The east wing will test your memory skills–or your ability to quickly jot down notes. As you enter, there’s a single teleporter towards the north-east. On the other side, you must fight your way past a Rocket Grunt and his Golbat. After he’s toast, inspect the pillar-like contraption in the center of the room.

Team Rainbow Rocket Grunts¶

This will cause the four flower-shaped panels surrounding the contraption to light up four times, in a random order. To proceed, you’ll have to step on the panels in the same order that they lit up. Actually, the order isn’t completely random–there are only three patterns that we observed. In fact, if you know the start, you can identify the pattern.

Succeed and the teleporter to the east will activate. If you fail, just inspect the contraption again to start over. In the next room, there’s the exact same setup, except there’s a Grunt standing near the north who won’t battle you. Also, there’s a Full Heal in the south-east corner of the room.

As before, poke the contraption to reveal the sequence of panels that you need to copy. After stepping on the third panel, the Grunt will interrupt you with a highly distracting pose, which can make you forget your place. Fortunately, the patterns aren’t random, although two of the patterns start with the same panel.

Past the teleporter is the third and final memory game. To make things harder, the Grunts standing above will interrupt you for a battle after you correctly step on the third and sixth panels. After beating them, if you retry the puzzle, they won’t fight you again, but they’ll still make an effort to distract you when the time comes.

Once you’ve stepped on the eighth panel, the teleporters to the north and the east will activate. Clearly, the north teleporter, located between the two Grunts, is the one that leads to the endpoint. However, if you’ve got time to spare, the east teleporter is worth checking out. Beyond, there’s a Grunt circling a small room.

In the north-west corner, you’ll find a Poké Ball that’s actually a wild Electrode. If you want, you can try and capture it; just be wary of Explosion. Meanwhile, in the south-east corner is an X Attack. On the other side of the north teleporter is a door guarded by a pair of Grunts, and a nearby Full Restore.

Through the door is the snazzy office room of Maxie, the leader of Team Magma from the Hoenn region. More specifically, he hails from the Hoenn region as depicted in Ruby and Sapphire, rather than the remakes. In any case, his dreams are the same: to use Groudon’s power to make the world better. Except he’s wrong.

Team Magma Maxie¶

Maxie’s team is a fusion of his final teams from Ruby and Omega Ruby. His first Pokémon, Mightyena, can use Crunch to deal reasonable STAB damage, and Fire, Thunder and Ice Fang to target common Types. Despite its versatility, it has mediocre stats, so it’s easy to deal with, especially for Fighting and Fairy-types.

Next up can be Crobat, which you’ll have encountered during your final battle with Gladion. This evolved Golbat has stellar Speed and decent Attack. For attacks, it has Air Slash and Sludge Bomb for STAB, Dark Pulse to hurt Psychics, and Toxic as a last resort. Electric, Rock or Ice-types are preferred; Steel-types are also useful.

Weezing is a Pokémon not found in Alola. This Poison-type has high Defense and okay offensive stats, plus the Levitate Ability. It can use Sludge Bomb for STAB, Shadow Ball to annoy Psychics, Thunderbolt for all other purposes, and Pain Split to share out damage. Healthy Psychic-types are recommended.

Camerupt is Maxie’s signature Pokémon. Although his team is based on Omega Ruby, Maxie himself is from Ruby and thus lacks the means to Mega Evolve Camerupt. Contrary to its appearance, this fiery camel has better offensive than defensive stats, but it’s as slow as it looks. Water-types are ideal, and Ground-types also work well.

Finally, Maxie has succeeded in capturing Groudon, the Legendary Ground Pokémon of Hoenn. This land-creating Pokémon possesses the Drought Ability, which summons sunny weather, boosting the power of its Flamethrower, and enabling Solar Beam to trigger without a delay. It also has Earthquake and Ancient Power.

If you want, you can counter Groudon’s oppressive weather with your own–ideally, by using Rain Dance or Drizzle to summon rain. Not only will this weaken two of Groudon’s moves, but it’ll boost the power of Water-types, which Groudon is weak against. Otherwise, don’t be afraid to rely on Ultra Necrozma or Lunala.

Stand your ground against Maxie’s earth-bending might and he’ll let you investigate the painting at the back of the room. Lo and behold, there’s a hidden switch. After pressing it, the teleporter in the corner of the room will activate, allowing you to quickly return to the entrance of the castle. From here, you need to find the second switch.