You start up in the top floor of your house. You have a Wii and everything. If you check your PC, you will find that you have some mail from Lyra (if you’re playing as a male Trainer; it will be from Ethan if you’re playing as a female Trainer). Walk down the stairs and your mom will talk to you. She’ll tell you that Professor Elm next door was looking for you, and will then put icons on the bottom screen of your DS. They’re your basic menu options. You can either touch the bottom screen or press X to access it and use your control pad to navigate.
When you leave your house, a Marill will walk over to you, then you’ll see Lyra in the house next door and the Marill will run over towards her. After that, head on over to Prof. Elm’s Lab, which is just to the west.
Inside, you’ll walk over to Prof. Elm and he’ll jabber on for awhile before he gets some mail on his PC. It’s from Mr. Pokémon about an Egg he found, so he wants you to take your Pokémon and go pick it up from him. Cool!
When Prof. Elm is done talking, save your game if you want to, then walk on over to the three Poke Balls in the direction he’s looking to pick your starting Pokémon!
Pick whichever Pokémon you want to start with and then hit A. Afterwards, you’ll see the Pokémon you chose beside you and you’ll be asked if you want to give it a nickname. Go ahead and give it one if you’d like to, but keep in mind that you can’t change it until around the time you’ll be getting your third Gym Badge (about 5 or so hours through the game).
[info title=”Important!” class=”important”]Save your game before approaching the table and picking which Pokémon you want if you are looking to have your starting Pokémon be of a certain nature or gender![/info]
[info title=”Which starting Pokémon should I choose?”]This is a good question that is asked by a lot of players. The Pokémon that you choose as your starter Pokémon does make a bit of an impact on your playthrough, because you are going to be likely to use that Pokémon in your team throughout the game. But which one is the best of these three to choose? Here are my opinions on the three starter Pokémon!
Chikorita
Chikorita is a bit difficult to raise successfully due to its lack of offensive moves and difficulty against the first few Gyms. It has good defensive stats and Meganium ends up being a bit well-rounded (though underwhelming), emphasizing still on those defensive stats.
Unfortunately Razor Leaf is going to have to get you by until Chikorita learns Magical Leaf at level 22 (as a Bayleef), and that’s about it for useful Grass-type moves. It can still learn some other attacking moves, but you’re going to be wanting to use your Chikorita and its evolutions to inflict status on your opponent’s Pokémon, to set up things like Light Screen and Reflect (it can learn them both!), and to stay alive in the fight. Petal Dance, which is learned by Meganium at level 32, is alright for attacking with, but prevents you from switching and confuses you afterwards.
I personally do not recommend picking Chikorita unless you’re looking for a challenge. Newer players should stay away from it. Sorry, Chikorita.
Cyndaquil
Cyndaquil is a pretty solid choice and does well against the first few Gyms. It is very swift with its high Speed, and it has really nice Sp. Atk to boot. It learns Smokescreen at level 6 in HGSS, allowing it to debilitate your opponent’s Pokémon by lowering their accuracy, and it keeps it up by learning a lot of good attacking moves. Ember is learned at level 10, Flame Wheel level 20 (as a Quilava), Lava Plume at level 35, and Flamethrower at level 42 (as a Typhlosion).
Cyndaquil and its evolutions learn pretty much everything they need to learn in order to fight just by leveling up. You can supplement your Cyndaquil by teaching it a variety of TMs, like Focus Blast, Fire Blast, Rock Tomb, or Sunny Day.
I definitely recommend Cyndaquil to the newer players or the players that want an easier ride through the game. You just need to make sure that you have a Pokémon that can deal with annoying Rock-types and Water-types, because they’re Cyndaquil’s bane.
Totodile
Totodile is an interesting Pokémon to use. It has a lot of Attack and Defense power, which is very welcome early on, and it learns some fairly decent moves. Early on, it learns Water Gun at level 6, then the rather useless Rage shortly afterward at level 8, followed by Bite at 13 and Ice Fang at 21 (as a Croconaw). After that, it learns a lot of offensive moves and moves that really help kick it into gear.
Aqua Tail, Super Power, and Crunch are just a few moves that it will learn later on as a Feraligatr. It has an awesome amount of diversity compared to Cyndaquil and Chikorita, learning a lot of different moves. It’s a shame that it doesn’t learn Aqua Tail or Superpower until much later, but it can make up for it by learning plenty of other TM moves.
It certainly has a lot more Attack than Sp. Atk, so Surf isn’t quite as good, but it’s still alright and you’ll likely appreciate it. Feraligatr makes a pretty awesome fighter later on and is a bit more versatile than Typhlosion.
The Pokémon that you choose as your starter Pokémon will be solid and strong regardless of which you choose, and any of the three of them are excellent choices. Really, it’s just a matter of your preferences as to which you pick.[/info]
After that, Elm will tell you that you can heal your Pokémon whenever you want by checking out the PC behind him. Just hit A next to it and select Yes and you’ll heal your Pokémon!
[areaitems title=”New Bark Town”]
[areaitem i=potion]You get 5 Potions from Professor Elm’s Aide as you leave.[/areaitem]
[/areaitems]
As you leave, Prof. Elm’s aide will give you 5 Potions to help you out if you find yourself in a pinch. Try to save these and just heal up at Elm’s PC or the Pokémon Center in Cherrygrove City instead, but it’s ok to use them if you are about to lose a fight or something.
When you exit the building, Lyra will be outside with her Marill. She’ll say some stuff, and will then head off with her Marill.
At this point, you can’t leave town just yet. You’ll need to go back to your house and talk to your mom so she’ll give you the PokéGear! She’ll ask if you know how to use it, but regardless of what you answer, she’ll explain it anyway.
And that’s that, you’ve got your Pokémon, you’ve got your PokéGear, you’re all set for an adventure! Just as you’re about to leave town, though, Elm pops out from his lab and gives you his Phone Number for your PokéGear. Now you’ll finally be able to leave!
[link to Route 29]