All the Pokemens

[Aura]

This is the final room before the Elite Four challenge. A pokemon center reserved for the strongest trainers of Kanto. You can heal your pokemon after the difficult trek through Victory Road and there's even a counter that sells healing items like Revives and Full Restores. Its selection is limited exclusively to the most powerful items available in-stores however, so you may want to use Fly to go back to Celadon and get yourself some Lemonade there for basic healing. Or, if you want to buy in bulk, Super Potions I find to be a much better alternative than Hyper Potions. Of course, Ethers and Elixirs can't be bought in stores, so you may want to make sure you have some before taking the Elite Four challenge!

Once we're prepared, it's time to go through the entrance to the Elite Four and challenge our toughest opponents yet!

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My Team:

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Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 50

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Razor Leaf

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Scope (Golbat F); Lv. 50

 

Item: Everstone

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

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Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 50

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Slash, Swift, Dig, Rock Slide

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Generator (Electrode); Lv. 50

 

Item: Amulet Coin

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

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Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 50

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

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Regen (Starmie); Lv. 50

 

Item: None

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

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Elite Four #1: Lorelei

As expected, the Kanto Elite Four still just uses the Gym Leader battle theme despite the Hoenn Elite Four getting their own unique theme. Still, this game does have a unique battle fade-in animation for the Elite Four with some epic manga-esque vs. panels slide onto the screen with closeups of both you and your opponent before the normal battle begins!

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Dewgong Lv. 52

 

I led off with Generator against Lorelei's Dewgong and opened up with a Rain Dance knowing most of her team would be weak to it. She led off with a Safeguard, so I followed up with a Thunder. Thunder didn't quite take her out, so she followed up by using Hail to shut off my rain. On the next turn, I set up another Rain Dance while she went for Ice Beam which did an uncomfortable amount of damage to me. Thankfully, one more Thunder was enough to take out Dewgong with a newly refreshed rainstorm.

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Cloyster Lv. 51

 

Cloyster never stood a chance against a Thunder from Generator.

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Slowbro Lv. 52

 

Slowbro came next and I didn't think a Thunder would be enough to take it out. I set up a Light Screen to hopefully save face, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough to protect against Slowbro's rain-powered Surf, so Generator went down.

 

With Light Screen set up, I saw no reason to avoid sending out Venus! With a couple of Razor Leafs, Slowbro went down. It tried to put me to sleep with Yawn, but the Poke Flute was enough protection from that. Its Ice Beam, however, did a sizeable chunk of damage which I wasn't appreciative of.

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Lapras Lv. 54

 

Lapras was next and I used Leech Seed and Toxic to try and reduce its health. She used Confuse Ray to stop my attacks, though, and after an Ice Beam, I was forced to retreat without getting Toxic off.

 

Out came Regen who used its own Confuse Ray to challenge Lapras' while Leech Seed worked its magic.

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Jynx Lv. 54

 

Jynx was Lorelei's final pokemon and she didn't stand a chance against Regen's Surf.

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And so, our first Elite Four member was down, but we still have three more to go! We'll want to heal up some pokemon before we move on.

MVP: Venus

Venus helped me get through a lot of the more awkward matchups here, so I was very thankful to have him along!

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Elite Four #2: Bruno

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Onix Lv. 51

 

I led off with Regen who would be strong against Bruno's entire team. Right off the bat, a Surf could easily take care of Onix.

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Hitmonchan Lv. 53

 

While Psychic didn't take care of Hitmonchan as quickly as I would have liked, he tried to use Rock Tomb to slow me down and ended up missing. He then used a Full Restore to heal his Hitmonchan, but there was no getting away. I ended up taking Hitmonchan out with another Psychic and a Surf.

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Hitmonlee Lv. 53

 

Hitmonlee was next. Again, Psychic didn't quite take it out and it went for Mega Kick was, this time, was nearly able to take me out in one shot, but I was still able to hang on and finish it off!

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Onix Lv. 54

 

Onix was again flushed away with Surf.

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Machamp Lv. 56

 

Machamp took a Psychic like a champ, no pun intended. It went for Scary Face to slow me down but it was too little too late. As a last-ditch effort to defeat me, it went for Cross Chop and ended up missing.

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With that, Bruno was defeated along with half of the Elite Four, but the battles are getting tougher!

MVP: Regen

When you're the only pokemon needed to win, you get the MVP seat for free!

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Elite Four #3: Agatha

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Gengar Lv. 54

 

I led with Regen again because, once again, it would be strong against Agatha's entire team. Psychic was all I needed to take care of Gengar on the word go!

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Golbat Lv. 54

 

Golbat, too, went down as soon as it came out and was met with a Blizzard. In hindsight, I definitely should have used Psychic again, but for some reason I was a bit concerned about PP. Thankfully, Blizzard did connect.

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Arbok Lv. 56

 

Arbok Lv. 56

Arbok went down to a Psychic as well.

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Gengar Lv. 58

 

I went for another Psychic expecting another one-shot, but Gengar wound up surviving and countering with a Shadow Ball! That was a painful super-effective hit which was enough to take Starmie out in a single shot!

 

I brought out Venusaur next to finish Gengar off with a Leech Seed. Agatha healed it, of course, and it began using Hypnosis to try to put me to sleep. Again, the Poke Flute kept me awake and I began hitting it with Razor Leaf to chip away at its health before it surprised me by retreating!

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Haunter Lv. 53

 

I didn't hesitate to hit the new Haunter with Leech Seed before it went after me with Curse! A big mistake, I must say!

 

I retreated into Mama before it could hit me with a Mean Look and then used Aerial Ace to finish the job.

 

Now Gengar was stuck in the fray in its weakened state and Aerial Ace took it out no problem!

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Agatha was now defeated leaving just one more member of the Elite Four and he was going to be the toughest yet!

MVP: Regen

The biggest thing that made this battle challenging was when Regen was KO'd. Other than that, Regen eliminated most of Agatha's most difficult pokemon before they could get their more annoying strats off.

=================

Elite Four #4: Lance

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Gyarados Lv. 56

 

I've battled with Lance a few too many times and am already well aware of exactly what his lead will be. I led with Generator to take his Gyarados out with Thunder right away. Thankfully, I got the hit and indeed took it out in one shot.

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Dragonair Lv. 54

 

Dragonair came next and is a bit more difficult to deal with. I set up Light Screen with Generator before retreating.

 

Mama came next and went for some Dizzy Punches. It took a few but Dragonair ended up going down after Lance used one of his Full Restores to keep it alive and cure its self-inflicted confusion from Outrage (Safeguard doesn't protect against that). I took Dragonair down, but not before my Light Screen fell, leaving me more vulnerable to special attacks.

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Dragonair Lv. 54

 

The second Dragonair certainly wouldn't go as smoothly without Light Screen. I went for Dizzy Punch again and managed to get the confusion off! It used Thunder Wave to paralyze me, but I continued to attack. Eventually, it started using Outrage.

 

While it was confused and locked into Outrage, I retreated into Generator to set up another Light Screen. I wasn't able to survive the second attack even after Light Screen was set up, and so Generator went down.

 

In its place, I brought out Scope who used Air Cutter to finish the deal.

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Aerodactyl Lv. 58

 

Aerodactyl was up next and I obviously wasn't going to leave Scope in with this matchup.

 

My switch-out was pretty obvious and, sure enough, Aerodactyl went for Ancient Power which was now resisted. It went for Wing Attack next which definitely didn't do as much as he'd hoped but my Rock Slide missed. On the next turn, it connected and took out Aerodactyl in one hit.

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Dragonite Lv. 60

 

Dragonite was a bit of a scary pokemon to face. I went for Rock Slide, but it KO'd me with one more Wing Attack.

 

I brought Mama back out and hit it with a Fake Out followed by a Dizzy Punch, but it caught me off guard with a Hyper Beam which took me out.

 

I finally brought out Regen and went for Blizzard. I missed, but thanks to the cooldown on Hyper Beam, I got another shot and this time he wasn't so lucky! Blizzard connected finally taking down Dragonite!

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Finally, Lance was defeated and so was the Elite Four!

MVP: Mama

Lots of members of my team pulled their weight really well here, but I think Mama was the biggest help with the sheer amount of damage she was able to dish out, and the confusion from Dizzy Punch helped a lot too against Lance's most challenging Dragon-type pokemon.

With that, we've now become the champion! ...or so we would have if someone else hadn't already beaten us here.

Okay, it's about as much of a plot twist as Darth Vader being Luke's father or Zelda being Sheik, especially two generations later when there's always been four Elite Four members before the fifth battle against the champion. Still, if this is your very first pokemon game, it's possible this might still come as a surprise to you! And like I said in the beginning of the game, this game definitely feels like it was designed to introduce new players to the series in spite of some of its more bizarre design decisions.

So, we heal our team in preparation for the final battle and press onward.

===================

It's here that we face off against our rival one last time. It's do or die! We've come too far to let this guy take it all away!

Champion Rival #8

Now this is some intense music! Easily a fan favorite in the franchise! Intense percussion and high-energy beats all over. This is a showdown to be remembered, and for good reason! If you don't grind, this battle isn't easy! His team is in a league of its own in terms of level! It's clear he cares just as much about winning here as we do!

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Pidgeot Lv. 59

 

I started out with Generator and led off with Rain Dance since there's not much Pidgeot could do but use Sand Attack to lower my accuracy one stage. With Thunder, Pidgeot went down in a single hit.

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Rhydon Lv. 60

 

Rhydon came next which meant it was time for Generator to go.

 

Scope came to take his place and dodge the predictable Counter. From here, I went for Giga Drain which... actually only did half his health! Thankfully, he didn't go for any super-effective Rock Type attacks for some reason and instead went for Take Down, showing that it must have Lightningrod instead of Rock Head for some reason, because he did take recoil damage. Another Giga Drain healed off most of the damage he dealt and took him out. But the battle was only just beginning.

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Alakazam Lv. 57

 

Alakazam was next and I again wasn't about to leave Scope in this matchup.

 

Mama came out while Alakazam prepared a Future Sight. I went for Fake Out followed by a Dizzy Punch. He outsped on the second turn and set up Reflect while Future Sight connected and dealt a sizeable chunk of damage. I went for Brick Break to lift the Reflect and followed up with Dizzy Punch to nearly KO him. Unfortunately, Green used a Full Restore to bring his Alakazam to full health and this was where it really began to hit me... I forgot to use my Ethers. Mama ran out of Dizzy Punch and this forced me to start using Aerial Ace instead of Dizzy Punch until she unfortunately went down leaving me in an awkward bind.

 

I decided to bring out Burrow for a quick Earthquake, hoping she'd be able to take a hit. Sure enough, she was able to hang on with a sliver of health after Alakazam's Psychic and dished out a powerful Earthquake to finish him off. High risk, high reward!

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Exeggutor Lv. 59

 

I obviously wasn't going to leave Burrow out to go down to Exeggutor, to I retreated yet again.

 

Anticipating a grass attack, I retreated into Scope who was instead hit with an Egg Bomb. In hindsight, Burrow was low on HP and considering his Exeggcute knew Solar Beam last time we battled, it wouldn't make much sense for him to commit to such a powerful move for such little damage. Anyway, I went for Air Cutter here wholly expecting to be nailed with a Psychic or something. Instead, he just went for Sleep Powder. I used my Poke Flute again and he hit me with... Egg Bomb? Apparently, this Exeggutor also doesn't know Psychic despite his Exeggcute having Confusion last time! This moveset is very strange indeed. Well, thanks to that little detail, this matchup was seemingly one-sided until he dropped a Full Restore to heal his Exeggutor. Now his Egg Bombs were more of a threat and he was able to take Scope out before I was able to finish him off.

 

I knew it was a bit of a risk, but I brought out Regen next to go for Blizzard and make up for the lost ground. I missed, but I wasn't worried. I expected Exeggutor to still have SolarBeam until it really caught me off guard by using Giga Drain! This surprise nearly took Regen out but I was still able to get the Blizzard off on the next turn and finally take out Exeggutor.

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Gyarados Lv. 61

 

There wasn't much to do with this matchup other than hit Gyarados with a Confuse Ray and run. Unfortunately, he hit me with a Trash and took me out.

 

Generator was the obvious next choice. I used Thunder to take him out. The attack missed, but he hit himself in confusion, giving me another chance. With one more Thunder, I was able to take him out.

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Charizard Lv. 63

This was it! Green's final and most powerful pokemon: Charizard! Things were looking rather worrisome, though, my best outs to this pokemon were all low on HP and I was confident Generator wouldn't last long here.

 

My first move was to sacrifice the opportunity to deal massive damage against Charizard with Thunder and instead use Light Screen to protect myself from his Fire Blast. I then needed to use Thunder Wave to make sure he couldn't outspeed the rest of my team who were all pretty slow. Lastly, I tried to go for Rain Dance, but it was too late. The Fire Blasts were piling up already and Generator couldn't last any longer.

 

I had to play my cards very carefully here. If I was going to get any use out of Light Screen, Venus was the only pokemon with HP to back it up. Unfortunately, even with Light Screen, there wasn't much Venus could do to stop the onslaught of damage. I went for Leech Life to try and heal off some damage and tried for Frenzy Vine, but it was too late and a couple of Aerial Aces were all it took to finish Venus off.

 

It all came down to Burrow! Thanks to Leech Seed and Leftovers, she had a bit more health to work with, but not much. I needed Rock Slide to connect or it was all over. I used the move and it was just barely not enough to finish the job! Thankfully, Charizard's paralysis stopped it from attacking, giving me another chance to attack! He must have been out of Full Restores because he didn't spend the turn healing, so I was able to finish him off here!

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And with that, Champion Green has finally been defeated, allowing us the opportunity to enter the Hall of Fame!

MVP: Generator

My choice of MVP here was extremely difficult. All of my team pulled their weight really well and I had to utilize everything at my disposal to get the win. But Generator was the most consistently useful pokemon, I think. Though it took some work keeping it around, its Thunder helped me get rid of Gyarados and Pidgeot, and its Light Screen was a big part of the setup for Mama against Dragonair and especially for Burrow to get the KO against Charizard. Without Thunder Wave, I highly doubt Burrow would have outsped a level 63 Charizard. Had Green used a Full Restore there, the paralysis would have been healed and I probably would have lost this battle. I really wanted to give MVP to Burrow, too, for its clutch victories against Alakazam and Charizard, but I think Generator contributed more to the overal success and stability of the team!

====================

      

Upon defeating our rival, Prof. Oak comes in to join congratulate us on our victory and lead us into the Hall of fame to register our team! We do so and the credits roll!

Once again, the credits here use the male protagonist, but I was playing as the female protagonist. So again, just imagine the female protagonist running along here instead of Red!

I do love the credit roll here. It's really nice seeing all the areas you've explored over the course of your adventure and I'm always a sucker for a good Medley of familiar music! It also shows off some really nice pixel art of the protagonist, the rival, and the mascots of the original Gen 1 games: Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise, and Pikachu! Kind of makes me wish we could have gotten remakes of Blue and Yellow as well but let's not get too greedy. Honestly, I don't know if I could handle playing all four Gen 1 games back to back again in Gen 3. Big yikes there.

====================

But don't think we're done just yet! Oh, no, as always, there's a postgame to be had and Fire Red and Leaf Green I'd say are the first main series titles with a rather sizeable postgame to look forward to! It's gonna be quite a while before we're ready to jump into Fire Red! Next time, we'll check out what the postgame of Leaf Green has in store for us!

[Aura]

Now that we've defeated the champion, as expected, our game will begin again from our home town of Pallet. Right away, Prof. Oak will meet with us and check our pokedex. If we have at least 60 pokemon registered in our pokedex, in my case I had 96, and we've also completed the brief story arc with Lostelle in the Sevii Islands, he'll bring you to his lab to upgrade your pokedex!

You'll find your rival here and his upgrade will be fixed as well. Now, your pokedex will have access to the National Dex mode along with the ability to record data on all 235 remaining pokemon! You're going to need the National Dex if you want to continue forward with the main story. Prof. Oak encourages both of you to go out and catch even more pokemon than before! Blue mentions that he'll start his search at One Island, and it's recommended that's where you make your way as well!

This also unlocks a few more features that isn't immediately apparent. In addition, if you go visit Daisy in your rival's house, she'll now check the friendship level of one of your pokemon and even offer to groom it to increase its friendship with you! With access to the national dex, this is going to be handy pretty soon. If you can't already piece it together, I'll explain in more detail when the time comes. But for now, all I'll say is that I'll finally be taking that Everstone off of Scope...

There really isn't much else new here in Kanto, so let's make our way out to One Island once again!

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One Island -- Pokemon Network Center

As we return to the Network Machine Celio was working on before, we can find that he's still hard at work trying to improve the machine so that it can reach even further distant lands around the world! He mentions that he'll need a rare treasure in order to boost the signal and that actually sounds rather familiar...

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Mt. Ember

If you recall, there were two Rocket Grunts standing around discussing their admins' plans to dig for a rare treasure. If we return to the spot, we'll find a new hole dug into the wall with the two grunts still standing guard! Team Rocket's been disbanded, hasn't it? What are these two doing here?

 

We'll have to battle with both of them in order to force our way inside.

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Mt. Ember -- Secret Tunnel 1F

In here we have a secret passage that delves deeper into the mountain rather than up toward the summit. There isn't much of note on this floor, but...

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B1F

 

You can find your first national dex pokemon right here! Slugma is available at 30%! It'll be much more common deeper down, but you can pretty easily find one here, too. I named mine Magma!

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B2F & B3F

There isn't anything too special about B2F, but B3F is home to a 100% encounter rate of Slugma!

 

Not only that, but encountering pokemon by using Rock Smash on this floor nets you a 10% chance of finding its evolution, Magcargo, instead of the 90% Slugma! I think I'll name it Coal.

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It was during my search for a Magcargo that Scope leveled up and attempted to evolve again. But, now that we have the national dex, the evolution wasn't automatically stopped abruptly! It was able to fully transform into a Crobat! 

Yes, as a matter of fact, this is true for any pokemon that gained an evolution in Johto. That pokemon simply cannot evolve by the same method until you obtain the National Dex. In many cases, this doesn't matter too much because the pokemon's evolution requires a certain item that is simply inaccessible until the postgame, however, Golbat and Chansey cannot evolve even if they reach their required friendship levels. This also includes any pokemon traded into the game from another region (which is legitimately possible without the national dex through a roundabout method I'll describe later). So, if you have a Wurmple, it cannot evolve until you get the National Dex because its evolution isn't in the Kanto pokedex. Needless to say, I think this is kind of an absurd restriction only applied to keep a strict cap on the whole "original 151" schtick. Even if they didn't want to add the new evolutions to the pokedex, they easily could have explained it away by other means. Maybe have Prof. Oak exclaim surprise when it seems your strong bond with your Golbat or Chansey has grown so powerful that it's managed to evolve into a pokemon he's never seen before! It's a very simple idea that really didn't need to be complicated as much as it was.

Complaints aside, with the National Dex, any pokemon can finally evolve into their final stages! The pokemon that evolve by friendship can be evolved right now! With one more odd exception: Eevee. As it's probably been clear by now, there is no day and night cycle in this game since it lacks an internal battery to keep track of the clock. The game has mostly kept track of time based on the number of steps you've taken rather than actual real-world time. Though it's less convenient in the short-term, it's actually very nice for people like me who like to go back to older games. I don't have to worry about missing out on certain features just because my battery dried out. A consequence of this decision, though, is that the game cannot determine whether it is day or nighttime. Personally, I would have just set the game to treat it as if it was always daytime, but instead they strangely opted to not program the day/night cycle in any way shape or form and, consequently, it is impossible for Eevee to evolve into either Espeon or Umbreon. It can only evolve into the original three Eevolutions. If you want Umbreon and Espeon, you'll have to trade Eevee over to Ruby and Sapphire and raise them there!

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The ladder in the southeast of B3F will take you all the way back up to the top of the ledge on 1F, so you can easily make your way out of the cave from there. But the ladder to the southwest which goes further down...

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B4F

Doesn't this look familiar?

As we check the murals here, we'll see just why that is: Visual Braille! The very same patterns used in the ruins that housed the Legendary Golems in the Hoenn region. If you recall, we kind of preemptively deciphered these codes using the codes listed in the instruction booklet for this game. Well, if you couldn't figure it out on your own in Ruby and Sapphire, this is the point where I think you were intended to figure these things out for sure.

Here is the Braille chart from the Instruction Booklet here we used in Hoenn. If you don't have access to this chart, or simply never thought to check your instruction manual, then just like in Ruby and Sapphire, you'll be stuck trying to figure everything out based on the alphabet listed in this very room! So I suppose you'd better start scribbling it down in your notepad!

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B5F

In the very depths of this secret tunnel, you'll find a pedestal with the aforementioned rare treasure sitting on top!

It's a ruby! And if we interpret the braille inscriptions on the panel behind it...

"EVERYTHING HAS MEANING
EXISTENCE HAS MEANING
BEING ALIVE HAS MEANING
HAVE DREAMS
USE POWER."

A strange message to be sure. Considering it uses this same method of writing, could it be possible that these ruins were left by the same ancient civilization that imprisoned the golems in Hoenn? What were they doing all the way out here? The mystery continues to deepen...

There's nothing left to be found here, so once you've grabbed the ruby, it's time to head out of the cave!

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If you bring the Ruby to Celio, it is indeed the treasure he required! He plugs it into his machine but then reveals that he'll need another treasure. Can you guess what it is? Of course, it's a Sapphire to go with the Ruby. As thanks for helping him with the project, he'll replace your Tri-Pass with a Rainbow Pass which will give you access to all seven of the Sevii islands, obviously adding 4-7 Island to our choices of places to explore! It seems this place just got a whole lot larger! He'll also upgrade your Town Map to now include two new pages featuring the new islands. We've got our work cut out for us. More places to explore and lots more pokemon to catch! So next time, we'll get to exploring in our search for the Sapphire!

[Aura]

Four Island

Now that's a cute little detail! The music here is an updated version of the music from Olivine City in Johto! I can't help but wonder if they originally wanted to make Johto explorable in this game instead of the Sevii Islands?

Anyway, this is the first new island available to us on the Rainbow Pass! As soon as we step out of the harbor, we're met by our rival who mentions that he's on his way out now that he's gotten his egg and insists that we'll never complete our national pokedex unless we can learn about eggs which is pretty accurate, actually, it is a pretty important mechanic to learn about for pokedex completion. But how do you get eggs in this game? Well, it just so happens that there is a second day care right here on Four Island! This Day Care will accept two pokemon at once. I think you know that that means. Leaving two compatible pokemon here will eventually cause an egg to appear which will hatch into the baby of those two pokemon. It will be the species of the mother's first stage or baby form and inherit TM, Tutor, and Egg Moves from the father. Sometimes in order to hatch as the baby form, the pokemon will require a specific incense. (Azurill requires the Sea Incense while Wynaut requires the Lax Incense). I've extensively discussed breeding mechanics in the past, so there's no need to go into too much detail about this again. But breeding is going to play an important role in completing the pokedex.

    

Many of these baby pokemon should already be available to you and are even easier to get with Ditto! Pikachu's baby is Pichu, Clefairy's baby is Cleffa, Jigglypuff's baby is Igglybuff, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan both have Tyrogue as their baby, and Smoochum is the baby of Jynx. Unlike Ruby and Sapphire, since Ditto is available in this game, the gender of the parent doesn't matter nearly as much unless you want to pass on Egg Moves.

 

In addition to the above ones, in Leaf Green, you can also breed your Magmar for a Magby while in Fire Red you can breed your Electabuzz for Elekid.

I can't imagine you wanting to put any of these baby pokemon on your party at this point in the game, but I figured I should go ahead and mention them all since getting to this island is as early as you can get these pokemon. 

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Aside from the Day Care, you can also find the home of none other than Lorelei here! This place is actually where she was born and raised! Her home is filled with Pokedolls! The house is empty, so Lorelei is nowhere to be seen at the moment.

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Finally, the current in the sea is too harsh to Surf on, but you can Surf on the small ponds of this island to find Marill at 70% There is a location where Marill is at 100% so I won't be catching it here, though we lack the Sea Incense necessary to get this to breed into an Azurill.

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Across the pond at the other end of town, though, you'll find an entrance to a cave!

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Icefall Cave

1F Entrance

Right away, you can tell by the name that this cave is another ice-themed dungeon and you can probably guess what kinds of new pokemon we'll be encountering in here, too. Though there isn't anything of particular note in this entrance area aside from a curious waterfall we can't do anything with just yet. Instead, we'll just cross the water and see what's in the next entrance.

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1F Interior & B1F

The gimmick here should be fairly familiar if you played Ruby and Sapphire. Step on the thin ice here and it'll crack. Step on it again and you'll fall through to the floor below! But there's something a bit more special you're bound to run into while solving these puzzles.

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At 50% rarity, you can find Swinub in this cave! It's very common so you're bound to encounter one as long as you don't have repels up. I named it Sniff!

 

In addition to Swinub, you can find Sneasel here at 5% in Leaf Green which I named Rebel.

In Fire Red version, you'll find Delibird here in Sneasel's place.

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If you can fall down the right holes from 1F, you can find a NeverMeltIce but, more importantly, HM07: Waterfall!

====================

After teaching Waterfall to my Poliwhirl, I returned to the entrance of the cave and used Waterfall to climb the fall here and make my way toward the ladder!

This leads to the top of the ledge along the western wall of the interior where we can continue through the entrance here.

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Secret Lake

  

This will lead to a secret underground lake where we can find Lorelei standing up to three Team Rocket grunts! We immediately run to her side and she explains that Team Rocket is capturing pokemon from this location and shipping them somewhere else and she does not appreciate their presence in her hometown. It's clear that Team Rocket is up to no good, so we start battling the grunts before us!

After defeating the grunts, Lorelei demands answers from them. Where are they taking the pokemon? The grunts refuse to answer until Lorelei threatens to freeze them with Lapras' Ice Beam! I suppose Lance isn't the only Elite Four Member who just likes to get to the point! Now threatened, the grunt immediately spills the beans that the pokemon are being shipped to the Team Rocket Hideout on Five Island! They then retreat into hiding and Lorelei brings us back to her home and thanks us for our help before expressing her concern that she may be letting down the people of her hometown by being absent while she's away at the Indigo Plateau. This just might be alluding to the reason why she's retired from the Elite Four by the events of Gold and Silver where her spot is replaced by the Psychic-type specialist, Will.  You're going to see this is a bit of a recurring thing among the Sevii Islands. Not only will we be finding lots of pokemon from the Johto region, but a lot of dots are going to be connected between the events of Red and Blue and Gold and Silver! It's actually a fairly interesting missing link between the games if you pay close attention to detail!

As for what kinds of pokemon Team Rocket were looking for here? Well, as it turns out, we can find Wild Lapras down here at the incredibly rare 1%! However, it's really not worth hunting it down since you can get one for free at Silph Co.

Anyway, with knowledge that Team Rocket's hideout is located on Five Island, it sounds like we need to make our way there next time!

[Aura]

Five Island

Now here we have our next destination! Supposedly Team Rocket's built a hideout somewhere on this island. But there are also some new pokemon available to us, and they start right around the corner! There isn't much in town to worry about aside from some NPCs who are complaining about how Team Rocket had their hideout constructed out of nowhere and are kicking people out of their own property in the nearby meadow!

==================

Five Isle Meadow

The music here is a beautiful remix of the Lake of Rage theme! Even though there was never a Gen 2 remake in Gen 3, not on official one anyway, it's really cool to hear what something like that could have sounded like!

----------------------

 

We'll start looking for new pokemon with our Super Rod! You can find Remoraid in Leaf Green at 30%! This is as common as it gets, so I caught it here. I named it Squirt!

In Fire Red, you'll find Qwilfish instead of Remoraid which I really don't think is much of a fair trade...

----------------------

 

Poke around in the grass for a bit and you'll find Sentret at 30%! It doesn't get any more common than this so let's hunt it down! I named it Scurry!

 

I also encountered a Hoppip which I named Drift! However, it's only available at 15% here in the grass and is far more common elsewhere. In fact, believe it or not, Hoppip is more common to encounter by Surfing where its available at 30%! But still, don't even bother actively looking for one because you're more than likely to encounter one just moving around. There's even a location where it's at 100% coming up!

--------------------------

As you explore this route, you'll encounter some Team Rocket grunts and I do believe this is the first case of a female Rocket grunt appearing! They aren't much different from the Male grunts though there's not quite enough in the game to really form any patterns. Still, it seems they have a preference for Poison- and Dark-types. More specifically the Oddish and Houndour lines.

-------------------------

Once we actually make it up to the warehouse, the door is unfortunately locked and requires two passwords. We overheard the first password back at Mt. Ember. "Goldeen needs log," but we're going to need to find another password somewhere before we can enter the warehouse. It seems like we're going to have to put this off for a bit later and instead continue exploring the island.

=================

Memorial Pillar

If we continue further past the meadow, we'll find a place called Memorial Pillar.

 

The grass here is where you can find Hoppip at 100%, so if you really need to search for them, this is the place!

At the southern island here, you'll find this area's namesake. A memorial left by a man in memory of his lost Onix. He's left a Lemonade on the memorial as an offering and you can leave one of your own as well. The man is moved by your generosity and tells you that Lemonade was his Onix's favorite drink.

