Psycho Monkey
Member of the Literary Elite Four
Pokémon Red & Blue Version Walkthrough
Intro
Welcome to the world of Pokémon! As you may have noticed when you turned on your game, there were strange creatures doing battle. Enjoy the cinematic while you can because in-game battles are nothing like that. They’re much simpler. You’re only choice right now is to start a new game unless you wanted to play around in the options menu a bit.
When you start the new game you’ll get an explanation on what Pokémon are from an old man named Prof. Oak. He is the authority on all 151 species of Pokémon that you will encounter so it is best you heed his words carefully. Even if he can’t remember the name of his own grandson. When Prof. Oak is done with his explanation, you will have the opportunity to name yourself and the aforementioned grandson who also happens to be your main rival in the game. For the purpose of this walkthrough and simplicity, he shall henceforth be called Rival.
Now your very own Pokémon adventure awaits!
The Beginning
When the game truly starts, you are sitting in your room playing SNES like a slacker. Before you head downstairs, go to the computer in the upper left corner of your room and withdraw the Potion stored inside. Anyone familiar with RPGs will know that Potions restore health and anyone who didn’t know, well, you just found out. The reason you want to grab this Potion now is because you may find yourself needing it within the next few minutes.
There is nothing left to do in your room so go downstairs and talk to your mother. All she has to say is that all boys leave home someday, she knows this because the TV told her. She also tells you Prof. Oak has been looking for you. Seeing as he lives next door, leave your house and head to the only other house in the town. By the way, this quaint little village is called Pallet Town. Residents: You, your mother, Prof. Oak, Rival, Rival’s sister Daisy, and a few homeless people. You can talk to them to get a better idea of the kind of world this is. In fact, you should talk to every NPC you see. You never know who will give you special items or plot relevant advice.
Going next door to pay Prof. Oak a visit leads you nowhere as the only one home is his granddaughter, Daisy. However, if you talk to her she recommends you check Oak’s lab which can be found on the south side of town. Unfortunately, this is yet another dead end. The only people in the lab are the Aides who are no help and Rival who just complains that Gramps called him yet is making him wait. Leave the lab for now.
As you look around Pallet Town you will find there is nowhere else to go. All the building have been explored, all the people talked to, and there are only two ways to leave town. You obviously can’t leave by sea to the south, so your only option is to go north into the tall grass. But wait! It’s dangerous to explore tall grass without your own Pokémon for protection! No sooner do you set foot in the grass, Prof. Oak appears out of nowhere to give you that warning. Just where could he have been hiding?
Prof. Oak will then take you to his lab where Rival will start complaining directly to his Gramps about being made to wait. Oak tells him to quiet down and learn some patience before offering you one of three Pokéballs sitting on his table. Well, to be more specific, he’s offering you your first Pokémon which is in the Pokéball. The choices offered to you are Bulbasaur the Grass-type, Charmander the Fire-type, and Squirtle the Water-type. All three are excellent Pokémon in their own right so the choice is yours as to which one you choose. Once you’ve chosen your starter, Rival will pick the one that is strong against yours. See, the type match-ups of Pokémon works a lot like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass. There are a total of 15 types of Pokémon you’ll encounter, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
When you try to leave the lab, Rival will challenge you to your first Pokémon Battle. Battling is the only way to make your Pokémon stronger and is a core element of the game. At the moment your starter only has two moves: a physical attacking move (either Tackle or Scratch) and a status move (either Growl which lowers the opponent’s Attack stat or Tail Whip which lowers the opponent’s Defense). As the fight progresses, you may find your Pokémon getting critically low on health, HP. If your HP reaches 0 then your Pokémon faints and if all of your Pokémon faint, you lose the battle. To stop that from happening, use the Potion you got out of your PC. If you need to of course. If you can win without using it then don’t waste it. Upon winning, your starter will gain enough experience to level up from Lv.5 to Lv.6 and will be fully healed after the battle. Take note that this is only a one time deal. You will not level up after every battle and you will not be fully healed after every battle. You will however make some money after every Trainer Battle, in this case 175 Pokédollars.
You have now done everything you can in Pallet Town so now that you have your own Pokémon for protection, head back up north to Route 1, population: Rattata and Pidgey ranging in levels from 2-5. You don’t have any Pokéballs yet so the only thing you can do is battle these Wild Pokémon for experience or simply run from them. As suggested earlier, talk to everyone you meet because one of the people on Route 1 is a PokéMart employee from Viridian City who will give you a free Potion as a sample.
The next settlement you arrive in at the end of the Route is in fact Viridian City. The first thing you’re going to want to do is go to the building labeled Poké. This is the Pokémon Center which will fully heal all of your Pokémon free of charge making it the most valuable commodity in the entire game. After you’ve healed your Pokémon, feel free to explore Viridian City and talk to the various NPCs. To the west is Route 22 which offers more Wild Pokémon, but without Pokéballs, they’re only good for grinding off of. Don’t waste your time there yet. To the north is a crotchety old man who won’t let anyone pass. The only areas left in Viridian City to explore are the Trainer’s School which will teach you about the different status ailments in the game, and the Mart. That is where you want to go if you plan on progressing in this game anytime soon.
No sooner do you walk in, the clerk calls you over asking if you’re from Pallet Town. You will then be given Oak’s Parcel, a special package Prof. Oak ordered. You’ve got nothing better to do right now, so go deliver the package. When you get back to Route 1, you now have the option of jumping ledges to take the quick and easy way back to Pallet Town while avoiding Wild Pokémon. If however, you feel as though you need more Exp, you can take the long, grassy road back.
Back in Pallet Town, go to Oak’s Lab to deliver his Parcel. Luckily you won’t ever have to seek him out again since he’ll spend the rest of the game in his lab. As soon as you hand over the package, Rival comes storming into the lab complaining as usual. Prof. Oak claims it was his dream to document all 151 species of Pokémon but he failed and is now too old to do it. Instead, he wants to live vicariously through you and Rival. He gives both of you a Pokédex which records data on Pokémon you’ve seen and caught while also providing an area map on where to find most Pokémon. Right now you should only have recorded data on one Pokémon, your starter obviously, and have seen four Pokémon if you’ve been following this walkthrough. Well, only 150 more to go! If you wanted to pick up a map from Daisy, you may do so, but keep in mind that you have a limited inventory space of 20 items carried and 50 items stored in your PC. The Map is a Key Item which cannot be disposed of later and holds no use outside of displaying the different locations you can visit.
If your Starter is low on HP, return home and talk to your mother for a free healing. There is now nothing left for you in Pallet Town so the only thing you can do is return to Viridian City and see what new areas have opened up.
Bugs, Rocks, and Caves
Once you return to Viridian City go right back to the Mart. You now have the option to buy items so stock up on 5-10 Pokéballs, maybe a few Potions, and if Red is your game of choice, plenty of Antidote. You can now go out into the world to catch yourself some new Pokémon. You can start with Pidgey and Rattata, level them up a bit, then go west to Route 22. Here you will find three new Pokémon, Spearow, Nidoran♀, and Nidoran♂.
Now would be a good time to mention the differences between the two Versions of the game, Red and Blue. There are certain Pokémon which are exclusive to one game or the other which will be covered later, and there are certain Pokémon which are more common or rare in one or the other. In the case of the two Nidorans, the female is more common in Blue and rare in Red while the male is more abundant in Red and harder to find in Blue.
Do not leave the grass on Route 22 except to go back and heal in Viridian City. Once your Pokémon are around Levels 7-10, you may head northwest where you’ll find Rival looking for a rematch. He’s caught himself a Lv.9 Pidgey and has raised his Starter to Lv.8 where it’ll know its first elemental move: Leech Seed for Bulbasaur, Ember for Charmander, and Bubble for Squirtle. After reminding Rival which one of you is the strongest, you’ll both be on your way.
If you keep going west from where Rival just came from, you’ll find yourself at a really tall building. If you go inside though, the guard won’t let you pass without the Boulder Badge. There’s nothing left to do here so go back to Viridian City.
If you head north again you’ll find the bald guy walking around this time saying he just needed some coffee. As an apology for his rudeness earlier, he’ll offer to show you how to catch Pokémon. If you’ve been following this walkthrough, you won’t need his advice but you might find a use for it much later. Right behind the old man you’ll see a funny looking tree shaped like a ‘Y’. If you click on it you’ll be rewarded with a hidden Potion. Just like you should always talk to NPCs, you should also investigate out of place objects for hidden items. You might be surprised by what you find.
To the east you’ll find a large building labeled Gym. This isn’t a place for working out, but rather a type of dojo where you defeat Trainers and the resident Gym Leader. By defeating Gym Leaders you earn Badges, like for example the Boulder Badge. Too bad the Viridian Gym is locked. Guess you’ll just have to come back later.
Go north to Route 2 but skip the grass since you don’t want to wear out your Pokémon before the next area. You’ll notice a few items on the side that you can’t quite get to yet. Don’t worry about them, you’ll get there eventually. Walk into the house at the top of the Route then right out the back exit. You are now in Viridian Forest, home of Bug-types. And Pikachu. All the Pokémon in the Forest are new so make sure you have at least three Pokéballs on you. Caterpie and its evolved form Metapod are more prevalent in Blue while Weedle and its evolved form Kakuna are plentiful in Red. Since Weedle knows Poison Sting, your chances of getting poisoned are much higher in Red which is why those playing that game were recommended to stock up on extra Antidote to cure the poison status. The cocoons are the real treat since all they can do is Harden which raises Defense and they give off a lot of Exp. so enjoy them. The main Pokémon you should be on the lookout for is the rare and elusive Pikachu, an Electric-type Pokémon. Seek one out and catch it since you will need it later, especially if you didn’t start with Bulbasaur.
As you wander the natural maze, be sure to keep your eyes out for three items laying around, a Pokéball, a Potion, and an Antidote. You will also face off against your first Trainers other than Rival. Within Viridian Forest are three Bug Catchers. If you haven’t noticed yet, Charmander’s Ember and Spearow’s Peck are Super-effective on Bug-types so us them if you must, but honestly the Bug Catchers are weak enough that any of your Pokémon should be able to win. After you fight the Bug Catcher with the Lv.10 Weedle, check the grass in front of him for a hidden Potion.
Beyond the last Bug Catcher is the exit which will take you back to Route 2. Just a little further north and you will reach Pewter City. If you have been catching one of every type of Pokémon up until this point, you will be well over the six Pokémon limit for your party. Go to the PC in the Pokémon Center and log onto Someone’s PC. It’s up to your personal preference which Pokémon you keep in your party, but it is strongly recommend you keep your Starter, Pikachu, one of the birds, and one of the Bug-types. To the far north of Pewter is the Science Museum which at a reasonable 50 Pokédollar entry fee is worth visiting.
When you finish up there, make sure your Pokémon are fully healed because you are about to take part in a major battle. If you try to leave the city to the east, a boy will stop you, tell you a man named Brock is looking for new challengers, and drag you to the Pewter City Gym. Guess what, this one isn’t locked!
Now for a more in depth explanation about Gyms. There are a total of eight Gyms in the region and each one specializes in a different type of Pokémon. The Pewter Gym Leader Brock is a Rock-type specialist. Rock-types are weak to Water and Grass-type moves so Squirtle users need to be at least Lv.8 to use Bubble and Bulbasaur users want to be Lv.13 to use Vine Whip. Sorry Charmander users, but Fire-types aren’t very effective against Rock-types unless they’re at a really high level. Now you can either grind Charmander to a high level or you can raise Caterpie to Lv.7 for it to evolve into Metapod, then to Lv.10 for it to once again evolve into Butterfree, then keep grinding to Lv.12 for Confusion. If you’re playing Red and you picked Charmander, then best of luck. Luckily none of Brock’s Pokémon know any Rock moves which would be especially hurtful to your chances of victory.
Inside the Gym there is one other Trainer besides Brock. He uses a Sandshrew and a Diglett, neither of which are Rock-types so consider him a warm up to milk Exp from. These two are Ground-types which do not resist Fire so if you don’t want Charmander to feel left out, now is your chance. Once you remind this kid lightyears measures distance and not time, you can go face Brock at the back of the Gym. He uses a Lv.12 Geodude and a Lv.14 Onix. Geodude is easy and should only take one or two hits to beat. Onix knows a move called Bide which absorbs the damage you do to it for two turns then deals it back double. You should be fine though as Onix should be defeated before that happens. Once Onix faints, Brock will reward your victory with the Boulder Badge and TM34 which contains Bide. As Brock will tell you, TMs are a one-time use so if you do decide to teach it, pick the Pokémon carefully. Or you can horde your TMs until later in the game when you are able to use a really neat glitch that’ll multiply them. With your first Gym out of the way, you are now free to move on.
As soon as you leave the Gym be sure to get your Pokémon fully healed because there is a long road ahead of you. The boy that was blocking your access to Route 3 earlier is gone so get ready to fight a bunch of Trainers. Most of them use Pokémon you’ve already dealt with, however there is a girl standing in the grass with a Lv.14 Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff knows a move called Sing which can put your Pokémon to sleep. It can get pretty annoying waiting for them to wake up so try to take it out quickly. If you want a Jigglypuff of your own, feel free to wander the grass to catch one. Just be aware of the fact that they are quite rare, can only be found in this area, and only at Lv.3, 5, or 7. What’s more, the only move it knows will be Sing until Lv.9 when it learns Pound. Have fun with that.
At the top of the road you will find a Pokémon Center so go heal yourself. The fact one is being so kindly offered to you should be a hint that the cave next door is going to be rough. Inside the Pokémon Center is a man offering to sell you a Magikarp for the “reasonable” price of 500 Pokédollars. Magikarp is a pathetic weak Pokémon whose only move is Splash which literally does nothing. It doesn’t affect status, doesn’t cause ailments, it does absolutely nothing. The only other move Magikarp can learn is Tackle at Lv.15. This one is Lv.5 and it levels up very slowly. There are also no refunds. So why would you buy such a worthless creature? Well, at Lv.20 Magikarp evolves into Gyarados who is one of the strongest Pokémon in the game. If you’re patient and willing to put up with a headache for a while then go ahead and buy your Magikarp. If you’d rather not waste your time or money that is fine too. Magikarp can be caught at Lv.15 while fishing later in the game.
Once you’re ready, step foot into the cave next to the Pokémon Center. Welcome to Mt. Moon! Hopefully you’ve been keeping your Pokéball stash high since there are four new Pokémon for you to catch here: Geodude, Zubat, Paras, and Clefairy. Clefairy are native only to Mt. Moon and are really rare so make sure you get one while in the area. Wander around at your leisure battling the dozen or so Trainers hanging around and searching every nook and cranny for items, both obvious and hidden. As you battle the Trainers, you’ll notice a specific class called Rockets who are much more aggressive and seem to be seeking out Fossils. Defeat them like the rest.
You’ll know you are nearing the end of Mt. Moon when you battle a Super Nerd who claims to have found Fossils but has no intention of sharing. Defeating his Voltorb, Koffing, and Grimer will give him a change of heart. He found two of them so he’ll let you take one of either the Helix Fossil or the Dome Fossil. These Fossils can be revived later in the game, Omanyte coming from the Helix Fossil and Kabuto coming from the Dome Fossil. Just like with the Starters, you can only get one and have to trade for the other so choose which ever one you like best. Before leaving, go back down the stairs to the crevice on the right. On that wall you will find a hidden Moon Stone. If you have been collecting every visible item you could find, this should be your second Moon Stone.
To exit Mt. Moon, simply go beyond the Super Nerd and the Fossils, take the stairs, and rejoice that you made it to Route 4. There is a nearby TM so make sure you grab it as you won’t be back here for a good while. If your Pokémon aren’t too worn out from Mt. Moon, you can jump down the ledges and explore the grass. Here you will find Rattata and Spearow along with your fist Version Exclusive Pokémon. If you’re playing Red, you will be able to catch Ekans and if Blue you will find Sandshrew instead. To get the one not found in your game, you will have to trade with someone playing the opposite Version. With that out of the way, head east until you arrive in Cerulean City.
Bridges, Myths, and Water
Once your Pokémon are fully healed and your Potion and Pokéball supply replenished, you may start exploring Cerulean City. Right next to the Pokémon Center is a house where the man living there will offer to trade you his Jynx for a Poliwhirl. You don’t have access to Poliwhirl yet without trading with someone else first so leave for now. This is the only way to obtain a Jynx so keep this man in mind for later. To the northeast of town you will see a house being blocked by a police officer. This is yet another place to be mindful of later.
After exploring Cerulean, you now have two choices: go north to Nugget Bridge or challenge the Cerulean City Gym Leader for your second Badge. The Gym Leader Misty is a user of Water-types which are weak to Grass and Electric-types. If you didn’t start with Bulbasaur and you didn’t catch Pikachu or your Pokémon are below Lv.20, then take Nugget Bridge first. Even if your Pokémon are strong enough to fight Misty, Go north first anyway since you can use a Trainer in the Gym for a certain glitch that will be explained momentarily.
No sooner do you start to walk towards the bridge, who shows up but your old pal Rival. It’s been awhile since you last beat him down and he’s improved a lot since then. His Pidgey has recently evolved into a Lv.18 Pidgeotto, he now has a Lv.15 Rattata, a Lv.15 Abra, and his starter is at Lv.17 yet still in its base form despite starters evolving at Lv.16 as you are probably aware of by now. Show him how much you’ve improved as well. If you have a Pikachu, use Thunder Shock on Pidgeotto and Squirtle if he has it. If you have a Geodude that has learned Rock Throw, that will be equally effective on Pidgeotto as well as Charmander. For Rattata, just use whatever Pokémon you’ve used on them in the past, just be careful of Hyper Fang. His Abra only knows the move Teleport which causes the user to flee from battle. It’s a real troublesome move when trying to catch Abra, but seeing as there is no running from a Trainer Battle, Abra is defenseless so use your weakest Pokémon to earn some easy Exp. For Bulbasaur, use a Flying-type like Spearow’s Peck. If you lack any of the Pokémon suggested, then use what you have available. After the battle, Rival will say a few taunts before going on his way.
If you need to heal after fighting Rival, do so now because you will soon be battling a gauntlet of five Trainers. The reason it’s called Nugget Bridge is because you win a rare gold Nugget for defeating five Trainers which can then be sold for 5000 Pokédollars. Of course the person awarding you your prize then tries to recruit you to join Team Rocket, an organization dedicated to exploiting Pokémon for evil purposes. Guess we know what that gang in Mt. Moon was all about now. The game automatically refuses the offer prompting another battle. Once you’ve beaten the Rocket, you are free to explore Routes 24 and 25 battling all the Trainers littered about.
But don’t get crazy if you want the rare and elusive 151st Pokémon Mew. See, the thing about Mew is that it is a secret Mythical Pokémon that was added to the game at the very last minute so it cannot be simply found in the wild, it can only be obtained from events or by using what is known as the Mew glitch.
First things first. Do NOT walk anywhere near the grass on Route 24 to the left of Nugget Bridge. Instead, go north to the grass on Route 25 avoiding as many Trainers as you can. Make sure you have a lot of Pokéballs for this. Wander the grass and try to catch an Abra. They are very fast and only use Teleport so it will be challenging, but you need Abra for the glitch to work. Once you have caught Abra, save the game in case you mess up. Now walk to the grass on Route 24 where you will find a lone Trainer just out of view. The moment he comes into view press Start, go to you Pokémon menu, and select Abra’s Teleport. The “!” should appear over the Trainer’s head as you warp back to the last Pokémon Center you used which should be Cerulean’s. When you appear in front of the Pokémon Center, you will be unable to use your Start menu again. That’s to be expected so don’t panic.
