Mewlax’s Professor Oak Challenge Guide

HeartGold and SoulSilver

Contents:
1. – The Basics
1.1. – What is a Professor Oak Challenge?
1.2. – Tips on this version
2. – The Guide
2.1. – Pre Badge #1 from Falkner
2.2. – Pre Badge #2 from Bugsy
2.3. – Pre Badge #3 from Whitney
2.4. – Pre Badge #4 from Morty
2.5. – Pre Badge #5 from Pryce
2.6. – Pre Badges #6 and #7 from Chuck and Jasmine
2.7. – Pre Badge #8 from Clair
2.8. – Pre Elite Four
2.9. – Pre Kanto Badge #1 from Misty
2.10. – Pre Kanto Badges #2 to #8
2.11. – Pre Red
2.12. – Post Red
3. – The End/Thanks

1. The Basics

1.1. What is a Professor Oak Challenge?

Professor Oak has always had a dream to fill the pokedex, but he’s too old to do it! It’s up to
you as a new trainer to complete that pokedex as much as you can independently by
catching, evolving and breeding as many pokemon as is possible. Professor Oak also isn’t
getting any younger, so you need to complete that dex as a priority! Maybe you should put
your gym challenge on hold for a while…
In 2018, Reddit user named Chamale posted updates of a unique challenge on Pokemon
Crystal which at the time didn’t have a name but was referred to as ‘Oak Mode’ or a
‘Professor Oak Run/Challenge’. I was really intrigued by this style of gameplay and set out to
play this on FireRed, writing a guide as I went along. After the success of this run I tried it on
different versions. I was also looking in to how far you could “Catch ‘Em All” by yourself and
also between versions of each generation without transferring from older games.

The basic concept of the challenge follows these simple rules:

● You have to catch and evolve (or breed) as many pokemon as is possible in the game
until you can’t proceed any farther until a gym badge is required e.g. needing
Bugsy’s badge to be able to use Cut to advance or needing Whitney’s badge to get
the watering can to move Sudowoodo. For example, you will need to fully evolve your
starter amongst others before defeating Falkner. For parts where gyms can be done
in any order, always get the badge that unlocks the most pokemon (covered in this
guide).
● You cannot trade with other versions. This means that trade evolutions are off the
table, you’ll get no version exclusives from the other version and you’re stuck with
the decisions you make such as your starter. In-game trades are allowed as that NPC
is in your version of the game.
● (Optional) – Call yourself ‘Oak’ or ‘Prof. Oak’ for fun.

1.2. Tips on this version

● Have a Pokewalker and want to use it in the POC? Refer to this guide instead!

● Grinding - The first section of the game was WAY longer than it was on Sapphire and
FireRed. Part of this is due to the fact that the wild pokemon in this game are always
horrifically low compared to trainer battles. Trainer rematches in this version are
entirely dependent on the day/time. There are certain windows where you can call a
trainer for a rematch (e.g. Monday morning only) meaning that if it’s not that time,
you can’t get a rematch unless you organized it previously during said window. The
rematches also only occur very late into your Johto campaign so you’re at the mercy
of wild pokemon grinding until then. The plus side is, if you are in the right time slot
for a rematch you can continuously call that trainer from a different area to infinitely
rematch them. As always, you want to make sure that any new trainer battles are
prioritized for when you actually have pokemon with you that you want to level up.
Exploring every route to get all the trainers (e.g. along the sea routes) is
recommended.
● This will be a very grindy challenge. If you don’t think you’ve got the patience, then
now would be the time to back out. The first part of the game alone (before Falkner)
took me about 50 hours! It gets less grindy as the game proceeds, but it will be a
long road.
● Learning new moves shouldn’t be taken for granted, particularly with pokemon that
evolve at higher levels. During a normal game you might be quick to replace a weak
move with a stronger one but getting rid of non-attacking moves is a better strategy
here. Again, on the first part of the challenge before Falkner, you are battling low
level pokemon and will run out of PP very quickly while that exp bar goes up very
slowly. You need to maximize the amount of pokemon you can defeat, so having
multiple attacking moves, regardless of how weak they are, will be beneficial. You
have no need for moves like Growl or Sand Attack.
 ● Pokegear contacts – I went through the game obtaining contacts as I defeated
specific trainers. It wasn’t until I passed Bugsy and had to WAIT for PokeGear calls
from two characters for evolution stones that I realised I probably shouldn’t have
registered the useless ones. There is no way to delete contacts in this game! I still
don’t fully understand the mechanics of the PokeGear phone calls and haven’t
managed to find a guide that goes into enough detail. All I know is that if you do no
actions (wild battles, talking to NPCs etc) every 10 minutes on the dot you may get a
phone call. I don’t know if it picks one NPC randomly in the list of total possible
contacts, checks to see if you have that person registered and they call you if you
have. It may also just be pure RNG to determine if you even get a phone call in the
first place since there were times that I’d get no phone calls for 40 mins or more. All I
know is that I could have made this easier/quicker/less painful if I DIDN’T register
every trainer. If I hadn’t, only three people would ever call – Picnicker Gina (possible
Leaf Stone), Schoolkid Alan (possible Fire Stone) and Lyra/Ethan (forced to register
them). It may not have improved my chances for the stones but there would have
been a lot less spam calls!
● This challenge is a fun alternative to a regular play through and you may really
appreciate having to train pokemon up yourself that you never trained before. On the
other hand you may end up despising certain pokemon due to their inability to attack
when you first get them or their generally poor stats/levelling up moves.
● It’s not really a rule, but my preferred method is that you train them yourself except
when they can’t battle themselves (i.e. Magikarp before it learns Tackle). This is all
down to your own limitations that you set. I don’t like using Rare Candy anymore as it
defeats the purpose of the challenge and I don’t like using any exp sharing items. But
remember that this is YOUR challenge so feel free to add or remove restrictions as
you see fit.
● Please note that this is not a full guide to the game, I am only listing the pokemon
you can catch at the earliest opportunities and any required items. I do not go into
full detail on optimal exp gains or where to find the highest level for an individual
pokemon etc. This playthrough and guide were done as a casual play rather than a
speed run. Please consult other guides for a full walkthrough or more detailed
information.

2. – The Guide

Part 1 - Pre Badge #1 from Falkner

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:
SoulSilver Exclusive:

Choices (pick one starter):

/ /
This first part will cover everything you can do from the get-go up right up to the Violet City
Gym BEFORE you get that first badge from Falkner. This WILL take a while so it will really
test your patience…

New Bark Town -

*********************
IMPORTANT NOTE!
With your Pokegear obtained, I would recommend NOT registering anyone unless you’re
forced to. The reason for this is that you will only want a handful of contacts that will call you
for potential evolution stone rewards. Anyone else in your contacts list will slow this process
down!
********************

Visiting Professor Elm should be the first part of your journey. A trip to his lab will trigger an
event whereby you are given a starter pokemon to run an errand. There aren’t any
advantages or disadvantages over the other. You will be mostly training against a mix of
grass, bug and normal types with a few others dotted around. Chikorita is the only one I can
see being difficult to start with due to its stat distribution focused more on defence but with
enough levels under its belt that disadvantage quickly disappears. For this run I picked
Totodile for its earlier evolution level into its last stage. You won’t be able to catch any
pokemon until you return here so press on and train your starter up by a few levels.

To Mr. Pokemon and back again –

Travel west to Cherrygrove City. Be sure to talk to the old man hanging around to take the
tour and receive the running shoes. Leave through the north exit and he’ll give you the map
card for your PokeGear. Continue up and stop by the house to get the Apricorn Box. You’ll
want this to get some of Kurt’s pokeballs later on. At the top of the route on the right hand
side you’ll find Mr. Pokemon’s house. Talk to him to get an egg (item) and Professor Oak will
also hand you the Johto Pokedex.

Leaving the house you’ll get a call from Professor Elm. Hurry back to New Bark Town and
battle your rival as you leave Cherrygrove City. Return to Professor Elm, name your rival,
deliver the egg and you can embark on your journey at last! Before heading off, talk to your
mother. You have the choice of letting her keep some of your money from trainer battles to
buy items with. The only noteworthy one is the Moon Stone but there’s another way of
getting them that doesn’t require money so decline her offer, you want the money for
pokeballs instead.

Starting off with your starter, it can evolve twice before the first badge:

● Chikorita-->Lv. 16-->Bayleef-->Lv. 32-->Meganium

OR
 ● Cyndaquil-->Lv. 14-->Quilava-->Lv. 36-->Typhlosion
OR
● Totodile-->Lv. 18-->Croconaw-->Lv. 30-->Feraligatr

Route 29 –
On the first route of Johto you can catch four different evolution lines. Rattata is available
consistently throughout the day. Pidgey and Sentret are only available during the
Morning/Daytime while Hoothoot is night time only.

● Pidgey-->Lv. 18-->Pidgeotto-->Lv. 36-->Pidgeot

● Rattata-->Lv. 20-->Raticate

● Sentret-->Lv. 15-->Furret

● Hoothoot-->Lv. 20-->Noctowl

Route 46 –
Rather than heading west again, go north through the gate to reach the lower part of the
route that comes from Blackthorn City. You can’t advance any further than this patch of
grass but it does hold wild Spearow and Geodude (both daytime only).

● Geodude-->Lv. 25-->Graveler

● Spearow-->Lv. 20-->Fearow

Graveler is the first trade evolution pokemon in this game and as such will never evolve until
you’ve finished the challenge and open up trading to other games.

Route 30 –
Go through Cherrygrove City again heading towards Mr. Pokemon’s house. On this route
you’ll find some more varying pokemon depending on the time of the day – Ledyba (SS) in
the mornings, Caterpie (HG) or Weedle (SS) in the mornings/daytime and Spinarak (HG) at
night.

