Well... despite having a full team on my Red version, I still wasn't satisfied. Something bugged me. And then I got what it was: Mew. It is great, but I don't like using legendaries. Last time I played Red (after replacing my battery on the Red cartridge and to try out the Super Game Boy) I used Mew on my team as half HM slave, half last resort. This time, however, I decided to put it into a box and pick another Psychic-type Pokémon. I opened my notepad and planned out the teams for the other two versions, with the intent of not using the same Pokémon more than once. After thinking about what Psychic-type I could use to replace Mew, I ended up choosing Hypno. The problem was, however, that there was no one left on my team who could use Fly. Charizard was an obvious candidate for that, but he can't learn Fly in Pokémon Red! So... I put the Red version on stasis and started the Yellow version for the time being, all I wanted was to get to the point where I'd get the HM02, then trade my Charizard from Red there, teach it Fly, send it back and resume playing Red.
Red playthrough stops here. Yellow playthrough starts here.
So, here I am, Yellow version. Just like what I did in Red, I did some grinding from the very start, demolished Blue west of Viridian City and returned to Pallet Town to get my free 5 Pokéballs. Between the free balls and the ones I bought, I could catch quite a few Pokémon, but ended up boxing all of them, except for a Nidoran♂ who stayed on my team.
During the trek through Viridian Forest, I used Nidoran♂ almost exclusively (especially against cocoon Pokémon, for more experience :) ) and by the time I got to Pewter City, it knew Double Kick. Brock went down without a problem. Not much to say about what happened in Route 4 and Mt Moon, everything went as planned.
I got to Cerulean, fought Blue and got to Bill's house. In the meantime, Nidoran♂ tried evolving, but I held it back: it was one level away from learning Poison Pin, so I thought I'd just let it learn it. One level later, I let it evolve. By the way, I got both Bulbasaur and Charmander, and simply boxed them. Every time I play Yellow, I feel obligated to use the three starters, this time I made a conscious effort to NOT use them. Besides, I already had a Poison type in Nidorino.
I got back to Cerulean, battled the Team Rocket member and went south to capture an Abra... yeah, the Mew glitch just became a thing for me to do every time I play Gen 1. I caught Mew, and then boxed both Mew and Abra, as I had another Psychic-type in mind. I followed with a battle against Misty, where I used Pikachu's Double Team a lot during the battle against Staryu, and Starmie couldn't touch me even once.
What I did after this was... less orthodox. I traded Pikachu and a Sandshrew to my Red version and taught them Flash and Cut respectively before trading them back. Instead of going to Vermillion , I decided to go to the Rock Tunnel, at first simply because I wanted to add the next member to my team: Machop. Right then and there, I realized that both my Pokémon were weak against Ground-types, and there were a lot of Hikers on the route leading to the Rock Tunnel, but I persisted. Despite having lost three times, I persisted and emerged victorious. In the meantime, I ended up giving my Nidorino a Moon Stone, and the Dig TM to a Machop I caught and kept as a permanent member of my team.
I headed to Celadon, got the HM02... and then just decided to keep playing until I got my entire team in Yellow as well, which was not shaping up to be an easy task, as the Flying Pokémon I wanted on my team was Aerodactyl, which meant I had to go to Cinnabar Island. But, whatever, I persisted. I went to the Rocket Hideout, wiping most of the guys with Machop using Dig, and Machop ended up evolving. As soon as it did, I traded it back and forth to make it evolve again. I then went to meet Giovanni for the first time, and between Tunnel and Low Kick, Machamp had no problem with Giovanni at all.
I bought a drink for the guard and unlocked Saffron. Before going to Lavender Town, I decided to at least be chronologically consistent with meeting Blue and, before going to the Pokémon Tower, went to the SS Anne (battling trainers on the route between Saffron and Vermilion) simply to meet and battle him. Immediately after this, I went back to the Pokémon Tower and met him there again. And after that I realized, once more, that I might be a little underleveled for this place: the Ghost Pokémon dominated over me with Night Shade. But I kept pressing on, and eventually found Mr Fuji, who gave me the Pokéflute.
I went south, captured the first Snorlax, and received the Super Rod, which was instrumental to get the Water Pokémon I had in mind. Immediately after this, I captured the other Snorlax and, while avoiding absolutely everyone on the Cycling Road, fished out and caught the fourth member of my team: a Shellder. Immediately upon arriving to Fuschia, I went to the Safari Zone and, while looking for the Surf HM and Baoba's dentures, I caught the fifth member of my team: Exeggcute.