You now have a choice to make. You can either go to Misty’s Gym and battle the Swimmer who uses Horsea and Shellder or you can go back to Route 25 and find the Youngster with Slowpoke. Either of these Trainers work so use which ever you think is more convenient. Once you defeat that Trainer, return to Nugget Bridge. Your Start menu will automatically pop up. The moment you exit it, a battle will start against a Lv.7 Wild Mew. Since Mew is a Mythical, it is very difficult to catch so try paralyzing it or putting it to sleep. Do not use poison since it might faint if you don’t catch it in time. With enough patience and a bit of luck, you should be the proud owner of a ridiculously rare and powerful Pokémon. Since you were given the option of two Trainers, you could even catch a second Mew if you chose to. Now back to the actual walkthrough!
From the grass on Route 24, you’ll see a cave on the other side of the river with a man blocking the entrance. You can’t get over there yet, so don’t worry about it right now. Besides finding Abra on Routes 24 and 25, you will also find one more new Pokémon, a Version Exclusive. Red Version players will find Oddish while Blue Version players will encounter Bellsprout. Both of these are Grass-types and come with Grass-type moves so if you lack Bulbasaur and Pikachu, here is your only hope of beating Misty without too much trouble. While you’re here, try catching a second Abra as well. You’ll find out why later.
Once you’ve battled all of the available Trainers, go to the cottage at the cape. Inside you will find a Pokémon who is actually a man named Bill who accidentally turned himself into a Pokémon by botching up an experiment. Do exactly as he says to return him to normal. Bill will then thank you by giving you a ticket to board the SS Anne which is a prestigious cruise ship docked in Vermillion Harbor. He was invited, but isn’t exactly a people person. If you leave and reenter his house, Bill will let you check out his favorite Pokémon on his PC which are Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. By looking at them, they have now been added to your Pokédex. Another thing you will notice when you next use the PC at any Pokémon Center is that Someone’s PC has been renamed Bill’s PC. He is the inventor of the Storage System after all. Head back to Cerulean City now because by this point you should be able to handle Misty.
By now your starter should be well into its second stage so those of you with Ivysaur, Pikachu, and either Oddish or Bellsprout are in really good shape. At the very least you should have one of those three and no lower than Lv.20. Charmander/Charmeleon may have been able to muscle though Brock but Charmeleon will be no match here. Wartortle might stand a chance if you use Tackle or Bite, but it’s better to go with the Super-effective option. Aside from the Swimmer mentioned previously, Misty has one more Trainer in her Gym who uses Goldeen. Once you’ve dealt with those two, take on the Water-type Gym Leader. Misty uses a Lv.18 Staryu and a Lv.21 Starmie. Staryu isn’t too much trouble but take it out quickly before it can do any real damage because Starmie is Misty’s powerhouse. It is the evolved form of Staryu, has high Special, and uses Bubble Beam, a powerful Water-type move that can lower Speed. If you’re using Pikachu use Thunder Wave to cut down its speed while limiting its chances for attacking you back. If you’re using a Grass-type, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, or Poison Powder will be useful. Once Starmie falls, Misty will award your efforts with the Cascade Badge and TM11 Bubble Beam. If you have Wartortle, you can teach it the move now. If not, you can save it for later.
With Misty beaten, there is nothing left to do in Cerulean City but to leave. You’ll notice the officer has moved over allowing you access to the house now. As it turns out, the people living there were robbed by Team Rocket who completely trashed the place. How are there footprints on the wall anyway? Outside a hole left in the back wall, you will find the thief still loitering about. Defeat him to retrieve the stolen TM28 which contains Dig. If you talk to the home owners, they no longer care about it meaning it’s yours to keep. With that, it’s time to head on your way.
A Boat, Another Cave, and Electricity
The only direction for you to go now is south. It doesn’t matter if you jump the ledges on Route 5 or if you stay on the grassless road. The only new Pokémon you’ll encounter is Meowth, a Blue Version Exclusive or the Red Version Exclusive Mankey. Both of these can also be found on Route 6 which is where you’ll be momentarily. The only thing of real interest on this road is the Pokémon Day Care where you can give the Day Care Man one Pokémon for him to raise for you. Every step you take will equal one Exp point for your Pokémon. To get it back, the Day Care Man charges 100 Pokédollars plus an additional 100 for every level gained. Take note that if a Pokémon learns a new move, it will automatically delete whichever move is at the top of the list. Your Pokémon will also not evolve while in the Day Care. If you still have your Lv.5 Magikarp (if you even bought one), you can leave it in the Day Care for 14 levels, then pick it up in time to evolve it into Gyarados.
At the bottom of Route 5 you will find two buildings. The larger one is a gatehouse that leads to Saffron City. The guard won’t let you pass however but complains that he’s thirsty. The smaller house on the right has a staircase in the middle of the room that leads to the Underground Path. Follow the path but keep mashing the A button as there are hidden items laying around just waiting to be located. When you get to the end of the path you will emerge inside another house which exits onto Route 6. Above you will notice another gatehouse but it’s the same story as with the first one.
The Wild Pokémon population is exactly the same as Route 5 so if you missed out on Meowth/Mankey you can catch them here. There are a few Trainers hanging around including a Bug Catcher with a Lv.20 Butterfree who can really mess with you if you’re not prepared. Another Trainer uses a Raticate which can also cause some pain if you aren’t careful. Once all of the Trainers are beaten, continue south to Vermillion City.
As usual, explore the city to find what you can. You’ll notice that the Vermillion Gym is blocked off right now so you’ll have to come back later. Aside from that, there are four other points of interest. The first is the Fishing Guru’s house. Talk to him and he’ll give you an Old Rod if you tell him you love fishing. The only thing that can be caught with the Old Rod though is Lv.5 Magikarps. It’s not really a worthy investment when better rods can also catch Magikarp at higher levels so only pick it up if you really want to.
The second place you want to visit is the Pokémon Fan Club. Talk to the president and listen to him ramble on about his beloved Pokémon. He’ll then apologize for wasting your time before giving you a Bike Voucher as a thank you for hearing him out. The Bike Voucher can be exchanged for a Bicycle at the Bike Shop in Cerulean City. There is no need to go back now as you’ll be going back to Cerulean later.
The third house you’ll want to visit is to the southeast of Vermillion City. Inside is a boy who wants a Spearow and is willing to trade you his Farfetch’d for one. This is the only way to obtain Farfetch’d in the game so go catch an extra Spearow for the lad. If you travel east to Route 11, you’ll find plenty of Spearow in the grass along with more Trainers to fight. Another Wild Pokémon to keep an eye out for is Drowzee as they can only be found here. Once you have procured the Spearow, return to Vermillion and make the trade!
The last area of interest in Vermillion City is the port. A sailor stands guard but won’t let you pass without an SS Ticket. Luckily you got one from Bill so the game will automatically show it to the sailor allowing you access to the SS Anne. The ship is huge so make sure you check every room on every floor for the numerous items and plethora of Trainers onboard. In one of the rooms you will meet a man who will show you a picture of the Sleeping Pokémon Snorlax adding it to your Pokédex. In the kitchen you are going to want to check the trash cans for a Great Ball which is stronger than the standard Pokéball. You can’t buy Great Balls yet so hold on to this for any harder to catch Pokémon you run into.
As you explore, make sure to keep your Pokémon in good health. That advice isn’t just because of all the strong Trainers you’ll be fighting, but because your old friend Rival is among them. His Pokémon haven’t really leveled up much since the last time you two fought, but they have evolved since then to compensate. His Pidgeotto has only grown to Lv19, but he now comes boasting a Lv.16 Raticate, a Lv.18 Kadabra, and a Lv.20 Starter, now in its second stage. Rival thus proves he is an unrepentant cheater having a Lv.16 Raticate when Rattata doesn’t evolve until Lv.20. For shame! He’ll boast that he’s already caught 40 kinds of Pokémon and scoffs that you’re lagging behind. Take his ego down a peg by doing exactly as you did to him in Cerulean. Well, almost exactly. Kadabra can now defend itself with Confusion so you’ll want a Pokémon with high Attack who is not weak to Psychic-type attacks.
If you haven’t finished exploring the ship, do not go up the path Rival came from after beating him. Instead backtrack to the areas you haven’t explored. Once you’ve harvested every drop of Exp and items you can from the SS Anne, go back to where you battled Rival and take the stairs to the Captain’s quarters. For being the captain of a ship, the old man has gotten himself seasick so give him a back rub to make him feel better. He’ll reward your efforts with HM01 Cut. An HM differs from a TM in that it can be used an infinite amount of times, cannot be thrown away as it is a Key Item, and once the move is taught it can never again be deleted by any means. The reason behind this is that HMs are field moves and can be used outside of battle to accomplish various tasks. Once a Pokémon learns Cut, the move can be used to cut down small trees, namely the Y shaped ones found in front of the Vermillion Gym and on Route 2. HM moves also require a Badge to be used outside of battle, in this case the Cascade Badge which you already have. Of the Pokémon you’ve encountered so far, Cut can be taught to Beedrill (the final evolved form of Weedle), Sandshrew, Farfetch’d, any Grass-type, and Charmander/Charmeleon. When you leave the SS Anne watch as it sails away never to return.
Your next destination will be a cave on Route 11. Make sure you enter with a Pokéball, the Pokémon you taught Cut to, and your spare Abra. This area is known as Diglett’s Cave, which as the name suggests, is home to Digletts and very rarely their evolved form Dugtrio. You definitely want to catch a Diglett and level it up until it learns Dig if it doesn’t already know the move. Diglett will be extremely valuable in Vermillion Gym if it knows Dig. Since they naturally learn the move there is no need to waste your TM28 on it.
When you emerge from Diglett’s Cave you will find yourself back on Route 2, but on the other side of the Cut trees. Right next to the cave will be a house where the man inside is looking for an Abra and will gladly trade his Mr. Mime in exchange. The only way to get Mr. Mime is by making the trade so accept his offer. From here, head south back to Viridian City collecting all of the items as you go. Inside the tall building you pass through, you will find Prof. Oak’s Aide on the second floor. If you have ten or more Pokémon, which you should by now, he will reward you with HM05 Flash. On the field, Flash will light the darkest of caves but in battle it only drops the opponent’s accuracy. It can be taught to any Electric or Psychic-type Pokémon as well as Jigglypuff and Clefairy. The Boulder Badge is required to use it which you already have so no trouble there.
Your next destination should be to go back to Pewter City and revisit the Science Museum. Don’t go inside, but instead Cut down the tree on its right and go in the back entrance. Talk to the scientist to receive an Old Amber which is another Pokémon Fossil. This one can be revived into the mighty King of the Skies, Aerodactyl. Just as with your Helix/Dome Fossil, there isn’t much that can be done with it at the moment. Unless you want to catch any Pokémon you might have missed, go back to Diglett’s Cave and take it back to Vermillion.
Once you return, Cut the tree and enter the Gym. The Vermillion City Gym is run by Lt. Surge who specializes in Electric-type Pokémon. Electric-types are completely ineffective against Ground-types like Diglett and Sandshrew so if you’re playing Blue Version and didn’t catch a Diglett or you’re very fond of your Sandshrew, teach it Dig and let it solo the Gym.
Lt. Surge is a paranoid war veteran so his Gym has high security. You are going to want to defeat his three Trainers first so they don’t get in the way of solving the most annoying luck based puzzle in the game. The objective is to check all of the trash cans for a secret switch and then find a second secret switch. If you choose wrong, the locks reset themselves. The second switch is always in an adjacent trash can so at worst you have a 25% chance of picking the correct one. After you solve the puzzle, the doors to Lt. Surge open allowing you to challenge the Gym Leader. He uses a Lv.21 Voltorb, a Lv.18 Pikachu, and a Lv.24 Raichu which is the evolved form of Pikachu. Just have Diglett or Sandshrew Dig and Surge will be beaten in no time. Your prize for winning is the Thunder Badge and TM24 Thunder Bolt. You most likely didn’t get a chance to see Surge’s signature move if you were using a Ground-type thanks to their immunity. Thunder Bolt is a really useful move so save it for later.
If you have caught 30 different kinds of Pokémon by this point in the game, you can go back to Route 11 until you find a tall building at the end of the Route. Inside is Prof. Oak’s Aide who will give you an Item Finder which is really useful for finding hidden items. If you leave through the east exit of the building, you will see a sleeping Pokémon blocking the road. There is nothing you can do about it now, so go back to Cerulean City.
Welcome to Darkness, Ghosts, and Grass
When you get back to Cerulean City, exchange your Bike Voucher for a free Bicycle. There is still nothing to do here so leave towards the east to Route 9 until you see another Cut tree. Do as you must to continue forward. Battle the Trainers on Routes 9 and 10 and collect all of the items until you reach another Pokémon Center outside of a cave. This cave is the Rock Tunnel and is pitch black inside. If you still haven’t taught Flash to a Pokémon, you can catch a Voltorb in the grass on Route 10 immediately north of the tunnel.
As soon as you enter the Rock Tunnel, activate Flash. Inside the cave you will find two more Pokémon to catch, Machop and Onix. Onix can be a bit difficult to catch so if you still have your Great Ball, use it now if you want. The Rock Tunnel is full of strong Trainers so keep your Pokémon’s health up with Potions. If they get too worn out, run from wild encounters and avoid as many Trainers as you can. When you finally reach the end of the Rock Tunnel, there will be a few more Trainers littering the road to Lavender Town. Battle them or avoid them for now depending on the conditions of your Pokémon.
Keep heading south and you will reach Lavender Town. Time to heal! Lavender Town is the first town that sells Great Balls in the Mart so make sure you start stocking up on them from now on. As you explore the town you will notice that it has the most hauntingly beautiful theme of any of the towns you’ve visited so far. It’s no wonder once you realize that the tall tower in the northeastern corner of the town is a Pokémon cemetery. As you talk to the locals, you will learn that something is amiss within the Pokémon Tower so go there to investigate. The first floor is full of mourners grieving over their departed Pokémon. Give them their space and go upstairs.
The first person you’ll notice on the second floor is Rival making snide remarks as usual. This time his team has taken a radical shift depending on who his starter is. He still carries Pidgeotto, now Lv.25 and Kadabra, now Lv.20, but he’s dumped Raticate for two new ones. If he started with Bulbasaur, his remaining team will be a Lv.23 Gyarados, a Lv.22 Growlithe, and a Lv.25 Ivysaur. If he chose Charmander, he will have a Lv.23 Exeggcute, a Lv.22 Gyarados, and a Lv.25 Charmeleon. If Squirtle is his Starter, he will boast a Lv.23 Growlithe, a Lv.22 Exeggcute, and a Lv.25 Wartortle. You already know how to beat Pidgeotto, Kadabra, and his Starter from the SS Anne battle. Gyarados is a Water/Flying-type so it is critically weak to Electric-type moves. Exeggcute is a Grass/Psychic-type making it critically weak to a Leech Life from either Zubat/Golbat or Paras/Parasect, a Twin Needle from Beedrill, or any Flying or Fire moves you have. Growlithe is a Fire-type so Water, Rock, or Ground-type moves are the way to go.
After you beat him, he’ll mention having caught a Cubone, but can’t find any Marowaks in the tower before leaving. You may not realize this, but he just gave you a clue on a Pokémon to keep your eyes out for in here since this is the only place to catch Cubone. Unfortunately, you will have to wait on catching them since the only Wild Pokémon you can run into right now aren’t Pokémon at all, but literal ghosts that your Pokémon are too frightened by to even attack.
You can choose to leave the Pokémon Tower now, or you can continue to the top battling the Channelers who all seem to be possessed by evil spirits. All of the Channelers use Gastly or Haunter which are Ghost-type Pokémon, not be confused with the literal ghosts. Ghost-types are weak to other Ghosts which you don’t have yet, but all three Ghost-types in the game are dual-typed with Poison making them vulnerable to Ground and Psychic-type attacks. The staircase that leads to the top floor will be blocked by an unrelenting ghost so there is nothing left to do in Pokémon Tower for now.
Go west to Route 8 and battle all of the Trainers. You will need Cut to access the grass, but the only new Pokémon in the area is a Version Exclusive, Vulpix for Blue and Growlithe for Red, and both of them can also be found in the grass on Route 7. There will be another gatehouse on the west side of this Route with a thirsty guard so take the Underground Path to go west to Route 7. If you want to, go catch your Fire-type Version Exclusive and be on your way.
West of Route 7 is Celadon City. It is the largest city you have been to so far meaning there is a lot of ground to cover. First, go up the path on the right of the Pokémon Center which will lead you behind the buildings. The path will lead into the hidden backdoor of the Celadon Mansion. Keep going up the staircases to the roof and enter the room. You can investigate the room if you like, but the real prize here is the Pokéball sitting on the table. Congratulations! You just got yourself a Lv.25 Eevee! Eevee is known as the Evolution Pokémon because it has the ability to evolve into one of three unique forms when exposed to different Elemental Stones. A Water Stone evolves Eevee into the Water-type Vaporeon, a Thunder Stone yields the Electric-type Jolteon, and a Fire Stone evolves the Fire-type Flareon. Since you can only get one Eevee, you’ll have to trade for the other prospective evolutions.
This brings you to your next destination, the Celadon Department Store. It is so much more than an ordinary Poké Mart as it sells different items on each floor. Aside from the standard healing items and Pokéballs, they also sell TMs, Vitamins, Elemental Stones, and a vending machine on the roof sells drinks. Starting at the roof, buy one of each drink and give them to the little girl sitting at the table. She’ll thank you by giving you TM13 Ice Beam for a Fresh Water, TM48 Tri Attack for a Lemonade, and TM49 Rock Slide for a Soda Pop. Make sure to buy an extra Fresh Water for the road before going back downstairs. If you plan on evolving your Eevee, now would be the time so it can learn its elemental attacks. Just make sure you know what your team is missing before you make the choice. If you’re still using Pikachu, you can evolve it into Raichu with a Thunder Stone. Your Vulpix/Growlithe can also be evolved via Fire Stone, but you should wait until they learn Flamethrower first. Weepinbell and Gloom, the evolved forms of Bellsprout and Oddish respectively can be evolved with a Leaf Stone, but you should wait on them as well. Besides Eevee, Pokémon stop learning moves by level up once they evolve by Stone.
Your next stop should be the restaurant on the south side of the city. There will be a lonely man in the far corner lamenting how he lost everything to gambling. To ease his burden, he’ll give you his Coin Case which can be used to carry coins from the Game Corner casino. With this, you can play the slots or simply buy coins. Coins can then be exchanged in the building next door for rare Pokémon or TMs, but you should save up for a Porygon as the rest of the available Pokémon can be found in the wild. The price of Porygon differs between Versions with Red players needing a steep 9999 coins while Blue players only need 6500.
