The Road to Cinnabar

The Road to Cinnabar

The Capture of Articuno! 

Previously on the Adventures of Us -- Our Hero has vanquished Giovanni, Leader of Team Rocket, depriving him once again of the prize that he sought through his evil ways, and liberating the President and employees of Silph Company, as well as the citizens of Saffron City!  That's Hero -- H-E-R-O -- make sure you spell that right in the newspaper story about us, OK?

Having tied up all of the loose ends that remain in this, the Second Largest City in the lands, we hit the Pokecenter to heal and save, hit the Poke Mart in case we need to replace any of our kit.  If you used some of the rarer items we may need to make a quick stop over in Celadon City in order to shop at the Department Store...  If you need to do that, do it now.  Done?  Excellent!

Our next stop is Fuchsia City -- so pull out your Flying Pokemon and initiate Fly -- and happy landings!

-- Fuchsia City --

If you need to, go ahead and finish off anything here that you left undone.  If you want to take another stab at the Safari Zone to grab any of the Pokemon that you did not get earlier, well, I am willing to wait for you.  I will be sitting over there by that tree talking to that cute Beauty from Pallet Town.  Just come get me when you are done, OK?

Right then!  All set?  Excellent!

-- Route 19 --

From here we want to head south on Route 19 to the water's edge.  We beat up the trainers here a long time ago, so we do not need to fight them now, but we do need to get our feet wet, so dust off your Water Type and initiate Surf, and enter the water!

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

- Route 19 Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

130 - Gyarados / Fishing (Super Rod)
116 - Horsea / Fishing (Good/Super Rod)
098 - Krabby / Fishing (Good Rod)
129 - Magikarp / Fishing (Old/Good Rod)
117 - Seadra / Fishing (Super Rod)
079 - Slowpoke / Fishing (Super Rod)
072 - Tentacool / Surf

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

Assuming that you have been following this walkthrough faithfully, the only Pokemon from the list above that you do not have is Seadra -- which is in fact the evolved form of Horsea at Level 32 -- and considering how high that level has to be to evolve it, if you get lucky and capture one good on you!  But as it *is* one that we can evolve, this is something that you should save for after you have beaten the Elite Four and become the Pokemon Champion, right?  Right!

So instead of spend a lot of time trying to catch a Seadra, we are instead going to spend a fair bit of time battling the trainers on this Route!  Please remember that from this point onward we are "in training" for the battle at Victory Road that will crown us the Greatest Pokemon Master Anywhere!  Yes, I know that there are still two Gyms left to be mastered, but the thing is, we need to get our entire team to Level 60 MINIMUM in order to take on the Elite Four and all that goes with it.

Level 60 is going to be a major haul for us, even with the benefit of the two Gyms we still have to battle -- which is why we are taking the long road to Cinnebar instead of the short road via Pallet Town! 

We want to engage as many trainers as we can, and even so we will doubtlessly end up having to use the VS. Finder to cap off our team -- but we can burn that bridge when we get to it, right?  Remember that a major part of our training strategy is to level up our team evenly, so make sure that you share out the XP evenly -- it works best working for these one level at a tiem.  But for now, let's Surf baby!

Swimmer Tony has a pair of Level 30 Horsea worth 532 XP each, and $120.

Swimmer David has a Level 29 Goldeen worth 688 XP, a Level 29 Shellder worth 601 XP, and a Level 29 Seaking worth 1056 XP and $116.

Swimmer Douglas has a Level 27 Horsea worth 480 XP, a pair of Level 27 Tentacool worth 607 XP each, and a Level 27 Goldeen worth 642 XP and $108.

Swimmer Matthew has a Level 30 Poliwag worth 495 XP, and a Level 30 Poliwhirl worth 841 XP and $120. 

Sis and Bro Lia & Luc are our first twins battle on the water, with a Level 30 Goldeen and Seaking worth 710 XP and 1092 XP respectively, and $240.

South of Lia and Luc is a group of four trainers clustered together -- this is an excellent VS. Seeker Training Spot (TM) when you need one later for leveling team members that are strong vs. Water Types, that is all I am saying...