As thanks, the man leaves his TM42: Facade with you.

In addition, in the southwest part of the island, you can find a Metal Coat, making this an invaluable landmark for those seeking to complete their pokedex!

=================

Water Labyrinth

Now, we can return to Five Island and head North to reach the Water Labyrinth. I recommend coming to explore this labyrinth with an empty slot in your party.

My reasoning is that your only reward for reaching the end of this labyrinth is a Gentleman who will offer you an Egg if you've taken good care of your pokemon. You can only accept this egg if you have an open slot in your party.

Aside from the Gentleman, there's also a Breeder nearby you can battle. Breeders are a trainer class we've yet to see in this game. They like to use pokemon with baby forms.

==================

Resort Gorgeous

This island resort has a few new trainer classes.

The first is a painter who specializes exclusively in using Smeargle with various unpredictable movesets. 

There's also the Lady who tend to use fluffy or elegant pokemon and give out a lot of prize money when they lose. Apparently, their pokemon also often hold expensive selling items, so you may want to use Thief on their pokemon to get them! That is, if your morals are low enough...

----------------------

On the resort itself, you'll find a home labeled "Selphy's House," but the building appears to be completely vacant. Strange... But if we head further east, we'll find a mysterious cave that we can enter!

================

Lost Cave

Be prepared for one of the most convoluted caves in the game.

1F

Right away, the cave is rather unassuming with just a ladder that leads further in, but...

B1F Entrance

Just by looking at the format of this room, you can probably guess what the gimmick here is.

There's a Ruin Maniac to be battled here. They are essentially upgraded Hikers who are drawn to mysterious caves much like this one. However, after defeating this one, he mentions that he feels like he keeps going in circles and ending up back in this same room! And sure enough, you'll experience the same thing if you just wander around blindly.

Supposedly, the number of rocks in each room is a hint as to what direction you're supposed to go. I could not for the life of me figure out this puzzle but, apparently the number of rocks is supposed to tell you the clock direction to move in, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and 12 o'clock. I'm really not sure how you're supposed to come to this conclusion but I suppose you could figure it out with a little playing around and keeping note of the number of rocks as you move. I still don't think I'd ever correlate it to clock directions, though! 

Anyway, even if you figure out the vague hint as to how to explore the cave, it's only going to help you reach the end of the cave and won't help at all in finding the secret items scattered about! My favorite thing! If you take the wrong direction in the right room, it'll lead you straight to an item and as far as I can tell, there's aboslutely no tell in that regard.

Yeah, I do not recommend trying to explore this entire place on your own and instead I suggest just looking up a map like the one here on Bulbapedia. With this, it's so much less painful to search for all the items rather than painstakingly combing through every possible combination of doorways. And there are some pretty important items early on in the cave, too!

   

The four items you can get from this cave are the Lax Incense, Sea Incense, Max Revive, and Rare Candy. The first two Incense being the Incense required to breed for Wynaut and Azurill respectively.

 

Aside from the items, each of the item chambers have an increased encounter rate for a new pokemon! In Leaf Green, that's Misdreavus at 20% which I named Shriek.

In Fire Red you'll find Murkrow in place of Misdreavus.

-------------------------

There's one more new trainer class: a female Psychic! They're pretty much identical to their male counterparts, though.

================

As you reach the end of the cave, you'll startle a young lady who will immediately battle you, mistaking you for a criminal trying to hurt her. Her name is Selphy! Once you defeat her, she requests that you take her out of the cave and bring her back to her home in Resort Gorgeous. For doing this, we don't even get so much as a thank-you! She also requests to see a new pokemon and if you take too long to get it, she grows bored of waiting for you and requests to see a different pokemon! What a handful!

If you do please her by bringing her a pokemon she requested, she still doesn't thank you and instead requests for her butler to give you something after realizing you won't go away. What a little brat!

The rewards you get from her butler are random. They're mostly just sellable treasures, but you can also get a Luxury Ball or a Rare Candy! None of these rewards are really worth the effort, I think. Odds are the pokemon she requests is one you won't have in your party, so you'll have to go all the way back to the town and bring it out of your PC, then Surf all the way back since you can't fly straight to Resort Gorgeous.  That's a lot of trouble to go through for a chance of getting a Rare Candy or Luxury Ball instead of a Pearl. 

==============

Before we up and leave, though, you might want to head back to the end of Lost Cave. Even though Selphy forced us to leave, there's actually an item against the northern wall she didn't give you a chance to collect before. A Silk Scarf! It seems really late in the game to be getting an item like this, but it's always a nice item to have! I could give this to Mama to power up her Dizzy Punch, but I kind of like her having the Quick Claw for right now.

================

Anyway, unfortunately, we have no leads as to the second password at the Rocket Warehouse, so it seems we'll need to return after exploring the rest of the Sevii Islands. I suppose it only makes sense that tomorrow we'll be exploring Six Island next!

[Aura]

Six Island

Six Island, the Fortune Island of Aged Wisdom, is our next destination in our pursuit of Team Rocket! We also need to keep our eyes peeled for that Sapphire. Since the Rockets were after the Ruby, it's reasonable to assume they might be after the Sapphire, too. Hopefully we can find it before they do.

The town here on Six Island is fairly empty, though the music is a nice remix of Olivine City!

If you enter the pokemon center, you'll find your rival who mentions that it seems like even among the Sevii Islands, it'll be impossible to complete the National Pokedex because he's come to understand that there are pokemon available only in even more distant lands. So for now, he's decided to head back to Kanto and focus on training up his team to be the best it can be.

The mart here does sell Dream Mail, though, which looks like this. It's pretty and provides some special variety considering it's the only other option for FRLG.

There's also a leppa berry spot just behind the Pokemon Center which you'll need to cut around the corner in the next area to get to.

Other than those two things, this is nothing more than a pitstop along the way to the expanse that is the rest of this island. There's a bit more to do here than meets the eye.

==================

Water Path

As you leave the central town of the island, you'll find yourself at a large fork called water pass. You can either head up north using Surf or head south. The grass doesn't hold any pokemon of interest here, but you might be interested in a particular item that can be obtained here.

The Dragon Scale, an item needed to evolve Seadra by trade, is located on a small strip of land in the southernmost point of the water. You'll need to slip between the rocks to get it, so pay close attention to the southern border as you near the end of the water to the south.

Up north are some houses with more NPC's. One of them is a beauty who desperately wants to see the "Ultimate Horn!" ...There are so many low-hanging jokes that I could make about this, especially on an adult site like this one, but I'll refrain. This NPC is very similar to the Fishing Guru south of Lavender Town who will offer you Net Balls for showing him a record-breaking Magikarp. This time, however, this woman will offer you Nest Balls for showing record-breaking Heracross! Nest Balls are actually pretty useful for catching the Gen 2 pokemon available throughout the Sevii Islands as many of them are really low level. 

==================

Green Path

The northern branch of Water Path will lead you into Green Path. There isn't much of anything to note out here, but if you enter the trees...

==================

Pattern Bush

This is Pattern Bush, one of the more mysterious locations in the game. As you can see, the forest's namesake is the mysterious pattern etched into the massive field of tall grass. These markings appear to be man-made but their purpose remains a mystery. This seems like a perfect place for some sort of easter egg, though the intended meaning behind this pattern has yet to be officially revealed. Some people speculate that it resembles the circuit board of a GBA cartridge, with the trees at the bottom being the golden pins, but the markings don't quite match accurately enough for me to totally buy that explanation. Though what else it could be referencing, I honestly have no clue. Perhaps it's an abstract representation of some sort of pokemon? Maybe foreshadowing a future title? I honestly can't say, but the area gives off a crop circle-esque vibe that doesn't go unnoticed by the NPCs in-game who are equally perplexed by the mystery. 

What makes this place bizarre is that there really isn't any lore attached to this place and this area is entirely optional, you never have to come up here. Even the pokemon you can catch here can be obtained from other Gen 3 games thanks to breeding...

 

The first pokemon of interest is Ledyba, which I named "Honey." It's available here as a soft version exclusive for Leaf Green at 30% rarity.

Its counterpart is Spinarak, available at 5% in Leaf Green. As always, these encounter rates are reversed in Fire Red with Spinarak being 30% and Ledyba being 5%.

 

The last pokemon of interest, as you could probably guess, is Heracross! Heracross isn't nearly as obnoxiously rare in this game, however, as it's available at a rather generous 20%! Make sure you bring at least one to the girl on Water Pass to receive your first Nest Ball!

 

I suppose I should also mention that, in my search for Heracross, I actually found a Kakuna here whcih I never encountered throughout Viridian Forest, so I went ahead and caught this and named it Fortify!

------------------------

Other than those three pokemon, there's really nothing else of interest here besides a bunch of trainers wandering around. There aren't even any items hidden at the dead ends of the pattern. Other than coming here for the pokemon, the only other reason you'll need to visit this place is just to pass through as a sort of natural gate toward the rest of the northern part of Six Island.

 

While wandering around Pattern Bush battling all the trainers, the Egg I'd retrieved from Four Island finally hatched into a Togepi! I named this newly hatched pokemon Chirp!

==================

Exiting out the other side will bring you to the West side of Green Pass where you can now make your way up North by following the water route with Surf.

=================

Outcast Island

This isolated place is another very bizarre area that actually does have more of a purpose. Or rather, was supposed to. We'll go over that in a future post, but for now, I'll just say that there really is no purpose in coming all this way. There are no pokemon of interest along the water here, though there are some decent items to be found. 

You'll find a few trainers all the way out here, including a rocket grunt, but nothing comes of any of it. The main point of interest here is a mysterious lonely-looking cave on this isolated island.

================

Altering Cave

This cave is... empty. Completely empty. There is absolutely nothing to find in here besides an encounter rate of Zubat at 100%. What purpose could a cave like this possibly serve? Well, it actually does serve one purpose, but for now I think I'll leave that a mystery for those who don't know. It's kind of an interesting tidbit of development history for the game so I think it's fitting to leave that for the cleanup. For now, though, there's really nothing to do at all in here so you may as well just turn right around and head back.

=================

Back on Water Path, let's head south this time! We're going to find much more interesting stuff down here, I think! There are a few berry spots to find but, as you may have noticed, I've stopped pointing them out since you can get pretty much whatever berries you might need at Berry Forest. Still, free berries are free berries, so pick them up wherever you see them!

==================

Ruin valley

The south end of Water Path leads us to this very strange rock formation. Just a heads up, you're going to want Cut and Strength as you explore this place. But for now, let's just focus on the pokemon of interest, because there are actually a few!

 

Natu is available here at 25%! I named it Seer!

 

Yanma can also be found at 10%! This one was named Buzz!

 

Last but not least is Wobbuffet which is available at a mere 5% rarity! By far the rarest of the pokemon here and probably for good reason. Its Shadow Tag makes it difficult to escape from. It also makes it extremely tricky to catch at such low levels as well, so be careful and make sure to pull your punches! Try to lead with a pokemon with a fixed damage attack or a move like Venus' Leech Life or Burrow's Sandstorm in order to whittle away at its HP while you pepper it with pokeballs. I eventually managed to catch one and named it Rebound. It was quite a pain, but that's one more pokemon off our checklist!

 

Lastly, in the water at the center of the valley, surrounding the ruins, you can find Marill at 100% by surfing in Leaf Green! I named it Buoy!

And, as you can imagine, FireRed has Wooper here in Marill's place. 

All of these pokemon are more common here than anywhere else in the game so you'd better bring lots of pokeballs and be prepared to wade around for a little while in search of that Wobbuffet.

--------------------------

There are many items scattered around the valley which you'll need to solve Strength puzzles to reach, but the most significant one is this Sun Stone immediately south of the entrance, which you can conveniently grab on your way out of the valley from the center.

--------------------------

This valley, as you can probably guess, is where you'll find a couple of Ruin Maniacs who are perplexed by the ancient ruins here. If you inspect the door the ruins, you'll discover more braille! 

"CUT"

With that hint, the solution seems clear as day. If you use the move Cut on this door, it will open, gaining us entry into the ruins! And where's the last place we saw Braille? That would be at Mt. Ember surrounding the Ruby! Perhaps this could be the resting place of the Sapphire?

=================

Dotted Hole

There are no pokemon to be found in here, just a single lonely hole. Dropping down...

B1F

You'll find yourself in a strange room. This formation might look a little familiar, but don't worry. It's not nearly as painful as the lost Cave. Just read the inscription in the center of the room. It's in braille, so you might need to decipher it, but the number of letters and a little bit of trial and error can help you figure out down from left.

"UP"

  

B2F - B4F

There are three more floors that are nearly identical.

"LEFT"

"RIGHT"

"DOWN"

Finally, at the bottom of the hole is the room with the Sapphire untouched by Team Rocket! As we go to grab it however...

A scientist working for Team Rocket reveals that he's been tailing us the entire time in order to figure out the puzzle of the ruins! Before we can grab it, he swipes the Sapphire and tells us that if we want it, we'll have to get it back from Team Rocket. He even taunts us by giving us one of the two passwords, "Yes, nah, Chansey!" we need to get in! Luckily, we already have the first one, so it seems the joke's on him! ...why does this situation seem vaguely familiar?

So, even though we lost our Sapphire, we now have the two passwords needed to get into the Rocket Warehouse. "Goldeen needs log" and "Yes, nah, Chansey!" Team Rocket has some bizarre choices of passwords...

To be fair, his foolishness in delivering us the password doesn't seem to be the fault of Team Rocket. Rather, he's really just taking this job for the money. He says that he's selling the Sapphire to Team Rocket and that he doesn't care if you take it back from them after the fact. It's actually a surprisingly interesting concept for an antagonist in this little adventure. I really like that it's not just some arbitrary evildoer who just likes to stir up trouble but makes a stupid mistake giving you access to information you weren't supposed to have and instead has pretty simple yet realistic motivation that makes it so that he really doesn't care if you win or lose in the end. It just so happens that his goals conflict with yours. I kind of wish they could have sprinkled more characters like this throughout the game...

------------------------------

Anyway, with the Sapphire snatched, we're left alone with just the inscription of this room.

"LET THE TWO GLITTERING STONES,

ONE IN RED,

ONE IN BLUE,

CONNECT THE PAST,

TWO FRIENDS SHARING POWER

OPEN A WINDOW TO A NEW WORLD THAT GLOWS

THE NEXT WORLD WAITS FOR YOU."

There are a few things this inscription could be referring to. To me, it seems to be a sort of fourth-wall-breaking message speaking directly to the player rather than the protagonist. I think its meaning will become clear as soon as we get our hands on the Sapphire and bring it to Celio. Until then, I think we'll put a pin in this inscription. Next time, we have a choice as to what to do, but I think our decision is quite obvious. It's off to the Rocket Warehouse to shut down whatever offshoot is trying to operate even after Team Rocket was disbanded! We don't want Team Rocket spreading throughout the world like some sort of virus!

[Aura]

Five Isle Meadow

Now that we have the two passwords needed to enter the Rocket Warehouse, it's time to finally return here and nab that Sapphire that belongs to us! All we need to do is approach the door, interact with it, and we'll automatically imput the two passwords and open the door!

================

Rocket Warehouse

And here we have the central base of this Sevii Islands branch of Team Rocket. This is where they seem to store all sorts of important supplies and even cages holding pokemon! Certainly not a friendly place to explore and as an immediate reminder of just how unfriendly this place is, we've got perhaps the most obnoxious arrow panel puzzle in the game. Many of these paths are much too long for you to figure out just from one place where each path is, so it's gonna take some trial and error as well as pure memorization before you can figure out which panels will take you where. It's a lot easier if you use a map like this, but I didn't use that luxury while playing the game myself. Thankfully, it's nothing too terrible and, just like the Rocket Hideout in Celadon, there's no wild pokemon encounters to distract you from the puzzle at hand. At worst, there are a few trainer battles which you can see coming ahead of time. I don't think it takes a whole lot of brain power to figure out that these trainers are all Rocket Grunts using a mixture of their typical pokemon and new Johto pokemon like Houndour.

One of the items you're definitely going to want to pick up here is the Up-Grade which can be used to evolve Porygon into Porygon 2 by trade!

There's a Net Ball hidden inside of an isolated crate for you, too.

Finally, on the desk in the northern room just before the end of the panel puzzle is home to TM36: Slude Bomb. I don't think I realized just how late in the game this TM was, but I decided to teach it to Venus over Razor Leaf to give him an attack outside of Grass attacks.

---------------------------

As you battle your way through, you'll come to find that the Rocket branch here isn't so much seeking refuge after being disbanded. Rather, they seem to be in denial that Team Rocket has been disbanded at all! How could some kid like you have defeated their boss?

At the end of the maze, you'll be met by what appears to be another unassuming Rocket Grunt, but you might be caught off guard by just how strong this trainer is because this isn't just any Grunt, but our first Team Rocket Admin!

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 55

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb

----------------------

Scope (Crobat F); Lv. 55

 

Item: None

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

---------------------

Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 55

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Slash, Swift, Earthquake, Rock Slide

----------------------

Generator (Electrode); Lv. 55

 

Item: Amulet Coin

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

----------------------

Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 54

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

-----------------------

Regen (Starmie); Lv. 55

 

Item: NeverMeltIce

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

================

Team Rocket Admin F

-----------------------

Muk Lv. 52

 

I led off with Mama and went for the obvious Fake Out lead. Our blows were pretty one to one, but she ended up healing her Muk, forcing Mama to retreat.

 

Since she was just spamming Sludge Bomb, I figured the best option to retreat into was Burrow. From here, all it took was an Earthquake to crush Muk's defenses.

---------------------

Arbok Lv. 53

 

Arbok came in next and started hitting me with Iron Tail which did an uncomfortable amount of damage as well as reducing my defenses. But, I did manage to take it out with an Earthquake regardless of my reduced Attack form Intimidate.

----------------------

Vileplume Lv. 54

 

Her last pokemon was Vileplume. Naturally, I wasn't leaving Burrow in on this matchup, so I retreated.

 

The switch here was a pretty obvious choice, though she seemed to get a bit smart and went for Stun Spore rather than the grass attack I was expecting to switch into. Still, an Air Cutter later and Vileplume went down along with this admin!

---------------------

 

If this Team Rocket Admin's team seems familiar, that's likely because this admin is heavily implied to be the very same as the female Executive from Gold and Silver whose strongest pokemon was a Vileplume, though it's a bit sad to see that her Murkrow is replaced with a Muk here. Still, it's really interesting to see the executives from Gold and Silver make an appearance here, even if they do simply share sprites with generic grunts.

==================

After defeating the female Admin, she'll open a shortcut back to where she is by reversing the direction of some nearby arrow panels. She then warns you to go and get prepared because the next opponent outranks her in terms of power. It's definitely not a bad idea to go and heal at the pokemon center!

In the next room, the Admin will stop you from sneaking by and call you out. He accuses you of lying about Team Rocket being disbanded in order to confuse his branch and distract them and threatens to punish you with his powerful pokemon.

===============

Team Rocket Admin M

--------------------------

Golbat Lv. 53

 

I led off with Mama once again and, once again, it wasn't a very fruitful lead. Since Golbat has Inner Focus, Fake Out was useless against it. Instead, I figured I could anticipate a Flying attack and retreated.

 

I planned to bring out Generator, set up Rain Dance, and then sweep his team with Thunder, but I can't believe I didn't consider that his Golbat would use Confuse Ray! There was no way I'd be dealing with that coin toss every turn while my health drains, so I retreated again to get rid of it.

 

This time, I figured a Sludge Bomb could be expected, and my prediction was accurate! I brought Burrow out to take the hit, but she unfortunately got poisoned by the attack. I then went for Rock Slide as payback! Unfortunately, I missed and the Golbat was able to hit me with an Air Cutter. My second Rock Slide didn't quite take him out, so he was able to hit me with a Shadow Ball! Finally, I took Golbat out with a Slash but man was that obnoxious!

-------------------------

Weezing Lv. 54

 

Once again, this wasn't a very favorable matchup and, while I did have a good pokemon to counter Weezing with, switching into Regen would be easier said than done. Instead, I retreated into a bulkier pokemon that could take a hit without having to worry about getting poisoned.

 

Out came Mama whose Immunity would protect her from potentially getting poisoned. It turned out Weezing went for Shadow Ball to deal with Burrow, so Kangaskhan got off scoff-free with damage! I went in with a Fake Out followed by a couple of Dizzy Punches to seal the deal.

------------------------

Houndoom Lv. 55

 

Houndoom came next and I was able to hit it with a Brick Break! It nailed me with a Flamethrower immediately after and, somehow I'd gotten the idea from that interaction in my head that Mama was able to outspeed a Houndoom that was one level higher than her. She held on with 1HP and I figured that I'd be able to take out Houndoom with one more Brick Break, but of course it was her Quick Claw that allowed her to attack first in the last turn, so she was outsped this time and taken out with ease. Oops.

 

Well, whatever the case, Houndoom was as good as gone now that Regen was out at full health. I was pretty confident that, even after getting hit by a Crunch from this Houndoom, Regen would still be able to hold its ground. As it turns out, I was even able to outspeed! Houndoom went down to just one Surf!

-------------------------

 

And with that, the second Admin was defeated. As you could probably guess by the composition of his team, this admin, too, is heavily implied to be an executive from Gold and Silver: The one battled atop Goldenrod Tower.

================

After being defeated, the Admin notices that you have the Earth Badge which confirms that you did indeed defeat Giovanni. After witnessing your strength for himself, he admits defeat for now but makes a promise that Team Rocket will return in search of their missing leader. With that, he and the rest of Team Rocket leave the Sevii Islands bringing serenity and peace to the islands once again.

If we check this admin's computer, we'll find a chart labeled "effects of electromagnetic waves on evolution of pokemon," showing that this branch has already been conducting research exploring the idea of forcing pokemon to evolve, just as they attempt to do later in Johto! Really cool tidbits of lore here!

But of course, we didn't just come here to deal with Team Rocket. We need that Sapphire!

If we head deeper in, we'll find that scientist from before: Gideon! He's angered that you forced Team Rocket to retreat before he was able to sell them the Sapphire and challenges you to a battle!

===============

Scientist Gideon

-------------------

Voltorb Lv. 46

 

Since Voltorb has Static, I didn't want to risk using Fake Out only to paralyze myself, so I retreated into the only obvious choice.

 

At this point, it was only a matter of using Earthquake to take it out.

------------------------

Electrode Lv. 46

 

Another Earthquake was enough to take out Electrode, and I think you're going to start to see a trend with this battle.

-------------------------

Magnemite Lv. 46

 

Same story for Magnemite.

---------------------------

Magneton Lv. 46

 

Aaand same for Magneton.

---------------------------

Porygon Lv. 46

 

His final pokemon, Porygon, not even an evolved one, is at least a different type, but it really doesn't help much as it couldn't hold up to an Earthquake either.

---------------------------

 

Yeah, compared to the last couple of battles, this one was kind of a joke. I really have no idea what they were thinking. Regardless, after defeating Gideon, he gives us back the Sapphire which he stole from us! We can now finally bring this stone back to Celio and complete the network machine!

Before leaving, though, you may want to check the box in the corner of the room to find a Nest Ball hidden away!

==================

Once we bring the Sapphire to Celio back on One Island, he'll plug it into his machine and the communication link will be upgraded to level 2 which will allow Celio to connect to Lanette's system all the way in Hoenn! This means that we can finally trade pokemon with Ruby and Sapphire versions! What's more, along with trading with Ruby and Sapphire, we can also now withdraw pokemon from Pokemon Box Ruby and Sapphire that weren't deposited from this save file as well as trade with Pokemon Colosseum!

Now, the message those inscriptions had for us makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

"LET THE TWO GLITTERING STONES,

ONE IN RED,

ONE IN BLUE,

CONNECT THE PAST,

TWO FRIENDS SHARING POWER

OPEN A WINDOW TO A NEW WORLD THAT GLOWS

THE NEXT WORLD WAITS FOR YOU."

The two glittering stones is obviously in reference to the Ruby and Sapphire. Connecting the past seems to be in reference to connecting to the games of the past, Ruby and Sapphire, two friends sharing power I understand to be in reference to the two trainers trading their pokemon with the intention of completing their pokedex, and "open a window to a new world that glows" seems to be in reference to a world where pokemon from all over can be raised together, bringing new life to both FRLG and RS. That's the next world that waits for you!

Now, this is all really exciting until you stop and think for a minute... why in the world are we only just now unlocking the ability to do any of this? This is by far my biggest issue with Fire Red and Leaf Green. The restrictions on trading with Ruby and Sapphire make absolutely no sense to me and it feels so backwards compared to what Pokemon is supposed to be! This kind of circles back to my question of just who Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green were designed for in the very beginning. My original thought was that these games were made simply to modernize the original games and make them compatible with newer hardware and mechanics, thus making their pokemon more easily accessible in the modern age! The intention being to bring the old game to newer fans while simultaneously reintroducing older fans, who might have dropped the series with the jump to the GBA, to the more modern mechanics such as abilities and double battles! But if that was intention behind this game, then why in the world were they so strict about your ability to use modern pokemon?? Why not let me trade my Charmander for my friend's Treecko from Ruby if I really like Treecko and he likes Charmander? And again, yes, you can work around this by trading the treecko to an already completed copy of FRLG and then trade it to this one (from what I understand, though I've actually heard mixed reports about this recently, so it'll take some experimenting before I can say for sure), but why not just cut out the middleman and let us trade directly? It just baffles me and makes absolutely no sense. 

If the intention was instead to stay true to the original game in an effort to give fans of gen 1 something familiar, it would explain why so much of Kanto remains so close to the original designs for better or worse, but then why bother adding in Double Battles and abilities? Why not restrict those to the postgame, too? And why is does the game have so many bizarre and, thankfully optional, tutorials? If it's meant for series veterans, surely they don't need to be told the object of a pokemon battle is to reduce your opponent's HP to 0.

I honestly cannot come up with a good answer as to why they designed this game the way they did. It just baffles me through and through and, though I still find this game enjoyable and I definitely prefer it over Gen 1, I can't help but feel a little bummed looking back at it, comparing it directly to Ruby and Sapphire without the new car smell it originally had for me, and seeing just how much missed potential there is with these games. Why is Seafoam Islands just a cave? We could have battled Articuno on top of a snowy mountain peak! Why is Mt. Ember in the Sevii Islands when we could have had a volcano on Cinnabar Island? Why is almost every route just a grassy pathway? Why can't we have desert terrain, a burnt forest, more variations of trees and flowers to make different parts of the world feel more unique? Make the areas surrounding Lavender Town a bit more gloomy! Maybe make different areas themed around different seasons, something! Instead it feels like they went out of their way to make sure the world was as close to the original and only fix the issues with the original. They were so afraid to add anything to Kanto that they had to create these tiny boxes they called the Sevii Islands just to throw all their unique and interesting ideas into. They couldn't even add Gen 2 style berry trees! Instead placing berries as hidden items on marked spots around the world because god forbid a berry tree takes me out of my genuine Gen 1 experience while I use my Staryu's Natural Cure ability to heal its paralysis!

I'm sorry for the rant, I just felt the need to go off about this as it's a detail that's bothered me for a while and I figured that now would be the most appropriate time to unload all of this. I can guarantee that if I were able to trade with Ruby and Sapphire, I would have structured my team differently to take more advantage of pokemon with Johto evolutions. I still intend to do it in my Fire Red playthrough, but it just really bites that it's so convoluted to pull off. I usually try to be more optimistic than this, but this whole sidequest just feels entirely unnecessary. I with they'd taken all their efforts on creating the Sevii Islands and instead used that to expand the world of Kanto and make it feel more alive and varied!

Anyway, there's really not much left for us to do here in Leaf Green, actually. We still have one more island to explore and we'll finish up with what remains of the Kanto region followed by possibly a brief cleanup before we move on to Fire Red version.

[Aura]

Seven Island

We've got one more island to explore and that would be Seven Island! Much like Water Pass, when we first arrive at this island, we're actually in the middle of a linear path, so we have a fork to decide which direction to go! For now, I think our interests lie to the south. But first, we're going to want to poke around here. You can buy Great and Ultra Balls and, if you're interested in catching all the wild pokemon in this game, I recommend stocking up on a lot of Ultra Balls here. There's also the one house here which is rather unassuming except for a mysterious room blocked off by boxes in the back. I'll cover the purposes of this at a later point, but if you recall, there was a similar building in Mossdeep City back in Hoenn. I can't recall if I ever properly went over it then but I'll try to keep it in mind here!

Just south of the main part of town, there's a bridge. On this bridge, you'll find a Cooltrainer who will teach one of your pokemon the move Swords Dance! I taught this to Burrow over Slash, figuring an extra burst of attack under the veil of Sandstorm could help him a little bit.

===============

Canyon Entrance

This area is pretty stuffed with tall grass and trainers, so be prepared for some battles!

 

In this grass, you can find Phanpy at 15% It'll be slightly more common just around the corner, but I did find one on my way through and named it Tag!

===============

Sevault Canyon

Right here is where a bunch of pokemon available previously are at their most common!

 

Of course, Phanpy is available at 20% here which is where it's most common, so track it down now if you don't have it yet!

 

Marowak can be found here at 10% as opposed to the 5% in Victory Road, so you'll also want to catch it here if you don't have it yet!

 

Larvitar is exclusively available here at a very rare 5%, so you might want to get comfortable hunting him down, but he's not the last you'll be looking for!