Rather than visit the Game Corner now, go west to Route 16 with a Great Ball and your Cutter. You will see another Sleeping Pokémon blocking the way but at the top of the road there will be a tree to be Cut down. In the grass you will find a Doduo so be sure to catch one. Go west through the building until you end up in an open field with a single house in the middle. Visit the house and the girl inside will be startled that you found her secret hiding spot. In exchange for your silence, she bribes you with HM02 Fly. If you teach Fly to a Flying-type, they will be able to transport you back to any city you have visited provided you have the Thunder Badge. It will also be a useful move in the coming Gym battle.
Fly back to Celadon City and go to the far south. You need to use Cut on a tree to access the Celadon Gym and you will also need Cut inside the Gym. If you started with Charmander, now is its time to shine as the Gym Leader Erika specializes in Grass-types. Take Charmeleon, or Charizard if it’s already evolved to its final form, and burn a blaze! For Bulbasaur and Squirtle users, Grass-types are weak to Fire, Flying, and Bug-types. Your options for this battle include Vulpix/Growlithe, Flareon if you chose that as you Eevee evolution, Pidgeotto, Fearow, your recently caught Doduo, Golbat, Parasect, or Beedrill. As long as your chosen Pokémon knows Ember, Peck, Drill Peck, Wing Attack, Fly, Leech Life, or Twin Needle, you’ll clean up in there.
Defeat all of Erika’s subordinates before taking on the lady herself to make sure you’ve gained enough Exp. Erika sports a Lv.29 Victreebel, the fully evolved form of Bellsprout, a Lv.24 Tangela, and a Lv.29 Vileplume, the fully evolved form of Oddish. Once you’ve beaten Erika, she will award you the Rainbow Badge and TM21 Mega Drain, a move that steals the opponent’s HP to heal the user. You can teach it to your own Grass-type like Ivysaur or you can save it for later. With Erika’s defeat, the only place left to explore in Celadon City is the Game Corner.
Rockets, Avenging the Dead, and the Two Roads
If you picked up the Coin Case, then a few of the people playing the slot machines at the Game Corner will give you free coins. You can also find coins hidden on the floor with your Item Finder. For more coins you will either have to play the slots or buy 50 for 1000 Pokédollars from the man behind the counter.
As you have probably noticed as you walked around Celadon City, there were a few Rockets loitering around. The Game Corner is no different as there is one standing in front of a poster. Defeat him in battle and he will reveal that he was supposed to be guarding the poster but is now worried you’ll discover Team Rocket’s secret hideout. Examining the poster will activate a secret switch. If you follow to where the Rocket fled to you will see a staircase that wasn’t there a moment ago. Going downstairs will take you to Team Rocket’s main base of operations.
As you explore you will have to battle many Rockets and deal with the dastardly Spinner Traps. As payment for your troubles you might as well loot the place of all of its items. If you try using the elevator, you will find it doesn’t work without a Lift Key. The Lift Key is in the possession of one of the Rockets. After you defeat the Rocket who asks you “Who has the Lift Key?” talk to him again and he’ll say “Oh no! I dropped the Lift Key!” The Item will appear next to him so pick it up and be on your way.
Take the elevator to the lowest level and be ready for two more Rockets. One of them uses a Sandshrew, Ekans, and Sandslash while the other one uses Ekans, Sandshrew, and Arbok. Defeating them will cause the door to open. When you walk inside the room, you will be face to face with the Boss of Team Rocket himself, Giovanni. He is impressed that you made it this far and wishes to see your strength first hand. Giovanni uses a Lv.25 Onix, a Lv.24 Rhyhorn, and a Lv.29 Kangaskhan. Each of his Pokémon are weak to Fighting-types but if you don’t have one strong enough, a Water or Grass-type should do the trick. Once defeated, Giovanni will promise to battle you again one day before disappearing. In his place will be the Silph Scope, a device that allows its wearer to see the true appearances of ghosts. Take the elevator back to the first basement floor then go upstairs back to the Game Corner. Go outside and Fly back to Lavender Town and return to the Pokémon Tower.
Thanks to the power of the Silph Scope, the ghosts that tormented your Pokémon before will be revealed to be Gastlys with the occasional Haunter and Cubone. Make sure to catch them as they are only found here. If you did not battle the Channelers previously, you will be facing them now as you make your way to the top of the Tower. The ghost that was guarding the staircase will be revealed as the restless soul of a deceased Marowak. If you’ve been paying attention to what the denizens of Lavender Town said, Team Rocket mercilessly killed a Marowak leaving a baby Cubone orphaned. This is Cubone’s mother. You can’t catch her as she’ll avoid any Pokéballs thrown at her so defeat her to calm her restless spirit.
When you finally go to the top floor, you will find Marowak’s murders. Show them no mercy. You will also find a kindly old man who takes in orphaned and abandoned Pokémon named Mr. Fuji in the back of the room. After taking in the baby Cubone, he came to Pokémon Tower to confront the Rockets but was taken hostage instead. He’ll thank you for what you’ve done before taking you back to his house in Lavender Town.
Mr. Fuji is concerned that without love and compassion for your Pokémon, your quest will be destined to fail so to help you he gives you a Poké Flute which is an invaluable item for waking up any sleeping Pokémon. This includes the two Pokémon that were sleeping on the roads blocking your path. You now have two choices on where to go. You can go directly south to Silence Bridge or you can Fly back to Celadon City and wake up the one blocking Route 16. Where ever you choose to go, make sure you are armed with a plethora of Great Balls because the sleeping Pokémon can be a difficult catch if the RNG isn’t in your favor.
You will find that the Silence Bridge route is the longest by far in the game as it comprises Routes 12-15 with numerous Trainers to match so make sure your Pokémon are in tiptop shape and you also have the items to keep them that way. The Trainers on the bridge are all Fishermen armed with Water-types which you already know how to deal with. When you enter the building at the bottom of the bridge, go upstairs to obtain TM39 Swift from the girl. This useful move never misses making it useful against Pokémon that have either lowered your accuracy or raised their evasion stats.
When you reach the sleeping Pokémon, save your game before you battle it. As there are only two of these in the game, you don’t want to accidentally faint them both. After you save, play the Poké Flute to wake it up. The Lv.30 Snorlax will then attack you for disturbing its slumber. Give it a status ailment like sleep or paralysis but don’t poison or burn it because you don’t want it to accidentally faint. Best case scenario is that you use Ice Beam and freeze it. Slowly whittle down its HP but be mindful of the fact that Snorlax also knows Rest, a move that fully restores the user’s HP and status at the cost of putting it to sleep, so at any moment your hard work and the status condition can be undone. When its HP is low enough and it has a status condition, start throwing your Great Balls until you catch it. With any luck, Snorlax will soon be yours with minimal hassle. If you accidentally defeat it, simply reset the game and try again from where you last saved.
After you catch Snorlax, enter the small house nearby. It is the home of the Fishing Guru’s brother who will give you a Super Rod, the best fishing rod in the game. Most of the Pokémon caught with the Super Rod are Lv.15 but there are some exceptions such as Lv.23 Poliwhirl which you can fish for back in Celadon City. If you catch one of them, you can trade it for a Jynx back in Cerulean City. You can also catch Lv.15 Magikarp with this rod meaning they know Tackle and only have five levels until they evolve making them a little bit easier to deal with. Have fun fishing in all the different bodies of water you can find for nearly every species of Water-type in the game.
On Routes 12-15 you will need a Pokémon that can use Cut to reach all of the grasses, items, and Trainers, but for now you should only concern yourself with the grass on Route 15 as it is open for exploring allowing you to catch the two new Pokémon available to you. They are Venonat, an ordinary Bug/Poison-type, and Ditto, a Normal-type whose special ability is to Transform into any other Pokémon in the game it battles. The only other Pokémon in the game that can learn the move Transform is Mew. Other new wild Pokémon are Pidgeotto and either Gloom or Weepinbell depending on if you’re playing Red or Blue respectively.
By now your Pokémon are probably exhausted but worry not. Fuchsia City is right through that building on the west side of Route 15. If you go upstairs you will once again encounter Prof. Oak’s Aide. If you have caught a total of 50 or more Pokémon, he will give you an Exp All which evenly distributes Exp earned from battle to all of the Pokémon in the party. It’s handy for quickly leveling up low level Pokémon, but otherwise it just takes up space. It’s up to you if keep it with you, put it in the PC, or even get it at all. Once you arrive in Fuchsia City, heal up your Pokémon and Fly back to Celadon so that you can clear Biker’s Road.
As you travel east to Route 16 from Celadon City, you will be required to once again awaken Snorlax. For more information on that, refer to the section above. If you want to catch this one as well so you have two Snorlax or if you missed the one on Silence Bridge go ahead. If you’d rather get the experience from defeating it, that is fine too.
After dealing with Snorlax go into the building it was blocking but know that you will not be allowed out the other side if you do not have your Bike on you since all Trainers are required to ride their bikes on Biker’s Road. If you do have your Bike, you will automatically mount it upon exiting. The Trainers you encounter here are all Bikers who use Koffings, Weezings, Grimers, and Muks or Cueballs who use Machops, Machokes, Mankeys, and Primeapes. The grass contains Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, and Doduo so nothing you didn’t already have access to.
As you will quickly notice, Biker’s Road is a steep hill that will automatically drag you to the bottom. Once you reach the bottom, go into the gatehouse to the east and go upstairs. There you will find a Trainer willing to trade a Lickitung for a Slowbro. You can catch Slowpoke at Lv.15 with the Super Rod then raise it to Lv.37 for it to evolve into Slowbro, or you can wait until later in the game to catch a Slowbro in the wild and then make the trade. This is the only way to get Lickitung in the game so you’ll have to make the trade at some point. Just outside the gatehouse will be three Bird Keepers for you to battle. The grass population is the same as Biker’s Road. Continue east just a little bit and you will be back in Fuchsia City.
Poison Using Ninjas and Safaris
The Fuchsia City Gym is right next to the Pokémon Center and with all of the experience you’ve gained since your last Gym Battle, this should be no trouble at all. When you walk inside it looks like the Gym Leader Koga is directly in front of you but you would be mistaken. The gimmick for his Gym is invisible walls so you will have to work your way through the maze battling all of Koga’s subordinate Trainers.
Despite the fact that Koga specializes in Poison-type Pokémon, four of his Trainers use Psychic-types while the remaining two use the Ground-type Sandslash along with their Poison-type Arbok. Ironically enough, Psychic and Ground-types are exactly what Poison-types are weak to so be sure to use those types of Pokémon in your battle with Koga. If you aren’t using those types, make sure you come armed with Antidotes as Koga uses a devastating move called Toxic which doubles the amount of HP drained every turn unlike normal poison which takes out the same amount every turn.
Koga uses a Lv.37 Koffing, a Lv.39 Muk, a second Lv.37 Koffing and a Lv.43 Weezing so quite a jump from Erika’s levels. Once you clench victory over this crafty ninja, you will be awarded the Soul Badge and TM06 Toxic which Koga reveals his ancestors invented long ago. With Koga beaten, heal your Pokémon and take the chance to explore the city.
Over the ledge to the right of the Pokémon Center will be two houses. The furthest one is home to another Fishing Guru who will give you the Good Rod. Pardon the pun, but this rod just isn’t as ‘good’ as the Super Rod as it can only catch Lv.10 Poliwags and Lv.10 Goldeens. The Fishing Guru’s neighbor is the warden of the Safari Zone who the locals refer to as Warden Slowpoke. Unfortunately, the old man seems to have lost his Gold Teeth so you can’t understand his mumbling right now.
In the northern section of the city is the Pokémon zoo where you’ll be able to see several different species in pens. The main attractions are Voltorb, Chansey, Slowpoke, Kangaskhan, Lapras, and either Omanyte or Kabuto. The one you encounter will be the opposite of the Fossil you picked up in Mt. Moon. If you chose the Helix Fossil, it will be Kabuto in the pen, while recipients of the Dome Fossil will see Omanyte. Around this area will be the Mart which now sells Ultra Balls, the (second) most useful Pokéball in the game.
To the far north of Fuchsia City is the Safari Zone. For the price of 500 Pokédollars you will be given 30 Safari Balls to catch any and all Pokémon in the Safari Zone you run into and be allowed 500 steps to walk around at your leisure. Once you run out of steps or Safari Balls it’s game over and you will be escorted out of the park. Before you go inside, make sure Bill’s PC is set to an empty Box. It would be pretty disappointing to find a rare Pokémon and be unable to catch it because the Box is full.
Pay the entry fee and get ready for the Safari game! Just know that you will most likely have to enter the Safari Zone multiple times to obtain all of the Pokémon and items that can be found here. Among those items are the Warden’s Gold Teeth and HM03 Surf which is a prize given away in the far back of the Safari Zone. If you move quickly with the fewest steps, you should be able to reach the Secret House with a little over 100 steps remaining. You know you’re getting close as the Gold Teeth are near the House.
The Pokémon that can be found in the grass in the Safari Zone are Nidoran♀, Nidorina, Nidoran♂, Nidorino, Paras, Parasect, Venonat, Venomoth, Doduo, Exeggcute, Rhyhorn, Kangaskhan, Chansey, Tauros, and a Version Exclusive, Scyther for Red and Pinsir for Blue. The Nidoran family are still as common/rare as they were on Route 22 for their respective versions while Kangaskhan, Chansey, Tauros, and Scyther/Pinsir are really rare and hard to catch. Since you cannot use your own Pokémon to battle, you must rely on throwing Safari Balls and hope the Pokémon you’re trying to catch doesn’t decide to run away. If you are having trouble finding a certain species, try looking for them in a different Zone. If you want to be altruistic, catch two Pinsir or Scyther to trade with the opposite Version. The last Pokémon that is exclusive to the Safari Zone is Dratini who can only be found by fishing with the Super Rod. As a Dragon-type, Dratini is very hard to catch, but it evolves into one of the strongest Pokémon in the game.
Once you obtain Surf from the Secret House, you can teach it to any Water-type Pokémon like Blastoise, Vaporeon, or Gyarados. Outside of battle it can be used to ferry you across bodies of water to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. In battle it is one of the best Water-type moves in the game making it a worthy staple to any team. To use Surf outside of battle, Koga’s Soul Badge is required.
When you return Warden Slowpoke’s Gold Teeth, he rewards you with the last of the five HMs, HM04 Strength. Teaching Strength allows your Pokémon to move giant boulders like the one in the Warden’s house which is blocking a Rare Candy. To use Strength outside of battle, you must have the Rainbow Badge. Speaking of the Rainbow Badge, Fly back to Celadon City since that is the closest city to your next destination.
Proud Fighters, A City Under Siege, and Psychics
When you arrive back in Celadon City, go east to the Route 7 gatehouse. Give the extra Fresh Water you bought so long ago to the thirsty guard. He’ll finally let you through as thanks while promising to share the drink with the other guards allowing you full access to Saffron City from any direction.
The moment you arrive you will immediately know something is wrong because the city is flooded with Rockets. There are only four buildings that are not being guarded by Rockets: the Pokémon Center, the Mart, Mr. Psychic’s house, and a Gym. Mr. Psychic gives you TM29 Psychic which is a very useful move that you should hold on to for the time being.
When you visit the Gym in the northeast corner of the city, you will notice it is one of two Gyms. The one that is blocked is the one you get the actual Badge from. The open one is the Fighting Dojo which specializes in Fighting-types which are weak to Psychic and Flying-types. The Blackbelts within all use Machops, Machokes, Mankeys, and Primeapes while their master uses two very strong Fighting-types, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, both at Lv.37. When you defeat the master, he apologizes for not having a Badge to give you, but offers you the choice of your own Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan. The Lv.30 Fighting-types are in the Pokéballs behind him. Both are great Pokémon in their own rights so choose the one you like best. To get the other you will have to trade.
Leave the Fighting Dojo and go to the large building in the center of Saffron City. This place is Silph Co. which has been taken over by Team Rocket. If you came to Saffron City before defeating Giovanni at the Rocket Hideout, there would have been a guard at the entrance to Silph telling you to get lost. Now however, the fool is asleep allowing you access. You will notice strange white square tiles spread out on the floor from the second floor and above. These are teleporters which will take you to different areas throughout the building. Each teleporter is connected to another so as long as you remember which ones are together, you won’t get too lost in here.
Aside from defeating every Rocket you find, including the four Rocket Brothers, you should also keep an eye out for the Card Key while collecting all of the items laying around. The Card Key will unlock the doors allowing you to enter new rooms and access more teleporters. On the ninth floor you will find beds which can be used to heal your Pokémon without leaving the building. On the third floor, there is a teleporter in one of the rooms you need to open with the Card Key that will take you where you want to go. Make sure your Pokémon are fully healed beforehand because there are two difficult battles awaiting you.
When you step on the aforementioned teleporter, you will be taken to a room with only two people in it. One of them is a Silph employee being held hostage and the second is none other than Rival! It has been awhile since your last fight with him and he has been doing some serious training since then. His Starter is now fully evolved as is most of his team. The main ones he’ll have are a Lv.39 Pidgeot and a Lv.35 Alakazam with the remaining three determined by his starter like last time. If he chose Bulbasaur, he’ll have a Lv.38 Gyarados, a Lv.35 Growlithe, and a Lv.40 Venusaur. If he chose Charmander, he’ll use a Lv.38 Exeggcute, a Lv.35 Gyarados, and a Lv.40 Charizard. If he chose Squirtle, the last three will be a Lv.38 Growlithe, a Lv.35 Exeggcute, and a Lv.40 Blastoise. By this point, you should know who beats who so have at him. Rival shouldn’t be too troublesome if you’ve been keeping up with your leveling as well. When you defeat him, he brags that he’s already collected all eight Badges and is on his way to the Elite Four. He will then take the teleporter out of the room.
If you talk to the Silph employee, he will give you a Lv.15 Lapras as a thank you for fighting Team Rocket all by yourself. Lapras is an extremely rare Pokémon that cannot be obtained any other way. If you haven’t taught a Pokémon Surf yet, Lapras is a strong choice for your team. If there are any Rockets left in the building, fight them now because after you take that teleporter to the President’s Office, the Rocket’s will clear the premise. It would be a shame to waste all of the Experience.
Once all of the Rockets are defeated, take that teleporter, walk down the hall, and use the Card Key on the President’s Office. As soon as you walk in, the Boss Rocket himself will approach you. Giovanni’s getting a bit annoyed by your continued interference so he decides to teach you a lesson through battle. This time he battles with a Lv.37 Nidorino, a Lv.35 Kangaskhan, a Lv.37 Rhyhorn, and a Lv.41 Nidoqueen. Strong Water, Grass, Ground, Fighting, and Psychic-type attacks are the way to go for beating Giovanni. Once he’s defeated, he’ll leave taking all of his underlings with him leaving not a single Rocket in the city. Talk to the President and he will reward your bravery with the Master Ball, the single most powerful Pokéball in the game. The Master Ball is guaranteed to catch any and all Pokémon without fail whether they are at full HP or 1HP. That is why you must absolutely SAVE IT! Do not squander it on a Pokémon that could just as easily be caught with one of the purchasable Pokéballs.
When you leave Silph Co. you have free reign to explore Saffron City at your leisure and convenience. The first place you should head to is the actual Saffron City Gym to win your sixth Badge. The Gym Leader Sabrina specializes in Psychic-types which don’t really have a weakness. Psychic-types are weak to Bug and Ghost-types on paper, but thanks to an unfortunate glitch, Psychic-types are actually immune to Ghosts meaning they take no damage from them. On top of that, Bug-type moves are pretty weak and most Pokémon that can learn them are part Poison-type. You will simply want to use your strongest Pokémon for the coming battles, preferably one with high Attack and Special like Snorlax.
