Tips for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

Here are some really neat tips for playing the game!

Start by Zigzagooning!

At the very beginning of the game, after you get the Poke balls from your friendly rival, go out into the woods north of Oldale and catch the following Pokemon:
1 Wingull (This Pokemon is very powerful in the first two gyms. As a water type, it helps against the gym in Rustboro, and as a flying type (once it gets Wing Attack) it is very powerful in the gym at Dewford.)
4 Zigzagoons. (These are great for picking up items, they scavenge for you. If you want to prove this, select one of them (after you caught it!) and select "Summary". You'll see that it can "pick up items". They can do so at the end of a battle with either a wild Pokemon, or with a trainer, but ONLY IF they are not carrying an item. So, get into fights, check them for items, and "take" the items from them.
1. You will get things like Nuggets, Super Potions, Revives, Full Heals, Proteins, Rare Candies and King's Rock.)

Whenever you need money to buy expensive items, like Nutrients, take your Wingull (which may have evolved into Peliper by now) or any other Pokemon and 5 Zigzagoons / Linoones into the ash covered grass east of Fallarbor to do three things at once:
1. Collect ashes to create the flutes that will help you (check the list at the glass makers shop). AND
2. Build up your lead Pokemon several levels by fighting the wild Pokemon there. This is the only place that you can catch a Skarmory, by the way.
3. Get more items as you need them, see the list above to see what you can get in quantity!

You can get these all over the place, and are very important for raising powerful pokemon. Here are some ways to find them:
Many rocks have items on them, even though you can't see them. Come up next to it and hit "A". We found dozens upon dozens of items that way!
Go fishing for Luvdisc at the head of the waterfall outside (to the south of) the Evergrande Pokemon Center. They often have it as an item.

Take it to the beach, and start looking. There are many items on many beaches that are hidden with no markings. Even desolate islands have items!
Don't forget the desert and other isolated places!

Pick the attributes for the Pokemon in question, for example, I have chosen to make a very special Alakazam, with the highest amount possible for both Special Attack and Speed. I want to use this Pokemon in the Battle Tower at level 50. It needs variety in attacks, and the ability to destroy before it gets attacked.
Pick the attacks for that Pokemon. I wanted my Alakazam to have 4 Special Attacks, with a wide variety of types. I chose Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch and Psychic. Since three of these were Egg Moves, I had to find and raise the proper parents, then have about 45 eggs before I had a Modest Abra hatch, already having all four of those attacks, thanks to it's Father.
Since this Alakazam won't be using Attack at all, I chose to build up a Modest Alakazam. "Modest" means that it would have a higher Special Attack, at the cost of a lower Attack. (See page on Natures for more details.)
I then went into the woods, attacking and fighting all the Spindas I could find, to get Effort Points toward Special Attack. (See page on Effort Points for more details.) After giving it 10 Calciums and 10 Carbos, I went after a bunch of Zigzagoons, Linoones, Electrikes, Wingulls and Manectrics, building up its Speed.
Once it qualified for an Effort Ribbon (at level 40, by the way) I gave it 10 Rare Candies and here are the stats:
HP 129, Attack 53, Defense 53, Special Attack 191, Special Defense 102, Speed 156.