In Fire Red, you can find Skarmory here at 5% as well! In Leaf Green, you'll just have an extra 5% chance to find Fearow instead of any version exclusive counterpart. But don't relax just yet! Its counterpart is coming up soon!

------------------------

This canyon is stuffed full of strong trainers with a bunch of pokemon, and it's a pretty long route so be prepared to either backtrack a lot or use up a lot of healing items to make your way through here your first time. Every time you need to go back to the Pokemon Center, you'll need to zig-zag back through the Canyon Entrance as well and risk battling any trainers you may have slipped past. Partway through, you'll find a cave entrance. Feel free to go inside here and solve the Strength puzzle inside to see what happens, but for now I'm going to ignore it and continue moving forward.

 

As you reach the southern end, you'll find some smashable boulders which, of course, are home to one last pokemon that's most commonly available here over anywhere else: Graveler at 35%. Just keep in mind, again, these guys can explode, so be careful when trying to catch one!

------------------------

Along the way, you'll find a mini strength and rock smash puzzle which leads to a Kings Rock! With this, we'll be able to evolve Poliwhirl into Politoed or Slowpoke into Slowking!

At the very end of the canyon, you'll find a house with a strange man and his Chansey. He'll ask if you want to do the "Chansey Dance" with him. Doing so will heal your team! It's a bizarre way to handle this, but kind of funny at the same time!

On his table, you'll find the Lucky Punch, a held item that greatly increases Chansey's critical hit ratio!

=================

Tanoby Ruins

Just south of Sevault Canyon is the mysterious Tanboy Ruins. I think you can probably take a guess as to what the deal is with this place just by looking at it and considering what the Sevii Islands have been giving us so far. But for now, let's focus on the outside!

 

In Leaf Green only, you'll find Mantine here at 5%! In Fire Red, Tentacool will be 5% more common instead.

=================

Tanoby Chambers

      

[from top left to bottom right] Monean Chamber, Liptoo Chamber, Weepth Chamber, Dilford Chamber, Scufib Chamber, Rixy Chamber & Viapois Chamber

As you explore the ruins, you'll find a bunch of strange and seemingly vacant chambers. They're strange but there's absolutely nothing to be found in any of them, even the eastmost chamber which seems to be the most significant of them all. However, if you haven't put it together just yet, you can probably figure it out by now. These areas are about to be populated pretty soon.

===================

Remember that cave entrance back in the Sevault Canyon? Well, we're going to want to go in there with a pokemon that knows Strength.

----------------------

Tanoby Key

This is a fairly tricky Strength Puzzle which I'm willing to bet you're likely to get wrong if you just go at it blindly. You'll want to be especially mindful of where you push these boulders and make sure you have enough room to get around on their other side where necessary. Your goal is to push all of the boulders onto the seven marked tiles. Once all the boulders have been moved into place, you'll hear a distant rumbling. Now, if you make your way back to any of the Tanoby Chambers...

 

It's Unown! Yes, as it turns out, each of these chambers house different shapes of Unown! All 28, yes, 28 forms, are available here! Let's go through them all, shall we?

=================

Monean Chamber

 

A is available at 99% and ? is available at 1%. That's right, alongside the 26 letters from Gold and Silver, this game actually introduces two new Unown forms: '!' and '?' The reason? Nobody knows and I don't think anybody ever asked for it. I guess they just wanted to do something new for Unown. Admittedly, these new ones are a bit more interesting to look at than the others, but that's probably just because they stand out being based on punctuation rather than letters.

===============

Liptoo Chamber

    

Liptoo Chamber is home to 'C' at 50%, 'D' at 30%, 'H' at 14%, 'U' at 5%, and 'O' at 1%.

================= 

Weepth Chamber

   

Weepth Chamber houses 'N' at 60%, 'S' at 30%, 'I' at 8%, and 'E' at 2%.

================

Dilford Chamber

    

Dilford Chamber brings 'P' at 40%, 'J' at 20%, 'L' at 20%, 'R' at 14%, and 'Q' at 6%.

===============

Scufib Chamber

    

Scufib Chamber holds 'Y' at 40%, 'G' at 25%, 'T' at 20%, 'F' at 13%, and 'K' at 2%.

================

Rixy Chamber

    

In Rixy Chamber hides 'V' at 50%, 'W' at 30%, 'X' at 10%, 'M' at 8%, and 'B' at 2%.

===============

Viapois Chamber

 

Last but not least, Viapois presents 'Z' and '!' at 99% and 1% respectively.

Strangely, as opposed to Gen 2 where each Unown form had seemingly equal chance of appearing, this time around, it seems certain forms are strangely rarer than others and thus technically more valuable with '!', '?', and 'O' all being available at only 1% in their respective chambers while 'A' and 'Z' are the least valuable being available at 99%. I'm unsure what the intention is behind this at all. This means that certain forms might take you a looonng time to find. Is it worth the effort? Honestly, I'm not so sure. Even compared to Gold and Silver, there's really not much incentive to bother catching all the forms. In fact, there isn't even an Unown Dex to keep track of them all so you're more than likely going to have to dedicate an entire PC box to storing them all. As a result, I really don't think it's worth the effort to go out of your way to catch them all, but if you're just in a completionist's mindset, then you've got all the information right here!

===============

Well, with that, we've explored every dungeon that the Sevii Islands has to offer. There's one more area for us to explore on the Northern part of Seven Island which also happens to be the main attraction of the island. Once we're done with that, I think it'll be time to head back to Kanto and see some of the new content that lies in wait for us there!

So, next time, we'll be exploring what remains of Seven Island!

[Aura]

Seven Island

Now that we're done exploring the southern, more natural part of Seven Island, it's time we see what's just north of the island's central town.

===============

Trainer Tower

This is a small route that leads up to a rather familiar-looking building! I say "rather" familiar because it's not quite the same thing as the Battle Tower it resembles from Ruby and Sapphire. This is going to be the main focus of today's post but we'll get to that in just a bit.

I was actually mistaken in my assertion that Mantine was only available at Tanoby Ruins. It's actually also available here at the same 5% rarity! This is a much more convenient location since it's just north of a Pokemon Center, so I recommend hunting for Mantine here!

Other than that, there's really nothing particularly notable on this route besides Trainer Tower itself, so let's head on inside!

===============

Trainer Tower Lobby

One of the first things you'll notice here is that you can actually run inside this building! And that's no coincidence. For once, your movement speed outside of battle is actually going to matter somewhat. Your first assumption looking at this lobby is that this Trainer Tower must be Fire Red and Leaf Green's answer to the Battle Tower, but I really wouldn't say that's the case. However, this does seem to be the central focus of postgame content for FRLG, which consequently kind of makes this game's longevity pretty pathetic compared to Ruby and Sapphire. Again, you'll see what I mean.

This challenge comes with a set of four courses: Single, Double, Knockout, and Mixed. Each course contains a set of eight floors presenting various challenges. Single and Double are just what you expect, Single and Double battles against individual or tag teams of trainers. Both of these formats feature trainers with only two pokemon. The Knockout course I'd say is the most interesting of the three, forcing you through an endurance round of three trainers without a chance to heal in between on each floor. These battles are all Single Battles with trainers who only have one pokemon. Raw power is much more important here as it really helps to be able to OHKO a variety of pokemon with your lead so that you don't have to constantly switch out. Lastly, the mixed course is just as its name implies: A mixture of all other types of challenges. Your opponents will always be the same in each course and in the same order, but their levels will scale to the level of your strongest pokemon, so thankfully you don't have to worry about that obnoxious exclusivity to level 50 or level 100 pokemon. 

In the Japanese version, this trainer tower functioned a bit differently. Instead of choosing from one of four courses, you only had one default course with four floors. However, this tower allowed you to customize the remaining floors however you like using e-reader cards that contain information for each floor. By stringing together different combinations of floors, you could create different challenges and unlock different rewards. While this does sound like a much more interesting mechanic on paper, I can't imagine it being very accessible even if you had an e-reader. Plus, the first four floors are always the same no matter what challenge you made, so it seems like it would get much more redundant much faster, though the prizes you could unlock might have made the effort worthwhile once upon a time! From what I understand, though, the international version includes most of these previously e-reader-exclusive trainers in the default game across its various courses and the most significant rewards are also made available here, so I think I've gotta say that, for once, this e-reader content was actually not only localized, but localized really well in such a way that makes it feel like we really didn't miss out on much of anything! I suppose they probably figured it wouldn't be a good idea to have pretty much the entirety of the game's replay value hinge on the availability of an unsuccessful accessory and ultimately cut the e-reader aspect here. But I think I can honestly say that I prefer what we got internationally!

Now let's talk about these rewards, because this is where things differ from the Trainer Tower quite a bit. Rather than receiving a random reward from a selection of rare items for winning 8 battles in a row like before, each of the four courses only has a single reward which you instead earn by clearing the course in a certain amount of time. Yes, time. Even though this game lacks an internal battery to keep track of real time, it is still capable of counting time while the game is running using more traditional computing methods. This is similar to how Regice's puzzle in Ruby and Sapphire could be solved even with a dry battery. The battery is only important for allowing time to pass while the system itself is powered off. If you can clear each course quickly enough, you'll earn a static reward on the roof of the tower! If I had to guess, this time is 30 minutes across the board. My highest time was 29 minutes and I still got the reward even though I felt like I played rather sloppy at times. 

In addition to the time limit, there's also one more factor that will hinder your progress: You don't automatically heal after each battle. Although, unlike what you'd expect, you are allowed to use items to heal your pokemon and even run all the way down the stairs to the pokemon center in the lobby of the tower and even buy items from the nearby store. As long as you don't leave the tower, you won't forfeit your progress. Just keep in mind that the clock is ticking while you run down the stairs or navigate the menus, so its for the best to minimize your reliance on healing if you want to get those rewards. In addition, if you find yourself struggling with the time limits, you may want to consider turning off battle animations and increasing the text speed in the options menu. I'm also unaware if the Switch battle style works here, but if it does, you may also want to turn that to Set as well, all of these will save you a little bit of time. Put your strongest pokemon in the lead, but keep an eye on its PP! Use items if you have to because some of these opponents can be genuinely pesky. Honestly, I'm not a fan of this forced speedrunning, I'd much rather take my time and think my moves out carefully rather than just going for strong attacks and hoping for OHKOs, but thankfully the time limits aren't very strict.

Don't assume any of these battles are going to be easy just because you have a type advantage over your opponent. Many of your opponents' pokemon are quite well-built and may catch you off guard with some unexpected moves. Every opponent also has a held item that will assist them in battle, though keep in mind that your held items will be consumed should you choose to use consumables like Berries. Despite this, you can't use Thief to steal your opponent's held items permanently for yourself. You also don't earn any Exp or prize money for winning battles here. It's honestly a really strange marriage between typical competitive battling and normal dungeon-style single player gameplay.

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 57

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb

----------------------

Scope (Crobat F); Lv. 57

 

Item: King's Rock

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

---------------------

Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Lax Incense

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Earthquake, Rock Slide

----------------------

Generator (Electrode); Lv. 57

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

----------------------

Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

-----------------------

Regen (Starmie); Lv. 57

 

Item: Sea Incense

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

--------------------------

As you can see, I played around a bit more with the held items on my team to make things overall a bit more universally helpful. I still really wish ThunderBolt wasn't locked exclusively behind the Game Corner! I'd definitely have taught it to Generator so that I could teach Thunder to Regen, but we've already established that FRLG are adamantly against letting you have freedom of choice, so this is the best I can manage on these pokemon for now.

================

Single Course

-----------------------

Battle 1: Sailor Alberto

 

Feraligatr & Kangaskhan

-----------------------

Battle 2: Bug Catcher Brandon

 

Beedrill & Yanma

------------------------

Battle 3: Juggler Jarrett

 

Weezing & Eggsecute

------------------------

Battle 4: Youngster Cole

 

Primeape & Slowbro

This battle was where I was in for a nasty surprise. That Slowbro really caught me off guard when it used Flamethrower. I genuinely had no clue Slowbro could even learn such a strange move!

---------------------------

Battle 5: Camper Joey

 

Nidoking & Tauros

--------------------------

Battle 6: Swimmer Braden

 

Dunsparce & Politoed

-------------------------

Battle 7: Burglar Jack

 

Meowth* & Chansey

Eagle-eyed readers may notice something odd about this sprite of Meowth. This is no accident, Burglar Jack does, indeed, have a shiny Mewoth! He's not the only one, either. Some of the trainers in the Trainer Tower do indeed have shiny pokemon on their teams. It doesn't amount to anything, but it's a cool detail nonetheless.

------------------------

Battle 8: Pokemon Breeder Lily

 

Togepi & Snorlax

That Snorlax was a huge pain to get over. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be too terribly difficult. My goal to defeat it was very simple. It liked to use Rollout, so I just wanted to get it locked into Rollout at a convenient enough time that I could finish it off with Venus' Frenzy Vine. Unfortunately, it seemed a bit too smart for that. It kept going for Rest earlier than I expected and wasting a whole bunch of PP! What a nightmare this guy was!

---------------------

Eventually, I did win the battle, and for completing the challenge, I was rewarded with... another Upgrade! Although I don't think this is particularly useful since I really only need Porygon2 for Pokedex purposes, so I'll only ever need one of these things, this is a one-of-a-kind item so being able to get them from a renewable source is definitely nice! 

From the  rooftop, we can take the elevator back down to the lobby and if we want to take another challenge, we'll need to leave the tower and come back inside! I should mention that, if your bag is full, you should be able to access the PC in the lobby to make room before returning to the roof and claiming your prize. But just to be on the safe side, make sure you have inventory space by depositing an item before taking any of the challenges!

===============

Double Course

-----------------------

Battle 1: Twins Jen & Kira

 

Jolteon & Espeon*

-----------------------

Battle 2: Crush Kin Jo & Haley

 

Alakazam & Houndoom

----------------------

Battle 3: Crush Kin Ric and Rene

 

Golem & Machamp

----------------------

Battle 4: Cool Couple Isac & Meg

 

Piloswine & Crobat

----------------------

Battle 5: Cool Couple Jos & Anne

 

Blissey & Arcanine

-----------------------

Battle 6: Young Couple Alek & Emy

 

Ursaring & Furret

-----------------------

Battle 7: Sis and Bro Axe & Ren

 

Lanturn & Dragonair

------------------------

Battle 8: Cool Couple Geb & Megan

 

Gyarados & Rhydon

This pair was especially obnoxious for me. The obvious out to Gyarados is usually to hit it with a Thunder from Generator, but that Rhydon makes that strategy difficult thanks to Lightningrod. To make things worse, Rhydon loves to spam Protect while Gyarados continues to set up Dragon Dance. By the time I was able to hit Rhydon, all of my easiest outs to it were picked off by Gyarados' powerful attacks. They both just kept hanging on with less and less HP after every hit, it seemed like they just wouldn't go down until eventually I was finally able to take them both out with a Rock Slide from Burrow.

------------------------

In spite of my awkward struggle against that last foe, I was able to save enough time on the other battles to finish in roughly 26 minutes and earn a Dragon Scale as a prize!

=================

Knockout Course

This course is a bit more different than the others. Having to battle three trainers in a row means you'll be battling three pokemon every floor rather than two, meaning your time is likely to be longer here regardless of how well you perform. Try to make sure the pokemon you're leading with is prepared to endure three battles and, if not, try to make sure the second pokemon on your list is ready to take the lead as you won't have the chance to reorganize your party or heal between battles on each floor. In general, you'll find that the last trainer is usually the toughest of the three to defeat.

---------------------

  

Round 1: Biker Jordy, Biker Earnest, & Cue Ball Gabriel

  

Magby, Togepi, & Smoochum

Kind of funny to see these tough thugs using such adorable baby pokemon! Naturally, they're pretty easy to deal with as well.

------------------

  

Round 2: Hiker Mike, Crush Girl Rebecca & Black Belt Nicolas

  

Charizard, Flareon, & Poliwrath

---------------------

  

Round 3: Picnicker Camryn, Aroma Lady Natalia & Cooltrainer Kathleen

  

Miltank, Vileplume, & Lapras

-------------------

  

Round 4: Sailor Brennan, Fisherman Kaden & Gentleman Emanuel

  

Chansey, Seaking*, & Vaporeon

For some truly bizarre reason, Brennan's Chansey is holding an Oran Berry of all things. A held item that heals 10 HP on a pokemon known for having HP in the hundreds... the HP that berry is going to heal is around, what, 2-3%?

--------------------

  

Round 5: Lass Mikaela, Beauty Maura, & Engineer Flint

  

Nidoran F, Nidorina, & Nidoqueen

This floor left me feeling rather disturbed. due to what is very clearly a euphemism I was definitely not expecting among these trainers' dialogue. The first two girls joke about being the leaders of the group, it's all innocent here, and then the Engineer's dialogue (I haven't mentioned it yet, but all the dialogue for the trainers here is written using the pre-written dialogue options from the game's easy chat system.) says that he is the "King of the Milk Drink group." UUUUMMMM he doesn't use a Miltank and there's a girl here who doesn't look like she could be much older than 14. I'm just going to hope that this is a lewd joke about Nidoqueen having boobs and not... y'know...

---------------------

   

Round 6: Rocker Ben, Engineer Camden, & Scientist Zackery

   

Ampharos, Granbull, & Midrevus

--------------------

  

Round 7: Tuber Priscilla, Lady Charlotte, & Swimmer Shania

  

Goldeen, Qwilfish, & Mantine

--------------------

  

Round 8: Pokemon Ranger Chelsea, Pokemon Ranger Trenton, & Cooltrainer Albert

  

Starmie, Arcanine, & Venusaur

-------------------

After defeating all of the opponents and climbing to the roof, I'd cleared the Knockout challenge in 29 minutes earning me the Metal Coat! Now this is an item that actually has a theoretical purpose! The Metal Coat can be used to evolve both Scyther and Onix, so in Fire Red version, you may actually wish to seek out both of these Metal Coats. In addition, the Metal Coat also boosts the power of Steel-type attacks, so you may want to use it for that purpose as well!

==============

Mixed Challenge

Although the threat of mixing together Single and Double battles may seem imposing, I found that most of this challenge was actually easier than the others. Perhaps they downed the difficulty of the opponents here?

--------------------

Round 1 [Single]: Cooltrainer Allison

 

Starmie & Kingdra

-------------------

Round 2 [Single]: Psychic Lorenzo

 

Hypno & Gengar

--------------------

Round 3 [Single]: Super Nerd Owen

 

Jolteon & Porygon2

--------------------

Round 4 [Double]: Cool Couple Geb & Megan

 

Nidoking & Nidoqueen

Now this one was rather obnoxious. While I hit these two with some rather devastating combos with the intent of KOing them quickly, they both managed to hold on using their Focus Bands, and Nidoking's activated twice in the same turn! It survived both an Earthquake and hitting itself in confusion! Thanfully, their attacks weren't really devastating enough to make too much of a difference.

--------------------

Round 5 [Double]: Sis and Bro Kat & Kipp

 

Corsola & Kingler

---------------------

  

Round 6 [Knockout]: Pokemon Ranger Chelsea, Pokemon Ranger Trenton, & Cooltrainer Albert

  

Ledian, Gyarados, & Tyranitar

----------------------

Round 7 [Double]: Crush Kin Ric & Rene

 

Hitmonchan & Hitmonlee

----------------------

  

Round 8 [Knockout]: Hiker Mike, Crush Girl Rebecca, Black Belt Nicolas

  

Charizard, Nidoqueen, & Poliwrath

-------------------------

I cleared this challenge in only 22 minutes, to my surprise! Our final prize is another King's Rock which can be used in conjunction with the one we got from the canyon to evolve both Slowpoke and Poliwhirl! This also allows us to hold onto one while we use the other for its in-battle flinching effect which is a nice bonus as well! Keep in mind, we'll be getting another one in Fire Red shortly, so there's no need to worry too much over this!

==================

And that's all Trainer Tower has to offer for us! Kind of strange, to say the least. This comes no where near close to copying the replay value of Ruby and Sapphire's Battle Tower, but it does come with a more than welcome ability to easily obtain new copies of items needed for evolution of certain pokemon, so it does make things more convenient in that respect, but this really doesn't feel like a final destination for a pokemon adventure the way that the Battle Tower does. I also have to admit that, though I may have made it seem pretty simple by my lack of detail in covering it, that was mostly in the interest of time. There were many awkward situations where my pokemon were KO'd by unexpectedly strong attacks, many times where my strategies were interrupted by the opponent's held items, and many times I had to rush back downstairs to get to the Pokemon Center and heal. You could probably easily beat my times if you'd just used items instead of going back to heal or put together a more competitively viable team. 

At the end of the day, though, hurrying through Pokemon battles just isn't very fun to me. I'd much rather take my time and think my moves out thoroughly rather than just brute force my way through with strong attacks. Granted, you can't get careless during these battles because there are some pretty serious threats here. But that honestly just stresses me out a lot more than I'd prefer. I love challenging battles that aren't super RNG-heavy, but the limitations this game has imposed on me in terms of TM availability makes that a near-impossibility. I'm forced to rely on moves like Thunder and Blizzard instead of ThunderBolt and IceBeam because they're hidden behind such an annoying minigame and because of that, I'd lost Regen and Generator too many times to missing Thunder or Blizzard twice in a row which should be statistically improbable, but that's just the way randomness works.

Anyway, with this behind us, I think we're done with the Sevii Islands, for now at least. Next time, we'll finally be returning to the Kanto region to seek out a surprise guest you might not have seen coming!

[Aura]

We're now back in Kanto which means we're getting very close to the end! We've got just one more goal here and it's to track down a new legendary! I think you can probably see where this is going.

  

That's right, once again, we get to track down the Legendary Beasts! Well, more precisely, just one of them. Yeah, unlike in Gold and Silver, only one of the three Legendary Beasts are available in this game.

Once you've defeated Team Rocket in the Sevii Islands, the Legendary Beast of the type with an advantage over your starter, that is; Entei for Bulbasaur, Suicune for Charmander, and Raikou for Squirtle; will begin to roam the Kanto region! This is a major reason why Pokemon Colosseum is so important for pokedex completion in this gen. Without that game, you will need to not only play through FRLG at least three times in order to get all three of these legendaries, but you'll need to do the postgame content each time as well. Granted, repeat playthroughs don't take nearly as long since you can just blaze through everything, but it's still a major pain to work through. And that's not even the most agonizing part, but we'll explain that aspect in a future title.

As for actually tracking your legendary Beast down, in my case, since I started with Bulbasaur I'll be seeking out Entei, it works identically to how it does in Hoenn, though I doubt the Legendary Beasts can be battled on water this time which means they're confined to mainland Kanto. Just like always, they'll never be located in a town and will jump from route to route every time you change routes. Flying will always cause them to shuffle their location, so you'll need to track them down on foot. Of course, in order to track them at all, you'll need to have them in your pokedex in order to check their location using the area page of the pokedex. 

Once you encounter the Legendary Beast, like any roaming pokemon, it'll flee immediately, so you'll need to use a move like Crobat and Gengar's Mean Look, or an ability Wobbuffet's Shadow Tag or Dugtrio's Arena Trap to keep it from escaping. Even still, be especially wary of their Roar attack as it'll allow them to flee regardless of whatever's trapping them. Roaming pokemon have always been some of the most difficult pokemon to catch in the game and that still holds true here, but there's an extra caveat that makes these guys especially risky to battle.

If you recall, I said I've been saving my Master Ball for a particular purpose and this would be it! But this time I have more reason than just thinking that roaming legendaries are annoying to battle. The fact is, due to a strange glitch, if the Pokemon Entei or Raikou flee the battle using Roar rather than fleeing normally, they will permanently disappear as if they'd been defeated and there is no way to get them to respawn. For this reason, I strongly recommend you use the Master Ball on the legendary beast. The only pokemon you don't have to worry about with this is Suicune who doesn't actually learn Roar by levelup like the others. Even without the glitch, this also makes Suicune the easiest of the three to catch, though I'd still recommend using my Master Ball on it since there's only one of the beasts per save file and you're much better off using it on a roaming legendary than a static one.

So, how about we get started?

================

I like to hunt the legendary beasts on Route 18, just west of Fuchsia City, the south end of cyclihng road.

Another good (and probably better) location is Route 7 just west of Saffron.

Both of these routes feature gatehouses right next to patches of tall grass, much like the one on Route 110 in Hoenn. The process hasn't changed since Ruby and Sapphire. First, make sure you have a pokemon that's higher level than the wild pokemon in the area, but below level 50.

Since your main party is likely well over 50 by this point, that level 30 Snorlax sitting in your PC might be a good choice, though if you're not planning on using a Master Ball, you may want to train up a Crobat or Haunter/Gengar so that you have a hope of outspeeding these things and hitting them with Mean Look. You may also want to paralyze them with Thunder Wave on a fast pokemon like Pikachu/Raichu as paralysis will carry over between encounters just like in Ruby and Sapphire. Gengar's Hypnosis can work as well!

Once you have your necessary materials, head over to the grass and pop a repel. Make sure your lead pokemon is below level 50 and that you're not encountering any wild pokemon. If you are, you'll want to level up your lead pokemon more so that you're above the level of the wild pokemon. Otherwise, you're really wasting your repels. Wade around in the grass a bit and, if you don't encounter anything, enter the nearby gatehouse and immediately turn around and return to the grass in as few steps as possible to get the most use out of your repel. Repeat this process and eventually you'll encounter your legendary beast!

===============

Entei Lv. 50

 

Naturally, I ended this battle pretty quickly by opening up with a Master Ball!

-----------------------

 

I simply named my Entei Roam and into the PC he goes!

=================

I know that's a bit of an anticlimactic legendary encounter, but don't worry, this isn't the end of our adventure. There's still a little bit more to cover and next time we'll be seeking out a legendary pokemon encounter that will hopefully prove to be a much more exciting showdown! Next time, it's off to Cerulean Cave!

[Aura]

There is one more area in the game we've yet to explore and it's perhaps the most infamous of all. As we return to cerulean City, it should be very clear just what that place is. Now that we've defeated the champion of the Elite Four, we need to make our way to that cave in the mountain overlooking the city that's been taunting us ever since we first got Surf and found an NPC blocking the way. We are now considered strong enough to be allowed inside the cave and that NPC is nowhere to be seen.

In order to get there, we'll need to surf south from Route 24.

================

Cerulean Cave

Cerulean Cave is one of the more interesting and varied dungeons throughout the original generation. Every iteration of this cave has appeared different.

 

The first image here is from the Japanese Red and Green versions. The second is from the Japanese Blue and international Red and Blue versions, the one most people are likely familiar with. The third one, and most significantly altered, is the variation from Yellow version.

This cave was altered between the original Red and Green versions and the updated Blue version because the dungeon was considered too confusing to navigate with too many branching pathways leading in too many different directions. Over the variations, the area was redesigned to be more linear.

===============

1F

In Fire Red, the dungeon is modeled pretty distinctly after the original Red and Green (which Fire Red and Leaf Green are modeled after), however there are still some modifications to make the cave more bearable to navigate. Namely, the boulders blocking off the shore in the southwest allow you to pretty much skip straight to the end of the first floor rather than zigzag around every single ladder along the way. 

But the environment isn't all that's changed between versions. Another thing that's pretty consistently different here is the available wild pokemon which is once again true in this case!

    

Back in the original, you could find the pokemon Hypno, Dodrio, Raichu, and Arbok or Sandslash here on this first floor.

  

In Yellow, most of those pokemon were removed, but in their place you could find Gloom, Weepinbell and Graveler.

  

Here in Fire Red and Leaf Green, we can find new pokemon still who were previously never catchable here! You might be surprised to find that Wobbuffet is even included among them! Again, this is at the expense of some of the pokemon who were previously obtainable. As we go deeper into the cave, you'll quickly find that one of these removals in particular is more painful than the rest. Lets go over each of the pokemon of interest here, as there are a lot of pokemon to be found and many of them are pretty difficult to deal with.

--------------------

First of all, parasect is available here, not only outside of the Safari Zone, but more common than it ever was in the Safari Zone at 25%! This is definitely the place to seek it out if you want to catch it.

Magneton is available at 20% making it slightly more common here than at the power plant!

Primeape is available here at a slightly more common rate than Victory Road by a mere 1% at 11%. Still, one percent is one extra chance to encounter it when the die is rolled!

If you failed to catch Electrode back at the Power Plant and don't want to do the trade on Cinnabar Island, you'll have to catch it here at 5%. It's definitely for the best to catch it at the plant but maybe you're a stickler for not saving before a battle. They're pretty tough to catch, though.

And though you can catch Wobbuffet here, it's still more common in the Sevii Islands. That said, just the concept of catching a Wobbuffet in Kanto is pretty interesting to me.

 

I think I may have mistakenly claimed that Slowbro was more common to catch in the Seafoam Islands, but it's actually more commonly available here at a much higher 35% while surfing! 

Naturally, this means that in Fire Red you can get Golduck here instead of Slowbro. Either way, this is a great place to catch fodder to trade for that Lickitung  at the Fuchsia gate!

=================

 

The second floor is another area that was drastically redesigned from variation to variation. The original Japanese variation was obnoxiously difficult to navigate due to the massive winding corridors that wasted your time by leading straight into dead-ends. It's been refined through the other iterations to be less obnoxious in its design.

