Early money making strategies

pokemon-x-y

So I have read all the answers to this question here about how to grind money. This however seems to be an end-game money grind as they all mention Le Wow and the one indepth answer says two level 100 pokemon with this that and the other along with a 100,000 buy in.

What I want are good locations and/or strategies to use to get money along the way until the end game. I may have a pokemon catching addiction but 90% of my money goes into pokeballs and even with a good capture rate I am having a hard time keeping enough Poke Balls in my stock to catch new pokemon as I run into them.

I have played up to meeting Professor Sycamore so far and pretty much all of my money has come from trainer battles. What other options do I have?

Best Answer

Other than the Battle Chateau, there are a few things you can do to gain money quicker in XY:

  • Find the Amulet Coin in Parfum Palace. Leave it on your lead Pokemon whilst battling trainers & gyms. It will double the Prize Money earned.
  • Unlock the Prize Money O-Power in Cyllage City (the 2nd Gym town) from Mr. Bonding in the Hotel, and use it before battling trainers & Gyms. Each level increases the output of Prize Money for 3 minutes:
    • Level 1: 1.5x
    • Level 2: 2x
    • Level 3: 3x

There are also ways you can save yourself money in the field:

  • Walk/Rollerskate/Ride back to town to heal up instead of using items, or take advantage of 'healer trainers' in certain longer Routes & Caves.
    • This means usually the only use you'll have for the Pokemart for a while will be Pokeballs.
    • It also means that any items you pick up along the way will be there for the important battles, when you really need them.
  • As an alternative to the above, get stuck into Berry farming for a while. There's usually a Berry equivalent for every item you can buy in the mart. For example:
  • Don't sell items like Nuggets, Stardust & Mushrooms (until you actually need the money for something). This might seem counter-intuitive, but think about it for a second.
    • When you lose a battle, you give up a percentage of your current in-wallet money. The lower your current money, the less you give out. Use these items as a 'safe' of sorts to store your real worth in.
  • Hold off on big purchases like TMs until you've unlocked the Bargain O-Power (Hotel Richissime in Lumiose).
    • Don't buy the other Mega Stones until you've maxed out your style. You can get them for as low as $10,000.