Where Are The Daycares in Pokémon FRLG? (Locations + Full Daycare Guide)

by ReOcelot

There are actually two Daycares in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

The first Daycare is accessible early on, located just under Cerulean City on Route 5. You will need to hop down five hills and enter the building with an orange roof.

The 2nd Daycare is located on Four Island, and isn’t available until after the Elite Four has been defeated. After that, you can travel to Island 1 and begin a quest line with Celio that unlocks the rest of the Sevii Islands.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

First Daycare Location (South of Cerulean City)
Second Daycare Location (Four Island)
- Getting The Rainbow Pass
- Accessing The Four Island Daycare
How The Daycare Works
Daycare XP Trick

First Daycare Location (South of Cerulean City)

Outside of the Daycare Building

The Daycare itself isn’t very hard to get to, but it does require completing a prerequisite or two.

If you head South in Cerulean, you’ll notice a woman standing in front of a tree with her Slowbro. We need to get past that tree in order to get to the Daycare – but first, we need to move this Slowbro by helping out Bill.

Prerequisite #1: Helping Bill

Once you help out Bill, you will receive the S.S. Anne Ticket, which will open up a couple of paths for you.

To get to Bill’s house:

Head North of Cerulean across the Yellow Bridge (Route 24)
Head East on Route 25 until you see the house with a green roof

Outside of Bill’s House

Head inside and talk to the Pokémon (Bill)
Interact with the computer to transform Bill back into a human

Talking to Bill while he is transformed into a Pokémon

After you’ve helped Bill out, he’ll reward you with the ticket and you can head back to Cerulean City.

Prerequisite #2: The Team Rocket House

Outside of the home Team Rocket ransacked

Now that you’ve helped out Bill, Slowbro will no longer be in your way. This means you can use Cut on the tree that was blocking your path before.

However, if you don’t have Cut, there is another way.

Previously a Police Officer was blocking the door of the house in the North-East corner of Cerulean. Now the Officer will be standing to the side, allowing you to enter the house.

So:

Head inside the house
Exit through the hole in the back wall
Defeat the Rocket Grunt in the backyard
Walk South on the path until you’re right below Cerulean (Where the tree was blocking your path)

Hoppin Hills To The Daycare

The hills under Cerulean City, above the Pokémon Daycare Center

Time for the fun part.

Once you’re past that pesky tree, you can simply hop down the brown hills in the center of Route 5 until you reach the house with an orange roof.

Inside this house, you’ll see a man in brown, which is the Daycare owner.

Simply talk to him to use his Daycare services – just note they’re not free.

Second Daycare Location (Four Island)

There’s a second Daycare in FRLG which lets you breed Pokémon, but it isn’t available until much later in the game.

This Daycare is on the fourth Sevii Island, appropriately named Four Island, which you can only reach at the end of the game after you’ve beaten the Elite Four and obtained the Rainbow Pass.

However, this Daycare is well worth the effort.

Getting The Rainbow Pass

Before you can head to Four Island, you’ll need to get the Rainbow Pass. This Pass will allow you to travel to any of the Sevii Islands.

In order to obtain the Rainbow Pass, there are quite a few things you will need to do:

Defeat the Elite Four
Catch 60+ Pokémon
Talk to Professor Oak and obtain the National Pokédex (if you do not have)
Take the ferry to Island One from the Vermilion City Harbor
Talk to Celio in the One Island Pokémon Center and receive the quest to find the Ruby
Get the Ruby from Mt. Ember, bring it to Celio and get the quest to find the Sapphire
Get the Sapphire from Dotted Hole on Six Island and bring it to Celio

Meeting Celio in the One Island Pokémon Center

I know, that’s a lot of steps.

But once you’ve given Celio the Ruby and Sapphire, he’ll upgrade your Tri Pass to a Rainbow Pass and you’ll be able to head to Four Island.

Accessing The Four Island Daycare

Outside of the Four Island Daycare Center

Once you’re on Four Island, the Daycare is very easy to find.

It’s a building with an orange roof and an elderly man standing outside.

Simply walk inside and talk to the lady behind the counter to send your Pokémon to the Daycare. If your Pokémon have an Egg, then you can talk to the elderly gentleman outside and he’ll give it to you!

How The Daycare Works

When you put a Pokémon in the Daycare, it will gain XP, learn moves, and level up over time.

This is an extremely easy way to level up Pokémon passively and works extremely well on Pokémon you may not want to manually train, like Magikarp.

Leveling Up (XP Gains)

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen actually use an extremely simple formula for Daycare XP.

1 Step = 1 XP for the Pokémon in the Daycare.

So, just hand over a Pokémon and forget about it. Check back periodically and you’ll see that your Pokémon has leveled up quite a bit as long as you’ve been walking a lot.

Taking a Pokémon out of the Daycare under Cerulean City

Evolution in The Daycare (Warning)

While the Daycare is a fantastic place to level up your Pokémon, with great power comes great responsibility.

Your Pokémon will not evolve while it’s in the Daycare. This means when you take your Pokémon out, if you want it to evolve you’ll need to level it up one more time.

This will be more difficult if you over-level your Pokémon while it’s in the Daycare.

You also want to ensure that you don’t accidentally level up your Pokémon to level 100 while they’re in the Daycare because then you won’t be able to evolve them at all.

Learning New Moves (Warning)

Your Pokémon will learn new moves while they’re in the Daycare. But you will not get to choose which moves they learn and forget like you usually can.

Instead, your Pokémon will replace its first move when it learns a new one in the Daycare. After it learns this move, the rest of its moves will rotate up one spot, meaning Move 2 will become Move 1, and Move 1 will become Move 4.

Luckily, you can always head to the Move Maniac in the Game House on Two Island and he will teach your Pokémon any moves that they have forgotten.

How Much Does The Daycare Cost?

Putting your Pokémon in the Daycare is free, but if you want to take your Pokémon out it’ll cost you.

The rates for the Daycare are also pretty simple.

It costs 100 Pokédollars, no matter what to get your Pokémon back
It costs an additional 100 Pokédollars per level it has grown in the Daycare

So if you put a level 1 Pokémon in the Daycare until level 10, it will cost 1,000 Pokédollars.

Daycare XP Trick

The Viridian City Gym XP Trick

Leveling up Pokémon in the Daycare can take quite a while.

It will feel like it’s taking even longer if you’ve already beaten the game and are just trying to get some strong Pokémon.

Luckily, there’s a little trick that players have known about for over a decade and a half!

Put your Pokémon in the Daycare
Head to the Viridian City Gym
Find an arrow space that pushes you into a stop space
Tape down your walk button, so that the player constantly walks towards the arrow and is pushed back to the stop space
Leave your game running overnight, or while you do something else

If you’re playing on an Emulator, you may be able to find software or a macro that will allow you to set this trick up much easier.

This is an extremely easy way to level up your Pokémon 50+ levels while you sleep without using cheat codes.

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Pokémon FRLG Full Strategy Guide

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Pokémon FRLG
- Where Are The Daycares in Pokémon FRLG? (Locations + Full Daycare Guide)

ReOcelot

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A jack of all trades when it comes to gaming. I can sit down for hours in a casual playthrough of Pokémon, or I can spend months trying to hit Diamond in League of Legends. I love and appreciate everything about games, and love sharing that passion with my readers.

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