2nd Gen The Red Gyarados

So, I'm curious.

When playing Gold/Silver/Crystal, what was your thoughts when you encountered the Red Gyarados?

• Was it your first shiny encounter?
• If it wasn't, what was your first shiny?
• Did you defeat it?
• Or, did you catch it?
• If you caught it, did you use it for your team?

No, it wasn't my first shiny, my first shiny was an odishh from fire red haha, and yep when I first encountered it I caught it cause I saved my game before encountering it and reloaded 3 times before I could catch it and after catching it I didn't used it in my team though I had a kingler in my team which was already very strong so I couldn't place it in my team

~Heracross

The Red Gyarados was my first shiny, and my only one (save my Red Version Blastoise that ended up having the right IVs to be shiny) for some time. I could tell it was different and special, since it was a stand-alone Pokemon that you had to approach to encounter (like legendaries from RBY), but I can't remember if I was playing on a GameBoy Color then, or still on GameBoy Pocket. If the latter, I wouldn't have noticed the color difference, but would probably have noticed the stars and recognized that, as an approachable, special Pokemon, it was important enough to save beforehand and try repeatedly to capture if if needed. I captured it (presumably without much trouble, since I have stronger memories of the Pokemon I struggled to capture). I think I used it for some HMs, like Waterfall and Whirlpool, and stuck it in my team against the Elite Four the first time, but it wasn't part of my regular team. I initially played through Gold as a solo run with Totodile (who I didn't want to evolve because I thought Croconaw and Feraligatr were ugly), and I needed some spare Pokemon to serve as cannon fodder while I healed Totodile throughout my battles. After that first victory, though, I put the Red Gyarados in my PC, built an actual (albeit imbalanced) team, and didn't think about it too much again (except to lament my lack of subsequent shiny encounters).

My very first time encountering the Red Gyarados it was my first shiny and I didn't know that that was a thing, so I ended up not saving beforehand and then I killed it.

It was my very first shiny encounter, yes and I did catch it. I always treated it like a novelty Pokemon. No way am I letting a shiny go ahah, especially a Gyarados which is actually a pretty powerful Pokemon!

I caught it and knew it was unusual. But 10 year old me wasn't really into the internet at the time so I didn't go seeking answers.

I also vaguely remember different colored Pokemon showing up fairly often in the Pokemon Stadium games, so I think that kind of diminished how special my first shiny encounter should have been.

It wasn't my first shiny encounter, my first was shiny krabby at olivine city, couldn't catch it when I encountered it first time.

Gyarados was definitely my first shiny encounter. Back then, I didn't know much about shinies; to be honest, I didn't know that they had even existed. When I'd encountered this Pokémon, I immediately wound up believing that it was some legendary form of Gyarados.

When it came to capturing, it was rather difficult, to say the least. I did hurt the Pokémon a little, but couldn't do it too much, as I was afraid of making it faint and whatnot, and when throwing Poké Balls, it would break free almost each and every time, which was rather frustrating. Though, I did get to successfully capture after about twenty to thirty ball-throwing attempts, and was quite glad.

I put this Pokémon on my team as soon as I had completed capturing, and it was never managed to disappoint. It was very, very powerful to the point that it was able to take down any Gym Leader on its own, single-handedly,

Yes, he was my first shiny. Yes i used him in my team. Especially when i didn't have enough fire Pokemon for battling snow Pokemon.

I'll be very honest here and say that, aside from its value as a shiny Pokémon, the red Gyarados sucked donkey balls in GSC, because it was Gyarados' worst gen. They castrated his Sp.Atk. and gave him no good physical moves.

In HGSS, though, it's another story entirely. The red Gyarados is one of the best Pokémon in the remakes.

Cerberus87 said:

I'll be very honest here and say that, aside from its value as a shiny Pokémon, the red Gyarados sucked donkey balls in GSC, because it was Gyarados' worst gen. They castrated his Sp.Atk. and gave him no good physical moves.

In HGSS, though, it's another story entirely. The red Gyarados is one of the best Pokémon in the remakes.

Click to expand...

Basically this. It's like in GSC and HGSS, this thing is on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. One generation it has virtually nothing redeeming since its Attack is only good for Normal moves, and the other it has almost nothing bad going for it except its 4x Electric weakness since it gets Dragon Dance and physical Water-type attacks.

However, it does take a bit of time to get to that point (not too far, at Level 30, but still). That aside, it was the first shiny I ever saw, yes.

I was playng silver in a gameboy pocket when I found a shiny mareep. I noticed the sparkle but didnt know what was that about. By the time I got to gyarados I had found hoothoot and girafarig, both shinnies, so I wasn't SO surprised. Besides everybody else had it too.

I always use it as an HM-slave. It learns quite a few of them and, as said in previous posts, it's stats and moves just didn't work. I'm pretty sure it was my first shiny on my first playthrough of Silver.

Gyarados is actually a decent cleaner in UU, and an OK curser with Zap Cannon to paralyze most common switch-ins.

My first shiny was a Zubat on Silver.

He was my first and only shiny, and I used him every time on Gold and Silver whenever I caught him

To answer your questions...

Was it your first shiny encounter? Yes. Suffice to say, I didn't have the best of luck with shinies back then (I think the only other one I ever caught was a Magnemite). I've been luckier in recent years--My last several Crystal playthroughs gave me Poliwag, Elekid (Odd Egg), and Dratini (!!!), and my first ever Emerald playthrough gave me Shuppet and Poochyena.

Did you defeat it? Or, did you catch it? I usually catch it (and almost always with the Ultra Ball found on Route 42). It's a free Gyarados, and it looks cool.

If you caught it, did you use it for your team? Sadly, only as an HM Slave. As others have said, Gen 2 wasn't Gyarados' best Generation--It no longer had its Base 100 Special from RBY, and the Physical/Special split wouldn't happen for another two Gens. Feraligatr, Lapras, and Kingdra made for better Water Types. Now, if we're talking about a Gen 2 hack that has a Physical/Special split, on the other hand...

Yes, of course I used the Red Gyarados on my team the first time through, I feel like almost everyone did. However, it was not my first shiny. My first time playing my Silver version, I was 10 years old at a friends house, a group of us had all just got it and were playing together. No one believed me when I found a green Zubat in Union Cave. Obviously none of us had heard of weird colored pokemon yet, the game had just came out. I caught it for proof and showed everyone. But when I healed it, the nurse said something was stuck on my Zubat. Then Elm called and said it was a virus.


My friends and I conferenced (remember, still 10) and decided that the best course of action was to release Zubat. After all, he was sick, what if the infection spread!? That's how I released the only non-Gyarados shiny and only pokerus I've ever had. Why yes, I might be slightly bitter still 14 years later.

I remember seeing all of the stars glitter around it and the sound it made. I wondered why it was red, but I caught it either way. I was a kid at the time, so I didn't get the storyline too much. All I knew was that I had to catch it lol. After that, I found a shiny electrode inside the hideout, but it used selfdestruct on me before I could catch it. memories *-*

It was my first ever shiny encounter. Although it wasnt that special because everyone got it too lol. I always catch it when going through the game, but I only ever used it on my first playthrough. After that, I've just been boxing it haha. Even in HGSS I boxed it.