Pokémon Red and Blue/Thunder Badge

Route 24

After leaving the Cerulean City Gym with your Cascade Badge, be sure to heal up at the Pokémon Center. When you’re ready, go to Cerulean City’s north exit, where you will run into your rival, who will immediately challenge you to a battle.

Boss — Rival

1. Level 18 Pidgeotto
2. Level 15 Rattata
3. Level 15 Abra
4. Rival’s starter (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander, depending on which Pokémon you chose in Pallet Town) at Level 17

Once you have defeated him, heal again and exit Cerulean City. You will pass over a bridge with five Jr. Trainers on it. Defeat each one in turn, and when you get to the far end of the bridge, a man will reveal himself to you as a Rocket. After defeating him, he will give you a Nugget. This item can be sold at any Poké Mart for a large amount of money. There is one more enemy Trainer in a patch of tall grass to the west.

Route 25

Route 25 is dense and features nine enemy Trainers. There is only a small patch of tall grass on this Route, at the beginning. Proceed east, weaving through the maze of trees. About halfway through you will find another Cut tree. Normally, the item beyond would be inaccessible, but if you plan ahead you can get it early. When fighting the Jr. Trainer, ensure you are as far south of him as possible when walking into his line of sight, so that you can slip around him and through the gap where he stood. You will then find TM 19 (Seismic Toss).

Immediately to the northeast of the first enemy Trainer on this Route, you will see a small, seemingly useless path between the rock wall and the trees. However, if you examine the wall at the far end of the path, you will find a hidden Elixir. You can also find a hidden Ether a few squares due east of the last enemy Trainer.

Once you get to the end of the Route, you will find a house. Enter it. You will find an unusual situation inside. Help resolve it by examining the computer when prompted. You will then meet Bill, the person who runs the PC Storage System you’ve been using at the Pokémon Center (“Someone’s PC”); from here on it will be listed as Bill’s PC. He will give you an S.S. Ticket. This item will be required soon. South of Bill’s house, you will find a straight path that leads back to Cerulean City.

The Burglar of Cerulean City

Upon returning to Cerulean City, go to the house in the northeast corner that was blocked off. Turns out that someone burgled this house, and that someone is a Rocket. You must defeat him to continue. Once you do so, cut through the house’s yard and depart Cerulean City to the south.

Route 5

The two straight paths out of Cerulean City are not actually the way you want to take. In between them, a series of ledges and tall-grass patches will lead you to the Pokémon Daycare. If you drop a Pokémon off here, it will gain one point of EXP for every step you take. When you return, it will hopefully be of a higher level. Note that if the Pokémon learns a move during the process of leveling up, and an existing move must be forgotten, the computer will choose which move to delete, or to keep all four existing moves. You have no control over this. However, if you purchased that Magikarp back in Route 3, you can drop it off here and return to a Gyarados. You will be charged •100 for every level your Pokémon has gained when you withdraw them from the daycare.

South of there you will find a small building to the east, and a large one to the south. The south building is a gate leading to Saffron City. Unfortunately, the gate is closed and you cannot enter. Therefore, enter the small building instead, and you will discover one of two tunnels that exist in Kanto. Both allow you to pass underneath Saffron City to the other side. The tunnel is long and straight, but not completely featureless. You can find a Full Restore hidden on the ground two tiles due west of the stairs at the north entrance to the tunnel, and an X Special two tiles east and six north of the stairs at the south end of the tunnel.

Route 6

You will emerge on Route 6, to the south of Saffron City. There will be another closed gate building to the north. Ignore it and go south instead. You will find a lot of tall grass here, as well as six enemy Trainers. After you pass through Route 6, you will arrive at Vermilion City.

Vermilion City

Vermilion City is a large port city, and the site of your next Gym. The Pokémon Center is to the west, just after you enter town. Inside the building west of that, one of the men will give you an Old Rod. This item of dubious utility enables you to fish at any body of water. Unfortunately, the only thing it will ever catch is Magikarp. You will receive better fishing rods later.

The Pokémon Gym in this area is block off by a Cut tree. We will be able to deal with this shortly. North of that building is the Pokémon Fan Club. The president of this group likes to brag. Listen to his spiel and he will give you a Bike Voucher. When we return to Cerulean City, we can give this to the Bike Shop to receive a Bike!

If you stand at the door to the Pokémon Fan Club and walk five squares east, then two squares north, you may be able to find a hidden Max Ether.

