Hi! Vermillion City is a big city with lots of buildings and pokemon. Of course, there is a gym, pokemart, and Pokecenter. There is a pokemon fan club on the very left. If you go in and talk to the leader, he will tell you about his favorite pokemon, Rapidash. After his speech, he will give you a bike voucher! Go back to the bike shop in Cerulean City. Talk to the owner and he will give you a bike! With your very own bike, you can go faster in caves and anywhere else, except inside buildings. To use it, just go to item in your menu and select it. You should keep this item in your item box forever! Go back to Vermillion City. If you go to the building above the fan club, you will get an old rod from an old man. There are three fishing rods in the game: Old rod, good rod, and super rod. Select the rod from your items and use it when you are facing a river, lake, etc... Old rod is pratically useless because all it can catch are Magikarp, level 5! That's why I told you not to buy the Magikarp for 500 dollars! Put the Magikarp in the Daycare center right before you go to the Rock Tunnel. For now, just put it in your computer. On the right of the fan club, there is a building with a kid who wants to trade his rare Farfetch'd for a common Spearow. There are four pokemon in the game that can only be gotten through trading with four people in the game. Farfetch'd is one of them. Catch a level 17 Spearow on the right of Vermillion and trade it. Farfetch'd will be an outsider because you got it by trading. The other buildings just have people who can give you information. Go to the pokemart. They have some new items on sale. Heal your pokemon and go to Diglett's cave.
Diglett's cave have two pokemon: Digletts and their evolved form, Dugtrio. Digletts range from levels 15 to 22. Dugtrios are either level 29 or 31. Dugtrios are rare in the cave. If you follow the path in the cave, you will eventually come back to Viridian City. The cave leads to the right of Viridian City. Remember, in the very beginning, you saw stuff on the right but you couldn't get there because there were trees blocking your way. Now you can go there. Below the exit of the cave is a small house. There you can trade your other Abra for an Mr. Mime. Below this house is a bush. You can use the HM cut to go through the bush and get the HM flash later, after the S.S. Anne event. You can gain levels for your pokemon very quickly in Diglett's cave. The average experience points you get for fighting a Diglett is around 200! You get 600 experience points for fighting a Dugtrio!!! These ground pokemon are weakened by water and grass attacks. Flying attacks are not super effecting against ground pokemon, but you can also gain levels for flying pokemon because dig does not affect them. Digletts have a very very very very very high speed. So when suddenly, your enemy Diglett uses dig, switch to a flying pokemon. Trust me, my Pidgeotto gained five levels in just 20 minutes.
On the right of Diglett's Cave is a very large patch of grass. There are many trainers there also. In the patch of grass, you can fight Ekans, Oddish, Spearow, and the good Drowzee. All of these pokemon are from levels 9 to 17. Drowzee is a psychic pokemon. At level 26, it evolves into Hypno. He has Hypnosis and Pound at level 13. Hypnosis puts your enemy to sleep. Later, you can get the TM Dream Eater. First, you put your enemy to sleep with Hypnosis. Then you use Dream Eater and you absorb their HP. This attack usually kills your enemy in one shot. At level 17, it learns Confusion. At level 37, Hypno learns the powerful Psychic. Personally, I think that Hypno is way better than Kadabra. Hypno has both normal and psychic attacks, and it can put people to sleep! Kadabra only has psychic attacks. Try to catch a level 17 Drowzee.
Fight the trainers and go to the building on the very right. When you go in, go up the stairs. In there, a boy will trade you his Nidorina for a Nidorino. Also, the aide of Professor Oak is there. If you have over 30 pokemon, he will give you an Itemfinder. The Itemfinder can detect hidden items on the ground for you cannot see everything. When it beeps, repeatively press A. After a while, you will get the item.
On the right of this building, you will find a Hyper Potion if you use the Itemfinder. You can't go any more right because Snorlax, the sleeping pokemon is blocking the way. You can capture him later.
Now, if you think you're ready. Get ready to fight the trainers aboard the S.S. Anne. Don't worry, you can come back to the POkecenter if you are running low on HP. This will be an excellent oppurtunity to gain levels for Drowzee. Did you take your Abra out of the Daycare center yet? I advise to bring your starting pokemon, Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Raticate, Drowzee, Kadabra, a poison pokemon, Butterfree, and Dugtrio. You can switch Pokemon by coming back to the Pokecenter.
After you beat the S.S. Anne, come back for an electric match with Lt. Surge, the leader of the Vermillion Gym. Remember to teach Cut to one of your Pokemon. If you have Bulbasaur, I advise you teach Cut to it because Bulbasaur only has one normal attack, Tackle. Cut is more powerful than Tackle so it will be a good choice. Bring your Cut pokemon, and at least one ground pokemon. Ground pokemon are strong against electric pokemon. The best thing is, an electric attack such as Thundershock can never hurt a ground pokemon. I advise bringing Dugtrio, Cut pokemon, a grass pokemon such as Oddish or Bellsprout, a Sandshrew (if you're playing the Blue Version), Raticate, and Drowzee. You must bring a Cut pokemon to cut down the bush blocking the path to the gym. There are three other trainers inside who will battle you. They will use Pikachu, Voltorb, and Magnemites.
The trainers' pokemons' levels range from 17 to 21. Just use your ground pokemon against them and you'll do fine. You can also use Raticate and Drowzee, and your grass pokemon.
There's another problem. Lt. Surge was in the war and is very cautious. He has a locked door. There are locks in every garbage can and two of these locks will open the door. Once you find the first one, the second lock should be right beside it. If the one you selected is not the second lock, the locks will be reseted and you will have to look again for the locks won't stay in the same place. When you finally open the door, get ready for a frying match with Lt. Surge.
Lt. Surge uses, of course, electric pokemon. He has three. They are Voltorb, level 21, Pikachu, level 18, and Raichu, level 24.
You can use Raticate against Voltorb. For some reason, Voltorb does not have any electric attacks such as Thundershock. It does have the powerful sonicboom. Sonicboom will always attack for 20 HP, no matter what level. Use any pokemon to fight Pikachu. To fight Raichu, you must use Dugtrio. Raichu has the powerful electric attack Thunderbolt. Use Dugtrio's dig to kill it. When you defeat Lt. Surge, he will give you the ThunderBadge and TM 24, Thunderbolt. I advise you to teach Thunderbolt to Pikachu. The Thuderbadge allows you to use the HM Fly. It also raises your pokemons' speed. Now, for the Rock Tunnel. The Rock Tunnel is dark so you need HM 5, Flash. Flash lights tunnels up. However, it sucks in battle. All it does is lower your enemy's accuracy. Just teach it to a pokemon you don't use. Don't teach it to Drozee. You can teach it to Mr. Mime. You get Flash in Viridian City. Go back to Diglett's Cave, to Virdian City. Cut the bush below the house where you got Mr. Mime. Keep going down until you reach a building with Professor Oak's Aide. If you caught over 10 pokemon, he will give you Flash. Now that you have Flash, go back to Cerulean City. Put Magikarp there for you're not returning for a long time.
