
Quick Guide
- From Viridian City, walk west until you reach Route 22.
- Battle your Rival on Route 22, then continue west until you reach the Pokémon League front gate.
- Walk through the gate on Route 22 then continue north. Show each guard the badge they ask for and make your way all the way to the end of Route 23.
- Walk inside the cave entrance to Victory Road.
- Push boulders onto all 4 buttons/pressure pads inside of Victory Road to get through the cave.
- Exit Victory Road, heal your Pokémon in the Indigo Plateau building, and prepare for the Elite Four.
Reaching Victory Road
Now that we have all eight Gym Badges, we can finally head to the Indigo Plateau. The Indigo Plateau is in the north-west part of Kanto, and we have to travel through Victory Road to reach it.
Before you depart for Victory Road, I recommend stocking up on Ultra Balls, Hyper Potions, Revives – and maybe even some Repels too.
You’ll also need to make sure that you have Pokémon that know the moves Surf and Strength, because we’ll need them to actually get to the Indigo Plateau.
Starting on Route 22
Luckily, we just defeated Giovanni and are in Viridian City already.
So travel West from Viridian City to reach Route 22.

We will pretty much travel along Route 22 / 23 until we hit Victory Road. So follow the Route 22 pathway, then walk north through the tall grass. Afterwards, we’re pretty much just going to forge-forward west.

Rival Battle
As soon as you start heading west on this path, your Rival will come forward and stop you in your path. This will probably be the toughest battle you’ve experienced, so make sure your Pokémon are leveled up and healed.
Your Rival has a full party of six Pokémon, but the exact party will depend on your Starter Pokémon:
If you chose Charmander:
Pokémon | Level |
---|---|
Pidgeot | 47 |
Exeggcute | 45 |
Rhyhorn | 45 |
Alakazam | 47 |
Growlithe | 45 |
Blastoise | 53 |
If you chose Bulbasaur:
Pokémon | Level |
---|---|
Pidgeot | 47 |
Rhyhorn | 45 |
Exeggcute | 45 |
Gyarados | 45 |
Alakazam | 47 |
Charizard | 53 |
If you chose Squirtle:
Pokémon | Level |
---|---|
Pidgeot | 47 |
Growlithe | 45 |
Rhyhorn | 45 |
Alakazam | 47 |
Gyarados | 45 |
Venusaur | 53 |
Defeat him as fast as you can, then continue onward.
Route 23
After you defeat your Rival, you can continue west along Route 22 until you reach the Pokémon League Front Gate.
This building is huge and glamorous so it’ll be pretty hard to miss.

Head inside of the building and continue forward through the door in the back.
The guard will stop you and make sure that you have the Boulder Badge.

Get used to this treatment, because there will be 7 more guards ahead of us, and every single one is going to stop us and check for a badge.
Route 23 is very straight forward.
You just walk north through all of the gates.
Although you’ll eventually reach a little river that you’ll need to Surf across, so make sure one of your Pokémon knows Surf.

Surf straight ahead and continue north. Finally, after a few more guard checkpoints, we’ll reach the final guard.

This guard will check for the Earth Badge that we just won from Giovanni. Of course we have it, so we can continue past this guard and finally enter Victory Road.

Victory Road Walkthrough (Step-by-Step)
Victory Road is a bit convoluted.
There are many boulders lying around, and we have to use Strength on those boulders, then push them over buttons in order to leave.
Without guidance, it can be a bit tricky to get through Victory Road.
But if you want a quick rundown of how to get through it step-by-step, we have you covered.
Button 1 (First Floor)
Step inside and use Strength on the first boulder to the left of the entrance

Push this boulder down once, then right as far as possible

Once you hit the rocks with the boulder, push it up as far as possible, then push it right as far as possible once again

Once you hit the east wall (aka rocks), push the boulder up until it is one space above the white button

Push the boulder east once, then push it down onto the white button

After you’ve moved the boulder onto the switch, head back to the entrance.
Then walk up the stairs just northeast of the entrance hole.

Make your way to the north-west part of the cliff, then walk down the stairs.
Afterwards, make your way to the north-west part of the First Floor (where the purple-haired Trainer and ladder going up are located).

Take the ladder going up in the north-west corner of the first floor.

Button 2 (Second Floor)
When you reach the 2nd floor, head directly south and use Strength on the closest boulder

Push the boulder left until it is two tiles right of the button, and two tiles north of it (see the screenshot below)

Push the boulder south as far as possible, then push it left until it’s on top of the button

Afterwards, head up the ladder just northeast of the button / boulder we just pressed. Then you’ll want to walk up the stairs onto the cliff.

Follow the cliff, and take the first set of stairs down.

Walk east as far as possible, then start walking north until you see a ladder going up. Take this ladder up to the 3rd floor.

Button 3 (Third Floor)
When you reach the third floor, use Strength on the boulder closest to the ladder (north-west of the ladder)

Push the boulder up two times, then push it left as far as possible

Step 3: Once you hit the left wall, walk above the boulder and push it down once.

Push the boulder left 4 times until it’s just one space to the left side of the button (and 3 above)

Walk above the boulder and push it down as far as possible until it’s sitting directly left of the white button

Push the boulder one space to the right, leaving it on the white button

Once you’ve pushed this boulder onto the 3rd pressure pad / button, walk back east towards the ladder we climbed up on. But don’t go here just yet, as there’s one more button to complete.
Button 4 (Third Floor – Second Floor)
Go back to the area just left of the ladder we used to get to the third floor. Then climb up the stairs leading onto the cliff here.

Follow the cliff all the way to the end the walk down the steps past the two purple-haired trainers.

Continue right while hugging the south wall. Walk past those two purple-haired trainers and through the little corridor.
Walk until you see a boulder perched by a hole in the floor.

Once you reach the hole in the floor, push the boulder right into it. Then follow the boulder down (walk into the hole).

Once you land next to the boulder, use Strength again and push it straight left until it lands on the white button at the end. (Do not push it any direction except left)

After you push the boulder onto the button, head back to where we first started pushing the boulder after it fell through the hole. You’ll be able to walk up the cliff there.
You’ll also notice that the barrier blocking the ladder going up will be gone now. So we can take that ladder back up to the third floor.

Once you take the ladder up, walk past the two purple-haired trainers (or battle them in a double battle), and then take the ladder going down directly behind them.

Once you climb the ladder down, you can talk to the purple haired trainer to teach one of your Pokémon the move Double-Edge.
Double-Edge is a pretty good move, so feel free to teach it to any of your Pokémon as a nice reward for completing Victory Road!

Finally, walk just east of this purple-haired NPC and exit the cave.

Indigo Plateau & The Pokémon League
As soon as you exit Victory Road, I highly recommend saving your game just in case anything were to happen (KO, Power Outage, etc).
Afterwards, head north on Route 23 until you reach the Indigo Plateau, and the front of the Pokémon League building.

Walk inside and make sure to heal your Pokémon up immediately.
Even if all of your Pokémon are full HP, you’ll want to heal so you can set a checkpoint here just in case. This will allow you to fly back to the Pokémon League at any time.
There’s also a shop in the Indigo Plateau building, so you can stock up on Revives, Hyper Potions, Full Restores, and whatever else you need.
Now prepare yourself to take on the Elite Four!
Remember: if you lose against any of the Elite Four members, you will have to restart the entire E4 chain again. So make sure you’re well-stocked on items and that your Pokémon are all trained and ready for battle.
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Pokémon FRLG
- How To Get Through Victory Road: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 15