● (HG) Caterpie-->Lv. 7-->Metapod-->Lv. 10-->Butterfree

● (SS) Weedle-->Lv. 7-->Kakuna-->Lv. 10-->Beedrill

● (HG) Spinarak-->Lv. 22-->Ariados

● (SS) Ledyba-->Lv. 18-->Ledian

Route 31 –
The only pokemon here to catch is Bellsprout. Catch one to evolve and another to trade with
an NPC very shortly.

● Bellsprout-->Lv. 21-->Weepinbell

There are no Leaf Stones yet so Weepinbell cannot evolve further.

Dark Cave –
On the eastern side of the junction between Routes 30 and 31. You can’t go very far inside
but at least you can catch some pokemon!
 ● Zubat-->Lv. 22-->Golbat-->Happiness-->Crobat

● Dunsparce

That Dunsparce has only a 1% encounter rate so get in some good training while you’re
searching for it.

Violet City –
South west of the pokemon center is a house where the resident would like to trade his
humungous Onix for a teeny Bellsprout. Take him up on this offer, Onix is not available yet.

● Onix

On the northeast side of town you’ll find Sprout Tower. Venture up the ladder at night to find
wild Gastly. If you come here in the daytime you’ll only encounter Rattata.

● Gastly-->Lv. 25-->Haunter

Another trade evolution so Haunter is the end of the line. I would recommend keeping
Haunter around and keeping Mean Look and Hypnosis for later.

A controversial decision can be made here. Inside the pokemon center is a man named
Primo. If you give him the right password he will reward you with box wallpapers and even
some eggs. Two of the eggs are Mareep and Wooper which can be caught in this section
anyway. Slugma is the other egg. Slugma cannot be caught until you get to Kanto. I did
allow myself to get this egg because it is a gift from an NPC that is triggered entirely within
the game and not a Mystery Gift menu. The only trick is that you need to calculate the
password via a website which is based on your trainer ID. There is no expiry for this as it’s
unique to you so you could theoretically guess this password so I’m not ruling it out.

● Slugma-->Lv. 38-->Magcargo

Ruins of Alph –
Head west out of Violet City and grab the Rock Smash HM from the man standing near the
suspicious ‘tree’ and then go south through the gate to get to these mysterious ruins. Enter
the chamber with the sliding puzzle and solve it to unlock wild Unown in the ruins below.
Catch one for now. If you like catching all 28 Unown, now is not the time to do it because of
pokeball/money restraints.

● Unown

Route 32 –
A patch of grass can be found at the northern tip of this route which was unavailable in the
original games. It houses a few new pokemon. Hoppip can only be found in the day while
Wooper only appears at night. For SoulSilver players there is an additional obstacle with an
extra pokemon – Ekans.

● Hoppip-->Lv. 18-->Skiploom-->Lv. 27-->Jumpluff

● Wooper-->Lv. 20-->Quagsire

● Mareep-->Lv. 15-->Flaaffy-->Lv. 30-->Ampharos

● (SS) Ekans-->Lv. 22-->Arbok

That’s the end of the catching spree for this first portion!

Levelling up tips –
Level 6 is the highest wild pokemon you can train against…And you have 16 evolutionary
families to evolve. Think about that! Route 32 is THE place to train. This walkthrough was
written whilst playing HeartGold which means that Bellsprout gives amazing exp followed by
Hoppip (day) and Wooper (night). Be careful of direct contact moves against Mareep or you
will be paralyzed. You’ll be cursing Rattata for appearing due to its significantly worse exp.
For SoulSilver players, Ekans’ Intimidate ability and low exp make it less fruitful. Before you
stick to this route, make sure you clear out all the trainers in Sprout Tower who pretty much
all have Bellsprout for more excellent experience. There are also the trainers in the gym,
just be careful not to talk to Falkner. Some people also prefer battling at either the Ruins of
Alph or Sprout Tower at night for Gastly encounters.

Keep Zubat in your party at all times to get that happiness as high as possible. You’ll be
doing so much running around in the grass that by the time it evolves into Golbat it should
evolve straight away on the next level. I was more obsessive with levelling up my pokemon
on this game, purely because I knew how long I’d be training on Route 32. I got every
pokemon to the same level and levelled them all up one level at a time then switched them
out in the PC. Once they evolved, I moved them out of the party. This wasn’t very efficient
with the time but it made things a little less repetitive.

The pokemon I struggled with were Hoppip (terrible moves, consider evolving it at Lv19
rather than 18 to get Bullet Seed a bit faster), Mareep (Static ability keeps attracting more
Mareep) and Zubat is always difficult to train as its moves are so weak until it learns Bite. My
controversial choice shot me in the foot as Slugma had the highest evolution level…38!
Congrats if you made this part, it’s hands down the grindiest section.

End of part 1:
(HeartGold) Caught 41, Remaining 215
(SoulSilver) Caught 43, Remaining 213

Part 2 - Pre Badge #2 from Bugsy

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

Defeating Falkner will allow you to pass through Route 32 to the south and will let you use
Rock Smash. Teach it to a pokemon and go to the Ruins of Alph. Smash the rocks (with Rock
Smash funnily enough) to try and find the Old Amber and Helix Fossil (HeartGold) or Dome
Fossil (SoulSilver) to save you coming back later. If you don’t get the items you want, go into
the north gate and re-enter the ruins for the rocks to respawn. Pick up the egg from Prof
Elm’s aide in the Pokemart (not the pokemon center as in the original games). If you did get
Slugma, keep Magcargo in your party to hatch it faster.

● Togepi-->Happiness-->Togetic

Old Fishing Tour –

In the pokemon center at the southern end of Route32, a fisherman will give you the Old
Rod. You can catch pokemon other than Magikarp in this game with the Old Rod though they
are rare (5%). Revisit the following places to fish for these pokemon:

● (Anywhere) Magikarp-->Lv. 20-->Gyarados

● (Route 32) Tentacool-->Lv. 30-->Tentacruel

● (Cherrygrove City) Krabby-->Lv. 28-->Kingler

● (Route 30) Poliwag-->Lv. 25-->Poliwhirl

● (Dark Cave) Goldeen-->Lv. 33-->Seaking

Catch a second Krabby for a trade later on.

Union Cave –
For HeartGold players you can catch Sandshrew here but nothing else. For SoulSilver, Focus
on levelling up your new water pokemon as you pass through.

● (HG) Sandshrew-->Lv. 22-->Sandslash

Azalea Town/Slowpoke Well –

Enter Azalea Town and rest up at the pokemon center. Visit Kurt in the top left corner of
town and speak to him. He will rush over to the Slowpoke Well. Follow him there where you
can catch a Slowpoke!

● Slowpoke-->Lv. 37-->Slowbro

Ilex Forest –
You’ll be stopped by your rival upon trying to enter the forest but once inside you’ll find wild
Paras and if you return at night, Oddish will also be available. You may want to consider
catching a second one to get both of Gloom’s evolutions.

● Paras-->Lv. 24-->Parasect

● Oddish-->Lv. 21-->Gloom

Headbutt Pokemon –
Despite reaching a dead end which requires Cut, there are still additional pokemon to catch
in this section. Ordinarily you’d need to get through Ilex Forest and be taught Headbutt to
knock pokemon out of trees but it IS possible at this section of the game. Level up your
Slowpoke to Lv. 25 and it will learn the move itself. There are four pokemon you can obtain
at the moment. The rules of Headbutt trees are as follows: If no pokemon fall out of the tree,
no pokemon ever will. Try a different tree. If a tree does house pokemon, it always will,
however the wild pokemon are determined by two tables of possible pokemon, so the rare
pokemon you’re looking for might not be available in the tree you’re checking and you may
need to try different trees. The following pokemon are found in the trees:
 ● (Ilex Forest) Pineco-->Lv. 31-->Forretress

● (Azalea Town) Aipom-->Knows Double Hit(Lv. 32)-->Ambipom

● (Azalea Town) Heracross

● (Route 32) Exeggcute

An Early Sun Stone –

The last ‘hurdle’ to get everything you need to complete this section is thanks to Aipom’s
Pickup ability. Aipom has two abilities, so obviously the one with Run Away is the less
desirable one. If you get Aipom up to Lv31+ (which you would do anyway to get it to learn
Double Hit and evolve into Ambipom), there is a low chance that it will pick up a Sun Stone
which can evolve your Gloom into Bellossom.

● Gloom-->Sun Stone-->Bellossom

Levelling Tips:
As with Zubat, keep Togepi in your party at all times to raise its happiness. Thanks to its egg
move (Extrasensory) it’s much more bearable to train with and level up to help its happiness
increase as well. For grinding, it depends on who you’re training. Any pokemon that have
grass or water attacks would be suited to the basement level in Union Cave. Geodude,
Sandshrew and Onix give very nice exp. For those who don’t have these moves or would be
ineffective against rock types, stick to Headbutt trees. In Azalea Town, go to the bottom left
corner. The second tree from the left you can Headbutt (on the south side) can yield
Heracross who gives ungodly exp points. The only catch is that Heracross’s encounter rate
isn’t particularly high and Spearow/Aipom don’t give great exp. Heracross is also at low
levels.

I shrugged off Ilex Forest Headbutt trees for a while but I actually think they’re more helpful.
Facing the left trees as you enter the forest, Headbutt the 4th tree up. You have 10% chance
to find Noctowl and 10% for Butterfree which give huge exp and their levels reach higher
than with Heracross. The other pokemon in this tree are Hoothoot and Pineco. While they
don’t give out great exp, they’re certainly not as poor as the Aipom/Spearow from Azalea
Town trees or Rattata and Zubat from Union Cave. On top of that, you don’t even have to
move, you can just repeatedly mash the A button (but watch out for shinies!).

