Pallet Town

Pallet Town

Choosing your Starter Pokemon

After you complete the starting screens you find yourself standing in your bedroom in your house in Pallet Town, about to begin your first steps on an epic adventure in your quest to become a Pokemon Master!  Take a quick look around -- there is your bed, a nice rug, and in the corner is your PC.

Go ahead and boot-up your PC to learn that it has Item Storage capability as well as a Mailbox.  If you look inside the Item Storage then hit Withdraw, you will see that there is a Potion inside!  Go ahead and take that now!  There is no mail in your mailbox at the moment so go ahead and turn off your PC, then hit the Start Button and select your Bag.

You will see that your bag is divided into sections -- called pockets -- for the various types of items you will be collecting and using.  There are pockets for Poke Balls, Key Items, and Regular Items -- the Potion you just took from your PC is now stored in the Regular Items pocket.  Move your cursor onto the Potion to get a description of it -- and you will learn that this spray-type medicine will restore up to 20 Hit Points (HP) for an injured Pokemon!  Later when you find other items you can open the bag to examine them and learn more about what they are and what they do in this same way.

Head to the stairs in the other corner, and pause to read the Posted Notice before you head down to learn how to access Help in the game.  Right, now head down the stairs and you will see your mother by the table down there.  Talk to her to learn that Professor Oak is looking for you.  Your mom seems to be a little flaky, and places a lot of faith in what the TV says, but she has a good heart and she loves you, mate.

As we exit the house and enter Pallet Town it is time to add the Area Pokemon List to this section of the walkthrough!  You will find a list like the one below included for the first time that we enter any town, route, or location, providing you with information on what Pokemon can be captured in this area.  While this list is no use to you at the moment -- you do not have a Pokemon of your own or Poke Balls, and you will need both to capture wild Pokemon -- it will be very useful later, so remember to consult it when you return to an area when you do have the ability to capture to see if there are any Pokemon you need here.

The key below explains what each listing means -- and you should be aware that each listing contains the National Pokedex Number rather than the Regional Pokedex number, followed by the Pokemon's proper name, the manner or technique by which it is acquired, its rarity, and the difficulty in encountering and capturing it.  In the sections that follow this one the Area Pokemon List will come right after the basic description of the area at the top of the section, FYI.

- Area Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

130 - Gyrados / Fishing (Super Rod)
099 - Kingler / Fishing (Super Rod)
098 - Krabby / Fishing (Good/Super Rod)
116 - Horsea / Fishing (Good Rod)
129 - Magikarp / Fishing (Good Rod)
079 - Slowpoke / Fishing (Super Rod)
120 - Staryu / Fishing (Super Rod)

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Now that we have that out of the way, go ahead and look around the area a bit -- below you is a flower garden with a sign identifying the town, and another with a Trainer Tip -- you will find signs like this all over the Region, and it never hurts to read them!   Next to the tip sign is a person -- talk to them, in fact you should talk to everyone you meet in your travels, as some of them will be other trainers who will want to fight you while others will just provide information.

Fighting other trainers is a good idea, both because it helps you to level up your Pokemon faster than fighting wild Pokemon, and because beating them earns you prize money!  And let me tell you, you are going to need lots of money to keep yourself in Poke Balls and kit as the game progresses!

There is another resident you can talk to to the right, but then you should enter the building above, which is Professor Oak's Lab.

-- The Professor's Lab --

Professor Oak's Lab in Pallet Town

Inside you will see three people you can talk to -- two of the Professor's Aids, and a brown-haired girl  and in the back of the Lab you will see Gary, the Professor's grandson and your life-long rival!  The Professor does not seem to be here, so talk to Gary, then read the two notices on the wall.  If you are feeling nosy, go ahead and access the computer in the corner to read a special email that was sent to the Professor.  Nosy little git, aren't you?

On a table nearby there are three Poke Balls -- those will be significant in a bit -- and in the far corner are bookcases that are crammed full of Pokemon books!  When you get tired of waiting around leave the Lab and head north past your house to the path above -- before you can actually enter the path, which would be dangerous and foolish without your own Pokemon to defend you, the Professor appears to stop you.

He escorts you back to the Lab, where you find Gary waiting impatiently.  The Prof offers you a Pokemon from one of the three on the table -- a Bulbasaur, a Squirtle, and a Charmeleon -- which are a Grass, Water, and Fire type respectively.  There really is no wrong choice here, though each type has its own set of strengths and weaknesses inherent to it, if you use them properly they each represent strong choices -- and this is the only place you can get these three in the game, as they are Starter Pokemon...

Once you make your choice, Gary will choose the one that is strong against the one you chose, and he will then challenge you to a battle!  You should be able to beat him since regardless of what you and he chose they are both Level 5 and do not have any of their special moves yet.  Both have physical moves, and even though they are balanced you have a tiny advantage -- call it karma if you like -- so you should be able to beat him!

If it looks like you will lose, do not forget about that Potion you have in your bag!  Use that if your Pokemon's health gets too low.  It is not cheating, and it is not your fault that Gary did not bring a Potion with him.  Either way you should have won this fight, and Gary will stomp off in a huff.  Now head back to your house and talk to your Mom, who will allow you to rest and heal your Pokemon.

-- Route One --

Route 1 on the way to Viridian City

The Route that connects Pallet Town to Viridian City.

- Area Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

016 - Pidgey / Normal
019 - Rattata / Normal

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After you wake up, head outside and north to the path we almost entered before when the Prof stopped us.  This time we can enter the path, and walk through the tall grass, where eventually you will encounter a wild Pokemon.  Since we do not have an balls we cannot capture any, but you can fight them to gain levels!

Route 1  consists of a path that winds through several sections of tall grass -- and as I mentioned, tall grass is where you will encounter wild Pokemon.  Past the first set of tall grass you will encounter an NPC who will give you a Potion as a gift, and once you have that continue along the path north.  If you do not want to fight or your Pokemon is badly injured you can choose to run away from the fights -- there is no obvious penalty for doing so.

When you arrive in Viridian City be sure to stop at the Pokecenter (the orange roofed building directly above and to the right of the entrance to town.  There you can heal your Pokemon by talking to Nurse Joy at the counter.  There are other facilities here, but we cannot really make use of them yet, so we will cover those in a later section.

Now would be a good time to save as well, so go ahead and do that!