Swimmer Axle has a pair of Level 27 Tentacool worth 607 XP each, a Level 27 Tentacruel worth 1185 XP, a Level 27 Staryu worth 612 XP, and a Level 27 Horsea worth 480 XP and $108.

Swimmer Alice has a Level 30 Goldeen worth 712 XP and a Level 30 Seaking worth 1092 XP and $120.

Swimmer Connie has a trio of Level 29 Staryu worth 658 XP each and $116.

Swimmer Anya has a pair of Level 27 Poliwag worth 445 XP each, a Level 27 Goldeen worth 642 XP,  a Level 27 Seaking worth 982 XP, and a Level 27 Goldeen worth 642 XP and $108.

After this fight the path turns west, and changes into Route 20.   

-- Route 20 --

Like Route 19 before it, this is a Sea Route, upon which you will be encountering Water Trainers with Water Type Pokemon.

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

- Route 20 Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

130 -  Gyarados / Fishing (Super Rod)
116 - Horsea / Fishing (Good/Super Rod)
098 - Krabby / Fishing (Good Rod)
129 - Magikarp / Fishing (Old/Good Rod)
117 - Seadra / Fishing (Super Rod)
079 - Slowpoke / Fishing (Super Rod)
072- Tentacool / Surf

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

Swimmer Barry has a Level 31 Shellder worth 643 XP, and a Level 31 Cloyster worth 1348 XP and $124.

Swimmer Darrin has a pair of Level 28 Horsea worth 498 XP each, a Level 28 Seadra worth 930 XP, and a Level 28 Horsea worth 498 XP and $112.

Note that these water routes will work fine for leveling your Electric, Grass, and Water Types, but not so good for leveling your Fire and Ground/Rock Types.  For that reason I do not recommend trying to level the entire party in parity here -- even though that does create a temporary situation in which three of your team are higher in level than the other two core members -- this can be easily corrected when we are on land and, obviously, have targets that are more appropriate to their Types!

Swimmer Shirley has a Level 30 Seadra worth 996 XP, a Level 30 Horsea worth 532 XP, ans a Level 30 Seadra worth 996 XP and $120.

After this battle we make our first landfall on a large rocky island with a sandy beach.  On the beach is a trainer for us to check in with who lets us know that Strong Trainers and Water Pokemon are common sights in these parts.    That and the rumor that the famous Misty, Gym Leader of the Cerulean Gym is said to train here!

A sign ahead confirms for us that we have arrived at one of the Seafoam Islands, and the nearby cave entrance reveals a rather chilly downright icy reprieve from the heat outside!

Before we enter the cave though, there is the matter of that lone trainer floating just off shore -- so let us jump in and battle them before we go inside!

Swimmer Tiffany has a Level 35 Seaking worth 1275 XP and $140.

Now that she is out of the way, go ahead and enter the cave!

-- Seafoam Islands -- 

The Seafoam Islands: Entrance

As you enter the cave you will discover that there is quite an extensive system of apparently connected caves, caverns, and tunnels, which in theory should allow you to move from one island to the other without actually having to return to the surface!

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

- Seafoam Islands Pokemon -

(Key: Pokedex # - Name / Acquisition Method)

087 - Dewgong / Normal
042 - Golbat / Normal
130 - Gyarados / Fishing (Super Rod)
116 - Horsea / Fishing (Good Rod)
098 - Krabby / Fishing (Good/Super Rod), Surfing
129 - Magikarp / Fishing (Old/Good Rod)
086 - Seel / Normal, Surfing
080 - Slowbro / Normal, Surfing
079 - Slowpoke / Normal, Fishing (Super Rod)
041 - Zubat / Normal

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

As you venture further in you will come upon a treasure ball with an Ice Heal inside -- grab that -- and then continue along until you encounter a large boulder near a hole that happens to be just the right size for you to push the boulder into it!  This cannot be coincidence, surely!

Using the HM Strength, we may as well push the boulders into the holes just to see what happens!

Making our way now to the other hole and boulder, we push that one in and, well, as there is naught else to do, why, we jump in after it!  If by chance you happen to scare up a Golbat on your way, be sure to capture it, as we do not yet have that particular Pokemon in our Dex or in our Storage.

