Underground

This article is about the Sinnoh location called "the Underground". For the location known as "the Underground" in Generation II, see Goldenrod Tunnel.

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Underground		ちかつうろ Underground Path
"Wild Missingno. appeared!"

Location:

Beneath Sinnoh

Region:

Sinnoh

Generations:

IV

Location of Underground in Sinnoh.

Pokémon world locations

The Underground (Japanese: ちかつうろ Underground Path) is an area in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum found beneath the entire Sinnoh region.

The Grand Underground takes the place of the Underground in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

In the core series games

The player can travel Underground at any time using an Explorer Kit, which they can receive from the Underground Man in Eterna City. The Underground features multiple uses of the DS's touch-screen, as the main view is on the lower, touch-sensitive screen while the upper screen shows a radar map of the entire Underground. It also utilizes DS Wireless Communication to allow multiple players, each with their own DS and copy of the game, to interact.

The Underground has a different menu from the one in the overworld. It shows the different items used. With the exception of treasures, which can be transferred to the player's Bag, these are all exclusive to the area.

Spheres are the currency of the Underground. The player can bury their spheres to make them more valuable, either by leaving a sphere buried for a long time to make it grow, or by burying spheres of the same color in the same spot to merge them into a larger sphere. When spheres are buried in the same spot, their sizes are mixed together. When two or more spheres are buried on top of each other, the largest sphere is added to the smaller spheres' sizes divided by five, rounded down, plus one. Spheres can reach a maximum size of 99, with some growing faster than others. Blue, green, and red spheres grow the fastest, and are thus the least valuable. Pale spheres are the second fastest growing spheres, and are semi-valuable. Prism spheres are the slowest growing spheres, and are thereby the most valuable of all the sphere types. Burying spheres can increase the number and density of mining sparkles in the same vicinity.

There are six different areas in the Underground; each is accessible from different overworld locations. While some are readily accessible from the mainland, players must sometimes travel to far-off places like Fullmoon Island to enter these areas.

Exploring

Lucas digs for treasure, while Dawn sets up traps in the Underground.

As in the regular world, using the D-pad lets the player walk in any direction and holding "B" allows running. As the regular Bag is not able to be used in the Underground, the Bike is not available to increase speed further. Steps taken in the Underground do not count towards hatching Eggs or the Counter App, but time spent counts towards the overall game timer. The game cannot be paused (by closing the DS lid or otherwise) while in the Underground. Additionally, since the wireless features consume more power than usual operation, the player should be careful not to drain the battery completely while in the Underground.

There are six independent sections of the labyrinth, each accessible from different places in Sinnoh. In terms of vendors and mining treasures, the areas are equivalent. When participating in multiplayer action in the Underground, players should make sure they are all in the same set of caverns.

The vast majority of the tunnels are 5 squares wide, with some single-square-width passageways between parallel tunnels. The player can see roughly 12×15 squares on the screen at any given time (not accounting for side effects of the top-down perspective). By touching any area of the lower touch screen, a radar pulse indicates interactive objects within a 4-5 square radius, indicated by yellow sparkles. There appears to be a maximum of 8-10 sparkles that will display if a particular ping returns too many objects.

If a sparkle revealed by a ping is located on the floor of the tunnel, it is either a trap or a sphere. A difference in whether a sphere or trap is hidden in the sparkle, a trap has a white sparkle while a sphere has a golden one. If both are hidden in one spot, a trap is found first, then a sphere. If the sparkle is in the wall, it is a bulging section that can be mined.

Mining

Mining for treasure using the hammer

One of the main attractions of the Underground is the mining minigame. To mine, the player must find a spot where the wall 'pings' by touching the screen and looking for sparkles. Every day, these spots will appear randomly in the Underground, usually in clusters, and can be located by looking for sparkles marked on the radar screen. They appear more frequently near buried spheres, and so one way players can ensure they always have a lot of mining spots available to them is to make a "sphere garden" by burying many spheres in the same area.