Sabrina’s Gym once again uses the teleporters so warp between them battling the seven Gym Trainers before facing off against Sabrina. She uses a Lv.38 Kadabra, a Lv. 37 Mr. Mime, a Lv.38 Venomoth, and a Lv.43 Alakazam. Venomoth is not a Psychic-type, but is ironically weak to Psychic. After beating Sabrina, you will be awarded the Marsh Badge and TM46 which contains Psy Wave, a Psychic attack that does random damage every turn.
Surfing On Fire And Glitches
Your next destination is Cinnabar Island, and like everything else in this game, you have two choices on how you go about it. You can either Surf directly south from Pallet Town via Route 21 or you can take the long way from Fuchsia City. This walkthrough will go more in depth about the other areas that can only be accessed by Surf in the next section, so for now take the faster path down Route 21. There is a patch of grass south of Pallet Town where you can find Pidgeotto, Raticate, and very rarely Tangela. As you may have noticed, the only Pokémon that can be caught while Surfing is Tentacool. The Trainers you battle will be mostly Swimmers in the ocean along with a few Fishermen hanging out on small islets. Overall, it should take you no time at all to reach Cinnabar Island.
There are three places to visit on Cinnabar; the Gym, the Pokémon Mansion, and the Cinnabar Lab. Start with the lab by bringing your Helix/Dome Fossil and Old Amber to a scientist in the far right room. He says he can revive them but it will take some time. Simply leave the building and reenter and you will be the owner of a new prehistoric Pokémon. As stated before, the Helix Fossil will revive a Lv.30 Omanyte and the Dome Fossil revives a Lv.30 Kabuto. If raised to Lv.40 they will evolve into Omastar and Kabutops respectively. The Old Amber will revive a Lv.30 Aerodactyl, a strong Flying-type who does not evolve. The scientist can only revive one Fossil at a time so it’s up to you to decide which one you want to revive first. In the other rooms are people looking to trade their Pokémon but everything they offer can be found in the wild so it’s up to you if you trade or not.
If you try to go to the Gym you will find it locked! The key is somewhere on the island so go to your last destination, the Pokémon Mansion. There are a lot of new Pokémon in here to be caught so make sure you come with Great and Ultra Balls. The Pokémon you will encounter are Vulpix/Growlithe, Grimer, Muk, Koffing, Weezing, and Ponyta. Grimer and its evolution Muk are more prevalent in Blue while Koffing and Weezing are more common in Red. Blue Version also has the added bonus of its own Version Exclusive, Magmar. Red however does not have an alternate exclusive in the Pokémon Mansion. There are also a few items to be found including your fifth and final Moon Stone which is hidden in the third pillar on the right when you first walk in.
As you explore you will find journals detailing the discovery of Mew and the birth of Mewtwo, the most powerful Pokémon in the game. The final journal entry implies that it was Mewtwo who left the Mansion in the ruined state you see now. You will need to utilize the secret switches hidden in the Pokémon statues to reach the basement where you will find the Secret Key that can be used to unlock the Cinnabar Gym.
Leave the Mansion when you are ready and go unlock the Gym. You will find a rather unique puzzle this time where you answer quiz questions in order to proceed. The Gym Leader Blaine and the rest of the Trainers specialize in Fire-types so come ready with a strong Water, Rock, or Ground-type. Blaine uses a Lv.42 Growlithe, a Lv.40 Ponyta, a Lv.42 Rapidash, and a Lv.47 Arcanine. Defeating Blaine earns you the Volcano Badge and TM38 Fire Blast which is the strongest Fire-type move in the game. Teach it to Charizard if you’re using one.
Now the real fun begins. If you have been saving your Master Ball, your most useful TMs, Rare Candies, Moon Stones, Vitamins, and Nuggets now is the time to multiply them. If there are any hard to catch Safari Zone Pokémon you still need, there is a way to get them easier too. The ways to do all of these things come from glitches involving the east coast of Cinnabar Island.
To start the glitch, Fly to Viridian City and talk to the Old Man who wouldn’t let you pass at the beginning of the game. When he asks you if you know how to catch Pokémon, tell him “No” and he will enter a tutorial where he shows you. When the tutorial ends Fly back to Cinnabar Island. Put the item you want multiplied in the sixth slot of your inventory then start Surfing up and down the coast. Among the random encounters will be a pixilated mess by the name of Missingno or its cousin ‘M. These Glitch Pokémon are rather benign but have the beneficial side effect of adding 128 to the item in your sixth slot. If you had your Master Ball in that slot for example, you now have 129 Master Balls. It’s a bit hard to tell because there are only two digits displayed for numbers meaning you will see a glitch square followed by a 9. Unlike the Mew Glitch referenced earlier, Missingno can be repeated again and again allowing you infinite amount of any item. Just don’t multiply a Key Item because you will run out of inventory space.
The reason this glitch works is because the coast of Cinnabar Island does not have Wild Pokémon coded for it so it uses the Wild Pokémon data of whatever area you were last in. The reason you need to talk to the Old Man first is because it stores your name as Wild Pokémon data which translates as Missingno. By visiting the Safari Zone, you can then Fly directly to Cinnabar after you leave which will allow you to encounter the Safari Zone Pokémon on the coast without the restrictions meaning they won’t run and you can battle and catch them as you would a Wild Pokémon anywhere else. That includes using your new Master Balls on them.
If you look at your Town Map, you will notice that you have been almost everywhere in the region. If you have been following this walkthrough, the only places you have yet to visit are Routes 19 and 20, the Seafoam Islands, the Power Plant, the cave by Cerulean City, Route 23, and Indigo Plateau. If you Fly back to Cerulean City, walk up Route 24, and talk to the man blocking the cave, he will warn that horribly strong Pokémon live there and only the Pokémon League Champion may enter. Go a little further west to battle one of the easiest to miss Trainers in the game. She uses Paras and Parasect so take her out with Poison, Fire, or Flying-type moves and be on your way.
The Final Gym, The Road To Victory, And Birds
Before exploring the rest of the region, Fly to Viridian City to claim your eighth and final Badge. The Gym is no longer locked for the Gym Leader has returned! No one knows who the Gym Leader is and the Trainers inside give no indication either as they all use a mix of types. The only clue to the Gym Leader’s identity is the return of the Spinner Traps. Use them to collect a Revive, the only item to be in any Gym. After you’ve navigated the maze and battled all of the Gym Trainers, the Spinners will drop you off in front of the Gym Leader who is none other than Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket. Viridian Gym doubles as his base of operations and now you’ve tracked him here too.
Giovanni uses a Lv.45 Rhyhorn, a Lv.42 Dugtrio, a Lv.44 Nidoqueen, a Lv.45 Nidoking, and a Lv.50 Rhydon. All of his Pokémon are Ground-types so come prepared with the usual Water and Grass-types. Make sure your Pokémon are faster than his as well because they know the devastating One Hit KO move Fissure which will defeat any slower Pokémon in a single hit. When you win, Giovanni will give you your rightfully earned Earth Badge and TM27 which contains Fissure. Talk to Giovanni again after the battle and he will vow to permanently disband Team Rocket before disappearing never to be seen again.
When you leave the Gym, heal your Pokémon, then head west to Route 22. It’ll be like the beginning of the game all over again as coming up the road will be Rival just like last time. This time however, he’s impressed to see you have eight Badges instead of scoffing that you have no Badges. This time he’s also packing a full team of six unlike the first time where it was just Pidgey and his starter or the other times where he had five. He’ll use a Lv.47 Pidgeot, a Lv.50 Alakazam, and the new comer, a Lv.45 Rhyhorn. Once again, if Bulbasaur was his starter, he’ll have a Lv.45 Gyarados, a Lv.47 Growlithe, and a Lv.53 Venusaur. If he chose Charmander, he’ll have a Lv.45 Exeggcute, a Lv.47 Gyarados, and a Lv.53 Charizard. If he chose Squirtle, he’ll have a Lv.45 Growlithe, a Lv.47 Exeggcute, and a Lv.53 Blastoise. By now you should have your strategies for his team worked out, even Rhyhorn.
After you defeat him, he’ll say a few taunting words before heading back to Pokémon League Headquarters. Follow him and enter the building. At the beginning of the game you weren’t allowed to pass the checkpoint without the Boulder Badge. This time you won’t have any problems, nor will you at the other seven check points that check for the rest of the Badges. To traverse all of Route 23, you will need Surf. You will also need Strength for the puzzles in Victory Road which you will be standing in front of after clearing the eighth check point. No need to worry about the Wild Pokémon populations on Route 23 or Victory Road as they are all Pokémon you already have access to in other areas.
Victory Road is also full of strong Trainers so make sure your Pokémon are fully healed before entering. To solve the Strength puzzles, push the boulders onto the circular buttons you see or down holes so that you can push them onto buttons on a lower floor. As you explore, keep your eyes out for a bird roosting in the cave. If you see it, save immediately before battling it. This bird is similar to Snorlax in that you can battle it and catch it but unlike Snorlax, this Pokémon is truly one of a kind so you don’t want to accidentally faint it or run out of Ultra Balls, assuming you didn’t multiply your Master Ball.
After saving, talk to the Bird to challenge it. This Pokémon is Moltres, the Legendary Bird of Fire, and is at Lv.50. If you used Missingno to multiply your Master Ball, use one and it will be yours without a problem. If you did not multiply your Master Ball, you will have to catch Moltres the hard way. You want to first paralyze it or put it to sleep then whittle its HP down as low as you can make it without fainting it. Once its HP is low enough, make sure it’s still asleep if that is the method you’re using then start throwing Ultra Balls. As a Legendary Pokémon, it will be very difficult to catch and may even take a few tries.
Once you finally succeed in catching Moltres, continue on your way through Victory Road until you finally reach the exit. Then it is only a little further to Indigo Plateau. Don’t worry if your Pokémon are worn out at this point, there are no more Trainers or Wild Pokémon left to face. Your only challenge now is to wander through a maze of statues. When you finally reach Indigo Plateau, give your Pokémon a well deserved rest. As you’ll notice, the building serves a dual purpose as a Pokémon Center and a Mart so stock up on items after you heal.
As usual, you now have a choice to make; face the Elite Four or continue training if you don’t feel ready yet. Before you do anything, there are still other areas that need exploring. Start by Flying to Cerulean City then travel east as if you were visiting the Rock Tunnel. Instead of going into the cave, Surf south along the river until you arrive at the Power Plant. There is a Trainer outside who should be fairly easy to defeat.
Enter the Power Plant and start exploring. The Pokémon found here are Voltorb, Electrode, Magnemite, Magneton, and Pikachu. Red Version users will also encounter Electabuzz, the Version Exclusive counterpart to Blue’s Magmar. Blue Version users get the bonus of being able to encounter Wild Raichu despite Red not getting any bonus Pokémon in the Mansion. A few of the Item Balls laying around are actually Wild Voltorb and Electrode so be careful with which ones you pick up.
At the back of the Power Plant you will find another bird. Like with Moltres, save before you approach it as you don’t want to accidentally defeat it or run out of Ultra Balls. When you interact wit it, you will find yourself battling a Lv.50 Zapdos, the Legendary Bird of Thunder. Just like with Moltres, throw the Master Ball right away if you have extras. If not, then do your best to paralyze it or keep it asleep while you lower its HP. With enough patience and luck, the second Legendary Bird will be yours. After that, leave the Power Plant and Fly to Fuchsia City.
Head south from Fuchsia City and Surf along Routes 19 and 20 battling the Trainers as you go. Make sure you have a Pokémon knowing Strength as there is another Strength puzzle in the Seafoam Islands. While there are two islands, you can only enter one at a time depending on the direction you came from. When you enter the cave on the far left, keep your eyes open for the boulders you will need to move. On the lowest level of the cave there are fast moving currents that prevent access to other areas. By pushing boulders into the holes, you can block the currents allowing safe passage. Blocking the currents with the boulders found on the first floor will allow you to get to the Cinnabar Island side. Deeper in the cave there will be another puzzle that will allow access to another area of the Seafoam Islands.
On the third level you will find four boulders on the left. Only two can be pushed into the holes so for the two next to each other, start by pushing the right one into the corner, then push the left one into the hole. Next, push the boulder blocking your path away and push the one nearest the hole into it. Jump down and Surf north to the small islet. You will see yet another bird so save the game. This is Articuno, the Legendary Bird of Ice, and is Lv.50 like the others. Do as before with the other Legendary Birds but if you aren’t caching it right away with the Master Ball, be careful of Articuno’s Ice Beam, a move that can freeze your Pokémon preventing them from attacking. Use Full Heals if you have them to alleviate freezing. Once you catch Articuno, you will be the proud owner of all three Legendary Birds!
The other Pokémon found in the Seafoam Islands are Seel and Dewgong, which are only native here, Staryu, Shellder, Psyduck, Golduck, Slowpoke, Slowbro, and depending on your Version, Krabby and Kingler in Blue or Horsea and Seadra in Red. Note that these are only Version Exclusive for the Seafoam Islands as Krabby and Horsea have an equal chance of being found while fishing with the Super Rod. Make sure you catch an extra Slowbro while here to trade for Lickitung in Fuchsia City. Once you’ve finished your business in the Seafoam Islands, leave via the Cinnabar side and Surf west to Cinnabar Island in order to finish clearing the Trainers on Route 20. As soon as you are ready, Fly back to Indigo Plateau to prepare for your Elite Four challenge!
The Strongest Trainers In The World
Once you begin the Elite Four challenge, you will be thrown into a gauntlet where there is no turning back until you either beat all of them or lose so make sure you are prepared. To start off, make sure you have a diversified team consisting of a Grass and/or Water-type, a Fire-type, an Electric-type, an Ice-type, a Psychic-type, and either a Fighting or Ground-type. Also make sure you’re carrying Hyper Potions, Max Potions, Full Restores, Revives, and Max Revives in your items. Make sure your Pokémon are at full heath before entering the door in the back of the room.
Your first opponent will be the Ice Goddess Lorelei. Her team consists of a Lv.54 Dewgong, a Lv.53 Cloyster, a Lv.54 Slowbro, a Lv.56 Jynx, and a Lv.56 Lapras. Since most of her Pokémon, are dual-typed Water, only use your Fire-type on Jynx. Use your Electric-type on the rest or your Fighting-type on all but Slowbro. When you defeat Lorelei, the door behind her will open leading to the next member.
Your second challenge will be against the Martial Arts Master Bruno. He trains a Lv.53 Onix, a Lv.55 Hitmonchan, a Lv.55 Hitmonlee, a Lv.56 Onix, and a Lv.58 Machamp. Use your Water, Grass, or Psychic-type win this match. When Bruno concedes defeat, the door will open allowing you to face your next opponent.
Your third foe will be the elderly Agatha who reveals to be a childhood friend of Prof. Oak’s. She specializes in Ghost and Poison-types with a team of a Lv.56 Gengar, a Lv.56 Golbat, a Lv.55 Haunter, a Lv.58 Arbok, and a Lv.60 Gengar. Ground and Psychic-type attacks are the way to win against this bitter old woman. Once Agatha is beaten, the door leading to the last member of the Elite Four will open.
Your fourth match will be against the Elite Four’s Leader, Lance the Dragon Master. Lance claims that Dragon-types are hard to catch and raise, but they are near indestructible. Lance will attempt to prove his claim by sending into battle his Lv.58 Gyarados, two Lv.56 Dragonair, Lv.60 Aerodactyl, and Lv.62 Dragonite. To beat Gyarados, use Electric-type moves. Aerodactyl will fall to either Electric, Water, or Ice-type moves. Dragon-types have just one weakness and that is to Ice-types so use them on the Dragonairs and Dragonite. Dragonite especially is weak to Ice-types as it is a dual Dragon/Flying-type.
Once Dragonite falls you have defeated Lance and the Elite Four! You have become the Pokémon League Champion! …err… Not yet. While Lance admits defeat, he says that someone else beat the Elite Four before you did and is the true Champion. If you want the title for yourself, you must defeat the current Champion who turns out to be none other than Rival! He’s always been one step ahead of you so the fact that he became Champion before you should not come as a surprise. Make sure your worn out Pokémon are fully healed before you enter the next room to face him.
As soon as you enter the Champion’s throne, Rival will challenge you. He claims that he has assembled the strongest Pokémon team and that he is the most powerful Trainer in the world. You have never once lost to him so don’t start now. This is the final battle so give it all you’ve got! His Pidgeot is Lv.61 so use your best Electric or Ice-type moves to beat it. His Alakazam is Lv.59 but still has low Defense so use the fastest Pokémon with the highest Attack stat you’ve got. His Rhyhorn has evolved into a Lv.61 Rhydon. Grass, Water, Fighting, or Ground-type moves are the way to go in defeating this one. If he started with Bulbasaur, the rest of his team will be a Lv.61 Gyarados, a Lv.63 Arcanine, and Venusaur will be Lv.65. If he started with Charmander, he’ll be using a Lv.61 Exeggutor, a Lv.63 Gyarados, and Charizard will be Lv.65. If he started with Squirtle, his last three Pokémon will be a Lv.63 Arcanine, a Lv.61 Exeggutor, and Blastoise will be Lv.65. To beat Gyarados, just do what you did to Lance’s and use Electric-type moves. Arcanine can be beaten with Water, Ground, and Rock-type moves, and Exeggutor will fall to Ice, Fire, Flying, Poison, and Bug-type moves. Rival’s starter shares those weaknesses so do what you’ve been doing since that first battle in Prof. Oak’s Lab.
When the final battle ends, Rival stands there dumbfounded trying to comprehend how he could have lost. This is when Prof. Oak walks in and scolds Rival that it was a lack of love and trust for his Pokémon that cost him the battle. He had come when he heard Rival had become Champion but is disappointed that by the time he got there his grandson had already lost. Prof. Oak will then congratulate you on your victory and lead you into the Hall of Fame to register you and your Pokémon as Champions. You will then be treated to the credits. Congratulations on beating the game!
Post-Game
When you next turn on your game, you will be standing outside your house in Pallet Town. Nothing about the world has changed besides two things. The first is that from now on whenever you log on to the PC, you will see Hall of Fame added to the menu. All this does is allow you to view the number of times you beat the Elite Four and with which Pokémon. The second change is the guard in front of the cave on Route 24 is gone. You are the Pokémon League Champion now so you have earned the right to explore that cave.
Have your mom heal your Pokémon since they will be in the same condition they were after the battles with the Elite Four and Rival. Next, Fly to Cerulean City and go to that cave. It is called the Unknown Dungeon. There are no other Trainers here as there can only be one Champion. All of the Wild Pokémon are between Lv.50-60 and aside from Wild Chansey, you should have most of them already so only catch them if you want to. The real prize in the deepest part of the cave, the most powerful Legendary Pokémon in existence, the very monster who laid the Pokémon Mansion to ruins, Mewtwo! At Lv.70, Mewtwo is the highest level Pokémon you will encounter in the game. You best have your Master Ball with you otherwise you’re going to have to catch the Genetic Pokémon the hard way.
Once you catch Mewtwo, the only task at hand remaining is to finish filling up your Pokédex. Best of luck obtaining all 151 Pokémon!
