Where To Get the Itemfinder in Pokémon Crystal

The Itemfinder is given to you by a man in a house to the left of the Pokémon Center in Ecruteak City. You can get the Itemfinder immediately after reaching the city for the first time.

This key item lets you detect Hidden Items around Johto and Kanto that you would otherwise have missed.

These hidden items are not necessary to complete the game, but it definitely helps to find some of them.

Prerequisites

There are a few things you need to accomplish to open the way to Ecruteak City:

Beat Gym Leader Whitney in Goldenrod Gym.
Acquire the SquirtBottle from the Flower Shop sisters in Goldenrod City.
Remove the Sudowoodo blocking Route 36.

Once everything in that list is done, you should be able to cross over into Ecruteak from Goldenrod or Violet City through Route 36.

Getting the Itemfinder (Step-by-Step)

From the Ecruteak City Pokémon Center, go left and enter the first house you see.

Approaching the house in Ecruteak with the Itemfinder.

Talk to the man in the house and answer “Yes” when he asks whether he’s right about Pokémon journeys and treasure hunting.

Answering the NPC’s question.

He’ll then give you the Itemfinder for free.

Receiving the Itemfinder.

How Does the Itemfinder Work?

The Itemfinder is a key item that helps you locate Hidden Items in the overworld. These Hidden Items are invisible, but can still be collected if you press the action button (A) while facing the right tile.

Note: While the Itemfinder helps you locate these items, you don’t need it to pick them up. You can still pick up hidden items by just knowing exactly where they are & interacting with the proper tiles.

Whenever you use the Itemfinder it’ll say one of two things:

Reaction	Meaning
Nope! The ITEMFINDER isn’t responding.	There are no Hidden Items on screen.
Yes! ITEMFINDER indicates that there’s an item nearby.	There’s a Hidden Item somewhere on screen.

It isn’t able to pinpoint the exact location of a hidden item, so you might need to use it several times as you move around to figure out where exactly the item is.

Notable Itemfinder Items

There are many Hidden Items located all around Johto and Kanto. These are mostly varying types of Potions, Ethers, Revives, and other such consumable items.

But there are a few hidden items that stand out as more valuable and rare – we’ve listed these items in the table below.

SCROLL

Item	Description	Location(s)
Berserk Gene	Held item that is consumed when the holder enters combat. It confuses them, but doubles their Attack.	Cerulean City. Go up Route 24 then make a U-turn to the left and Surf down to where the male NPC is looking at the water. Check around where he’s staring.
Calcium	Raises a Pokémon’s Special stats permanently.	Route 13 right of a sign near the entrance to the wooden maze.
Carbos	Raises a Pokémon’s Speed stat permanently.	Tin Tower, 5F. Ice Path, B2F.
Iron	Raises a Pokémon’s Defense stat permanently.	Vermilion City harbor. Surf in the water immediately right of the S.S. Aqua after riding it from Olivine City.
Machine Part	Needed to fix the Kanto Power Plant.	Cerulean Gym. Must talk to the Power Plant manager first.
Moon Stone	Needed for certain Pokémon to evolve.	Mt. Moon Square on Mondays. Rock Smash is required. The item can only be found after the Clefairy cutscene has played out.
Nugget	Sells for 5,000 PokéDollars.	Miltank pasture on Route 39.
Protein	Increases a Pokémon’s Attack stat permanently.	Olivine City, harbor. Surf in the water immediately right of the S.S. Aqua after riding it from Vermilion City. It’s in the lower-left corner.
Rare Candy	Raises a Pokémon’s level by 1.	Cinnabar Island, Lake of Rage, Route 28, Route 34, Whirl Islands.

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Nelson Chitty

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Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.

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