Outta the Woods and into Rocks, Rocks and a Mountain (FULL OF MORE ROCKS!) - Pokémon Red Version Part 2

 Hey everyone, AlexGuy here. I'm back with another blog post chronicling my playthrough of Pokémon Red Version. Last time, we got started our adventure started with our starter Pokémon (Charmander for me) and made it halfway through Viridian Forest before taking a break and training. Now, we finish up Viridian Forest and make it to Pewter City. Let's go!

Like I said, last time we were here I was doing some training in Viridian Forest, which was slow and very agonizing. Over the course of about a week in real time, I spent about 3 hours total leveling Charmander up about one full level, that's about how weak the encounters are and how much experience points are needed to level up a Pokémon. At least I was able to find a Potion while exploring and training, so those three hours weren't a total waste.... I guess.

 

After finding that Potion, I came across one final Bug Catcher before exiting the forest.

After exiting the Forest and traversing the small fragment of Route 2 that comes after the forest (and past a small tree we can't do anything to, yet) I make my way towards Pewter City, the stone-grey city between rugged mountains.

Afterwards, I go to the Pokémon Center to deposit Charmander into the PC's Pokémon Storage System so that it can be transferred to other games I finished to teach Charmander moves that will help it in future battles since Charmander is the only Pokémon that will listen to me without any badges regardless of how strong he is. There is also a Jigglypuff in the Pokémon Center singing a lullaby which is making me sleepy (not helped by the fact that this was posted after midnight on July 23rd).

Speaking of badges though, there is a gym here in Pewter City where I can win a badge if I beat this town's Gym Leader.

So, after getting Charmander the moves it needs for the future (and slapping myself awake before I fall asleep), I transfer Charmander back into the PC before withdrawing it and adding it back to my team. For this Gym Leader, I taught Charmander the Ground type move Dig, which will be super effective on the Rock types of this gym.

Before facing the Gym Leader though, there are some gym trainers the player will want to face for extra training before the leader. There is only one here at Pewter Gym and he uses pure Ground types.... In a Rock type gym? Y'know what, sure, a Water or Grass type still sweeps him aside regardless, and my Fire type is strong enough to brute force the way through as well. On to the leader himself, his name is Brock (very subtle pun there Game Freak, very subtle/s) and he uses Rock types for their sturdy defenses. Defenses that crumble to Grass and/or Water types due to almost every Rock type being in a type combo that is super weak to or extremely weak to one or both of those types. On the flip side, Fire is weak to both Ground and Rock type attacks, which would be a problem for me if Brock's Pokémon had any attacks of those types.

Luckily, they don't have Rock type attacks in the original games, as seen in the Bulbapedia page above (in the remake, Onix has a move called Rock Tomb that deals damage and lowers speed), so Charmander with Dig wins me my first badge, the Boulder Badge. This badge is a start but won't win me any respect from my transferred Pokémon. That being said, there is a gym in Cerulean City that has another badge for us, one that may win me some respect from my transferred Pokémon, so that is our next destination. Before that though, Route 3 and Mt. Moon must be traversed, and both have trainers on/in them that are itching for a battle.

Upon getting to Route 3, I battle the trainers and eventually, Charmander grows strong enough to evolve into Charmeleon. After staring in a proud awe at my newly evolved starter, I battle some more trainers before reaching a Pokémon Center outside a mountain known as Mt. Moon. I'm getting really tired from Jigglypuff's lullaby, so I decide to rest at the Pokémon Center before I explore Mt. Moon. In the Pokémon Center, I run into a man trying to charge me some money to buy a Pokémon called Magikarp. I give him the money before Magikarp is transferred to the PSS (I won't be using it this playthrough and if I were, it would take a lot of investment, but it's worth it) before hearing about a gang of criminals calling themselves Team Rocket.

That seems a bit ominous, but I put out of my mind (for now) before heading back out to stare at Mt. Moon. This place is big, and its first room has always been a tad confusing for me, but that is something for the next blog. Next time, we go cave crawling and go to Cerulean City to obtain our second badge (among other things). Also, before I go, I'm doing Pokémon highlights on Bluesky, so please follow me there to see my takes on these Pocket Monsters and subscribe to my YouTube channel to see these clips, hit the notification bell there too if you want to see when I upload the clips (and laugh at how late I'm staying up to do so) and leave a like and/or comment on both those clips and my highlights.. I wanna hear what you guys have to say about them, especially since this is my first time doing any of this. Alright, that's it, time for me to post this at 2am and then sleep, later.... zzzzz......