Pokémon Red

1. Pick Squirtle. Squirtle walls Brock’s Rock-types and Misty’s Water-types, then stays relevant through mid-game. Charmander turns Brock into a war of attrition; Bulbasaur front-loads power but drops off.

2. Catch a Pidgey or Spearow on Route 1. Flying-types learn Fly (the mandatory HM for fast travel) and cover the Fighting/Bug/Grass trainers clogging early routes. Pidgey evolves faster; Spearow hits harder.

3. Skip Potions in Viridian City. Free Potions sit in item balls on Route 1 and Viridian Forest. Spend cash on Poké Balls and Repels instead — you need 10+ balls minimum to field a six-mon roster before Brock.

4. Talk to everyone in Viridian City before leaving. The old man blocking the northern route runs the mandatory catch tutorial, and the Poké Mart clerk hands you Oak’s parcel (triggers the Pokédex unlock if you skipped it).

5. Grind to Level 12–13 in Viridian Forest before Brock. Brock’s Onix sits at Level 14 with massive Defense. Charmander players: catch a Mankey on Route 22 west of Viridian (Red version only) — it learns Low Kick at Level 9, which demolishes Rock-types.

6. Save before every Gym Leader, Rival fight, and legendary encounter. No autosave. A wipe against Misty or a Rival critical means replaying 20+ minutes if you haven’t hit a Pokémon Center.

7. Never use your Master Ball on Zapdos, Moltres, or Articuno. The legendary birds have high catch rates compared to Mewtwo. Save the Master Ball for Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave post-game.

• Teach HM moves to expendable Pokémon, never your core team. Cut, Flash, and Strength are mandatory for progression but mediocre in battle. Catch a Spearow or Pidgey as an “HM slave” to preserve your starter’s moveset — Red/Blue have no Move Deleter, so HMs are permanent once taught.

• The Nugget Bridge rival fight is a stat-experience checkpoint. If your starter is underleveled here (below 16–17), you’re grinding inefficiently. Trainer battles award more experience than wild encounters — fight every trainer on each route instead of avoiding them. The stat experience system rewards fighting higher-level opponents ^cite.

• Duplicate rare items with the Celadon Department Store Clerk glitch. Sell any item, then immediately switch boxes in the PC. The clerk’s inventory desyncs and you can rebuy the item while keeping your original. Works on TMs, Rare Candies, Master Balls — anything sellable. Not a code, just sloppy inventory handling in the original Game Boy build.

• Psychic-types have no effective checks in Generation I. The Ghost-type immunity that should counter them is bugged — Psychic moves hit Ghosts for neutral damage. Alakazam, Starmie, and Exeggutor sweep the Elite Four with minimal resistance. The only reliable answer is another Psychic-type or a same-turn KO.

• Catch an Abra before Mt. Moon. Teleport makes backtracking to Pokémon Centers instant — critical for the mid-game grind when you’re juggling HM requirements and team composition. Abra appears on Routes 24 and 25 at 25% encounter rate but flees turn one; use a sleep move or throw balls immediately.

• The Mew glitch requires zero external devices. Trigger a specific trainer encounter sequence near Cerulean, exploit the Start menu during battle initialization, then fight a specific wild Pokémon. The Special stat of that Pokémon determines which species appears. Detailed steps vary by route — GameFAQs has frame-by-frame walkthroughs ^cite.

• TMs are single-use consumables — plan your distribution. Earthquake, Psychic, and Thunderbolt can’t be farmed. If you teach Earthquake to three different Pokémon, you need three separate TM26 copies (Silph Co, Game Corner, Victory Road). Don’t waste Psychic on a Pokémon you’re planning to box.

Route 9 / Rock Tunnel darkness Rock Tunnel is the first mandatory dungeon without lighting, and new players circle the same three rooms for twenty minutes. HM05 (Flash) is optional but changes everything — pick it up in Route 2 (requires Cut to access the professor’s aide south of Viridian) and teach it to a throwaway Pokémon. Skip Flash entirely and hug the right wall from the Route 10 entrance; this gets you through both floors with minimal backtracking. Wild Zubats appear every four steps — stock Repels or accept the grind.

Silph Co. warp-tile maze (5F → 9F) Silph Co.’s warp panels send players into recursive loops across floors 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. The critical path: enter 5F, take the southeast warp to 9F, then step on the northwest warp tile (not the one you arrived from). This drops you on 3F near the Card Key room. Rival battle on 7F is mandatory; if you warped past him, you missed a tile. The layout is identical in Blue/Yellow, so any ASCII map from GameFAQs works for all three versions.

Seafoam Islands current puzzle The whirlpool currents blocking Articuno’s chamber require pushing all boulders into the current holes on B3F and B4F — the game never explains this. Push the first boulder south into the B3F hole, drop down, then push the second boulder east into the B4F hole. Currents stop. Push a boulder into the wrong hole and you leave the dungeon entirely (Escape Rope or Fly) to reset all boulder positions. Strength is mandatory; skip the Safari Zone warden and you’re locked out until you return for HM04.

Lorelei’s Ice-type wall First Elite Four member Lorelei walls unprepared teams with Dewgong, Cloyster, and Slowbro — all carrying Ice Beam or Blizzard. Electric types (Zapdos, Magneton, Jolteon) trivialize four of her five Pokémon, but most players enter with a Fire/Water/Grass core and no Electric coverage. Didn’t catch Zapdos in the Power Plant? The Game Corner Porygon (9,999 coins) learns Thunderbolt via TM24. Alternatively, overlevel your starter to 55+ and brute-force with healing items — the Elite Four allows infinite Potion use between battles.