End of part 2:
Caught 68, Remaining 188

Part 3 - Pre Badge #3 from Whitney

Pokemon in this section:
HeartGold Exclusive:

SoulSilver Exclusive:

You can finally get through Ilex Forest with Cut. Do you know what’s on the other side of the
forest? Wild pokemon that are over level 10! There is nothing to do in the forest so get
through as quickly as possible.

Route 34 –
The single most important thing on this route is the Pokegear number from Picnicker Gina.
She will randomly call you to say she’s found an item. One of these items is a Leaf Stone.
You’ll need these to evolve some of the pokemon you’ve already caught. You’ll need three
of these!

*************************************
IMPORTANT NOTE!
If you want to save a lot of time and stay sane, Discord user gabriel Bombled (and tested by
TheAndyXFailer) has suggested that you get Gina’s number and then go back to Azalea
Town to wait for the phone calls from her. She won’t call you if you’re on the same route,
you can’t get calls in Ilex Forest and if you progress further up Route 34 you’ll be forced to
visit the daycare which results in you getting Ethan/Lyra’s phone number. If you return to
Azalea Town then you’ll hopefully ONLY have Gina in your contacts list and can only receive
calls from her. It’s still a matter of waiting, but this should drastically reduce the amount of
spam calls you’ll be getting.
*************************************

If you want to get to the pokemon center in Goldenrod ASAP it is possible to avoid every
trainer on this route. It might be wise until you’ve caught some new pokemon to train. On
this route you can catch a Drowzee, Abra and Ditto. Catch a second Drowzee for an
upcoming trade! If Abra breaking out of pokeballs drives you nuts, you can simply buy one
at the Game Corner for 200 coins which will be closer to evolving than the wild ones.

● Drowzee-->Lv. 26-->Hypno

● Abra-->Lv. 16-->Kadabra

● Ditto

Goldenrod City –
Grab the bike from the new bike shop to make your life a bit easier. Inside one of the houses
is a trainer who wants to trade your spare Drowzee for a Machop. Make sure you do, Machop
isn’t available until later in the game.

● Machop-->Lv. 28-->Machoke

This gives you your fourth and final pokemon from the original trade evolutions so obviously
Machoke won’t fully evolve either. Goldenrod is also home to the Johto Game Corner. There
are two pokemon you need – your pseudo version exclusive (Ekans/Sandshrew) and you will
also be able to bag a Dratini. To get these you’ll need to play Voltorb Flip for a while (unless
you’re good at it) until you have 2,800 coins. I’d recommend reading this webpage for a
logical way to play:
[Link]
I saw too many YouTube videos where they proceed to guessing far too early and it made
me uneasy…Aside from shopping there’s not much else to do in the city so feel free to
advance north.

● (HG) Ekans-->Lv. 22-->Arbok

● (SS) Sandshrew-->Lv. 22-->Sandslash

● Dratini-->Lv. 30-->Dragonair-->Lv. 55-->Dragonite

Route 35 –
A flurry of new pokemon (well, three) can be caught here. Both Nidoran will be the most
common pokemon you’ll find here. These guys will fully evolve very soon…Yanma will be the
pokemon you struggle with finding. Outside of swarms (not available until national dex) it
only has a 1% chance to encounter so make sure you don’t knock it out by accident! Like
Ambipom, this gen 4 pokemon is available in Johto once Yanma learns the correct move.

● Nidoran F-->Lv. 16-->Nidorina

● Nidoran M-->Lv. 16-->Nidorino

● Yanma-->Lv up with Ancientpower (Lv. 33)-->Yanmega

National Park –
Upon entering the gatehouse you’ll see someone standing guard on the left. He’s blocking
the way to the Pokeathlon which would be a much easier way to get all the evolution stones
you need. Unfortunately he won’t move until you’ve defeated Whitney. Enter the park where
the only new pokemon you can catch is a Sunkern.

● Sunkern

The Bug Catching Contest –

This is held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. There’s no need to worry about winning
the first place prize any more (Sun Stone) but there are some exclusive bug pokemon that
aren’t caught here normally. Specifically you’ll need Venonat, the Weedle line, Scyther and
Pinsir. Logically you’d want to catch Weedle to prevent unnecessary breeding. If you only
want the dex entry you could catch Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Scyther and Pinsir and let
them go finishing off with Venonat so the least number of times you’d need to enter is one,
otherwise it’ll take at least 4 attempts (assuming you can find the pokemon within 20
minutes).

● (HG) Weedle-->Lv. 7-->Kakuna-->Lv. 10-->Beedrill

● (SS) Caterpie-->Lv. 7-->Metapod-->Lv. 10-->Butterfree

● Venonat-->Lv. 31-->Venomoth

● Scyther

● Pinsir

That Scyther won’t evolve any time soon since we can’t trade.

Route 36 –
Dive into the grass to find a Growlithe (which has Roar for extra annoyance) and Stantler.

● (HG) Growlithe
 ● (SS) Vulpix

● Stantler

Like with Picnicker Gina, get School Kid Alan’s Pokegear number as he may call you up and
give you a Fire Stone to evolve that new Growlithe/Vulpix of yours. Sudowoodo blocks the
path to Ecruteak City and the chain of events to clear it are done after beating Whitney so
it’s time to grind!

Have you got the stones? –

THIS….CAN BE….TORTURE!!! There are a large number of pokemon that can be evolved at
this part but the stones to evolve them aren’t especially simple to obtain. If you haven’t
already picked one up before, your Ambipom with Pickup can net you another Sun Stone for
Sunkern. You’ll need two Moon Stones which can also be found with Pickup but you’re going
to need to raise Ambipom’s level up to at least Lv. 41 to have a chance of picking any up.
Finally you’ll need a Fire Stone from Alan and a whopping THREE Leaf Stones from Gina.
There’s no way to force these phone calls and you may be unlucky enough not to get the
stones when they call you, it might just be them bragging about something else. You’re
going to have to be vigilant when the phone rings, especially if you’re running around in the
grass between battles. The best solution would be to just leave your DS on and do nothing
except listen out for the ring. At certain times of the day I was getting a call exactly every 10
minutes or, at other times of the day, 20/30/40 mins apart on the dot. This is slowed down
when you talk to people, enter battles and use the PC. I can confirm that the stone
giveaways are not day-specific. I initially thought that the windows for the items were the
same as their rematch windows (Wednesday for Alan, Sunday for Gina). When I got the
phone call from Alan giving me a second Fire Stone on a Saturday I knew that the calls could
be done on any day. Sadly, neither of the two trainers called much, and most of the times
they did they bragged about their pokemon instead. This part could set you back a long time
if you don’t get the phone calls. I found this part really frustrating because only one battle
stood between me and the Pokeathlon for stones. That battle of course would be Whitney.
Determined not to stray from the challenge I was literally leaving my DS on for hours every
day for weeks hoping for the calls. My play time has literally gone up to over 300 hours.
Hopefully you’ll get your phone calls while you’re training up that Dragonair to Lv. 55…

● Sunkern-->Sun Stone-->Sunflora

● Nidorina-->Moon Stone-->Nidoqueen

● Nidorino-->Moon Stone-->Nidoking

● Weepinbell-->Leaf Stone-->Victreebel

● Gloom-->Leaf Stone-->Vileplume

● Exeggcute-->Leaf Stone-->Exeggutor

● (HG) Growlithe-->Fire Stone-->Arcanine

● (SS) Vulpix-->Fire Stone-->Ninetales

Levelling Tips –
Abuse the Headbutt move tutor as much as possible! Most pokemon can learn this move
and it’s much easier levelling up your new pokemon with a power 70 move than their default
ones. Even with its abysmal attack I was able to level up Abra on its own rather than
switching out all the time. Dratini/Dragonair are unfortunately VERY slow at levelling up and
the moves it learns on the way to the massive Lv 55 are quite inaccurate which doesn’t help
much. Consider using TMs (especially from the Game Corner or the Department Store so you
don’t waste the one-time TMs). The wild pokemon might be at higher levels but the exp isn’t
all that better. I knew Dragonite would likely carry me through the Elite Four later on so I
kept it as a Dratini until Lv 51 so it learned Outrage.

You might only get 20 mins every few days but consider using the bug catching contest to
grind as the pokemon will range between levels 7 and 18. Finding a Scyther, Pinsir, Beedrill
or Butterfree that are Lv13+ will grant you a decent burst of exp. Outside of this, I trained
primarily on Route 35 since Drowzee wasn’t bad experience. I tried to stay away from Route
34 and 36 in case Gina and Alan won’t call you if you’re on the same route as them. I pray
that you get the evolution stones during the Dragonair grind-fest! If Dragonite is the last
pokemon left to evolve, another option would be to consider breeding Ambipom to get a few
Aipom with Pickup and farm Rare Candies to shave those last few levels off.

End of part 3:
Caught 103, Remaining 153

Part 4 - Pre Badge #4 from Morty

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusives:

SoulSilver Exclusives:

Having the Plain Badge from Whitney lets you use Strength which we don’t have yet and
even with it, it doesn’t give us any new areas to access without Surf as well. Beating
Whitney does however allow us to finally progress to other towns and cities. Swing by the
flower shop in the very north western part of Goldenrod City to get the watering can
required to move Sudowoodo and then head towards the gate where the bug catching
contest is.

What? More stones already??? –

Once inside the gate, instead of passing through into National Park, you can instead go to
the left and enter the Pokeathlon Dome. This is the usual mini game found in pokemon
games (similar to contests etc) and you can earn points to cash in at the prize exchange
counter. The prizes we are looking at in particular are the evolution stones, which cost 2500
points each and are only available one day per week. We need one Fire Stone (Tuesday),
four Water Stones (Wednesday) and one Thunder Stone (Thursday). Best get to work on
those Water Stones as quickly as you can to avoid waiting around for the next Wednesday to
come around. Changing the clock is cheating but also does mess up clock based events so
be careful. Straight off the bat we can evolve our Poliwhirl:

● Poliwhirl-->Water Stone-->Poliwrath

Route 36 –
Yes, you’ve been here before but the ‘tree’ that’s blocking the way can now be moved! Save
your game before hand as this is the only opportunity to catch Sudowoodo.