Perhaps most importantly, the building immediately east of the Fan Club houses a trading opportunity. If you are willing to part with a Spearow, a person in this house will give you a Farfetch’d. This is the only way you’ll ever be able to meet a Farfetch’d, and it is the only one you can ever get. While Farfetch’d is not very useful in battle, he can learn the Cut HM and the Fly HM. This will be important, and useful, in just a bit.

Boarding the S.S. Anne

Currently docked at the pier at the south end if the city is the cruise ship S.S. Anne. Assuming you have the S.S. Ticket (and you wouldn’t be able to be here if you didn’t), the doorman will let you board the liner.

The S.S. Anne is a unique area. It is only available for a short period of time. At the end of this area, you will receive the Cut HM from the ship’s captain. Once you do that, after you leave the vessel it will depart, and you will never be able to enter it again. Given that there are two TMs here to be collected, a good search of this vessel is an excellent idea, not just for the EXP. (Note that, until you receive the HM, you can enter and leave the ship as you please.) If you explore the ship as narrated below, you will battle every enemy Trainer and obtain every item on the ship.

The main deck of the ship (where the entrance is) has five rooms to the west of the entrance and one to the east. Let’s number these rooms 1–6 (where room 1 is on the western side of the ship). Rooms 1 and 3 contain little of interest. Room 2 contains two enemy Trainers, and, past them, TM 08. Room 4 contains a woman who will heal your Pokémon when you talk to her, just like at a Pokémon Center. Rooms 5 and 6 contain one enemy Trainer.

But this is only the first deck! If you proceed to the right past Room 5, you will find a staircase down to the basement. Numbering from 1–5 from the left, Room 1 contains two enemy Trainers. Room two contains one enemy Trainer and TM 44 (Rest). Room 3 contains an enemy Trainer and an Ether. Room 4 contains two enemy Trainers, and Room 5 contains a Max Potion.

Returning to the main deck, if you go left instead, you will reach stairs going up and a corridor to the south. The south path leads to the kitchen, a large open area with no enemy Trainers. However, going there is not entirely pointless; if you search the trash cans, one of them contains a Great Ball.

On the upper deck of the S.S. Anne, you will first find more stairs going up. If you take them, you will be on the lido deck, which extends to the S.S. Anne’s prow. Two enemy Trainers can be found there. You will also find six more rooms. Numbering them as before, you will find only that Rooms 2 and 4 contain anything of interest. Room 2 contains two enemy Trainers and a Max Ether. Room 4 contains two more enemy Trainers and a Rare Candy.

Before proceeding to the east beyond Room 6 here, return to the main deck and heal your Pokémon in Room 4, for you have a boss battle coming up. When you are ready, move past the last room to encounter your rival. After a short speech, he will battle you.

Boss — Rival

• Level 19 Pidgeotto
• Level 18 Kadabra
• Level 16 Radicate
• Level 22 evolved form of his starter (either Ivysaur, Charmeleon, or Wartortle, depending on which Pokémon you chose in Pallet Town).

Past the rival battle, the corridor turns north and you see a final set of stairs. Take these and you will be in the captain’s cabin. The captain does not battle you; speak to him and he will give you, after a bit of chatter, HM 01 (Cut). Once he gives you this item, be aware that the S.S. Anne will sail away forever when you next step off the ship. If you have been following the sequence above, you should be good to go here.

Vermilion City Gym

Unlike a TM (which teaches a specific move to one of your Pokémon, once), an HM is multiple-use. You use these items to teach moves to Pokémon as many times as you want. Furthermore, all HMs have what are called field effects. These are ways you can affect your environment outside of battle. The field effect for Cut allows you to remove the Cut trees you have been seeing all over the region, most notably in front of the Vermilion City Gym. Note that if you put a Pokémon that knows an HM in the PC storage system, you will no longer be able to use that field effect until you take it back out or teach it to another Pokémon.

Inside the Vermilion City Gym, you will find three enemy Trainers and the Gym Leader. Please see the Enemy Trainers section of this guide for information on the Pokémon you will encounter in this Gym. To reach the Gym Leader, you must find and press two switches. You do this by examining the trash cans sprinkled liberally around the room. The location of the first switch is random. The location of the second switch is also random, but it is certain to be in the can either directly north, west, east, or south of the first switch. If you do not find the second switch on your first try, the first switch will move to another random location.

Boss — Lt. Surge (•2376 reward)

1. Level 21 Voltorb
2. Level 18 Pikachu
3. Level 24 Raichu

After you defeat Lt. Surge, you will receive the Thunder Badge. Receiving this badge will give your Pokémon a 12.5% speed boost in battle (for in-game battles only). You will also be given TM 24 (Thunderbolt).