To make my team complete, I needed to be able to use Surf. But for that, I needed to battle Koga. As my third Gym Leader! And, predictably enough, between being absolutely underleveled and my two most powerful Pokémon (Nidoking and Machamp) being weak to Psychic-type moves that Koga's minions absolutely love to use (and, by the way: it is supposed to be a POISON-type Gym, guys!!!) , I got my rear end handed to me more times than necessary. But, being stubborn, I persisted. With a team varying between levels 20 and 35, Koga's level 40-50 Pokémon were a pain! I used Pikachu's Double Team a lot during my battle against the three Venonats, but the last one ended up knocking it out. I lucked out against the level 50 Venomoth: my low-levelled Shellder managed to use Supersonic on it, and got knocked out immediately after; and then Machamp finished the bug off with two or three uses of Strength while Venomoth battled with its own confusion. And that's how I got the Soul Badge as my third badge... yeah, I've said before, this is one unorthodox playthrough.
Without Lt Surge's badge, I couldn't use Fly, so I travelled back to Pewter City through the Cycling Road (again, while avoiding everybody) and Diglett's Cave. I got the Old Amber, pulled the Sandshrew with Cut from the PC, went south while bypassing the Viridian Forest (I got the HM05 while I was at it), and then went straight to Cinnabar Island to revive Aerodactyl. I then headed back north to Pewter City (going through Viridian Forest this time, as Sandshrew went back to the box the moment I got Aerodactyl) and crossed Diglett's Cave.
This is when I decided to get the playthrough back on track and train my new recruits while I was at it. The SS Anne was my next destination. But then, I remembered why I started this playthrough in the first place: I needed Fly for my Charizard on Pokémon Red. So I traded Charizard here and taught it Fly before trading it back.
So, my Yellow team, as of now, is:
Yellow playthrough stops here. Red playthrough resumes here.
And now I was back to Red.
With Charizard knowing Fly, Mew went back to the PC, and a previously caught (and ignored) Drowzee replaced it and learned Flash. I wiped out everyone on the route between Lavender and Saffron, and then went for Erika's Gym. Drowzee was still too weak, so I ended up switching it after the first turn every time I called it, and by the time I got to Erika herself, most of my team were either poisoned or paralyzed because of that. Nevertheless, I prevailed thanks to Charizard and Fly.
After this, I caught the other Snorlax (the one south of Lavender) and ended up wiping out everyone on the routes between Lavender, Fuschia and Celadon. As a result, Seel and Drowzee both evolved.
I'm now entering the Sylph Co building. I'm not going to just go to the end, I fully intend on beating each and every one of the Team Rocket members present there.
Team:
Red playthrough stops here. Yellow playthrough starts here.
So, here I am, Yellow version. Just like what I did in Red, I did some grinding from the very start, demolished Blue west of Viridian City and returned to Pallet Town to get my free 5 Pokéballs. Between the free balls and the ones I bought, I could catch quite a few Pokémon, but ended up boxing all of them, except for a Nidoran♂ who stayed on my team.
During the trek through Viridian Forest, I used Nidoran♂ almost exclusively (especially against cocoon Pokémon, for more experience :) ) and by the time I got to Pewter City, it knew Double Kick. Brock went down without a problem. Not much to say about what happened in Route 4 and Mt Moon, everything went as planned.
I got to Cerulean, fought Blue and got to Bill's house. In the meantime, Nidoran♂ tried evolving, but I held it back: it was one level away from learning Poison Pin, so I thought I'd just let it learn it. One level later, I let it evolve. By the way, I got both Bulbasaur and Charmander, and simply boxed them. Every time I play Yellow, I feel obligated to use the three starters, this time I made a conscious effort to NOT use them. Besides, I already had a Poison type in Nidorino.
I got back to Cerulean, battled the Team Rocket member and went south to capture an Abra... yeah, the Mew glitch just became a thing for me to do every time I play Gen 1. I caught Mew, and then boxed both Mew and Abra, as I had another Psychic-type in mind. I followed with a battle against Misty, where I used Pikachu's Double Team a lot during the battle against Staryu, and Starmie couldn't touch me even once.
What I did after this was... less orthodox. I traded Pikachu and a Sandshrew to my Red version and taught them Flash and Cut respectively before trading them back. Instead of going to Vermillion , I decided to go to the Rock Tunnel, at first simply because I wanted to add the next member to my team: Machop. Right then and there, I realized that both my Pokémon were weak against Ground-types, and there were a lot of Hikers on the route leading to the Rock Tunnel, but I persisted. Despite having lost three times, I persisted and emerged victorious. In the meantime, I ended up giving my Nidorino a Moon Stone, and the Dig TM to a Machop I caught and kept as a permanent member of my team.