● Sudowoodo

At last we have advanced onto Route 37! The downside is…there’s no new pokemon on this
route! Carry on to Ecruteak City.

Ecruteak City –
Go to the Pokemon Center as you should do when entering a new town and Bill from Kanto
will approach you. He will head back to Goldenrod City to see his family. You should go there
straight away and talk to him for an Eevee and then breed away at your heart’s content to
get the Eeveelutions:

● Eevee-->Water Stone-->Vaporeon

● Eevee-->Thunder Stone-->Jolteon

● Eevee-->Fire Stone-->Flareon

● Eevee-->Happiness (day)-->Espeon

● Eevee-->Happiness (night)-->Umbreon

Sadly Glaceon and Leafeon are not part of the Johto Dex and not obtainable within the game
as there are no areas with conditions for location-based evolutions. Best to evolve your
original Eevee from Bill into one of the stone based evolutions so that your hatched ones will
have a higher base happiness/friendship level to make Espeon and Umbreon easier to get.
The Soothe Bell is available in National Park so keep it on one of your two Eevee and bear in
mind you can visit the haircut brothers in the Goldenrod Underground area for a further
happiness boost.

Back in Ecruteak, your next stop in getting new pokemon should be to go to the Burned
Tower in the upper left corner. Here you will meet Morty, Eusine and your rival. On the entry
level you can find a Koffing, while the basement will house Magmar. Get close to the three
legendary beasts in the basement and they will flee. This will trigger Raikou and Entei’s
roaming around Johto for you to find and catch. Suicune does not roam, much like Pokemon
Crystal and is found by interacting with it much later on.

● Koffing-->Lv. 35-->Weezing

● Magmar

Then of course you can go back to Goldenrod and breed Magmar to get a Magby!

● Magmar-->Breed-->Magby
Finally, visit the Kimono Dance Theatre where you will battle a Team Rocket grunt who is
harassing a Kimono Girl. Your reward for intervening will be the Surf HM (though we can’t
use it yet).

Route 38/39 –
Out of the western exit from Ecruteak we head towards Olivine City. It is a fairly straight
forward route, but do dive into the grass in order to find quite a number of new pokemon.
Both routes have exactly the same pokemon with the exception of Snubbull who is only on
Route 38 and is extremely rare at a 1% encounter rate. The only time-based appearance to
worry about here is Farfetch’d who does not appear at night time.

● Magnemite-->Lv. 30-->Magneton

● Snubbull-->Lv. 23-->Granbull

● Farfetch’d

● Tauros

● Miltank

● (SS) Meowth-->Lv. 28-->Persian

Olivine City –
There’s a few places you’ll need to stop at in order to help progress both the plot and your
pokedex completion. First, you will find a man inside one of the houses who will trade Billy
the Voltorb for your spare Krabby. If you didn’t catch one, you’ll shortly be able to grab one
easily with a new fishing rod.

● Voltorb-->Lv. 30-->Electrode

Make sure you work your way up the lighthouse to see Jasmine though you may want to wait
until you have a large squad of pokemon to train. There is a fisherman in Olivine who will
give you a Good Rod for some more fishing.

Good Fishing Tour –

It’s time to cast your rod once again with a tour around Johto to catch some new species.
You can find the following pokemon deep in the waters:

● (Olivine City Morning/Day) Corsola

● (Olivine City Night) Staryu-->Water Stone-->Starmie

● (Route 32) Qwilfish (2% encounter rate)

● (New Bark Town) Shellder-->Water Stone-->Cloyster

● (New Bark Town) Chinchou-->Lv. 27-->Lanturn

Mt Mortar –
Without Surf, going past Olivine City is not possible so we’ll have to go in a different
direction. Head through the east exit from Ecruteak City and as you reach the entrance to
Mt Mortar you’ll meet a hiker who will give you the Strength HM. As mentioned, there’s not
really much use for this at present other than coming out of another Dark Cave exit which
doesn’t yield any more pokemon. Head inside the mountain and you can start your long
search for Marill within the first area. Venture into the next floor and you won’t be able to
find it. Marill is one of the original swarm pokemon from Gen 2 but can now be found here
normally at a tiny 1% encounter rate.
 ● Marill-->Lv. 18-->Azumarill

Route 42 –
When you emerge from the cave, dive into the grassy patch directly below to find a Mankey
(HG). Defeat Fisherman Tully and there’s a chance he’ll call you and give you a Water Stone.
Feel free to register him but after the hell from the previous section I’d rather get mine from
the Pokeathlon Dome every Wednesday.

● (HG) Mankey-->Lv. 28-->Primeape

Mahogany Town/Route 43 -
There’s really very little to do in Mahogany Town at present, so head north towards the Lake
of Rage. In the grasses of Route 43 you’ll encounter the last of our wild pokemon from this
section:

● Girafarig

Chasing the Beasts –

So we have two roaming pokemon that happen to be legendaries on the prowl. If you open
the PokeGear map you’ll see Raikou and Entei’s current positions. Every time you move to a
different area/town/route they will move to an adjacent route to the one they are currently
on or in some cases may jump randomly across the map. The annoying part of chasing them
is that you can’t keep the map open while you run around so you will be constantly opening
the map, seeing if they are near, moving to an area, opening the map etc until they are in
your location. I would suggest moving from Ecruteak/Route 36/Route 37 because there are
no gates to pass through, it’s all out in the open. Once you are in the same location, spray a
repel (assuming your lead pokemon is no higher than Lv40).

In Platinum, if the roaming pokemon was faster than you, it would flee before you could use
an attack. The nice thing in HeartGold/SoulSilver is that fleeing is a low priority action,
meaning that even the slowest pokemon can act first. This means you can slowly chip away
at their health during each encounter until their HP is low enough. I used a Haunter with
Night Shade so I wouldn’t score a critical hit. Saving between encounters is also a good idea.
Bear in mind that their HP and any status moves will be the same when you encounter them
again. If you can trap them with Mean Look (also from Haunter) then you get a few turns to
try and catch them. The down side is that there just aren’t many decent pokeballs available.
You’ll likely only have a few Ultra Balls. The best ball to use is a Fast Ball as both Entei and
Raikou have base speed of 100+. Get yourself a minimum of ten and get ready to catch
them. Having their HP in the red and having a status move (I put them to sleep) helps
tremendously. If you can’t catch the pokemon within 5 Fast Balls, reset and try again. You
can either throw a Fast Ball at the sleeping pokemon straight off or use Mean Look to trap it
for a few turns, bearing in mind that it might wake up in which case it could use Roar to
make you flee, knock you out and of course you need to put it to sleep again.

● Raikou

● Entei

Levelling Tips –
Save the gym trainers in Ecruteak for the pokemon that evolve at higher levels as well as
the lighthouse trainers. The two best places to grind would be Route 43 or Routes 38/39.
Although Tauros/Miltank do give a lot of exp, I found the common Rattata encounters too
frequent as they give bad exp and Magnemite was annoying to battle against with
water/electric pokemon. I think Route 43 was more beneficial, Girafarig was fairly common
and gives the best exp on the route. Training here at night is a great idea, Noctowl gives
better exp than Pidgeotto. The only downside to this route is that Flaaffy’s Static ability gets
quite irritating.

End of part 4:
Caught 139, Remaining 117

Part 5 - Pre Badge #5 from Pryce

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

Here we go! As with most games, having access to Surf has a plethora of additional areas
for you to now delve into! Although you are free to start exploring now, there is a time-
sensitive event to be aware of. Getting the Safari Zone side quest started is your main
priority. Surf to Cianwood City, get the medicine for Amphy and return to Jasmine at the
lighthouse. Doing so will unlock the Safari Zone and you’ll get a phone call to confirm this.
Go back to Cianwood and go west until you reach the Safari Zone. Baoba (the owner) will
give you a task to catch a Geodude in the first area as you enter. As soon as you catch it,
retire from the safari and show it to Baoba. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to wait 3 in
game hours to take the next test which opens up more areas within the safari zone so it’s
best to get this covered now so that those 3 hours pass while you’re catching and training.
With that done, we can start exploring!

A worthwhile detour to do here would be to capture or defeat the Red Gyarados at the Lake
of Rage. With the Red Scale obtained afterwards, take it back to Mr Pokémon north of
Cherrygrove City and trade it for the exp share. Any Pokémon holding this item will get half
the exp earned from the battle without even participating!

Route 41 –
Surf just off the eastern coast of Cianwood and you’ll dip into Route 41. If you’re playing
HeartGold, you may encounter a Mantine to add to your collection. For SoulSilver players,
it’s just the standard Tentacool/Tentacruel.

● (HG) Mantine
Cianwood City –
The gym here is skippable at present although it does make travelling a little more awkward
without being able to use Fly. Inside one of the houses is a man that will give you his
Shuckle to look after for a while. Make sure you have a spare slot in your team. Go to the
northern reach of the beach to find Suicune. Don’t worry, you won’t battle it yet.

● Shuckle

Route 47 –
Start heading back towards the safari zone. Inside the caves are a large number of different
pokemon. Like with Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, it’s possible to catch a wild Steelix which
means that you’ll have a trade evolution pokemon without trading! Have a rummage in the
caves at night for a chance to catch Misdreavus which we can’t evolve until post game.
Misdreavus is also found in the Safari Zone during all times of the day so consider catching it
there if it’s not currently night time.

● Steelix

● Misdreavus

Make your way down the ladders in the caves and go outside to Surf in the waters for a
chance to catch a Seel.