2F

While this iteration s clearly based directly on the original layout, there are some changes that make it much more bearable. For one, there are Rock Smash boulders placed in the maze. That might make it seem like it makes the maze more obnoxious to navigate, but it can actually be used to help keep track of where you have and haven't been. In addition, when you consider that you don't actually need Rock Smash to get to the end of the cave, it can help you to save time because you know that every boulder only leads to a dead end.

This version still has a ton of empty dead ends in it, just like the original, but you only need to thoroughly explore the floor if you're searching for all the items. But the only item here that's really worth your time is a PP Up.

---------------------

      

Part of what originally made this floor so obnoxious in the original was the pokemon you could find here. First of all, they ranged from level 51-60 while your pokemon are likely between 47-50 without grinding. So fleeing is difficult and you'll have no chance of outspeeding some of the faster pokemon here like Dodrio, Kadabra and especially Electrode who both loved to deal massive damage to your pokemon with lots of crits to boot. If Kadabra wasn't confusing you with Psybeam, he was reducing your Special with Psychic. This is all nto to mention Wigglytuff and Venomoth's tendency to inflict status ailments with Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and Sing. If you aren't prepared to one-shot that Rhydon when you see it, it'll hit you like a truck as well.

But, there was a diamond in the rough. You could find Chansey down here! This meant that you didn't have to deal with the obnoxious Safari Zone mechanics in order to catch this pokemon, it was available right here in the wild! This makes Chansey a bit less valuable in this gen, but also makes completing the pokedex that much easier.

    

Yellow Version made the floor more bearable with the pokemon available not being much different at all from the ones downstairs, but still brought in its own set of challenges and certainly was no stranger to the same issues of explosion and status ailments, though at least the pokemon here aren't nearly as fast so you actually stand a better chance at getting away.

---------------------

Here in Fire Red and Leaf Green, though, the pokemon you find down here really don't differ much at all from the first floor, much like in Yellow version. In fact, there aren't any pokemon of interest on this particular floor! It's much less scary to navigate this area, the only major notable difference is the increased levels compared to the first floor. Also, Wobbuffet becomes increasingly dangerous, but if you bring some Poke Dolls, you can escape from it without having to suffer through its obnoxious Shadow Tag.

 

Though it's not at its most common quite yet, I did encounter a Kadabra which is the only standard poekmon I needed to catch in this dungeon. I nicknamed it Focus.

================

  

After navigating your way through the twisted maze between 1F and 2F, you'll eventually find your way in B1F where you'll be running into the highest level pokemon these caves have to offer, though the pokemon down here would typically mirror the pokemon on the first floor so they're not nearly as dangerous. Still, their levels were obnoxiously high and you had to go all that way through, so your team was probably covered in paralysis or poison.

Interesting, Yellow version actually made Lickitung catchable down here! This was the only way to catch this pokemon in the wild in Gen 1 and get it with a custom nickname!

------------------------

B1F

As for Fire Red and Leaf Green, there are two pokemon of interest down here.

The first is Kadabra who is available here at its most common at 25%!

And also at 25% is Ditto! Ditto's presence here is especially intriguing.

Of course, there's only one pokemon that everyone dives to the depths of Cerulean Cave to find. And as we arrive at its location, well, let's just say you'd better have your team prepared for a tough fight!

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 58

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb

----------------------

Scope (Crobat F); Lv. 58

 

Item: King's Rock

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

---------------------

Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Lax Incense

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Earthquake, Rock Slide

----------------------

Generator (Electrode); Lv. 59

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

----------------------

Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

-----------------------

Regen (Starmie); Lv. 58

 

Item: Sea Incense

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

================

Mewtwo Lv. 70

If anything is consistent about Cerulean Cave, it's the legendary Mewtwo battle everything builds up to! He even comes with his own more dramatic remix of the legendary battle theme, though admittedly I honestly never even noticed it was a different remix until today.

 

Mewtwo is incredibly fast, incredibly defensive, and incredibly powerful. It's a solid S-tier pokemon through and through so don't expect catching him to be easy. I led with Generator here and hit him with a Thunder Wave right away to cripple his speed. From here, I should be able to get in a lot more hits. Mewtwo likes to set up with Safeguard early on, so it's important to hit him with Thunder Wave ASAP. To follow up, I immediately went for Light Screen to protect my team from just getting demolished by his Psychic. Then, I went for Rain Dance while he started switching to Swift which was still doing a shocking amount of damage. With the rain set up, I started hitting him with Thunder but just as his health got low, he used Recover to heal it. Recover is another major factor that makes catching Mewtwo incredibly difficult, but don't lose faith! Just keep on keeping on! Eventually, Light Screen dropped so I had to take the time to set that back up. The rain stopped next so I spent another turn bringing that back, but unfortunately Mewtwo was able to take me out in the time I was able to get set back up.

 

With the rain on my side, I brought Regen out but, instead of going for a Surf right away, I went for Confuse Ray to further congest Mewtwo's attacking opportunities. By hitting him with parafusion, he'll have to pass two checks every turn in order to attack, making it much more difficult for him to both deal damage to me and heal damage off himself. Starmie is also a Psychic type, so Psychic itself isn't going to do much to it, especially while Light Screen remains up. After a few turns of Surfing into Recover, I managed to get Mewtwo to a point where his health was low and he was unable to heal because of parafusion. I started throwing my pokeballs while the Light Screen lifted and the rain stopped. None of my pokeballs were successful before Mewtwo managed to heal off his damage for round 2. Once again, we went at it, this time without the buffs from Generator. I kept laying on thick with Confuse Ray every time Confusion lifted, and continued hitting him with Surf. Unfortunately, even with my resistance, I could only last so long and none of the Ultra Balls I was able to slip in were enough to capture the opponent. Mewtwo snapped out of confusion once more and Regen went down to one last Swift.

 

Liking how confusion was working for me, I brought out Scope next and once again went for Confuse Ray followed up by an Air Cutter to get his health low. The Ultra Balls came and still no luck before he was able to heal. Another few Air Cutters and Confuse Ray later, I got him down low and started trying to catch him again, still no luck. It wasn't long before he was able to heal two turns in a row back to full health, now fully prepared for Round 3 as it blasted Scope away with a Psychic!

 

My options were running low. I decided my next best bet was to go for Burrow and try to catch him under Sand Veil. I immediately set up Sandstorm which had the added bonus of chipping away at Mewtwo's health in between turns even while throwing Ultra Balls. With Earthquake, I could bring his health down low rather easily, but more Ultra Balls still weren't enough. He eventually took Burrow out with a single Psychic.

 

I had two more pokemon left and decided to go with Venus next. If I could get Leech Life off, it might help Mama stay in for longer! I was getting desperate now, so it was really all I could hope for. Hilariously, even with the paralysis, Mewtwo was just too fast for Venus to outspeed and he was taken out right away.

 

Mama was all I had left to work with. The Sandstorm was still raging with one turn left and Mewtwo's health was rather low, he hadn't been healing these last couple of turns. I used Fake Out to get some free damage, confident it woudn't KO, and brought him down to the red. The sandstorm damaged him further and this was my best chance to catch him! I threw another Ultra Ball and... it broke out. Mewtwo used Recover and it felt like it was all over! Still, I wasn't about to give up and went for Dizzy Punch and got the Confusion! This caused Mewtwo to hurt itself in cofusion, stopping it from taking me out with a powerful attack and buying me time to throw one last Ultra Ball and... it was a success...!

...Okay, so actually, Mewtwo didn't get confused there and went for Psychic to take Mama out. Normally I don't cover failed attempts at catching legendaries, but on my second attempt, I literally hit it with Thunder once from Generator and caught it in my first Ultra Ball which was honestly pretty lame. I think we both know which narrative sounds better~

------------------------------

 

With that, Mewtwo was now captured! I gave him the name "Heart," as I've always interpreted Mewtwo as a tortured soul with a weary heart considering his backstory of genetic experimentation and gene splicing. He's suffered lots of traumatic experiences but I didn't want to give him a tragic name in reference to being some test subject. I wanted instead to name the pokemon after what truly defines who he is. One that inspires hope rather than sorrow.

===================

And with that, we've explored everywhere there is to explore in the Kanto region! Now all we have to do is a quick clean-up to show off some of the smaller odds and ends of the game and then we have one more final stop I'd like to do before hopping over to Fire Red. Unlike Red and Blue, I don't think it's really fair to consider Mewtwo the "secret final boss" here as there's one more true final boss I think it's only right to take on before we're done. Next time, we're off to do our cleanup operation of Leaf Green version!

...Oh, by the way, I hope you brought some Escape Ropes, a Dig pokemon, or you don't mind blacking out if your team's weak from the battle with Mewtwo because you're gonna have to climb all the way back out of Cerulean Cave after all of that...

[Aura]

Leaf Green Cleanup

There isn't actually much in terms of actual things to do for our cleanup operation just yet. There is definitely a few things to be done in terms of general completion, but that's going to require help from other playthroughs so we may as well wait until we have all the pieces.

The first thing I wanted to focus on today was the Fame Checker. This is a small new feature I've touched on way back when we first got it from our rival in Cerulean City. It's very easy to forget about but I have complained recently about the lack of extended lore in this game, so I feel like it's only fair to look at what little lore they tried to add using this tool.

       

       

As it turns out, the Fame Checker records information on 16 characters throughout the game: Prof. Oak, his grandaughter and your rival's older sister Daisy Oak, the eight gym leaders, four elite four members, and lastly Bill and Mr. Fuji. Some of them even have unique sprites that can only be seen here! Each of these characters has six sections detailing various aspects of their lives such as what they do in their spare time or facts about their background. Some of them are more interesting than others and some of them can hardly even be considered information. Once you've filled out all the sections by reading signs and articles or speaking to NPCs, you'll be able to listen to a message from that character to you! I want to fill out the Fame Checker for each of these characters so we can learn a little bit more about them and hear what they have to say!

Instead of listing out what every single character says, I'll link to a source that lists everything here. Just click on the sprite of each sign, document, or person to see what they have to say. The pokeball will show you their personal message to the player. Below here, I'll show you where to find each character for yourself.

Note, I'll be linking to music tracks I can associate with each character, but they don't necessarily have any relation to anything in-game, I just thought it'd be a nice way to add some flavor to this.

===============

Prof. Oak

----------------------

Entry #1

The first bit of information on Prof. Oak can be found in Pallet Town just south of his lab. It's the sign labeling it!

-----------------------------

Entry #2

Some of these sections will be automatically filled out just by completing the story. Like the first one here int he research lab where Prof. Oak mentions his dream of having a complete pokedex.

Entry #3

This is from the woman in the green dress. She talks about how Prof. Oak is held in high regard as an authority on pokemon despite his unassuming appearance.

--------------------------

Entry #4

This one is found within Viridian City and it can be a bit trickier to find. Many entries in the Fame Checker come from issues of Pokemon Journal, a magazine that shares gossip about all sorts of information about famous people. They're scattered around the world hidden within unassuming bookcases. You can always find a bookcase inside the Pokemon Center, but the Pokemon Journal will only sometimes be found there. In Viridian City's case, you'll need to check out the trainer's school just north of the Pokemon Center! This report speaks of how Prof. Oak lives with his grandchildren: Daisy and your rival. Not too much of a revelation there, but alrighty.

-------------------------

Entry #5

This is another one that'll automatically fill out as you beat the game. When you battle Agatha at the Elite Four, she'll mention that Prof. Oak was once tough and handsome but that he's now only a shadow of his former self. She seems to hold quite a bit of resentment toward Oak's decision to shift his focus toward pokemon research rather than growing stronger. I like to think that Agatha once relied on Oak's strength to encourage herself to get stronger, much like you and your own rival! It's really interesting to me to think about what these two's relationship was like beforehand.

--------------------------

Entry #6

This one is back at the research lab once you've beaten the Elite Four. A new aide will appear here and mention that Prof. Oak plans start a radio showcalled Prof. Oak's Pokemon Seminar! I'm pretty sure this is a translation error and the intention was to be a reference to Prof. Oak's Pokemon Talk, the radio show Prof. Oak shares with his co-host Mary in Gold and Silver, but I like to think that perhaps after meeting Mary and discussing the show, theyd ecided that "Pokemon Talk" would be a more appealing title for listeners to tune into! I like the idea of Mary helping Prof. Oak to reach a larger audience with his research!

-------------------------

After gathering all of the entries on Prof. Oak, you can listen to his personal message to you. He reminds you that your pokemon fight so hard for you because they see the love and trust you have for them and encourages you never to forget that.

=================

Daisy Oak

Prof. Oak's granddaughter and your rival's older sister. She doesn't have a very prominent role in the story, but she's the girl who gives you the Town Map in the beginning of the game.

-----------------------

Entry #1

Once again in the research lab, one of Prof. Oak's aides will mention that Daisy can tell you how much your pokemon likes you, and will even occasionally groom them. This is true and will increase their friendship with you if you bring a pokemon to her for her to groom. This can be incredibly helpful for the pokemon that evolve by friendship such as Togepi!

----------------------

Entry #2

This one is from the woman sitting next to the chairman in the Pokemon Fan Club in Vermillion City. She'll suggest that Daisy is the one loved most by pokemon.

-----------------------

Entry #3

This one has a few steps that you may or may not have already accomplished. If you haven't already, you'll need to go to the Water Labyrinth on Five Island and get the Egg from the gentleman on the island and the end of the rocky maze. Then, you'll need to hatch the egg into Togepi and bring the Togepi back to him. The sight of the little critter will remind the man of a time when he once saw a beautiful little girl, who he compared to an angel, gently grooming her pokemon. He recalled the girl's name was Diasy! It seems she has a presence here in the Sevii Islands!

----------------------

Entry #4

This is the same as Entry #4 for Prof. Oak. While the journal entry is about Prof. Oak, it consequently also shows that Daisy lives with her little brother and grandfather! Truly riveting lore!

-----------------------

Entry #5

The old lady who gave you tea back in the Celadon Mansion mentions that Daisy often visits the Dept. Store to purchase tea... I have to admit, some of the information in this Fame Checker almost comes off as a bit obsessive and even stalkerish...

---------------------

Entry #6

Now this is an interesting one! In the Pokemon Center of Four Island, you can find a Pokemon Journal which reveals that Daisy won a significant pokemon contest! This confirms that, not only was she a trainer at one point, but that she likely trained in Hoenn to participate in Pokemon Contests, as they're nowhere to be seen here in this game! It's very interesting to think about.

-----------------------

Diasy's personal message comments on how powerful you've grown and her hopes that you'll continue to be a good rival for her brother!

================

Brock

--------------------

Entry #1

The first entry on Brock, as will be consistent with most gym leaders, is the sign outside his gym which lists him as the "Rock-Solid Pokemon Trainer!"

------------------------

Entry #2

The second entry is from Brock himself as he speaks high praise of Rock-type pokemon. This is another entry that you'll get just by playing through the story along with similar entries for all other gym leaders and most Elite Four members.

---------------------

Entry #3

Back outside, you can find an man who will mention that Brock is a very serious trainer compared to most of the Bug Catchers you'll find around these parts.

-------------------------

Entry #4

Next is a boy from Route 4 who praises Brock for being not only tough, but cool as well and aspires to be just like him.

------------------------

Entry #5

On the first floor of Mt. Moon, near the bundle of rocks in the northeast corner, you'll find a man looking for fossiles. He mentions that sometimes Brock will lend him a hand in this task.

--------------------------

Entry #6

In the back entrance of the Pewter Museum, you can find an issue of Pokemon Journal on one of the bookcases. It contains an article on Brock which mentions that Brock rarely laughs but his laugh becomes uncontrollable when he does!

----------------------

Brock's personal message reminds you that the world is huge and there are many tough trainers you've yet to face. He suggests you and him both continue to grow stronger.

==============

Misty

--------------------

Entry #1

Once again, Misty's first entry is the sign outside of her gym which lists her as "The Tomboyish Mermaid"

------------------------

Entry #2

And again, her second entry is her own where she mentions her policy of "an all-out offensive with water pokemon!"

Entry #3

This entry is from the swimmer in her gym who mentions that Misty is constantly improving and promises that you won't win against her! Let's just... not show him our Cascade Badge and move on, shall we?

--------------------------

Entry #4

A camper at the Seafoam Islands on Route 20 mentions a rumor that Misty trains her water pokemon here.

-----------------------

Entry #5

This one is at the Cerulean Cape. There's a couple here. The girl will tell us that it's a common date spot and that Misty has high hopes for this place, possibly foreshadowing the events in Gold and Silver where Misty is found here on a date before you can battle her in her gym.

------------------------

Entry #6

A Pokemon Journal on Misty can be found in the Cerulean City Pokemon Center mentioning a rumor that Misty worships Lorelei of the Elite Four.

----------------------

In Misty's personal message, she tells you she's going to continue to get stronger at her gym and that she intends to go traveling once she becomes strong enough.

=================

Lt. Surge

---------------------

Entry #1

The sign outside of Lt. Surge's gym lists him as "The Lightning American!"

-----------------------

Entry #2

Lt. Surge himself tells you that electric pokemon saved him during the war!

Entry #3

Gentleman Tucker of this gym tells you that Lt. Surge was a strict taskmaster when he served with him.

Entry #4

The very same Gentleman Tucker also says that Lt. Surge was famous for his cautious nature while he served in the ary.

Entry #5

Sailor Dwayne, yet another trainer in Lt. Surge's gym mentions that Surge was the one who set up the traps and locks in the gym, meaning he's the one responsible for this garbage puzzle, pun entirely intended

-----------------------

Entry #6

In the Vermillion City Pokemon Center, an issue of Pokemon Journal mentions that Lt. Surge is rumored to have once been an American Pilot where he used Electric pokemon to power his plane.

-------------------

Lt. Surge's personal message to you has him admit that you really surprised him with your strength and that you made him change his mind about you.

===============

Erika

--------------------

Entry #1

Erika's gym sign lists her as "The Nature-loving Princess!"

------------------------

Entry #2

Erika herself mentions that she studies flower arranging and specializes in Grass-type Pokemon.

Entry #3

Lass Lola tells you that, though Erika is quiet, she's very famous here.

Entry #4

Beauty Tamia mentions that they only use Grass-types here because they like to use them for flower arrangements.

Entry #5

Erika admits that she wouldn't collect unattractive pokemon.

-----------------------

Entry #6

A bookshelf on the second floor of Celadon Mansion is where you'll find a Pokemon Journal issue that discusses Erika. It mentions that you'll often find her snoozing in her gym when nobody's around.

----------------------

In her personal message to you, Erika mentions that your strength inspires her and motivates her to try harder. She invites you to visit her again before drifting off to sleep.

=================

Koga

----------------------

Entry #1

Koga's sign lists him as "The Poisonous Ninja Master"

----------------------

Entry #2

Koga tells you to "despair to the creeping horror of Poison-type pokemon!"

Entry #3

Juggler Kirk says he will continue training under Koga, calling Koga his "ninja master".

---------------------

Entry #4

Just north of the Chansey in the zoo you'll find a young lady who mentions that her father is the gym leader and that she's training to use Poison-types just as well as him. Her name is listed int he Fame Checker as "Charine," but it's once again likely a translation error and this is intended to be Jasmine, Koga's daughter who will later go on to inherit his gym in Gold and Silver.

Entry #5

The Pokemon Journal issue on Koga is found in the Safari Zone Warden's home just east of the Pokemon Center. It mentions that Koga is said to be an expert in medicine and that he uses his own medicine to nurse his pokemon back to health. Perhaps an important skill for a Ninja Master to be capable of.

-------------------

Entry #6

In one of the break houses inside the Safari Zone, you'll find a man who will tell you that Koga regularly patrols the Safari Zone to ensure the people and pokemon inside.

------------------

In Koga's personal message, he stresses the importance of always aiming higher in order to achieve greater goals. He then mentions going to train his daughter.

==============

Sabrina

--------------------

Entry #1

Sabrina's gym sign lists her as "The Master of Psychic Pokemon!"

--------------------

Entry #2

A man on three island mentions a "girl gym leader from Saffron City" and for clarification on if she uses Psychic pokemon. I'm not really sure why this entry is listed here, but I guess not many people talk about Sabrina?

-----------------------

Entry #3

Sabrina explains that she's had psychic powers ever since she was a child and that it was first discovered when she bent a spoon.

Entry #4

Sabrina also mentions that she dislikes battling but will still battle those who wish to witness her power for themselves.

------------------------

Entry #5

In the Saffron City Pokemon Center is an issue of Pokemon Journal listing Sabrina's rumored ability to communicate telepathically with her pokemon.

---------------------

Entry #6

Psychic Tyron mentions that Sabrina defeated the leader of the Fighting Dojo.

-----------------------

Sabrina's personal message has her admit that the love between you and your pokemon was a force she couldn't overcome.

================

Blaine

----------------------

Entry #1

The sign for Blaine's gym lists him as "The Hot-headed Quiz Master!"

-----------------------

Entry #2

Blaine speaks of his "fiery pokemon" which are "rough and ready with intense heat!" to "incinerate all challengers!"

Entry #3

Super Nerd Derek tells us a story of how Blaine once got stranded on a mountain at night when a fiery bird pokemon arose and lit his path allowing him to get down from the mountain. But I wanted to specifically take note of the way this is written in game because I honestly had to read it a couple of times to understand what it was saying.

"Our Leader, Blaine, became lost in the mountains but good. Night fell when a fiery bird Pokemon appeared. Its light allowed Blaine to find his way down safely."

I can only assume whoever was writing this dialogue meant to delete the "but good" and failed to, leading to a very confusing first sentence.

--------------------

Entry #4

A woman outside the gym notes that Blaine is an especially odd man who ived on this island even before the Pokemon Lab was built here. Perhaps he was the original owner of the mansion?

-----------------------

Entry #5

This one is pretty interesting and is a small detail that opens a lot of possiblities for headcanon and theories. Behind Blaine is a framed picture of himself and Mr. Fuji smiling together. Other than this, nothing else links these two together, but there is definitely something strange about Blaine's mysterious backstory and Mr. Fuji seems to be involved in it...

-------------------

Entry #6

This one is in a bit of an unexpected area. In Selphy's home in Resort Gorgeous, you can find another issue of Pokemon Journal covering Blaine. Despite the fact that you kind of have to go out of your way for this one, all it says is that it's rumored he only takes off his shades when thinking of new question.

--------------------

Blaine's personal message is short and sweet. He says his fire pokemon will become more powerful and then surprises you with a quiz to think about. How many Fire Pokemon are there? Well, that's a bit of a trick question, are we talking about in Kanto? In the current version of the National Dex? In the entire world?? I suppose this is a question we'll never know the true answer until the franchise dies!

===============

Giovanni

This is a bit of a special case among the gym leaders for obvious reasons, so his entries are a little bit different and many of them are unlocked over the course of the story.

--------------------

Entry #1

The first entry comes from your first encounter with Giovanni in the Rocket Hideout in Celadon City. He explains that Team Rocket captures pokemon from around the world and uses them as tools to keep his criminal enterprise growing!

--------------------------

Entry #2

I honestly couldn't tell you which floor this is, but somewhere in the Silph Co. building, there's a scientist who mentions the thugs who took over the building and that their boss was after a "strong pokemon".

Entry #3

Another Silph Co. scientist complains about Giovanni's cruelty and says that Giovanni just thinks of pokemon as tools to be used!

-----------------------

Entry #4

This one is from Giovanni himself in his gym this time who calls the Viridian Gym his hideout until he can restore Team Rocket to its former glory. He even cheekily welcomes you, as if he already knows the result of the battle and he's already made up his mind but still wants to see what you have. This is honestly one of the coolest moments in the entire game to me so I'm glad it's highlighted in the Fame Checker.

Entry #5

If you talk to the guide at the entrance to the gym after defeating Giovanni, he'll be shocked to learn that the gym leader was the boss of Team Rocket!

-----------------------

Entry #6

After returning the Sapphire to Celio, if you return to the Rocket Warehouse and speak to Gideon once again, he'll ask if you're Giovanni's kid before stopping himself and explaining that Giovanni's kid has red hair, so you can't possibly be him. 

Um... well, y'know, I'm also a girl, but okay...

Yes, this is an obvious nod to the heavily implied but never outright confirmed fact that the rival from Gold and Silver is actually the son of Giovanni. Then again, looking at his sprite in retrospect, I suppose you could easily mistake him for a girl and vice versa? It's interesting... more importantly though, it's interesting to me that Gideon knows enough about Giovanni to know what his son looks like while nobody else seems aware. Just another detail that I think makes Gideon a very interesting antagonist that I wish was explored further.

---------------------

As for Giovanni's personal message, he tells you that he has nothing he wishes to say to you, but he does go on to explain that he will be focusing on bettering himself going forward.

================

Loreli

---------------------

Entry #1

Loreli's first entry is her introduction. Literally just her saying "I am Lorelei of the Elite Four." All for Elite Four members have this as their first entry, much like the gym leaders having their signs.

Entry #2

Just like the Gym Leaders, each Elite Four member's second entry is about the type of pokemon they use. In this case, Loreli says she's unmatched when it comes to the Ice type.

---------------------------

Entry #3

On Four Island, there is an old man who mentions that a powerful trainer grew up on this island. It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to figure out who that would be.

----------------------

Entry #4

In the pokemon Center on Five Island, there's a Pokemon Journal issue that is perhaps the most silly entry in the entire fame checker.

"Known for her logical, calculated and cool battling style, Lorelei has a surprising secret!"

...And that's it. No elaboration on what that secret is, just that she has a secret. 10/10. 

-----------------------

Entry #5

Back on Four Island, there's the little girl peeking into Lorelei's house. She tells you that Lorelei has lots and lots of stuffed dolls and that, every time she returns to the island, she brings new ones!

As it turns out, this isn't just arbitrary dialogue, either. While her house does indeed contain a lot of dolls, you can actually cause more to appear by defeating the Elite Four over and over! However, this is a feature that's very likely to go unnoticed unless you're an insane completionist. Every 25 times, yes twenty-five times, you defeat the Elite Four, one new doll will be added to Lorelei's house. This will only stop once she has 14 dolls, that's beating the Elite Four 200 times! That is way too much work for such a silly reward! However, while we're talking about defeating the Elite Four an obnoxious number of times, there is one other reason you might be inclined to do this, but it's really only important for diehard completionists.

Remember the Braggart's house? I'm not sure if I covered it before or not, but if you go to this house, he can give you a sticker on your trainer card depending on how much of certain tasks you've accomplished. There are three types of stickers: Hall of Fame, Egg Hatching, and Link Multibattle Victories.

  

You only need one of each to gain the basic sticker of each type, but as you do them more and more, the sticker will be upgraded to a different color.

  

Level 2 is Blue, Level 3 is Yellow, and Level 4 is Silver.

In order to get all three Silver stickers, you'll need to defeat the Elite Four 200 times, something that Loreli's dolls will help make a tad more bearable but you have to be insane to actually be considering this, hatch 300 pokemon eggs, nearly doubling the entire national dex, though if you're shiny hunting certain pokemon, maybe this won't be so bad? And you'll have to win 100 Link Multibattles which requires four GBAs and four copies of Pokemon games to do. These requirements are absurd and, again, for such a silly reward it seems like a total waste! But, I digress...

Entry #6

The last entry is provided by an old lady here on Four Island who will tell you that she caught her Lapras in Icefall Cave and kept it ever since she was a child. A really cute story, I think!

If there is anything I love that these games expanded on from Red and Blue, I love how much character they gave Loreli. She's a bit of an odd choice to expand since she was such a throwaway character before, but this really helps to make her feel much less like a throwaway! Behind her tough demeanor, they actually show off her much softer side. It's just really cool to get to know her better like this.

--------------------------

In her personal message, Lorelei thanks you for your help on the island, but warns you to that she's not going to be holding back in your next battle!

===================

Bruno

--------------------

Entry #1

Bruno introduces himself as part of the Elite Four.

Entry #2

Bruno mentions that he trains with his Fighting Pokemon.

------------------------

Entry #3

In a Pokemon Journal in the Trainer Fan Club of Saffron City, it's mentioned that Bruno joined the Elite Four because of his ambition to battle the best trainers.

Speaking of the Trainer Fan Club, just like in Ruby and Sapphire, after defeating the Elite Four, you'll be greeted by a bunch of fans who are excited to see you! It's a really charming addition that brings a smile to my face each time!

----------------------------

Entry #4

A Black Belt at the Ember Spa on One Island mentions that Bruno has been known to come to this spa to tend to his and his pokemon's injuries.

-----------------------

Entry #5

A lady at Two Island mentions that Bruno came here recently but was disappointed to find out the market was sold out of RageCandyBars (A souvenir normally sold in the Johto Region around the Lake of Rage).

While here, I should mention that, after entering the Hall of Fame, the marketplace here is updated yet again and you can now buy Lemonade and Moomoo Milk here!

--------------------

Entry #6

A Black Belt in Sevault Canyon on Seven Island mentions that Bruno used to train with Brawly, the fighting-type gym leader of the Hoenn Region!

-----------------------

In his personal message, Bruno tells you that the power of your pokemon impressed him, but that perhaps he should teach you how to train yourself to be physically strong as well!

================

Agatha

----------------------

Entry #1

Agatha introduces herself as part of the Elite Four.

