Pokémon Red and Blue/Boulder Badge

Starting your journey for real

Now your journey truly begins. Return north to Viridian City.

Remember the Poké Mart? They will now sell you items such as a Potion or a Poké Ball. You can learn more about the various status conditions by examining the blackboard in the house north of the Pokémon Center (the Pokémon School).

If you go further north, you will see that the man who had fallen has now gotten back up. You are now free to proceed to Viridian City’s north exit. If you talk to him, he will give you a short tutorial on how to use Poké Balls. Unfortunately, the Gym in this town is closed. The Gym Leader is apparently elsewhere.

Side trip: Route 22

If you are interested in a side trip, there is another direction you can take out of Viridian City. At the west side of the city you’ll find the path to Route 22. Shortly after you enter Route 22, you will find a patch of tall grass. Unlike the tall grass in Route 1, you can encounter Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀ (not the same species).

If you walk farther into the Route past the tall grass, you will encounter your rival and have a battle with him. He has a Lv.9 Pidgey and the same Pokémon he chose at Professor Oak’s lab, now Lv.8. If you defeat him, you will receive •280. (Every Trainer in the game gives you a set amount of money when you defeat them.) If you proceed even farther west, you will encounter the Pokémon League Gate. You cannot travel any further in this direction until late in the game.

Route 2

Your real direction, however, is north to Route 2. You will pass three Cut trees, and there will be another patch of tall grass here as well. In addition to the usual Pidgey and Rattata, you can also encounter either Weedle (if you are playing Pokémon Red) or Caterpie (if you are playing Pokémon Blue). At the north side of the Route, you will encounter a building. Walk into it and straight out the other side and you will be in Viridian Forest.

Viridian Forest

In this area you will find your first enemy Trainers: people who will walk up to you when you step into their line of sight and challenge you to a battle. There are three enemy Trainers in Viridian Forest.

Viridian Forest is large and sprawling, and you can find many more Pokémon here than you can on the previous Routes. There are also three items hidden in Viridian Forest. This is the best way to traverse Viridian Forest:

1. Starting at the tree you see at the entrance, go north and west through the tall grass. You will find a Poké Ball here.
2. Return to the entrance tree and go east, then north past the patch of tall grass. You will encounter an enemy Trainer here.
3. Either continue north through the grass, and battle another enemy Trainer at the end, or take the east path and bypass the area.
4. Just before you get to a fork in the road, you will find an Antidote. The decision of which path you take at this fork is meaningless. The east path simply winds around a bit before rejoining the west path. Head west and south; then zig-zag north and south until you reach another fork.
5. Head east at this fork to find a dead-end and a Potion.
6. Continue following the west path and, after defeating the third and final enemy Trainer in the area, make your way north to the exit.

After a very short jaunt up the other side of Route 2 (passing another Cut tree as you go), you will arrive in Pewter City.

Pewter City

Pewter City is the location of the first Pokémon Gym. This city is large and more open than Viridian City, with only two houses and a lot of open area. The large building at the north side of the city is the Pewter City Museum. If you try to enter, you will be charged •50 admission. There is absolutely no reason for you to need to do this. You’ll also notice a back door to the Museum, off to the right, but it is blocked by yet another Cut tree.

The other exit to Pewter City is to the east, but you’ll have to earn your first Gym badge before you can proceed that way. Be sure to heal at the Pokémon Center before entering the Pokémon Gym. If you are defeated, you will return to the last Pokémon Center you visited; it would stink to end up all the way back at Viridian City!

Pewter City Gym

The Pewter City Gym is very small, and contains mostly rocks. There is one enemy Trainer between you and Brock (although you can bypass him if you want). Oddly, despite this being the Rock-type Gym, the Trainer here uses only Ground-type Pokémon. (Even more strangely, none of the Pokémon in this Gym know any Ground-type or Rock-type moves.) Please see the Enemy Trainers section of this guide for information on the Pokémon you will encounter in this Gym.

Boss — Brock (•1385 reward)

1. Level 12 Geodude
2. Level 12 Onix

After you defeat Brock, you will receive the Boulder Badge, the first of eight Gym Badges you will need to earn to battle the Elite Four and Champion. Receiving the Boulder Badge will also give your Pokémon a 12.5% attack boost (for in-game battles only). It also permits you to use HM 05 (Flash) outside of battle, although you will not be able to do so until you receive the item much later in the game. You will also be given TM 34 (Bide), which is a move that Brock will use in battle.