Intro
Welcome to the world of Pokémon! As you may have noticed when you turned on your game, there were strange creatures doing battle. Enjoy the cinematic while you can because in-game battles are nothing like that. They’re much simpler. You’re only choice right now is to start a new game unless you wanted to play around in the options menu a bit.
When you start the new game you’ll get an explanation on what Pokémon are from an old man named Prof. Oak. He is the authority on all 151 species of Pokémon that you will encounter so it is best you heed his words carefully. Even if he can’t remember the name of his own grandson. When Prof. Oak is done with his explanation, you will have the opportunity to name yourself and the aforementioned grandson who also happens to be your main rival in the game. For the purpose of this walkthrough and simplicity, he shall henceforth be called Rival.
Now your very own Pokémon adventure awaits!
The Beginning
When the game truly starts, you are sitting in your room playing SNES like a slacker. Before you head downstairs, go to the computer in the upper left corner of your room and withdraw the Potion stored inside. Anyone familiar with RPGs will know that Potions restore health and anyone who didn’t know, well, you just found out. The reason you want to grab this Potion now is because you may find yourself needing it within the next few minutes.
There is nothing left to do in your room so go downstairs and talk to your mother. All she has to say is that all boys leave home someday, she knows this because the TV told her. She also tells you Prof. Oak has been looking for you. Seeing as he lives next door, leave your house and head to the only other house in the town. By the way, this quaint little village is called Pallet Town. Residents: You, your mother, Prof. Oak, Rival, Rival’s sister Daisy, and a few homeless people. You can talk to them to get a better idea of the kind of world this is. In fact, you should talk to every NPC you see. You never know who will give you special items or plot relevant advice.
Going next door to pay Prof. Oak a visit leads you nowhere as the only one home is his granddaughter, Daisy. However, if you talk to her she recommends you check Oak’s lab which can be found on the south side of town. Unfortunately, this is yet another dead end. The only people in the lab are the Aides who are no help and Rival who just complains that Gramps called him yet is making him wait. Leave the lab for now.
As you look around Pallet Town you will find there is nowhere else to go. All the building have been explored, all the people talked to, and there are only two ways to leave town. You obviously can’t leave by sea to the south, so your only option is to go north into the tall grass. But wait! It’s dangerous to explore tall grass without your own Pokémon for protection! No sooner do you set foot in the grass, Prof. Oak appears out of nowhere to give you that warning. Just where could he have been hiding?
Prof. Oak will then take you to his lab where Rival will start complaining directly to his Gramps about being made to wait. Oak tells him to quiet down and learn some patience before offering you one of three Pokéballs sitting on his table. Well, to be more specific, he’s offering you your first Pokémon which is in the Pokéball. The choices offered to you are Bulbasaur the Grass-type, Charmander the Fire-type, and Squirtle the Water-type. All three are excellent Pokémon in their own right so the choice is yours as to which one you choose. Once you’ve chosen your starter, Rival will pick the one that is strong against yours. See, the type match-ups of Pokémon works a lot like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass. There are a total of 15 types of Pokémon you’ll encounter, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
When you try to leave the lab, Rival will challenge you to your first Pokémon Battle. Battling is the only way to make your Pokémon stronger and is a core element of the game. At the moment your starter only has two moves: a physical attacking move (either Tackle or Scratch) and a status move (either Growl which lowers the opponent’s Attack stat or Tail Whip which lowers the opponent’s Defense). As the fight progresses, you may find your Pokémon getting critically low on health, HP. If your HP reaches 0 then your Pokémon faints and if all of your Pokémon faint, you lose the battle. To stop that from happening, use the Potion you got out of your PC. If you need to of course. If you can win without using it then don’t waste it. Upon winning, your starter will gain enough experience to level up from Lv.5 to Lv.6 and will be fully healed after the battle. Take note that this is only a one time deal. You will not level up after every battle and you will not be fully healed after every battle. You will however make some money after every Trainer Battle, in this case 175 Pokédollars.
You have now done everything you can in Pallet Town so now that you have your own Pokémon for protection, head back up north to Route 1, population: Rattata and Pidgey ranging in levels from 2-5. You don’t have any Pokéballs yet so the only thing you can do is battle these Wild Pokémon for experience or simply run from them. As suggested earlier, talk to everyone you meet because one of the people on Route 1 is a PokéMart employee from Viridian City who will give you a free Potion as a sample.
The next settlement you arrive in at the end of the Route is in fact Viridian City. The first thing you’re going to want to do is go to the building labeled Poké. This is the Pokémon Center which will fully heal all of your Pokémon free of charge making it the most valuable commodity in the entire game. After you’ve healed your Pokémon, feel free to explore Viridian City and talk to the various NPCs. To the west is Route 22 which offers more Wild Pokémon, but without Pokéballs, they’re only good for grinding off of. Don’t waste your time there yet. To the north is a crotchety old man who won’t let anyone pass. The only areas left in Viridian City to explore are the Trainer’s School which will teach you about the different status ailments in the game, and the Mart. That is where you want to go if you plan on progressing in this game anytime soon.
No sooner do you walk in, the clerk calls you over asking if you’re from Pallet Town. You will then be given Oak’s Parcel, a special package Prof. Oak ordered. You’ve got nothing better to do right now, so go deliver the package. When you get back to Route 1, you now have the option of jumping ledges to take the quick and easy way back to Pallet Town while avoiding Wild Pokémon. If however, you feel as though you need more Exp, you can take the long, grassy road back.
Back in Pallet Town, go to Oak’s Lab to deliver his Parcel. Luckily you won’t ever have to seek him out again since he’ll spend the rest of the game in his lab. As soon as you hand over the package, Rival comes storming into the lab complaining as usual. Prof. Oak claims it was his dream to document all 151 species of Pokémon but he failed and is now too old to do it. Instead, he wants to live vicariously through you and Rival. He gives both of you a Pokédex which records data on Pokémon you’ve seen and caught while also providing an area map on where to find most Pokémon. Right now you should only have recorded data on one Pokémon, your starter obviously, and have seen four Pokémon if you’ve been following this walkthrough. Well, only 150 more to go! If you wanted to pick up a map from Daisy, you may do so, but keep in mind that you have a limited inventory space of 20 items carried and 50 items stored in your PC. The Map is a Key Item which cannot be disposed of later and holds no use outside of displaying the different locations you can visit.
If your Starter is low on HP, return home and talk to your mother for a free healing. There is now nothing left for you in Pallet Town so the only thing you can do is return to Viridian City and see what new areas have opened up.
Bugs, Rocks, and Caves
Once you return to Viridian City go right back to the Mart. You now have the option to buy items so stock up on 5-10 Pokéballs, maybe a few Potions, and if Red is your game of choice, plenty of Antidote. You can now go out into the world to catch yourself some new Pokémon. You can start with Pidgey and Rattata, level them up a bit, then go west to Route 22. Here you will find three new Pokémon, Spearow, Nidoran♀, and Nidoran♂.
Now would be a good time to mention the differences between the two Versions of the game, Red and Blue. There are certain Pokémon which are exclusive to one game or the other which will be covered later, and there are certain Pokémon which are more common or rare in one or the other. In the case of the two Nidorans, the female is more common in Blue and rare in Red while the male is more abundant in Red and harder to find in Blue.
Do not leave the grass on Route 22 except to go back and heal in Viridian City. Once your Pokémon are around Levels 7-10, you may head northwest where you’ll find Rival looking for a rematch. He’s caught himself a Lv.9 Pidgey and has raised his Starter to Lv.8 where it’ll know its first elemental move: Leech Seed for Bulbasaur, Ember for Charmander, and Bubble for Squirtle. After reminding Rival which one of you is the strongest, you’ll both be on your way.
If you keep going west from where Rival just came from, you’ll find yourself at a really tall building. If you go inside though, the guard won’t let you pass without the Boulder Badge. There’s nothing left to do here so go back to Viridian City.
If you head north again you’ll find the bald guy walking around this time saying he just needed some coffee. As an apology for his rudeness earlier, he’ll offer to show you how to catch Pokémon. If you’ve been following this walkthrough, you won’t need his advice but you might find a use for it much later. Right behind the old man you’ll see a funny looking tree shaped like a ‘Y’. If you click on it you’ll be rewarded with a hidden Potion. Just like you should always talk to NPCs, you should also investigate out of place objects for hidden items. You might be surprised by what you find.
To the east you’ll find a large building labeled Gym. This isn’t a place for working out, but rather a type of dojo where you defeat Trainers and the resident Gym Leader. By defeating Gym Leaders you earn Badges, like for example the Boulder Badge. Too bad the Viridian Gym is locked. Guess you’ll just have to come back later.
Go north to Route 2 but skip the grass since you don’t want to wear out your Pokémon before the next area. You’ll notice a few items on the side that you can’t quite get to yet. Don’t worry about them, you’ll get there eventually. Walk into the house at the top of the Route then right out the back exit. You are now in Viridian Forest, home of Bug-types. And Pikachu. All the Pokémon in the Forest are new so make sure you have at least three Pokéballs on you. Caterpie and its evolved form Metapod are more prevalent in Blue while Weedle and its evolved form Kakuna are plentiful in Red. Since Weedle knows Poison Sting, your chances of getting poisoned are much higher in Red which is why those playing that game were recommended to stock up on extra Antidote to cure the poison status. The cocoons are the real treat since all they can do is Harden which raises Defense and they give off a lot of Exp. so enjoy them. The main Pokémon you should be on the lookout for is the rare and elusive Pikachu, an Electric-type Pokémon. Seek one out and catch it since you will need it later, especially if you didn’t start with Bulbasaur.
As you wander the natural maze, be sure to keep your eyes out for three items laying around, a Pokéball, a Potion, and an Antidote. You will also face off against your first Trainers other than Rival. Within Viridian Forest are three Bug Catchers. If you haven’t noticed yet, Charmander’s Ember and Spearow’s Peck are Super-effective on Bug-types so us them if you must, but honestly the Bug Catchers are weak enough that any of your Pokémon should be able to win. After you fight the Bug Catcher with the Lv.10 Weedle, check the grass in front of him for a hidden Potion.
Beyond the last Bug Catcher is the exit which will take you back to Route 2. Just a little further north and you will reach Pewter City. If you have been catching one of every type of Pokémon up until this point, you will be well over the six Pokémon limit for your party. Go to the PC in the Pokémon Center and log onto Someone’s PC. It’s up to your personal preference which Pokémon you keep in your party, but it is strongly recommend you keep your Starter, Pikachu, one of the birds, and one of the Bug-types. To the far north of Pewter is the Science Museum which at a reasonable 50 Pokédollar entry fee is worth visiting.
When you finish up there, make sure your Pokémon are fully healed because you are about to take part in a major battle. If you try to leave the city to the east, a boy will stop you, tell you a man named Brock is looking for new challengers, and drag you to the Pewter City Gym. Guess what, this one isn’t locked!
Now for a more in depth explanation about Gyms. There are a total of eight Gyms in the region and each one specializes in a different type of Pokémon. The Pewter Gym Leader Brock is a Rock-type specialist. Rock-types are weak to Water and Grass-type moves so Squirtle users need to be at least Lv.8 to use Bubble and Bulbasaur users want to be Lv.13 to use Vine Whip. Sorry Charmander users, but Fire-types aren’t very effective against Rock-types unless they’re at a really high level. Now you can either grind Charmander to a high level or you can raise Caterpie to Lv.7 for it to evolve into Metapod, then to Lv.10 for it to once again evolve into Butterfree, then keep grinding to Lv.12 for Confusion. If you’re playing Red and you picked Charmander, then best of luck. Luckily none of Brock’s Pokémon know any Rock moves which would be especially hurtful to your chances of victory.
Inside the Gym there is one other Trainer besides Brock. He uses a Sandshrew and a Diglett, neither of which are Rock-types so consider him a warm up to milk Exp from. These two are Ground-types which do not resist Fire so if you don’t want Charmander to feel left out, now is your chance. Once you remind this kid lightyears measures distance and not time, you can go face Brock at the back of the Gym. He uses a Lv.12 Geodude and a Lv.14 Onix. Geodude is easy and should only take one or two hits to beat. Onix knows a move called Bide which absorbs the damage you do to it for two turns then deals it back double. You should be fine though as Onix should be defeated before that happens. Once Onix faints, Brock will reward your victory with the Boulder Badge and TM34 which contains Bide. As Brock will tell you, TMs are a one-time use so if you do decide to teach it, pick the Pokémon carefully. Or you can horde your TMs until later in the game when you are able to use a really neat glitch that’ll multiply them. With your first Gym out of the way, you are now free to move on.
As soon as you leave the Gym be sure to get your Pokémon fully healed because there is a long road ahead of you. The boy that was blocking your access to Route 3 earlier is gone so get ready to fight a bunch of Trainers. Most of them use Pokémon you’ve already dealt with, however there is a girl standing in the grass with a Lv.14 Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff knows a move called Sing which can put your Pokémon to sleep. It can get pretty annoying waiting for them to wake up so try to take it out quickly. If you want a Jigglypuff of your own, feel free to wander the grass to catch one. Just be aware of the fact that they are quite rare, can only be found in this area, and only at Lv.3, 5, or 7. What’s more, the only move it knows will be Sing until Lv.9 when it learns Pound. Have fun with that.
At the top of the road you will find a Pokémon Center so go heal yourself. The fact one is being so kindly offered to you should be a hint that the cave next door is going to be rough. Inside the Pokémon Center is a man offering to sell you a Magikarp for the “reasonable” price of 500 Pokédollars. Magikarp is a pathetic weak Pokémon whose only move is Splash which literally does nothing. It doesn’t affect status, doesn’t cause ailments, it does absolutely nothing. The only other move Magikarp can learn is Tackle at Lv.15. This one is Lv.5 and it levels up very slowly. There are also no refunds. So why would you buy such a worthless creature? Well, at Lv.20 Magikarp evolves into Gyarados who is one of the strongest Pokémon in the game. If you’re patient and willing to put up with a headache for a while then go ahead and buy your Magikarp. If you’d rather not waste your time or money that is fine too. Magikarp can be caught at Lv.15 while fishing later in the game.
Once you’re ready, step foot into the cave next to the Pokémon Center. Welcome to Mt. Moon! Hopefully you’ve been keeping your Pokéball stash high since there are four new Pokémon for you to catch here: Geodude, Zubat, Paras, and Clefairy. Clefairy are native only to Mt. Moon and are really rare so make sure you get one while in the area. Wander around at your leisure battling the dozen or so Trainers hanging around and searching every nook and cranny for items, both obvious and hidden. As you battle the Trainers, you’ll notice a specific class called Rockets who are much more aggressive and seem to be seeking out Fossils. Defeat them like the rest.
You’ll know you are nearing the end of Mt. Moon when you battle a Super Nerd who claims to have found Fossils but has no intention of sharing. Defeating his Voltorb, Koffing, and Grimer will give him a change of heart. He found two of them so he’ll let you take one of either the Helix Fossil or the Dome Fossil. These Fossils can be revived later in the game, Omanyte coming from the Helix Fossil and Kabuto coming from the Dome Fossil. Just like with the Starters, you can only get one and have to trade for the other so choose which ever one you like best. Before leaving, go back down the stairs to the crevice on the right. On that wall you will find a hidden Moon Stone. If you have been collecting every visible item you could find, this should be your second Moon Stone.
To exit Mt. Moon, simply go beyond the Super Nerd and the Fossils, take the stairs, and rejoice that you made it to Route 4. There is a nearby TM so make sure you grab it as you won’t be back here for a good while. If your Pokémon aren’t too worn out from Mt. Moon, you can jump down the ledges and explore the grass. Here you will find Rattata and Spearow along with your fist Version Exclusive Pokémon. If you’re playing Red, you will be able to catch Ekans and if Blue you will find Sandshrew instead. To get the one not found in your game, you will have to trade with someone playing the opposite Version. With that out of the way, head east until you arrive in Cerulean City.
Bridges, Myths, and Water
Once your Pokémon are fully healed and your Potion and Pokéball supply replenished, you may start exploring Cerulean City. Right next to the Pokémon Center is a house where the man living there will offer to trade you his Jynx for a Poliwhirl. You don’t have access to Poliwhirl yet without trading with someone else first so leave for now. This is the only way to obtain a Jynx so keep this man in mind for later. To the northeast of town you will see a house being blocked by a police officer. This is yet another place to be mindful of later.
After exploring Cerulean, you now have two choices: go north to Nugget Bridge or challenge the Cerulean City Gym Leader for your second Badge. The Gym Leader Misty is a user of Water-types which are weak to Grass and Electric-types. If you didn’t start with Bulbasaur and you didn’t catch Pikachu or your Pokémon are below Lv.20, then take Nugget Bridge first. Even if your Pokémon are strong enough to fight Misty, Go north first anyway since you can use a Trainer in the Gym for a certain glitch that will be explained momentarily.
No sooner do you start to walk towards the bridge, who shows up but your old pal Rival. It’s been awhile since you last beat him down and he’s improved a lot since then. His Pidgey has recently evolved into a Lv.18 Pidgeotto, he now has a Lv.15 Rattata, a Lv.15 Abra, and his starter is at Lv.17 yet still in its base form despite starters evolving at Lv.16 as you are probably aware of by now. Show him how much you’ve improved as well. If you have a Pikachu, use Thunder Shock on Pidgeotto and Squirtle if he has it. If you have a Geodude that has learned Rock Throw, that will be equally effective on Pidgeotto as well as Charmander. For Rattata, just use whatever Pokémon you’ve used on them in the past, just be careful of Hyper Fang. His Abra only knows the move Teleport which causes the user to flee from battle. It’s a real troublesome move when trying to catch Abra, but seeing as there is no running from a Trainer Battle, Abra is defenseless so use your weakest Pokémon to earn some easy Exp. For Bulbasaur, use a Flying-type like Spearow’s Peck. If you lack any of the Pokémon suggested, then use what you have available. After the battle, Rival will say a few taunts before going on his way.
If you need to heal after fighting Rival, do so now because you will soon be battling a gauntlet of five Trainers. The reason it’s called Nugget Bridge is because you win a rare gold Nugget for defeating five Trainers which can then be sold for 5000 Pokédollars. Of course the person awarding you your prize then tries to recruit you to join Team Rocket, an organization dedicated to exploiting Pokémon for evil purposes. Guess we know what that gang in Mt. Moon was all about now. The game automatically refuses the offer prompting another battle. Once you’ve beaten the Rocket, you are free to explore Routes 24 and 25 battling all the Trainers littered about.
But don’t get crazy if you want the rare and elusive 151st Pokémon Mew. See, the thing about Mew is that it is a secret Mythical Pokémon that was added to the game at the very last minute so it cannot be simply found in the wild, it can only be obtained from events or by using what is known as the Mew glitch.
First things first. Do NOT walk anywhere near the grass on Route 24 to the left of Nugget Bridge. Instead, go north to the grass on Route 25 avoiding as many Trainers as you can. Make sure you have a lot of Pokéballs for this. Wander the grass and try to catch an Abra. They are very fast and only use Teleport so it will be challenging, but you need Abra for the glitch to work. Once you have caught Abra, save the game in case you mess up. Now walk to the grass on Route 24 where you will find a lone Trainer just out of view. The moment he comes into view press Start, go to you Pokémon menu, and select Abra’s Teleport. The “!” should appear over the Trainer’s head as you warp back to the last Pokémon Center you used which should be Cerulean’s. When you appear in front of the Pokémon Center, you will be unable to use your Start menu again. That’s to be expected so don’t panic.
