Cerulean City

Cerulean City

An epic Gym Battle in Cerulean City

This seaside city is home to the famous Gym Leader Misty, and is one of only two cities in the region that has four different routes in and out.  Attractions in Cerulean include the Bicycle Shop and the Berry Powder Man, as well as the City Gym.

The first thing that we need to do upon reaching the city is head directly to the Pokecenter to heal and save.  With that accomplished, head over to the PC and distribute your newly captured Pokemon to their proper boxes.  At this point we have actually caught all of the Pokemon for our "Base Team" because we have a Geodude!

Go ahead and move that Geodude into your party, and place the temporary slot 6 guy in its proper storage box just to get that out of the way.  The reason that we choose Geodude for our final party member -- for now that is -- has more to do with the fact that he is a multi-Type Pokemon than it does anything else.  If you examine him you will note that he is a Rock and Ground Type.  This is good -- eventually most of our team will consist of multi-types, but for now he is the best fit.

We are going to want to pause to get him leveled up to the base level of our party, but before we do that why don't we take care of some local exploration first?

-- The Pokecenter --

First have a chat with the old man at the table -- who will talk to you about Bill.  Pay attention to what he says, this Bill person could be important!  The boy near the counter will also tell you about Bill, as will the boy at the door, whereas the girl at the far left side of the counter simply wants you to go trade Pokemon with yoru friends.  Hmm, this Bill character sounds interesting -- we should keep an eye out for him!

-- Cerulean City --

There is a boy to the west of the Pokecenter who will tell you about the Slowbro blocking the path, and if you head inside the house here, an old couple inside will welcome you.  The wife urges you to trade Pokemon with her husband, and he wants you to trade him a Poliwhirl -- which we do not have at the moment -- for which he will give you a Jynx.  Keep that in mind but say no, since you do not have what he wants.

The bloke below in the street is amused by you, and the boy outside the Bike Shop wants a red one.  Inside the bike shop you can learn about the different bikes from the customers, and the counter man will happily sell you a bike... For $1 million bucks that is!  We don't have that much money and, even if we did...  But no worries mate, something will turn up to get us a bike later, I am sure.

In the house next to the store is a bored old man -- and of course in the store are a few customers to give you some advice on your shopping.  Talk to the person at the counter to re-stock your kit while you are here, as that is one more chore out of the way!

-- The Poke Mart --

There is a new item on the menu here -- The Super Potion -- but at $700 it is a bit steep and, more to the point, it heals more points than our current team would likely need at any one time, so you may as well not bother adding that to your kit right now.

Your kit should have, at a minimum:

- 10 Poke Balls (or more)
- 5 Potions
- 3 Antidotes
- 3 Paralyze Heals
- 1 Awakening
- 1 Burn Heal
- 1 Escape Rope
- 1 Repel (or more)

If you have the extra money I would spend it on more Poke Balls rather than Super Heals but that is me...

-- Back in the City --

The girl next to the Slowbro cannot seem to control him, as it is ignoring her orders to move.  Above the store near the Gym is an amateur trainer who wants you to commiserate with them, and after you do follow the road west and then north to the first house above, and go inside.

The old man at the table in here will talk to you about Pokemon Badges -- if you are playing this one for the first time and it is your first Pokemon game, you may want to talk to him and hear him out -- it will not hurt you to do so at any rate.

Whether you talk to him or not, be sure that you exit through the back door of this house, and stand on the lower right flower to the right, looking left and hit the A Button to discover a hidden Rare Candy here!  What a wonderful find!  As you probably know by now, Rare Candy will instantly raise the level of your Pokemon by one -- so hold on to those for use at much higher levels, where its value really stands out!

The house next door is where the Berry Man lives -- head inside to chat with him now, and he will ask you if you are interested in Berries.  Say yes!  By saying yes, you will cause him to give you a Key Item: Powder Jar.  He tells you about the new Berry Crushing Machines that are located in the Pokecenter upper floors, and asks you to get him powder with that machine when you have the chance.

On the wall in here is a poster that lists the best Berry Crush times if you are curious to see how well you did after you do some crushing.

There is a coppa standing next to the house to the east, and if you chat him up he will tell you that the place was robbed, and that he suspects that Team Rocket is behind the theft.

-- Third Rival Battle --

Right, now before we do anything else, approach the steps to the bridge to the north to trigger our third encounter with our Rival -- Gary!  That is correct -- he wants another battle because he is desperate to win and thus prove that he is better than us.  Well fat chance of that LOL.

Gary now has four Pokemon in his team -- a Level 17 Pidgeotto worth 411 XP, his Starter, which in my case is Squirtle, that is now Level 18 and worth 253 XP, a Level 16 Abra, worth 249 XP, and lastly, his Level 15 Rattata, which is worth 183 XP and $288.

That was not a bad fight, and Gary is getting a little better, but clearly he does not have a solid relationship with his team just yet, or an advanced understanding of Type vs. Type.  After you beat him he tells you about Bill!  Gary lets slip that it is Bill who invented the Pokemon Storage Computer, and before leaving, gives you a Fame Checker as a gift.

Open your bag and activate the Fame Checker in your Key Items Pocket to see what it does!  As you can see, it lets you check the fame level for some of the people that you have met.   When you check each of the people that it has in it at the moment you will notice that it is divided by informal relations through organization, and it details the data you have discovered about that person from each of the people you have spoken with so far...  Very handy if you are keeping track of the details you have been uncovering!

