Appendix:Red and Blue walkthrough/Section 1

Introduction

Title screen

Turn the Game Boy on. After the intro, press A or Start on the title screen and you'll see the main menu.

You should be able to select from 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.)

Moving the cursor to Option and pressing A will show three topics. You don't need to touch them, but it's a good idea to put 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.

Name selection

Professor Oak appears! He briefly introduces the world of Pokémon and the Pokémon themselves. Then he asks for your name.

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 or press START. This stumped a lot of people when the game was first released.

Now you are introduced to your rival! Choose his name in the same way, and you'll be teleported off to your bedroom in Pallet Town!

Home

The game begins in your bedroom, with you standing in front of your SNES. First of all, here's a recap of the controls:

The PC in the corner is your Item Storage System. Your backpack can only hold 20 different items, while the PC can hold up to 50. Deposit Item and Withdraw Item are self-explanatory, and Toss Item lets you get rid of an item permanently. The PC already has a Potion, so select Withdraw Item and choose Potion ×1. Press the B Button to close the menus and return to your bedroom.

To save the game, press START. Select Save, and then Yes. When the menu disappears, your progress is saved. You could then turn off the Game Boy and start from this point at a later time.

To go downstairs, step on the stairs in the top-right corner of the room. Mom is sitting at the table, and tells you that Professor Oak has been looking for you. To leave the building, step on the mat along the south wall, and press down on the +Control Pad. Welcome to Pallet Town!

Items
Item Location Games Potion Retrievable from the PC in the player's room  R  B

Pallet Town

Pallet Town

Pallet Town is a rather boring, quaint town, with only three houses. The house to the west is yours, the one to the east is your rival's house, and the big building to the south is Professor Oak's Lab. You can walk all around town and talk to everyone, but Oak is nowhere to be found. Looks like there's nothing else to do but leave town, so walk into the tall grass north of the town...

From out of nowhere, Oak appears! He yells at you for trying to leave by yourself, without a Pokémon of your own for defense against the wild Pokémon roaming around. He drags you back to the lab, and lets you choose your very first Pokémon. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, and some are more challenging to raise than the others.

Bulbasaur		Charmander		Squirtle
Grass	Poison	Fire		Water
	Ivysaur		Charmeleon		Wartortle
Grass	Poison	Fire		Water
	Venusaur		Charizard		Blastoise
Grass	Poison	Fire	Flying	Water

• Bulbasaur can easily defeat the Pokémon in the Pewter, Cerulean, and Viridian Gyms, and resists the Pokémon in the Vermilion and Celadon Gyms. It is also unaffected by the Poison status ailment. It may have trouble with the Saffron and Cinnabar Gyms, though. Being strong at the first two Gyms, and access to Razor Leaf and Sleep Powder, probably makes it the best starter.
• Charmander will be at a disadvantage in the first two Gyms and its only advantage is against the Celadon Gym. Its final evolution, Charizard, is the most versatile fire type and has great stats, but fire and flying are some of the more poor types in the game, giving it rock, ice, electric, and water weaknesses, and only being strong against grass, bug, and two non-water ice pokemon. Thus, it will not usually have a type advantage in battle, and despite its Flying type, it cannot learn any Flying-type moves.
• Squirtle can defeat the Pewter, Cinnabar, and Viridian Gyms without much effort. However, its movepool is relatively limited, and it may have trouble against the other Water-type Pokémon in the Cerulean Gym. Moreover, it face competition from the other 16 Water-type Pokémon that are readily available in game.

Once you have chosen a Pokémon, it's your rival's turn; he will always choose the Pokémon with an advantage against yours. When you turn to leave, he will challenge you to your first battle!

If the player chose Bulbasaur:	If the player chose Charmander:	If the player chose Squirtle:
Rival Blue Professor Oak's Laboratory Red, Green, and Blue Reward: $175 Type: Fire Unknown Charmander Lv.5 Scratch Normal   --       Growl Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --	Rival Blue Professor Oak's Laboratory Red, Green, and Blue Reward: $175 Type: Water Unknown Squirtle Lv.5 Tackle Normal   --       Tail Whip Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --	Rival Blue Professor Oak's Laboratory Red, Green, and Blue Reward: $175 Types: Grass Poison Bulbasaur Lv.5 Tackle Normal   --       Growl Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --       Struggle Normal   --

When battling, you'll each send out your Pokémon; they are Level 5, which is shown by the :L5 aside each Pokémon. Under that is the health bar, showing each Pokémon's remaining HP. You win a battle when you take all of your opponents Pokémon down to 0 HP; you will lose the battle if all of your Pokémon reach 0 HP.

Choosing Fight will allow you to choose an attack to use against your opponent. Your Pokémon will have two attacks regardless of who you chose. The first will damage the opponent, and the other one will lower one of the opponent's stats. Lower your opponent's Defense or Attack with the status move first, then keep using the attacking one, either Tackle or Scratch. If your Pokémon starts to lose a lot of HP, you could use that Potion we got out of the PC earlier; go to Item and it will bring up a list of the items you are holding. You only have a Potion, so select it and then select your Pokémon. This is the same way you use the Item menu outside of battle. Once you have defeated your rival, you will get $175, and he will leave. If you win the battle, your Pokémon will gain enough experience to grow to level 6.

Leave Oak's lab and head north to reach Route 1.

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