You now have a choice to make. You can either go to Misty’s Gym and battle the Swimmer who uses Horsea and Shellder or you can go back to Route 25 and find the Youngster with Slowpoke. Either of these Trainers work so use which ever you think is more convenient. Once you defeat that Trainer, return to Nugget Bridge. Your Start menu will automatically pop up. The moment you exit it, a battle will start against a Lv.7 Wild Mew. Since Mew is a Mythical, it is very difficult to catch so try paralyzing it or putting it to sleep. Do not use poison since it might faint if you don’t catch it in time. With enough patience and a bit of luck, you should be the proud owner of a ridiculously rare and powerful Pokémon. Since you were given the option of two Trainers, you could even catch a second Mew if you chose to. Now back to the actual walkthrough!
From the grass on Route 24, you’ll see a cave on the other side of the river with a man blocking the entrance. You can’t get over there yet, so don’t worry about it right now. Besides finding Abra on Routes 24 and 25, you will also find one more new Pokémon, a Version Exclusive. Red Version players will find Oddish while Blue Version players will encounter Bellsprout. Both of these are Grass-types and come with Grass-type moves so if you lack Bulbasaur and Pikachu, here is your only hope of beating Misty without too much trouble. While you’re here, try catching a second Abra as well. You’ll find out why later.
Once you’ve battled all of the available Trainers, go to the cottage at the cape. Inside you will find a Pokémon who is actually a man named Bill who accidentally turned himself into a Pokémon by botching up an experiment. Do exactly as he says to return him to normal. Bill will then thank you by giving you a ticket to board the SS Anne which is a prestigious cruise ship docked in Vermillion Harbor. He was invited, but isn’t exactly a people person. If you leave and reenter his house, Bill will let you check out his favorite Pokémon on his PC which are Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. By looking at them, they have now been added to your Pokédex. Another thing you will notice when you next use the PC at any Pokémon Center is that Someone’s PC has been renamed Bill’s PC. He is the inventor of the Storage System after all. Head back to Cerulean City now because by this point you should be able to handle Misty.
By now your starter should be well into its second stage so those of you with Ivysaur, Pikachu, and either Oddish or Bellsprout are in really good shape. At the very least you should have one of those three and no lower than Lv.20. Charmander/Charmeleon may have been able to muscle though Brock but Charmeleon will be no match here. Wartortle might stand a chance if you use Tackle or Bite, but it’s better to go with the Super-effective option. Aside from the Swimmer mentioned previously, Misty has one more Trainer in her Gym who uses Goldeen. Once you’ve dealt with those two, take on the Water-type Gym Leader. Misty uses a Lv.18 Staryu and a Lv.21 Starmie. Staryu isn’t too much trouble but take it out quickly before it can do any real damage because Starmie is Misty’s powerhouse. It is the evolved form of Staryu, has high Special, and uses Bubble Beam, a powerful Water-type move that can lower Speed. If you’re using Pikachu use Thunder Wave to cut down its speed while limiting its chances for attacking you back. If you’re using a Grass-type, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, or Poison Powder will be useful. Once Starmie falls, Misty will award your efforts with the Cascade Badge and TM11 Bubble Beam. If you have Wartortle, you can teach it the move now. If not, you can save it for later.
With Misty beaten, there is nothing left to do in Cerulean City but to leave. You’ll notice the officer has moved over allowing you access to the house now. As it turns out, the people living there were robbed by Team Rocket who completely trashed the place. How are there footprints on the wall anyway? Outside a hole left in the back wall, you will find the thief still loitering about. Defeat him to retrieve the stolen TM28 which contains Dig. If you talk to the home owners, they no longer care about it meaning it’s yours to keep. With that, it’s time to head on your way.
A Boat, Another Cave, and Electricity
The only direction for you to go now is south. It doesn’t matter if you jump the ledges on Route 5 or if you stay on the grassless road. The only new Pokémon you’ll encounter is Meowth, a Blue Version Exclusive or the Red Version Exclusive Mankey. Both of these can also be found on Route 6 which is where you’ll be momentarily. The only thing of real interest on this road is the Pokémon Day Care where you can give the Day Care Man one Pokémon for him to raise for you. Every step you take will equal one Exp point for your Pokémon. To get it back, the Day Care Man charges 100 Pokédollars plus an additional 100 for every level gained. Take note that if a Pokémon learns a new move, it will automatically delete whichever move is at the top of the list. Your Pokémon will also not evolve while in the Day Care. If you still have your Lv.5 Magikarp (if you even bought one), you can leave it in the Day Care for 14 levels, then pick it up in time to evolve it into Gyarados.
At the bottom of Route 5 you will find two buildings. The larger one is a gatehouse that leads to Saffron City. The guard won’t let you pass however but complains that he’s thirsty. The smaller house on the right has a staircase in the middle of the room that leads to the Underground Path. Follow the path but keep mashing the A button as there are hidden items laying around just waiting to be located. When you get to the end of the path you will emerge inside another house which exits onto Route 6. Above you will notice another gatehouse but it’s the same story as with the first one.
The Wild Pokémon population is exactly the same as Route 5 so if you missed out on Meowth/Mankey you can catch them here. There are a few Trainers hanging around including a Bug Catcher with a Lv.20 Butterfree who can really mess with you if you’re not prepared. Another Trainer uses a Raticate which can also cause some pain if you aren’t careful. Once all of the Trainers are beaten, continue south to Vermillion City.
As usual, explore the city to find what you can. You’ll notice that the Vermillion Gym is blocked off right now so you’ll have to come back later. Aside from that, there are four other points of interest. The first is the Fishing Guru’s house. Talk to him and he’ll give you an Old Rod if you tell him you love fishing. The only thing that can be caught with the Old Rod though is Lv.5 Magikarps. It’s not really a worthy investment when better rods can also catch Magikarp at higher levels so only pick it up if you really want to.
The second place you want to visit is the Pokémon Fan Club. Talk to the president and listen to him ramble on about his beloved Pokémon. He’ll then apologize for wasting your time before giving you a Bike Voucher as a thank you for hearing him out. The Bike Voucher can be exchanged for a Bicycle at the Bike Shop in Cerulean City. There is no need to go back now as you’ll be going back to Cerulean later.
The third house you’ll want to visit is to the southeast of Vermillion City. Inside is a boy who wants a Spearow and is willing to trade you his Farfetch’d for one. This is the only way to obtain Farfetch’d in the game so go catch an extra Spearow for the lad. If you travel east to Route 11, you’ll find plenty of Spearow in the grass along with more Trainers to fight. Another Wild Pokémon to keep an eye out for is Drowzee as they can only be found here. Once you have procured the Spearow, return to Vermillion and make the trade!
The last area of interest in Vermillion City is the port. A sailor stands guard but won’t let you pass without an SS Ticket. Luckily you got one from Bill so the game will automatically show it to the sailor allowing you access to the SS Anne. The ship is huge so make sure you check every room on every floor for the numerous items and plethora of Trainers onboard. In one of the rooms you will meet a man who will show you a picture of the Sleeping Pokémon Snorlax adding it to your Pokédex. In the kitchen you are going to want to check the trash cans for a Great Ball which is stronger than the standard Pokéball. You can’t buy Great Balls yet so hold on to this for any harder to catch Pokémon you run into.
As you explore, make sure to keep your Pokémon in good health. That advice isn’t just because of all the strong Trainers you’ll be fighting, but because your old friend Rival is among them. His Pokémon haven’t really leveled up much since the last time you two fought, but they have evolved since then to compensate. His Pidgeotto has only grown to Lv19, but he now comes boasting a Lv.16 Raticate, a Lv.18 Kadabra, and a Lv.20 Starter, now in its second stage. Rival thus proves he is an unrepentant cheater having a Lv.16 Raticate when Rattata doesn’t evolve until Lv.20. For shame! He’ll boast that he’s already caught 40 kinds of Pokémon and scoffs that you’re lagging behind. Take his ego down a peg by doing exactly as you did to him in Cerulean. Well, almost exactly. Kadabra can now defend itself with Confusion so you’ll want a Pokémon with high Attack who is not weak to Psychic-type attacks.
If you haven’t finished exploring the ship, do not go up the path Rival came from after beating him. Instead backtrack to the areas you haven’t explored. Once you’ve harvested every drop of Exp and items you can from the SS Anne, go back to where you battled Rival and take the stairs to the Captain’s quarters. For being the captain of a ship, the old man has gotten himself seasick so give him a back rub to make him feel better. He’ll reward your efforts with HM01 Cut. An HM differs from a TM in that it can be used an infinite amount of times, cannot be thrown away as it is a Key Item, and once the move is taught it can never again be deleted by any means. The reason behind this is that HMs are field moves and can be used outside of battle to accomplish various tasks. Once a Pokémon learns Cut, the move can be used to cut down small trees, namely the Y shaped ones found in front of the Vermillion Gym and on Route 2. HM moves also require a Badge to be used outside of battle, in this case the Cascade Badge which you already have. Of the Pokémon you’ve encountered so far, Cut can be taught to Beedrill (the final evolved form of Weedle), Sandshrew, Farfetch’d, any Grass-type, and Charmander/Charmeleon. When you leave the SS Anne watch as it sails away never to return.
Your next destination will be a cave on Route 11. Make sure you enter with a Pokéball, the Pokémon you taught Cut to, and your spare Abra. This area is known as Diglett’s Cave, which as the name suggests, is home to Digletts and very rarely their evolved form Dugtrio. You definitely want to catch a Diglett and level it up until it learns Dig if it doesn’t already know the move. Diglett will be extremely valuable in Vermillion Gym if it knows Dig. Since they naturally learn the move there is no need to waste your TM28 on it.
When you emerge from Diglett’s Cave you will find yourself back on Route 2, but on the other side of the Cut trees. Right next to the cave will be a house where the man inside is looking for an Abra and will gladly trade his Mr. Mime in exchange. The only way to get Mr. Mime is by making the trade so accept his offer. From here, head south back to Viridian City collecting all of the items as you go. Inside the tall building you pass through, you will find Prof. Oak’s Aide on the second floor. If you have ten or more Pokémon, which you should by now, he will reward you with HM05 Flash. On the field, Flash will light the darkest of caves but in battle it only drops the opponent’s accuracy. It can be taught to any Electric or Psychic-type Pokémon as well as Jigglypuff and Clefairy. The Boulder Badge is required to use it which you already have so no trouble there.
Your next destination should be to go back to Pewter City and revisit the Science Museum. Don’t go inside, but instead Cut down the tree on its right and go in the back entrance. Talk to the scientist to receive an Old Amber which is another Pokémon Fossil. This one can be revived into the mighty King of the Skies, Aerodactyl. Just as with your Helix/Dome Fossil, there isn’t much that can be done with it at the moment. Unless you want to catch any Pokémon you might have missed, go back to Diglett’s Cave and take it back to Vermillion.
Once you return, Cut the tree and enter the Gym. The Vermillion City Gym is run by Lt. Surge who specializes in Electric-type Pokémon. Electric-types are completely ineffective against Ground-types like Diglett and Sandshrew so if you’re playing Blue Version and didn’t catch a Diglett or you’re very fond of your Sandshrew, teach it Dig and let it solo the Gym.
Lt. Surge is a paranoid war veteran so his Gym has high security. You are going to want to defeat his three Trainers first so they don’t get in the way of solving the most annoying luck based puzzle in the game. The objective is to check all of the trash cans for a secret switch and then find a second secret switch. If you choose wrong, the locks reset themselves. The second switch is always in an adjacent trash can so at worst you have a 25% chance of picking the correct one. After you solve the puzzle, the doors to Lt. Surge open allowing you to challenge the Gym Leader. He uses a Lv.21 Voltorb, a Lv.18 Pikachu, and a Lv.24 Raichu which is the evolved form of Pikachu. Just have Diglett or Sandshrew Dig and Surge will be beaten in no time. Your prize for winning is the Thunder Badge and TM24 Thunder Bolt. You most likely didn’t get a chance to see Surge’s signature move if you were using a Ground-type thanks to their immunity. Thunder Bolt is a really useful move so save it for later.
If you have caught 30 different kinds of Pokémon by this point in the game, you can go back to Route 11 until you find a tall building at the end of the Route. Inside is Prof. Oak’s Aide who will give you an Item Finder which is really useful for finding hidden items. If you leave through the east exit of the building, you will see a sleeping Pokémon blocking the road. There is nothing you can do about it now, so go back to Cerulean City.
Welcome to Darkness, Ghosts, and Grass
When you get back to Cerulean City, exchange your Bike Voucher for a free Bicycle. There is still nothing to do here so leave towards the east to Route 9 until you see another Cut tree. Do as you must to continue forward. Battle the Trainers on Routes 9 and 10 and collect all of the items until you reach another Pokémon Center outside of a cave. This cave is the Rock Tunnel and is pitch black inside. If you still haven’t taught Flash to a Pokémon, you can catch a Voltorb in the grass on Route 10 immediately north of the tunnel.
As soon as you enter the Rock Tunnel, activate Flash. Inside the cave you will find two more Pokémon to catch, Machop and Onix. Onix can be a bit difficult to catch so if you still have your Great Ball, use it now if you want. The Rock Tunnel is full of strong Trainers so keep your Pokémon’s health up with Potions. If they get too worn out, run from wild encounters and avoid as many Trainers as you can. When you finally reach the end of the Rock Tunnel, there will be a few more Trainers littering the road to Lavender Town. Battle them or avoid them for now depending on the conditions of your Pokémon.
Keep heading south and you will reach Lavender Town. Time to heal! Lavender Town is the first town that sells Great Balls in the Mart so make sure you start stocking up on them from now on. As you explore the town you will notice that it has the most hauntingly beautiful theme of any of the towns you’ve visited so far. It’s no wonder once you realize that the tall tower in the northeastern corner of the town is a Pokémon cemetery. As you talk to the locals, you will learn that something is amiss within the Pokémon Tower so go there to investigate. The first floor is full of mourners grieving over their departed Pokémon. Give them their space and go upstairs.
The first person you’ll notice on the second floor is Rival making snide remarks as usual. This time his team has taken a radical shift depending on who his starter is. He still carries Pidgeotto, now Lv.25 and Kadabra, now Lv.20, but he’s dumped Raticate for two new ones. If he started with Bulbasaur, his remaining team will be a Lv.23 Gyarados, a Lv.22 Growlithe, and a Lv.25 Ivysaur. If he chose Charmander, he will have a Lv.23 Exeggcute, a Lv.22 Gyarados, and a Lv.25 Charmeleon. If Squirtle is his Starter, he will boast a Lv.23 Growlithe, a Lv.22 Exeggcute, and a Lv.25 Wartortle. You already know how to beat Pidgeotto, Kadabra, and his Starter from the SS Anne battle. Gyarados is a Water/Flying-type so it is critically weak to Electric-type moves. Exeggcute is a Grass/Psychic-type making it critically weak to a Leech Life from either Zubat/Golbat or Paras/Parasect, a Twin Needle from Beedrill, or any Flying or Fire moves you have. Growlithe is a Fire-type so Water, Rock, or Ground-type moves are the way to go.
After you beat him, he’ll mention having caught a Cubone, but can’t find any Marowaks in the tower before leaving. You may not realize this, but he just gave you a clue on a Pokémon to keep your eyes out for in here since this is the only place to catch Cubone. Unfortunately, you will have to wait on catching them since the only Wild Pokémon you can run into right now aren’t Pokémon at all, but literal ghosts that your Pokémon are too frightened by to even attack.
You can choose to leave the Pokémon Tower now, or you can continue to the top battling the Channelers who all seem to be possessed by evil spirits. All of the Channelers use Gastly or Haunter which are Ghost-type Pokémon, not be confused with the literal ghosts. Ghost-types are weak to other Ghosts which you don’t have yet, but all three Ghost-types in the game are dual-typed with Poison making them vulnerable to Ground and Psychic-type attacks. The staircase that leads to the top floor will be blocked by an unrelenting ghost so there is nothing left to do in Pokémon Tower for now.
Go west to Route 8 and battle all of the Trainers. You will need Cut to access the grass, but the only new Pokémon in the area is a Version Exclusive, Vulpix for Blue and Growlithe for Red, and both of them can also be found in the grass on Route 7. There will be another gatehouse on the west side of this Route with a thirsty guard so take the Underground Path to go west to Route 7. If you want to, go catch your Fire-type Version Exclusive and be on your way.
West of Route 7 is Celadon City. It is the largest city you have been to so far meaning there is a lot of ground to cover. First, go up the path on the right of the Pokémon Center which will lead you behind the buildings. The path will lead into the hidden backdoor of the Celadon Mansion. Keep going up the staircases to the roof and enter the room. You can investigate the room if you like, but the real prize here is the Pokéball sitting on the table. Congratulations! You just got yourself a Lv.25 Eevee! Eevee is known as the Evolution Pokémon because it has the ability to evolve into one of three unique forms when exposed to different Elemental Stones. A Water Stone evolves Eevee into the Water-type Vaporeon, a Thunder Stone yields the Electric-type Jolteon, and a Fire Stone evolves the Fire-type Flareon. Since you can only get one Eevee, you’ll have to trade for the other prospective evolutions.
This brings you to your next destination, the Celadon Department Store. It is so much more than an ordinary Poké Mart as it sells different items on each floor. Aside from the standard healing items and Pokéballs, they also sell TMs, Vitamins, Elemental Stones, and a vending machine on the roof sells drinks. Starting at the roof, buy one of each drink and give them to the little girl sitting at the table. She’ll thank you by giving you TM13 Ice Beam for a Fresh Water, TM48 Tri Attack for a Lemonade, and TM49 Rock Slide for a Soda Pop. Make sure to buy an extra Fresh Water for the road before going back downstairs. If you plan on evolving your Eevee, now would be the time so it can learn its elemental attacks. Just make sure you know what your team is missing before you make the choice. If you’re still using Pikachu, you can evolve it into Raichu with a Thunder Stone. Your Vulpix/Growlithe can also be evolved via Fire Stone, but you should wait until they learn Flamethrower first. Weepinbell and Gloom, the evolved forms of Bellsprout and Oddish respectively can be evolved with a Leaf Stone, but you should wait on them as well. Besides Eevee, Pokémon stop learning moves by level up once they evolve by Stone.
Your next stop should be the restaurant on the south side of the city. There will be a lonely man in the far corner lamenting how he lost everything to gambling. To ease his burden, he’ll give you his Coin Case which can be used to carry coins from the Game Corner casino. With this, you can play the slots or simply buy coins. Coins can then be exchanged in the building next door for rare Pokémon or TMs, but you should save up for a Porygon as the rest of the available Pokémon can be found in the wild. The price of Porygon differs between Versions with Red players needing a steep 9999 coins while Blue players only need 6500.
