Pokemon Gold Version (Part 1)

 

Yay, my first sequel! I should probably do Mega Man Battle Network 2 first, buuuut I don't want to.  For starters, we're asked to put in the time. It's currently 5:21pm, which almost works for me, but since I have to write and take screen shots as I go I'm just going to knock it down to 4:45pm.

 

Also I named my character Austen, for scientific reasons. Go downstairs and our character's mom will talk a bit. In the process, you'll get the Pokegear. At the end you'll be asked to set the day of the week; I'm posting this on a Sunday but I'm going to set it as Tuesday to get a particular item. 

There's more text than this but I didn't want to take more than one screenshot just to show what's on one sign. If you are desperately curious to know the rest, it just says "Newbark Town: The town where winds of a new beginning blow"

Talk to this red-haired guy next door and he'll give you a rude shove. Fine, we didn't like you anyway. Talk to the other people in town if you want, and then head inside the big building shown above and talk to Professor Elm. You'll get to choose your starter Pokemon here.

Grass-type starter Chikorita results in the toughest route. It is weak against the first two gyms as well as the sixth, and the fifth will resist it. Overall the least useful and toughest to use, in my opinion.

Cyndaquil has a strong special attack score, and is strong against the second, fifth, and sixth gyms. Overall it probably results in the easiest route early on, but later on it's a bit of a toss-up with Totodile.

The water-type starter Totodile will not have an advantage over any of the gyms, but it also does not have a weakness to any of the types used. It has a higher attack than special attack however, which doesn't make it extremely useful for moves of its actual type.

This is the starter I chose, and I just happened to get a female which was nice. I had a level 100 Feraligatr in my old Silver version that I used to plow through the Elite 4 and fill up my Pokedex, so I just love Totodile to pieces.

As you go to leave the scientist will give you a Potion. Continue outside and go west to route 29.

Route 29

Pidgey || Normal / Flying (Day)

Rattata || Normal

Sentret || Normal (Day)

Hoothoot || Normal / Flying (Night)

When you see a boy, head north and go east to find an item ball containing another Potion. Start going west and you will see a gatehouse - we don't have any Pokeballs right now, so just ignore it and keep going.

You will find these trees all over the region, containing a few different types of berry and nut (the nuts are called apricorns). This one just contains a basic Berry, which a Pokemon can hold to automatically recover 10 hp to itself during battle. All berries and nuts grow back every day.

Talk to this old man and answer "yes" to be carted all around town. In the end you will get the Map Card for your PokeGear.Yay, maps! Not that such a thing is super necessary in this particular game, but hey. Free stuff is free stuff. 

You can talk to the other people around town if you'd like, but no one else really has anything interesting to say. Head north out of town.

Route 30

Caterpie || Bug (Day, Gold version only)

Metapod || Bug (Day, Gold version only)

Weedle || Bug / Poison (Day, Silver version only)

Kakuna || Bug / Poison (Day, Silver version only)

Pidgey || Normal / Flying (Day)

Rattata || Normal (Night)

Hoothoot || Normal / Flying (Night)

Ledyba || Bug / Flying (Morning, Silver version only)

Spinarak || Bug / Poison (Night, Gold version only)

Speaking of free stuff, along Route 30 you will come across this house. The tree outside will give you a Berry and the man inside will give you another one. Also, I forgot to mention that the Pokemon you got from Professor Elm came already equipped with one as well. You can train here a bit if you want, healing in Cherrygrove if necessary, but either way continue making your way north up this route on the east side.

Outside our destination is the game's first hidden item - another Potion. Hooray!

Just above that you'll find another tree. This one has a berry that will let you cure your Pokemon of poison. This is especially helpful if you're playing Silver version, with all the Weedle running around (or if you're playing Gold and it's night time).

Head inside the house and talk to the man in the hat, and you will receive the Mystery Egg. Then Professor Oak will come over and talk to you as well and give you the Pokedex. 

When you leave the house, Professor Demandypants will call to complain at your face and insist you return to the lab. Well, I guess we should go and do that then. The game won't let us do anything else right now anyway.

