Black City/White Forest Mechanics

Introduction

The Black City (BC) and White Forest (WF) are two of the most complicated features of the Pokémon Black and White games. Although the official Wi-Fi service was shut down for these games long ago, these features are still active as they require local play through the Entralink. Little info, however, is available on how these features work. This guide will walk you through the mechanics of BC/WF, focusing on the process of recruiting Trainers.

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How Trainers Are Selected

When a new save is created, 13 recruitable Trainers are assigned to the BC/WF--10 in the overworld and 3 in the Entralink. These Trainers change which items are available for sale (BC) and which Pokémon show up in the wild (WF). The game randomly selects the Trainers from a pool of 30. The Trainers available and their respective features are tabulated below. Pokémon found in the White Forest are level 5.

Trainer	Overworld Sprite	Black City			White Forest			Base Happiness
		Battle Pokémon		Market Item	Grass Pokémon	Water Pokémon	Overworld Item	Black	White
Ace Trainer Lena		Gardevoir	Gallade	Sun Stone	Ralts	Wooper	Sun Stone	20	80
Ace Trainer Vincent		Magmortar		Fire Stone	Magby	Corphish	Fire Stone	30	70
Backpacker Carlos		Staraptor		Oval Stone	Starly	Corphish	Oval Stone	70	30
Backpacker Emi		Blissey		Fluffy Tail	Happiny	Corphish	Timer Ball	30	70
Backpacker Herman		Porygon-Z		Dusk Stone	Porygon	Wooper	Dusk Stone	80	20
Backpacker Molly		Azumarill		Shiny Stone	Azurill	Lotad	Shiny Stone	20	80
Battle Girl Karenna		Slaking		Leaf Stone	Slakoth	Lotad	Leaf Stone	30	70
Black Belt Ryder		Machamp		Nugget	Machop	Lotad	Quick Ball	70	30
Clerk Britney		Jumpluff		Rare Bone	Hoppip	Surskit	Rare Bone	30	70
Clerk Collin		Alakazam		Yellow Shard	Abra	Lotad	Yellow Shard	30	70
Clerk Doug		Luxray		Red Shard	Shinx	Lotad	Red Shard	70	30
Clerk Piper		Victreebel		Star Piece	Bellsprout	Surskit	Nest Ball	70	30
Gentleman Frederic		Roserade		Luxury Ball	Budew	Wooper	Honey	30	20
Hiker Gene		Aggron		Big Mushroom	Aron	Surskit	Big Mushroom	30	70
Lady Lynette		Vileplume	Bellossom	Heart Scale	Oddish	Surskit	Heart Scale	70	30
Lass Miki		Togekiss		Max Repel	Togepi	Surskit	Repeat Ball	30	70
Nursery Aide Miho		Shiftry		Big Pearl	Seedot	Surskit	Ultra Ball	70	30
Pokémon Ranger Eliza		Flygon		Blue Shard	Trapinch	Lotad	Blue Shard	70	30
Pokémon Ranger Ralph		Ludicolo		Water Stone	Lotad	Surskit	Water Stone	30	70
Rich Boy Pierce		Ampharos		Poké Ball	Mareep	Surskit	Poké Ball	30	70
Roughneck Dave		Gengar		Tiny Mushroom	Gastly	Surskit	Tiny Mushroom	70	30
Schoolkid Leo		Pidgeot		Stardust	Pidgey	Surskit	Stardust	70	30
Schoolkid Shane		Rhyperior		Berry Juice	Rhyhorn	Surskit	Net Ball	30	70
Schoolkid Silvia		Beautifly	Dustox	Pearl	Wurmple	Surskit	Poké Ball	30	70
Scientist Jacques		Nidoqueen		Poké Doll	Nidoran-F	Lotad	Dive Ball	30	70
Scientist Marie		Magnezone		Green Shard	Magnemite	Lotad	Green Shard	70	30
Socialite Grace		Salamence		Dawn Stone	Bagon	Wooper	Dawn Stone	20	30
Veteran Ken		Nidoking		Thunder Stone	Nidoran-M	Corphish	Thunder Stone	70	30
Veteran Rosa		Exploud		Moon Stone	Whismur	Lotad	Moon Stone	80	20
Youngster Robbie		Electivire		Fresh Water	Elekid	Surskit	Great Ball	70	30