● Seel-->Lv. 34-->Dewgong

Route 48 –
The last patch of grass before you get back to the safari zone has Diglett hiding within it.
This is also a great training spot for grinding.

● Diglett-->Lv. 26-->Dugtrio

Safari Zone –
The safari zone has six different areas already laid out but the areas are not the same for all
players. As mentioned before, you need to ‘activate’ the safari zone and wait 3 in-game
hours to be able to move areas around. We will assume that you’ve reached this point.
There’s quite a difference in the available pokemon at different times of the day so you’ll
need to come back during day and night times.

Being in the Peak area at night will make Wobbuffet appear (alternatively you can explore
the deep regions of Dark Cave now).

● Wobbuffet

In the Marshland you’ll find a Grimer in the grass and via Surfing unless it’s night time in
which case you can still find it by Surfing.

● Grimer-->Lv. 38-->Muk

In the Forest area, Mr Mime hangs around here during the morning/daytime:

● Mr Mime

In the Mountain area, come here at any time apart from night to find:
 ● (Day/Morning) Larvitar-->Lv. 30-->Pupitar-->Lv. 55-->Tyranitar

● (Day/Morning) Lickitung-->Level up after learning Rollout (Lv. 33)-->Lickilicky

In the Swamp area you’ll need to visit at different times of the day:

● (Day/Morning) Jigglypuff-->Moon Stone-->Wigglytuff

● (Any time) Murkrow

In the Wasteland area you’ll want to be here during daylight hours to find a classic Safari
Zone pokemon:

● (Day/Morning) Kangaskhan

In the Plains area you’ll find a Smeargle in the day/morning. I’d recommend capturing it here
rather than Ruins of Alph because of Sketch/Struggle issues.

● Smeargle

In the Meadow area you’ll find Clefairy at night.

● Clefairy-->Moon Stone-->Clefable

Doduo inhabits the Rocky Beach area during the day/morning and you can Surf here for a
Lapras instead of waiting until Friday for it to appear in Union Cave.

● Doduo-->Lv. 31-->Dodrio

● Lapras

Psyduck lives in the Wetland in the grass during the night or at any time via Surfing. Golduck
can also be caught here if you don’t want to evolve Psyduck.

● Psyduck-->Lv. 33-->Golduck

The Savannah houses Rhyhorn during daylight hours.

● Rhyhorn-->Lv. 42-->Rhydon

Finally, in the Desert area you’ll find Cubone (and Marowak) during the day/morning.

● Cubone-->Lv. 28-->Marowak

With all these new pokemon there are two we can breed for baby pokemon:

● Clefairy/Clefable-->Breed-->Cleffa

● Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff-->Breed-->Igglybuff
Ruins of Alph –
So catching everything in/on the way to the Safari Zone was the bulk of this section. The
only other place to go for new pokemon is in the grassy areas of the Ruins of Alph. However
we can’t get there directly. Go to Union Cave via Route 32 and go down the steps in the top
left corner of the cave. Once you Surf across it’s a straightforward layout which will bring
you outside in the ruins. Smeargle is here if you didn’t catch it at the Safari Zone. Otherwise
we’re only here for one pokemon:

● Natu-->Lv. 25-->Xatu

Levelling Tips –
So we have a lot of pokemon to catch in this section but only 10 pokemon to train, a few of
which are late evolvers. Fresh out of the Safari Zone, I found route 48 was a good spot to
train (mostly while I was looking for Diglett) but for HeartGold players this can be an
annoyance as Tauros and Growlithe both potentially have Intimidate. Otherwise we actually
get much higher levels for wild pokemon. Anywhere that requires Surf to get to is a good
place to train so that includes deeper areas of Dark Cave, Union Cave and Mt Mortar. Don’t
forget to battle all of the trainers along the sea routes between Cianwood and Olivine and of
course the trainers in the Cianwood gym (except for Chuck). You could also go to the Lake of
Rage and kick Team Rocket out of Mahogany Town which I would highly recommend since
the next section gives very few new pokemon to catch. The only pokemon I found difficulty
training in this section was Natu because it had NO attacking moves. Even if you catch one
at level 18-19 it will only have Night Shade. Natu can be caught as high as Level 24 which
means it’s only one level away from evolving.

End of part 5:
(HeartGold) Caught 176, Remaining 80
(SoulSilver) Caught 175, Remaining 81

Part 6 - Pre Badge #6 and #7 from Chuck and Jasmine

Pokemon in this section:

So there’s a dilemma here…We have three gyms we can access in any order, so which do
we pick? Well Jasmine’s badge doesn’t give any perks. Chuck’s badge lets you use Fly which,
while useful, doesn’t give new pokemon. What about Pryce? His badge lets you use
Whirlpool which DOES give access to a small area for new pokemon so we’ll take his badge
first. This is assuming that you have defeated Team Rocket in Mahogany Town. Sadly this
does not move the guy blocked the eastern exit just yet. With the Whirlpool HM from the
Team Rocket hideout, go back to the Whirl Islands between Cianwood and Olivine. Using
Whirlpool will let you swim across the whirlpools allowing you to enter the caves. Surfing
inside will find you a Horsea.

● Horsea-->Lv. 32-->Seadra

Levelling Tips –
Yep, that’s it! Teach Horsea Surf and go into any cave that has lots of Rock/Ground types for
a quick win!

End of part 6:
(HeartGold) Caught 178, Remaining 78
(SoulSilver) Caught 177, Remaining 79

Part 7 - Pre Badge 8 from Clair

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

SoulSilver Exclusive:

Since they give no new pokemon by themselves, let’s cover both gyms at once. As soon as
badge number 7 is in your possession, you’ll get a call from Prof. Elm and you can take on
Team Rocket in Goldenrod City at the Radio Tower. Sadly there’s nowhere to go for new
pokemon until AFTER this section so feel free to let your toughest pokemon level up even
more (Tyranitar/Dragonite/Pickup pokemon). Once Team Rocket is out of the way you can
FINALLY get past Mahogany Town!

Route 44 –
A brand new route with some brand new pokemon! Within the waters of this route you’ll find
a new pokemon to fish for. Like Qwilfish, it is extremely rare (2%) to catch it with a Good
Rod outside of swarms which are unavailable until you have the national dex. You’ll need to
surf across the water to find some grass where you’ll find a Tangela.

● Remoraid-->Lv. 25-->Octillery

● Tangela-->Lv. Up knowing Ancientpower-->Tangrowth

Ice Path –
The cave at the end of the route leads to the chilly Ice Path where most of the pokemon are
new to you. Swinub and Jynx are found in both versions while SoulSilver has an additional
pokemon, Delibird. Make sure to pick up the HM for Waterfall!

● Swinub-->Lv. 33-->Piloswine-->Lv. Up knowing Ancientpower-->Mamoswine

● Jynx

● (SS) Delibird

And with Jynx in hand we can breed it for another baby pokemon:

● Jynx-->Breed-->Smoochum

Blackthorn City and Route 45 –

Emerging from the cave you’ll reach the site of the final gym. Here you’ll find the move tutor
who will teach your pokemon a move that they have forgotten. This is perfect timing
because when you have your Piloswine you will need to do exactly this to let it learn
Ancientpower so it can evolve. Head south from Blackthorn City until you find a patch of
grass. This has a lot of version exclusive pokemon in it. HeartGold players will find Phanpy
and Gligar while SoulSilver players will meet Teddiursa and Skarmory.

● (HG) Phanpy-->Lv. 25-->Donphan

● (HG) Gligar

● (SS) Teddiursa-->Lv. 30-->Ursaring

● (SS) Skarmory

Levelling Tips –
It was another pretty short section. We do have access to trainer rematches so you can grab
what you can. There are lots of guides out there so I’d suggest calling whoever has their
trainer rematch window open and abuse that. If you want to just grind on wild pokemon,
Route 45 is good for Tangela and Swinub but not so good for Teddiursa/Phanpy who might
be better suited for places like Route 43.

End of part 7:
(Both versions) Caught 190, Remaining 66

Part 8 - Pre Elite Four

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

SoulSilver Exclusive:

Defeat Clair and clear the Dragon’s Den and then, with your final Johto badge in your case,
either jump down the ledges or Fly to New Bark Town. Speak to Professor Elm to receive a
Master Ball. He will mention that the Kimono girls are looking for you.

Mt Mortar revisited –
You’ll need two things to consider…You need a HM slave that has Surf, Strength and
Waterfall (Gyarados is a good candidate) and you’ll need a spare slot in your team. Between
Ecruteak/Mahogany Town there’s another entrance to Mt Mortar which you can Surf to.
Interact with Suicune while you’re here to make it flee to the next location. Go through this
entrance, Surf on the water then go up the waterfall to the north. This will lead you to an
extra section of the cave where you’ll eventually find Black Belt Kiyo who, once defeated,
will give you a Tyrogue! Breed this a couple of times and raise their stats as appropriate to
get all three Hitmons. Having a nature that affects Attack or Defence (or neutral for
Hitmontop) is definitely a good start. Consider training on Route 48 for attack based EVs to
help evolve Tyrogue into Hitmonlee and Route 45 for defense EVs to get Hitmonchan,
alternating if one stat goes above the other to get Hitmontop (thanks LuckyIGN for the
training tip!)

