Where To Get Poison Barbs in Pokémon Crystal

All Poison Barb Locations
	Method	Repeatable?
1	Talk to Frieda on Route 32	No
2	Held item from wild Beedrill (2% chance)	Yes

There are two ways to get Poison Barbs in Pokémon Crystal.

The easiest location is just talking to an NPC named Frieda on Route 32, just above the Poké Center here. She only appears on Fridays. But she will give you a free Poison Barb after talking to her, but she’ll only do this once.

The other way to get Poison Barbs is by catching (or stealing from) wild Beedrills. There is a 2% chance that each wild Beedrill will be holding a Poison Barb, so this method is much tougher, but it can be repeated infinitely.

Method 1: Talk To Frieda on Route 32

Talking to Frieda

The earliest chance to receive a Poison Barb in the game is to find and talk to Frieda on Route 32. Freida only shows up on Fridays, so you can’t find her anywhere else on any other days.

Here’s where to find Freida:

From Violet City, head south down Route 32.

Route 32 is south of the Violet City Gym

When the path splits, keep to the right.

Stay to the right to reach Route 32

Continue south. There are two paths to take here (one crosses a bridge and the other goes through wild grass). Both paths end at the same spot, so you can take either.

Taking the left path on Route 32

Eventually you’ll find a Pokémon Center just before the entrance to Union Cave.

Frieda can be found just north of the Pokémon Center in an area enclosed by trees.

Frieda in the top-right

Talk to her, and she will give you a Poison Barb.

Note: This method is not repeatable. If you’d like more Poison Barbs, follow Method 2 below.

Method 2: Held Items from Wild Beedrills

Wild Beedrills can be encountered any day of the week. So you can repeat this method as many times as you’d like to acquire multiple Poison Barbs.

Wild Beedrills can be found in two places:

The Ilex Forest via Headbutt
The National Park via the Bug-Catching Contest

Since Ilex Forest is easier to access quicker, we’ll hunt for Beedrills there by shaking them out of small trees.

Where To Learn Headbutt

To start, make your way to the Ilex Forest by heading west from Azalea Town.

Leaving Azalea Town for Ilex Forest

If this is your first time in the Ilex Forest, you’ll need to complete a side-quest where you chase a Farfetch’d around until you steer it back to the Charcoal Maker’s Apprentice.

This will get you HM01 Cut, which allows you to access the rest of Ilex Forest.

Chop down the tree that looks different from the others

Walk past the tree and follow the forest path until you spot a green-haired guy looking at a tree.

Get to the green-haired guy in the bottom-right

When the path splits by a ledge, keep going east to the right.

Keep to the right

Follow the path around until you reach the green-haired guy. Talk to him, and he will give you TM02 Headbutt.

Talking to the green-haired guy

Now you can teach Headbutt to one of your Pokémon.

Note: TMs in Crystal can only be used once, so make sure you teach the TM to a Pokémon you’ll want to have the move.

Using Headbutt to find Wild Beedrills

There is no gym badge required for using Headbutt outside of battle. So we can immediately go up to the smaller trees scattered around the forest and use Headbutt on them.

There’s a 5% chance that each encounter will be wild Beedrill from these trees.

Finding Pokemon in the small trees

So it may take a few tries, but eventually you’ll find a Beedrill.

Finding a wild Beedrill

Catch a few Beedrills (or use Thief if you have it) and eventually you’ll find one of them holding a Poison Barb.

Note: There’s only a 2% chance that each wild Beedrill will be holding a Poison Barb. So while this method does work, it may take some time.

How To Use Poison Barbs

Giving Poison Barb to Tentacool

Poison Barbs can be held by any Pokémon and will boost poison-type moves.

So it makes sense to give Poison Barbs to any strong poison-type Pokémon in your party. Although you can also give Poison Barbs to any other type of Pokémon that happens to know any decent poison-type moves.

Although truth be told, it’s somewhat rare to use Poison-type moves in Gen 2. So this item isn’t incredibly useful in a typical playthrough.

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Bryson Kenison

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Bryson Kenison is a content writer and editor who helps brands create easy-to-read content that readers will enjoy. He specializes in game guides, blog articles, and proofreading. When he’s not writing, you can catch Bryson enjoying one of his favorite Pokémon games.

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