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Why Trainers Leave

Each Trainer has a default “happiness” value. When this value reaches 0, the Trainer leaves BC/WF and their respective items/Pokémon available for sale/capture are no longer available to you. Their happiness decreases by 5 for each day that passes, increases by 3 by entering BC/WF, and can increase further by talking to the individual NPC, as tabulated below:

Action	Happiness Change
Day Passes	-5
Enter BC/WF	+3
Battle the Trainer (BC only)	+7
Talk to the Trainer (WF only)	+10

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Recruiting Trainers

Once a Trainer leaves, they inhabit the player's Entralink. This is the portion of BC/WF that other people can see when they visit your game via the Entralink. When a new game is created, 3 Trainers are randomly chosen from the pool of 30 (there cannot be overlap with the 10 inhabitants already chosen), and automatically inhabit the Entralink. Only the Trainers that inhabit the Entralink are recruitable by other players. Therefore, when a new game is started, 3 Trainers are immediately available for recruitment by other players.

You can have a maximum of 10 unique Trainers in your Entralink available for recruitment. This essentially fixes the total number of NPCs in your game to a maximum of 20: 10 inhabitants (which affect what Pokémon/items are available to you; non-recruitable by other players), and 10 Entralink NPCs (which are recruitable by other players and have no influence on your game). Note that other NPCs may exist in these areas, but we only refer to those that are potentially recruitable, either immediately if in the Entralink or later on once they leave and enter the Entralink over time.

To recruit an NPC over to your BC/WF, you must enter the Entralink of your friend's game and travel to their BC/WF. By talking to the NPCs, they may ask to inhabit your BC/WF. Saying yes will remove the NPC from the other player's Entralink and will cause the NPC to become an inhabitant of your BC/WF. Because NPCs in the Entralink have no impact on a player's BC/WF functionality (i.e. what you can catch/buy), having them leave will not negatively impact your friend's game.

As more Trainers enter your BC/WF, the area itself will become more developed. In the case of BC, this means more items will be available for sale, more Trainers available to battle, and more buildings in the overworld. Similarly, the WF will have more trees and patches of grass/water for you to encounter more Pokémon. Note that when very few NPCs inhabit your WF, the patches of water may not appear.

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Recruitment Restrictions

If your Entralink is full (meaning you have had 7+ NPCs leave over time for a total of 10 in your Entralink), the Trainers in your BC/WF will not lose happiness. This means they are permanent residents until someone comes along and recruits from your Entralink, freeing up a spot for a new Trainer to leave. Once this occurs, their happiness will begin to drop again and they will eventually leave.

You cannot have two of the same Trainer in your game, which includes your BC/WF and your Entralink. That means if you currently have a Trainer inhabiting your game, or the Trainer has subsequently left and has not yet been recruited, you will not be able to re-recruit that Trainer from someone else's game.

You cannot recruit Trainers if your friend has the same game version. For example, Trainers can only be recruited to your WF from your friend's BC, and vice versa. Trainers cannot be recruited from another WF into your own, for example.

There is no direct way to move a Trainer from your Entralink back into your own BC/WF. You must have a second game recruit the Trainer from your Entralink, cause them to leave in the other game, then recruit them back into your original game.

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Obtaining the Desired NPC

Now that you have an understanding of the complexity of BC/WF, it is time to set up your games to receive your desired Trainer. We'll be using the example of recruiting a desired Trainer into WF.

Prerequisites for the process:

• A copy of Pokémon White with the story beaten to have WF accessible.
• A copy of Pokémon Black for Entralink.
• 2 Nintendo DS's for Entralink. It does not matter which model you use.

The table in section How Trainers Are Selected" will provide you with sufficient information on which Pokémon will appear in WF and their corresponding Trainer. Once you decide on the Pokémon you desire, the first thing you should do is check to see if your WF already has the Trainer that you need. If lady luck is on your side and the Trainer you need is in your WF, congratulations! However, if you're anything like us, your WF either has no Trainers or does not contain the Trainer that you desire. This is where Pokémon Black comes into play.

A fair warning: this process will be a little bit time consuming and tedious.