Rather than visit the Game Corner now, go west to Route 16 with a Great Ball and your Cutter. You will see another Sleeping Pokémon blocking the way but at the top of the road there will be a tree to be Cut down. In the grass you will find a Doduo so be sure to catch one. Go west through the building until you end up in an open field with a single house in the middle. Visit the house and the girl inside will be startled that you found her secret hiding spot. In exchange for your silence, she bribes you with HM02 Fly. If you teach Fly to a Flying-type, they will be able to transport you back to any city you have visited provided you have the Thunder Badge. It will also be a useful move in the coming Gym battle.
Fly back to Celadon City and go to the far south. You need to use Cut on a tree to access the Celadon Gym and you will also need Cut inside the Gym. If you started with Charmander, now is its time to shine as the Gym Leader Erika specializes in Grass-types. Take Charmeleon, or Charizard if it’s already evolved to its final form, and burn a blaze! For Bulbasaur and Squirtle users, Grass-types are weak to Fire, Flying, and Bug-types. Your options for this battle include Vulpix/Growlithe, Flareon if you chose that as you Eevee evolution, Pidgeotto, Fearow, your recently caught Doduo, Golbat, Parasect, or Beedrill. As long as your chosen Pokémon knows Ember, Peck, Drill Peck, Wing Attack, Fly, Leech Life, or Twin Needle, you’ll clean up in there.
Defeat all of Erika’s subordinates before taking on the lady herself to make sure you’ve gained enough Exp. Erika sports a Lv.29 Victreebel, the fully evolved form of Bellsprout, a Lv.24 Tangela, and a Lv.29 Vileplume, the fully evolved form of Oddish. Once you’ve beaten Erika, she will award you the Rainbow Badge and TM21 Mega Drain, a move that steals the opponent’s HP to heal the user. You can teach it to your own Grass-type like Ivysaur or you can save it for later. With Erika’s defeat, the only place left to explore in Celadon City is the Game Corner.
Rockets, Avenging the Dead, and the Two Roads
If you picked up the Coin Case, then a few of the people playing the slot machines at the Game Corner will give you free coins. You can also find coins hidden on the floor with your Item Finder. For more coins you will either have to play the slots or buy 50 for 1000 Pokédollars from the man behind the counter.
As you have probably noticed as you walked around Celadon City, there were a few Rockets loitering around. The Game Corner is no different as there is one standing in front of a poster. Defeat him in battle and he will reveal that he was supposed to be guarding the poster but is now worried you’ll discover Team Rocket’s secret hideout. Examining the poster will activate a secret switch. If you follow to where the Rocket fled to you will see a staircase that wasn’t there a moment ago. Going downstairs will take you to Team Rocket’s main base of operations.
As you explore you will have to battle many Rockets and deal with the dastardly Spinner Traps. As payment for your troubles you might as well loot the place of all of its items. If you try using the elevator, you will find it doesn’t work without a Lift Key. The Lift Key is in the possession of one of the Rockets. After you defeat the Rocket who asks you “Who has the Lift Key?” talk to him again and he’ll say “Oh no! I dropped the Lift Key!” The Item will appear next to him so pick it up and be on your way.
Take the elevator to the lowest level and be ready for two more Rockets. One of them uses a Sandshrew, Ekans, and Sandslash while the other one uses Ekans, Sandshrew, and Arbok. Defeating them will cause the door to open. When you walk inside the room, you will be face to face with the Boss of Team Rocket himself, Giovanni. He is impressed that you made it this far and wishes to see your strength first hand. Giovanni uses a Lv.25 Onix, a Lv.24 Rhyhorn, and a Lv.29 Kangaskhan. Each of his Pokémon are weak to Fighting-types but if you don’t have one strong enough, a Water or Grass-type should do the trick. Once defeated, Giovanni will promise to battle you again one day before disappearing. In his place will be the Silph Scope, a device that allows its wearer to see the true appearances of ghosts. Take the elevator back to the first basement floor then go upstairs back to the Game Corner. Go outside and Fly back to Lavender Town and return to the Pokémon Tower.
Thanks to the power of the Silph Scope, the ghosts that tormented your Pokémon before will be revealed to be Gastlys with the occasional Haunter and Cubone. Make sure to catch them as they are only found here. If you did not battle the Channelers previously, you will be facing them now as you make your way to the top of the Tower. The ghost that was guarding the staircase will be revealed as the restless soul of a deceased Marowak. If you’ve been paying attention to what the denizens of Lavender Town said, Team Rocket mercilessly killed a Marowak leaving a baby Cubone orphaned. This is Cubone’s mother. You can’t catch her as she’ll avoid any Pokéballs thrown at her so defeat her to calm her restless spirit.
When you finally go to the top floor, you will find Marowak’s murders. Show them no mercy. You will also find a kindly old man who takes in orphaned and abandoned Pokémon named Mr. Fuji in the back of the room. After taking in the baby Cubone, he came to Pokémon Tower to confront the Rockets but was taken hostage instead. He’ll thank you for what you’ve done before taking you back to his house in Lavender Town.
Mr. Fuji is concerned that without love and compassion for your Pokémon, your quest will be destined to fail so to help you he gives you a Poké Flute which is an invaluable item for waking up any sleeping Pokémon. This includes the two Pokémon that were sleeping on the roads blocking your path. You now have two choices on where to go. You can go directly south to Silence Bridge or you can Fly back to Celadon City and wake up the one blocking Route 16. Where ever you choose to go, make sure you are armed with a plethora of Great Balls because the sleeping Pokémon can be a difficult catch if the RNG isn’t in your favor.
You will find that the Silence Bridge route is the longest by far in the game as it comprises Routes 12-15 with numerous Trainers to match so make sure your Pokémon are in tiptop shape and you also have the items to keep them that way. The Trainers on the bridge are all Fishermen armed with Water-types which you already know how to deal with. When you enter the building at the bottom of the bridge, go upstairs to obtain TM39 Swift from the girl. This useful move never misses making it useful against Pokémon that have either lowered your accuracy or raised their evasion stats.
When you reach the sleeping Pokémon, save your game before you battle it. As there are only two of these in the game, you don’t want to accidentally faint them both. After you save, play the Poké Flute to wake it up. The Lv.30 Snorlax will then attack you for disturbing its slumber. Give it a status ailment like sleep or paralysis but don’t poison or burn it because you don’t want it to accidentally faint. Best case scenario is that you use Ice Beam and freeze it. Slowly whittle down its HP but be mindful of the fact that Snorlax also knows Rest, a move that fully restores the user’s HP and status at the cost of putting it to sleep, so at any moment your hard work and the status condition can be undone. When its HP is low enough and it has a status condition, start throwing your Great Balls until you catch it. With any luck, Snorlax will soon be yours with minimal hassle. If you accidentally defeat it, simply reset the game and try again from where you last saved.
After you catch Snorlax, enter the small house nearby. It is the home of the Fishing Guru’s brother who will give you a Super Rod, the best fishing rod in the game. Most of the Pokémon caught with the Super Rod are Lv.15 but there are some exceptions such as Lv.23 Poliwhirl which you can fish for back in Celadon City. If you catch one of them, you can trade it for a Jynx back in Cerulean City. You can also catch Lv.15 Magikarp with this rod meaning they know Tackle and only have five levels until they evolve making them a little bit easier to deal with. Have fun fishing in all the different bodies of water you can find for nearly every species of Water-type in the game.
On Routes 12-15 you will need a Pokémon that can use Cut to reach all of the grasses, items, and Trainers, but for now you should only concern yourself with the grass on Route 15 as it is open for exploring allowing you to catch the two new Pokémon available to you. They are Venonat, an ordinary Bug/Poison-type, and Ditto, a Normal-type whose special ability is to Transform into any other Pokémon in the game it battles. The only other Pokémon in the game that can learn the move Transform is Mew. Other new wild Pokémon are Pidgeotto and either Gloom or Weepinbell depending on if you’re playing Red or Blue respectively.
By now your Pokémon are probably exhausted but worry not. Fuchsia City is right through that building on the west side of Route 15. If you go upstairs you will once again encounter Prof. Oak’s Aide. If you have caught a total of 50 or more Pokémon, he will give you an Exp All which evenly distributes Exp earned from battle to all of the Pokémon in the party. It’s handy for quickly leveling up low level Pokémon, but otherwise it just takes up space. It’s up to you if keep it with you, put it in the PC, or even get it at all. Once you arrive in Fuchsia City, heal up your Pokémon and Fly back to Celadon so that you can clear Biker’s Road.
As you travel east to Route 16 from Celadon City, you will be required to once again awaken Snorlax. For more information on that, refer to the section above. If you want to catch this one as well so you have two Snorlax or if you missed the one on Silence Bridge go ahead. If you’d rather get the experience from defeating it, that is fine too.
After dealing with Snorlax go into the building it was blocking but know that you will not be allowed out the other side if you do not have your Bike on you since all Trainers are required to ride their bikes on Biker’s Road. If you do have your Bike, you will automatically mount it upon exiting. The Trainers you encounter here are all Bikers who use Koffings, Weezings, Grimers, and Muks or Cueballs who use Machops, Machokes, Mankeys, and Primeapes. The grass contains Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, and Doduo so nothing you didn’t already have access to.
As you will quickly notice, Biker’s Road is a steep hill that will automatically drag you to the bottom. Once you reach the bottom, go into the gatehouse to the east and go upstairs. There you will find a Trainer willing to trade a Lickitung for a Slowbro. You can catch Slowpoke at Lv.15 with the Super Rod then raise it to Lv.37 for it to evolve into Slowbro, or you can wait until later in the game to catch a Slowbro in the wild and then make the trade. This is the only way to get Lickitung in the game so you’ll have to make the trade at some point. Just outside the gatehouse will be three Bird Keepers for you to battle. The grass population is the same as Biker’s Road. Continue east just a little bit and you will be back in Fuchsia City.
Poison Using Ninjas and Safaris
The Fuchsia City Gym is right next to the Pokémon Center and with all of the experience you’ve gained since your last Gym Battle, this should be no trouble at all. When you walk inside it looks like the Gym Leader Koga is directly in front of you but you would be mistaken. The gimmick for his Gym is invisible walls so you will have to work your way through the maze battling all of Koga’s subordinate Trainers.
Despite the fact that Koga specializes in Poison-type Pokémon, four of his Trainers use Psychic-types while the remaining two use the Ground-type Sandslash along with their Poison-type Arbok. Ironically enough, Psychic and Ground-types are exactly what Poison-types are weak to so be sure to use those types of Pokémon in your battle with Koga. If you aren’t using those types, make sure you come armed with Antidotes as Koga uses a devastating move called Toxic which doubles the amount of HP drained every turn unlike normal poison which takes out the same amount every turn.
Koga uses a Lv.37 Koffing, a Lv.39 Muk, a second Lv.37 Koffing and a Lv.43 Weezing so quite a jump from Erika’s levels. Once you clench victory over this crafty ninja, you will be awarded the Soul Badge and TM06 Toxic which Koga reveals his ancestors invented long ago. With Koga beaten, heal your Pokémon and take the chance to explore the city.
Over the ledge to the right of the Pokémon Center will be two houses. The furthest one is home to another Fishing Guru who will give you the Good Rod. Pardon the pun, but this rod just isn’t as ‘good’ as the Super Rod as it can only catch Lv.10 Poliwags and Lv.10 Goldeens. The Fishing Guru’s neighbor is the warden of the Safari Zone who the locals refer to as Warden Slowpoke. Unfortunately, the old man seems to have lost his Gold Teeth so you can’t understand his mumbling right now.
In the northern section of the city is the Pokémon zoo where you’ll be able to see several different species in pens. The main attractions are Voltorb, Chansey, Slowpoke, Kangaskhan, Lapras, and either Omanyte or Kabuto. The one you encounter will be the opposite of the Fossil you picked up in Mt. Moon. If you chose the Helix Fossil, it will be Kabuto in the pen, while recipients of the Dome Fossil will see Omanyte. Around this area will be the Mart which now sells Ultra Balls, the (second) most useful Pokéball in the game.
To the far north of Fuchsia City is the Safari Zone. For the price of 500 Pokédollars you will be given 30 Safari Balls to catch any and all Pokémon in the Safari Zone you run into and be allowed 500 steps to walk around at your leisure. Once you run out of steps or Safari Balls it’s game over and you will be escorted out of the park. Before you go inside, make sure Bill’s PC is set to an empty Box. It would be pretty disappointing to find a rare Pokémon and be unable to catch it because the Box is full.
Pay the entry fee and get ready for the Safari game! Just know that you will most likely have to enter the Safari Zone multiple times to obtain all of the Pokémon and items that can be found here. Among those items are the Warden’s Gold Teeth and HM03 Surf which is a prize given away in the far back of the Safari Zone. If you move quickly with the fewest steps, you should be able to reach the Secret House with a little over 100 steps remaining. You know you’re getting close as the Gold Teeth are near the House.
The Pokémon that can be found in the grass in the Safari Zone are Nidoran♀, Nidorina, Nidoran♂, Nidorino, Paras, Parasect, Venonat, Venomoth, Doduo, Exeggcute, Rhyhorn, Kangaskhan, Chansey, Tauros, and a Version Exclusive, Scyther for Red and Pinsir for Blue. The Nidoran family are still as common/rare as they were on Route 22 for their respective versions while Kangaskhan, Chansey, Tauros, and Scyther/Pinsir are really rare and hard to catch. Since you cannot use your own Pokémon to battle, you must rely on throwing Safari Balls and hope the Pokémon you’re trying to catch doesn’t decide to run away. If you are having trouble finding a certain species, try looking for them in a different Zone. If you want to be altruistic, catch two Pinsir or Scyther to trade with the opposite Version. The last Pokémon that is exclusive to the Safari Zone is Dratini who can only be found by fishing with the Super Rod. As a Dragon-type, Dratini is very hard to catch, but it evolves into one of the strongest Pokémon in the game.
Once you obtain Surf from the Secret House, you can teach it to any Water-type Pokémon like Blastoise, Vaporeon, or Gyarados. Outside of battle it can be used to ferry you across bodies of water to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. In battle it is one of the best Water-type moves in the game making it a worthy staple to any team. To use Surf outside of battle, Koga’s Soul Badge is required.
When you return Warden Slowpoke’s Gold Teeth, he rewards you with the last of the five HMs, HM04 Strength. Teaching Strength allows your Pokémon to move giant boulders like the one in the Warden’s house which is blocking a Rare Candy. To use Strength outside of battle, you must have the Rainbow Badge. Speaking of the Rainbow Badge, Fly back to Celadon City since that is the closest city to your next destination.
Proud Fighters, A City Under Siege, and Psychics
When you arrive back in Celadon City, go east to the Route 7 gatehouse. Give the extra Fresh Water you bought so long ago to the thirsty guard. He’ll finally let you through as thanks while promising to share the drink with the other guards allowing you full access to Saffron City from any direction.
The moment you arrive you will immediately know something is wrong because the city is flooded with Rockets. There are only four buildings that are not being guarded by Rockets: the Pokémon Center, the Mart, Mr. Psychic’s house, and a Gym. Mr. Psychic gives you TM29 Psychic which is a very useful move that you should hold on to for the time being.
When you visit the Gym in the northeast corner of the city, you will notice it is one of two Gyms. The one that is blocked is the one you get the actual Badge from. The open one is the Fighting Dojo which specializes in Fighting-types which are weak to Psychic and Flying-types. The Blackbelts within all use Machops, Machokes, Mankeys, and Primeapes while their master uses two very strong Fighting-types, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, both at Lv.37. When you defeat the master, he apologizes for not having a Badge to give you, but offers you the choice of your own Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan. The Lv.30 Fighting-types are in the Pokéballs behind him. Both are great Pokémon in their own rights so choose the one you like best. To get the other you will have to trade.
Leave the Fighting Dojo and go to the large building in the center of Saffron City. This place is Silph Co. which has been taken over by Team Rocket. If you came to Saffron City before defeating Giovanni at the Rocket Hideout, there would have been a guard at the entrance to Silph telling you to get lost. Now however, the fool is asleep allowing you access. You will notice strange white square tiles spread out on the floor from the second floor and above. These are teleporters which will take you to different areas throughout the building. Each teleporter is connected to another so as long as you remember which ones are together, you won’t get too lost in here.
Aside from defeating every Rocket you find, including the four Rocket Brothers, you should also keep an eye out for the Card Key while collecting all of the items laying around. The Card Key will unlock the doors allowing you to enter new rooms and access more teleporters. On the ninth floor you will find beds which can be used to heal your Pokémon without leaving the building. On the third floor, there is a teleporter in one of the rooms you need to open with the Card Key that will take you where you want to go. Make sure your Pokémon are fully healed beforehand because there are two difficult battles awaiting you.
When you step on the aforementioned teleporter, you will be taken to a room with only two people in it. One of them is a Silph employee being held hostage and the second is none other than Rival! It has been awhile since your last fight with him and he has been doing some serious training since then. His Starter is now fully evolved as is most of his team. The main ones he’ll have are a Lv.39 Pidgeot and a Lv.35 Alakazam with the remaining three determined by his starter like last time. If he chose Bulbasaur, he’ll have a Lv.38 Gyarados, a Lv.35 Growlithe, and a Lv.40 Venusaur. If he chose Charmander, he’ll use a Lv.38 Exeggcute, a Lv.35 Gyarados, and a Lv.40 Charizard. If he chose Squirtle, the last three will be a Lv.38 Growlithe, a Lv.35 Exeggcute, and a Lv.40 Blastoise. By this point, you should know who beats who so have at him. Rival shouldn’t be too troublesome if you’ve been keeping up with your leveling as well. When you defeat him, he brags that he’s already collected all eight Badges and is on his way to the Elite Four. He will then take the teleporter out of the room.
If you talk to the Silph employee, he will give you a Lv.15 Lapras as a thank you for fighting Team Rocket all by yourself. Lapras is an extremely rare Pokémon that cannot be obtained any other way. If you haven’t taught a Pokémon Surf yet, Lapras is a strong choice for your team. If there are any Rockets left in the building, fight them now because after you take that teleporter to the President’s Office, the Rocket’s will clear the premise. It would be a shame to waste all of the Experience.
Once all of the Rockets are defeated, take that teleporter, walk down the hall, and use the Card Key on the President’s Office. As soon as you walk in, the Boss Rocket himself will approach you. Giovanni’s getting a bit annoyed by your continued interference so he decides to teach you a lesson through battle. This time he battles with a Lv.37 Nidorino, a Lv.35 Kangaskhan, a Lv.37 Rhyhorn, and a Lv.41 Nidoqueen. Strong Water, Grass, Ground, Fighting, and Psychic-type attacks are the way to go for beating Giovanni. Once he’s defeated, he’ll leave taking all of his underlings with him leaving not a single Rocket in the city. Talk to the President and he will reward your bravery with the Master Ball, the single most powerful Pokéball in the game. The Master Ball is guaranteed to catch any and all Pokémon without fail whether they are at full HP or 1HP. That is why you must absolutely SAVE IT! Do not squander it on a Pokémon that could just as easily be caught with one of the purchasable Pokéballs.
When you leave Silph Co. you have free reign to explore Saffron City at your leisure and convenience. The first place you should head to is the actual Saffron City Gym to win your sixth Badge. The Gym Leader Sabrina specializes in Psychic-types which don’t really have a weakness. Psychic-types are weak to Bug and Ghost-types on paper, but thanks to an unfortunate glitch, Psychic-types are actually immune to Ghosts meaning they take no damage from them. On top of that, Bug-type moves are pretty weak and most Pokémon that can learn them are part Poison-type. You will simply want to use your strongest Pokémon for the coming battles, preferably one with high Attack and Special like Snorlax.
