SoulGold puzzle solutions for every area

Most of SoulGold’s new puzzles guard a legendary. Below is every one I solved, in the order you’ll reach them. Where I don’t have the full answer, I say so.

Goldenrod gates that look like puzzles

Whitney’s gym:

1. Go to Radio Tower 1F.
2. Finish the quiz. You get the VS Seeker, which recharges every 200 steps and resets route trainers.
3. Whitney’s gym is now open.

The Route 36 Sudowoodo:

1. Beat Whitney.
2. Get the Squirtbottle from the Goldenrod Flower Shop. Ask Floria if you’re stuck.
3. Water the Sudowoodo on Route 36.

Rotom’s appliance forms:

1. Go to the Goldenrod Apartment basement.
2. Talk to the guard first, then use the appliances. I poked the fridge three times before I figured out the guard part.

Gym puzzles

The gym floors are the same as Heart and Soul, so you already know them. The fights are what changed.

1. On Hard, every gym battle is Doubles. Set Trainer format to Singles if you don’t want that.
2. Chuck, Jasmine and Pryce change their teams to match your 4, 5 or 6 badges. Pick your order with that in mind.

I was a little relieved the floors were the same.

Ruins of Alph: eight puzzles, one GS Ball

You need all eight done before the GS Ball passage opens: the four slider chambers (the fossil pictures) and the four Unown walls.

1. Solve the four slider chambers. They’re the classic picture puzzles.
2. ESCAPE wall: stand at it and use an Escape Rope from the Bag.
3. WATER wall: use a Water Stone from the Bag. The Ruins’ reward chambers give out Fire, Water, Thunder, Leaf and Moon Stones, so check those before you buy one.
4. LIGHT wall: use Flash from the party menu. The HM is on Sprout Tower 3F. You only need it in your Bag with the badge.
5. HOOH wall: have Ho-Oh in your party. You’ll come back for this one.
6. Go to B1F and enter the new passage. Take the GS Ball.
7. Bring it to Kurt in Azalea Town.
8. Go to the Ilex Forest shrine. Celebi is there at level 40, a normal fight with no bars.

The reward chambers also hold an Odd Incense and a Berserk Gene. The sliders are the part of the Ruins I’d happily do again.

Ice Path

The original floors are the same slides as HeartGold, so if you’ve done it before you know the way. That means the 1F ice, the B1F Strength boulders that drop to B2F, and the Kimono Girl stuck on the ice near the Blackthorn exit. The new floors, B4F, the Depths and Depths 2, are where the items and Chien-Pao are. This cave ate a whole evening.

Floor	What’s there
1F	HM Waterfall, PP Up, Protein, a hidden PP Up, the Kimono Girl
B1F	Iron, Lax Mint, four Strength boulders
B2F	TM94 Ice Spinner, Full Heal, Carbos, a hidden Elixir
B3F	Swinub by day, Delibird at night
B4F	NeverMeltIce, Rock Smash rocks, a waterfall up to the Depths
Depths	Heavy-Duty Boots, Icetite, TM14 Blizzard (needs Rock Climb)
Depths 2	Chien-Pao

1. Pick up HM Waterfall on 1F. It’s an item ball, not a gift.
2. Pick up TM94 Ice Spinner on B2F.
3. Face the Kimono Girl on 1F from the north and shove her off the ice, then slide out to Blackthorn.
4. Come back after the eighth badge with Waterfall and Rock Climb. Climb the B4F waterfall to the Depths for TM14 Blizzard and the Icetite.
5. Go on to Ice Path Depths 2 for Chien-Pao, a three-bar boss at level 70.

The second Safari Zone expansion opens before you get to Ice Path.

Whirl Islands

1. Get HM Whirlpool on Rocket Hideout B2F.
2. Go to the Whirl Islands. The routing inside is the Heart and Soul one.
3. Grab the Life Orb on B1F.
4. Head down to Whirl Islands Descent for an Ability Patch.

If you walk in before the story lets you, a short flashback plays and kicks you back out. I fell for that once.

Dragon’s Den shrine quiz

The Elder asks five questions. Pick these, in order:

1. Pal or Friend
2. Strategy or Training
3. Tough person or Anybody
4. Love or Knowledge
5. Both

A wrong answer just repeats the question, so you can’t fail. After the Clair scene, go back in and talk to the Elder. A perfect score gets you a shiny Lv 15 Dratini with ExtremeSpeed and Spacial Rend. Any mistake and the Dratini only knows ExtremeSpeed. It can’t learn Spacial Rend any other way.

The shrine also has the only Draco Meteor tutor in the game.

The Kubfu maze (Blackthorn City)

1. Get the eighth badge and the Rock Climb HM from Victory Road 1F.
2. Climb into the cave in Blackthorn City.
3. Go down.
4. Go up.
5. Go left.
6. Go up.
7. Go left.
8. Go down.
9. Go right.
10. Go right. Kubfu is waiting as a level 5 gift.

I wrote these steps on a sticky note and still took a wrong turn.

The Scroll of Darkness and Scroll of Waters that evolve it into Urshifu are at the Rocket Arcade in the postgame. They’re expensive.

The Regi walls

Walk up to each braille wall with the right ‘mon in your party and it opens.

