Capturing Snorlax

Capturing Snorlax

Capturing Snorlax

Exit from the volunteer center now, and use Fly to return to Celadon City.  You are probably wondering why we are taking the Cycling Road instead of the Silent Bridge Route that is south of Lavender, as we happened to be in Lavender a moment ago.  The reason we are doing it this way is because we needed to pay a visit to the Department Store, and the Cycling Road Route is a bit shorter...  But rest assured we will be heading back to Lavender to clear that Route as well!

So first thing we will do is head over to the Department Store, and take the lift to the 5th Floor.  Head up on to the Roof and replace any of the reasonably priced health drinks that you used up.  Now that we have restocked that part of our kit, head back down to the 5th Floor and chat up the bloke at the counter.

First, sell off all of your Awakenings -- we no longer need those thanks to the Flute that Mr. Fuji gave us.  Sell that Nugget we found for a cool $5K now as well.   At the moment we only have around $30K, which is not really enough to buy all of the things we probably should have, so let's keep this careful, shall we?  Careful and frugal and just what we really need...

Head down to the next floor and chat up the clerk in the back who sells evolution stones now.

So that I am sure you know what ones do what, and to decide what you need, here is the details surrounding these stones listed by Stone, with "Starting Pokemon > Evolved Form" under them.

Fire Stone-based Evolutions (2)
Eevee > Flareon
Growlithe > Arcanine
Vulpix > Ninetails

Leaf Stone-based Evolutions (2)
Exeggcute > Exeggcutor
Gloom > Vileplume
Weepinbell > Victreebel

Moon Stone-based Evolutions (1)
Clefairy > Clefable
Jiggleypuff > Wigglybuff
Nidorina > Nidoqueen
Nidorino > Nidoking

Sun Stone-based Evolutions (1)
Gloom > Bellossom

Thunder Stone-based Evolutions (2)
Eevee > Jolteon
Pikachu > Raichu

Water Stone-based Evolutions (2)
Eevee > Vaporeon
Poliwhirl > Poliwrath
Shellder > Cloyster
Staryu > Starmie

(1) This stone must be found in treasure balls, it cannot be bought.  When selecting an evolution with this stone, give careful thought to your choice because there may not be enough stones in the game to evolve all of the Pokemon who use it!

(2) This stone can be purchased at the Celadon City Department Store as well as be found in treasure balls, so you do not have to worry about not having enough of these!

Note that the list above only addresses the Pokemon that can be evolved with stones in THIS game.  There are other Pokemon, from other lands, in the other games, that also use this form to evolve, so this is by no means a definitive listing!

We do not need to purchase stones in advance for the Pokemon that we do not have yet -- and we cannot really afford to do that anyway -- but we should think about getting stones for the ones we do have...  That would include:

Eevee (Varies)
Pikachu (Thunder Stone)
Weepinbell (Leaf Stone)

In addition, we have some Pokemon that use stones we have to find, which are:

Clefairy (Moon Stone)
Jiggleypuff (Moon Stone)
Nidorina (Moon Stone)
Nidorino (Moon Stone)

So far we have found a total of two (2) Moon Stones in the game -- and I know I used one of them to evolve Nidorina into Nidoqueen.  That leaves me with a need for three more Moon Stones but only one in hand, however to my certain knowledge there are five (5) actually available in the game, so we should keep an eye out for those!

At the moment the only stone that we need to purchase is a Thunder Stone and a Leaf Stone.  We will be back later as needed for the others though -- but go ahead and buy that one now if you did not already do so.  The Pokedoll is a defensive decoy, and if you can afford it, it would not hurt to have one in your kit.  I bought one.

Now down to the 2nd Floor, where we have some simple choices to make...

IF you used up your Dig TM that we recovered from the Rocket Thug earlier on a Pokemon that is either not in your party or is not your main HM Mule, you can purchase a replacement here for $2000.  If the above describes your situation, I would buy one now.  In addition, TM43, Secret Power, can be incredibly useful and powerful if you have a Pokemon who you feel is underpowered or does not have a really hard-hitting move in its set.  Your call on this...

Finally check in with the second clerk, who has the general kit items.  I remind you that we no longer need the Awakening items, but most of the others you should be carrying at least 10 of...  With respect to Revive, 5 would be plenty, and as for the Super Potion, I don't buy those anymore now that we have access to the vending machines on the Roof. 

Poke Balls are a heavy matter...  I honestly think that the regular ones are adequate for most Pokemon, with the higher level ones only really being needed for rare and catch-resistant types.  That being the case, I carry 25 regular, and 15 of each of the other types that I can buy, and in this case that is just the Great Ball, since we do not have access to purchase any of the others...  So I recommend you have between 10 and 15 of them.

Exit from the Department Store now.  If you are low on regular Poke Balls, Fly to Viridian CIty and stock up there.  Now Fly Vermilion City (isn't Fly awesome?).

Head south and then east along Route 11 to the gatehouse -- enter and then exit out the other side -- and you now find yourself facing the sleeping giant!

-- Snorlax I --

First let me say, this is probably going to be one of the most frustrating captures in your game.  Often in cases like this it comes down to luck, but there are things you can do to improve you chances here, and there is a technique that is known to work better than most, and I will be sharing that with you below.  First though, I want to assure you that you CAN catch this guy, even if it seems like you cannot!

When you exit the gatehouse and walk down the path towards the bridge you will see, laying on the ground before you, your arch nemesis, Snorlax!   He is a rare and awesome-sized Pokemon! 

I say "rare" because there are only two (2) in the whole game!  That being the case, you do NOT want to KO this one, you want to catch it!  And you want to catch the other one too, so that you have a spare you can trade to a friend!  We are going to capture this bad boy now...  And you will see from the video that it can be done in under 7 minutes!  In fact it took me a total of just under 5 minutes to capture him.

Before we being this epic capture there are a few things we need to do...  First, make sure that your Victreebel knows the move Sleep Powder -- it should but make sure.  Put Victreebel in the first party slot (if you still have not used the Leaf Stone to evolve him do that now).   Right, now SAVE your game!

You need to save now, after you complete the above steps but before you engage it so that if things go really sideways you can reload and not lose this one.

Now just do the following, rinse and repeat as needed, and you WILL capture it:

(1) Blow the flute to wake him up.
(2) Immediately use the move Sleep Powder to put him back to sleep.
(3) Use the move Acid to damage him.
(4) Keep using Acid until he is in the smidgen of yellow or in red.
(5) Use Great Balls (NOT Regular Balls) to capture him.  You will not need all 15.
(6) When he wakes up, hit him with Sleep Powder immediately.  If you fail, or he manages to use his Rest Move and recovers his health, go to number (1).
(7) If your Sleep Powder put him back to sleep, resume throwing balls to capture him.
(8) Captured!  Now give him a name and send him to storage!

If you have had trouble with him using any other tactic than the one I have outlined above, I will totally understand if you are skeptical, but this tactic really does work.  Watch the video for this section and you will see it in action -- a painless catch, or at least mostly painless!

-- Snorlax II --

Now Fly to Celadon City, hit the Pokecenter, heal and save, then look at your new Snorlax resting in the Incoming Box!  Move him to the Normal Box now, and then visit the Department Store to replace the Great Balls you used, before you head for the west exit of town, where you will find the second of the two Snorlax that exist in Kanto!

All that you need to do is repeat the numbered steps above for this one, and you will quickly capture it.  After it is safely captured, pull out your trusty Item Finder and do a quick scan to detect the hidden held item, Leftovers, which you certainly want to grab!