Pokemon Pearl - The Underground

I decided now would be a good time to check out the Underground area, heading east right before Route 211, and I went on down. I met Roark down there, and he explained that there's lots to do down there before he left. I decided to wander around the place until I found someone, but there was a lot of area to cover and not a soul around. The Underground works differently than normal games, in which the gameplay is done on the bottom touchscreen, and the top screen is used as a map, with the Underground split into several areas.

I decided to look up information on Bulbapedia for the Underground, figuring out how to do things, and I managed to get some mining done, finding myself many Spheres in the process, which are used for currency down there. I went back up afterwards to go back to the Underground Man and talk with him. He knew I went down there, and gave me some traps to use, then talked to me about mining. The way mining works is that on the screen above there's flashing spots on the map, and you go to those areas, and touch the touchscreen to use sonar and find the flashing spots nearby to mine. You go to that area, and select it to start mining, and you're given two tools to get stuff, a hammer to smash a big area and a pick to chip at small areas. As you do this mining, however, there's a bar at the top of the touchscreen showing how weak the wall is getting, and you have to get as much as you can from the spot before the wall collapses.

Anyway, I showed him the spheres I mined before, and he gave me a few Size 1 Spheres. The Spheres are found in different sizes, and I was told that I could bury the Spheres and make them grow bigger over time. I went back down and buried a few Size 1 Spheres, got back to him. He was happy with my progress, and I received a Digger Drill, and was told to start on a Secret Base down there. I went ahead and dug myself a nice little spot, and did some more mining and found myself a couple Revives, a Moon Stone, and even an Armor Fossil! I sent those items to my normal bag and went back up.

I came back to the Underground Man and he congratulated me, happy that I could handle his tasks, and he gave me a few pieces of furniture for my Secret Base. His final task was to go in there and set the furniture up, get my Secret Base nice and cozy. I went in there, set up the Table and Chair to one side, a Bookshelf next to the PC, and a Buneary doll on the other side of the PC table. He was happy with my progress, and gave me a Turtwig doll to put in my base. The only thing left was being able to clear Boulders from the Secret Base, which I could only do by stealing a friend's flag.

I think I could spend hours down there, getting more furniture set up in my Secret Base and getting stuff like Fossils to increase my Pokedex. I'm definitely going to be doing more with the Underground during my adventures in Pearl, and I think I can get at least one boulder cleared thanks to a friend of mine.