----------------------

Entry #2

After completing the postgame, some new NPCs appear in the lobby of the Indigo Plateau. One of these is a blackbelt who claims that Agatha's Ghost-types are frighteningly powerful since they're immune to Fighting-type attacks.

Entry #3

The same Black Belt also mentions that Agatha has a "short fuse," and that it doesn't take much to get her angry.

-----------------------

Entry #4

A Pokemon Journal article on Seven Island confirms that Agatha and Prof. Oak were indeed rivals in their youth!

-----------------------

Entry #5

This is identical to Prof. Oak's Entry #5, focusing more on Agatha's perspective, it's clear she holds resentment towards his life choices.

------------------------

Entry #6

An old lady on Six Island tells you that Agatha is the oldest Elite Four member in history!

---------------------

In her personal message, Agatha demands that you don't grow soft like Prof. Oak and continue battling just like her!

===============

Lance

------------------------

Entry #1

Lance introduces himself not just as a member of the Elite Four, but as the leader of them!

Entry #2

Lance speaks about how rare and powerful Dragon-type pokemon are.

--------------------

Entry #3

A lady standing outside the Trainer fan club mentions complains that she just doesn't get how there aren't any Lance fans in the fanclub. She then goes on to talk about how cool Lance is and how he stands for justice!

-----------------------

Entry #4

On the second floor of the Celadon Dept. Store is a girl who comedically mentions that Lance often comes here and only buys capes. She questions if he has multiple identical capes at home? I love the idea of Lance just having a closet full of capes like SpongeBob! This one got a chuckle out of me.

-----------------------

Entry #5

In the lobby of the Indigo Plateau, you can find another issue of Pokemon Journal which mentions Lance's grandfather as the chief of a clan of dragon masters. Of course, this is in reference to Gold and Silver where you meet Lance's Grandfather in the Dragon's Den.

Entry #6

Another NPC who appeared here after finishing the postgame is a cooltrainer. He'll tell you that he heard Lance's cousin is a gym leader "somewhere far away." Um... Blackthorn city is like right over the mountains. I wouldn't exactly call that "somewhere far away," but I guess they don't want you wandering around searching for Lance's cousin if you don't know what it's in reference to. 

-------------------------

In his personal message, Lance says he's considering returning to his home to retrain his dragon pokemon and that he'd like to invite you there someday.

================

Bill

---------------------

Entry #1

Your rival mentions that Bill is world-famous as a pokemaniac and that he invented the pokemon storage system.

Entry #2

An young boy in Cerulean City mentions that Bill has lots of pokemon and collects rare ones!

---------------------

Entry #3

An old man in Fuchsia City reveals himself to be Bill's grandfather and says he's been collecting things since he was little!

------------------------

After returning the Sapphire to Celio, you can speak to him a few more times to get some more information about Bill... it really seems like Bill is all Celio ever talks about, doesn't it?

Entry #4

Celio mentions the first pokemon Bill caught was an Abra!

Entry #5

He also mentions that Bill was born in Goldenrod city and his family still lives there!

Entry #6

The final bit Celio tells you about is that... Bill can't stomach milk... good to know...

----------------------

In his personal message, Bill says Celio has nothing but high praise for you and asks that you come show him any rare pokemon you find!

=================

Mr. Fuji

----------------------

Entry #1

A little girl in Mr. Fuji's home in Lavender Town talks about how kind Mr. Fuji is for taking care of abandoned and orphaned pokemon.

------------------------

Entry #2

A Rocket Grunt at the top of Pokemon Tower mentioned that Mr. Fuji marched up to their hideout and called them out on abusing pokemon showing that Fuji really isn't afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

--------------------

Entry #3

Back in Mr. Fuji's home, there's a magazine on his table with a Grand Prize Drawing application clipped out! It seems that Mr. Fuji is in need of money...

------------------------

Entry #4

A man in Lavender Town tells you that Mr. Fuji isn't from Lavender Town...

-------------------------

Entry #5

Of course, this one is identical to Blaine's fifth entry, it's the photo of him and Blaine together framed in Blaine's gym.

-------------------------

Entry #6

In the Pokemon Center of Cinnabar Island there's yet another Pokemon Journal with an article about Mr. Fuji who apprently declined an interview... curious. It goes on to say that he's adored and respected in Lavender Town.

----------------------

In his personal message to you, Mr. Fuji, rather than hoping for the happiness of your own pokemon, asks that you wish for the happiness of all pokemon.

I find the story of Fuji and Blaine to be a very interesting one. It's never explicitly mentioned and there are several different interpretations of these characters, but it's pretty clear they both know more than they let on. They're very mysterious characters and that makes them intriguing to explore. It's quite possible that these two once lived together in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island and had something to do with the creation of Mewtwo. There is more evidence of their ties to Mewtwo that we've yet to see, but I like to think that Mr. Fuji's guilt in being complicit in the experimentation of Mewtwo is what leads him to dedicate the rest of his life to helping pokemon and becoming the antithesis of Team Rocket. I think this idea makes his character that much more facinating without just making him out as a generic wise old sage.

From what I understand, Mr. Fuji is the explorer who discovered Mew in South America and the writer of the journals littered throughout the ruins of Pokemon Mansion. He and Blaine likely both worked together in the basement of the mansion to create Mewtwo, and Blaine left the secret key there intentionally to get you asking questions without revealing likely classified information himself.

I personally have a headcanon that Mewtwo retreated to Cerulean Cave after destroying the mansion because it was able to read Mr. Fuji's mind and recognize that that would be the best place for him to go to be away from humanity. Mewtwo could sense Mr. Fuji's conflicted emotions and hid himself in a dangerous cave in hopes that a strong trainer would come to help him find new purpose for his life. But, that part's just headcanon not really based on anything tangible.

==================

There is another fan theory that I enjoy related to Mewtwo. It's been officially debunked I believe, but I felt like there has to be some substance to it.

 

The theory is a very popular one that you might have heard before. It goes that Ditto is a failed attempt at cloning Mew from Mew's DNA. The reasoning behind this is that Mew and Ditto both share colors in both their standard and shiny forms (keep in mind this detail could be coincidence. Since they share a pallet it makes sense that their shinies would share a pallet as well, but it isn't always the case that pallets are 1:1 with their shiny variant pallet. For example, Ponyta and Rapidash share a pallet, but Shiny Ponyta has blue flames while shiny Rapidash has gray ones.) Mew and Ditto both have similar stat distributions and they are both the only pokemon known to be able to learn the move Transform naturally. 

In addition to all of the above, Ditto is found most commonly in places associated with Mewtwo: The basement of Pokemon Mansion and, more commonly than anywhere else in the game, the same floor as Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave. It's quite possible these Ditto see Mewtwo as their kin and are drawn to places Mewtwo has been. 

A variant of this theory that I've pieced together is that Ditto are attempts to clone Mew while Mewtwo was an attemtp to fix the issues they were having by breeding Mew with artificial DNA, hence Mewtwo being classified as a different species on birth and being the result of "years of horrific gene splicing and experimentation" as its pokedex entry describes. Perhaps Mew as well suffered greatly from this experimentation and Mr. Fuji had a heavy heart throughout the entire ordeal. But for one reason or another was powerless to stop it.

Tying this back into the theory about Mr. Fuji and Blaine, I think that the horrific result of Mewtwo's experimentation caused Mr. Fuji to want to isolate himself from his past as a scientist and go to Lavender Town to help pokemon in need. Perhaps he went to Lavender Town because a pokemon of his own was killed in the tragedy. Blaine, on the other hand, didn't want to throw away the research they'd done on the cloning process for Mew and had a Pokemon Lab built on the island where he could continue his research, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Fossil Restoration machine, a massive scientific breakthrough! In spite of their distance, it seems that Blaine still treasures his history with Mr. Fuji, but it's unkown how Mr. Fuji feels. I like to think he thinks fondly about Blaine as well, but it's a bittersweet feeling because speaking with Blaine would likely bring back memories of the horrible things Fuji allowed to happen, or even did himself.

===================

Hoo boy, we've only covered two aspects I wanted to cover as part of the cleanup and this post is already getting pretty long. I think we're going to have to split this cleanup into two posts, but there is one more thing I want to cover here today.

The Celadon Game Corner is where we're headed next because there is one pokemon that can only be obtained as a prize here! Unfortunately, unlike Gold and Silver, there really is no definitive strategy to make bank off of these slots so the only way to consistently earn coins without just praying for the 7's to align is to just throw your money at the cashier and buy all the coins you need 500 at a time. Thankfully, over the course of our adventure, we've made enough money to be able to buy 6,500 coins which we can now exchange for the prize we're after!

 

That's right, say hello to Database the Porygon! That's one more pokemon off the list!

Next time, we're going to finish off the rest of the cleanup. There's nothing in terms of gameplay to do, but there's a whole lot of theoreticals to go over! We'll be covering the e-reader and mystery gift content including events that we're unfortunately a bit late to experience ourselves. I think all of that together should make for a good post even if I myself won't be doing much of anything in-game.

Anyway, I hope this post wasn't too boring for any of you and you were able to learn some interesting things! I actually did have a bit more fun than I expected exploring these characters further!

[Aura]

Alright! As mentioned yesterday, today we'll be finishing up our cleanup on Leaf Green by focusing on somethings we can't really realistically do in-game, but I thought it was an important part of the game to cover. However, while researching into these topics a little bit, I came to understand that I was actually wrong about one detail.

I had mistakenly claimed that the woman's house with boxes blocking a doorway in the back along with a similar one in Mossdeep City back in Ruby and Sapphire were related to e-reader content that went unused in the international version. This is only partially true, because this mechanic is actually tied to another one alongside e-Reader functionality! Though it's still a feature that remains unused in the international version, so don't get your hopes up...

You may have noticed in pokemarts throughout the region that there is a questionaire on the counter for customers to fill out. Interacting with it will bring up an easy chat screen where you can put together for words. This feature may seem pointless on the surface, but it's actually a strange little way to unlock a secret feature which was needed for the content we'll be discussing today.

If you enter the phrase "LINK TOGETHER WITH ALL" the clerk will take special notice and tell you that you can now use Mystery Gift once you save and reset! And if you do that, indeed, you'll find "Mystery Gift" listed on the main menu. In order to use Mystery Gift, you'll need a wireless adapter. In the Japanese version only, Mystery Gift could use the e-Reader accessory instead. Much like Colosseum, it's clear this game came out around the time that Game Freak started to catch wind of the fact that the e-Reader wasn't doing so hot so a lot of e-Reader content was being gutted from international versions of their games.

Mystery Gift doesn't function quite like you might expect, though. It shares a name with a similar feature from Gold and Silver, but Mystery Gift in Gold and Silver could be used once per day with each of your friends to earn a random item including exclusive items like the Scope Lens or room decorations. However, this version of Mystery Gift is more akin to what Mystery Gift is known to be today: A means to download special event items which can be used to access otherwise inaccessible areas and discover extremely rare pokemon.

If you recall, Ruby and Sapphire used the e-Reader through a system similar to this called Mystery Event in order to use the Eon Ticket e-Reader card and gain access a remote island to catch Latios or Latias. There were also e-Reader cards that could earn you rare berries and trainers to battle in the aforementioned house in Mossdeep City.

The events for Fire Red and Leaf Green's Mystery Gift are far more exciting, however! First of all, in the Japanese version only, Mystery Gift is compatible with e-Reader cards allowing you to use e-Reader cards to challenge opponents in the house on Seven Island as well as perhaps gain items and such, though I'm unsure on the compatibility of cards between Ruby and Sapphire and Fire Red and Leaf Green. Unfortunately, this is only usable in the Japanese version so e-Reader compatibility seems to be entirely removed from the international release.

But, in both Japanese and International versions of the game, Mystery Gift can be used with the Wireless Adapter and this allows for connectivity to special limited-time events. I am unsure entirely about the process, but it seems @maid lover is a bit more knowledgeable on the subject, and has even offered a means for me to potentially restore accessibility for these vents. Unfortunately, this would require a lot of materials for a mechanic that I honestly don't think is all that worth it considering I'm going to be missing mechanics like this going forward, but perhaps if I'm wrong about anything in this process, he could elaborate further!

Anyway, the way these events seem to work is that they would use the Wireless Adaptor to connect to another GBA with a special, official distribution cart that would be recognized with Mystery Gift and give the player an appropriate reward.

====================

Altering Cave

Before we get into the really exciting stuff, though, I want to cover a feature of Mystery Gift that was intended and programmed into the game, but no distributions were ever held to take advantage of this mechanic, so it oddly went entirely unused even back during the game's shelf life.

Remember that strange cave on Outcast Island, just off the shore of Six Island? The one that had nothing but Zubat found inside? Well, as it turns out, code in the game indicates you were supposed to be able to change the pokemon available here using Mystery Gift events!

       

The pokemon that were intended to be catchable here include Mareep, Aipom, Pineco, Shuckle, Teddiursa, Houndour, Stantler, and Smeargle. If that lineup of pokemon seems familiar to you, it's because all of these pokemon are the base forms of pokemon that were snaggable Shadow Pokemon in Pokemon Colosseum! 

The idea was that, after connecting to the Mystery Gift event, the Zubat in Altering Cave would be replaced with one of the above pokemon with an encounter rate of 100%. Without Colosseum, this would have been the only way to obtain these pokemon for a while. However, the Altering Cave events were never officially distributed, meaning these pokemon were left entirely inaccessible without trading with Colosseum at this time. 

===============

 

Among the rewards distributed through these events, some of the most significant are two key items: The Mystic Ticket and the Aurora Ticket. These tickets would grant the player access to two new islands in the Sevii Islands that are inaccessible in the base game.

======================

The Mystic Ticket would grant the player access to an island called Navel Rock

Navel Rock

The only thing on this rather small-looking island is a single lonely cave.

==================

Navel Rock 1F - B1F

There are no wild pokemon inside this cave, just a ladder that heads deeper in.

=================

B2F

On this floor, you'll find a really long hallway with two sides that branch off into dead ends. At the end of the center path, you'll find a fork that leads toward two ladders. One on the east heading even deeper into the cave and one on the west heading back up.

=================

B1F - 3F

Taking the western ladder, we'll be faced with a series of chambers bringing us all the way up to the fourth floor.

================

4F

Up here is the peak of Navel Rock and as we approach the very summit...

Ho-oh Lv. 70

It's Ho-oh! If you don't have Pokemon Colosseum, this is the only way to access Ho-oh. That said, today it's probably much more likely you'll be able to get Ho-oh through Colosseum rather than through this method.

-----------------------

Ho-oh, Lv. 70

 

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Recover, Fire Blast, Sunny Day, Swift

------------------------

But yes, you can battle Ho-oh here and even catch it to help fill out your national pokedex! Thankfully, due to its exclusivity, it isn't actually required for National Dex completion as recognized in-game.

In addition to capturing Ho-oh, you can even use the ItemFinder at the very peak to pick up Sacred Ash in a similar manner to Snorlax's Leftovers. The Sacred Ash can only be used outside of battle but it'll revive your entire party to full health. 

===============

B3F - B13F

If Ho-oh was at one end of the fork, you can probably guess what you'll find if you decide to go the other direction. But in order to get there, you'll have to go down an obnoxious 10 whole floors!

===================

B14F

At the very depths of Navel Rock, you'll find...

Lugia Lv. 70

...you guessed it, Lugia! It's the same story as Ho-oh, but unfortunately there's no item hidden underneath.

------------------------------

Lugia, Lv. 70

 

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Recover, Hydro Pump, Rain Dance, Swift

---------------------------

With this one extremely rare event item, you get access to not one, but two Legendary Pokemon! And they come with some epic battles at that! Yes, this is before the boring days where they started just handing you the pokemon. You actually had to work for your prize by battling and catching them yourself!

================

Perhaps the more exciting of these two, however, is the Aurora Ticket! This grants access to a mysterious island called Birth Island.

Birth Island

This ominous pyramid-shaped island is completely silent with no music at all. Since there's no music and this interaction is unlike anything in the game up until now, I've actually linked a video of the event instead of the music track. So click the name of the island if you want to see this event in action! I'll still describe the events as normal below, just in case the video happens to get taken down.

At the center of the island is an even stranger black triangle. If you interact with it, it'll move away from you. If you continue to chase the triangle around, you'll start to notice it turning redder before it is returns to the center, completely red.

Interact with the triangle one more time and it will shatter and you will be attacked by a pokemon we've yet to see!

Deoxys Lv. 30

That music is something else! Very Ruby and Sapphire-esque and really exciting!! It's such a shame this battle is locked behind a limited-time event because I would absolutely love to do this myself! Unfortunately, its level perhaps might leave something to be desired from this battle. For some reason, you can only find it at level 30 which makes it really difficult to avoid OHKO-ing it with a postgame team. This might reduce the hype factor just a bit as you have to carefully chip away at its health rather than fight it at your full strength. I kind of wish it was level 70 like Lugia and Ho-oh or even level 75 to be stronger, but perhaps there's lore reason for this since we seem to have disturbed its silent slumber. Maybe we stopped some sort of alien invasion?

Deoxys is perhaps one of the most interesting pokemon in the franchise, being a pokemon based on DNA itself and arriving to earth from outer space! Just like Lugia and Ho-oh, Deoxys isn't required for pokedex completion, but unlike those two, Deoxys is entirely unavailable outside of this event.

Now, once you've successfully captured Deoxys, yoou may be surprised to see its shape change when it's registered in the pokedex!

---------------------------

Deoxys (Defense Forme), Lv. 30

 

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Snatch, Psychic, Pursuit, Knock Off

--------------------------

Deoxys is a very unique pokemon which changes shape based on which generation 3 game it's currently in. Here in Leaf Green, it takes on its Defense form. While in this form, it'll learn more defensive moves by level-up such as Amnesia, Iron Defense, and Spikes. In addition, its stats are arranged in such a way that its physical and special defense are unrivaled by most other pokemon without any massive downside to its other stats. A pokemon that has higher in either stat typically has notably less in the others, or is severely lacking in the neglected stats like attack and speed.

 

If you wish for Deoxys to revert to the normal forme you caught it in, it's unfortunately inaccessible in this game. It will only assume this forme if traded to Ruby and Sapphire. Its stat distribution in this forme is more average than the others, and the moves it learns are a hodgepodge of its other forms' movesets. You might be better off letting it change forme in order to build its moveset. If you trade it back into Leaf Green, it'll automatically assume its Defense Forme again.

And, if you're curious, Deoxys will always assume its Normal Forme if traded into Pokemon Colosseum as well.

===================

Well, I do believe that's all we've got for the cleanup of Leaf Green! Next time, there's one more important thing I'd like to do before we move on to Fire Red. If your ecall, our rival said he was going to focus on improving his team in Kanto, so perhaps we should see what he's up to?

[Aura]

We're now back at the Indigo Plateau for the final challenge Leaf Green has to offer. Starting with Fire Red and Leaf Green, there is a new mechanic that will go on to become a staple in pokemon games going forward: Elite Four rematches. After defeating the Elite Four the first time, you can challenge them again in the postgame and their teams will be even stronger than before and feature a wider variety of pokemon, now pulling from the National Dex, though they still tend to lean toward pokemon that are available in-game. In this case, you'll actually have to complete the events at the Sevii Islands and speak with your rival in the pokemon center at Six Island in order for the Elite Four to be upgraded.

And when I say these battles are tough, I'm definitely not joking around. Their levels are in the upper 60's and low 70's which may not be quite as high as Red in Gold and Silver, but keep in mind that this is five consecutive battles rather than one really tough one. Not to mention, their movesets are all improved to cover their weaknesses and then some, so you're going to have to be extra cautious when taking this challenge. A lot of the strategies you might have used your first time around might not be applicable this time, so you'd best not fall asleep at the wheel!

As you can probably guess by now, when our rival came back to Kanto to improve his team, it was inevitable he'd take advantage of our absence and reclaim his throne as champion of the Elite Four, so naturally we'll need to battle him again if we want to defend our title. And I can't think of a better way to end on!

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 58

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb

----------------------

Scope (Crobat F); Lv. 58

 

Item: King's Rock

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

---------------------

Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Lax Incense

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Earthquake, Rock Slide

----------------------

Generator (Electrode); Lv. 59

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

----------------------

Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

-----------------------

Regen (Starmie); Lv. 58

 

Item: Sea Incense

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

================

Lorelei -- Rematch

--------------------

Dewgong Lv. 64

 

Lorelei's Dewgong loves to use Double Team this time! Fan...tastic... Well, thankfully it wasn't too difficult to get around by using Rain Dance and Thunder, though all this does is make Thunder more likely to hit, it doesn't ignore evasion! I was able to take Dewgong out after landing a couple of Thunders. Meanwhile, all it did was spam Double Team.

----------------------

Piloswine Lv. 63

 

Replacing her Slowbro is now a Piloswine! This better protects her from just being swept by a strong Electric-type pokemon. Naturally, leaving Generator out here was a terrible idea, so I retreated.

 

I brought Scope out knowing Piloswine would be going for Earthquake. I went for Confuse Ray, but Piloswine attacked right through it and hit me with a Rock Slide!

 

Regen came next and unfortunately the rain had subsided by this point. Thankfully, I was still able to take out Piloswine with a single Surf regardless.

------------------------

Lapras Lv. 66

 

Lapras was next and I immediately went for Confuse Ray knowing this thing would be a pain to take down. It definitely proved that Regen had no hope of winning this battle alone by catching me off guard with Thunder! This naturally took Starmie out in one shot.

 

Recognizing that I was getting backed into a corner, I brought out Venus and, in a desperate maneuver, I went for Frenzy Vine hoping for an easy KO. I'd completely underestimated the power of Frenzy Vine because a super effective hit was enough to take down this Lapras even at full HP! Though Venus did take a sizeable chunk of damage from Ice Beam, so I didn't expect him to last long.

-----------------------

Cloyster Lv. 63

 

Cloyster was up next, but I had to take a turn of cooldown from Frenzy Vine. Cloyster's Ice Beam was less powerful than Lapras' as to be expected, so it was just barely weak enough to where Venus was able to survive with a couple of HP remaining. This bought me the chance to use another Frenzy Vine and take out Cloyster as well!

-----------------------

Jynx Lv. 66

 

Jynx was up next and of course, I couldn't do much to it with my cooldown following Cloyster's defeat, so Venus went down to a Psychic.

 

By this point, though, the battle was pretty much over for her. With Kangaskhan, I used a Fake Out followed by some Dizzy Punches to finish the job.

---------------------

 

MVP: Venus

=================

Bruno -- Rematch

----------------------

Steelix Lv. 65

 

I led with Regen but, as I perhaps should have expected, Bruno's Onix have now evolved into Steelix! This makes them slightly less vulnerable to Surf and in fact, this one survived the hit! Thankfully, it only hit me with a Rock Tomb which slowed me down a bit, but not nearly enough to where I'd be outsped by it. So, on the next turn, I went for another Surf. Bruno healed his Steelix for some reason but it turns out it was a damage range that kept him alive and he went down the second time!

--------------------

Steelix Lv. 66

 

Bruno then followed up with his second Steelix which I actually ended up critting to take out in one shot!

-------------------

Hitmonlee Lv. 65

 

Hitmonlee was next. I went for Psychic but was just barely unable to take it out before it hit me with Mega Kick and nearly took me out! With another Psychic, I was able to finish it off.

---------------------

Hitmonchan Lv. 65

 

Another Psychic came, but again couldn't take him out. Hitmonchan went for Rock Slide which wasn't able to do nearly as much as Mega Kick, but did get me dangerously low. I was about to take Hitmonchan out when he went for Mach Punch and knocked me out instead!

 

Since he was near defeat, I brought out Mama and finished it off with Fake Out!

---------------------

Machamp Lv. 68

 

This matchup was only going to end one way.

 

I retreated into Scope who took a Cross Chop like a champ before hitting him with an Air Cutter. He attacked with Rock Slide and finished Scope off. Okay, fair enough...

 

Burrow came next. I used Sandstorm to activate Sand Veil and in spite of this, Machamp was able to connect his Cross Chop, an 80% accuracy move, in spite of my Lax Incense and Sand Veil combo! I figured the odds of him hitting twice were pretty slim, so I went for Swords Dance next and, again, Machamp got to me and took me out! Keep in mind, any pokemaniacs out there, this was before No Guard! This Machamp was just getting extremely lucky!

 

I next brought out Venus and went for Leech Seed and Frenzy Vine, not wanting to trigger his Guts with status ailments. He was eventually able to overcome Venus with Earthquake, but the damage had already been done.

 

Mama came back out and finished the fight with a Fake Out followed by one more Dizzy Punch! So that just happened.

---------------------

MVP: Regen

===============

Agatha -- Rematch

This battle was actually incredibly tough for my team at its current level. I actually lost my first few attempts!

---------------------

Gengar Lv. 66

 

I led off with Regen and went for Psychic. Gengar was able to take the hit with some HP remaining. He hit me with a Confuse Ray so I crossed my fingers I'd be able to hit with one more Psychic and... I did! Gengar went down, but Starmie was still confused!

---------------------

Crobat Lv. 66

 

I knew from experience this Crobat liked to go for Shadow Ball against my Starmie, so I decided to take advantage.

 

The one time I do switch into a Normal Type to avoid damage from the incoming Shadow Ball, he instead goes for Air Cutter, of course! Since Crobat has Inner Focus, there was no point in going for Fake Out, Instead, I just went for Dizzy Punch. Crobat was then able to take me out with Sludge Bomb.

 

Burrow came in next and set up Sand Storm followed by a Swords Dance. There wasn't too much in terms of damage outside of Confuse Ray which admittedly would be rather annoying, but I was going to need to take some risks if I was going to win this battle. Thankfully, he never went for Confuse Ray, so I was able to hit him with a Rock Slide to take him out!

------------------------

Arbok Lv. 68

 

Arbok's intimidate removed one of my Attack boosts from Swords Dance, but it wasn't anything worth fretting over. I went for Earthquake and wasn't qutie able to take it out, and was really caught off guard when it went for Giga Drain! Fortunately, it missed under the Sand Veil, so I was able to take it out with another couple of Earthquakes after a Full Restore.

----------------------

Misdreavus Lv. 65

 

An unfortuante matchup here, but one I was gonna try and milk for as long as I could. I went for Rock Slide but Misdreavus unfortuantely took me out with Psychic.

 

Generator came in next and set up with a Rain Dance and Light Screen. Misdreavus had yet to take Generator out by the time I got fully set up, so I also went for a Thunder before going down.

 

Regen came back out and went for a Surf which was able to finish Misdreavus off.

----------------------

Gengar Lv. 70

 

With a Psychic, I was able to do a lot of damage to Gengar, but not quite enough to finish the job and he was able to take me out with Shadow Ball.

 

By this point, though, an Air Cutter from Scope was finally able to seal the deal.

--------------------------

MVP: Regen

I wanted to give MVP to Burrow, but she was only useful against two of Agitha's five pokemon. Considering Regen had a type disadvantage against most of the pokemon it went up against and still played an important role in taking them out, I think it's more deserving of this spot.

=================

Lance -- Rematch

If I thought Agatha was tough, then hoo boy did I need to buckle down and figure out what I was gonna do against Lance. The sheer power of Lance's team was an incredibly difficult obstacle to overcome. Just trying to line up type advantages wasn't going to be enough. I needed to play very carefully and even hope for a little bit of luck!

------------------------

Gyarados Lv. 68

 

Right away, it was absolutely critical that Generator can land a Thunder on Gyarados to take it out. Otherwise, this was pretty much a guaranteed loss where Gyarados would just hit Generator with Earthquake and I'd have no easy out to it. This was where an unfortunate number of my failed attempts were screwed. I would complain about having to use Thunder instead of ThunderBolt, but I actually can't guarantee ThunderBolt would have been enough to take out Gyarados in one shot like Thunder. It's entirely possible that, even with the quad weakness, ThunderBolt wouldn't have the base power to do the job. Keep in mind, this thing was 10 levels above Generator.

-----------------------

Aerodactyl Lv. 70

 

This seems to be a deceptively advantageous matchup, but Lance wouldn't be sending this thing out if it didn't have a trick up its sleeve. Of course, Aerodactyl knows Earthquake and he's not about to forget that! I've found through a few failed attempts that the damage range on Earthquake leaves a slim chance for Aerodactyl to survive! For a while, I was trying a strat where Generator would use Rain Dance to power up Regen's Surf on the following turn enough to take out Aerodactyl in a single shot and, if I'm lucky enough to survive an Earthquake, to take the opportunity to set up Light Screen as well to help keep Regen alive. The problem I consistently found myself reaching was that Regen was just taking too much damage for the later parts of the fight. Instead, this time, I took an alternative approach and instead went for Thunder Wave with the intention of bringing out Burrow to hit Aerodactyl with Rock Slide. A bit less consistent, but it would help me preserve Regen for the later stages. Aerodactyl ended up getting stunned by paralysis, so I also set up Light Screen before Aerodactyl took me out with Earthquake.

 

I brought Burrow out again and went for Rock Slide. The speed of Aerodactyl was a huge obstacle for this matchup, so the paralysis was a huge help allowing Burrow to go first. I knew I probably wouldn't get a KO just yet due to Aerodactyl's level, so I used activated Sand Veil with Sandstorm followed by a Swords Dance. Aerodactyl was stunned for a turn and on the next turn, his Earthquake did a decent chunk against Burrow's defense, but Burrow was able to hold on and on the following turn, he was able to take out Aerodactyl with Rock Slide.

