The Trip to Violet City

The Trip to Violet City

Apricorn Collecting

Once you have trained your party up to at least Level 12 so that you are ready for the first gym you are ready to go (but be aware if you have completed the trade for the Onix that once you level it beyond Lvl 10 or 11 it will stop complying with your orders until you obtain the first gym badge, so you may want to hold off on taking it higher than Lvl 10). 

Obviously higher is better, but 12 is the minimum you will want to be at when you face the gym leader, so that you can make mistakes without it actually costing you the battle, so you may as well get that bit out of the way and train-up your team now.  If you did not begin with a water Pokemon, that will be the only gap in your team but you can correct that ahead and prior to the gym battle if you like!  Also note that having an extra Bellsprout would be a good idea -- we will cover why in a bit, but if you are going to get one, go ahead and get two!

From Cherrygrove head up Route 30 past the Apricorn Collector's house.  Remember to check the top of the tree there as the Apricorn may have re-grown, and if so go ahead and grab that again!  After you clear the tall grass to the right of the Collector's house move to the left path instead of heading up the right, which would take you to Mr. Pokemon's house.

If you have not already explored this section of the Route you will now be able to fight the pair of trainers who were fighting each other earlier, so do that.  Just past the second trainer now that the path is not blocked, you will spot a sign that has a trainers tip on it.  There is another trainer to fight ahead, Bug Catcher Don, and just past him on the right is a path that leads to Mr. Pokemon's house -- if you had Cut, which you do not.

-- Route 31 --

Route 31 Beasties List

-- Bellsprout
-- Caterpie  #024 (Day) Normal
-- Exeggcute #105 (Any) Headbutt
-- Hoothoot #015 (Night) Normal
-- Hoothoot #015 (Any) Headbutt
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Fishing
-- Metapod #025 (Day) Normal
-- Pidgey #010 (Day) Normal
-- Pineco #093 (Any) Headbutt
-- Poliwag #072 (Any) Surf
-- Poliwhirl #073 (Any) Surf
-- Rattata #017 (Night) Normal
-- Spinarak #032 (Night) Normal
-- Spinarak #032 (Any) Headbutt

As you head up the stairs ahead you will cross onto Route 31, which happens to be a good place to snag a second Bellsprout.  You can name it 'Trade Me' if you like -- I did to remind me that it was caught for trading.  Around the corner here is the entrance to the Dark Cave -- we do not want to go in there just now -- and to the left of the entrance is a treasure ball with a potions, so grab that and then continue to the left (West) down the stairs.

Head south to fight Bug Catcher Wade, who will exchange phone numbers with you once you have beaten him.  After the fight, grab the treasure ball southeast of him with a Poke Ball, and then check out the tall grass behind him.  In the morning you can catch a Ledyba here, and in the morning/daytime you can catch a  Metapod if you do not already have it.

Be sure to grab the black Apricorn from the tree above before you continue west!

As you pass through the gatehouse ahead you will be stopped by Lyra again -- she now gives you the Vs. Recorder, a Key Item that goes into that pocket.  This allows you to record battles, either with trainers or friends.

-- Violet City --

Violet City Beasties List

-- Exeggcute #105 (Any) Headbutt
-- Hoothoot #015 (Any) Headbutt
-- Magikarp #076 (Any) Fishing
-- Pineco #093 (Any) Headbutt
-- Poliwag #072 (Any) Surf / Fishing
-- Poliwhirl #073 (Any) Surf

As you exit the gatehouse you arrive in Violet City!  Standing to the right of the Pokecenter door ahead is a boy who trades berries for shards -- remember that for future reference.  Inside you should heal and save -- and swap one of your party for the trading Bellsprout while you are here.  Talk to the people inside to learn about Team Rocket, traded Pokemon, who made the Pokemon Storage System, and the chance to tell a TV Star what you think of him!

-- Primo's Secret --

The TV Star Primo has another function in the game -- if you know the secret codes, you can unlock backgrounds and obtain some useful eggs through him!  To unlock the eggs and the backgrounds you need the secret codes, and you can obtain those by using your web browser and going to the site "http://www.filb.de/games/tools/aikotoba?l=en" where you are prompted to enter your trainer number -- you get that off of your Trainer Card.

Using the site above, enter your trainer number, game, and language, and it will return the secret codes that you need to tell Primo!  In addition to the backgrounds you can also get three eggs from Primo, an egg for a Mareep, a Wooper, and a Slugma!  How cool is that?

I have heard other players say that they were not able to unlock all of the items when they first arrived at Violet City -- you may not know some of the words that you need for his phrases at the moment, and may need to return to Primo later, when you do know the words...  I am not sure how accurate that is considering that I was able to unlock everything when I arrived the first time, but YMMV.

Obtain Codes for the following items from Primo:

- Mareep Egg
- Slugma Egg
- Wooper Egg
- Big Brother Background
- Heart Background
- Kimono Girl Background 
- Pokeathlon Background
- Revival Background
- Soul Background
- Spiky Pika Background
- Trio Background

You can unlock them one after the other, though with the backgrounds you may want to check in the Storage PC after unlocking each one to be sure that it took!

If you head upstairs you will notice that the Communications Club Colosseum and the Wireless Club Union Room are now open -- technically they opened once you had three Pokemon in your party, but the fact that they are now open should be noted if you want to trade with a friend or move some of your more advanced Pokemon in from other games.  Note that the Underground is still closed.

-- First Trade --

Exit the Pokecenter and head to the house southwest of it (nearby).  Inside there is a kid who, if you talk to him, will trade you an Onix for that extra Bellsprout I suggested that you obtain.  Bonus!  You have just completed your first NPC>Player trade!  Now granted, you would have eventually caught an Onix, but this way you have it now, and that will come in handy when we fight the gym leader!

So if you like (I did) go ahead and level him up, but be aware that he will never be fully controllable until you get that first badge!  If you are going to train him up you may want to also throw the three eggs you just picked up from Primo into your party and run them to hatching -- I chose to do this as well for an obvious reason:  Slugma can have Magma Armor, and having him in the party with it when you are trying to hatch other eggs reduces the number of steps it takes.

In addition to that, Wooper is a Water/Ground Type which fills that slot in the party, and Mareep is an Electric, which you will want available for rotation into your party at certain points.  You do not have to take the time to hatch these -- it takes almost 9,000 steps to hatch an egg -- but the benefit to doing so at this stage of the game is incalculable.