Appendix:Gold and Silver walkthrough/Section 1

Starting Out

Turn on the Game Boy Color, and let's get started! Press A or Start at the title screen to access the main menu.
You should see two options, New Game and Option. (You may have Continue as a selection; this is if you have already started and saved a game on this cartridge.)
Selecting Option will show three topics. You don't need to touch them, but it's a good idea to set the Text Speed to Fast. Go down to Cancel and press A, and you'll be back on the main menu. Select New Game and press A.
After setting the time, Professor Oak appears! He briefly introduces the world of Pokémon and the Pokémon themselves. But you know all this, right?

Name Selection

When he asks for your name, you can choose from:

• (New Name)
• GOLD or SILVER (depending on your version)
• HIRO or KAMON
• TAYLOR or OSCAR
• KARL or MAX

If you don't want any of the preset names, go to New Name and press A. Here it's a simple case of moving around to the letter you want and pressing A to select it. To remove the last letter, press B. Once you're done entering your name, select END in the bottom right corner, and you're teleported off to New Bark Town!

Your House

You start the game in your bedroom, in front of your PC and radio. Now it's time to get accustomed to the controls. They are the same as Pokémon Red and Blue Versions:

• D-Pad (Arrows) - These will move your character around. Go on, try it! They will also move your cursor around in menus.
• A - This is the games all-purpose "do" button. It will let you talk to people, push buttons, search things and a whole load of other stuff.
• B - Cancels selections and lets you exit menus.
• Start - The Start button will open the in-game menu for you.

The PC in the top-left corner of your room has a few important purposes. Move in front of it, face it, and press A.

Your PC is your item-storage system. You can only hold 20 items in your backpack, so if you have too many you can put them in your PC. The system is simple: if you want to store an item, choose Deposit Item and select an item. If you want to retrieve an item, choose Withdraw Item and then select an item. Finally, if you want to get rid of an item permanently use Toss Item and select the item to remove. Your PC can hold a maximum of 50 items. Some new additions in Gold and Silver include the Mail Box, where you can store your mail items, and Decoration, where you can decorate your room with the decorations your Mom buys for you.

Unlike in Red and Blue, your PC currently has no items.

Now how do we get out of menus? Hit B a few times and you'll be sitting in your bedroom.

In-Game Menu

Maybe it would be a good idea to save our game now. So with nothing selected, press Start.

Most of the items are self-explanatory. For now, select Save, the game will ask you if you are sure you want to save, select Yes. Once it is done saving and the menu has disappeared, the game is saved. You could then turn off the Game Boy Color and continue from exactly from this point later on.

Enough of this, let's go downstairs. Walk on top of the stairs in the top right corner of the room.

Downstairs, your Mom returns your PokéGear, saying it just returned from the repair shop. The PokéGear is a multi-functional device that initially acts as a phone (with other abilities obtained later). She also tells you that Professor Elm has been looking for you. After setting the day of the week and Daylight Savings Time, she tells you how to use the PokéGear's Phone function. Once she sits back down at the table, you are free to leave.

To get out of your house, there is a mat at the door. Simply walk right through it and - welcome to New Bark Town!

New Bark Town

New Bark Town is a rather boring, quaint town, having only four buildings. The house you just left is yours, the house to the south is Professor Elm's, the house to the southwest is home to another resident, and the big building to the north is Professor Elm's lab. Ignore the red-haired kid that kicks you out of his way, and enter the lab.

Professor Elm's Lab

Professor Elm is busy with his studies, so he asks you to visit an old colleague of his. He asks you to stop by Mr. Pokémon's house on Route 30, north of Cherrygrove City, to pick up an intriguing discovery. He offers you one of his three newly-discovered Pokémon from his desk to accompany you.

Chikorita		Cyndaquil		Totodile
Grass		Fire		Water
	Bayleef		Quilava		Croconaw
Grass		Fire		Water
	Meganium		Typhlosion		Feraligatr
Grass		Fire		Water

• Like Bulbasaur, the Template:Type2 Chikorita is strong against Rock-, Ground-, and Water-types, and is weak against Fire-, Bug-, Poison-, and Flying-types. It learns Razor Leaf at level 8, but doesn't learn any other offensive Grass-type moves until much higher levels. Being a Grass-type, it will also have the toughest time against the first Gym.

• Charmander's successor, the Template:Type2 Cyndaquil is strong against Grass-, Bug-, and Ice-types but has trouble when battling Water-, Ground-, and Rock-types. It learns Ember at level 12, but its Fire-type moves are on the weaker side, so it will be difficult to use starting out.

• Johto's version of Squirtle, the Template:Type2 Totodile is great against Fire-, Rock-, and Ground-types but struggles against Grass- and Electric-types. It learns a bunch of strong attacks, though only a few are Water-type moves. Totodile is probably the best starter to pick, though Water-types are more common in Johto than Grass- or Fire-types.

Once you've got your new Pokémon, head west to Route 29. As you leave, Elm's assistant gives you a Potion. If you need to heal your team, you can return to Elm's lab and use his PC.

Route 29

The winding Route 29 leads you right to Cherrygrove City. The route forces people traveling west from New Bark Town to walk through patches of tall grass, but without Poké Balls, you can't catch anything yet! Loop around to the northeast of the route to find a Potion.

Pick a Berry

On a hill just east of Cherrygrove is a Berry tree. One of Gold & Silver's new additions is a variety of Berries that can do anything from recovering health to eliminating status problems. The Berry from this tree will recover 10 HP when used, whether it is used by the player or a Pokémon. When a Pokémon holds a natural item like a Berry, it may decide to use it during battle. Pokémon won't interact with man-made items, since they don't know what they are. Berries grow back, so return the next day to find another one. Walk west to Cherrygrove.

The Week Siblings

The Week Siblings are seven brothers and sisters that visit various areas around the region, and give out different power-up items for a Trainer's Pokémon to hold. They will start appearing after defeating the first Gym. Each sibling only gives the player their respective power-up once.
Tuscany appears in the center of the route every Tuesday, and hands out the Pink Bow. When held, it powers-up a Pokémon's Template:Type2 moves.

This article is part of Project Walkthroughs, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive step-by-step guides on each Pokémon game.