-------------------------

Kingdra, Lv. 66

Perhaps as a reference to his cousin, one of Lance's Dragonair is replaced with a Kingdra!

 

Seeing this thing out so soon caught be a bit by surprise, but the choice made sense. I was just used to Lance sending out his Dragonite next to deal with Regen. I knew from experience that this Kingra likes to sit there and build up Dragon Dance until it can absolutely destroy your team with Hyper Beam, so I was hoping he might go for such a strategy here, but of course there was no reason to and he went for Surf. Sand Veil was unable to protect me from that, so I went down.

 

I brought Scope out next in hopes of countering Kingdra's Dragon Dance with Confuse Ray. I'd had a previous attempt where this thing had gone for four Dragon Dances in a row without hitting itself in confusion once, so I figured the odds would be in my favor this time. Unfortunately, I was once again caught off guard by Kingdra going for Ice Beam instead of Dragon Dance! I'd never actually seen it use Ice Beam up until this point, so I found it weird that it didn't use that against me before. Regardless, it didn't do too terribly much to me, so I was able to hit it with a Poison Fang which actually critted! I went for another Poison Fang, took another Ice Beam, then Lance healed off the damage with a Full Restore. I kept going for Poison Fang hoping to badly poison the Kingdra but had no such luck before he finally connected one last Ice Beam.

 

It was now down to venus against this Kingdra. I immediately went for Leech Seed and immediately followed up with Toxic. I attempted to go for a Frenzy Vine but it was only natural that Venus wouldn't be survivng another attack.

 

Mama came out next to help stall. After a Fake Out and Dizzy Punch, Kingdra was unable to survive the poison damage and finally went down.

------------------------

Dragonite Lv. 66

 

The first of Lance's two Dragonite came next and this was where I really had to cross my fingers. I went for Dizzy Punch while Dragonite went for Hyper Beam to take me out.

 

At this point, if I wanted any hope of defeating Lance, I needed every single one of my Blizzard attacks to hit from here on out. I knew from experience that this Dragonite could go down to a single Blizzard, but it was the next one I was worried about. Thankfully, I also knew from experience that Regen could indeed outspeed them both. I went for Blizzard and the hit was successful! The first Dragonite went down!

-----------------------

Dragonite Lv. 72

 

With this second Dragonite, Lance's final pokemon, the pressure was really on. This Dragonite was not only stronger and able to take a Blizzard, but it also knew ThunderBolt to deal super-effective damage against Regen. Regen was still at full health, so I knew I'd be able to take at least one hit, but if anything went wrong, there was no way I'd be able to survive a second one. With one Blizzard, I brought Dragonite down to critical health. Lance would naturally heal his Dragonite, so I didn't hold back going for another Blizzard. Sure enough, he healed, but not only did my Blizzard connect, I got a critical hit! This took Dragonite out and finally ended this battle!

----------------------

MVP: Regen

Once again, I have to give MVP to Regen for this massive victory. It may have only been very useful against two of Lance's pokemon in this particular run, but it's not only helpful against four of the five, but I've structured my entire strategy around using it to take out two of Lance's most powerful pokemon. Not to mention winning would have been impossible if it had missed a single Blizzard and allowed any of those Dragonite to take me out.

This may seem like BS luck, but please keep in mind that I've had several failed attempts and tried a number of strategies. I've gotten close with far more heavily favored RNG, like Aerodactyl getting paralyzed three turns in a row, and I've also had several battles where my attempts failed due to abysmal RNG like the aforementioned Kingra not hitting itself once in four turns or the battles that were over as soon as they started because Generator missed with Thunder. I don't know if it would be possible to win with this team without a little bit of luck, and a lucky crit to finish things off really isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things compared to some of the much cheaper things I could have resorted to such as spamming Max Revives or Full Restores myself.

================

And now we of course have our final matchup. Lance was tough, but our rival is naturally even tougher. I probably lost tree times as much against Green than I ever did against Lance, that should tell you just how tough this battle is. For all but one of his pokemon, there was no easy out. They're all just so powerful and so varied in type coverage, I'm pretty confident the only way I could possibly win was through some really good luck. I was going to need to hope for some lucky crits or something. This was an incredibly difficult battle that nearly convinced me to resort to using items like Red in Gold and Silver, but I managed to hold back on that desire.

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Venus (Venusaur M); Lv. 58

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Toxic, Frenzy Vine, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb

----------------------

Scope (Crobat F); Lv. 58

 

Item: King's Rock

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Giga Drain, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang

---------------------

Burrow (Sandslash F); Lv. 58

 

Item: Lax Incense

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Earthquake, Rock Slide

----------------------

Generator (Electrode); Lv. 60

 

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Static | Moves: Rain Dance, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Light Screen

----------------------

Mama (Kangaskhan F); Lv. 57

 

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Fake Out, Dizzy Punch

-----------------------

Regen (Starmie); Lv. 60

 

Item: Sea Incense

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Surf, Confuse Ray, Blizzard, Psychic

================

Champion Rival #9

--------------------

Heracross Lv. 72

 

Green really isn't playing around this time! His typical Pidgeot lead is replaced with a Heracross whose bulk essentially forces me to lead with Scope, the only pokemon capable of doing enough damage thanks to Heracross' quad-weakness to Air Cutter. Even then, it takes two Air Cutters to take Heracross out. Thankfully, the most Heracross can hit me with is Rock Tomb, so this is a pretty easy matchup. That said, remember how I said he only had one pokemon with an easy out? Yeah, from here on, it's a massively uphill battle.

---------------------

Exeggutor Lv. 73

 

This Exeggutor turned out to honestly be the single most threatening pokemon on Green's team. Its immense bulk allows it to just soak up hits left and right without stumbling. I've learned after my abundance of failed attempts that the damage dealt by Heracross is really insignificant because this Exeggutor can take Scope out with a single Psychic even at full health which it does most of the time. My best bet against this thing is to hit it with Confuse Ray and hope it hits itself a lot. It's a 50/50 chance I get to stay in another turn and hit it with Poison Fang. I did get that 50% chance and Exeggutor hit itself. Unfortunately, Poison Fang doesn't do quite enough to be all that helpful. The main reason it's useful is just for the chance to poison Exeggutor which I unfortunately don't get. On the next turn, Exeggutor attacks through confusion and manages to take out Scope.

 

I brought Venus out next and went for Sludge Bomb. This brings Exeggutor down to about 1/4 health, apparently just out of the range for Green to consider healing because he chose not to when I went for Sludge Bomb the next turn to finish him off. I should mention that, even Venus isn't save from being one-shotted by this Exeggutor. This thing is a monster and single-handedly ended a significant handful of my runs.

-------------------------

Alakazam Lv. 73

If Exeggutor's Psychic isn't terrifying enough, Alakazam's is next. I had to rework my strategy against Alakazam a lot to accomodate for the rest of Green's party. My original strat here was to use Generator to set up Light Screen and Rain Dance before bringing out Regen to overcome Alakazam with Surf, essentially just brute-forcing his special defense rather than targeting his weak physical defense, but the issue is that not only would this often result in Generator getting KO'd, meaning I'd have nothing to deal with the Gyarados coming in later on, but Alakazam also at some point revealed that it apparently had Shadow Ball the entire time I'd been trying to make this strategy work, making the Light Screen setup completely pointless! Not to mention that Regen owuld really prove useful for the latter part of the battle as well. I really had to restructure my approach to this pokemon.

 

Of course, if Exeggutor could take out Venus in one shot, Alakazam definitely could. There was really no reason to retreat either, since Psychic would just do massive damage to whatever I switched in, so I'd just leave Venus in to maybe try for Sludge Bomb in case, by some miracle, Alakazam decided to go for something stupid like Calm Mind. I never got quite that lucky, of course, and Alakazam would consistently take out Venus with a Psychic before ever trying to set anything up.

 

If I wasn't going to be brute forcing Alakazam with special attacks, then my only choice was to target its major weakness in physical defense. Still, his immense speed and special attack wasn't going to make that easy. Mama was my best chance as she was capable of taking at least one hit from Psychic. Not to mention Fake Out. (Though Alakazam is capable of having Inner Focus, I know for a fact that this one has Synchronize at this point since it triggers against Generator's Thunder Wave). I can also use Dizzy Punch for a 20% chance to confuse Alakazam. It's definitely not consistent enough to rely on, but in a pinch, it's definitely something to hope for! And this is a pinch if I've ever seen one! 

I went for Fake Out to flinch him and then a Dizzy Punch. Naturally, I didn't get the confusion so I thought this would play out like many of my other battles where he'd just end up picking me off with one more Psychic. But this is where RNG starts to save my ass. On the next turn, rather than going for Psychic like I expected, Alakazam ended up going for Reflect! So, my Dizzy Punch hit and, though it did less damage, I also got the confusion chance!! From here, Alakazam hit himself while I used Brick Break to lift the effect of Reflect and then Alakazam hit himself once more allowing me to finish him off with another Dizzy Punch! I cannot believe that worked out as well as it did! Granted, if I'd taught Mama Return or Double-Edge, I probably wouldn't have needed to rely on that percentage chance. Still, being able to take out Alakazam with just Mama was going to be a huge boon for this battle!

-----------------------

Tyranitar Lv. 72

 

I usually see Gyarados following Alakazam, so I was really surprised to see Tyranitar! This is an especially bizarre chocie to me considering I just used Brick Break against Alakazam, but this would hopefully make Tyranitar easy pickings! Unfortunately, my Brick Break didn't do nearly as much as I'd hoped, only dealing about 1/3 of Tyranitar's HP before he took Mama out with Earthquake.

 

Tyranitar was able to outspeed Burrow, but thankfully his Sand Stream meant I didn't have to set up with Sandstorm to be able to gain the benefits of Sand Veil. If I could just get past this thing, I could cross my fingers for the rest of this battle. Tyranitar went for Earthquake and unfortunately I didn't get a lucky miss, but I was still able to hold on with just two HP remaining! From here, I could hit Tyranitar with my own Earthquake for the KO and the sandstorm would remain active indefinitely!

----------------------

Gyarados Lv. 73

This Gyarados was responsible for ending all of my closest runs, I was never able to get past this thing because by this point, Generator was usually defeated already and I had no out to it. This is why I'd yet to see Tyranitar or Charizard up until now.

 

This matchup was unfavorable and I'd really rather save Burrow for Charizard, but I could still hope Sand Veil could cover me long enough to get some lucky KO's in! Gyardos went for Hydro Pump and missed thanks to my boosted evasion, then followed up with a Rock Slide which did a healthy amount of damage but not quite as much as it could have been thanks to Intimidate. Unfortuantely, I couldn't be lucky enough for Hydro Pump to miss again and so Burrow's story ends here.

 

The obvious next choice was to bring Generator out and finish Gyarados off with Thunder. My Thunder thankfully managed to connect and I took out Gyarados!

----------------------

Charizard Lv. 75

 

This was it, the final foe! I was confident there was no one-shotting this enemy, so I instead went for Thunder Wave to paralyze it. It was fully paralyzed for the turn, so I was able to follow up with a Rain Dance! Still, Charizard failed to attack. I went for Thunder and brought Charizard down to critical health. I knew Green would take this as an opportunity to heal, so I retreated for a better matchup...

 

As predicted, Green dropped a Full Restore to heal his Charizard all the way and cure its paralysis. I used Confuse Ray to try and turn its attack against it. In the stupidest round of luck, Charizard hit itself in confusion. I went for Surf to bring its health back down to critical when he hit himself one last time and the rain stopped, leaving me rather nervous about the future of the battle. He used another Full Restore, but my Surf this turn critted, causing Charizard to go down in one hit from full health.

What an absolutely stupid victory, but one that I'm absolutely going to take. This was an incredibly difficult battle so I'll take any BS luck I can get! Alternatively, I definitely could have transferred over some pokemon from my other playthroughs to make this battle easier, but I wanted to stick to my main party for as long as I could and I'm kinda glad I did! I never would have seen a battle like this if I had a team that was actually on par with my opponent. It's a little anticlimactic in some ways, but it's definitely a battle I'll be remembering for a while!

---------------------------

MVP: Mama

It's once again really tough to choose an MVP when every pokemon pulled their weight, the entire battle we basically traded blows 1:1, but I think Mama's ability to take a hit from Alakazam was the big factor that really twisted this battle in my favor and opened the gate to all the crazy RNG to follow.

=====================

      

And with that, our final team is entered yet again into the Hall of Fame and we reclaim our title of Champion! The events of the game's ending play out all the same and we get to see the credits again! This definitely isn't the best team I've ever put together, Generator really didn't perform as well as I would have liked, though that's mainly due to him using Thunder instead of ThunderBolt. Honestly, had I known ahead of time that ThunderBolt could only be obtained in the Game Corner, I probably would have gone with a different Electric type. However, there really aren't all that many options in the Kanto Region. I definitely think Thunder is a much better fit for Magneton than Electrode. Mama also kind of lacked the offensive presence I was hoping for so her usefulness was rather situational. I know I never upgraded her STAB attack beyond Dizzy Punch, but I don't think that's an upgrade that should be necessary. Often I've found that moves with secondary effects are better than moves with more power as long as you can consistently deal more than half the opponent's health with it. If there's any pokemon I don't regret, through, it's definitely Regen! I definitely felt like I should have given Regen Thunder instead of Blizzard, but the Game Corner felt like it forced my hand in giving it to Generator instead. I also think I might have made a bit of a mistake in giving Burrow Sandstorm. I thought it would be cool to build his moveset around his ability, but I never liked using evasion strats for a reason and especially without fully committing to it, it was definitely my fault why she didn't end up doing so well in the end. I definitely could have taught her something else that would make her consistent. 

As for my experience playing through Leaf Green, it honestly surprised me in a lot of ways, both good and bad. I found the majority of the game to be disappointingly easy while the end of the Elite Four was a bizarre spike in difficulty that was definitely welcome in my book. I really appreciate that I wasn't able to just steamroll the Elite Four like I was expecting. I actually had to keep my wits about me and it led to some surprisingly interesting battles! I just really wish I could say the same for the rest of the game. The fact that I didn't really notice how lackluster my team was until near the end of the game really shows how simple this game's difficulty level is overall which I suppose makes the difficulty of the endgame... a bad thing? If the game was consistently difficult across the board, it would have been another fantastic experience, and if it was consistently easy across the board, then I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much, but I would have at least been able to acknowledge it as a good entry point to the series if you've never played Pokemon before. I still would, I think, though I also think the game could have done a much better job of easing you into some of the more complex aspects of the game like abilities. 

This game still confuses me as to who exactly it was designed for. Was it for long-time fans, or casuals who've never actually played the games? It really feels like it's trying to do both while failing to fully appeal to either. That's not to say it's a bad game, but I've gone into detail throughout this playthrough as to all the ways I think it could have been so much better. Things that, looking at future remakes, I really don't think were ever too much to ask. But, at the end of the day, it seems like this game was really just a low-budget experiment to toy around with a new peripheral. Still, it's definitely an important step for the future of Pokemon! Going forward, you're going to notice wireless communications being a huge deal for future titles, especially as we move on to generation 4! But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've still got a couple of other games to play through before we're ready to start talking about Generation 4. Next time, we'll finally begin our playthrough of Leaf Green's sister game, Fire Red where we'll be taking futher steps toward completing our pokedex!

[Aura]

Pokemon Fire Red Version

Of course, released on the same day as Leaf Green was its sister release, Fire Red! As you can expect, where Leaf Green was based on Pokemon Green Version, Fire Red is based on Pokemon Red Version and many of the version exclusives to Fire Red are also exclusive to Red version, most notably Ekans, Oddish, and Growlithe. 

Since we just got done with Leaf Green, I'm going to try and keep this playthrough brief, focusing almost exclusively on important battles and I'll be ending each post on either the next gym or significant story battle. I'll also only be going through the relevant areas and, since I've already covered all the wild pokemon, I'm only going to be noting which pokemon I'm catching for my team and where I catch the version exclusive pokemon for pokedex purposes, just the same way I handled my Sapphire playthrough!

I should probably also be noting that, as always, I'll be playing on Set mode rather than Switch, so I don't get free switches whenever I KO an opposing pokemon! I find the game to be much more engaging this way.

 

Unfortunately, there's no third version to these remakes, and the Kanto Starters are only available by starting a new game in Fire Red and Leaf Green, so if I want to complete the pokedex on my own, an important step will be to first start a new game here and then choose Squirtle as my starter, play up until I get the Pokedex from Prof. Oak, and then trade my Squirtle over to Leaf Green. If I don't do this, I'll be stuck trying to complete the pokedex while missing an entire starter pokemon causing me to delete all my save data in Fire Red just to get one. I may as well do it right now when there's nothing to lose! I named my Squirtle Mercury after my Squirtle from Yellow.

-----------------------

While doing this trade, I also did a quick experiment by seeing what would happen if I tried to trade my Crobat over and, as it turns out, you actually cannot trade pokemon from outside the national dex into an uncompleted save like I previously thought you could. I want to avoid going into that same rant here again, I've already expressed my feelings on the matter, but this does make it even more confusing. I mean, just imagine being a kid who really likes Steelix. You just caught an Onix in Rock Tunnel and you know that in order to evolve it, you need it to trade it holding the Metal Coat. Maybe your friend has a completed file of Leaf Green and a Metal Coat that he's willing to give to you.

It's a pretty reasonable expectation, especially for a kid who hadn't played Red and Blue, that they should be able to trade this Onix over so that their friend can put a Metal Coat on it, and then trade it back so that you can have your Steelix, right? And then, when the evolution fails (and I'm only assuming this doesn't consume your Metal Coat), you try to trade it back and suddenly the evolution works on your friends save file? That's great, right? Except, no it's not. Now your friend has your Steelix and the game will no longer allow him to trade it back to you. To make matters worse, imagine that this "friend" is maybe a cousin or someone you don't see very often who you're visiting over a holiday. The only way you're gonna see that Steelix again is if you manage to beat the entire game and get the National Dex before you have to leave. Otherwise, it's stuck on your friend's save file and they've just wasted a Metal Coat.

This scenario really isn't unrealistic in the slightest and I imagine there were hundreds of kids with stories just like that! There is zero communication about this limitation outside of maybe the instruction booklet or strategy guides as far as I can tell. The game only says "You can't trade that pokemon right now" and expects you to just understand why.

===============

Well, all that ranting aside, now that our Squritle is safely in the hands of Leaf, let's start our real new game! Of course, I'll be using the Male protagonist this time and I'll be naming him Red. Your choice of gender doesn't really change much aside from some characters referring to you with male pronouns instead of female pronouns, etc. I will be taking note of the few differences there are, however.

And our rival's name is going to be Blue.

Yeah, they're pretty basic names but it kinda feels wrong to have this pair of characters without their canon names!

==============

Pallet Town

Starting right off in Pallet Town, almost everything plays out the same.

You can get your potion from the PC which does tie into the first difference between genders,

 

 

 

I may have forgotten to mention this in Ruby and Sapphire, but the graphic used for your bag actually changes depending on your choice of gender. Boys have more of a backpack while girls have a more purse-like handbag. Of course, this is just an aesthetic change and the two bags are functionally identical.

Aside from this, the TV program airing on your mother's TV downstairs also varies depending on your gender. As a girl, the TV will depict a young girl in pigtails walking down a brick road, while a boy will see four boys walking on railroad tracks. These are likely references to the films Wizard of Oz and Stand By Me, both movies with themes of adventure for characters of the players' respective gender. I think it's actually a pretty cool thematic touch!

As far as I'm aware, this is really where the differences between genders end aside from the aforementioned dialogue changes. I suppose Bill won't be so creepily flirty with you when you first meet him, either.

=================

Of course, once again everything plays out the same until we get to our choice of starter! There's only one starter remaining, and there's no real sense in being coy about it.

===================

Apollo (Charmander M); Lv. 5

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Growl

-----------------------

Where Bulbasaur is often considered to be the easy mode option, for good reason, Charmander definitely is a more challenging option more fit for someone like myself in the early game. A lot of things are stacked up against poor Charmander in the early game so you actually have to play your cards pretty carefully if you want to avoid grinding.

Surprise, surprise, I named my Charmander Apollo after the one from Yellow.

-----------------------

With this choice, Blue is naturally going to go with Squirtle before challenging us to our first battle!

===================

Rival #1

---------------------

Squirtle Lv. 5

 

This battle plays out like it usually does. I just spammed Scratch until I won, though Squirtle did get a lucky crit, I was able to barely hold on with 1HP and finish the job with another scratch. 

=================

With that, Blue leaves the lab and we're off to explore the sights ahead! We go through the whole rigmarole of delivering the parcel, getting our pokedex and pokeballs, and then setting out on our actual journey.

Viridian City

Of course, we can get the Potions from Route 1 and behind the cut tree here in Viridian City as well. We could go over to Route 22 to battle with Blue, but I think it's for the best to hold off on that for just a bit.

================

Virdian Forest

Viridian Forest is a bit of a different experience without Bulbasaur. While Apollo has a type advantage over most of the pokemon we can find here making individual battles end a lot faster, Bulbasaur has an advantage that Charmander lacks: the poison type. You see, with Bulbasaur you don't have to worry at all about getting poisoned and having your HP slowly drain as you walk, but that's not the case if you start with Squirtle or Charmander! It's usually a good idea to have some backup pokemon in your party, or to carry some potions or antidotes just to keep yourself from blacking out on the way back to the pokemon center. If your last pokemon is poisoned, keep an eye on its HP! With how many Weedle you'll be battling here, you're bound to get poisoned a few times your first time through here, even with Charmander burning everything up on sight.

But we're not just going to be passing through here, because I my first party member is available right here and you can probably already guess exactly who that is.

----------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 3

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderShock, Growl

------------------------------

I know Pikachu is a bit of an overused pokemon, but it can't be denied that he's one of the best electric types we have access to over the course of this game's story, especially if you don't want to invest too many TM's into him!

Also, as you can tell by the nickname, Yellow, I decided to go for a simpler naming scheme this time around. I felt that colors would be easier to keep up with since I was rapidly running out of ideas for names in Leaf Green. I'd like to come up with a different naming convention for each game going forward, but we'll have to wait and see about that.

===================

By the time we reached the end of Viridian Forest, I wasn't quite prepared to take on Brock with my current team, which is fine because there was one more trainer to face before we advanced any further.

Route 22

Yes, yes, we're returning to Route 22 to have that battle with Blue that we skipped out on earlier!

Rival #2

-----------------------

Pidgey Lv. 9

 

With Yellow, this battle was definitely going to be a cinch compared to the mess it was when I did it with just Venus in Leaf Green. Just one ThunderShock and Pidgey went down.

------------------------

Squirtle Lv. 9

 

Squirtle, too, hardly stood a chance against Pikachu and went down after two ThunderShocks. Victory was attained and Pikachu was now caught up to Apollo in level.

===============

Of course, I trudged my way back through Viridian Forest to reach Pewter City and finally take on my first gym.

================

Pewter Gym

Between the trek back through Victory Road and the battle against the Camper in this gym, Charmander had managed to reach level 13! Don't underestimate how much Exp this Camper will give you! Though it did involve taking his Geodude out with some Embers, but it saved me some headache from the upcoming gym battle. That said, I'm still at a pretty significant disadvantage and while I could overcome that disadvantage by going to grind up a bit, I think it'll just be more satisfying if I break my rule on no in-battle healing just this once just so that I can stick to the pokemon I'm interested in while avoiding overleveling like crazy.

An alternative solution is to go and catch a Mankey on Route 22, which, as a Fighting-type, has an advantage over Brock's entire team, but this advantage isn't particularly notable due to his pokemon's high defense. I also just want to focus on catching the pokemon I want to use or that I need for the pokedex.

================

My Team

-----------------------

Apollo (Charmander M); Lv. 13

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Growl, Metal Claw

-----------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 11

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderShock, Growl, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

================

Pewter Gym Leader Brock

---------------------

Geodude Lv. 12

 

I opened up with Apollo and used Metal Claw against Geodude. The best he could do was try to Tackle me, but it didn't do nearly enough damage and Geodude went down shortly after.

---------------------

Onix Lv. 14

 

Now this thing is what I was mostly scared about when I mentioned that healing rule. For Squirtle and Bulbasaur, it's as simple as blowing on him with Bubble or Vine Whip. But for Charmander? Your Metal Claw is only going to help so much and unlike Geodude, Onix actually has a Rock-type attack to hit you with!

 

I immediately retreated into Yellow who managed to evade a Rock Tomb. From there, it was just spamming Growl while he continued to hit me with diminishing attack. Eventually, he managed to take out Yellow but not before triggering Static from a Tackle!

 

It was all up to Apollo from here on. Onix was weakened stat-wise, but his defenses were still looking pretty serious. Even with his reduced attack, Rock Tomb managed to deal a decent chunk of my health. I started going for Metal Claw in hopes of increased attack while he continued to hit me with various attacks. Eventually, my health got low enough that I did need to use a Potion to heal or I'd die in the next turn, but thanks to the potion, I was able to last long enough to overcome the Onix and win the battle!

----------------------

MVP: Yellow

Chosing MVP is pretty difficult for a battle like this, but I think Yellow deserves the spotlight the most. Apollo may have done all of the damage, but Yellow was the only reason it was possible for him to last so long! Being able to drain Onix's Attack with Growl was a massive help. By the way, you may be questioning why I got rid of Tail Whip for Quick Attack instead of Growl, which definitely would have been the smarter choice, but I honestly didn't expect to gain so much Exp from that Camper, so I thought I was gonna have to brute force Brock with just Ember which naturally isn't affected by the defense stat. In such a situation, Growl would be infinitely more helpful.

---------------------

And with that, the first of eight gym badges have been obtained! Next time, we'll be heading to Cerulean City for our next gym battle!

[Aura]

Routes 3 & 4

Now that Brock's defeated, we can move onwards beyond Pewter City! There isn't much at all to talk about here on Routes 3 or 4.

===============

Mt. Moon

There aren't any significant additions to my team here in Mt. Moon, either. Though the cave was notably slightly more difficult navigating with only Apollo and Yellow since Apollo was the only one of the two capable of handing Geodude and Onix among other Ground-types I'd encounter in here.

 

While exploring the caves, it's only natural that Apollo would reach level 16 and evolve into Charmeleon!

==============

 

Although, on B1F, I did pick up a Paras for HM usage later on down the road.

==============

Of course, at the end of the cave, you'll get your choice between one of two fossils to restore at Cinnabar Island. Last time, I went with the Helix fossil, so we've gotta cover our bases by going for the Dome Fossil this time!

================

Route 4

Of course, the cave spits us out on the other end of Route 4. This time, I made sure not to miss the hidden Great Ball though I decided to pass on the Mega Punch and Mega Kick tutors, figuring they wouldn't be too terribly useful for me. I decided to dip into the grass here in search of one particular pokemon. Not for the party, mind you, but it's kind of related! You'll probably be able to piece together what I mean when we get to it, but if not, you'll find out real soon.

 

While searching for the pokemon I was after, I encountered an Ekans, which is a version exclusive I definitely have to catch for the pokedex! I was planning to hunt it down east of Vermilion where it's more common, but it's not exactly rare here, either, so I can't say this was entirely unexpected. I named it Purple, of course!

 

The pokemon I'm after here is Spearow! Again, this isn't an addition to the team by any means, but it is an important catch for a pokemon I want to try out a bit later.

==================

Cerulean City

When I first got here, of course, I made a beeline for the gym!

Cerulean Gym

================

My Team:

-----------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 21

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 20

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: Thundershock, Growl, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

================

Cerulean Gym Leader Misty

-------------------------

Staryu Lv. 18

 

Of course, I didn't expect Apollo to be of much help in a Water gym, so I led with Yellow. Staryu was able to barely survive a Thundershock in the red. All it went for was Harden which wasn't going to help her in any way. She used a Super Potion for some reason, but just wound up going down before she could attack again anyway.

-----------------------

Starmie Lv. 22

 

Starmie is where things got rough. There was a reason I was surprised by how easy it was to sweep this team with Bulbasaur, because this Starmie is extremely fast and extremely strong. It was able to outspeed my Pikachu and nearly KO it in one shot with Water Pulse. Thundershock did less than half its HP and, needless to say, I wasn't surviving to the next attack.

 

With Apollo, all I could really hope for was maybe a lucky crit or something. No, that wasn't happening. Ember barely did a dent to Starmie. This battle was over and things were not looking good for my current party.

----------------------

This battle was an immediate reminder of why Misty was such a powerful gym leader. It was also strangely nostalgic in a way. It's been a while since I had any sort of difficulty against her team, so I used to think I only had difficulty with her because I was just bad as a kid, but man, this battle definitely wasn't going to be easy. It's amazing how something as simple as choice of starter affects the early game's difficulty so drastically! Granted, this difficulty mostly comes from my own stubbornly-enforced rules like no grinding against wild pokemon or only using the pokemon on my official team in battle. I might have been able to work something up with Paras or Spearow if I was really desperate, but I wanted to do this with my main team and with no items.

