• Professor Elm's Lab

After the character creation process, you will find yourself in your room in New Bark Town. Walk downstairs and you'll be stopped by your mom, who will give you all the menu items to use. You may want to play with the options at this point, but nothing is really necessary.

Leave your house and your neighbor and friend, either Lyra or Ethan, will briefly introduce themselves. Head next door into Prof. Elm's lab. He requests that you take a Pokémon with you and walk with it for his research. Shortly after, he receives an E-mail from an acquaintance of his about a discovery. Naturally, he's too busy and requests that you go see what it's about.

All the starters are roughly equal, but the game will be harder should you choose one over the other. Cyndaquil makes the game much easier, given the enemies you'll encounter, while Chikorita will make it much harder. Totodile is a good average choice.

Before leaving, Prof. Elm's assistant will give you five potions to assist you on your journey. Exit the lab and your friend will recommend you show your new Pokémon to your mom. She wishes you good luck on your journey and gives you your Pokégear, which you can use to make calls on. Now, feel free to leave New Bark Town. Prof. Elm will stop you before you get too far, and give you his Phone Number. Calling him normally isn't all that helpful, but he'll call you every now and then.

This route is pretty straightforward. Not a lot to do here. Just head to the west until you reach Cherrygrove City. I recommend you stick around for a bit and train up your Pokémon. You aren't too far to a place to heal up in either direction, so it's not a bad place. You might want to consider leveling up at least twice before reaching Mr. Pokémon's house.

If you're sticking around to train up your Pokémon, you may want to consider grabbing a Potion. It's sort of out of the way, but while you're here, you might as well get it. After the second patch of grass, instead of heading left, head right and you should find it.

• A Short Tour of Town

Right as you enter the city, the Guide Gent will stop you. He'll show you around town and show you the important buildings to look for in any major city you reach. After his tutorial, he'll thank you for keeping him company, and give you the Running Shoes. You can Press B to run in these, or tap the icon on the touch screen to run automatically.

I recommend you stop at the Pokémon Center before you leave town, Cherrygrove City is a good place to come back to, should you lose a battle. You may want to check out the Pokémart as well, but they don't have that great of a selection. The route ahead has a few poison types, so a few antidotes may not be a bad choice.

Head north to continue, but before you can do so, the Guide Gent will come back and stop you. He'll give you the Map Card, an upgrade to your PokéGear. The Map Card is the equivalent to the Town Map in the other Pokémon games.

• Apricorns!

Route 30 is a bit longer route, with a few trainers. However, they're all currently occupied by battle, so you won't have to worry about them. For players of SoulSilver version, Weedle may give you some trouble with its Poison Sting, while players of HeartGold will have trouble with Spinarak. Antidote is likely a smart thing to bring on this route. Head into the first house you come across and the man inside will give you the Apricorn Box. Outside his house is an Apricorn tree, bearing a Green Apricorn. These don't have much of a use yet, but keep them handy; they will soon.

• Mr Pokémon's House

Once you reach the fork in the road, head right. You'll reach yet another fork in the road, but this time the path you choose doesn't matter. Head through the grass and you'll reach Mr. Pokémon's house.

Mr. Pokémon will give you his discovery, the Mystery Egg, to show Prof. Elm. He'll heal your Pokémon, then Prof. Oak will give you a lecture. He'll tell you he sees potential in you, and hands you a Pokédex to fill on your journey. Before he leaves, he'll give you his phone number. You can call him at any time to have your Pokédex evaluated, and be given some tips on finding Pokémon for the Pokédex.

After leaving, Prof. Elm will call you, and tell you something disastrous has happened. Hurry back to Cherrygrove City!

Before you do anything, I recommend healing up at the Pokémon Center. You may want to buy a potion or two at the PokéMart, but we've acquired a number on our way here, and were given plenty. You should be fine, but if you're paranoid, it's not a bad idea.

Attempting to leave town will get you stopped by a boy with red hair, who will challenge you to a battle.

