Saffron City - Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow Guide - IGN (2024)

Saffron City

If you haven't done it yet, give the guard in the guard house something a drink from the Celadon Department Store to pass.

Saffron City has been taken over completely by Team Rocket. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to enter the once benevolent Silph Company HQ and free it from said Rocket infestation. Before you move on, you may want to pop into the local Gym. Which one? Yep, you're right. There are two. At first, you can only enter into the one on the left.

Fighting Dojo Gym

This gym is actually not required to beat the game. But you get a cool Pokémon prize when you beat it, so don't skip it. The opponents are really easy to beat. Just use a Ghost type (it can't be hit by the Fighting Pokémon) or a strong Psychic.

• Blackbelt: Machop (31), Mankey (31), Primeape (31)
• Blackbelt: Machop (32), Machoke (32)
• Blackbelt: Primeape (36)
• Blackbelt: Mankey (31), Mankey (31), Primeape (31)
• Karate Master: Hitmonlee (37), Hitmonchan (37)

After you have beaten the Karate Master, you will be given the choice of one of two rare Fighting Pokémon: Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. You can only get one of the two, so choose wisely. Since Hitmonchan's Special rating sucks, it's probably a good idea to pick the lightning fast Hitmonlee.

How do you get the second one? Sorry, you can only obtain the other through trade or by beating Pokémon Stadium's Gym Leader Battle mode.

Get TM 29 - Psychic

Enter the house in the southeast to get TM 29 - Psychic, one of the most reliable attacks in the game. Use it often against Poison (/Ghost) and Fighting types for one-hit wins.

Poké Mart

Buy plenty of the Full Heal items and sell all your other status healing items to free up inventory. Say good bye to all those Antidotes and Burn Heals...

Silph Company

This office maze can be really confusing when you don't know where you're going. There are tons of teleporters that take you places -- and guess what, most of them are completely superfluous. All you need to do is take the elevator up to the fifth floor and grab the Card Key in the narrow corridor in the southern part of the room. Now you can open every locked door in the building, so you don't need to try and warp around too much. Next stop: third floor. Open the locked door and take the teleporter next to the table. You will now fight your arch nemesis, Gary. He's got the following Pokémon:

Red and Blue

Gary: Pidgeot (37), Growlithe (37), Exeggcute (35), Alakazam (35), as well as his trusty starting Pokemon at level 40.

Yellow

Gary: Sandslash (38), Ninetales (35), Cloyster (37), Kadabra (35), as well as his evolved Eevee (40).

By the way, you can heal your Pokémon at any time by going to the 9th floor and talking to woman in the southwest corner of the building. If your Pokémon are healthy enough for the final showdown, continue on from Gary's position to face the following trainers:

Red and Blue

• Rocket: Cubone (32), Marowak (32), Drowzee (32)
• Giovanni: Nidorino (37), Kangaskhan (35), Rhyhorn (37), Nidoqueen (41)

Yellow

• Jessie & James: Weezing (31), Arbok (31), Meowth (31)
• Giovanni: Nidorino (37), Rhyhorn (37), Persian (35), Nidoqueen (41)

Beat Giovanni to get your hands on the valuable Master Ball. Store this gem away for later use. It's your key to capturing Mewtwo.

There is no use in listing all the trainers in this building as you're likely to take your own route through here. After you have beaten Giovanni, you can now explore the building without getting attacked and safely retrieve all the items scattered about. Here's a look at what's where:

2nd Floor: TM 36 - Self Destruct</font>
3rd Floor: Hyper Potion
4th Floor: Full Heal, Max Revive, Escape Rope
5th Floor: Protein, TM 09 - Take Down
6th Floor: HP Up, X Accuracy
7th Floor: TM 03 - Swords Dance, Calcium
10th Floor: Carbos, Rare Candy, TM 26 - Earthquake

Get Lapras

Be sure to pay a visit to the Silph employee on the 7th Floor, in the same room where you fought Gary. He will give you a rare Level 15 Lapras as a reward.

Get TM 31 - Mimic

Once you have liberated Silph Co., you can enter the house in the northwest. Give the Poké Doll you bought in Celadon City to the cookie girl upstairs and she'll give you TM 31 - Mimic.

Saffron City Gym

After you have saved the Silph Company's president, you can finally enter the official Saffron City Gym and battle Sabrina. In order to get to Sabrina, you need to step on the teleportation squares on the ground.

Use this sequence to get to Sabrina:

1. Step on the first square to warp to the southeast room.
2. Step on the upper right square to warp to the room above.
3. Now use the upper left square to go to the northeastern room.
4. The lower left square brings you to the northwest corner.
5. Pick the lower left square again and you'll face Sabrina.

These are the trainers you'll encounter (in order):

1. Psychic: Slowpoke (33), Slowpoke (33), Slowpoke (33)
2. Psychic: Mr. Mime (34), Kadabra (34)
3. Psychic: Kadabra (31), Kadabra (31), Mr. Mime (31), Slowpoke (31)
4. Psychic: Slowbro (38)
5. Sabrina (Red and Blue): Kadabra (38), Mr. Mime (37), Alakazam (43), Venomoth (38)
6. Sabrina (Yellow): Abra (50), Kadabra (50), Alakazam (50)

You can also battle these other trainers, if you want:

• Channeler: Haunter (38)
• Channeler: Gastly (33), Gastly (33), Haunter (33)
• Channeler: Gastly (34), Haunter (34)

Once you beat Sabrina, you will receive the Marsh Badge that lets you train Pokémon up to level 70, as well as TM 46 - Psywave.

Once you're done here, move on to Route 12 to catch yourself a Snorlax and some Water Pokémon. Your ultimate destination is Fuchsia City, so you can also take a different way -- like Routes 16-18, for example.

Go to Route 12