Hit the Pokecenter now to heal and save,  and then head next door to the Gym to take on Misty!

-- Cerulean City Gym Battle --

The Cerulean City Gym

A chat with the Gym Greeter should give you a clue as to what you are facing here -- and being that I chose Charmander as my Starter, I am none too confident!  The only thing for it is for me to take on the Assistant Gym Leaders to get a better idea of how difficult this one will be!

The first AGL is Swimmer Luis, who fields a Level 16 Horsea worth 283 XP, followed by a Level 16 Shellder worth 331 XP and $64.  That was not too bad, two one-hits in a row!

Next we battle Picnicker Diana, who has a Level 19 Goldeen worth 451 XP and $380!  Okay, I am really happy that I took the time to catch a Pikachu and level it to the team base level, let me tell you!

One Electric Type Pikachu is not going to be enough to carry this battle to a successful conclusion if I am not very very lucky -- and I cannot count on luck -- so I temporarily retreat from the Gym to alter my team setup.  We have to approach this strategically.

Our first decision is to remove Charmander and Geodude from the team, as they are the weakest links.  Both are very weak to Water Type attacks, and that is what Misty uses, so taking them into the battle is pointless.  I decide to replace them with Mary-Kate (my Nodoran F) and Minnie (my Rattata), and then I head to the Tall Grass patch to the west to level them up.  I want my entire team to be Level 18 going into this battle -- and that means I have to level up most of them one more level and the two new ones a half-dozen levels!

An Hour Later

Okay, my team is not properly prepared, and I sropped by the Poke Shop to purchase two Super Potions *just in case* I need them.  Yeah, I know that is over-kill, but you know what the Boy Scouts say, right?  I am as ready as I am likely ever to be, so here we go, let us take on Misty, Gym Leader and companion to Ash Ketchum!

For the Record my Team consists of:
- Leader:  Peeka (Level 18 Pikachu) Electric Type
- Second: Mary-Kate (Level 18 Nidoqueen) Poison/Ground Type
- Third: Muhamad (Level 18 Mankey) Fight Type
- Fourth: Stoolie (Level 18 Pidgeotto) Normal/Flying Type
- Fifth: Buzz (Level 18 Beedrill) Bug/Poison Type
- Sixth: Minnie (Level 18 Rattata) Normal Type

Obviously the team is heavy on the Normal Type, bit two of those are rotation members of the A-Team (Buzz and Mary-Kate), and the other is not an A-Team member (Minnie).   Mary-Kate was captured as a Nidoran F, and at Level 16 evolved into a Nidorina.  Just prior to heading into the Gym for the battle I used the Moon Stone that we picked up in Mt. Moon earlier to trigger her final evolution form which is Nidoqueen, though I am not sure what - if any - benefits that had.

The point here is that the team detailed above is pretty close to what you should already have save for some minor differences in level development presuming you did not make it a routine to pause to balance the levels for your A-Team members including the alternates.  Whatever the differences, you should easily be able to adjust your team to match the above stats with the investment of modest time and effort.  Using Rattata as a fill-in for the battle with Misty is optional -- you can use any of the standard box class (ie non-team designated) Pokemon that you own, I just thought since it was likely a higher level it was the obvious choice.

-- Battling Misty --

Musty opens the battle with her Level 18 Saryu, and I used my Level 18 Rattata -- my first hit was with Hyper Fang, which took her down to a slice of health, but she instantly used a Super Potion -- no surprise. 

I hit her with another Hyper Fang snapping off a major chunk of HP but not as much as the first hit, then I hit her again, taking out the Staryu with Rattata without actually taking any damage on my Rattata at all!  Her Level 18 Staryu was worth 408 XP.

Her second Pokemon is a Level 21 Starmie -- I stuck with my Rattata (Minnie) figuring that she was toast anyway but I might get in the first hit -- nope.  That Starmie has massive speed stats and one-shot me right out of the gate!  Clearly this required some basic strategy in the battle, so I brought out Buzz and managed to land a String Shot before he was confused by her Starmie, and a second String Shot after he was confused before being taken out, which nicely altered her speed stat!

Next I used Stoolie to lower her accuracy with a pair of sand-attacks, and used my other Pokemon as meat shields while I revived Pikachu and healed him to full health.  With her Starmie's accuracy compromised and speed stat now lower than my own, I was able to get the first shot in, and a solid hit with Pikachu's Thundershock took her down!

You know, this fight could go either way -- despite the fact that she only has two Pokemon, I have always thought that this was the hardest Gym Battle in the game if you choose Charmander as your Starter.  The irony is that this battle is a cakewalk with the other two!  Still, I prefer to start with a Fire Type, just the same.

After the battle ends Misty presents us with our second Gym Badge -- the Cascade Badge -- which allows us to control all Pokemon up to Level 30 (including traded Pokemon), and use the HM Cut outside of battle.  She also gifts us with TM03, Water Pulse, which was a very annoying attack to face but likely will be a gratifying one to use when we have a proper Water Type to teach it to!

With Misty managed and our new badge in hand it is time drop by the Pokecenter to heal and save, and then to head back out onto the bridge,  which takes you on to Route 24, where we will finally solve the mystery of the Pokemon Storage System once and for all!