PokéWalker is a new bit of hardware which is said to be bundled in with Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver. This bit of hardware is special in that it will allow you to transfer one Pokémon from your HeartGold & Soul Silver games onto PokéWalker. As PokéWalker is a pedometre, when you walk about, your Pokémon will slowly raise level and happiness. This will allow you to raise your Pokémon as you go about your daily lives.

However, that is not all. As you play on your PokéWalker, you will occassionally come across mini-games of sorts. These mini-games will also have an effect on your Heart Gold & Soul Silver games. One includes finding of items while you're walking. These include items such as Potions. You will also sometimes come across wild Pokémon while you play.

To send Pokémon over to PokéWalker, you have to open a specific menu in-game. The location of this menu is currently unknown. In this menu, you can select Pokémon from boxes and send them over to PokéWalker. It appears that there are three slots for the Pokémon in PokéWalker.
In communication with PokéWalker, you can keep track of certain variables from it including how many steps you have taken and how many watts you have built up. When you build up more Watts, you can access more areas.

When you send over your Pokémon to PokéWalker, you will have to select a certain area that your Pokémon shall walk through. There are a variety of areas to walk through. You start off with two areas to go to and unlock more as you go on. Below is a table of all the areas and how to get them

The items and Pokémon vary from area to area so you will have to go from area to area to get the best use out of PokéWalker. Click here for a list of all PokéWalker areas

To battle Pokémon on PokéWalker, you have to use the PokéRadar item which will only work if you have built up enough Watts, in this case; 10 Watts. Here, it will give you four pieces of grass. You have to select one and a Pokémon may come out. Once the Pokémon comes out, battling happens. This battle system is not as advance as the ones in-game but features two options; Attack or Dodge. This allows you to attack your Pokémon and protect your one from being attacked.

Details on the Pokémon in each area will come on the game's release.

Just like in the main games, you also have the ability to capture the Pokémon you will battle in the game. This is done the same way as before by weakening them and then throwing a Pokéball. Once these Pokémon have been captured, you have the ability to send them back over to Heart Gold or Soul Silver and will have PokéWalker as their location. You can capture up to 3 Pokémon in each PokéWalker session.

As well as battling & capturing Pokémon, there is also an Dowsing MCHN feature within PokéWalker, accessible for 3 Watts a go. This feature will give you six bits of grass for you to select. Once you have selected a bit of grass, you may have found yourself an item. There are many rare and wonderful items to be found in each area so it is always good to check the Dowsing MCHN to get the items. You can store up to 10 items on PokéWalker at any one time..

If while you have PokéWalker out with you, you meet a friend who also has theirs, you will have the ability to communicate between both PokéWalker via the InfraRed port on the unit. If you do this, you will be able to give your friend one of the items you have obtained and they will be able to do the same. These gifts will certainly help if your friend has unlocked a PokéWalker area which you haven't.

To top that off, when you return your Pokémon to Heart Gold or Soul Silver, the goings on of your Pokémon will be added to your PokéWalker Diary in the game. This will tell you if you capture any Pokémon, meet any other characters or find items.