I headed to Celadon, got the HM02... and then just decided to keep playing until I got my entire team in Yellow as well, which was not shaping up to be an easy task, as the Flying Pokémon I wanted on my team was Aerodactyl, which meant I had to go to Cinnabar Island. But, whatever, I persisted. I went to the Rocket Hideout, wiping most of the guys with Machop using Dig, and Machop ended up evolving. As soon as it did, I traded it back and forth to make it evolve again. I then went to meet Giovanni for the first time, and between Tunnel and Low Kick, Machamp had no problem with Giovanni at all.
I bought a drink for the guard and unlocked Saffron. Before going to Lavender Town, I decided to at least be chronologically consistent with meeting Blue and, before going to the Pokémon Tower, went to the SS Anne (battling trainers on the route between Saffron and Vermilion) simply to meet and battle him. Immediately after this, I went back to the Pokémon Tower and met him there again. And after that I realized, once more, that I might be a little underleveled for this place: the Ghost Pokémon dominated over me with Night Shade. But I kept pressing on, and eventually found Mr Fuji, who gave me the Pokéflute.
I went south, captured the first Snorlax, and received the Super Rod, which was instrumental to get the Water Pokémon I had in mind. Immediately after this, I captured the other Snorlax and, while avoiding absolutely everyone on the Cycling Road, fished out and caught the fourth member of my team: a Shellder. Immediately upon arriving to Fuschia, I went to the Safari Zone and, while looking for the Surf HM and Baoba's dentures, I caught the fifth member of my team: Exeggcute.
To make my team complete, I needed to be able to use Surf. But for that, I needed to battle Koga. As my third Gym Leader! And, predictably enough, between being absolutely underleveled and my two most powerful Pokémon (Nidoking and Machamp) being weak to Psychic-type moves that Koga's minions absolutely love to use (and, by the way: it is supposed to be a POISON-type Gym, guys!!!) , I got my rear end handed to me more times than necessary. But, being stubborn, I persisted. With a team varying between levels 20 and 35, Koga's level 40-50 Pokémon were a pain! I used Pikachu's Double Team a lot during my battle against the three Venonats, but the last one ended up knocking it out. I lucked out against the level 50 Venomoth: my low-levelled Shellder managed to use Supersonic on it, and got knocked out immediately after; and then Machamp finished the bug off with two or three uses of Strength while Venomoth battled with its own confusion. And that's how I got the Soul Badge as my third badge... yeah, I've said before, this is one unorthodox playthrough.
Without Lt Surge's badge, I couldn't use Fly, so I travelled back to Pewter City through the Cycling Road (again, while avoiding everybody) and Diglett's Cave. I got the Old Amber, pulled the Sandshrew with Cut from the PC, went south while bypassing the Viridian Forest (I got the HM05 while I was at it), and then went straight to Cinnabar Island to revive Aerodactyl. I then headed back north to Pewter City (going through Viridian Forest this time, as Sandshrew went back to the box the moment I got Aerodactyl) and crossed Diglett's Cave.
This is when I decided to get the playthrough back on track and train my new recruits while I was at it. The SS Anne was my next destination. But then, I remembered why I started this playthrough in the first place: I needed Fly for my Charizard on Pokémon Red. So I traded Charizard here and taught it Fly before trading it back.
So, my Yellow team, as of now, is:
- Pikachu L33
- Nidoking L30
- Machamp L36
- Shellder (I still want it to learn good moves before evolving it) L26
- Exeggcute (ditto) L27
- Aerodactyl L30
Yellow playthrough stops here. Red playthrough resumes here.
And now I was back to Red.
With Charizard knowing Fly, Mew went back to the PC, and a previously caught (and ignored) Drowzee replaced it and learned Flash. I wiped out everyone on the route between Lavender and Saffron, and then went for Erika's Gym. Drowzee was still too weak, so I ended up switching it after the first turn every time I called it, and by the time I got to Erika herself, most of my team were either poisoned or paralyzed because of that. Nevertheless, I prevailed thanks to Charizard and Fly.
After this, I caught the other Snorlax (the one south of Lavender) and ended up wiping out everyone on the routes between Lavender, Fuschia and Celadon. As a result, Seel and Drowzee both evolved.
I'm now entering the Sylph Co building. I'm not going to just go to the end, I fully intend on beating each and every one of the Team Rocket members present there.
Team:
- Charizard L37
- Parasect L34
- Golem L35
- Electabuzz L36
- Dewgong L35
- Hypno L35
Last edited:
