Cerulean City Part II

Cerulean City Part II

Wrapping things up in Cerulean City

First I want to congratulate you on your victory over Misty, on winning the Cascade Badge, on beating your way across that bridge, and for rescuing Bill.  I also want to congratulate you for having the patience and the persistence that was absolutely critical in capturing the Pokemon on Routes 24 and 25, and in particular the version-specific ones!  That is a big deal, even if it does not feel like it now.  Having said all of that, there are some minor matters we must wrap up here in town, and then there is a major matter that is really not negotiable if, like me, you did not choose Bulbasaur as your Starter...

First thing is first: head back to the Pokecenter, heal and save, so that we are starting this fresh. Now our first small matter...

-- The Crime Scene --

Remember that house from earlier with the coppa standing in front of its door?  Right, head back to that house real quick, and you will notice that the door is now unblocked!  Talk to the folks inside to learn that Team Rocket has robbed them of a valuable TM.  This is terrible!  After you finish talking to them, exit the house through the large hole in the back wall, and you will spy a member of Team Rocket just standing around in the back yard...

Walk up and confront him and he will try to lie to you, and then panic and attack!  He brings out a Level 17 Machop -- but you know what to do about that!  You score a nice 319 XP off of that, and then he brings out his Level 17 Drowzee, which is worth 368 XP and $544.

After you beat him he willingly returns TM28, Dig, to you, and you put it in your TM Case.  After that he runs off.  You go inside and try to give the TM back to them, but they do not want it any more, as they plan to teach Diglett to dig without the TM!  I guess it is yours to keep then!

If you head back into the yard and then around the house to the east and south you will see the road for Route 9 but its proper entrance is blocked by a tree, and as yet we do not have Cut.  If you continue south you will find access to Route 5, which we did not have previously, but before you decide to go wandering down that route, do not.  Instead head back to town, and visit the Pokecenter, where I want you to heal and save.  If you chose Charmander or Squirtle as your starter, you do not have a decent Grass Type, and to round out your team you need one!  Thankfully you caught a Bellsprout when you were gathering the Route 24/25 Pokemon, so now you do have a Grass Type, it just needs a little training...

Before we get into that,  pop next door to the Poke Shop and re-supply your kit -- you know what you should have, so just replace what you used up.  There will be no replacing that Revive if you used it, that will have to wait until later...  Once you have all of your kit topped off, head back outside, and then north over the bridge to that wide swatch of tall grass on the very top there.

-- Team Base Level Training --

As discomforting as this is to hear, life will be a LOT easier for you if you take some time now, and train up the base level for your team.  At this point we have the second Gym Badge, which means that Pokemon up to Level 30 will obey us, including traded ones.  That is all well and good, but as our current team level is around 18 and lower, we need to do something about that, and in an organized fashion.

What you want to do is pause here -- this tall grass is a nice place to train -- and go ahead and run all of your team members up to Level 20.  That might not make a lot of sense to you -- after all we are about to head down a route that has more than a few trainers on it for us to level off of, but if you hash the numbers, you will see that starting off from here with everyone at Level 20 actually improves our chances of maintaining an even advancement rate and arriving at our destination with our team ready to complete the next Gym Battle!

Just throw a movie on, or an audio book, or some music, grab a snack and your favorite beverage, and get this out of the way now.  Seriously, you will be glad that you did, as it is going to make life so much easier for the foreseeable future, believe me!  If you want now might be a good time to grab your Rattata and add the few levels it needs to hit 20, so you have it reach its final evolutionary form and thus add that to your dex...  That is obviously optional, but it will not add a lot of time to the pause so why not?

Once you have your primary A-Team Members trained up to Level 20, pop into the Pokecenter and grab your alternates -- that would be your Nidoqueen and Bellsprout if you already had a Grass Type -- and train THEM up to Level 20 so that we are all on the same basic page here.  Hey, did you notice that the menu says "Bill's Computer" instead of "Someone's Computer" now?  Yes, you have solved that mystery, so pat yourself upon the back for that one!

After your training period ends you should be feeling like you accomplished something here -- your entire A-Team is now at  Level 20, which is a good start on the new base team level of 25 -- which you will reach largely by the XP you will be gaining from the army of trainers that you will be fighting between here and the next city -- and on the cruise ship.  Basically the reason we got the team to Level 20 is that there is enough XP coming up from trainer battles to get most of the team to Level 25 with no real effort on our part as it is only 5 levels for each member... 

Getting Bellsprout to Level 15 unlocked the move Sleep Powder, which is a very good move to have available in your party.  When she hits Level 21, which should happen soon, she will evolve into the middle phase of her evolutionary line, Weepinbell, after which you want to keep an eye out for a Leaf Stone to make the final evolution to Victreebel. 

You are now ready to take on all comers, and life is good!  That being the case, be sure that you hit the Pokecenter for one last heal and save, and then it is time to hit Route 5!   Go ahead and run through the robbed house, follow the path down and around, and then enter the Route!

-- Route 5 --

The Route 5 Daycare Center

The Route that connects Cerulean City and Saffron City, with features that include a steeple chase and the celebrated Pokemon Daycare Center!

