3rd Gen Raging against the Machine: Gym orders

[Amore]

So FireRed / LeafGreen have perhaps the greatest flexibility with respect to the order you complete the gyms.

The official order (how they line up on your trainer card) is below, and I added in the HM they teach:

Brock - Flash
Misty - Cut
Lt. Surge - Fly
Erika - Strength
Koga - Surf
Sabrina - Rock Smash
Blaine - Waterfall
Giovanni

Most of us know that Sabrina and Blaine can be tackled in alternate orders.
However, I recently realised that only 2 of those moves are essential to travel across Kanto - Cut and Surf - as you can skip the Seafoam Islands, Fly is just a great utility, and Flash is only needed for Rock Tunnel (no longer as scary as it used to be).

As such the order I'm trying out is:

Brock; Misty; Koga; Erika; Blaine; Sabrina; Lt. Surge; Giovanni.

Hence in my current game I'm in Saffron City with only 2 badges.

My question to you guys is; what is the weirdest order you've done the badges in? And do you normally do them in the order of badge number, or do you also mess around?

 

[Zeturic]

I generally do:

Brock; Misty; Erika; Lt. Surge; Koga; Blaine; Sabrina; Giovanni.

I find Lt. Surge and Sabrina to be the hardest Kanto Gym Leaders, so I try to put off fighting them.

However, the weirdest I've done is probably:

Brock; Misty; Koga; Blaine; Sabrina; Erika; Lt. Surge; Giovanni.

 

[Brendino]

I can honestly say that I've never gone out of order when facing the Gym Leaders; boring, I know. Seeing you guys saving Lt. Surge until so late in the game is an interesting idea though, and I might have to try it the next time I do a run of FireRed. It's just a shame that the Gym Leaders don't progress when you go to other Gyms first, otherwise it could add some advantages to the unconventinal order.

 

[Shadowless420]

I just do them in the normal order. Lame haha.

 

[bwburke94]

Here are the full restrictions on gym order in FRLG:

• Brock first (Route 3 blocked off until defeated)
• Misty second (Route 9 requires Cut, Route 5/Saffron gate requires tea from Celadon, impossible to go the long way through Vermilion because of Snorlax blocking Route 11)
• Koga before Blaine (Surf required to reach Cinnabar Island)
• Giovanni eighth (gym cannot be challenged without 7 badges)

Here's why every other order can be done:

• Once Misty is defeated, it's possible to immediately beeline for Celadon, obtain the tea, then do Rocket Hideout / Pokémon Tower / Silph Co. back-to-back. This will free up every gym except the last two.
• Lt. Surge unlocks Fly, which is unnecessary because it's Fly.
• Erika unlocks Strength, but the only Strength area before Giovanni is Seafoam Islands, which is skippable by reaching Cinnabar via Route 21 instead. (Diglett's Cave allows passage back to west Kanto even without Fly, so Blaine fourth is theoretically possible!)
• Koga's unlock of Surf is entirely unnecessary before Giovanni, with the aforementioned exception of reaching Blaine.
• Sabrina unlocks Rock Smash and Blaine unlocks Waterfall, both of which are unnecessary.

Further notes on RBY order:

• In RBY, the item needed to get into Saffron was an unobtainable buyable item. However, Stadium 2 allowed item transferral, which could be used to delay Misty. Note that Misty still must be defeated before Erika, and either Misty or Koga must be defeated before Surge, because of HM requirements.
• The Poké Doll glitch has no effect on gym order, but it allows Rocket Hideout to be skipped.
• By combining the Brock skip and walk-through-walls glitches, the gyms can be done in any order, except that Misty must be defeated before Erika because of HM requirements.

 

[averen]

I am playing Fire Red and Leaf Green for a hundred of times trying to complete the pokedex and mastering the 3rd gen game

 

[Mab]

I don't think I've ever done them in any order besides the one on the trainer card - hmm, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. It's been a long time since I've played FRLG, maybe tomorrow I'll see if I still have a working ROM for it and try out doing the gym leaders in a weird order.