Our Adventure Really Begins!

Our Adventure Really Begins!

Capturing a Mankey

Head towards the path to the north and back on to Route 1, only this time when we encounter a wild Pokemon, instead of killing it we are going to capture it!  With any luck that is...  So head into the tall grass and walk back and forth until you encounter a Pidgey or a Rattata, then go into battle mode!

Now the idea here is not to kill it, but to weaken it as much as you can...  You should have a pretty good idea of how much damage your average attack does, so base when you stop attacking and start throwing balls on that.  Once it is weakened, throw a ball and, if you are lucky, you catch it in the first go!

-- Capturing your first Pokemon --

Attack it until it is as weakened as you can manage without killing it, then select bag from the battle menu, switch to the ball pocket, and select your Poke ball -- right now you only have the basic type, there are other types that have special uses and properties that we will acquire later.

Select Use and you will throw the ball.  With each capture attempt the wild Pokemon has three chances to escape -- thus the ball will wiggle three times -- if it succeeds in making its escape roll, instead of a wiggle the ball will explode open, breaking it, and the Pokemon will get out and possibly escape from the fight altogether, though usually it will just get free of the the ball, giving you another chance to throw another ball.

If the attempt fails that ball is destroyed -- which is why you want to have a reasonably large inventory of balls -- and you will encounter Pokemon who escape more often than not, especially if they are a rare type of Pokemon.  Often getting them to a sliver of health and hitting them with a status ailment like Sleep is not enough to keep them from escaping, and the rarer they are, the harder it gets.

Once you have captured your first wild Pokemon, you will be given the opportunity to name it -- I always name mine, even the ones I intend to trade.  Rumor has it that naming them increases their like for you by a bit, and getting your Pokemon to like you is a good thing to do, as it helps in battle and in their mood!

Once you have acquired a Rattata and a Pidgey, go ahead and complete the trip to Viridian City as these are the only two types you will find on this Route.

-- Viridian City --

Viridian City

First thing you will need to do is go to the Pokecenter and heal then save.  After that, stop by the store and purchase some kit that you will need -- at a minimum get one or two Antidotes and all the balls you can afford.

Now before we do anything else, put one of your new Pokemon in the number one position in our party (do that by hitting Start, then Pokemon, then one of the new Pokemon in the list, hit A, then Switch, target the lead Pokemon and hit A again so they switch places) head back to Route 1 and start waking in the tall grass.  What you want to do is fight wild Pokemon for XP, which means killing them.  You want to raise your two new Pokemon so that they are the same level as your Starter, which should be Level 7 or 8 by now. 

As a general strategy you want to try to gain at least a few levels for each Pokemon you catch in the area that you caught it, if not level it up to match the base party level, because the further away from where you caught it you get, the higher level the Pokemon will be in the new area, which makes levels harder to get for lower-level Pokemon.

Once you get them all to the base party level, it is time to raise the base party level!  Yeah, I know, you just spent an hour leveling Pokemon, but you really need your base level at around 10 or 11 because you have another rival fight coming up, and if your base level is not 10 or 11 you could get badly beaten by your rival...  And really, seriously, do you want that to happen?  The indignity, the shame, I mean Gary?  Gary?!

You can return to the Pokecenter as needed to heal and save, then rinse and repeat until both are leveled up.  Once they are, head west and you will see a path that exits from town in that direction -- that is the entrance to Route 22.

-- Route 22 --

This short Route leads west from Viridian City and then turns sharply north, and will take you to the entrance to the indigo Plateau, and your destiny as a Master Trainer -- but not yet!  In fact other than a very brief foray into the Route for two specific tasks, the rest of this Route will remain unexplored until near the very end of the adventure...

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- Area Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

022 - Fearow / Normal
056 - Mankey / Normal
057 - Primeape / Normal
019 - Rattata / Normal
027 - Sandshrew / Normal
028 - Sandslash / Normal
021 - Spearow / Normal
 
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After you heal and save at the Pokecenter in Viridian, head towards the western exit and just before you reach Route 22 you will see a white fence along the upper edge of the path -- where the fence ends there is a path leading north -- follow that path north and then east to find a treasure ball with a Potion n it!  Make sure you grab that before backtracking to the path and continuing on to Route 22.

Ahead on the path is an area with tall grass -- that is our destination!  You should quickly capture a Mankey here, and as you already have a Rattata all that leaves for now is a Spearow -- who will either be very easy to catch or very hard depending upon your luck.

Since you may be working your way through a significant number of wild Rattata and Mankey before you encounter a Spearow here, if you are going to go ahead and get one it would be an idea to quickly run back to the Pokecenter and heal your new Mankey so you can kill two birds with one stone and level it up while trying for the Spearow.  Note that Spearow are actually fairly common elsewhere in the region, so you do not have to try for one here if you do not want to.

Before you leave the area you will want to heal up and save at the Pokecenter, then return to the tall grass patch here and head past it to the north and then west, in order to trigger your second encounter with Gary for another Rival Battle!

-- Rival Battle 2 --

On the path above the tall grass on Route 22 you will encounter Gary, who is confident that he is now ready to kick your butt!  He is pretty good at trash talking -- Gary must play WoW a lot...  Anyway, this time around his Pokemon are Level 9, and he has learned a little bit better tactics, but as long as you leveled your team up properly this battle should be a cake walk!

After you beat Gary -- and if you decide not to get a Spearow here -- or if you decide to -- either way return to the Pokecenter in Viridian, heal and save, and then head to the north of town and the entrance to Route 2, which leads to the Viridian Forest, which is our next destination!