The game itself is similar to Battleship or Minesweeper. At the start, the cave wall is shown, represented by a grid full of squares. There are six depths of wall: tan soil with a crack, three pebbles in tan soil, dark soil with a crack, one pebble in dark soil, two larger rocks in dark soil, and one large rock in dark soil. When hitting the wall with either the pick or the hammer, the tile that was hit is broken by two layers. When using the pick, adjacent tiles are broken by one layer, not including diagonals. When using the hammer, they are broken by two layers instead and diagonally adjacent tiles are broken by one layer as well. Each wall will hide two to four items, including spheres, Fossils, Revives, Heart Scales, shards, pre-Generation IV Evolution stones, Plates, and a few held items. The cracked tan soil has a small opening through which an item beneath may be visible. There are also pieces of iron that cannot be dug out. If an iron piece is hit directly or revealed after a hit, it will prevent adjacent tiles from being damaged, and a small "ding" sound is heard. When an iron piece is revealed, its lack of a border on any particular side reveals that the piece extends in that direction, thus it is not necessary to dig on that tile. Each hit will bring the wall closer to collapsing; if the wall collapses before everything is dug up, the game ends and the player is rewarded with what they dug up before the wall collapsed. Spheres the player has mined are stored separately from other items (called treasures in game); up to 40 sets of spheres and up to 40 treasures can be carried by the player, in order to acquire more, the player must make room in the Underground's Bag, for example, by burying the spheres or by sending the treasures to the Bag in the overworld.

In addition, if anyone else is mining nearby, a pickaxe will appear on the player's screen wherever the other player hits on their screen. This helps clear the wall without contributing to the wall's collapse.

At first, only Skull Fossils or Armor Fossils can be found depending on the game version^DP or the last digit of the player's Trainer ID number^Pt. After obtaining the National Pokédex, however, the game will also yield Helix Fossils, Dome Fossils, Old Ambers, Root Fossils, and Claw Fossils. A number of items that were found rarely prior to obtaining the National Pokédex can also be found more easily now, such as the Evolution stones. Furthermore, in the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games, Fire Stones, Thunderstones, Sun Stones, Heat Rocks, Icy Rocks, Helix Fossils, and Claw Fossils can be found more easily in Diamond, while Water Stones, Leaf Stones, Moon Stones, Damp Rocks, Smooth Rocks, Dome Fossils, and Root Fossils can be found more easily in Pearl. Pokémon Platinum uses the Trainer ID, much like the Skull and Armor Fossils, to determine which set of treasures is more common during gameplay.

Burying spheres

Burying spheres is done through the Underground's menu function. It will not work, however, when the player faces a wall: spheres can only be buried in the ground. The longer the spheres remain buried, the larger they will grow. A player may bury up to 100 spheres at a time; attempting to bury more will cause the oldest buried sphere to disappear. In the player's presence, each of their buried spheres will let off a bright glint one at a time in the order they were buried in. Buried spheres are only accessible to the player that put them there; others cannot see them, ping them, or interact with them in any way. Others can, however, take advantage of the increased mining spots generated. This can be beneficial for the player who buried the spheres and a friend (or friends), as there will be plenty of opportunities to mine side-by-side.

Item shapes

Items have unique shapes in the mining minigame. Larger items cover a greater area and can thus be found more easily, but take more digging to unearth.

* Can be found this way and rotated 90°
** Can be found this way, rotated 90°, rotated 180°, and rotated 270°

Small Sphere

Large Sphere

Heart Scale

Skull Fossil

Armor Fossil

Dome Fossil

Helix Fossil**

Old Amber*

Claw Fossil**

Root Fossil**

Red Shard

Yellow Shard

Green Shard

Blue Shard

Plate

Hard Stone

Heat Rock

Damp Rock

Smooth Rock

Icy Rock

Fire Stone

Water Stone

Thunderstone

Leaf Stone*

Moon Stone*

Sun Stone

Oval Stone

Everstone

Iron Ball

Light Clay

Odd Keystone

Revive

Max Revive

Star Piece

Rare Bone*

Secret Bases

See also: List of decoration goods in Generation IV

The Underground is also where Secret Bases are created in the Generation IV games. The spheres dug up in the mining minigame can be traded to explorers found throughout the caves for objects to furnish Secret Bases. Secret Bases can be created in any part of the wall using a Digger Drill. These bases can be decorated with ten items each.

If a player visits a Secret Base of another player, they can get that player's flag. After successfully returning the other player's flag to one's own base, the player's record is updated. The number of flags captured (either from the same "opponent" or several ones) upgrades the player's Secret Base computer. Each upgrade changes the graphic slightly (the icons resemble the evolution of personal computer technology) and also allows the player to remove additional boulders from their base using the "Store" option of the "Decorate" menu. This allows more room for goods to be placed. Boulders that have been removed cannot be placed back into the base, although they'll reappear if a new base is created.