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- Area Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

069 - Bellsprout / Normal
052 - Meowth / Normal
016 - Pidgey / Normal

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As you approach the Route you will notice that the center is a sort of steeple chase style path, with open roads on either side -- the tall grass is in the middle though, so that is where we want to be for now, because there is one new Pokemon on this route that we want to catch: Meowth!

You will remember Meowth as being the third member of that dastardly trio of Team Rocket thugs who constantly chased after Ash and tried to steal his Pokemon.  Meowth has a number of interesting traits and a move -- called Payday -- that is nice to have available.  For now though, just concentrate upon getting one.

Once you have your Meowth continue to the bottom and visit the Pokemon Daycare Center, which can only be reached by coming down the center section of Route 5, as we did.  Mind you do not accidentally hop over the ledge, as if you do you have to head all the way back up to the top and come down again...

-- The Pokemon Daycare Center --

If you have played other Pokemon games you already know what a useful service it is that they provide here -- and not just for leveling your lower-level Pokemon!  In full-service Daycare Centers you can drop off a male and female Pokemon, and if they are members of the same egg group, there is a chance that they will produce an egg, which you can hatch to create a new Pokemon.

Breeding allows you to do a lot of things -- like give a Pokemon specific moves from birth, get a special trait, and of course, obtain some types of first evolution forms of Pokemon you cannot get any other way!  If you have  a Ditto, you can breed Pokemon that cannot be bred with any other Pokemon as well.  Sadly this is not a full-service Daycare Center, and you will not be breeding any Pokemon here -- but there is a full-service Center on one of the islands later in the game, so fear not!  And you can still leave one here to level!

Leveling your Pokemon at a Daycare Center is simple -- you drop off the one you want to level and, for every step you take in the world, it adds to its XP.  Take enough steps, it goes up a level.  Keep running around in the world and you can easily raise it several or more levels.  Now how cool is that?

After you run around enough to raise its levels, you simply return, pay the fee that you are asked for, and you get your Pokemon back with its new level!

-- Back to Business --

Directly south of you is the entrance to the Gatehouse for Saffron City -- but the road is currently closed, and a thirsty guard inside will not allow you to pass.  On the east side is the entrance for the Underground Path that you can use to bypass the blocked road, allowing you to get from Cerulean City to Vermillion City, bypassing Saffron City, and as that is the only option currently available to us, that is what we have to do!

-- The Underground Path --

The Underground Path

As you enter you will see a little girl inside -- do you remember the extra Nidoran-F I said you should capture and stick in your box earlier?  Yes, this is that little girl!  So run over to the Daycare Center and use their computer to put that extra in your party, then head back here and trade with her -- good on ya mate!  You now have a Nidoran-M in your party and dex!  Now go back to the Daycare Center and put it in a box -- later you will want to level it to evolve it, then use a stone to evolve it to Nidoking to complete the evolutionary chain for your dex!

Right -- with all that now out of the way, head into the tunnel proper, and run along this long empty tunnel to the other side, where you will meet a girl who tells you how people lose stuff in the tunnel -- good to know as we will have a use for that information soon!

Exit on to Route 6 now...

-- Route 6 --

This is the Route that connects to Vermillion City.

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- Area Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

069 - Bellsprout / Normal
118 - Goldeen / Fishing (Good Rod)
130 - Gyarados / Fishing (Super Rod)
129 - Magikarp / Fishing (Old/Good Rod)
052 - Meowth / Normal
016 - Pidgey / Normal
060 - Poliwag / Fishing (Good/Super Rod)
061 - Poliwhirl / Fishing (Super Rod)
079 - Slowpoke / Fishing (Super Rod), Surf

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There are a fair number of trainers for you to battle here, starting on the west side of the Route with Bug Catcher Keigo, who has a Level 16 Weedle worth 177 XP, a Level 16 Caterpie worth 181 XP, and a Level 16 Weedle worth 177 XP and $192.

Since Route 6 and 5 have the same Pokemon on them, there is nothing for us to catch here, so we should concentrate on the trainers and work our way along the route.

Just down the road are a pair of twins -- Camper Ricky with a Level 20 Squirtle worth 282 XP and $400, and Picnicker Nancy, with a Level 16 Rattata worth 195 XP, followed by a Level 16 Pikachu worth 280 XP and $320.

Our next battle is with Bug Catcher Elijah, who has a Level 20 Butterfree worth 685 XP and $240.   You want to KO this one fast, because it has a very nasty set of moves -- Supersonic, Sleep Powder,  and Stun Spore -- which do not sound like they are all that dangerous until you have them used against you in combination, and find yourself unable to attack, and when you do attack, hurting yourself as a result.  That can get frustrating!

As the road narrows you will spot the next two opponents -- twins -- and start with Picnicker Isabelle, who has a trio of Level 16 Pidgey worth 187 XP each, and $320.  Her partner is Camper Jeff, who has a Level 16 Spearow worth 198 XP, and a Level 16 Raticate worth 397 XP and $320.

That is the last fight for Route 6!  Simply continue south and enter Vermilion City!