● Tyrogue-->Lv. 20 (Attack higher than Defence)-->Hitmonlee

● Tyrogue-->Lv. 20 (Defence higher than Attack)-->Hitmonchan

● Tyrogue-->Lv. 20 (Attack and Defence equal)-->Hitmontop

Box Legendary –
Go back to Ecruteak City and defeat the Kimono sisters at the dance theatre. Doing so will
make your box legendary appear. For HeartGold players, simply climb the tower right here
in Ecruteak. For Lugia, go to the Whirl Islands and enter the closest island to Olivine City.
When you reach a junction, take the northern route. Make sure you have a pokemon that
can give the legendary a status condition (preferably Sleep) and bring your bulkiest
pokemon, most likely Tyranitar and Dragonite. You can simply use the Master Ball but I
honestly would save this for other legendaries, which are Lv70, or for the roaming pokemon
you have yet to unlock (Latias/Latios). Other pokeballs that are useful are Heavy Balls for
Lugia, Dusk Balls (Lugia only unless it’s night for Ho-Oh) and Timer Balls for long, gruelling
battles.

● (HG) Ho-Oh

● (SS) Lugia

To Kanto! –
Once you’ve caught the above, grab your Waterfall pokemon and head east from New Bark
Town and you’ll be in the nostalgic region of Kanto. Use Waterfall to cross Tohjo Falls and
when you emerge you’ll be on Route 27 proper. Lurking in the grass is one new pokemon:

● Ponyta-->Lv. 40-->Rapidash

Head north east through Route 26 and Victory Road and it’s time for the Elite Four! But you
shouldn’t have any problems with that…your Dragonite has been stronger than the
Champion’s since before you got your third badge!!!

Levelling Tips –
Also not a long section. Tyrogue should be easy enough to level as it only evolves at Lv20.
Ponyta takes longer, but training in the route you caught it in is the best place. You want to
use it ideally against the trainers on Route 26/27 for some serious experience, but maybe
pump it up a few levels first. As before, trainer rematches are available, check what time it
is and see if anyone will battle you.

End of part 8:
(Both versions) Caught 197, Remaining 59

Technically this could be the end of the challenge but surely you want to keep going???

Part 9 - Pre Kanto Badge #1 from Misty

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

SoulSilver Exclusive:

Be prepared for a ridiculously large undertaking…

So you’re the champion! Go see Professor Elm immediately to get an SS Ticket which you
can use to get the ferry from Olivine City to Vermilion City. Before you board, you’ll have a
shiny new National Pokedex from Professor Oak to work on! For the rest of this challenge we
will still operate under the same rules in that we need as many pokemon as possible before
the next badge.

Before you start working on captures in Kanto, you’ll want to secure your way back to Johto
to take advantage of the things you’ll want to do in tandem.

There’s two important things to do before we can access almost everywhere in Kanto:
● You’ll need to restore the Power Plant in Kanto. Go to the Power Plant on Route 10 to
find out about a robber, chase the robber (Team Rocket) from the Cerulean City gym
to get the missing part and return it to the Power Plant. Then speak to the director at
the Lavender Town radio tower for a radio upgrade including a pokeflute for Snorlax!
● In order to return to Johto easily, we need to get the Magnet Train pass. Now that the
power is restored, talk to the Copycat family in Saffron City to find out that Copycat
has lost her pokedoll. Retrieve it from the pokemon fan club in Vermilion City and
you’ll be given a pass for the train which takes you back to Goldenrod City. If you’re
dead set on getting everything out of the Safari Zone you may want to start the next
test and plant the areas you want to level up so you don’t waste any days.

Safari Zone –
You definitely want to start this as soon as you possibly can. If you’re planning on catching
EVERY pokemon in the game you will need to wait a whopping 100 days (over 3 months) for
everything to appear. The mechanics of the safari zone aren’t very clear from the
information given in the game and I will try to explain it as simply as I can!

When you rearrange the areas of the safari zone, for every 10 days that an area is active as
one of the 6 areas placed, it will level up one of its attributes (peak, forest, waterside etc).
When you place an object it will give one point to its relevant attribute, but when an area
levels up, it multiplies the effect of any objects placed. For example, if the Rocky Beach area
has been active for enough days (40 days), the level for its Waterside attribute is now Lv2.
When you place a waterside object, it gives double the amount of points (2 points). Some
pokemon require a specific number of object points to appear. Some are available as soon
as you place enough objects, some will require you to level up the areas first to be able to
reach the amount of points required (Lv4 = 4x multiplier). The attributes level up as follows:

● 10 days – Plains attribute reaches Lv2

● 20 days - Forest attribute reaches Lv2

● 30 days - Peak attribute reaches Lv2

● 40 days – Waterside attribute reaches Lv2

● 50 days – Plains attribute reaches Lv3

● 60 days – Forest attribute reaches Lv3

● 70 days – Peak attribute reaches Lv3

● 80 days – Waterside attribute reaches Lv3

● 100 days – Plains attribute reaches Lv4

● 110 days – Forest attribute reaches Lv4

● 120 days – Peak attribute reaches Lv4

 ● 130 days – Waterside attribute reaches Lv4

Since Rocky Beach requires the longest period of time, you’ll want this area active as early
as possible. Unfortunately, you can’t just skip the DS 100 days ahead. It is possible to adjust
the time to 23:59, allow the day to cross over into midnight and repeat the process but a)
you might consider that cheating and b) it can be quite finicky. I waited the entire 100 days
to match the spirit of the challenge. I’m also not entirely sure if you have to actually PLAY
HGSS every day or if the DS simply recognises that x days have passed. If people have done
the above trick by changing the time to 23:59 then you may not have to play the game
every day but I have just to be safe. The four areas that require the longest period are:

● Rocky Beach (100 days)

● Wetland (70 days)

● Meadow (70 days)

● Forest (70 days)

These four areas can remain placed for the entirety of the rest of the challenge. For the
remaining three slots I’ve placed the below with the intention of changing them once all
pokemon in that area are unlocked:

● Peak

● Savannah

I’ve removed some pokemon from the list below since they (or their pre-evolution) can be
caught elsewhere without waiting for the required number of days. Pokemon that can be
caught elsewhere that can also be caught in the Safari Zone immediately (e.g. Zigzagoon)
I’ve left in. The schedule for catching is as below. This is assuming you catch and swap areas
at the very first opportunity as listed. For stone evolutions, all can be obtained from the
Pokeathlon which is the easiest method (aside from Pickup Sun/Moon Stones) or
alternatively visit Bill’s grandfather in Kanto. Since this will take 100 days, you may want to
combine this with obtaining BP for evolution items (see further below for evolving existing
Pokémon).

Immediately Available (The First Day) -

Rocky Beach –
● Place 10 Plains objects, grass encounter – Electrike-->Lv. 26-->Manectric

● Place 18 Forest objects, grass encounter – Budew-->Happiness (daytime)-->Roselia--

>Shiny Stone-->Roserade
● Place 24 Peak objects, grass encounter – Aron-->Lv. 32-->Lairon-->Lv. 42-->Aggron

● Place 15 Water objects, fish Super Rod (obtained on Route 12) – Corphish-->Lv. 30--
>Crawdaunt
Wetland –
● Place 6 Plains objects, grass encounter – Surskit-->Lv. 22-->Masquerain

● Place 14 Plains objects, grass encounter – Lombre-->Water Stone-->Ludicolo

● Place 8 Forest objects, grass encounter – Pachirisu

Meadow –
 ● Place 28 Forest objects, grass encounter – Nuzleaf-->Leaf Stone-->Shiftry
Peak –
● Place 12 Plains objects, grass encounter – Zangoose
Savannah –
● Place 10 Plains objects, grass encounter – Zigzagoon-->Lv. 20-->Linoone

● Place 24 Plains objects, grass encounter – Luxio-->Lv. 30-->Luxray

● Place 5 Water objects, grass encounter - Azurill

At 20 days –
Savannah –
● Place 18 Forest objects, grass encounter – Cacturne
Forest –
● Place 18 Forest objects, grass encounter – Shuppet-->Lv. 37-->Banette

At 30 days –
Savannah –
● Place 18 Peak objects, grass encounter – Torkoal

● Once you’ve caught Torkoal, swap the Savannah area for the Wasteland area
Wasteland –
● Place 10 Plains objects, grass encounter – Illumise

● Place 28 Peak objects, grass encounter – Skorupi-->Lv. 40-->Drapion

Meadow –
● Place 18 Peak objects, grass encounter - Nosepass

At 40 days –
Peak –
● Place 18 Water objects, grass encounter – Spheal-->Lv. 32-->Sealeo-->Lv. 44--
>Walrein
● Once you’ve caught Spheal, swap the Peak area for the Desert area
Desert –
● Place 28 Peak objects, grass encounter – Hippopotas-->Lv. 34-->Hippowdon

At 60 days –
Desert –
● Place 25 Forest objects, grass encounter – Vibrava-->Lv. 45-->Flygon

● Once you’ve caught Vibrava, swap the Desert area for the Marshland area
Wasteland -
● Place 21 Peak objects, grass encounter – Solrock

● Once you’ve caught Solrock, swap the Wasteland area for the Swamp area
Swamp –
● Place 28 Peak objects, grass encounter – Duskull-->Lv. 37-->Dusclops

● Once you’ve caught Duskull, swap the Swamp area for the Mountain area
Mountain –
● Place 15 Peak objects, grass encounter - Lunatone

At 70 days -
Marshland –
● Place 18 Plains objects, grass encounter – Seviper
Wetland –
● Place 21 Peak objects, grass encounter – Shelgon-->Lv. 50-->Salamence
Meadow –
● Place 10 Forest and 14 Peak objects – Riolu-->Happiness (daytime)-->Lucario
Forest
● Place 21 Peak objects, grass encounter - Beldum-->Lv. 20-->Metang-->Lv. 45--
>Metagross

At 80 days -
Marshland –
● Place 21 Forest objects, grass encounter – Croagunk-->Lv. 37-->Toxicroak

At 100 days -
Rocky Beach –
● Place 13 Plains and 17 Peak objects, grass encounter – Gible-->Lv. 24-->Gabite-->Lv.
48-->Garchomp

And we can breed some of the evolved pokemon:

● Lombre/Ludicolo-->Breed-->Lotad

● Shelgon/Salamence-->Breed-->Bagon

● Nuzleaf/Shiftry-->Breed-->Seedot

● Luxio/Luxray-->Breed-->Shinx

● Cacturne-->Breed-->Cacnea

● Illumise-->Breed-->(50% chance)Volbeat OR catch Volbeat in Bug Catching Contest

● Vibrava/Flygon-->Breed-->Trapinch

Swarms –
A staple to many pokemon games, tune in to the radio every day and listen to Mary and Prof
Oak’s show. They will tell you of a swarm of pokemon and will tell you the particular route
that they are in (so I won’t list the routes). Some of these are pokemon you have already
caught and spent ages trying to find that 1% encounter rate! But some are genuinely new
pokemon from Hoenn/Sinnoh. I’ve excluded Kricketot as it would be easier to get from the
Bug Catching Contest. Dawn Stones can be obtained from Pokeathlon or Bug Catching
[Link] cannot be soft reset to get the desired Pokémon. It may just be entirely luck
based, but the last two Pokémon I needed didn’t show up until near the end of my 100 day
safari zone wait. I was always getting Kanto/Johto pokemon until I saved the game after
seeing what the swarm Pokémon was and then sure enough the next few days I finally got
Buneary and Baltoy. But again, this might have just been rotten luck.