Sabrina’s Gym once again uses the teleporters so warp between them battling the seven Gym Trainers before facing off against Sabrina. She uses a Lv.38 Kadabra, a Lv. 37 Mr. Mime, a Lv.38 Venomoth, and a Lv.43 Alakazam. Venomoth is not a Psychic-type, but is ironically weak to Psychic. After beating Sabrina, you will be awarded the Marsh Badge and TM46 which contains Psy Wave, a Psychic attack that does random damage every turn.
Surfing On Fire And Glitches
Your next destination is Cinnabar Island, and like everything else in this game, you have two choices on how you go about it. You can either Surf directly south from Pallet Town via Route 21 or you can take the long way from Fuchsia City. This walkthrough will go more in depth about the other areas that can only be accessed by Surf in the next section, so for now take the faster path down Route 21. There is a patch of grass south of Pallet Town where you can find Pidgeotto, Raticate, and very rarely Tangela. As you may have noticed, the only Pokémon that can be caught while Surfing is Tentacool. The Trainers you battle will be mostly Swimmers in the ocean along with a few Fishermen hanging out on small islets. Overall, it should take you no time at all to reach Cinnabar Island.
There are three places to visit on Cinnabar; the Gym, the Pokémon Mansion, and the Cinnabar Lab. Start with the lab by bringing your Helix/Dome Fossil and Old Amber to a scientist in the far right room. He says he can revive them but it will take some time. Simply leave the building and reenter and you will be the owner of a new prehistoric Pokémon. As stated before, the Helix Fossil will revive a Lv.30 Omanyte and the Dome Fossil revives a Lv.30 Kabuto. If raised to Lv.40 they will evolve into Omastar and Kabutops respectively. The Old Amber will revive a Lv.30 Aerodactyl, a strong Flying-type who does not evolve. The scientist can only revive one Fossil at a time so it’s up to you to decide which one you want to revive first. In the other rooms are people looking to trade their Pokémon but everything they offer can be found in the wild so it’s up to you if you trade or not.
If you try to go to the Gym you will find it locked! The key is somewhere on the island so go to your last destination, the Pokémon Mansion. There are a lot of new Pokémon in here to be caught so make sure you come with Great and Ultra Balls. The Pokémon you will encounter are Vulpix/Growlithe, Grimer, Muk, Koffing, Weezing, and Ponyta. Grimer and its evolution Muk are more prevalent in Blue while Koffing and Weezing are more common in Red. Blue Version also has the added bonus of its own Version Exclusive, Magmar. Red however does not have an alternate exclusive in the Pokémon Mansion. There are also a few items to be found including your fifth and final Moon Stone which is hidden in the third pillar on the right when you first walk in.
As you explore you will find journals detailing the discovery of Mew and the birth of Mewtwo, the most powerful Pokémon in the game. The final journal entry implies that it was Mewtwo who left the Mansion in the ruined state you see now. You will need to utilize the secret switches hidden in the Pokémon statues to reach the basement where you will find the Secret Key that can be used to unlock the Cinnabar Gym.
Leave the Mansion when you are ready and go unlock the Gym. You will find a rather unique puzzle this time where you answer quiz questions in order to proceed. The Gym Leader Blaine and the rest of the Trainers specialize in Fire-types so come ready with a strong Water, Rock, or Ground-type. Blaine uses a Lv.42 Growlithe, a Lv.40 Ponyta, a Lv.42 Rapidash, and a Lv.47 Arcanine. Defeating Blaine earns you the Volcano Badge and TM38 Fire Blast which is the strongest Fire-type move in the game. Teach it to Charizard if you’re using one.
Now the real fun begins. If you have been saving your Master Ball, your most useful TMs, Rare Candies, Moon Stones, Vitamins, and Nuggets now is the time to multiply them. If there are any hard to catch Safari Zone Pokémon you still need, there is a way to get them easier too. The ways to do all of these things come from glitches involving the east coast of Cinnabar Island.
To start the glitch, Fly to Viridian City and talk to the Old Man who wouldn’t let you pass at the beginning of the game. When he asks you if you know how to catch Pokémon, tell him “No” and he will enter a tutorial where he shows you. When the tutorial ends Fly back to Cinnabar Island. Put the item you want multiplied in the sixth slot of your inventory then start Surfing up and down the coast. Among the random encounters will be a pixilated mess by the name of Missingno or its cousin ‘M. These Glitch Pokémon are rather benign but have the beneficial side effect of adding 128 to the item in your sixth slot. If you had your Master Ball in that slot for example, you now have 129 Master Balls. It’s a bit hard to tell because there are only two digits displayed for numbers meaning you will see a glitch square followed by a 9. Unlike the Mew Glitch referenced earlier, Missingno can be repeated again and again allowing you infinite amount of any item. Just don’t multiply a Key Item because you will run out of inventory space.
The reason this glitch works is because the coast of Cinnabar Island does not have Wild Pokémon coded for it so it uses the Wild Pokémon data of whatever area you were last in. The reason you need to talk to the Old Man first is because it stores your name as Wild Pokémon data which translates as Missingno. By visiting the Safari Zone, you can then Fly directly to Cinnabar after you leave which will allow you to encounter the Safari Zone Pokémon on the coast without the restrictions meaning they won’t run and you can battle and catch them as you would a Wild Pokémon anywhere else. That includes using your new Master Balls on them.
If you look at your Town Map, you will notice that you have been almost everywhere in the region. If you have been following this walkthrough, the only places you have yet to visit are Routes 19 and 20, the Seafoam Islands, the Power Plant, the cave by Cerulean City, Route 23, and Indigo Plateau. If you Fly back to Cerulean City, walk up Route 24, and talk to the man blocking the cave, he will warn that horribly strong Pokémon live there and only the Pokémon League Champion may enter. Go a little further west to battle one of the easiest to miss Trainers in the game. She uses Paras and Parasect so take her out with Poison, Fire, or Flying-type moves and be on your way.
The Final Gym, The Road To Victory, And Birds
Before exploring the rest of the region, Fly to Viridian City to claim your eighth and final Badge. The Gym is no longer locked for the Gym Leader has returned! No one knows who the Gym Leader is and the Trainers inside give no indication either as they all use a mix of types. The only clue to the Gym Leader’s identity is the return of the Spinner Traps. Use them to collect a Revive, the only item to be in any Gym. After you’ve navigated the maze and battled all of the Gym Trainers, the Spinners will drop you off in front of the Gym Leader who is none other than Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket. Viridian Gym doubles as his base of operations and now you’ve tracked him here too.
Giovanni uses a Lv.45 Rhyhorn, a Lv.42 Dugtrio, a Lv.44 Nidoqueen, a Lv.45 Nidoking, and a Lv.50 Rhydon. All of his Pokémon are Ground-types so come prepared with the usual Water and Grass-types. Make sure your Pokémon are faster than his as well because they know the devastating One Hit KO move Fissure which will defeat any slower Pokémon in a single hit. When you win, Giovanni will give you your rightfully earned Earth Badge and TM27 which contains Fissure. Talk to Giovanni again after the battle and he will vow to permanently disband Team Rocket before disappearing never to be seen again.
When you leave the Gym, heal your Pokémon, then head west to Route 22. It’ll be like the beginning of the game all over again as coming up the road will be Rival just like last time. This time however, he’s impressed to see you have eight Badges instead of scoffing that you have no Badges. This time he’s also packing a full team of six unlike the first time where it was just Pidgey and his starter or the other times where he had five. He’ll use a Lv.47 Pidgeot, a Lv.50 Alakazam, and the new comer, a Lv.45 Rhyhorn. Once again, if Bulbasaur was his starter, he’ll have a Lv.45 Gyarados, a Lv.47 Growlithe, and a Lv.53 Venusaur. If he chose Charmander, he’ll have a Lv.45 Exeggcute, a Lv.47 Gyarados, and a Lv.53 Charizard. If he chose Squirtle, he’ll have a Lv.45 Growlithe, a Lv.47 Exeggcute, and a Lv.53 Blastoise. By now you should have your strategies for his team worked out, even Rhyhorn.
After you defeat him, he’ll say a few taunting words before heading back to Pokémon League Headquarters. Follow him and enter the building. At the beginning of the game you weren’t allowed to pass the checkpoint without the Boulder Badge. This time you won’t have any problems, nor will you at the other seven check points that check for the rest of the Badges. To traverse all of Route 23, you will need Surf. You will also need Strength for the puzzles in Victory Road which you will be standing in front of after clearing the eighth check point. No need to worry about the Wild Pokémon populations on Route 23 or Victory Road as they are all Pokémon you already have access to in other areas.
Victory Road is also full of strong Trainers so make sure your Pokémon are fully healed before entering. To solve the Strength puzzles, push the boulders onto the circular buttons you see or down holes so that you can push them onto buttons on a lower floor. As you explore, keep your eyes out for a bird roosting in the cave. If you see it, save immediately before battling it. This bird is similar to Snorlax in that you can battle it and catch it but unlike Snorlax, this Pokémon is truly one of a kind so you don’t want to accidentally faint it or run out of Ultra Balls, assuming you didn’t multiply your Master Ball.
After saving, talk to the Bird to challenge it. This Pokémon is Moltres, the Legendary Bird of Fire, and is at Lv.50. If you used Missingno to multiply your Master Ball, use one and it will be yours without a problem. If you did not multiply your Master Ball, you will have to catch Moltres the hard way. You want to first paralyze it or put it to sleep then whittle its HP down as low as you can make it without fainting it. Once its HP is low enough, make sure it’s still asleep if that is the method you’re using then start throwing Ultra Balls. As a Legendary Pokémon, it will be very difficult to catch and may even take a few tries.
Once you finally succeed in catching Moltres, continue on your way through Victory Road until you finally reach the exit. Then it is only a little further to Indigo Plateau. Don’t worry if your Pokémon are worn out at this point, there are no more Trainers or Wild Pokémon left to face. Your only challenge now is to wander through a maze of statues. When you finally reach Indigo Plateau, give your Pokémon a well deserved rest. As you’ll notice, the building serves a dual purpose as a Pokémon Center and a Mart so stock up on items after you heal.
As usual, you now have a choice to make; face the Elite Four or continue training if you don’t feel ready yet. Before you do anything, there are still other areas that need exploring. Start by Flying to Cerulean City then travel east as if you were visiting the Rock Tunnel. Instead of going into the cave, Surf south along the river until you arrive at the Power Plant. There is a Trainer outside who should be fairly easy to defeat.
Enter the Power Plant and start exploring. The Pokémon found here are Voltorb, Electrode, Magnemite, Magneton, and Pikachu. Red Version users will also encounter Electabuzz, the Version Exclusive counterpart to Blue’s Magmar. Blue Version users get the bonus of being able to encounter Wild Raichu despite Red not getting any bonus Pokémon in the Mansion. A few of the Item Balls laying around are actually Wild Voltorb and Electrode so be careful with which ones you pick up.
At the back of the Power Plant you will find another bird. Like with Moltres, save before you approach it as you don’t want to accidentally defeat it or run out of Ultra Balls. When you interact wit it, you will find yourself battling a Lv.50 Zapdos, the Legendary Bird of Thunder. Just like with Moltres, throw the Master Ball right away if you have extras. If not, then do your best to paralyze it or keep it asleep while you lower its HP. With enough patience and luck, the second Legendary Bird will be yours. After that, leave the Power Plant and Fly to Fuchsia City.
Head south from Fuchsia City and Surf along Routes 19 and 20 battling the Trainers as you go. Make sure you have a Pokémon knowing Strength as there is another Strength puzzle in the Seafoam Islands. While there are two islands, you can only enter one at a time depending on the direction you came from. When you enter the cave on the far left, keep your eyes open for the boulders you will need to move. On the lowest level of the cave there are fast moving currents that prevent access to other areas. By pushing boulders into the holes, you can block the currents allowing safe passage. Blocking the currents with the boulders found on the first floor will allow you to get to the Cinnabar Island side. Deeper in the cave there will be another puzzle that will allow access to another area of the Seafoam Islands.
On the third level you will find four boulders on the left. Only two can be pushed into the holes so for the two next to each other, start by pushing the right one into the corner, then push the left one into the hole. Next, push the boulder blocking your path away and push the one nearest the hole into it. Jump down and Surf north to the small islet. You will see yet another bird so save the game. This is Articuno, the Legendary Bird of Ice, and is Lv.50 like the others. Do as before with the other Legendary Birds but if you aren’t caching it right away with the Master Ball, be careful of Articuno’s Ice Beam, a move that can freeze your Pokémon preventing them from attacking. Use Full Heals if you have them to alleviate freezing. Once you catch Articuno, you will be the proud owner of all three Legendary Birds!
The other Pokémon found in the Seafoam Islands are Seel and Dewgong, which are only native here, Staryu, Shellder, Psyduck, Golduck, Slowpoke, Slowbro, and depending on your Version, Krabby and Kingler in Blue or Horsea and Seadra in Red. Note that these are only Version Exclusive for the Seafoam Islands as Krabby and Horsea have an equal chance of being found while fishing with the Super Rod. Make sure you catch an extra Slowbro while here to trade for Lickitung in Fuchsia City. Once you’ve finished your business in the Seafoam Islands, leave via the Cinnabar side and Surf west to Cinnabar Island in order to finish clearing the Trainers on Route 20. As soon as you are ready, Fly back to Indigo Plateau to prepare for your Elite Four challenge!
The Strongest Trainers In The World
Once you begin the Elite Four challenge, you will be thrown into a gauntlet where there is no turning back until you either beat all of them or lose so make sure you are prepared. To start off, make sure you have a diversified team consisting of a Grass and/or Water-type, a Fire-type, an Electric-type, an Ice-type, a Psychic-type, and either a Fighting or Ground-type. Also make sure you’re carrying Hyper Potions, Max Potions, Full Restores, Revives, and Max Revives in your items. Make sure your Pokémon are at full heath before entering the door in the back of the room.
Your first opponent will be the Ice Goddess Lorelei. Her team consists of a Lv.54 Dewgong, a Lv.53 Cloyster, a Lv.54 Slowbro, a Lv.56 Jynx, and a Lv.56 Lapras. Since most of her Pokémon, are dual-typed Water, only use your Fire-type on Jynx. Use your Electric-type on the rest or your Fighting-type on all but Slowbro. When you defeat Lorelei, the door behind her will open leading to the next member.
Your second challenge will be against the Martial Arts Master Bruno. He trains a Lv.53 Onix, a Lv.55 Hitmonchan, a Lv.55 Hitmonlee, a Lv.56 Onix, and a Lv.58 Machamp. Use your Water, Grass, or Psychic-type win this match. When Bruno concedes defeat, the door will open allowing you to face your next opponent.
Your third foe will be the elderly Agatha who reveals to be a childhood friend of Prof. Oak’s. She specializes in Ghost and Poison-types with a team of a Lv.56 Gengar, a Lv.56 Golbat, a Lv.55 Haunter, a Lv.58 Arbok, and a Lv.60 Gengar. Ground and Psychic-type attacks are the way to win against this bitter old woman. Once Agatha is beaten, the door leading to the last member of the Elite Four will open.
Your fourth match will be against the Elite Four’s Leader, Lance the Dragon Master. Lance claims that Dragon-types are hard to catch and raise, but they are near indestructible. Lance will attempt to prove his claim by sending into battle his Lv.58 Gyarados, two Lv.56 Dragonair, Lv.60 Aerodactyl, and Lv.62 Dragonite. To beat Gyarados, use Electric-type moves. Aerodactyl will fall to either Electric, Water, or Ice-type moves. Dragon-types have just one weakness and that is to Ice-types so use them on the Dragonairs and Dragonite. Dragonite especially is weak to Ice-types as it is a dual Dragon/Flying-type.
Once Dragonite falls you have defeated Lance and the Elite Four! You have become the Pokémon League Champion! …err… Not yet. While Lance admits defeat, he says that someone else beat the Elite Four before you did and is the true Champion. If you want the title for yourself, you must defeat the current Champion who turns out to be none other than Rival! He’s always been one step ahead of you so the fact that he became Champion before you should not come as a surprise. Make sure your worn out Pokémon are fully healed before you enter the next room to face him.
As soon as you enter the Champion’s throne, Rival will challenge you. He claims that he has assembled the strongest Pokémon team and that he is the most powerful Trainer in the world. You have never once lost to him so don’t start now. This is the final battle so give it all you’ve got! His Pidgeot is Lv.61 so use your best Electric or Ice-type moves to beat it. His Alakazam is Lv.59 but still has low Defense so use the fastest Pokémon with the highest Attack stat you’ve got. His Rhyhorn has evolved into a Lv.61 Rhydon. Grass, Water, Fighting, or Ground-type moves are the way to go in defeating this one. If he started with Bulbasaur, the rest of his team will be a Lv.61 Gyarados, a Lv.63 Arcanine, and Venusaur will be Lv.65. If he started with Charmander, he’ll be using a Lv.61 Exeggutor, a Lv.63 Gyarados, and Charizard will be Lv.65. If he started with Squirtle, his last three Pokémon will be a Lv.63 Arcanine, a Lv.61 Exeggutor, and Blastoise will be Lv.65. To beat Gyarados, just do what you did to Lance’s and use Electric-type moves. Arcanine can be beaten with Water, Ground, and Rock-type moves, and Exeggutor will fall to Ice, Fire, Flying, Poison, and Bug-type moves. Rival’s starter shares those weaknesses so do what you’ve been doing since that first battle in Prof. Oak’s Lab.
When the final battle ends, Rival stands there dumbfounded trying to comprehend how he could have lost. This is when Prof. Oak walks in and scolds Rival that it was a lack of love and trust for his Pokémon that cost him the battle. He had come when he heard Rival had become Champion but is disappointed that by the time he got there his grandson had already lost. Prof. Oak will then congratulate you on your victory and lead you into the Hall of Fame to register you and your Pokémon as Champions. You will then be treated to the credits. Congratulations on beating the game!
Post-Game
When you next turn on your game, you will be standing outside your house in Pallet Town. Nothing about the world has changed besides two things. The first is that from now on whenever you log on to the PC, you will see Hall of Fame added to the menu. All this does is allow you to view the number of times you beat the Elite Four and with which Pokémon. The second change is the guard in front of the cave on Route 24 is gone. You are the Pokémon League Champion now so you have earned the right to explore that cave.
Have your mom heal your Pokémon since they will be in the same condition they were after the battles with the Elite Four and Rival. Next, Fly to Cerulean City and go to that cave. It is called the Unknown Dungeon. There are no other Trainers here as there can only be one Champion. All of the Wild Pokémon are between Lv.50-60 and aside from Wild Chansey, you should have most of them already so only catch them if you want to. The real prize in the deepest part of the cave, the most powerful Legendary Pokémon in existence, the very monster who laid the Pokémon Mansion to ruins, Mewtwo! At Lv.70, Mewtwo is the highest level Pokémon you will encounter in the game. You best have your Master Ball with you otherwise you’re going to have to catch the Genetic Pokémon the hard way.
Once you catch Mewtwo, the only task at hand remaining is to finish filling up your Pokédex. Best of luck obtaining all 151 Pokémon!