Pokémon Red and Blue/Rainbow Badge

Route 8

When you’re ready to leave Lavender Town, use the west exit. (The south exit will take you past a lot of water and bridges until you get stuck at that same Snorlax you saw earlier.)

Head due west on Route 8. If you follow the paved road, you will encounter seven enemy Trainers on the way, plus two more in the clearing at the end. There is tall grass here, but you will need to remove Cut trees to access it.

At the west end of Route 8 you find a third entrance to Saffron City — and you can’t get in this way, either! This is getting to be annoying. Thankfully, the smaller house nearby contains another underground tunnel, like the one that you traveled through on your way to get the Thunder Badge. There are two items hidden here as well. The first item, a Nugget, can be found in the bottommost “row” of tiles, thirty-five tiles west of the entrance. The other, an Elixir, can be found in the second row, nineteen tiles east of the west exit.

Route 7

Route 7 is a very small Route on the west side of Saffron City. You’ll find one last entrance to the city here, blocked off as usual. Saffron City is completely inaccessible for some reason. Your only clue as to why are that the guards blocking your way are thirsty. What might that mean?

Pass by the patch of tall grass and head northwest to enter Celadon City.

Celadon City

This large city is home to several tourist attractions: the Celadon City Gym, the Department Store, and the Game Corner (casino). As you enter, go around the back of the Pokémon Center and west after you pass through the tree line. The next gap in the trees that you will see is a back entrance to that building. Head all the way up to the top floor and you will reach a person who will give you an Eevee, the only one in the game. Eevee is notable for having three different evolutions (and even more in later generations), but it does not evolve on its own. To evolve an Eevee, use any evolutionary stone on it except for the Moon Stone, which Eevee does not respond to. Conveniently enough, you can buy these stones at the Department Store.

If you enter through the front door of that building, you will reach Game Freak. This recurring trope in Pokémon games has a man waiting to give you a prize if you can show him a Pokédex with all 151 Pokémon “seen” in it. This is blatantly impossible. Pokémon #151, Mew, is what is called an event legendary. These Pokémon were only released at certain limited-time real-world events back in the 1990s. It is impossible to catch a Mew today, and you will need one to satisfy this man. Just forget about it.

Skip the Game Corner for now. We’ve got a Gym to beat.

Celadon City Gym

This Gym is very small. Erika, the Gym Leader, is standing inside an enclosed area at the top of the room along with three other enemy Trainers. There are four more around the perimeter of this area. You will need to dispose of a Cut tree to get to the Gym Leader. As always, see the Enemy Trainers section of this guide for information on the Pokémon you will encounter in this Gym.

Boss — Erika (•2871 reward)

• Level 19 Victreebell
• Level 24 Tangela
• Level 29 Vileplume

After you defeat Erika, you will receive the Rainbow Badge as well as TM 21 (Mega Drain). Possession of the Rainbow Badge grants you the ability to control traded Pokémon up to level 50.