Seventeen Plates scattered across two regions, a rift in space-time, Giratina and Arceus, and a trip to ancient Hisui to face Volo. This is the last and hardest content in the game. The order below follows the game’s scripts.
1. Waji at the Spear Pillar
Climb Mt. Coronet to the Spear Pillar. Waji, the green-haired man from Petalburg Woods who gave you the Sinnoh ticket, is waiting: “Didn’t I tell you someone would give you guidance at the Spear Pillar?” Say yes when he asks whether to start searching and he describes the hiding place of every Plate you are still missing, in riddles (“It might take a while, so take your own notes”). Talk to him again for an updated list. When you have them all: “bring every tablet and step onto this altar, maybe something will happen.”
2. The 17 Plates
Waji’s hints are quoted with the place each one points to. Every Plate is an item on the ground except the Icicle Plate, which a man gives you. The Journal names the next Plate you are missing, in Waji’s order.
| Plate | Waji’s hint | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fist Plate | “in an underwater ruin covered with ancient writing” | The Sealed Chamber (Dive on Route 134) |
| Sky Plate | “inside a cabin full of Wingull” | The house on Route 119 full of Wingull |
| Toxic Plate | “in a marshland of the Sinnoh region, on top of a little hillock” | A small hill in the marsh on Route 212, toward Pastoria City |
| Earth Plate | “on a small island… in a cave at the deepest part of floor 1 of a rock cavern” | Granite Cave near Dewford: the room at the back of the first floor, where Steven was |
| Stone Plate | “in a mine in Sinnoh, surrounded by digging machines and ore” | Oreburgh Mine |
| Insect Plate | “ruins in the Sinnoh region with a tangled, complex layout… inside one of the large caves” | Solaceon Ruins |
| Spooky Plate | “in a tower in the Sinnoh region, quite close to the ruins of the Insect Plate” | Lost Tower, Route 209 |
| Iron Plate and Dread Plate | “in a hidden base in the Hoenn region, surrounded by computers and cultivation tanks” | The Team Rocket hideout under the Mauville Game Corner (one item gives both) |
| Flame Plate | “at the summit of an active volcano… lava flowing all around” | The summit of Mt. Chimney |
| Splash Plate | “in the ocean of the Hoenn region, surrounded by white reefs, the plate lies underwater” | Underwater on Route 126, around Sootopolis (Dive) |
| Meadow Plate | “a forest… it rains here all year round, surrounded by green trees and Berries… hidden in the shade of the trees” | Route 120 |
| Zap Plate | “surrounded by giant generators… hidden in a secret corner” | New Mauville |
| Mind Plate | “in the same ruins as the Insect Plate but in a different spot” | Solaceon Ruins |
| Icicle Plate | “in a snowfield of the Sinnoh region, the plate was taken home by a mountain man” | The hut on Route 217. He gives it to you: “Oh? The plate is reacting?” |
| Draco Plate | “the abode of one of Hoenn’s two ancient peoples… within their forbidden grounds” | The Meteor Temple, reached from Meteor Falls |
| Pixie Plate | “Sinnoh’s land of origin… buried deep within this mountain” | Deep inside Mt. Coronet |
The eighteenth, the Blank Plate, is in neither region: Volo hands it over at the very end.
3. The altar and the Space-Time Rift
With all seventeen, step onto the altar at the Spear Pillar: “As the plate resonated, [you] sensed turbulence in space-time!… Activate the plate’s power and enter the rift in space-time?” Inside the Space-Time Rift, Dialga and Palkia face you together in a level-50 Double Battle. Past them is a trainer from another world, Ruby or Sapphire depending on your character, who “crossed into this rift in spacetime to stop the Ultra Wormholes”. Afterwards: “The Pokémon of time and space have ceased their strife now, and we’ve each caught one of them…”
4. Celestic Town and Giratina
Waji now senses “the same energy as inside the space-time rift coming from Celestic Town”. The game checks your Pokédex in the ruins there: if Dialga and Palkia are both registered as caught, a new passage opens at the Spear Pillar, and another at Sendoff Spring. Waji: “While you were at Celestic Town, that altar suddenly changed, and a new passage appeared.” Both passages lead to the Distortion World, where Giratina (level 80) waits.
The Distortion World can also be entered from a small islet on Route 129 in Hoenn, with no conditions, so you can reach Giratina without both Dialga and Palkia. Only Giratina and the Plates matter for what comes next.
Side story: the hidden ruins and the God-King
Cynthia is investigating newly found ruins off Route 210, which you can also reach from the Solaceon Ruins: “Perhaps if you gather all the tablets and set them into the empty slots in the underground ruins, something will be revealed.” At one tablet Waji phones in a hint: “leap down from the northwest corner… remember to back up a bit and take a running jump.”
With all seventeen Plates in your Bag, the wall of the ruins takes them (“[you] set the stone tablet into the wall of the ruins…!”) and opens the Unown Ruins. There Cyrus, now calling himself the God-King, tells you to “command Palkia or Dialga and face me”: “[you] must choose between the god of time and the god of space…!” The one you pick is a level-80 battle you cannot run from, and winning it also opens the Spear Pillar passage. Then Cyrus fights with Palkia, Dialga, two Arceus, Darkrai and Giratina, all level 100. Beaten, he casts you “into the world I once ruled”, and you wake up in Twinleaf Town.
Your choice happens only once. The Dialga and Palkia in the ruins disappear as soon as you enter the ruins in Celestic Town, so if you have been there first (Cynthia studies a tablet there during the Sinnoh story) the God-King fight starts without the choice.