● Poochyena-->Lv. 18-->Mightyena
 ● Wingull-->Lv. 25-->Pelipper

● Ralts-->Lv. 20-->Kirlia-->Lv. 30-->Gardevoir

● Ralts-->Lv. 20-->Kirlia (male)-->Dawn Stone-->Gallade

● (HG) Sableye

● (SS) Mawile

● (SS) Gulpin-->Lv. 26-->Swalot

● Swablu-->Lv. 35-->Altaria

● (Fish) Whiscash

● (HG) Baltoy-->Lv. 36-->Claydol

● Clamperl

● Relicanth

● Luvdisc

● Buneary-->Happiness (any time)-->Lopunny

And after fishing for Whiscash:

● Whiscash-->Breed-->Barboach

Hoenn Sound –
Every Wednesday you can tune into Hoenn Sound on the radio on your Pokegear. This will
lead to encounters with pokemon from the Hoenn games. They are low encounter rates so
don’t get discouraged if they don’t appear. You will also need to turn the radio back on after
every encounter otherwise you will just find the usual selection of pokemon. To make this
easier you may want to catch the pokemon at higher levels so that they evolve quicker
unless you’re like me and you’ve caught them at the first routes on the guide you look at
(info from Bulbapedia) and therefore catch them really low levelled!

Sprout Tower, Bell Tower, and Burned Tower –

● Spinda

Routes 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, Ruins
of Alph, and Mt. Silver (outside) –
● Whismur-->Lv. 20-->Loudred-->Lv. 40-->Exploud

Slowpoke Well, Union Cave, Mt. Mortar, Dark Cave, Whirl Islands, Mt. Silver (cave), Ice Path,
Cliff Cave, Diglett's Cave, Mt. Moon, Cerulean Cave, Rock Tunnel, Seafoam Islands, Victory
Road, Tohjo Falls –
● Makuhita-->Lv. 24-->Hariyama

● Absol

Routes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 29, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, 48, and National
Park –
● Plusle

● Minun
Ilex Forest and Viridian Forest –
● Numel-->Lv. 33-->Camerupt

● Spoink-->Lv. 32-->Grumpig

Sinnoh Sound –
This works exactly the same as Hoenn Sound but this particular station only plays on
Thursdays. Pokemon found in the Sinnoh games (yes, even Meditite, a Hoenn pokemon) will
come out to battle. The locations are also the same.

Sprout Tower, Bell Tower, and Burned Tower –

● Meditite-->Lv. 37-->Medicham

● Chatot

Routes 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, Ruins
of Alph, and Mt. Silver (outside) –
● Bidoof-->Lv. 15-->Bibarel

● Buizel-->Lv. 26-->Floatzel

Slowpoke Well, Union Cave, Mt. Mortar, Dark Cave, Whirl Islands, Mt. Silver (cave), Ice Path,
Cliff Cave, Diglett's Cave, Mt. Moon, Cerulean Cave, Rock Tunnel, Seafoam Islands, Victory
Road, Tohjo Falls –
● Chingling-->Happiness (Night)-->Chimecho

● Bronzor-->Lv. 33-->Bronzong

Ilex Forest and Viridian Forest –

● Carnivine

Bug Catching Contest –

On Thursdays and Saturdays, the bug catching contest now has additional bug pokemon
from other regions! If you’ve followed the guide closely so far, then the only two pokemon
you’ll need are Nincada and Kricketot/Kricketune. If you didn’t breed Illumise for Volbeat you
can also catch one here too.

● Nincada-->Lv. 20-->Ninjask

● Nincada-->Lv. 20 with spare slot in team-->Shedinja

● Kricketot-->Lv. 10-->Kricketune

Starting your Kanto conquest -

Route 15 –
With no Safari Zone, Chansey has fled to the nearby areas which include routes 13 and 14
as well. It is extremely rare with only a 1% encounter rate but at least it won’t flee! Get a
Lv25 pokemon and give it a Smoke Ball then spray a repel. You’ll only ever encounter
Chansey and either Pidgeotto or Noctowl depending on the time of day. Try to capture it in a
Friend or Luxury Ball to make its happiness raise faster or breed it for a better initial
happiness rating. Give it a Soothe Bell so that when you’re done with the rest of your Kanto
tour you’ll have made good progress towards boosting its happiness.
Chansey also has a 5% chance of holding a Lucky Egg which is great for bonus exp but
trying to find a wild Chansey can be difficult enough! Having a Pokémon with the Compound
Eyes ability in the lead slot helps increase the chances of it holding one.

● Chansey-->Happiness-->Blissey

Wake Up Snorlax –
Snorlax is outside Diglett Cave just east of Vermilion City. With the above information you
will have the pokeflute on your radio. Play the station (requires manual tuning) then
examine Snorlax to initiate a battle. Make sure you save beforehand!

● Snorlax

The Power Plant –

The Power Plant is still located on Route 10. It doesn’t have wild pokemon inside anymore
but the patch of grass outside will have an Electabuzz in it which you can also then breed for
Elekid.

● Electabuzz

● Electabuzz-->Breed-->Elekid

Viridian Forest –
Inside Viridian Forest lives that shocking mascot we all know. Catch one and breed it.
Thunder Stones are much easier to find now in the Pokeathlon and the bug catching contest
or you can show a Pichu to Bill’s grandfather north of Cerulean City.

● Pikachu-->Thunder Stone-->Raichu

● Pikachu-->Breed-->Pichu

Articuno and the Seafoam Islands–

Surf from Pallet Town to Cinnabar Island and the East to the Seafoam Islands. You’ll be able
to track down Articuno in its old stomping grounds. This is the only one of the legendary bird
trio you can get prior to getting all Kanto badges.

● Articuno

Celadon City and Route 7 –

Porygon is still stuck inside the Game Corner as a prize so the only way to get one is to get
enough coins to buy it! Time for some more Voltorb flip. Just east of Celadon City you’ll find
Houndour in the grass at night.

● Porygon

● Houndour-->Lv. 24-->Houndoom

Pewter City Science Museum –

Enter the museum and speak to the scientist on the right and you’ll be able to resurrect the
fossil you picked up in the Ruins of Alph along with the Old Amber you should have also
picked up. If not, get back there and smash some rocks.

● Aerodactyl
 ● (HG) Omanyte-->Lv. 40-->Omastar

● (SS) Kabuto-->Lv. 40-->Kabutops

The other box legendary –

Go to Pewter City and speak to a man who is walking around outside who will give you the
item to awaken the other box legendary. For SoulSilver players, go find Ho-Oh in Ecruteak
City. For HeartGold players, dive into the Whirl Islands for Lugia (see previous sections on
catching box legendaries after your 8th Johto badge). These guys are at a massive Lv70.
Heavy Balls work great for Lugia, even without a status effect it’s just under a 10% chance
to catch it if its HP is red.

● (SS) Ho-Oh
● (HG) Lugia

Headbutt Trees –
There are a few select areas where the Headbutt trees are different to the usual selection of
pokemon.

Pewter City – From Route 2, go behind the fence on the left.

● Starly-->Lv. 14-->Staravia-->Lv. 34-->Staraptor

● Wurmple-->Lv. 7-->Cascoon-->Lv. 10-->Dustox

● Wurmple-->Lv. 7-->Silcoon-->Lv. 10-->Beautifly

Route 25 – In the very north western corner after crossing Nugget Bridge.
● Combee(female)-->Lv. 21-->Vespiquen

● Slakoth-->Lv. 18-->Vigoroth-->Lv. 36-->Slaking

Viridian Forest – Go forward and then left from the southern entrance to see a cluster of 8
trees (2x4). Headbutt the top left tree.
● Shroomish-->Lv. 23-->Breloom

Evolving existing pokemon –

With access to new areas we can get certain items to evolve pokemon from our Johto dex.
For HeartGold players you will need to purchase a Razor Fang which can only be bought in
the Battle Frontier (48BP). I would recommend raising a Pokémon properly (nature, IVs, EV
trained) to get the points from the Battle Tower. Although the Battle Factory lets you use
rental Pokémon, it’s far too luck based and you need to defeat 7 trainers before you get any
BP and even then it’s a pitiful amount. A great tip from u/kevbot011, battling at the Trainer
House in Viridian City will net you 1BP per day. Since the Safari Zone will take you 100 days,
this is a much more reliable and gradual way to get BP without the stress of losing battle
streaks at the Battle Frontier or spending time on EV training Pokémon. If you’re not in a
rush, this is a nice alternative to getting those 96BP if you’re playing HeartGold to get the
Razor Fang and the Razor Claw for the final section of the challenge.