Wall	Where	Bring	Reward
Regirock	Vajra Desert West	Tyranitar	Regirock, Lv 50
Regice	Snowtop Mountain (Rock Climb needed)	Baxcalibur	Regice, Lv 50
Registeel	Railway Cave	Kommo-o	Registeel, Lv 50
Regigigas	Mt. Silver back room	Regirock, Regice and Registeel together	Regigigas, Lv 70, four bars

1. Catch Regirock, Regice and Registeel. They’re normal fights.
2. Put all three in your party.
3. Go to the Mt. Silver back room. Regigigas is a four-bar boss. Break the last bar and any ball catches it. Losing just costs you time, and I lost to it once.

Heatran’s line puzzle (Mt. Mortar Depths)

1. Get Waterfall and Rock Climb.
2. Go down to Mt. Mortar Depths.
3. At the line puzzle, select the lower line and the middle top.
4. Heatran appears, a four-bar boss at level 70.

It looks simple, and I still stared at it for ages.

The Black Mirror and the Lost Woods (Kitakami)

1. Pick up the Black Mirror on Kitakami Mountain 4F.
2. Carry it into the Lost Woods.
3. Follow the Murkrow. I lost it twice and had to start over.
4. At the end is Bloodmoon Ursaluna, a two-bar boss at level 60.

The Cherrygrove Inn (Darkrai)

First, catch Cresselia:

1. Finish the rival story at Mt. Silver.
2. Talk to the rival at their house.
3. Go to the Lake of Rage and talk to the Hidden Power Dude.
4. Go to the lake’s north-east corner. Cresselia is a three-bar boss at level 60.
5. Show Cresselia to the rival.

Then do the inn, with Cresselia in your party:

1. Enter the Cherrygrove inn and accept the Moon Key.
2. Go to your room at the top of the stairs, check the bed, and choose not to sleep.
3. Go outside, come back to the lobby, and check the papers on the wall.
4. Check the Luxray trophy in the long hallway.
5. Use the old phone on the front desk. Call the number made by the stack of papers.
6. Check the piano for a small key, and use it on the safe nearby. The inn is my favorite puzzle in the hack.
7. Go upstairs. Darkrai is there as Mega Darkrai, a four-bar boss at level 70.

After that the rival gives you HM Dive. Kyogre is at the dive spot south of Route 33 (first left). Groudon is at the Route 50 dive spot. Both are four-bar bosses at level 80.

The Abandoned Rocket Warehouse (Dark Crystal)

1. Surf south from Route 33 as far as you can, then turn right.
2. Inside, read the shredded report. It tells you Houndour was the first stable subject, and the Rattata and Zubat trials failed.
3. At the terminal, pick 228 (Houndour) from 019, 041, 198 and 228.
4. Storage Bay R unseals. Go in. I picked the wrong number first, which is how I know the report matters.
5. Work through the rest of the warehouse to the Dark Crystal. I didn’t keep notes on these rooms, so you’re on your own past the bay.
6. Take the Dark Crystal to the normal Lugia encounter. You fight Shadow Lugia instead, same level and bars, with its own learnset.

Already caught Lugia? Win one Title Defense to reset the spawn. Once you’re Champion, Genesect is in the warehouse’s back room, a two-bar boss at level 70.

The Latias temple (Vajra Desert East)

The temple opens in the postgame. It holds Latias and Latios (three bars each, level 80) and a hidden Soul Dew.

1. Go to the Vajra Desert East temple.
2. Search the temple for the Soul Dew.
3. Work the puzzle in front of Latias. I didn’t record how it goes.
4. If you get it stuck, hit the reset button and try again. I used that button more than once.

Spear Pillar and the Time Gear

1. Trade a Tinkaton to the Rinto Village scientist.
2. Become Champion.
3. Go down the Vajra Pyramid and beat the spirit trainers. Hoopa is a three-bar boss at level 80. Catch it and the Prison Bottle drops in the Final Chamber.
4. Finish all eight Ruins of Alph puzzles if you haven’t.
5. With Hoopa in your party, go to the Celebi secret room and touch the back wall.
6. At Spear Pillar Summit, take the portals for Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. Each is a four-bar boss at level 85.
7. Pick up the Adamant, Lustrous and Griseous Orbs hidden on the summit. They change the dragons’ forms.
8. Put Grovyle, Dusknoir and Celebi in your party and use the Time Gear. Primal Dialga is a four-bar boss at level 85.

Meteor Island paradox walls

The regular Paradox Pokémon are wild on Meteor Island at levels 56 to 60.

1. Catch every past Paradox Pokémon.
2. Use the Unown wall at the back of the island.
3. In the next room, bring Entei, Raikou and Suicune to their three walls. You get Walking Wake, Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt, two-bar bosses at level 75.
4. Catch every future Paradox Pokémon.
5. Use the other wall, and bring Virizion, Terrakion and Cobalion. You get Iron Leaves, Iron Boulder and Iron Crown, also two bars at level 75.
6. Buy Koraidon and Miraidon at the Battle Café for 25 points each. They only show up once you have every other Paradox.

Knocked one out by mistake? A Title Defense win respawns the island’s boss Paradox. I did that with Iron Crown and was very glad of it.

Every legendary here has its full requirements in the legendary locations guide. For the dex entries these unlock, see the commonly missed Pokédex list. After the credits, go to the postgame guide.