How do you decide how to heal your Pokémon? Is it better to buy potions from a Mart, or stock up on drinks from the department store? Would it be more beneficial to raise a lot of berries and use them outside of battle? Each method of healing your Pokémon has advantages and disadvantages, and this guide will explore both.
A regular Potion is available at many Marts early in the game. Each bottle will restore 20 hit points at the cost of $300. A Super Potion can be found at many Marts as well. These cost $700 and heal 50 hit points. Hyper Potions are found later in the game, and they cost $1200 and heal 200 HP. Max Potions are hard to come by, mostly found in places like the Mart at the Indigo Plateau or Evergrand City. These cost $2500 and heal all your Pokémon's hit points.
Before I move on, I'd like to say that I strongly advise you buy Hyper Potions over Max Potions. Unless your Pokémon have around 400 hit points or more, you would be paying more than twice the price for an item that is not much more effective than the cheaper option.
Potions can be bought in bulk and almost anywhere. However, they cost a lot more and heal a lot less than the drinks.
A can of Fresh Water is cheaper than a Potion. It costs $200. However, it heals as much as a Super Potion- 50 hit points. A Soda Pop is $300 for 60 hit points, and Lemonade is $350 for 80 hit points.
However, drinks have several convienience issues. They can only be obtained at a department store, which is usually about halfway through the game. There is sometimes other, out-of-the-way shops that sell them. The only ones I can think of are the shop on one of the islands in FR/LG and the shop by Mount Moon in GSC. Other than these shops, the drinks must be bought at a vending machine up on the roof of a department store, meaning you have to buy them one by one. If you have the patience to do it this way, it's worth it in the long run.
Even if you do decide to buy drinks, it's still a good idea to buy Hyper Potions. They heal much more than a Lemonade, making them useful when your higher-level Pokémon are almost defeated.
Berries are also a very useful healing method. Oran and Sitrus berries heal hit points, but it's better to grow lots and use them in between battles than try and use them during a battle, especially if your Pokémon has a lot of hit points. Oran Berries heal 10 hit points and Sitrus Berries heal 30. This may not seem like a lot, but they don't cost anything. You simply have to plant them and water them. Also, if a Pokémon holds these berries, they'll be able to use the berry themselves, unlike Potions and drinks.
There are many other kinds of berries as well, such as ones that will heal status conditions. Your Pokémon can use these on their own also.