I gave this battle a few more tries, attempting various other strategies. I tried paralyzing Starmie so that Charmeleon could outspeed it and stand a better chance at taking it out, but any time I could get its health low, it would just use Recover to heal the accumulated damage over several turns right off. I tried leading with Charmeleon against Staryu to see if maybe I could build up some Attack with Metal Claw, but again, Starmie was too fast and there was no way I could get to Starmie with enough health to take a hit. I was considering just going for items again so that I wouldn't have to grind, but I decided to hold off my final judgment.

==================

For now, I regrouped and decided to head up north instead of battling Misty just yet. It's up here where the next rival battle begins!

===============

Rival #3

------------------

Pidgeotto Lv. 17

 

Recognizing my need to power up Yellow, I led with him against Blue. Blue's Pidgeotto was able to take a Thundershock to the face and hit me with a Sand-Attack, causing me to miss with my next attack. He hit me with a Quick Attack but got paralyzed as an insult to injury before going down on the following turn.

------------------

Rattata Lv. 15

 

Rattata came next and, after taking two Quick Attacks, Yellow wasn't doing to well on HP. Knowing I needed him to gain the most Exp, I decided to retreat so that he wouldn't take too much damage from Hyper Fang.

 

Apollo took the field and now Rattata was helpless and went down to a couple of Embers.

--------------------

Squirtle Lv. 18

 

Again, really not sure why his starter isn't evolved yet. Maybe he wanted it to learn a move early? Well, I decided to let my Apollo stay in and go down to Squirtle's relentless Water Gun assault knowing that Yellow would be perfectly capable of handling the rest.

 

With Thundershock, the remainder of Squirtle's HP was gone.

---------------------

Abra Lv. 16

 

Blue's Abra only knows Teleport here, so victory was assured.

================

Route 24

After defeating Blue, I headed up Route 24 to start searching the grass for my next team member!

 

While searching, I again found a version exclusive that I'd need to catch for pokedex purposes: Oddish! I named it Ivy.

 

I also decided to catch a Pidgey so that I'd have a Flyer later on.

---------------------

Ivory (Abra F); Lv. 8

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Teleport

------------------------

Abra was quite a pain to catch, especially one that specifically had Synchronize. For some reason, I almost exclusively found Abra with Inner Focus up until this point. I kept soft-resetting so that I could recycle my Great Ball each attempt, call me a cheater!

==================

I went all the way through Route 25 where I picked up TM43: Secret Power before stopping by Bill's House at Cerulean Cape to get the S.S. Ticket.

After battling all the trainers along the way, my pokemon had gotten a couple more levels under their belt and I was able to level Abra up just a little bit more.

================

Once I made my way back to Cerulean City, I went through the Burlgarized house to battle the rocket grunt loitering around and get TM28: Dig. Then, it was back to the Cerulean Gym.

===============

I wasn't entirely confident this time. My pokemon weren't really all that much stronger than before. I tried once again with the same strategy as before but with my slightly stronger pokemon, but the result was just the same only I was able to do just enough damage to KO her Staryu in one shot with Thundershock at maximum damage range. This really didn't make a difference since all Staryu ever did against Yellow was Harden anyway. I took a look at my team to see what I could maybe improve on and checked to find out why it felt like Yellow wasn't quite doing as much damage as I'd like. As it turned out, while it didn't affect his damage output in a negative way, he has a Brave nature which decreases his speed. Which I'm sure you can imagine is perfect for a glass cannon like Pikachu. It also increases his Attack which is nearly useless in this case. While this isn't affecting anything here, though it definitely would be helpful if he had a nature like Modest or Calm.

I was about to call it quits when I considered I had a couple more tricks up my sleeve this time. I started playing around with the TMs I had at my disposal. Thief was a 40 power attack which was on par with Thundershock and could take advantage of Ivory's special attack stat while also being super-effective. Unfortunately, due to Ivory's low level, this wasn't going to help much at all.

The next thing I decided to try was Secret Power, a 70 power attack that is pretty powerful this early in the game. I first decided to teach this to Ivory to see how much it would do. I figured this probably wouldn't be the definitive choice, but...

================

My Team:

-----------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 23

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 23

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: Thundershock, Growl, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Abra F); Lv. 13

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Teleport, Secret Power

-----------------------------

================

Cerulean Gym Leader Misty

-------------------------

Staryu Lv. 18

 

I led off with Yellow once again and took out Staryu pretty easily, as per usual.

-----------------------------

Starmie Lv. 22

 

Against Starmie, I once again went for Thunder Wave or else none of my other pokemon would even stand a chance. Took a Water Pulse, but when I went for Thundershock on the following turn, I got a crit! This reduced Starmie's health to the red before Yellow was taken out with another Water Pulse.

 

I brought Ivory out next and, to my surprise, she opted not to use a Super Potion to heal her Starmie. Perhaps she went for Recover instead? Either way, its HP was low enough that I was able to take it out with Secret Power! For taking down such a strong opponent, Ivory gained enough exp to level up twice and nearly a third time! She was right on the cusp of evolution so she's more than likely to evolve by the time we reach Vermilion!

-----------------------

MVP: Yellow

As much as I absolutely want to give MVP to Ivory for that hilarious KO opportunity, I can't deny that Yellow really carried me here. If I chose to go for any other Electric type, I'm honestly entirely unsure what I would have done here. I probably would have just pressed on to Vermilion and took out all of the S.S. Anne and the route east of Vermilion before returning to Cerulean and trying this battle again. That's honestly what I was even considering doing here if I wasn't able to get the TMs to work.

Well, Misty was defeated in a very unexpected way. I was expecting to teach Secret Power to Apollo and Thief to Ivory and hope for the best, but I'm definitely not soft resetting after a lucky victory like this! Unfortunately, this means that Ivory is now stuck with an experimental Secret Power, but I wasn't planning for it to be a permanent addition to anyone's moveset in the first place, and it's a readily available TM in Ruby and Sapphire so this should be fine! Next time, we no longer have to worry about Cerulean Cape, so we can just head right on down to Vermilion City and check out the surrounding area!

[Aura]

Route 6

 

Since we've already cleared out Cerulean Cape, there's really not much to cover between Cerulean and Vermilion, though I should probably mention that Ivory evolved into a Kadabra while battling the trainers on Route 6 making her a much more viable fighter!

=================

Vermilion City

As soon as I got to Vermilion City, I wasted no time in going to trade my Spearow to the little girl in Vermilion City for her Farfetch'd! In case you weren't able to piece it together yet, this Farfetch'd is going to be part of my team!

-----------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 10

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Sand-Attack

----------------------

Now, Farfetch'd is often considered a really bad pokemon. Its stats are really low and it doesn't have any evolutions. However, it's a pokemon I've actually been interested in using because he comes with a fairly interesting gimmick. You see, that unassuming Stick he's holding is more than meets the eye. While its description only mentions that it can be sold cheaply, it actually has a hidden effect that increases Farfetch'd crit rate by two stages, making critical hits occur much more frequently!

I normally don't rely too much on heavily luck-based strategies like relying on critical hits, and this item really doesn't make up for the loss in stats. Still, I thought it would be an interesting pokemon to try out since it's one I never typically use and, like some other pokemon, this is going to be our last opportunity to use this pokemon for a while. I imagine Ch'ding is going to have a hard time with the later game than some of my other pokemon on this team, but for now, he'll have no problem pulling his weight.

I know, I know, poor Fearow keeps getting shafted, and I do consider it to be a much better pokemon late-game than Farfetch'd, but I'll try really hard to use it in a future title! Listen, it's not my fault I got a shiny Pidgey in Crystal! I couldn't turn that catharsis down!

Since I now had two pokemon below the level of the rest of my team, I went ahead and started battling the trainers on Route 11 before boarding the S.S. Anne.

================

S.S. Anne

Again, there's really not much to talk about here. I ran through and battled all the trainers, gathered all the items, though I did teach Brick Break to Yellow so that I could get some extra use out of that Brave nature and then made my way to the captain's quarters for the next rival battle.

===============

Rival #4

-------------------

Pidgeotto Lv. 19

 

Pidgeotto was pretty easy to take out with a couple of Thundershocks from Yellow, though he got a Sand-Attack in to reduce my accuracy.

-------------------------

Raticate Lv. 16

 

I was able to take out Raticate as well with a couple of Brick Breaks, but not before suffering from some rough hits due to a miss thanks to Sand-Attack.

------------------------

Kadabra Lv. 16

 

I figured I didn't want to stay in with this matchup because of my reduced accuracy, so I retreated.

 

Out came Ch'ding who did know Knock Off, but I figured that probably wouldn't do a whole lot of damage. Instead, I went for Fury Attack which I've found to be an incredible move when coupled with Ch'ding's Stick because each hit has an individual chance of getting a crit. It's not quite consistent, but I can commonly get one or even two crits in one turn with this move! And since Farfetch'd is a Normal type, it also gains STAB with this attack. All of this combined helps make up for its rather pitiful stats. I can't say how long I'll be singing its praises, but for now, he's really helpful!

With Fury Attack, I was able to take out Kadabra but not without some difficulty due to getting confused from Confusion.

---------------------

Wartortle Lv. 20

 

Since I was still confused, I didn't want to keep Ch'ding in longer than I needed to.

 

I brought Yellow in and went for some Thundershocks, but Wartortle was surprisingly resiliant and wound up taking out the remainder of Yellow's HP!

 

From here, I left the rest up to Ivory, though Wartortle's Bite snuck in some heavy damage, Ivory was able to finish the job with one more Psybeam.

================

After defeating Blue, I got the HM for cut and taught it to Orange, the Paras I'd caught in Mt. Moon. Then, back in Vermilion City, it was time to head straight to the gym!

==================

Vermilion Gym

The gym itself was simple as always and even the puzzle was surprisingly generous. I was able to get the second switch on my first try! I've had this gym take me over an hour to open the gates, not gonna lie, so I'm more than grateful for this alone. With the trainers cleared out, it was time to take on the Vermilion Gym Leader!

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 25

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 24

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: Thundershock, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 25

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Teleport, Secret Power, Psybeam, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 25

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Knock Off, Leer, Fury-Attack

================

Vermilion Gym Leader Lt. Surge

---------------------------

Voltorb Lv. 21

 

I led off with Apollo honestly forgetting whether or not Lt. Surge had a Magnemite. For some reason I always want to assume that he does. Anyway, Apollo was able to take out Voltorb while only suffering from a single SonicBoom.

------------------------

Pikachu Lv. 18

 

He wound up getting paralyzed by the Pikachu to follow, of course, but otherwise, Pikachu went down as well.

------------------------

Raichu Lv. 24

 

This was where things were a little bit concerning because I didn't have any out to evasion, so if he decided to spam Double Team like he seems to enjoy, it could potentially spell out trouble for me. I just went for Ember and hoped for a burn. Thankfully, he only used one Double Team before focusing on taking me out with Shock Wave.

 

Ivory came next. Raichu started using Double Team again, so I went for Disable in an attempt to stop it. Unfortunately, on the next turn it decided to go for Quick Attack, preventing me from disabling its Double Team and instead disabling Quick Attack. It was a bit of a back and forth, but eventually I was able to take it out with Psybeams in spite of its 2-stage boost to evasion before it could finish me off with Shock Wave.

------------------------

MVP: Ivory

While Apollo did take out a lot of foes, he kind of put me in an awkward position while facing off against the biggest threat, Raichu. Thankfully, Ivory was there to pick up the slack and get the win in spite of the disadvantage!

=================

And now, Lt. Surge is defeated and we've earned our Thunder Badge! Next time, we've got a bit of a way to go before we can get to Celadon. Depending on how I feel about my run through Rock Tunnel I might stop the next post at the rival battle in Lavender Town rather than the next gym battle. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out!

[Aura]

After defeating Lt. Surge, our next order of business is to go through Diglett's Cave and get the Flash HM! Since you only need 10 pokemon registered, the pokemon I've caught and evolved up to this point were enough. This is the first time the pokedex really starts to matter, though, so I should mention that at some point I will have to go out of my way to catch a bunch of pokemon so that I can fill out enough of the pokedex to where I have the 60 pokemon required. I might use this as an opportunity to evolve some pokemon that are unavailable in the wild so that I'm not just retreading old ground.

==================

Of course, I also stopped by the backroom of the Pewter Museum of Science to pick up my Old Amber but, more importantly, speak to the Move Tutor here because I want to teach Seismic Toss to Ivory! This will help her deal with pokemon that can handle special attacks!

==================

Route 9

After a brief pitstop in Cerulean City to redeem our Bike Voucher for a brand-new Bicycle, we can now advance further along on our journey! We pass through Routes 9 and the northern section of Route 10 without stopping much. I should go ahead and mention that this might be a shorter post than normal, but it was a much longer session than I expected, so there's not going to be much too terribly interesting to cover.

=================

Rock Tunnel

Of course, Route 10 is home to Rock Tunnel which proved to be much more of a hurdle than I honestly expected. I guess I really underestimated how helpful Bulbasaur was in getting me through this dungeon last time, because I found myself repeatedly leaving to heal because even just the wild Geodude scattered around the cave were massively dangerous to most of my party thanks to Magnitude.

Likely a big cause of my trouble here was that this place happened to be home to a new party member of mine!

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 13

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Tackle, Screech, Bind, Rock Throw

---------------------------

I wanted to use an Onix because I really wanted to use more pokemon with Johto evolutions even though their evolutions likely aren't going to see much screentime. I just really want to build my team around concepts that weren't around in the original version to really capitalize on the differences between the originals and their remakes. For a while, I was considering using Scyther and Scizor since they're also version exclusives to FireRed, but I've used Scizor previously but Steelix is a pokemon I've never used on a main party before. Plus, when I recognized that this might be my last chance for a long time to use Farfetch'd, I figured I probably didn't want to use both Farfetch'd and Scyther on the same team. Still, Scyther was a pokemon I was reluctant to pass on since I could take it as an opportunity to show off that Scyther on its own really isn't inferior its evolution. Instead, Scizor is more like an alternative playstyle for Scyther, trading speed for an extra boost of defense. But, Scyther really isn't going anywhere anytime soon so we probably won't have too many issues fitting it on my team.

Normally, a new party member is an extremely exciting opportunity, and this definitely is! But, the way I like to train up a new party member is that I like to keep them in the front of my party and switch them out as necessary. I like to pay constant attention to what the new pokemon is and isn't capable of as it grows. And again, I try to avoid grinding where I can and you should know by this point how stubborn I can be to sticking to my specific playstyle.

However, as it turns out, Rock Tunnel is probably the absolute worst place to try and raise an Onix. It's weak to almost everything in here and even after dumping my Dig TM onto it, it's still not able to pick off the Geodude that commonly show up. Since I like to fight every wild pokemon I run into, this means I basically constantly have to switch away from Gray, but as it also turns out, almost the entire rest of my team either is weak to Magnitude, vulnerable to physical attacks, or not a good matchup against Rock-types. As a result, a lot of these battles resulted in a trip back to the Pokemon Center outside. This turned this two-floor dungeon into a massive ordeal which I was not prepared for. In addition, since so much of the exp in this dungeon went onto Gray rather than the rest of my team, I'm admittedly a bit worried that the rest of my time is going to be a bit lacking in levels this time around. That said, I'm certainly not complaining about that. This just means some of the upcoming battles might prove to be a bit more memorable than in my Leaf Green playthrough!

Again, this whole playthrough feels more like the Fire Red and Leaf Green experience I remember form my childhood. However, once you reach the other end of Rock Tunnel, the world starts to open up and your team-building options begin to grow immensely. We've got one more gym to go before we can get access to our next team member, so we're on our way to a full 6-pokemon team! And this last pokemon should be able to help a lot with rounding out our team! 

===================

Lavender Town

Before we finish off for the day, I think it's only appropriate that we finish off with some sort of boss battle, so let's head into Pokemon Tower and see how our team fares against our rival!

Pokemon Tower

=================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 29

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Scary Face, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 28

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 29

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psybeam, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 28

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Knock Off, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 27

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, Screech, Bind, Rock Slide

==================

Rival #5

---------------------

Pidgeotto Lv. 25

 

I led off with Gray this time and opened up with a Rock Slide. Unfortunately, Pidgeotto led with Sand-Attack which definitely made things rather awkward. Thankfully, there wasn't much Pidgeotto could do to me, so after several misses, I was finally able to take Pidgeotto out after connecting two Rock Slides.

-----------------------

Wartortle Lv. 25

 

This matchup was a huge "nope"

 

I brought Yellow out to take Wartortle out with a couple of ThunderBolts!

------------------------

Growlithe Lv. 23

 

Growlithe came next, so I started by going for a ThunderBolt, but I was hit with a Roar forcing me to switch out!

 

This happened to bring Gray back into the fray! Another Rock Slide made quick work of Growlithe from here. That was an unfortunate die roll for blue!

----------------------

Exeggcute Lv. 22

 

Once again, I wasn't going to leave Gray in this obviously poor matchup, so I retreated again.

 

Ch'ding came out but was hit with Sleep Powder on switch-in. (Yes, that's Sleep Powder rather than Hypnosis! Bulbapedia lists this Exeggcute as knowing Hypnosis instead, but that is apparently false!) I tried to power through the Sleep but I happened to be asleep for the full five turn limit! This gave Exeggcute lots of time to rack up damage between Leech Life and Confusion. When I finally woke up, I was able to hit Exeggcute with a couple of Aerial Aces hoping for a crit to make up for the rotten luck so far, but naturally I was met with no such repayment and Ch'ding went down.

 

Apollo was able to finish off Exeggcute with Ember, though, so nothing too terrible!

--------------------------

Kadabra Lv. 20

 

All that's left was Blue's Kadabra which was still pretty low-level. Metal Claw was all it took to take care of him and finish the battle!

--------------------------

And with that, this rival battle is completed! I know it's a bit of an anticlimactic place to end this post, but there's still a bit to do before the next gym battle and Rock Tunnel took me far longer than I expected to get through. My original plan was to play up to the first encounter with Giovanni, but I'd already been playing for a bit too long as it was. It's just for the best that I end things here and pick up next time on my way to Celadon City!

[Aura]

Route 8 & 7

Well, we can put Lavender Town behind us for now and focus our efforts on Route 8 immediately west of it!

 

Naturally, we'll need to pick up a Growlithe here, which I named Orange, before taking the Underground Passage to Route 7 and then onto Celadon City!

===============

Celadon City

Of course, there's lots to do here, but without a need to do absolutely everything this tiem around, we can take our time a bit more.

Route 16

Right away, I continued West onto Route 16 to get the HM for Fly which we can teach to Brown the Pidgey if we ever need to.

As for the actual city, we've of course got those TMs to collect on the rooftop of the Dept. Store, the items around scattered town, the Eevee at the top of Celadon Mansion, which I named White, and the Tea from the old lady on the first floor. All of this is pretty straight-forward stuff which I covered more extensively in my Leaf Green playthrough.

I should go ahead and mention that, yes, we have the ability to buy a Thunderstone and evolve Yellow into Raichu, but I don't think that's totally necessary just yet and I'd like Yellow to learn one particular move before he evolves.

Will our little scavenger hunt over, our next destination is to head straight into the Rocket Game Corner!

====================

Of course, if we want to we can go ahead and get to gambling away our life savings if we want some of those nice TM's available next door, but of course the reason we're here is to infiltrate the Team Rocket Hideout!

================

Team Rocket Hideout

================

Navigating this place is even easier the second time in a row. And thanks to Ivory and Gray, most of Team Rocket's pokemon are a cinch to take care of. The occasional Sandshrew and Sandslash can be a little annoying, but nothing overwhelming.

=================

One unexpected issue I did wind up running into, however, was forgetting about the limitations on traded pokemon! Ch'ding ended up leveling up to 31 just before the encounter with Giovanni. As it so happens, the badges I have up until this point only allow pokemon up to level 30 to obey you. So, little Ch'ding decided to start being a little brat. This is the first time this has happened in this series from what I recall. The only other time I used a traded pokemon was Muscle the Machoke in Gen 2 where you're really never in danger of a pokemon getting too high level to obey.

When a pokemon starts disobeying you, you'll likely immediately be able to tell. It will start doing a variety of undesireable actions from loafing around to downright ignoring you. It might disobey orders and use the wrong move or even take a nap, putting itself to sleep! If we want to keep this pokemon disciplined, we'll need to get more badges! Thankfully, the upcoming Rainbow Badge allows all pokemon up to level 50 to obey, so until we can defeat Erika, we'll just need to deal with Ch'ding's rebellious phase.

As for Giovanni...

================

Boss Giovanni

--------------------

Onix Lv. 25

 

I led with Gray and Giovanni had the same idea, though I had a few levels on him so it really didn't make much of a difference to me. With a couple of Digs, Onix went down easily.

-----------------------

Kangaskhan Lv. 29

 

This was a decent matchup in my favor. Kangaskhan did have Bite, which is a special attack that can get around my defense, but Kangaskhan's special attack is lacking to back it up. Mega Punch ends up doing more damage despite being not very effective. However, thanks to several misses with Rock Slide coupled with the accumulated damage from Giovanni's Onix, Gray ended up succumbing to Kangaskhan's brute force.

 

Kangaskhan was almost down, though, so Apollo was able to pick off the rest.

------------------------

Rhyhorn Lv. 24

 

Rhyhorn is up next and, fortunately, it doesn't know any Rock or Ground type moves, so I was able to take it out with relative ease using just Metal Claw.

-------------------------

Upon defeating him, Giovanni leaves his Silph Scope granting us access to the rest of Lavender Tower, though I don't intend to make use of this item just yet.

===================

With Team Rocket driven out of their hideout, it was now time to finish off today's post by taking on the Celadon Gym!

==================

Celadon Gym

And for once, we finally have a gym we're well-prepared to deal with! Between Apollo and Ivory, as well as whatever help Ch'ding is willing to offer, we should be more than prepared to deal with everything this gym has to offer.

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 33

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Scary Face, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 31

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 32

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psybeam, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 32

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 31

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Bind, Rock Slide

==================

Celadon Gym Leader Erika

---------------------

Victreebel Lv. 29

 

I led off with Apollo expecting to make quick work of Erika's lead so that I could get rid of her Tangela as quickly as possible. It was the only pokemon on Erika's team that wasn't weak to Psychic and the only other pokemon on my team with an advantage over it was Ch'ding who isn't exactly reliable at the moment. Not that this is a totally necessary concern by any means, I'd definitely be able to handle Tangela with or without a type advantage, but the quick KO would be helpful.

What seemed to put a wrench in this plan, however, was Victreebel's Stun Spore. I was fully paralyzed five turns in a row preventing me from being able to attack while Victreebel continues to pelt me with its pathetic Acid attack. All I needed was to connect two embers in order to get the KO, so this was especially frustrating to have Apollo come so close to going down to such garbage RNG. Thankfully, I was eventually able to get past the paralysis and take out Victreebel.

--------------------------

Tangela Lv. 24

 

Even with my low HP, there was nothing Tangela could do to Apollo, and he couldn't hold up to a single Ember, either.

------------------------

Vileplume Lv. 29

 

Vileplume was able to take Embers better than Victreebel and wound up overcoming me with its Acid.

 

From here, though, it was simple enough to take her out with Psybeam and finish the battle.

-----------------------

And with that, Erika was defeated and I obtained the Rainbow Badge. Now, Ch'ding should obey me with no problems for the rest of the game. It's gonna be a while before he reaches level 50.

----------------------

MVP: Apollo

Apollo obviously did almost all of the work in this battle, even after missing out on five entire turns due to paralysis. I don't think I've ever realized how bizarrely pathetic Erika's pokemon actually are, though. Giga Drain is a powerful attack that all of her pokemon have in common, but if you resist Grass, the only moves her pokemon have to use against you are Acid, a 30 power attack, and Constrict, a 10 power attack that doesn't even get STAB on Tangela. I suppose there aren't a whole lot of options for midgame poison attacks and it would be a little broken if she had access to Sludge Bomb, but this gym is incredibly easy if you resist any one of her pokemon.

===============

Well, we've now earned four badges so next time I suppose we'll start our journey toward Fuchsia city and of course that means making a bit of a detour to climb Lavender Tower.

[Aura]

Saffron City

Of course, with the Tea from Celadon City we can now gain access to Saffron City and take on the Fighting Dojo if we want, but I think it's for the best to put that off until later and instead just grab the Psychic TM as we pass through.

===============

Lavender Town

Now that we have the Silph Scope, today we'll be focusing purely on Pokemon Tower which should make for a rather short post.

===============

Pokemon Tower

6F

Of course, we climb our way to the top of Pokemon Tower. This dungeon is simple enough to get through and is actually a little bit easier this time around with the help of Kadabra to target Gastly and Haunter's psychic-type weaknesses. On the sixth floor, we run into the ghost of Cubone's mother!

==============

Wild Marowak

----------------------

 

This really isn't much of a battle to cover, but it's pretty story significant so I usually consider it a sort of boss fight. Maybe a mid-boss, even though there's no real main boss following it.

With Ivory, this battle was over with just a couple of Psybeams.

=================

7F

  

And on the seventh floor, the three Rocket Grunts are easily dispatched and we were able to rescue Mr. Fuji from thei

===================

Mr. Fuji brings us back to the Volunteer Pokemon House and gives us our Poke Flute so that we can now wake up Snorlax!

This would be a really short post if we stopped right there, so I feel like now might be an appropriate time to go ahead and do the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City! While Silph Co. is available as soon as you clear Pokemon Tower, we're going to pretend it's not just yet since I feel like it's more thematically appropriate to do that a bit later on.

==================

Fighting Dojo

The Fighting Dojo has some really strong pokemon relative to the ones in Pokemon Tower, but they're all roughly on par or a little weaker than my team as it stands with a few exceptions being trainers who use fewer pokemon that are higher level. But between Ch'ding and Ivory, these battles were pretty simple as well. Since I have the Rainbow Badge, I can use Ch'ding again without having to worry about him disobeying orders!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 33

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Scary Face, Ember, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 33

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 34

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psybeam, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 33

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 32

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Bind, Rock Slide

==================

Black Belt Koichi

-----------------------

Hitmonlee Lv. 37

 

I led off with Ch'ding and opened up with an Aerial Ace. Hitmonlee outsped and hit me with a harsh Hi Jump Kick. My Aerial Ace failed to crit but still dealt enough damage to finish Hitmonlee off in one more attack. I went for another Aerial Ace honestly expecting Ch'ding to get taken out by another Hi Jump Kick, but there was still the possibility of a miss to hold onto. Hitmonlee wound up going for Foresight of all things, buying me the opportunity to take it out.

-----------------------

Hitmonchan Lv. 37

 

There was no working around this one. Ch'ding was only able to do a third of Hitmonchan's HP before getting hammered with an Ice Punch for the KO.

 

Ivory came in next to finish the job with a Psybeam. It did around half of Hitmonchan's remaining HP but all Hitmonchan went for was Fire Punch which hardly did a thing to me as a result of Hitmonchan's low special attack. Another Psybeam took it out and ended the battle!

=================

 

Of course, you get your reward for clearing the Dojo: a choice between the Piston-Punching Hitmonchan and the Kicking Hitmonlee. Naturally, since I chose Hitmonchan in Leaf Green, I'll want to go with Hitmonlee here for pokedex purposes. That said, this decision isn't nearly as critical in this gen as it was in Gen 1 since, regardless of your choice, you can always breed it for a Tyrogue and evolve into the other one. Evolving Tyrogue into Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan is easy enough, Hitmontop is by far the most complicated. Thankfully, between Fire Red, Leaf Green, and Colosseum, you don't actually have to evolve a Tyrogue into any of them!

I named Hitmonlee "Brass," and now we can move on with our adventure!

There are three different paths you can take to head to Fuchsia City. All three routes are blocked by one of two Snorlax. The path I usually take is east from Celadon where you can use the PokeFlute to wake up the Snorlax blocking the way and take Cycling Road straight to Fuchsia. Alternatively, you can head back to Vermillion City and travel East to encounter the Snorlax on Route 12 from before. This will give you a small shortcut on Route 12 where you'll sacrifice a few items for the sake of skipping past some trainers. Lastly, and this seems to be the route the game actually expects you to take, you can head south of Lavender onto Route 12 from the North. Since we took Cycling Road in Leaf Green, this time we'll be doing Route 12 first. It really doesn't change much, but this decision is pretty significant for one particular reason which will probably become apparent in the next post.

===============

Route 12

We battle our way down Route 12 until we reach the midpoint and intersection between the routes from Lavender and Vermillion where Snorlax lies dormant. It's time to take him on!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charmeleon M); Lv. 34

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 34

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 34

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psybeam, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 34

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 33

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Bind, Rock Slide

================

Wild Snorlax Lv. 30

---------------------

 

I led off with Apollo, who now knew Flamethrower! With a critical hit from Flamethrower, I was able to deal a significant chunk of damage against Snorlax! With a few more Flamethrowers, he went for Rest. While he was asleep, I hit him with a couple more before throwing a Great Ball to take advantage of his sleep. It didn't work as intended, of course, but he went for the KO instead of using Rest to heal off the damage.

 

I hoped Snorlax not going for Rest meant it wasn't low enough on HP to prioritize restoration, so I went for Thunder Wave with Yellow. Of course, this was a bit foolish for me to assume considering wild pokemon seem to behave erratically with their choice of moves. He did end up going for Rest this turn, mitigating my paralysis entirely. I went for a couple of Brick Breaks and another Great Ball but again, no dice. Snorlax was able to hit me with Snore while it was asleep, taking out much of my HP due to my low defense. After he woke up, he hit me with Headbutt to take out Yellow.

