the underground area.

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  19. I really liked Secret Bases. I hope they make a return in Gen 6, either in X and Y or the hopeful Gen III remakes. They added an extra layer of fun to the game, and if you could add trainers that you pass by (or even set teams for EV training) it would make the experience a lot better.

    I would hope for better locations though. In the truck of a tree doesn’t really make sense, especially for the size of the secret bases.

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  20. Secret Bases in R/S/E were the best! Mine was in the route west of Fortree, up the waterfall, across the bike ramps, to the VERY top left of the route, there was a large bush 🙂

    On a side note, if Coro Coro is being released on the 12th, doesn’t that mean it’ll leak on the 9th or 10th..?

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  21. Though this is slightly off from the intended topic, I just remembered this and wanted to get others’ opinions: Did anyone else feel like Hidden Hollows were kind of like a tease to fans of Secret Bases? Not necessarily an intentional one, but one that certainly lead to longing for Secret Bases’ return due to the similarities. To me they almost seem like Secret Bases for Pokémon!

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  22. Hoenn version I like. Favorite spot was at the little indent right next to Meteor Falls’ entrance. I would like it if these came back in X/Y.

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  23. I would like to see the PC maybe live in an apartment in the big city and have the entire team out so that they could be interacted with. I’d like that more than secret Bases

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  24. I LOOOOVED secret bases! especially in Ruby and Saphire, I’d love for them to come back more or less the same as they did in those games, and with street pass it would be even better 🙂

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  25. I hated the underground digging. It made the bases so limited. My secret base was hidden in a Grotto on the water. Beartic!

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  26. I’ve always thought the Dream Homes from the Dreamworld and the Hidden Grotto’s in B2&W2 gave a very nastalgic reminder of the Secret Bases in R/S/E. It would’ve been sick to capitalize off the dreamworld, and be able to use all the items/furniture we purchased from the DW to be placed in secret bases in R/S. Shame their shutting the DW down though.

    I do feel like they were intentional, and a bit off topic but I do feel like we are still getting 3D R/S remakes/sequels after X and Y.

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    • It will be cool. But it wouldn’t be smart. We already have B2/W2 which cover the Unova Region, 2 year later. X & Y events happened around the time of B2/W2 (Assuming). So, it will just be like playing Pokemon Black and White 2 again. In X & Y I doubt we will go to any region, we will most likely just say in Kalos. I think Pokemon wants us to enjoy the beauty and lust of the Kalos Region. Yet, anything is possible. 😉

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  27. Yes! The secret bases were great! I could link with my friends and download their favorite team in just a minute or two if we didn’t have time to battle! It would be great if this feature was added back, and is one of the things I’ve been hoping for a come back. I preferred the Hoenn version more than the Sinnoh, but I liked the features of traps and spheres and other treasures in Sinnoh.

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  28. Just like to point out that the file size for X/Y has been revealed to be 1.7GB when downloaded from the eShop. This makes it the second largest file size for a 3DS game coming under Fire Emblem.

    Oh yeah, the Limited edition X/Y 3DS LL is bundled with a copy of either game in Japan.

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  29. I actually prefered the secret bases in R/S/E the DPP because of the tree looking bases If Secret bases where in XY it could be like ACNL streetpass to see other ppls bases & get items from each other/etc (not sure if that’s how ACNL rly works cause i don’t hav it…) I don’t rly remember were i put my base, but my favorite part of the bases where all the Pokemon plushies/furniture + now u can sit on those mats u bought! (but most likely u’ll be able to buy stuff for your room in XY that’s what i think)

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  30. “Everyone’s favorite side-mechanic from Ruby and Sapphire”

    *raises hand* Uh, I was pretty indifferent to secret bases. I guess I can see the attraction of them now, with all the better graphics, but back in 3rd gen I just didn’t see the point to them. They were tiny, boring, and you could barely see the different between one pokedoll and the next.

    If they brought them back I probably wouldn’t even care until post-game. If they do, I at least hope they’ll have a wider stock of stuff to put into them too.

    (But maybe I’m just bitter because I had no friends into pokemon back in 3rd gen who could visit my secret base xD)

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  31. It would be nice to have them back as that was a good side part to the games, and was fun to customise too, and now with all the wifi and wireless technology it be nice to link to friends and visit them all in their bases, personally I preferred the original bases from ruby and sapphire in the tress than the ones from pearl and diamond, just couldn’t be bothered to dig about all the time and be transported underground away from the main game, I thought it was more fun looking for trees 🙂

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  32. As an american living in the US, would I be able to order one of those 3DS LLS with Xernias on it from amazonjapan? Like would they ship it here?

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