Pokémon Red and Blue/Rocket Hideout

Don’t even think about leaving Celadon. If you try to exit to the west, you will find another extremely inconveniently placed sleeping Snorlax. Instead, let’s look at the town’s other attractions.

There is something fishy going on in this town. Go to the local diner (in the southeast) and chat up the clientele. Something very suspicious indeed, and no one can agree on what. If you try the shipping warehouse next door, you will learn that this depot is shipping over 2,000 Pokémon a month, most to be given as prizes at the Game Corner. One of the men says that any suspicious activity has absolutely nothing to do with the man standing in front of the poster inside the Game Corner. Nothing at all!

The fool. Go to the Game Corner. Talk to the man. He will turn out to be a Rocket. Defeat him and he will flee. Now examine the poster he was standing in front of, and a staircase will magically appear to the east. Welcome to…

The Rocket Hideout

You’ve stumbled upon Team Rocket’s secret base! It is your responsibility as protagonist to thwart whatever evil schemes Team Rocket might be planning. Let’s get to it!

This is a large area, with many branching paths, and many hidden items. Team Rocket must be running some very profitable scams, as virtually every item in their base is rare or valuable.

Rooting out Team Rocket completely will take a lot of time because their base is something of a labyrinth. If you follow this path, you will defeat every Rocket and collect every item in the area, and then defeat the mob boss leading this whole operation.

Go south into the large hallway. To the west is a Rocket, and, in the room behind him, an Escape Rope. To the east there is a room guarded by another Rocket. There is nothing in this room except a strange door that you cannot open. This will be your exit from the hideout once you’re finished here. In between these two rooms you will find an area with many potted plants. Examine the bottommost plant on the right side to find a hidden PP Up. Now go down the stairs to the second level.

You will now see one of the game’s most complex puzzles: directional pads. After you defeat the Rocket standing near the stairs, look at the area between the walls. Directional pads have arrows on them, and if you step on one, you will be launched in that direction, traveling in a straight line until you either hit another directional pad, or a stop pad that looks like four squares.

Here is a path through this maze that will enable you to collect every item within it:

Step on the bottom of the two tiles pointing left. You will hit a stop tile in the room’s northwest corner. Backtrack the way you came in on foot, and you will reach a nook containing a Nugget.
Step on any of the directional pads to return to where you were before. You might see an item ball hidden in a cranny, and you can get there on foot by going south. This is a Moon Stone.
Step on the topmost of the three right-pointing directional pads. You will land near another item ball, containing TM 07 (Horn Drill). Team Rocket is sure involved in some profitable scams for them to have this many valuable items just laying around!
Return again to the northwest corner. Of the two right-pointing pads here (not the one that you just stepped on), take the top one. When you land, go straight east. Once you stop, go west. You will now find two left-pointing pads on top of each other. For the fastest path towards clearing out Team Rocket’s hideout, take the top one and skip the next step. If you want to spend a little extra time to get an additional item, choose the top one.
Step on the bottom left-pointing pad and you will be flung close to the wall. Go southeast, and you will see two pads; take the right one. This will bounce you near a Super Potion. The only way out of this area will land you all the way back near where TM 07 was. Return to where you were at the end of step 4.
Step on the sole right-pointing pad. Follow the path after you stop and you will reach a room with stairs going up.

These stairs will take you to a large room on the entry level. There are two Rockets and a Hyper Potion here. To get out of the maze, step on the pad that leads up and you will be deposited back at the entrance. Now go down to the next floor.

Getting the Lift Key

When you arrive, go south to find a Rocket and TM 10 (Double-Edge) in a dead end. Go to the west, through the small opening… and find another directional pad maze. Fortunately, this one is much simpler.

Where there are two pads pointing in opposite directions, go left. Immediately south of there is another pad. Step on that one, then once you land, go south from there and you will land at a nook containing a Rare Candy.
Unfortunately, from here you’ll have to restart the maze from the beginning, as that is the way the the only directional pad leading out will take you. Get back on the left-pointing pad, then go south until you reach the next pad.
Once you stop, backtrack through the zigzag path and you will find four right-pointing directional pads arranged in a diagonal line. Take the one that is second from the bottom; the other three will dump you back where the Rare Candy was.

As you exit the maze you’ll fight a Rocket. Head south from him through the opening, then go northeast, where you will find another set of stairs. Take them down to the bottommost floor.

In this corridor, go south. You will find a room where there is a table with an HP Up on it. Now go north. Go around the table to the south and you will find TM 02 (Razor Wind).

The next Rocket you fight was instructed to guard a valuable item: the Lift Key. Problem is, where’s the lift to use it on?

Using the Lift Key

Return to the floor where the first giant pad maze was. Traverse the maze as before until you get to the stairs, but don’t take them this time. Continue on instead and you will reach an elevator. This elevator will take you to the first, second, or fourth floors of the hideout. First, let’s make a shortcut. Choose the first floor and go north past the Rocket. Once you defeat him, the large metal door you saw earlier will open, allowing you easy access to the entrance of the base. Now might be a good time to use the Pokémon Center, as we have a boss coming up. Once you are prepared, return to the elevator and choose the fourth floor.

Look at what we have here: a locked door with two Rockets guarding it. Something important must be inside. Before you take them on, check the room to the southwest to find an Iron. Defeat both Rockets and the door will open, allowing you to invade the boss’s office.

Boss — Giovanni (•2871 reward)

Level 25 Onix
Level 24 Rhyhorn
Level 29 Kangaskhan

Once you teach Team Rocket’s leader a lesson, he will give you something called the Silph Scope. Giovanni will then escape, to plot and scheme another day. Before you leave the area, examine the computer Giovanni was standing in front of to find the last item here, a Super Potion.