Part 3 :: Gold, Silver and Crystal Walkthrough

Route 31 and Violet City
By Iceduck

Route 31 is very similar to Route 30. The only major difference is the fact that there's an entrance to Dark Cave here. Also, you can catch wild Bellsprouts in the grass.

Don worry about Dark Cave. You won be able to get very far for a long time. However, you can catch a Zubat in there. There are also Dunsparce there, but I suggest you wait for a while to catch one.

After picking items, fighting trainers and catching any Pokémon you don have yet, heal at Violet City. Violet City is quite an exciting place, because there's a gym there! If you haven played RBY or seen the TV show (where have you been?!?), you need to beat eight gyms to claim your place in the Pokémon League. Before I go on to talk about the gym, here's what the PokéMart is selling:

Item	Price	What is it?
Poke Ball	200	An item for catching Pokémon
Potion	300	Restores up to 20 HP
Escape Rope	550	Use for escaping from caves etc.
Antidote	100	Cures poisoned Pokémon
Parlyz Heal	200	Heals paralyzed Pokémon
Awakening	250	Awakens sleeping Pokémon
X Defend	550	Raises the Pokémon's defense for a while
X Attack	500	Raises the Pokémon's attack for a while
X Speed	350	Raises the Pokémon's speed for a while
Flower Mail	50	Flower-print mail

Flower Mail

NOTE: Flower-print mail is basically an item you can buy to write a short message to attach to a Pokémon. The point? So you can write hidden messages to your friends. If you live in an area where Pokémon is particularly popular, you can write someone a Valentines Day message on it (you can get heart-printed paper later on in the game). What better way to say I love you than deliver it with a Bellsprout? (Why yes, I am single - what makes you ask?)

Seriously though, you've got a gym to beat. I suggest you raise your team to :L10 (Weedle and Caterpie will evolve twice by this level, and you can stop training if you want - you won need them for Pokedex entries, but keep training if you want them on your team). Warning - don attempt to beat the gym with traded Pokémon - they'll ignore you after :L10. They still won respect you until you have two or three badges.

Fawkner A'hoy!

The gym leader, Falkner, and his co-trainers all use flying-type Pokémon. You won have anything that's super-effective against flying types yet.

Here's the team I recommend, but feel free to change it. There are some team notes underneath.

Geodude's
Butterfree (evolved from Caterpie - Gold) or Ledyba (Silver).
Jigglypuff (as long as it knows Pound)
Your starter (if you chose Totodile or Cyndaquil) or Rattata/Sentret (if you chose Chikorita)
Pidgey or Spearow
Zubat

TEAM NOTES:
Geodude is a must for this gym. Both flying and normal attacks do very little damage, so Geodude will be fine. You may find the leader a bit trickier, as his Pidgeotto knows Mud-Slap - a ground type move.
Poison isn't very good against flying types. For this reason, choose the bug-type that aren't half-poison. This means Butterfree in Gold or Ledyba in Silver. Butterfree will know Confusion, which is quite powerful this early on, but don attempt to trade it if you e playing Silver - traded Pokémon over :L10 will be unruly.
Jigglypuff learns Pound at :L10. Until then, it can physically harm anything. Its high HP and tough defense make it a good competitor against most Pokémon, and Sing can be useful if you can make it hit.
Grass isn't effective against flying types, so Bellsprout and Chikorita will have a hard time coping. If you chose Chikorita at the start, don worry - take a Rattata with you instead. Rattata is surprisingly good, so that should be your priority - if you don have one, or it isn't strong enough and you can be bothered to train it, choose Sentret. Sentret is surprisingly weak.
Fight fire with fire! Or flying with flying, as the case may be. Pidgey and Spearow are both quite good, but Spearow will usually be best. It depends on how much you've trained them, of course.
I know what you e thinking - why the hell would you need a Zubat? Simple - in GS, Zubat evolves twice. Golbat evolves into Crobat when happy. Making it happy can be tedious work, so to make it easier, keep it on your team - especially when beating gyms. ON NO ACCOUNT should you let it faint. Save before fighting any trainer, just in case. Heal before fighting Falkner. See the next paragraph for tactics.

BATTLE TACTICS:
Heal at a Poke Center and save when standing next to Falkner. You lose half of all your money if all your Pokémon faint at any point in the game, so turn the game off without saving if you lose. Before the fight, equip all your Pokémon with Berries. You may want to buy Potions as well, but you should have a few from Item Balls and Elms aide.
Fight! Remember - your main aim is to knock both Pokémon out without the need to use Zubat at all. Geodude should make quick work of Pidgey, but it could very well be knocked out by Pidgeotto. Butterfree or Ledyba should pick it up from here, but as bug types they could easily be knocked out.
If two Pokémon have been knocked out, your team must be quite weak, or you could be very unlucky (Sand Attack can be especially annoying). Jigglypuffs Sing can help, but its not very accurate at the best of times. Pound is quite a weak attack - even in comparison with tackle. Jigglypuffs defense will help make up for it though.
If you chose Totodile at the start, Rage will help you quite well - its attack increases as Totodile gets hurt. If you chose Cyndaquil, and its about to be knocked out, use Smokescreen - it'll help your next Pokémon. If you chose Chikorita, your Rattata will still be quite useful. It doesn't really need Quick Attack, because its speed is already quite high. However, Pidgeotto is a tough opponent for such a small Rattata. If you e using Sentret, I wish you all the luck in the world - you'll need it.
Spearow's Peck or Pidgey's Gust should finish Pidgeotto off. If you get to a point where you have to use Zubat, just pray as hard as you can. Get something you can squeeze to relieve stress. I recommend this for capturing Pokémon as well - I find pressing buttons after throwing a Ball hinders the capture rate, so just squeeze with all your might!

If you lose, turn the game off and then back on again. Train or buy more Potions, whatever you think could help. If you win, you'll get the Mud-Slap TM and your first badge! With this, you can use Flash out of battle (when you get it), but there's one more thing to do once you get this badge.

Prof Elm phones you after you exit the gym. Remember the egg you delivered him? Well you can only hatch it by keeping it on a trainers team. Remember this - you can't hatch an egg in a PC box. Go to the Poke Center, and Elms aide will give you the egg. Once you take 2,560 steps, it'll hatch. Keep it on your team at all times. Once it hatches, it'll evolve when happy, so keep it on your team. It won't learn any good attacks for ages, so just send it up first and then switch for a stronger Pokémon.

I haven told you what the Pokémon is because it may spoil the surprise (although you may have guessed or already know). If you don mind spoiling it, read the first letter of each word in the following sentence:
The old gray eagle played inside.