 

I sent out Ch'ding next and it was here that my Great Ball actually worked and I managed to capture Snorlax! Do I intend to use Snorlax on my team? No, not really, but that's one less pokemon I'll need to get my hands on for that National Dex!

--------------------------

 

I named this Snorlax "Black" after the sleepy void Snorlax spends most of his time in.

=================

Now that we've reached this checkpoint, we made our way over to Vermillion City to heal our pokemon and next time, we should be continuing our southbound journey toward Fuchsia City and taking on Koga's gym for our fifth badge! You'll also be able to see why I specifically saved this route for this playthrough if you can't piece it together just yet!

[Aura]

Route 12

Continuing further south from where the Snorlax was resting, we finally arrive at the Fishing Guru's brother's house! This is where we can finally get our Super Rod, before even getting a chance to find the Good Rod. The positioning of the Super Rod here is the most perplexing thing stopping me from just assuming you're meant to go down this route. I guess the devs expect you to travel south of Lavender Town, defeat the Snorlax, then use Fly to return to Celadon and take care of the other one before taking Cycling Road down to Fucshia City? That way you don't pass through Saffron and the now-available Silph Co., but there's really no reason to Fly to Celadon when it's not far of a ride from Vermilion. You don't even pass through any grass along the way. And then after you do all that, you can either fly back to Saffron or cycle back up north. I've gone on this same tangent before, but I just can't get over how bizarre this is to me. I know Kanto was designed to allow the player freedom of choice with what they want to do next after getting Cut and Flash, so maybe they intentionally designed this part of the game with so many different sequences to encourage that decision making. It doesn't help that Silph Co. has a bunch of fairly low-level pokemon while Saffron Gym is far stronger than Fuchsia Gym... It really feels like there had to have been some intended order here, otherwise the gym leaders wouldn't be numbered in a specific order, right?

Well, putting that confusion behind us for now, using this Super Rod, we can finally gain access to not only our next target pokemon for this playthrough, but also our sixth team member: the soft version exclusive Horsea!

-------------------------

Blue (Horsea M); Lv. 20

 

Item: None

Ability: Swift Swim | Moves: Bubble, SmokeScreen, Leer

-----------------------

This is yet another water-type I've been interested in using for a while. It's another pokemon with a Johto evolution meaning it won't be fully evolved into postgame, but again, it also means it's one of the many Kanto pokemon that have very significant changes between Gen 1 and 3, so I felt it was only fair to include him!

===================

Routes 13-15

Aside from the massive dump of trainers to comb through, there isn't a whole lot to talk about along these routes. That said, there were some significant changes to the team as my pokemon grew stronger!

--------------------------

 

Apollo grew to level 36 and finally evolved into a fearsome Charizard!

-------------------------

 

Likewise, Blue reached level 32 and evolved into Seadra! Since I don't have to save up my money for Porygon this time around, I felt a lot more free to return to Celadon and get an Ice Beam TM to help him gain these early levels. I could have also taught it Water Pulse, but since I'm going to be teaching it Surf soon, I figured that probably wasn't necessary. Even though I have yet to use it, Water Pulse definitely isn't a bad move by any means! It's just that Surf isn't either and you have to use it a lot for navigation.

===============

Fuchsia City

We've finally arrived, so now it's time to take on the gym ahead!

================

Fuchsia Gym

The Jugglers have always been a major annoyance with this gym. They make it difficult to test out how your pokemon will fare against poison-types since, y'know, none of them use poison types. Even if you're well-prepared for Koga, you also have to awkwardly work your way through a swarm of Drowzee and Hypno with the occasional Kadabra mixed in. Thankfully, Ch'ding's Fury Cutter is able to make quick work of these Psychic-type specialists, especially if I take the time to set up Swords Dance first. As for the Tamers who actually use poison types, Ivory and Gray were able to handle them along with Blue to assist against some of their Ground-types.

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 36

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 35

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 36

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 38

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Peck, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 36

 

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

-------------------------

Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 33

 

Item: None

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Water Gun, Twister, Rain Dance, Ice Beam

================

Fuchsia Gym Leader Koga

---------------------

Koffing Lv. 37

 

I lead off with Ivory against Koga's Koffing which went down to a single Psychic.

----------------------

Muk Lv. 39

 

Koga's Muk was able to survive a Psychic, but he just used Acid Armor which wasn't going to help at all. He used a Hyper Potion to heal off the damage, but I just knocked his health back down with another Psychic. This time, I even got the Special Defense reduction effect! For some bizarre decision, he chose to use his second Hyper potion on Muk here despite the reduced special defense guaranteeing my ability to OHKO him this time.

------------------------

Koffing Lv. 37

 

Just as before, Ivory was able to take out this identical Koffing with Psychic.

---------------------------

Weezing Lv. 43

 

And Weezing, too, went down in a matter of seconds. What an anticlimactic gym battle. I honestly had more difficulty with all of the gym trainers!

----------------------------

MVP: Ivory

Once again, MVP goes to the only pokemon that even saw any screentime in this battle. Honestly, I can't say I'm totally surprised by how this battle turned out. The moment Ivory learned Psychic, I knew Koga wouldn't stand a chance. Still, I expected that maybe I'd fail to KO one of his pokemon and they'd counteract me with something like SelfDestruct or Evasive tactics. But no, the only one that survived a hit was Muk who went for Acid Armor against a Kadabra.

=================

Well, we now have five badges in hand, so we can head back to Saffron and bring down the thunder on Team Rocket at Silph Co.! That is, after we finish off some miscellaneous things, anyway...

[Aura]

Safari Zone

Woops! Let's not forget about this one!

Okay, there really isn't much of anything to do this time besides collect the items, grab Surf (which I taught to Blue), and seek out the one version exclusive available here.

 

I am talking of course about Scyther which I named Green!

Now, while I was here, I figured the Safari Zone would be the perfect place to catch a bunch of pokemon and fill out my pokedex a bit to help with the 60 I'll need in order to get the Rainbow Pass in the postgame. So, I spent all of my Safari Balls trying to catch as many different species of pokemon as I could, ultimately bringing my pokedex up to 31, a little more than needed to get the Itemfinder!

================

After getting the Itemfinder from the gate at Route 12, I grabbed the Leftovers from where I battled Snorlax. I gave the Leftovers to Gray and then made my way to Vermilion City where I decided to start fishing for one more version exclusive!

 

I caught a Shellder and named it Midnight!

================

Route 6

Furthermore, now that I have access to Surf, I can return to Route 6 and catch yet another version exclusive for Fire Red: Psyduck!

 

I named this Psyduck Lemon.

===============

Now, this is the end of today's session. I know it's a rather short post today, most of my gameplay was focused on the Safari Zone but unfortunately there's really nothing much of importance to talk about there.

I would like to make a bit of an announcement, though. Today was my first day back to school for the new semester, so my posts may slow down once again and become a bit more sporadic. I'm trying to be a bit more organized with my approach to schoolwork this semester, so I'm hoping I'll be a bit more consistent with what I can do. But only time will tell how that will go when assignments and projects start piling up left and right. Because of that, I can't guarantee daily uploads throughout the semester! I had to drop some days last semester and it's likely to be the same case here. Especially for especially long sessions.

To make up for the short post today, I'll try to do both Silph Co. and Saffron Gym in the same post. Again, no promises!

[Aura]

Silph Co.

As always, Silph Co. is a really daunting beast when playing blind, but, this being my seventh time through this place (keep in mind I played through it real quick to grab another Swords Dance TM for Little Cup in Stadium 2!), I know my way around pretty dang well. Making a beeline for the card key and the lady who offers you a rest, I started methodically combing my way through the building from the bottom to the top battling all the grunts and leveling my pokemon.

I should mention that I actually briefly entertained the idea of using this as an opportunity to train up Green the Scyther to replace Ch'ding on my team, as I've started to recognize just why Ch'ding isn't going to be very good and am actually growing rather worried about the implications of that compared to how I performed against the Elite Four rematches in the last game... then again, as the Elite Four rematches are unprecedented, I'm honestly not really sure if I should even bother with them? I suppose that's a question for a later date, but speaking of a later date, I decided ultimately not to raise up Green because I feel training a Scyther in a future generation will prove to be much more rewarding than it could ever be here. Plus, I must reiterate that this is the last time I'll be able to use Ch'ding so I may as well challenge myself to keep him around even if he ends up being a bit of a luck-based handicap toward the end...

===============

7F

Of course, as you near the end of Silph Co., you'll find your way to the northwest corner of the seventh floor where you'll find your rival waiting to battle!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 39

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 38

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 38

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 38

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Fury-Attack

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 38

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

-------------------------

Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 38

 

Item: None

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Surf, Twister, Agility, Ice Beam

================

Rival #6

-------------------

Pidgeotto Lv. 37

 

I led off with Yellow against Blue's Pidgeotto. Unfortunately, Pidgeotto wound up surviving the Thunderbolt and I wasn't confident if he was in the kill range of Quick-Attack, so I wound up taking two Quick-Attacks of his which wound up hurting quite a lot!

--------------------

Growlithe Lv. 38

 

Growlithe came next and Yellow wasn't capable of taking many more hits. I wanted to at least keep Yellow around to get a solid hit on Blastoise, so I retreated for now.

 

I brought out Blue in Yellow's place and Blue was able to take out Growlithe... and yes, I'm aware of the irony that I'm using Blue against Blue. Let's not think too hard about it.

---------------------

Exeggcute Lv. 35

 

Exeggcute came next. I wasn't worried about this thing due to its lack of grass attacks, so I hit it with Ice Beam to take it out in one shot.

---------------------

Alakazam Lv. 35

 

With a couple of Surfs, Alakazam went down while Blue endured a Psychic!

-----------------------

Blastoise Lv. 40

 

Now there was no way I was going to win this matchup, but I really didn't have a good switch-in either. I ultimately just decided to go for Ice Beam hoping for the offchance that I might get a freeze. Of course, no such luck and Blastoise took me out with Bite.

 

I brought Yellow back out and slammed Blastoise with a Thunderbolt. He didn't hesitate to finish Yellow off with a Water Gun, though.

 

I finally brought out Ivory and, after a few turns of Blue stalling by spamming protect, I was finally able to take out Blastoise with a Psychic and win the battle!

 =================

But of course, everyone knows Silph Co. doesn't end with a rival battle. Oh no, it ends with an anticlimactic showdown with Boss Rocket, of course!

==============

Boss Giovanni

----------------------

Nidorino Lv. 37

 

I chose to lead off with Blue, again forgetting how few Ground-types Giovanni actually has on his team as of yet. (I'm sorry, okay? Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Rhydon always come to mind when I think of him and these earlier battles are super forgettable!) 

I can blast through Nidorino pretty easily with a couple of Surfs, no problem.

------------------------

Kangaskhan Lv. 35

 

Kangaskhan comes at me with Rage... big help that's gonna do. I take it out pretty easily as well.

--------------------

Nidoqueen Lv. 41

 

Nidoqueen survives a Surf thanks to her special defense, but her Double Kick is getting her nowhere fast. She goes down as well.

---------------------

Rhyhorn Lv. 37

 

Do I even need to tell you how this matchup went?

===============

Yeah, again, I really wish they'd made Giovanni more of a threat in this game. His pokemon don't know anything dangerous! Maybe it's supposed to be a character development thing? Maybe Giovanni doesn't have much of an interest in battling because he'd prefer "battling" through his economic prowess and he just lets his pokemon know whatever moves they're trying to learn. It's only after losing to you twice that he starts taking training his pokemon seriously and comes at you with the best team he can manage.

Regardless, these make for pretty lame boss fights and I don't want to end the session on such a disappointing note. Besides, last time I said I'd try to end the next post on Saffron Gym, so I think I'll do just that now that Rocket's been driven out of Saffron!

===============

Saffron Gym

It should be pretty easy to guess, but, despite me ragging a bit on Ch'ding earlier, he's going to really prove to be a powerful asset here in this gym mainly because of one major feat: Fury Cutter. Bug-type attacks are very few and far between, but they are the best out to Psychic-type pokemon due to being a physical typing while psychic types are generally known for their specially-oriented stats. The downside to Fury Cutter is that it starts out with a mere 10 power, but like Rollout, its power doubles every time it hits. And with Ch'ding's stick in play, I also get those increased crit chances mixed in! With Ch'ding alone, I was able to storm through most of the trainers in this gym, only switching it up once he finally got KO'd. I didn't want to go back and heal because I was actually worried about him getting a bit too overleveled thanks to the boosted exp. Still, I don't think there's anywhere Ch'ding will be able to shine brighter in this entire playthrough than this gym, so I want to give him his time in the spotlight!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 41

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 38

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 39

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 43

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Slash

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 38

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

-------------------------

Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 39

 

Item: None

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Surf, Twister, Agility, Ice Beam

================

Saffron Gym Leader Sabrina

----------------------

Kadabra Lv. 38

 

I started off by setting up a Swords Dance against Sabrina's Kadabra. I then followed up with a couple of Fury Cutters to take him out. He set up Future Sight but just kept spamming the move which did nothing for him and really helped me set up!

---------------------

Mr. Mime Lv. 37

 

Mr. Mime didn't even have the speed to stand up to Ch'ding, so the super-effective 40-power Fury Cutter took him out in one shot.

---------------------

Venomoth Lv. 38

 

This one was a bit of a pickle I saw coming. You see, Venomoth is obviously weak to Aerial Ace and would go down really easily to one, especially with Swords Dance. However, doing so would cause me to lose all of my accumulated power on Fury Cutter. Ultimately, I think it would have been a better option to go for Aerial Ace for the quick KO against Venomoth, but my choice here ultimately didn't matter either way. Venmoth couldn't do much damage to Ch'ding on its own, so I was able to take it out with a few more Fury Cutters, the attack now getting up to 80, then its cap at 160. One more Fury Cutter could take Venomoth out and from there, it would only take one hit to KO Sabrina's final pokemon!

----------------------

Alakazam Lv. 43

 

In case you couldn't tell from my premature projection, things didn't go quite as smoothly here. Ch'ding had taken too much damage between Venomoth and Kadabra, so he was completely unable to survive a Psychic from Alakazam. That's fair, because I still have the rest of my team!

 

I brougth out Yellow next to hit Alakazam with a Thunder Wave and reduce its infamous speed. He only set up Future Sight, so it was a perfect opportunity for me. I hit him with Thunder Wave, but his synchronize spread the paralysis to me. That was fine, because I still have the rest of my team! I went for ThunderBolt on the next turn in case I survived a hit. She used a Full Heal to heal her Alakazam's paralysis. Okay, that's fair, I can still paralyze it again, right? Well, Yellow is fully paralyzed for the turn so the Thunderbolt doesn't get off. That's not too much of an issue as long as I can paralyze this thing. On the next turn, he went for Psychic but Yellow was able to take the hit! Okay! With one more Thunder Wave... wait... no, I was fully paralyzed again. Okay... that's fine, I guess. I still have four more pokemon.

 

Apollo was probably my heaviest hitting physical attacker that had hopes of surviving an attack from Alakazam. He was able to put up a decent fight, but, thanks to a hyper potion, Alakazam was able to outlast Apollo's onslaught and took him out as well.

 

Things were looking pretty grim at this point, so I brought out Blue in hopes of getting a lucky freeze with Ice Beam. Of course not, and two turns in he was taken out as well.

 

Maybe I could get lucky and catch him trying to set up? Not likely. He took out Gray as soon as he came out as expected.

 

At this point, it all came down to Ivory and things were looking pretty grim, but Alakazam's health was rather low. All I would need is to take one Psychic attack and hit him with a Seismic Toss! And... he... crits with psychic. You have got to be kidding me. I feel like all of my best outs to Alakazam got pretty harshly cheated during this battle! The only one that felt like a really fair fight was Apollo and even then Alakazam only got out alive because of a Hyper Potion (granted, that is fair game).

Now, you may be wondering why I decided to cover a losing run this time. Well, I think that'll become clear when you see what my next attempt was like.

================

================

Saffron Gym Leader Sabrina (Attempt 2)

----------------------

Kadabra Lv. 38

 

I once again led with Ch'ding, but this time set up with two Swords Dance to see if things would flow better against that Venomoth. I got pretty lucky because Kadabra went for two Calm Minds in a row, so I was able to take him out early on, though he did get a Future Sight off which, with those boosted stats, might hurt quite a bit, but I critted with the second Fury Cutter!

------------------------

Mr. Mime Lv. 37

 

Mr. Mime went down easily to the third Fury Cutter which was also a crit at 40 power!

---------------------

Venomoth Lv. 38

 

Once again, I went for Fury Cutter to see how much it would do with the boosted attack and it still didn't quite one-shot Venomoth like I'd hoped. Instead, I just decided to scrap the Fury Cutter strat at this point and just went for Aerial Ace to take Venomoth out. I figured after that display of power last time, Ch'ding probably wouldn't be able to survive an attack from Alakazam, especially not after taking Kadabra's Future Sight.

----------------------

Alakazam Lv. 43

 

I'm no quitter, so I decided to go for Slash just in case and, to my surprise, Alakazam actually went for Calm Mind instead of Psychic! A huge mistake! Slash took Alakazam out right then and there. It wasn't even a crit, the four-stage increase from the double Swords Dance was enough on its own!

------------------------

MVP: Ch'ding

Once again, there's no competition for MVP the way this battle went. A clean sweep means a free seat! I'm not really sure what made Ch'ding able to sweep this entire team, but I was caught by surprise by how well Ch'ding was able to take special hits. Perhaps Sabrina used Calm Mind instead of Psychic because she knew a single Psychic on its own would not be enough? Either way, I'm glad Ch'ding got his time to shine! I was really worried he'd just be a sitting duck (pun absolutely intended) the entire game.

=====================

Well, we now have our sixth gym badge and we're rapidly approaching the end of the main story! Still, we've got a little bit to do before we get to the next gym. I'd like to catch the legendary birds again if only to help build up our pokedex numbers. There's also one more version exclusive pokemon to track down and catch along the way. Well, for now, I think we should make our way toward the south as we head to Cinnabar Island! I think we'll take the cycling road this time as well!

[Aura]

A small update in terms of content today, but I got a lot of in-between stuff out of the way.

I started out taking on the Snorlax at Route 16. I didn't really need to catch it or anything, so I just took it out with some Brick Breaks from Yellow before grabbing its Leftovers.

I gave the Leftovers to Blue since I figured he'd wind up being my second most defensive pokemon, but since Kingra's stats are so evenly distributed, I suppose only time will tell on that one.

=============

Route 17

In hindsight, I don't think it was totally necessary to explore route 17 in this playthrough. There's nothing actually significant here and it did take up a huge chunk of time that might have been better spent elsewhere. I probably could have gotten as much done today as I would have liked had I not gone through Cycling Road and instead Flew straight back to Fuchsia. I did get some items together here, though, so we have that!

================

When I got back to Fuchsia, I stocked back up on Ultra Balls. Normally, I wouldn't mind passing on catching the Legendary Birds since I caught them all in Leaf Green, but because of the National Dex requiring me to register 60 pokemon, I figured getting these guys might reduce the number of extra pokemon I have to catch in the end.

Of course, I also returned the Gold Teeth and got the HM for Strength which I definitely did not forget to do and also did not only remember after making my way all the way down to the Seafoam Islands!

=================

Route 19

Finally, I began my journey toward Cinnabar Island by heading south onto Route 19!

Route 20

There isn't much to talk about until we reach the Seafoam Islands on Route 20!

================

Seafoam Islands

Honestly, there isn't much to talk about here either. I reiterate, this is going to be a short post, but I do still intend to end it on a significant boss battle!

I solved the puzzle of the cave but ignored Articuno for now. I wanted to catch a Golduck while I was here, but since Golduck can be caught more commonly in Cerulean Cave, I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it or anything.

I made my way to Cinnabar Island first and healed my pokemon before returning to Seafoam to take on Articuno!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 44

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Metal Claw

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 44

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 44

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 43

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Slash

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 43

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, DragonBreath, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

-------------------------

Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 43

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Surf, Twister, Agility, Ice Beam

==================

Articuno Lv. 50

----------------------

 

Naturally, I led off with Yellow and successfully managed to hit Articuno with a Thunder Wave and three ThunderBolts, getting it down to catching range pretty easily. I wasn't so lucky to catch it on my first try, though, and it managed to KO Yellow.

 

I brought out Ivory next and continued to throw Ultra Balls at it to no avail.

 

Then there was Charizard with the same result.

 

And same for Blue. At this point, I was running out of Ultra Balls!

 

With Gray out now, I caught Articuno in my third to last Ultra Ball! (I had 31 going into this battle!)

I named Articuno Ice and that was the end of that one.

==============

My original intention was to go ahead and get both of these Legendary Birds in one session. However, due to my mistake of going through Cycling Road first, and the fact that both of these areas wound up taking a lot more time than I initially expected, namely due to the fact my team was rather ill-equipped to handle the types of pokemon I'd be dealing with very comfortably. I found myself starving for PP by the end of the dungeon which is a big reason I decided to make my way to Cinnabar first before returning for Articuno. Anyway, next time I'm probably not going to do Zapdos just yet. Instead, I'll be focusing my efforts on battling Blaine before heading back to the Abandoned Power Plant.

I suppose it should also be mentioned that, if you're uninterested in battling Articuno just yet, it will be much faster to get to Cinnabar by flying to Pallet Town and surfing south. Just keep in mind that you can't actually get to Articuno if you enter Seafoam Islands from the West because the currents in the water will be too strong and you'll be restricted to the western side of the cave. In order to get through, you'll need to enter from the East side and block off the water currents on both 3F and 4F using the boulders from the higher floors!

Anyway, with all that said, I think next time we'll be exploring Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island!

[Aura]

Pokemon Mansion

Once again, there isn't much to really cover here. I went through the dungeon and completed it, nothing too special there.

 

Along the way, I picked up a soft version-exclusive Weezing which isn't totally necessary for pokedex completion since you can just evolve a Koffing in Leaf Green, but again, it'll help with the 60 I need and it'll save time with evolution later.

--------------------

Along with catching a Weezing, I also taught Apollo Steel Wing in place of Metal Claw, it's 5% less accurate but has a pretty significant boost in power. This doesn't have any particular relevance to anything we're doing today, but I held off on doing that when I was entertaining the idea of raising a Scyther and forgot to use the TM when I decided against that.

Speaking of Steel attacks, Gray leveled up enough in here to learn Iron Tail! Honestly, this move isn't too terribly important because it's basically an inferior Earthquake, but it does have the upside that it has a chance to reduce the opponent's defense. Steel isn't a very good offensive type attack for a Ground-type. Its main use is to cover for Grass. But, it'll be nice to have a strong attack that can hit enemies with Levitate! I replaced DragonBreath since that was only really doing significant enough damage against really underleveled pokemon anyway.

=============

Cinnabar Gym

Now it was time to take on the Cinnabar Gym! I was mostly able to breeze through the trainers here with just Blue and Gray. From there, and then it was time to battle with the Gym Leader Blaine!

================

My Team:

--------------------

Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 45

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Steel Wing

------------------------

Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 44

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

--------------------------

Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 44

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

------------------------

Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 44

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Slash

-------------------------------

Gray (Onix M); Lv. 45

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, Iron Tail, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

-------------------------

Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 45

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Surf, Twister, Agility, Ice Beam

==================

Cinnabar Gym Leader Blaine

-------------------------

Growlithe Lv. 42

 

I decided to lead off with Gray, but his lack of Strength prevented him from OHKOing even Blaine's Growlithe! His Fire Blasts were doing a lot of damage and after he healed with a Hyper Potion, Gray's health wasn't looking to great by the time he'd managed to take out Growlithe.

-------------------------

Arcanine Lv. 47

 

Of course, Blaine decided to ensure he would be dealing with this Onix no longer by sending out Arcanine for the assault! He took out the remainder of Gray's HP with a mere Bite, he never stood a chance.

 

Thankfully, my real out to Blaine's entire team was up to bat. With a single Surf, Arcanine was washed away.

----------------------

Ponyta Lv. 40

 

Ponyta's flames were dowsed with another Surf.

---------------------

Rapidash Lv. 42

 

And one more extinguished Rapidash!

-----------------------

MVP: Blue

Yeah, we've come a long way from struggling against every gym leader in the beginning of the game. Blue was more than prepared to deal with all of these foes on his own! I think MVP is unquestionable here.

================

Now then, with the Volcano Badge in tow, we can make our way toward the final gym, but first we've got a few stops to make. Namely, the intro to the Sevii Islands as well as the two Legendary Birds that remain! We also still need to restore our Dome Fossil, but that'll be done in a jiffy (as long as I don't forget about it, that is!)

So, next time, I think we'll be heading off to the Power Plant before we take Bill's offer to head to the Sevii Islands!

[Aura]

Cinnabar Island

Of course, after defeating Blaine, you're met outside the gym by Bill who wishes to take you with him to the Sevii Islands for a quest that will be important for obtaining the National Dex. (You can't actually obtain the National Dex until the PC storage system operations are restored on the Sevii Islands). What I didn't do last time, was say "no" to this request. Obviously, you aren't locking yourself out of important content by doing this. Bill will simply mention that his friend has yet to arrive yet, so you can meet him in the Cinnabar Pokemon Center if you decide to change your mind. I would like to hold off on this request for just a bit, because there is one thing I'd like to do here before we continue.

==============

In the Cinnabar Lab is a very important part of our pokedex completion: Restoring Fossils!

 

The Dome Fossil, I revived Kabuto who I named "Deep."

 

I named this Aerodactyl "Red" it might be a little weird to name a pokemon after yourself but, again, let's not think too much of my naming convention because I clearly didn't think it through very well when I started this journey.

================

After reviving my fossils, I organized my PC before meeting with Blue at the Pokemon Center on Cinnabar. This naturally brought me to One Island where I went ahead and completed the whole Lostelle quest. Since there's not much different here, I will only cover the areas significant to my overall journey. That said, I was reminded of a small area I forgot to cover in my cleanup of Leaf Green which I'll be sure not to forget before we move on from these games.

================

Two Island -- Cape Bring

At Cape Brink, I was able to teach Apollo Blast Burn in place of Scary Face! This move will be extremely powerful, but we'll need to be extra careful about using it at the wrong time!

------------------------

 

In addition, I encountered Gloom here on Cape Brink which I nicknamed "Midnight." Gloom isn't at its most common here, so I wasn't hunting for it, but finding it here will save me time in Berry Forest, for sure!

================

Berry Forest

Of course, in Berry Forest, there wasn't too much to note save for the "boss fight" against Hypno. I should note that, by planning ahead and bringing Orange with me, I was able to cut through a lot of the trees to create shortcuts between patches of tall grass, thus saving me some time in getting through.

=============

Wild Hypno Lv. 30

 

Kadabra turned out to be the ultimate counter for this Hypno. Just a couple of Seismic Tosses and it was down to catching range. I didn't really need to catch this thing, but I like to catch boss pokemon and it'd just be one less pokemon I'll have to get later!

 

I named Hypno "Banana" because I'm already kind of running out of ideas here.

================

After bringing Lostelle back to her father and delivering the Meteorite, I returned to One Island where Bill was ready to bring us back home. That's where we'll be staying for now, but we'll definitely be back here very soon and I think we all know why. But first, there's something I want to take care of back in Kanto.

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Route 10

I am of course talking about catching the Legendary Bird Pokemon Zapdos!

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Power Plant

Well, to be honest, it's not just Zapdos we're here for. While Zapdos is the key feature of this location, there is another specifically for Fire Red.

 

I'm of course talking about the version exclusive Electabuzz who I managed to encounter on my way to Zapdos, thankfully eliminating the need to hunt it down. I named it "Spark."

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Of course, the main spotlight here is still the boss fight with Zapdos, so we're naturally gonna go for that one!

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My Team:

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Apollo (Charizard M); Lv. 46

 

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Wing Attack, Blast Burn, Flamethrower, Steel Wing

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Yellow (Pikachu M); Lv. 46

 

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: ThunderBolt, Brick Break, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave

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Ivory (Kadabra F); Lv. 45

 

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Reflect, Seismic Toss, Psychic, Disable

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Ch'ding (Farfetch'd M); Lv. 46

 

Item: Stick 

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Fury Cutter, Slash

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Gray (Onix M); Lv. 45

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Dig, Iron Tail, Sandstorm, Rock Slide

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Blue (Seadra M); Lv. 46

 

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Surf, Twister, Agility, Ice Beam

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Wild Zapdos Lv. 50

 

I led off with Yellow in an attempt to paralyze the Zapdos. Zapdos also went for Thunder Wave and, obviously, outsped me. Thankfully, I was able to attack through paralysis and paralyze him with my own! I followed up with a couple of ThunderBolts before being taken out with Zapdos' Drill Peck.

 

Thanks to his high defense, Rock typing, and Leftovers, it turned out that Gray was the perfect counter to this Zapdos. There was nothing it could do against me while I chucked Ball after Ball. It took around 20 Ultra Balls to finally catch it, I only had 8 left when I succeeded.

 

I named Zapdos "Electric" and that was that.

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With Zapdos captured, there's only one more Legendary Bird left and it's resting atop Mt. Ember. Next time, it's back to the Sevii Islands from Vermilion City Port and then I'll try to squeeze in the Viridian City Gym!