	No. of flags captured	Capabilities
Normal Flag	0	Can display 10 goods (default)
Bronze Flag	1	Can display 12 goods and remove 1 Big Boulder
Silver Flag	3	Can display 15 goods and remove 5 Big Boulders
Gold Flag	10	Can display 15 goods, remove 10 Big Boulders, and use the Radar
Platinum Flag	50	Can display 15 goods, remove all Big Boulders, and use the Radar Increases the level of the Trainer Card

A player who has a flag cannot do anything besides store the flag in their PC. If they try, the game will alert them that they have to drop their flag first. If the owner of the flag talks to someone who has stolen it, the flag is automatically returned to their base, while if another player talks to someone who has stolen a flag, that person steals the flag from the other person, and then they can try to get the flag to their base.

Traps

Another feature of the Underground are traps. These can also be purchased from explorers with spheres or found in the path in the same way a player can find mining spots: by touching the screen and watching for sparkles on the ground. They may also be dug up, like the Spheres, by pressing the A button when next to one, facing it. Players may only carry a total of 40 traps at one time; any attempt to unearth more will be refused and those traps left untouched.

If a player steps on a trap, they may be sent flying in a specific direction, have their controls altered so they walk the wrong way, or they may have to use the stylus or microphone to clear a hazard, such as by popping bubbles or clearing smoke, or a message will be broadcast to all players in the Underground. The game will explain how to escape from a trap, however if the trap was placed by an opponent, that opponent will be alerted that someone has landed in it. If a player is caught in a trap, another can face them and press A to immediately get them out of it. Since all players run at the same speed, well placed traps are the primary means of catching players with stolen flags. Each player's traps will show up as brightly colored squares with symbols matching their names, this helps a player avoid getting caught in their own traps.

Vendors

A crucial feature of the Underground is vendors. These explorers appear to be stationary and only rotate in place. There are three types of vendors in the Underground:

Treasure vendors - these accept the player's treasures and give them spheres in return.
Goods vendors - these accept spheres and give goods in return, and vice versa.
Trap vendors - these accept spheres and give traps in return, and vice versa.

Vendors change their prices on items and which items they sell every day, so one vendor may not have the same item for two days in a row. Vendors allow the player to decorate their Secret Base and plant traps anywhere in the Underground.

In the map of the Underground at the top of the page, the red dots are the treasure vendors, the blue dots are the goods vendors, and the yellow dots are the trap vendors.

Getting to areas

Entering the Underground in most locations will lead to the large central area. To access the other areas, the Underground must be entered from specific spots in the overworld:

Top left area: Fullmoon Island, Newmoon Island
Top right area: Fight, Survival, Resort Areas
Bottom left area: Twinleaf Town, Sandgem Town, Jubilife City, Oreburgh City, Floaroma Town, Canalave City, Route 221, Pal Park
Bottom right area: South Sunyshore City
Small center area: Celestic Town

Multiplayer

When entering the Underground, the DS Wireless Communication is activated. Other players within range choosing to enter the Underground will be able to interact in the same set of tunnels. As described above, players can enter one another's Secret Bases and set traps. Additionally, digging in the walls next to each other allows players to collaborate on the excavation.

Players can talk to each other just like NPCs in the above world. In doing so, they can exchange Goods used to decorate a Secret Base, and they can communicate using a basic question and answer selection menu. Each time a player talks to another player, the counter on their card is incremented. This counter reaching 32 is one of the prerequisites for encountering Spiritomb.

When trading goods with another player, some restrictions are in place:

Dolls cannot be traded with other players.
Items exclusively available from Mr. Goods, the Underground Man, or the Veilstone Department Store cannot be traded.
A player will be unable to trade for 24–48 hours if they turn off their game while inside the Underground. This penalty also applies if the player exits the Underground and then turns off their game without saving.

Item appearances

Each item has a respective appearance rate, which depends on game version^DP or the player's Trainer ID number^Pt and on whether the player has obtained the National Pokédex. Appearance rates work like a lottery system, where the rate is the number of lottery tickets an item has in the pot. For example, an item with a appearance rate of 15 is 3× more likely to be selected than another item with an appearance rate of 5. The exact likelihood for an item to be selected is its appearance rate divided by the sum of all appearance rates in the same list.

In practice, item rarity is more complicated. First, an item is selected from the appropriate list, weighted by appearance rate. Next, an attempt is made to place the item in a random spot on the mining grid. This attempt fails if the item would partially hang outside the grid area or overlap with a previously-placed item. If this happens, the process starts over by selecting a random item from the list again. Large items like the Root Fossil will fail to be placed more often than small items like the Heart Scale, and therefore they will be less common than their appearance rate alone would indicate.