On our way back we will take part in the beginning of the second season of Rival Smackdown.

Rival || ¥300

Chikorita Lv. 5 || Grass || 67 exp

Cyndaquil Lv. 5 || Fire || 67 exp

Totodile Lv. 5 || Water || 67 exp

As always, your rival will choose the Pokemon whose type trumps your own. His Pokemon doesn't come equipped with a Berry however, plus he doesn't have any Potions... and you've also had a chance to train. So you've got a few advantages. I only leveled Tilly up once and I had a super easy time with Chikorita, I didn't even use up my Berry. 

Once you get back to the lab a police officer will ask you for the trouble-maker's name. For this playthrough I will be calling him Sid. 

As you leave that generous science man will give you 5 Pokeballs. The boy standing out on Route 29 will offer to show you how to catch Pokemon, but you have the option of declining if you don't want to be bothered.

Admittedly, I've never used a Sentret. And I don't even really plan to use this one, I'm just going to teach it a bunch of HMs >.> I'm a bad person, I know. Maybe next time, little guy.

Now that you are able to catch things though, you may want to go north and head through the guard house there for a small area with several different Pokemon than anywhere else around.

Route 46

Rattata || Normal

Spearow || Normal / Flying (Day)

Jigglypuff || Normal

Geodude || Rock / Ground

Continue back through Cherrygrove and up to route 30 again. This time we'll be going up the west side, where we'll find a couple trainers.

 

Youngster Joey || ¥64

Rattata Lv. 4 || Normal || 48 exp

 

Youngster Mikey || ¥64

Pidgey Lv. 2 || Normal / Flying || 22 exp

Rattata Lv. 4 || Normal || 48 exp

Bug Catcher Don || ¥48

Caterpie Lv. 3 || Bug || 33 exp

Caterpie Lv. 3 || Bug || 33 exp

After passing this trainer, the path will transfer into a new route.

Route 31

Caterpie || Bug (Day, Gold version only)

Metapod || Bug (Day, Gold version only)

Weedle || Bug / Poison (Day, Silver version only)

Kakuna || Bug / Poison (Day, Silver version only)

Rattata || Normal

Bellsprout || Grass / Poison

Hoothoot || Normal / Flying (Night)

Ledyba || Bug (Morning, Silver version only)

Spinarak || Bug / Poison (Night, Gold version only)

Pick up this Antidote on your way by. In the interest of doing things the "proper" way, I am going to avoid this cave for now. It's nearly impossible to navigate for the time being (unless you've played the game several times and are familiar with the layout) and there's not much of interest in there anyway.

Now that it's night time I went and got myself a Hoothoot. Admittedly they're not the greatest - their Special Attack is better than their attack, and the only special move they learn is Confusion at level 41 (after evolving). But I wanted to use only Gen.2 Pokemon and it's the earliest flying type, so Hoothoot it is.

By this sleepy man is another fruit tree, this one containing a Berry that will cure a Pokemon of confusion. That's a very nice effect, because I don't believe there is any other cure for that at this point in the series (besides switching out, I'm not sure if Full Heal or Full Restore work for confusion).

South from the tree is this item ball containing a Poke Ball, and another bug trainers.

Bug Catcher Wade || ¥32

Caterpie Lv. 2 || Bug || 22 exp

Caterpie Lv. 2 || Bug || 22 exp

Weedle Lv. 3 || Bug / Poison ||  33 exp

Caterpie Lv. 2 || Bug || 22 exp

After this, you can head west through the guard house to enter Violet City. This is where we will be acquiring our first gym badge, but there are a couple other things we can take care of first. 

This guy wants a Bellsprout in return for an Onix. This could be useful for the gym coming up, but the leader's Pokemon will know a move that is super-effective against it. Also Onix won't learn Rock Throw until level 14, which on top of taking a long time, is nearly useless since it won't obey you at that level. 

Whether you've made the trade or not, head to the northeast end of town and enter the tower there.

