Pallet Town to Viridian City: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 1

by ReOcelot

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quick Guide
Getting Started (Your Cozy Room)
Getting Your Starter Pokémon
Viridian City / Oak’s Parcel
- Route 1
- Oak’s Parcel
Onto Viridian & Pewter
- Town Map Key Item
- Entering Viridian Forest

Quick Guide

Leave your house, walk north, and attempt to leave Pallet Town (Oak will stop you)
Talk to Professor Oak, head back to his lab, and choose your starter Pokémon
Walk north from Pallet Town to Viridian City and walk into the Poké Mart to receive Oak’s Parcel
Take Oak’s Parcel back to Professor Oak in his lab in Pallet Town to receive the Pokédex and some Poké Balls
Stop by your Rival’s house to get the Town Map, then head back to Viridian City

Getting Started (Your Cozy Room)

When you first launch FireRed or LeafGreen, you’ll have to select “New Game”, go through the instructions on screen (Press A), name your player, and name your rival. Afterwards you’ll be shrunk down and placed in the center of your room.

Before you run downstairs and start your journey, you should check out your PC in the top-left corner of your room. There’s actually a handy Potion waiting for you in your PC, which you can use later.

Getting the Potion from the PC in the our room

To get the free Potion:

Press A on your PC
Select “ITEM STORAGE”
Select “WITHDRAW ITEM”
Select the Potion and then select Withdraw

After you have your Potion, walk downstairs, say Hi to your mom (optional), and walk out the door to begin your journey. This is also a great time to save your game (Press Start > Save) just in case your game restarts, crashes, etc. Make sure to save often!

Getting Your Starter Pokémon

After you walk out of your door for the first time, you’ll be greeted with the fresh air of Pallet Town. Walk up north, in the center of town. There is a gap in the middle of the tree line. Walk through that gap (or try to) and Professor Oak will come running out to stop you.

Oak stopping us from continuing north of Pallet Town

He’ll warn you about the tall grass before taking you back to his lab. Here you’ll meet your Rival and Oak will explain what Poké Balls are. Afterwards, he’ll tell you to pick one of the three Pokémon on the table. This is the most important decision of your life (well your FireRed / LeafGreen life at least).

The three Pokémon on the table all have their own type, advantages, and disadvantages. You can walk up to each Poké Ball and press A in order to see which Pokémon it holds, what it looks like, and its name. Don’t worry, you won’t automatically pick the Pokémon. You’ll have to actually confirm which one you want.

Your Three Choices

Name	Type	Starting Difficulty
Bulbasaur	Grass / Poison	Easy
Squirtle	Water	Medium
Charmander	Fire	Hard

The starter Pokémon pretty much follow a Rock, Paper, Scissors pattern.

Fire is weak to Water
Water is weak to Grass
Grass is weak to Fire

As you can see in my chart, I’ve added in a “Starting Difficulty” column. This is just referring to the first couple of Gym Leaders and trainers that you will face.

However, you really shouldn’t let this sway your choice. You should pick whichever Pokémon you think looks the coolest, cutest, or whatever else speaks to you.

Choosing Your Starter

Once you’ve made your decision, walk up to the Poké Ball that you want, press A, and confirm that you want that Pokémon. Afterwards, you can even give it a nickname if you’d like.

Choosing Charmander as our starter Pokémon

Your Rival is a jerk, so he’ll choose the Pokémon that counters yours. I chose Charmander so my Rival will choose Squirtle. This doesn’t matter too much right now, but it could be a pain in the neck later, so I’m just warning you.

Battling Your Rival

After you choose your Pokémon, just walk downwards like you’re going to leave the building. Your Rival will stop you and challenge you to a battle with your new Pokémon.

Battling our rival in Professor Oak’s lab

There’s not much to this battle. Professor Oak will tell you the basics of battling, health, etc. You pretty much have to spam Scratch / Tackle (depending on your Pokémon) and hope to get lucky.

If you feel like you’re in danger of losing, you can select your Bag and use the Potion we grabbed earlier. This will heal your starter and guarantee victory.

Viridian City / Oak’s Parcel

After you’ve defeated your Rival, leave Oak’s lab and head north in Pallet Town. This time you’ll actually be able to walk between the trees and continue onto Route 1.

Route 1

Route 1 is pretty straight forward. Just walk north until you reach Viridian City. There is a lot of tall grass on Route 1 that you’ll need to walk through, which means you’ll probably battle a lot of wild Pokémon. If your starter’s health gets low, remember you can always use the Potion from your bag.

If you already used your Potion, no worries. There is also a lady standing on Route 1 that works at the Poké Mart.

Getting a free Potion from the Poké Mart employee on Route 1

Go ahead and talk to her and she’ll give you another free Potion that you can put in your Bag for later.

Oak’s Parcel

Continue north through Route 1 until you reach Viridian City. Viridian is pretty small, but it does have a Gym in it. However, you can’t fight that Gym yet so we’re actually here for something else.

If you try to walk north, an old man will be sleeping on the ground because he hasn’t had his coffee (relatable).

Elderly man laying in the middle of Viridian City, blocking our path

So, instead of trying to walk through here, just head to the east side of the city and find the Poké Mart.

The Poké Mart is the building with the light blue roof and is where you’ll buy items like Poké Balls and Potions.

Outside of the Viridian City Poké Mart

For now, though, we’re not buying anything. We’re on a mission for Oak’s Parcel. Walk inside of the Poké Mart and the cashier will immediately call you over. They’ll ask if you know Oak and then give you his Parcel.

Once you have Oak’s Parcel, walk south, back through Route 1 all the way to Pallet Town. The trip back to Pallet is a lot faster, though, because you can jump over the hills on the left side of the Route.

Walking back down Route 1, jumping over the hills as a shortcut

Once you’re back in Pallet Town, head to Professor Oak’s Lab (big yellow building) and talk to Professor Oak. He’ll talk a little bit before giving you the Pokédex and some Poké Balls.

Receiving the Pokédex from Professor Oak

Your Pokédex will keep track of which Pokémon you’ve seen and caught, while you will use the Poké Balls to actually catch Pokémon.

Onto Viridian & Pewter

Town Map Key Item

After you talk to Professor Oak, it’s time to head back to Viridian City and make your way north to Pewter City.

Before you leave Pallet Town, though, head to your Rival’s house.

Outside of our Rival’s house in Pallet Town

If you walk inside and talk to your Rival’s sister, she will hand you a Town Map, which you can use to navigate Kanto.

You can also “register” your Town Map, so that you can quickly press Select anytime to immediately bring it up.

Open up your Bag
Use Left / Right to get to your Key Items pocket
Select Town Map and select Register

This is extremely handy early game. Later on, you may want to register a different item, but for now the Town Map is your only Key Item so you might as well register it.

Entering Viridian Forest

Now that you have your Pokédex, Poké Balls, and Town Map, you can head back to Viridian CIty up north. Feel free to catch some Pokémon on your way to Viridian (Pidgey is a great option).

Once you reach Viridian City, walk north again back to the old man. This time, though, he’s had his coffee and is ready to teach you how to catch Pokémon whether you want to know or not.

Talking to the elderly man in Viridian City after getting the Pokédex

If you don’t know how to catch Pokémon, he gives you a pretty good rundown.

After he’s done teaching you, he’ll hand you a Teachy TV and you can be on your way.

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Pokémon FRLG Full Strategy Guide

Guide Navigation

Pokémon FRLG
- Pallet Town to Viridian City: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 1

ReOcelot

115 articles

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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