Abyssal Ruins

Abyssal Ruins (Japanese:   Undersea Ruins) are sunken temple ruins in eastern Unova, accessed through the use of outside of battle. It is east of Undella Town in Undella Bay. Most Plates are located here. There are four floors and no wild Pokémon or Trainers. In, the Abyssal Ruins are not marked on the Town Map until the player has visited them.

Each time the player enters the ruins, he or she is only allowed to take 500 steps until a torrent of water sends the player back to the water's surface. The ruins are divided into four floors, each smaller than the last. Due to the step limit, it is impossible to get all items of the Ruins in one trip; rather, to reach the second floor, the player must reach the pillar in the middle of the ruins in fewer than 190 steps (thus ignoring all items). The Ruins are filled with 32 Relic items which have a total value of 1,706,000 when sold to the item maniac in Undella Town. To reach the third floor, the player must use at the purple pillar located in the central-west path of the floor at a dead end. To reach the fourth floor, the player must use at the purple pillar in the central-east part of the floor.

Pokémon Black and White
Some of the pillars that comprise the corridors of the four floors of the abyssal ruins are colored purple and marked with mysterious letters. These letters can be transliterated into letters of the Roman alphabet using the correct. When read the correct way (right to left, bottom to top) the sentences from each pillar can be gathered into a coherent message. The cipher shifts between floors: when one moves up a floor the symbols move "down" one letter in the Roman alphabet; for example, if two separate symbols corresponded to the letters G and H on one floor, on the floor above they would correspond to F and G, and on the floor above that they would correspond to E and F, respectively.

Four of the symbols used—,, , and —do not appear to have any corresponding letter; it is strongly speculated that they are s.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2
The messages are identical to the ones found in Pokémon Black and White.

After defeating the Champion, if the player defeats Hugh at Undella Bay and receives from him, Zinzolin will approach the player after Hugh leaves. He gives the player documents which allow the deciphering of the symbols in the ruins.

While inspecting the symbol-inscribed blocks in the ruins, an additional text box containing the direct transliteration of the symbols will appear after the symbols are shown. The player still has to read the transliteration backwards—or if they are on the upper levels, further decipher the translation—before getting a clear message. However, the unknown symbols still cannot be translated using Zinzolin's documents, and instead appear as several black circles in the direct translations provided by the game.

In other language versions, the deciphers provided by Zinzolin's documents are translated into the language of the game, and are still enciphered in a similar manner.

The message
In all languages, the inscriptions on the ruin's walls remain the same.

Interpretation
On 1F, the inscriptions talk about a brave king who fought hatred and pursued peace. Some of the lines state that primes lead to truth and that the King turns on corners; these corners correspond with the intersections while entering the ruins. Every time the player comes to a choice in the path, either going straight or turning, can be considered a corner. Following this pattern, turning on the prime-numbered intersections, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, and continuing straight on the others, will lead the player very close to the center of 1F, regardless of which entrance is taken.

This key of 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th corners works on all floors (with the obvious exception of the last floor), and will lead the player to the Relic Crown.

The inscriptions on the 2nd and 3rd floors tell the player to "shine light" and "act strong" if agreed, respectively. Both at the end of these floors, the player must use and, respectively.

The final symbol,, is represented in Zinzolin's documents as ●●●●● in the Japanese and Korean versions; ●●●●●●●● in the English, French, and Italian versions; and ******* in the Spanish version. This symbol is speculated to mean "Harmonia", the last name of N and Ghetsis, as it has five characters in Japanese (ハルモニア); five in Korean (하르모니아); eight in English, French, and Italian (Harmonia); and seven in Spanish (Armonia).

,, and are all represented in Zinzolin's documents as ●●●● in the Japanese and Korean versions, ●●●●● in the English and Italian versions, ●●●●●●● in the French version, and **** in the Spanish version. There is currently no leading hypothesis as to what these symbols stand for, though it is believed to not be any Pokémon's name as the number of letters in the Spanish and English versions are different (no Pokémon that existed as of Generation V has a Spanish name different from its English name).

In the German version, all four symbols are represented as ########## in Zinzolin's documents.

In the anime
The Abyssal Ruins first appeared in the end of Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times! as Jessie, James,, and Dr. Zager spoke about using 's to undo a seal inside the ruins. They later discovered the entrance to the ruins in Goodbye, Junior Cup - Hello Adventure!.

The Abyssal Ruins played a key role in the climax of Team Rocket's Operation Tempest in Meloetta and the Undersea Temple! and Unova's Survival Crisis!. brought Meloetta to the ruins to unlock the Reveal Glass, allowing him to summon and take control of the three in their. However, thanks to the efforts of, , Cynthia, and Ridley, the Legendary Pokémon were freed from Giovanni's control and the Reveal Glass was resealed.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
The Abyssal Ruins debuted in PS542. During their battle with Colress on the Plasma Frigate, and  were defeated when Colress had   them solid before commanding some s to toss the duo and their Pokémon into the sea below.

Later, Blake found himself at the Abyssal Ruins, where he was taken to after his, Kelden, broke free of the ice with an Aspear Berry Blake had given it prior to facing Colress. There, Blake discovered he had the ability to hear Kelden's thoughts, which he attributed to being a special property of the area. After meeting up with Whitley, Kelden took the two to the frozen bodies of its, , , and. With 's, Keldeo's mentors were freed from their ice prison.

Trivia

 * The Splash Plate and Draco Plate are the only Plates that are not found here, located instead on or in Undella Bay. However, the man who gives these two plates to the player in  states that he found them in the Abyssal Ruins himself, meaning that all the plates originate from the Abyssal Ruins.
 * The ruins strongly resemble the, off the southernmost coast of the Ryukyu Islands.

In other languages
Unterwasserruine Ruinas Submarinas Ruines des Abysses (Noir 2 et Blanc 2) Rovine degli Abissi かいていいせき 海底遗迹