When we land below we discover that there is yet another boulder-shaped hole through which we might again push our boulder!  How convenient!  Let us do that now!

As we work our way towards the second boulder on this new level, we find a treasure ball with a Revive in it, and then we head up the nearby ladder and move to the second hole on the level above and drop down to find our second boulder, we find a repeat below. 

When we drop down the second time after again pushing the boulder before us we discover that it is now partially blocking a river at the lowest level of the cave!  We need to give that other boulder a final push, so head west and up a series of ladders to get to the other boulder and push it down to join its brother.  On the way you will no doubt encounter a wild Seel -- so capture that!

Grab the Big Pearl in a treasure ball on the way, and then push that boulder down to fully block the river, thus making the area below it navigable.  Dropping down we can now see that there are two possible paths to follow here!  I would not be at all surprised if you encountered a Dewgong hereabouts, and if so, you really should capture it!

To the west is a collection of boulders, two of which you can easily drop down the adjacent holes -- so why not do that now?  After dropping both boulders and then following them down we find ourselves floating on yet another becalmed lake -- thanks to our well-placed boulders!  And we are precisely where we want to be too -- neat how that worked out!

-- Articuno --

To the north of where you are now floating is a very special Pokemon -- the first Legendary Pokemon that you will have encountered in the game so far! 

Now, before you do anything rash, it would be a really good time to save your game just in case things go wrong in a few moments, right?  When I say "go wrong" what I mean is that you (A) get your party wiped, or (B) KO the Articuno, both of which qualify as a bad outcome...

The reason that this would be bad is because, like all of the Legendary Pokemon, you only get one chance to capture it -- so if you KO it you basically blew it.  Before we get into the details of how you are going to capture this, I want to come right out and say -- do NOT use your Master Ball on this Pokemon!  As difficult as this one will prove to be to catch, there are worse Pokemon to catch in the game!

You will approach this the same as any other catch attempt -- once you get it down to a sliver of red you are ready to start trying to capture it -- though there are some very skilled trainers who claim that getting its health into the red is not really necessary, because, according to them, there is little difference between in the Yellow and in the Red with this one...    I do not know if that is true or not, but my method is to whittle it down to a sliver of red anyway, because that is how you catch Pokemon!

Once you have it down to red, hit it with any non-damaging stat disabilities you have -- sleep for instance, or any other one that will not cause it to die but that *might* give you an edge...  Let me be crystal clear about this -- catching this Pokemon will NOT  be easy no matter how feels like it should be! 

If you burn through all of your balls and still do not capture it, reload the game and try again.  Remember this is strictly a matter of luck, not skill.  You are hoping that the RNG hits one of the known four combinations of numbers that will allow you to capture it.  It could happen on the hundredth throw or on the first, it is all just luck.

Once you do catch it you have a decision to make -- do you give it your own name?  Serious Pokemon Trainers consider it to be bad form to actually change the name of a Legendary -- simply because there is only supposed to be ONE of them in the whole world, and its name IS its name, but it really is your call, so do as you please :)

Let us pause for a moment...  First, congratulations on the catch, and on not using your Master Ball!  Good on ya!  Second, take a deep breath, save your game, and give yourself a pat on the back, mate, you did good!

-- Tying up Loose Ends --

Articuno is what this section and this part of the path was really all about, so you have essentially completed the section, but there are a few minor loose ends we should quickly wrap up before we leave here and complete the journey to Cinnabar Island...

Make sure that you save after catching Articuno, then work your way carfully through the area pulling Pokemon and making sure that you collect the treasure balls here.  At a minimum you should collect the following items from treasure balls:

-- Big Pearl
-- Water Stone

- Pokemon we should leave with -

There are a few Pokemon we should make it a point to not leave here without -- at a minimum the lost below should be completed:

-- Dewgong (x1) for our Dex and Storage.
-- Golbat (x1) for our Dex and Storage.
-- Seel (x1) for oure Dex and Storage.
-- Slowbro (x2) one or our Dex and Storage, and one to trade to the NPC for Lickitung*

* For the complete list of trades see Appendix A