Pokémon Red Week 2 Update
Part II of The Great Pokémon Playthrough of 2024
This is part 2 of the Great Pokémon Playthrough of 2024. If you’ve not read Part I, click here.
Also, if you’ve not voted for your picks in the Year of the Linux Desktop Sweet Sixteen, you can do so here. Voting ends tomorrow.
Welcome back, one and all. This week was quite busy, and so I didn’t have a lot of time to play the game. Still, I did manage to win my third gym badge and get positioned well for the mid-game!
At the end of week one we left off in Cerulean City, having just won the Cascade Badge by defeating Misty. From there I headed south on Route 5. I didn’t take a picture, but as you can see on the map above, Saffron City — the largest city in the game — is directly between Cerulean City and my next destination: Vermillion City. Unfortunately, the guard at the entrance to the city won’t let you pass… because he’s thirsty. That’s right. All trade, commerce, tourism, and business-in-general must stop. The economic stability of this metropolitan powerhouse seems to hinge on the ability to quench the thirst of a gate guard who forgot to hydrate… awesome. In any event, that is a problem for later so I just took the underground tunnel to get past the city.
Once out of the tunnel I headed south on Route 6, battling the trainers and grinding with the wild Pokémon along the way. Once in Vermillion City, I visited the Fishing Guru. He’s located in the house next to the Pokémon Center and talking to him rewards you with the old rod. This rod can catch one Pokémon, and one Pokémon only: the useless fish, Magikarp. So naturally, I caught one, but then travelled back up to Cerulean City to drop it off at the Pokémon Daycare located just south of the city. Unlike in later games, there is no breeding or egg hatching in the gen 1 games so the daycare is really just good for letting someone else grind your Pokémon for you. It gains a certain amount of experience points for every step you take, so it takes a while, but it will be good in the end. I dropped Magikarp off and headed back down to Vermillion.
Once back in Vermillion City, I headed over to Route 11 to battle the trainers there and to grind some more as the wild Pokémon over there offer more experience. Once everyone was defeated I went to the guard station at the end of the route and went upstairs to see Professor Oak’s Aide. If you have at least 30 Pokémon recorded in your Pokédex, he will give you the item finder. It’s a tool to help you locate hidden items along routes and in buildings. I only had 22 recorded when I got there so I didn’t get it, but it’s not a big deal as I know where most of the hidden items are by heart at this point.
Next, I made my way back down Route 11 and down to the S.S. Anne. If you’re playing along and haven’t done it yet, you’ll need to go see Bill, north of Cerulean City, to get the S.S. Ticket in order to board the ship. Once on board, I battled all of the trainers to level up my team some more.
The whole purpose of the S.S. Anne is to acquire a special move: HM01, Cut. Cut is needed to clear the small tree blocking the path to the Vermillion City Gym and you get it from the captain of the S.S. Anne. Once all of the trainers were defeated, I ran into my rival once again just before reaching the bridge. We fought. I won again.
After getting Cut, I remembered that the Pokémon Fan Club was located in Vermillion City so I stopped by there and talked to the president and got the Bike Voucher. I decided to go ahead and make a quick trip back up to Cerulean City to exchange it for a Bicycle from the bike shop at the bottom left of the city. The bike is really important to grab in the gen 1 games since it’s the only means of travelling faster than walking. That’s right, no running shoes. Just walk, or ride. That’s it.
It was now time to face Lt. Surge and his team of electric Pokémon. I defeated the three trainers in the gym and then completed the “puzzle” it gives you. It’s not really a puzzle, though. It’s really more a luck-based trial and error exercise. You have to find a switch in one of the trash can things, and then the second is supposed to be in one of the cans directly surrounding it (even in the one’s you’ve already checked that said nothing was there). Flipping both switches will disable the locked door leading to the gym leader. However, gen 1 was super buggy and that includes here as well. The easiest way through this is to find the first switch, and then immediately go to the one at the top left as the bug usually allows that to always work as the second switch to unlock the door to Surge.
The fight with Lt. Surge was actually quite easy. I picked up a level 12 Diglett from Diglett’s Cave when I got to Vermillion City the first time and taught it Dig using the TM you get from defeating the Team Rocket Grunt in Cerulean City. Diglett is a ground type, which is immune to electric attacks. Likewise, dig is a ground-type attack which is also super effective against electric-type Pokémon. I was also able to get Diglett up to level 22 before this battle so it was more than enough to deal with Lt. Surge’s entire team, sweeping them in a single go.
Once finished, he gave me the Thunder Badge and a TM for the move Thunderbolt which I promptly taught to my Pikachu… as you do.
Now, the reason I turned back at the end of Route 11 is that past the guard shack, the path is blocked by a Snorlax — more on this later — so I headed back up to Cerulean City to take an alternate route. I decided to stop in at the Daycare to check on my Magikarp and found it had gained 10 levels so far putting it at level 15. I decided to leave it at the daycare for now as it is still useless. My plan is to come back for it once it’s closer to level 25 at which point it will evolve into the mighty Gyrados!
I wrapped up this week’s play time by heading to Route 9 on my way to the Rock Cave. But that is for next week.
All in all, it was a slow week and I did a fair bit of grinding for a total of 4 hours and 14 minutes, scoring one gym badge. I did double my income though, so that’s a thing. My goal for next week is to beat the next two gym leaders and be well prepared for my showdown in Saffron City against Sabrina.