1. On one DS, have your character in Pokémon Black be in Nimbasa City with C-Gear on; do nothing else.
2. On another DS, have your character in Pokémon White be in Nimbasa City with C-Gear on. On this DS, click on wireless and then click on Entralink.
3. Once you are warped into the Entralink, head west towards the bridge with the portal and stay on that bridge until it says "Connected to [Trainer name]'s world!", as shown below. Now, pass through the portal and the game will transform you into another Trainer.
4. Once you are in the other player's world, heads towards their Entree, as shown below.
5. Press A and pick "Accept A Mission" to do a mission. This will allow you to travel to BC, which you can access by clicking on the hexagon shown below where the red Trainer is. It is only required to accept a mission if you have never gone to the Entralink before. If you have, you can just warp to BC.
6. Now that you are in BC, walk around to see if the Trainer you want is there.
7. If they are there, only click yes when they ask to go to WF if your WF is empty; if not, turn off both games, empty your WF by following "Forcing NPCs to Leave (2)", and then follow the steps above again to recruit them once your WF is empty.

If your desired Trainer is not there, this is where the tedious part will come into play. The good news is you will not have to replay Pokémon White again. However, you will have to begin a new save in Pokémon Black to receive a new set of Trainers to recruit and play up until Nimbasa City in order to follow the above steps and check for Trainers once again. If you are persistent and don't mind this too much, we recommend choosing Tepig as your starter for speed running towards Nimbasa City.

If you'd rather keep your Pokémon Black save file and restart Pokémon White, this process works in the other direction as well. However, your desired Trainer may leave by the time you can get to WF at the end of the game, meaning you may have to recruit your Trainer over to Pokémon Black, make them leave, then recruit them back into WF once you reach the end of the game.

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Forcing NPCs to Leave (1)

Follow these steps ONLY IF the Trainer you want is already in your WF and you only want them in it. This part will help you make the undesired Trainers leave while keeping the specific one that you want. This is helpful for limiting the Pokémon you can find to only your desired one.

1. Talk to the desired Trainer to increase their happiness by 10. Only talk to them and not the Trainers you want to get rid of.
2. Exit WF, stand outside the gate to WF on Route 14 or 15, then save.
3. Exit the game and change the DS clock to 23:59.
4. Enter the game again and wait until the time on the C-Gear goes from 23:59 to 00:02-00:05.
5. Enter the gate, exit the gate back onto Route 14 or 15, then save.

Every Trainer's happiness should now decrease by 5, including your specific Trainer's. You will now repeat the steps above until all of the Trainers you don't want have a happiness of 0 and your desired Trainer remains. Of course, it will be hard to tell what happiness each Trainer is at, but to ensure that the Trainer you want does not leave, it is important to talk to them after every attempt at decreasing all of the Trainers' happiness. Keep in mind that this process may take a while before you start to see any Trainers leave WF. Once your Trainer is the only one that remains in WF, congratulations! Your WF now contains the Trainer that you want.

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Forcing NPCs to Leave (2)

Follow these steps ONLY IF you want to completely empty your WF. This is helpful when recruiting Trainers over from another game.

1. Stand outside near the gate to WF on Route 14/15, then save.
2. Exit the game, change the DS clock to 23:59.
3. Enter the game again and wait until the time on the C-Gear goes from 23:59 to 00:02-00:05.
4. Enter the gate, then exit the gate back onto Route 14/15, then save.
5. After saving, check WF to see if Trainers are leaving. If n Trainers have left yet, reset the game and keep repeating steps 1-4 until all Trainers have left and WF is empty.

Once your WF is empty, you can head back to BC to recruit your desired Trainer. Once you have recruited your Trainer, congratulations! Your WF now contains the Trainer that you want.

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Changes in Black 2/White 2

The mechanics to BC and WF were largely simplified in the sequels. Both areas feature a battle facility in which you can battle through 10 levels to reach the top, winning item rewards such as Vitamins, Feathers, and EV-reducing Berries as you go. Both locations also have shops, which sell items once per day, to purchase evolution items. New items are unlocked as you progress through the battle facility. Finally, the complicated Trainer features of Pokémon Black and White were replaced with a key system that allows you to switch between BC and WF regardless of which game you have. The key to switch to the other area can be acquired from the opposite game via the Unova Link feature of the Black 2/White 2 games.

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Conclusion

We hope this guide sheds some light on the complicated process to build your Black City or White Forest by recruiting Trainers from the opposite game. Go out and enjoy these unique areas to the fullest!