After creating your character with Professor Oak, you will be taken into your room in Pallet Town. Check the PC in the top-left corner of the room and withdraw the potion from it. Head downstairs and talk to your mom. She'll tell you that Professor Oak was looking for you. However, if you were to head next door, you'll only find his granddaughter, Daisy, who won't be very helpful. Attempt to leave town and Prof. Oak will stop you and take you to his lab.

At his lab, Prof. Oak will tell you about his youth as a trainer, and how he wants you and your rival to both be trainers yourselves. He'll offer you the first choice at your starter. The choices are Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Bulbasaur will be the most useful at the beginning, Squirtle will be useful at varios times, and Charmander will be useful towards the end of the game. Pick whatever starter you'd like, and your rival will select whichever is strongest against yours.

Once you try to leave the lab, your Rival will challenge you to a battle to test out your new Pokemon.

• Rival Battle 1

Your Rival will use whatever Pokémon is strongest against yours. However, at this point in the game, neither side will have an elemental attack, so we don't have to worry about type disadvantages. If you have Squirtle, use Tail Whip once to lower his defenses, allowing you to deal more damage per turn than your opponent. Hack away with your attack move to take him down. If you're worried about health, use your potion you got from the PC earlier. It should be an easy battle. Don't worry if you lose; the game will continue as normal.

After the battle, your Rival will leave and you are free to do so as well. Head north out of Pallet Town, as we are finished here for now.

Route 1 is a simple route and has two Pokemon that you can find: Rattata and Pidgey. Both are found at low levels here, so if you wish to train your Pokemon up a few levels, here would be a good spot.

You can find a man who works at the Poké Mart in Viridian City in the route who will offer you a free sample of Potion as a promotional item. We'd better pay them a visit to thank him!

Simply walk through the route and head north into Viridian City

Viridian City is the first Major City we'll visit. There's a trainer school in town that you might want to go visit if this is your first Pokémon game. Visit the Pokémon Center in town to heal your Pokémon. Head over to the Poké Mart in town. Once inside, the clerk there will ask if you came from Pallet Town. He says he has a package for Prof. Oak and requests that we deliver it to him.

On the west side of town is a small path between the mountains and a patch of trees. If you walk through this path, you'll find yet another free Potion for our use. Head south to Route 1. You can use the ledges to get back to Pallet Town without going in the grass. Make your way to Pallet Town any way you'd like.

Back in Pallet Town, return to Prof. Oak's lab who will be thankful that you brought the package to him. Your Rival will come in immediately after, wondering why he was called. Prof. Oak goes on about how he wanted to record information about every Pokemon in existance when he was younger, and he wants you both to do it for him using the Pokedexes he gives you. He also gives you both five Poke Balls to capture Pokemon with.

Before leaving, he says how his Sister has a Town Map that he'll borrow from her. He says that he'll tell her not to give one to you. If you go over to his house and ask her, she'll happily give you one anyway. We can now head back to Viridian City.

Once you're in Viridian City, head west past the mountains to Route 22. This route houses a few new Pokemon we want to take a look at. We'll be facing our Rival again soon, so for those of you who picked Squirtle, you might want to pick up a Spearow here. Spearow starts with Peck, a flying type move. Alternatively you can grab a Pidgey, but it'll be much harder to train, as it doesn't learn Gust for awhile. The Mankeys that roam here are weak to flying-type moves, so it'll be easy pickings for your Spearow. I recommend leveling up your team to at least Level 9.

For those of you who picked Charmander, you'll have few opportunities to pick up a good Pokemon against the first gym leader, Brock. Brock uses Rock type Pokemon, which are strong against Fire type, making Charmander unwelcome there. The Mankeys that roam around here are Fighting type, which are strong against Rock. Pick one up here and it'll learn Low Kick and Karate Chop at fairly low levels. Fighting Type is the only type super-effective against Normal type Pokemon, so the Rattata around here will be fair game to your Mankey.

After you're done preparing, head past the grassy area and your Rival will stop you in your tracks and challenge you to a battle.

• Rival Battle 2 Optional

Your Rival will lead out with Pidgey. If you chose Bulbasaur, make sure to leave him out of the front. If you picked up a Mankey, leave him out of the front, too. They're both weak to Flying Type moves. There are no good Pokemon to pick up to take down his Pidgey, so rely on STAB moves to take it down. His final Pokemon is his starter. It has since learned a type-move, so leave your Starter out of this. If he chose Bulbasaur, it doesn't pose much of a threat to Squirtle, as it has Leech Seed as opposed to a direct-attack move. Take down his Bulbasaur with a few Pecks from your Spearow. Otherwise, again, you'll have to rely on STAB moves. Overall, it'll take a bit of leveling on your part, but it should be an easy battle.

After the battle, head through Viridian City north to Route 2.

Viridian Forest is home to our first proper Trainer Battles. There are tons of Bug Catchers and Bug type Pokemon, so if you didn't choose Charmander at the start of your journey, grab either a Spearow or Pidgey for easy pickings here. Of the Pokemon we can capture, the most notable is Pikachu, the earliest Electric Type we can get. If you didn't choose Bulbasaur, the second gym leader, while somewhat distant for now, will fear our little rodent should you happen upon one.

Once inside the forest, head to the Left, where we'll find a Poke Ball just lying in the grass. Head back to the entrance and to the right where there's another patch of grass and a free Potion lying within. Head up from here and you'll face off against two Bug Catchers. Make use of either your Flying Types, or STAB moves to take them both down rather easily.

Just past the second Bug Catcher is an Antidote for the taking. This Forest is full of Weedle, equipped with Poison Sting. This move has a chance to poison any of our Pokemon. If you started with Bulbasaur, he has nothing to worry about; Poison Types are immune to Poison. The Antidote we just found will quickly get rid of any Poison our Pokemon contract. Otherwise, if you're worried, use Potions on them often, or take them back to the Pokemon Center in Viridian City.

At this point you'll be faced with two paths, to the left and to the right. If you were go to the right, you'd just make a big circle, face a trainer and come back into the grass anyway, so just head into the grass. We'll be making weaving motions until we exit the forest. There's a random trainer facing the trees. If you try and talk to him, he'll battle you, so don't if you don't want to battle. After the second weave is a small grotto with a Potion lying on the ground. Pick it up and the last weave has one last trainer before we exit the forest

Despite being home to the first Gym in the game, there actually isn't a single thing to do here. You can check out the Museum in town, but there isn't anything interesting there. All the residents in town will tell you generic information about battling, so there isn't use talking to them. You can head straight to the gym if you'd like.

The gym houses one Trainer besides the gym leader himself, and he uses two Ground Types, meaning if you captured a Pikachu, you'll want to leave it. Charmander will have a tough time here. If you captured a Mankey earlier, make sure to train it up to at the very minimum Level 6 where it learns Low Kick. You can skip the trainer and head straight to the gym leader, but you'll be missing out on some experience. Whether you battle him or not, challenge the Gym Leader, Brock to a battle!

• Gym Battle 1

If you didn't choose either Squirtle or Bulbasaur, you'll want to make sure you have a Mankey handy. Brock will be a challenge with Charmander, especially his Onix. Geodude doesn't have any Rock Type moves, but still has some heavy defenses that will make chipping away at it lengthy. Make use of super effective Grass, Water and Fighting type moves to take down both his Geodude and his Onix.

After the battle, Brock will reward you with the Boulder Badge signifying his defeat. In addition, he'll reward you with TM 39, Rock Tomb. TMs are used to instantly teach your Pokemon a new move. This particular one in addition to hurting, will lower the opponent's speed stat as well. Congratulations on the win!