Sprout Tower

Rattata || Normal

Gastly || Ghost / Poison (Night)

When you enter, talk to the few people if you wish and then go up the stairs. The entire tower is pretty linear.

2nd Floor

Sage Nico || ¥96

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

1st Floor

Go south from the stairs to get this Paralyze Heal, then go up and west for another trainer.

Sage Chow || ¥96

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

2nd Floor

This time go up, and you will find an X Defend. South is another trainer. 

Sage Edmond || ¥96

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 3 || Grass / Poison || 54 exp

3rd Floor

On the west side is a Potion, and then from here there are four more battles.

Sage Jin || ¥192

Bellsprout Lv. 6 || Grass / Poison || 108 exp

Sage Neal || ¥192

Bellsprout Lv. 6 || Grass / Poison || 108 exp

Sage Troy || ¥224

Bellsprout Lv. 7 || Grass / Poison || 126 exp

Hoothoot Lv.  7 || Normal / Flying || 87 exp

We run into Pushy McGrumpyGuts here, but we don't have to take him on ourselves just yet. Grab the Escape Rope from the corner and then take on the last monk.

Sage Li || ¥320

Bellsprout Lv. 7 || Grass / Poison || 126 exp

Hoothoot Lv.  10 || Normal / Flying || 123 exp

Bellsprout Lv. 7 || Grass / Poison || 126 exp

When you win you will get the HM05 Flash. With that fair bit of experience gathered up, you can either go straight to the gym or train up a bit more in the grass outside of town. Either way, the gym is our next main destination.

Violet City Gym Challenge

The primary type in this gym is Flying. Cyndaquil will do okay against most of the gym if it is a decent level, but both of the leader's Pokemon know ground-type move Mud Slap which will deal extra damage. Chikorita will have a very tough time overall, and Totodile does pretty well. A high-leveled flying type like Spearow or Hoothoot will also do well, since they will be immune to the leader's Mud Slap trick. As I mentioned earlier, Onix is pretty much useless. Geodude can be helpful since it learns Rock Throw much earlier, but the move has poor accuracy and again Mud Slap poses a problem. You want to stay away from trying to use Bellsprout or any bug types here.

Bird Keeper Abe || ¥216

Spearow Lv. 9 || Normal / Flying || 111 exp

Bird Keeper Rod || ¥168

Pidgey Lv. 7 || Normal / Flying || 82 exp

Pidgey Lv. 7 || Normal / Flying || 82 exp

Leader Falkner || ¥900

Pidgey Lv.7 || Normal / Flying || 82 exp

Pidgeotto Lv.9 || Normal / Flying || 217 exp

 

 

With this badge, you will be able to use the HM "Flash" outside of battle, and it will also slightly raise your team's attack power. Falkner will also give you TM 31 which contains Mud Slap - keeping with the theme of the first gym leaders not giving you a TM of their main type, I guess.

When you leave the gym you get another call from Professor Elm asking you to speak to his assistant at the Pokemon Center, but I'll take care of that in the next section. But before that, one more thing. 

In the northwestern end of town you can find Arthur - only on Thursday, and only after you've defeated Falkner. There is a person for each day of the week, scattered throughout the region. They give you items that Pokemon can hold to power up a particular type of move. Arthur's item is the Hard Stone which powers up Rock-type moves. 

Back on Route 29 you can find Tuscany on Tuesday. Her gift is the Pink Bow, which strengthens normal-type moves. And that's it for this section!

Go to part II ---> 

My Team So Far

Tilly, Lv. 13

West, Lv. 12

Phillip, Lv. 2

Pokedex

Seen: 16

Own: 13

Items Obtained

PokeGear

Potion

Potion

Berry

Map Card

Berry (x2)

Potion

Psncure Berry

Mystery Egg

Pokedex

5 Pokeballs

Antidote

Bitter Berry

Pokeball

Paralyze Heal

X Defend

Potion

Escape Rope 

HM05 Flash

TM31 Mud Slap

Hard Stone

Pink Bow