After you’ve beaten Elder Li in the Sprout Tower, you’ll be able to take the lift in the Violet City Gym to elevate you way up to a few Trainers and the Gym Leader, Falkner. You can walk across the clear tiles on the side if you feel like dodging one or both of the Trainers, but why would you want to do that? Miss out on valuable experience points? Come on!
[info class=”important” title=”I can’t get into the Gym!”]Unlike the original Gold and Silver, you MUST visit Sprout Tower and beat the Elder on the top floor in order to get into the Gym. Go and do that if you are wondering why you can’t get in.[/info]
[trainertable]
[trainer c=”Bird Keeper” n=”Abe” p=288]
[tpoke p=spearow l=9 g=m]
[/trainer]
[trainer c=”Bird Keeper” n=”Rod” p=224]
[tpoke p=pidgey l=7 g=m]
[tpoke p=pidgey l=7 g=m]
[/trainer]
[/trainertable]
Before fighting the Gym Leader, you might want to go back and heal your Pokémon if they aren’t up to the battle. Might as well have them in prime form. Then talk to Falkner to begin your first Gym Battle!
[trainertable class=”boss gym-leader” title=”Gym Leader Battle”]
[trainer c=”Gym Leader” n=”Falkner” p=1560]
[tpoke p=pidgey l=9 g=m]
[tpoke p=pidgeotto l=13 g=m]
[/trainer]
[/trainertable]
Pidgey can annoy you with Sand-Attack, which is certainly annoying. Try to switch the affected Pokémon out when Falkner switches for his Pidgeotto, which is at level 13. Level 13 is actually pretty tough for this point in the game. They did a good job at making Falkner a bit more of a challenge, since he previously used only a level 7 Pidgey and a level 9 Pidgeotto in the original versions.
Pidgeotto likes to use Tackle, which isn’t too strong normally, but Pidgeotto’s rather high level may make it a bit painful nonetheless. It also has Roost in its arsenal, which heals its HP and restores it by 50% of its max. Don’t underestimate that, because it can use it whenever it likes to heal its HP back!
If you’re having trouble beating Falkner, go catch a Mareep to the southwest of town on Route 32, level it up a few levels, and then just send it out against Pidgeotto. Hopefully Static will activate when Pidgeotto uses Tackle, paralyzing it, cutting its Speed by 75% and hopefully preventing it from using Roost due to paralysis. Mareep doesn’t even need to know Thundershock (learned at level 10) to be useful.
Either that or have the Onix you got in a trade earlier use Screech against the Pidgeotto to soften up its defenses for your main Pokémon to finish it off with.
[areaitems]
[areaitem i=tm-normal title=”TM51 Roost”]Received from Falkner after beating him.[/areaitem]
[areaitem title=”Zephyr Badge”]Allows your Pokémon to use Rock Smash outside of battle to smash rocks. Also ensures that traded Pokémon up to level 20 will obey you.[/areaitem]
[/areaitems]
After beating Falkner, he’ll give you the Zephyr Badge, let you use Rock Smash outside of battle, will let traded Pokémon up to level 20 obey you without question, and even give you that annoying Roost move in the form of TM51 Roost. That’s a nice move to teach your Hoothoot or Pidgey if you plan on using it, though you may also wish to save it for other, more useful Pokémon. (Hoothoot is a good option though, due to its already high defenses and the fact that it can use Hypnosis.)
[link to Violet City (2nd Visit)]