• Rival Battle One

Rival

• • • • •

500

If you picked Chikorita:

Totodile Lv. 5

• Scratch
• Leer

If you picked Cyndaquil:

Chikorita Lv. 5

• Tackle
• Growl

If you picked Totodile:

Cyndaquil Lv. 5

• Tackle
• Leer

This battle shouldn't be difficult, but it will be annoying if you haven't been training your Pokémon in the grass. If you chose Cyndaquil, using leer and tackling it should be a good strategy. However, for the others, its status move is offset by the opponent's, so just use your main attack.

After the battle, the boy will run off. You're now free to continue on to New Bark Town.

Return to Prof. Elm's lab and the Police Officer here will acuse you of the crime. After your friend pleads that you are innocent, he asks you for the boy's name. Feel free to name whatever you would like, this'll be his name for the rest of the game. He'll then leave, and Prof. Elm will ask for the discovery. He'll be very happy about this suprise, and suggest that you take the Pokémon Gym Challenge.

He recommends you tell your mom you're leaving, but that's not required. Talking to your mom will let her save some of the money you recieve from winning a battle. It adds up after awhile, so it may be a good idea. In addition, she'll occasionally buy items that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get.

After entering the route, your friend will be waiting for you. He/she'll show you how to catch Pokémon on your own. After showing you, he/she'll give you five PokéBalls for free use. Every PokéMart from this point on will sell PokéBalls for you to use, so stock up once you reach Cherrygrove City . On your way, make sure to grab the Green Apricorn, now that we have the Apricorn Box.

Follow the route the same was as if you were going to Mr. Pokémon's house, however, at the first fork in the road, head left. There are two trainers now that you can battle. It's possible to avoid the first one, but the second one is required. If you do battle the first one, you can grab his phone number, where he'll call you up for some training sessions later in the game. Leveling up a bit is recommended at this point, especially your weaker Pokémon, if you've captured any at this point.

At this point, if you didn't talk to her earlier, your mother will call. She'll ask about what she would have if you did talk to her: Do you want to save your money? It's really a personal opinion. If you think you'll be spend happy and want to make sure you can afford late-game expensive items, go for it. Otherwise, there's little benefit.

This route is very small. There's a trainer here who will give you his phone number if you battle him. There are some minor items laying around that may save you some money in town if you're considering buying them anyway, otherwise, they're worthless. This route should be pretty simple, so just walk right through.

You may want to consider capturing a Bellsprout here. A trainer in Violet City will offer to trade one for an Onix, a rock type that is effective against the resident Flying-Type gym. It would be a good idea, but there are other alternatives for an effective Pokémon.

Although a great opportunity is coming up, those of you paired up with Cyndaquil may want to stick around for a training session. With all the bug-types running around, it's an awesome spot to spout off flames.

Dark Cave isn't required to go in, but it's a good training spot, especially for those who picked either Chikorita or Totodile. You can pick up a Geodude here, another Rock Type that's good against flying types. Geodude is better stat wise, but may take a bit more patience to get it to learn its Rock-type move.

If you feel like exploring, you can grab another Potion and a Pokéball by looking around. It's dark in the cave (obviously) so you may not want to, considering these are minor rewards. Navigate around the set of rocks heading upward. Eventually you should reach the topmost wall. Head right until you see the first set of ledges you can jump down from. Do so and head down. You should spot an item ball containing a Potion. Slightly North-East to this is a set of rocks, with one slightly offset from the rest. Check that one and you'll find a PokéBall hiding amonst them.

If you're here trying to catch 'em all, the rare Dunsparce can be found here, but with a very, very low chance. Later in the game you'll be able to find it at a much more frequent rate, so that's likely not your best opportunity.

Violet City is home to the first gym of the game, so you'll want to start preparing for the challenge. The Violet City Gym is Flying-Type, so all three of the starters, especially Chikorita, won't have any advantage against them. There are quite a number of Pokémon you can catch to give you an edge. You can catch a Geodude in the nearby Dark Cave, trade a Bellsprout for an Onix, or in nearby Route 32, you can catch a Mareep during the mornings or the day.