If the player picks up the Adamant Orb^D or Lustrous Orb^P at Spear Pillar, the appearance rates of Prism Spheres^D or Pale Spheres^P respectively increase, by 66 for small Spheres and 33 for large Spheres. This does not occur in Pokémon Platinum.

Each Plate can only appear once. Once the player has dug up a specific Plate and added it to their bag, that type of Plate will never appear again. This does not happen if the wall collapses before the Plate is dug up. Two of the same Plate also cannot appear in the same mining session, although any number of different Plates can.

Name	Appearance rate
	Pre-National Pokédex		Post-National Pokédex
	Diamond Odd ID^Pt	Pearl Even ID^Pt	Diamond Odd ID^Pt	Pearl Even ID^Pt
Small Prism Sphere	30*	22	27*	20
Small Pale Sphere	22	30*	20	27*
Small Red Sphere	167	194	110	164
Small Blue Sphere	194	167	150	124
Small Green Sphere	150	150	107	107
Large Prism Sphere	15*	13	13*	10
Large Pale Sphere	13	15*	10	13*
Large Red Sphere	83	96	61	75
Large Blue Sphere	96	83	75	61
Large Green Sphere	75	75	53	53
Oval Stone	0	0	0	0
Odd Keystone	0	0	2	2
Sun Stone	4	1	15	3
Star Piece	2	2	10	10
Moon Stone	2	4	3	15
Hard Stone	4	4	20	20
Thunder Stone	4	1	30	5
Everstone	4	4	20	20
Fire Stone	4	1	30	5
Water Stone	1	4	5	30
Leaf Stone	2	4	5	30
Helix Fossil	0	0	12	4
Dome Fossil	0	0	1	13
Claw Fossil	0	0	12	4
Root Fossil	0	0	4	12
Old Amber	0	0	5	5
Rare Bone	2	2	10	10
Revive	8	8	10	10
Max Revive	1	1	2	2
Red Shard	13	13	17	17
Blue Shard	13	13	17	17
Yellow Shard	13	13	17	17
Green Shard	13	13	17	17
Heart Scale	33	33	30	30
Armor Fossil	0	25	0	12
Skull Fossil	25	0	12	0
Light Clay	1	1	5	2
Iron Ball	1	1	2	5
Icy Rock	2	1	11	5
Smooth Rock	1	2	5	11
Heat Rock	2	1	11	5
Damp Rock	1	2	5	11
Flame Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Splash Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Zap Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Meadow Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Icicle Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Fist Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Toxic Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Earth Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Sky Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Mind Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Insect Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Stone Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Spooky Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Draco Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Dread Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*
Iron Plate	1*	1*	1*	1*

In animation

The Underground in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

Pokémon the Series

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

The Underground appeared in The Grass Menagerie!. While Ash was battling Gardenia for the Forest Badge, Team Rocket stumbled across the sprawling tunnels of the Underground. They met the Underground Man, who convinced them to dig in the tunnels for Shards and Spheres. They agreed to split the profits with him in exchange for lunch. However, he fled with the treasure while they ate.

In the manga

The Underground in Pokémon Adventures

Pokémon Adventures

Diamond & Pearl arc

In A Conk on Cranidos's Cranium, Roark was revealed to have been digging up Fossils in the Underground with the Underground Man.

In Double Trouble with Dialga and Palkia I, the Underground's network of tunnels enabled Professor Rowan, Mr. Berlitz, the Underground Man, and most of the Gym Leaders of Sinnoh to reach the Spear Pillar and assemble without Team Galactic noticing.

Trivia

Air vents that serve to provide the Underground with a supply of air can be found all over the surface of Sinnoh.
Walking into a wall will not cause the "bump" audio to play.
The Underground has rotational symmetry.
The player's PC is only updated when the door is shut; if it is open then the PC reverts to the very first look.
The Underground is featured in one of the paintings on display in Lumiose Museum in Pokémon X and Y.
The Underground's background music is partially a remastered Route 111 theme.

In other languages

Underground

Language		Title
Chinese	Cantonese	地下通道 Deihhah Tūngdouh
Chinese	Mandarin	地下通道 Dìxià Tōngdào * 地下通路 Dìxià Tōnglù *
French	Canada	Sous la surface, Underground *
French	Europe	Souterrain
German		Untergrund
Italian		Sotterranei
Korean		지하통로 Jihatongno
Polish		Podziemie
Portuguese		Subsolo
Spanish		Subsuelo
Vietnamese		Địa đạo