Dusk Stones can be obtained from a Pokegear call from Biker Reese (Route 17), one of the
random bug catching contest prizes or from the Pokeathlon (most days). Shiny Stone can be
obtained in the same way as the Dusk Stone, the only difference is the Pokegear call reward
is from Birdkeeper Josh (Route 14). Honestly, it’s best to get both stones from Pokeathlon as
it’s much easier.

● (HG) Gligar-->Lv up at night holding Razor Fang-->Gliscor

 ● Murkrow-->Dusk Stone-->Honchkrow

● Misdreavus-->Dusk Stone-->Mismagius

● Togetic-->Shiny Stone-->Togekiss

Breeding existing pokemon –

Just one baby Pokémon for now with more to come later. Grab the Luck Incense in Vermillion
City to breed for a Happiny

● Chansey/Blissey-->Breed holding Luck Incense-->Happiny

Resurrecting more fossils –

If you go back to the cave you passed through on the way to the Safari Zone in Johto (Cliff
Cave) and use Rock Smash on the rocks. You may be lucky enough to obtain a fossil! Like
with Omanyte and Kabuto, these are version exclusives. HeartGold players will obtain the
Claw fossil which can be resurrected at the Pewter City museum to get Anorith, SoulSilver
players will find the Root fossil to resurrect Lileep.

● (HG) Anorith-->Lv. 40-->Armaldo

● (SS) Lileep-->Lv. 40-->Cradily

Another Roaming Legendary –

Once you’ve met Steven Stone in Vermilion City after getting the pokedoll from the
pokemon fan club, the legendary roamer from Hoenn will be in Kanto. As before with the
legendary beasts, the Eon pokemon can be seen on the PokeGear map. Once you’ve found
it, either capture it as before with the beasts or simply throw your coveted Master Ball.

● (HG) Latias

● (SS) Latios

End of part 9:
(HeartGold) National Dex Caught 348, Remaining 145
(SoulSilver) National Dex Caught 347, Remaining 146

Part 10 - Pre Kanto Badges #2 to #8

Pokemon in this section:

Chasing after Suicune –

Hopefully you would have met Suicune in several places during your adventure. It will stay
in a permanent location for you to catch it once you’ve seen it in the following places:
1. Northern beach of Cianwood City
2. Outside Mt Mortar entrance (requires Surf)
3. Vermilion City Harbour once you disembark from SS Aqua
4. Route 14 in Kanto
You then need to actually defeat Misty to get Suicune to appear. Suicune will now appear at
Cerulean Cape (north of Cerulean City) where it will be stationary and ready for you to
challenge it. Make sure you save your game before encountering it.

● Suicune

End of part 10:

(HeartGold) National Dex Caught 349, Remaining 144
(SoulSilver) National Dex Caught 348, Remaining 145

Part 11 - Pre Red

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

Earn all the remaining 8 badges in a row, finishing with Blue in Viridian City (after meeting
him on Cinnabar Island). Go speak to Professor Oak and he’ll let you explore more areas of
Kanto. He’ll also give you HM08 Rock Climb. So where can we go? Well to start there’s a
bunch of Kanto legendaries waiting for you.

Zapdos and the Power Plant–

Zapdos will now be found outside of the Power Plant on Route 10 at Lv50.

● Zapdos

Cerulean Cave –
Mewtwo’s famous spot is inside the cave north west of Cerulean City. Mewtwo is also at a
whopping Lv70 so bring your strongest pokemon.

● Mewtwo

Mt Silver –
From Viridian City, go west and you can cross over the gate to Victory Road and enter Route
28 which leads up to Mt Silver. In the grass outside you’ll be able to find a Sneasel. Inside
the mountain you’ll find Moltres has found a home there so capture the third legendary bird.
At the top of the mountain you can battle the legendary trainer, Red, but not until you’ve
caught everything in this section! You’ll need to purchase another expensive Battle Frontier
item to get the Razor Claw for 48BP.

● Sneasel-->Lv up at night holding Razor Claw-->Weavile

● Moltres
More baby Pokémon -
With Rock Climb we can grab some more incenses for breeding. The locations are: Full
Incense in Mt. Mortar, Lax Incense on Route 38, Odd Incense in Cerulean Cave, Pure Incense
in Mt. Silver, Rock Incense in Diglett's Cave, Rose Incense on Route 15, Sea Incense in
Cerulean Cave and Wave Incense on Route 47.

● Wobbuffet-->Breed holding Lax Incense-->Wynaut

● Snorlax-->Breed holding Full Incense-->Munchlax

● Mr Mime-->Breed holding Odd Incense-->Mime Jr

● Sudowoodo-->Breed holding Rock Incense-->Bonsly

● (HG) Mantine-->Breed holding Wave Incense-->Mantyke

More Headbutt Trees –

As before, some special trees give access to separate pokemon from the normal Headbutt
Pokémon. These trees require Rock Climb to get to.

Cherrygrove City – Surf off the beach and then use Rock Climb.
● Taillow-->Lv. 22-->Swellow

National Park – Use Rock Climb in the north eastern corner behind the fence:
● Cherubi-->Lv. 25-->Cherrim

Route 38 – Accessed from Route 39, use Rock Climb.

● Burmy(female)-->Lv. 20-->Wormadam

● Burmy(male)-->Lv. 20-->Mothim

End of part 11:

(HeartGold) National Dex Caught 366, Remaining 127
(SoulSilver) National Dex Caught 364, Remaining 129

Part 12 - Post Red

Pokemon in this section:

HeartGold Exclusive:

SoulSilver Exclusive:

Choices (pick one from each set of starters):

 / /

/ /
Back to where it all began –
Go see Professor Oak once Red is defeated and he’ll let you pick ONE of the Kanto starters!

● Bulbasaur-->Lv. 16-->Ivysaur-->Lv. 32-->Venusaur

OR
● Charmander-->Lv. 16-->Charmeleon-->Lv. 36-->Charizard
OR
● Squirtle-->Lv. 16-->Wartortle-->Lv. 36-->Blastoise

Steven Stone and the Hoenn starters–

Once you’ve defeated Red you can visit Steven again in the Silph Co building in Saffron City
where he’ll ask you to pick a colour – Green, Red or Blue. Picking one of these will give you a
Hoenn starter – Treecko, Torchic or Mudkip respectively. You can only pick one!

● Treecko-->Lv. 16-->Grovyle-->Lv. 36-->Sceptile

OR
● Torchic-->Lv. 16-->Combusken-->Lv. 36-->Blaziken
OR
● Mudkip-->Lv. 16-->Marshtomp-->Lv. 36-->Swampert

The Hoenn Legend –

Visit Mr Pokemon north of Cherrygrove City to obtain either the Blue or Red Orb depending
on your version. Take the orb to Embedded Tower which can be located by exiting from the
basement of Cliff Cave on Route 47 and then Surfing to the left and using Rock Climb. You’ll
find either Groudon or Kyogre here. Once you’ve caught it, Professor Oak will tell you some
cool info on the Hoenn legends if you go and see him. Unfortunately it would require trades
to get the other legendary and flush out Rayquaza.

● (HG) Kyogre

● (SS) Groudon

And that’s the end of the true challenge though there is one more section which is optional
and depends on if you’ve got the hardware. You’ll obviously have everything at your
disposal to evolve all of the above pokemon so take your time and have fun with it!

End of the challenge:

(HeartGold) National Dex Caught 373, Remaining 120
(SoulSilver) National Dex Caught 371, Remaining 122

So who’s missing ?
Choices (18):
This is all starters! With only the option to pick one starter from each set offered, you’ll be
missing out on the other two and their evolution lines.

/ /

/ /

/ /
Version Exclusives:
As always, you can’t catch ‘em all without trading with the other version. The exclusives are
somewhat offset in these games as HeartGold has version exclusive pokemon with extra
evolutions or baby pokemon
HeartGold Players will be missing (19):

SoulSilver Players will be missing (21):

Trade Evolutions (16):

We’ve got the pokemon but have no way of evolving them as their evolutions all require
trading, a fundamental POC rule meaning that these can’t be obtained.

Location Based Evolutions (4):

For whatever reason they decided not to include locations in HGSS for these evolutions to
occur.

Legendaries/Mythicals (22):
Rare pokemon that are either available in other games or through events/Mystery Gift.
Unobtainable in these games!
 Pokewalker Exclusive (21):
If you pair up the Pokewalker which came with the games, you can earn enough Watts to
unlock courses with pokemon that aren’t available in the regular HGSS games. Of course
this requires connectivity so it is considered optional. These are covered in the HGSS
Pokewalker POC guide.

Miscellaneous Sinnoh pokemon (20):

With the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum games in the same generation, they obviously left
these ones out knowing you could easily trade them across. These are the remaining
pokemon that aren’t available in HGSS. They include the Sinnoh starters, fossils and a few
extra evolutionary lines.

3. The End/Thanks
A huge thank you to Reddit user Chamale for first inspiring me to play this challenge way
back in 2018. I usually play a pokemon game by catching every pokemon on a route but
never evolve them all (unless they’re on my team) until post-game. Since doing several
POCs over the years I've truly appreciated the journey and the community that has grown as
the challenge has had its voice heard. And a special thanks to Johnstone and Chaotic
Meatball for making our Reddit so much more popular!

If you would like to add any comments/thoughts/advice on improving this guide such as
levelling tips, please drop me a message on Reddit u/mewlax84.

Until next time!

Social Media Plug:

Instagram: Poké Mewlax (@pokemewlax) • Instagram photos and videos
Twitter: Mewlax (@Mewlax1) / Twitter
Reddit profile: mewlax84 (u/mewlax84) - Reddit