Palkia
Lv 100- Spacial Rend
- Hydro Cannon
- Psystrike
- Doom Desire
Dialga
Lv 100- Roar of Time
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Power Gem
Arceus
Lv 100- Judgment
- Ice Beam
- Future Sight
- Earth Power
Arceus (Dark)
Lv 100- Judgment
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Light of Ruin
Darkrai
Lv 100- Dark Void
- Dream Eater
- Spacial Rend
- Roar of Time
Giratina (Origin Forme)
Lv 100- Shadow Force
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Ominous Wind
5. Arceus on the Mountain Top
Waji: “Dialga, who represents time, Palkia, who represents space, and Giratina, who represents the reverse world, are now all gathered in one Trainer. All 17 scattered shards have also been recovered.” He tells you to meet Arceus at the summit, but the scene is not on Mt. Coronet. Go back to the Mountain Top above Team Rainbow Rocket’s castle, where you beat them in the Hoenn post-game.
“[Your] seventeen Plates began to resonate with the space around them…” A way up opens, and at the top Arceus speaks: “I am the one you humans call the God of Creation, Arceus!… you have stopped the final catastrophe that would have burned all creation.” The battle is level 80. Arceus joins you whether you catch it or win: “It is time I made good on My old promise.” It warns of a final foe who “guides all things from within the bitter cold”: “Go to Jiayuan City and seek out a certain someone.” Jiayuan City is the untranslated name of Hearthome City.
6. Cogita and the Dawn of Hisui
Cogita lives in a house on the west side of Hearthome City. She will only talk to you with the seventeen Plates in your Bag. “Only those recognized by Arceus may pass freely through the rifts of space-time.” She opens a space-time rift in her house and goes ahead to Hisui to gather “the last plate lost amid space and time”.
- Prelude Beach. Rei and Akari mistake you for a drifter. Rei battles you, then flies you to the Deertrack Heights base camp. Rei is your guide in Hisui and flies you between the safe zones; some of his lines call him by his Chinese name, Mingyao. The Sinnoh Map shows Hisui here, and A on a red square flies you there.
- Firespit Island. Cogita is here: “Unlike that one lost in space-time, you were guided to this era by me.” She sends you to the Diamond and Pearl Clans.
- The hot spring in the Alabaster Icelands. Adaman (Diamond Clan) is recovering from his wounds and Irida (Pearl Clan) is looking after both clans. Both clan treasures are lost. Talk to both, and “Diamond and Pearl both point to this spot at the foot of Mt. Coronet.”
- Primeval Cave: Volo. Volo of the Ginkgo Guild asks whether you have seen “square stone plates carved with writing”, then battles you once. When he recognises Arceus’s power in you, he shows what he has become: “These rings have taken the place of the Red Chain. With them, I control Dialga and Palkia”, and Giratina “bows at my feet”. This is the final boss.
Hoopa (Unbound)
Lv 100- Hyperspace Fury
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
Eternatus
Lv 100- Toxic
- Flamethrower
- Cosmic Power
- Recover
Dialga (Origin Forme)
Lv 100- Roar of Time
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Metal Burst
Palkia (Origin Forme)
Lv 100- Earth Power
- Spacial Rend
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder
Giratina (Origin Forme)
Lv 100- Draco Meteor
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Sneak
- Poltergeist
Regigigas
Lv 100- Protect
- Substitute
- Crush Grip
- Drain Punch
If you lose, “The powers of Dialga and Palkia resonated! [You were] sent back to before entering the Primordial Cave!” If you win, Volo breaks down: “Then what meaning is there in me keeping this Blank Plate? Take it. I am not worthy of it.” “All the plates have been gathered! They’re radiating a dazzling light!” Arceus appears to Volo and then to you: “Thou hast halted the calamity that would end the world, and gathered the eighteen fragments… Now let me witness this world together with you.”
7. After the Dawn
- Back at Prelude Beach, Rei reports that the space-time distortions are under control, and Cogita has heard what Volo was up to.
- Now Adaman and Irida each sense a legendary in your party. Bring Dialga to Adaman and Palkia to Irida, and after a battle each hands over their clan’s treasure: the Adamant Crystal and the Lustrous Globe.
- Enamorus. Cogita on Firespit Island summons it herself (“Come forth!”) once you have caught Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus: a level-50 encounter. ROM
- The God of Forms. Above Hisui’s highlands, at the Moonbow Dome, a “God of Forms” shapes clay figures that rebuild themselves as fast as you beat them. The way up needs Cogita’s Enamorus talk and Kitty’s nameless stone: Kitty, the hack’s lead artist, lives in the three-floor developer house on Steven’s Island and wants dried fish, and the only Dried Fish in the game lies on Prelude Beach in Hisui. She calls it “at least a hundred years old! The same age as this stone!” and trades it for the stone. The Diamond Clan member in the highlands, who otherwise blames a landslide, then lets you head for the summit. In the fight “the nameless stone in your bag began to glow” and the clay figures crumble (“All things in this world were once nameless chaos…”); the god answers with the Rainbow Ring. Beaten, the god asks “take me with you… let me stay by your side and study your tactics”, and you face it one last time as a level-70 Pokémon (the Enamorus species) that you can catch. ROM
- After that, Cogita waits on Champion Island with a further mystery (“‘They’ may not be enemies…”). At her retreat off Sootopolis she runs the Dream Sky Gauntlet: six battles in a row, with healing between them.
- Volo also appears in Hoenn’s Sealed Chamber as a Ginkgo merchant selling rare goods, once you have read the Braille there.
- A blue-haired passer-by offers, for 500,000, to send you “back to the recent past”.
That is the end of the story the Journal follows. For everything it does not, see Side Content & Gift Pokémon.