There isn't much to offer around town. There's the Trainer School that may be worth checking out for anyone new to the series, but otherwise, it's just a bunch of regular people to talk to. You can make a trade in the southern-most house if you caught a Bellsprout. He'll offer a Onix, which will learn a move super effective against the resident Flying-Type gym the soonest. Combined with the fact that traded Pokémon earn experience faster, anyone not seeking to keep this Pokémon in their party long should probably pick this option.

Despite your preparations, the gym actually won't be open for us to challenge yet. The Gym Caretaker will recommend you try your luck at Sprout Tower first.

Tackling the Sprout Tower isn't favorable for those of you who chose either Geodude or Onix, as they're both weak to grass. While Mareep isn't in as bad of a position, its electric type attacks aren't very effective against grass either. As the name implies, Sprout Tower is home to monks who train primarily Bellsprout. If you want to get through the tower easily, catching either a Pidgey or a Hoothoot will make this tower a breeze. However, I recommend you train up your Pokémon for the gym challenge.

Climbing the tower is pretty straight-forward. The only major problem the monks should give you is the occasional Stun Spore. Carry some Parlyz Heal if you're worried about it, but it isn't a big deal. There are a few status healing items littered about the tower you may want to consider grabbing, but no major prizes. Once you're at the top, you'll stumble across your rival again. He won't challenge you to a battle, but will mock you. After the Elder critisizes his training methods, he leaves through use of an Escape Rope. Talk to the Elder to engage in battle with him!

• Elder Li

Elder Li

• • •

1200

Bellsprout Lv. 7

• Vine Whip
• Growth

Bellsprout Lv. 7

• Vine Whip
• Growth

Hoothoot Lv. 10

• Tackle
• Growl
• Hypnosis
• Peck

He shouldn't be much of a challenge, as he's very similar to all the rest of the monks. He has notably stronger Pokémon than the rest of the monks. If you selected Mareep to use against the Violet City Gym, it should be able to handle Hoothoot quite easily. After beating him, he will reward you with TM 70, Flash. If you didn't earlier, this can be used to explore Dark Cave much easier. There's an escape rope nearby that you can use to quickly exit the tower, or keep for later dungeons.

Violet City Gym is a Flying type gym. If you've been training any of the recommended Pokémon, you should be able to tear a hole right through this gym. Otherwise, it may pose as a minor threat. If you picked Chikorita as your starter, you may want to leave it behind. It will likely be much more hindering than helpful.

Most Gyms house some sort of puzzle to get past before you can face the leader, however Violet City gym houses none. There are two trainers in the gym, both with relatively weak Flying-types, but they're easily avoidable by walking on the glass that surrounds the entire gym. If your Pokémon are at least Level 10, or know a move effective against Flying-types, feel free to ignore them. Otherwise, battling them for the experience is recommended.

• Gym Leader Battle: Falkner

Leader Falkner

• • • •

1560

Pidgey Lv. 9

• Tackle
• Sand-Attack

Pidgeotto Lv. 13

• Tackle
• Roost
• Gust

Falkner is the trainer for the two weakest leader-owned Pokémon in the entire series. That being said, he isn't particularly easy. His Pidgey should go down easy, but his Pidgeotto may outlevel your Pokémon a bit. In addition, it has Roost. Roost will heal 50% of the user's health, and he uses it quite frequently. Unless you have an attack that will deal quite a bit of damage, it's likely this battle will last awhile.

Upon defeat, Falkner will congratulate you by rewarding you with the Zephyr Badge. This badge will raise the Attack stat of any Pokémon you are currently raising, and all you catch in the future. In addition, any Pokémon you own will obey your every command up until Level 20. Finally, it allows you to use the move, Rock Smash, outside of battle. In addition to the Zephyr Badge, Falkner will give you TM 51, Roost. If you own a Flying-Type, it is recommended that you teach it to them, as it is very useful.