Ah, finally you’ve made it to the lovely Cerulean City. Before you do much exploring, head over to the Pokémon Center in the center of town. As you approach it, your partner will take a look at the nearby fountain. Head over to the fountain and press A/►/ZL/ZR and you’ll be asked if you’d like to throw money into the fountain. You can do so and it will make your partner Pokémon happy with you.
Anyway, now for the Pokémon Center. First and foremost, heal up your weary Pokémon, since it’s probably been awhile since they’ve been healed.
Next up, you can talk to the girl sitting on the sofa in the bottom-left corner of the room and she’ll offer to trade you a Rattata for your Rattata. Hmmm, that sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, it turns out that her Rattata isn’t from around here — it’s a special Alolan Rattata and is a Dark/Normal-type instead of just a pure Normal-type, making it extra weak to Fighting-type moves but giving it an edge against those pesky Psychic-type Pokémon. Dark-type Pokémon are few and far between in the Kanto region, so Alolan Rattata may make a decent addition to your team. You’re free to trade with her as often as you’d like — you’re not restricted to one trade as you were in previous generations.
Also in the Pokémon Center is a special Move Tutor that will teach your partner Pikachu or Eevee (not any ordinary Pikachu or Eevee!) some very, very powerful moves. He’s the guy with the ringleader costume holding a whip. You can’t miss him.
He’ll teach your partner Pikachu the following move:
- Zippy Zap (Electric, Physical-based): a 50 power move that almost always goes first (+2 priority) and always hits for a critical hit. This move is insanely good for Pikachu. Even though its base power isn’t overly high, the fact that it always lands a critical hit is excellent and means it will be doing an extra 50% damage than what the numbers would suggest. With every hit being a critical hit, you also get around any Attack decreasing effects on Pikachu as well as any Defense increasing effects on the target Pokémon. The only downside is, when every hit is a critical hit, you can no longer expect a lucky critical hit’s worth of extra damage like you can with regular moves, but it’s still incredible, even if Pikachu is usually fast enough to outspeed everything anyway.
Unlike partner Pikachu, your partner Eevee gets access to three different moves here, all of a different type and all of them very worthwhile:
- Bouncy Bubble (Water, Special-based): a 90 power move that heals Eevee for 50% of the damage dealt. This is a very strong damaging move and also gives Eevee an option for pesky Rock-type Pokémon.
- Buzzy Buzz (Electric, Special-based): a 90 power move that always paralyzes the target Pokémon. This is also a very strong move and the guaranteed paralysis will slow down the foe while also rendering it unable to attack 25% of the time. It’s strongly recommended you teach this move before taking on the Cerulean Gym, but whether or not you want to keep it after that is up to your personal preference and depends on how well you can handle Water- and Flying-type Pokémon.
- Sizzly Slide (Fire, Physical-based): a 90 power move that always burns the target Pokémon. Burning Pokémon is a very effective way of lowering their physical damage, as burned Pokémon do 50% less from their Physical-based moves.
All three of these moves are excellent on Eevee, but then give you very little in the way of other options. It’s important to remember that Headbutt is still going to be more powerful damage-wise than any of these three moves, assuming none are super-effective, due to the Same Type Attack Bonus, so be sure to keep Headbutt around. Bite and Double Kick are both nice, but either or both can be replaced with your choice of tutor moves.
That’s not all there is to do in Cerulean City. In the house to the west of the Pokémon Center is a woman who tends to injured Pokémon. Talk to her and, if you’ve caught at least 30 Pokémon total (not just according to your Pokédex, but overall), she’ll let you take care of Bulbasaur, giving it to you for free. The Bulbasaur is at level 12 when you receive it and, if you missed out on getting one in Viridian Forest, may make a better replacement for Bellsprout.
| Shop Items | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
Poké Ball |  100 |
 |
Great Ball | 300 |
 |
Potion | 200 |
 |
Antidote | 200 |
 |
Burn Heal | 300 |
 |
Ice Heal | 100 |
 |
Awakening | 100 |
 |
Paralyze Heal | 300 |
 |
Escape Rope | 300 |
 |
Repel | 400 |
 |
X Attack | 550 |
 |
X Defense | 500 |
 |
X Sp. Atk | 350 |
 |
X Sp. Def | 350 |
 |
X Speed | 350 |
 |
X Accuracy | 950 |
 |
Dire Hit | 650 |
 |
Guard Spec. | 700 |
The Poké Mart is in the southeast part of town in case you’re looking for supplies, although there’s nothing new for you to buy just yet. You’ll need to earn the town’s Gym Badge for that to happen. Speaking of which, the Cerulean Gym is just to the east of the Pokémon Center and there’s nothing stopping you from entering — well, so long as you meet the entry requirements of possessing a Pokémon that’s at least level 15, which should be easy unless you haven’t been catching anything.
You don’t have to take it on just yet, but you can if you’d like to. It might be a bit tough at this point, though, so you’re better off heading to the north onto Routes 24 and 25 instead, since you’ll need to do that anyway.
There’s a Bicycle Shop in the southwest part of town, but you won’t be able to purchase anything there because it’s too expensive. You’ll be able to get a bike later, though, don’t worry; remember to come back here later.
Heading to the north part of town, if you stop by the first house you see to the left of the Pokémon Center, a man inside will tell you about the different Gym Badges. Feel free to ask him about any of them if you’d like to know some trivia, but regardless, be sure to check out his backyard to find a Rare Candy.
There’s nothing for you in the house next door to that other than a very large Onix inside of it to gawk at, and the house further to the east is closed off due to a robbery that recently occurred. You won’t be able to do anything about that until after taking down the Gym, though, so just leave it be for now.
Make sure your Pokémon are healed and get ready for a fight as you head further north towards Route 24, as you’ll have an encounter with your rival, Trace, who is so confused and befuddled by something he saw that he can think of nothing else to do but have a battle with you on the spot.
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When his Pokémon get weakened from battling, he may end up using a Potion from his bag on them to heal them up. Watch out for that, as you might not be expecting it! Otherwise his Pokémon aren’t too tough, especially if you’re using your partner Pokémon with their fancy new moves.
After beating him, he’ll tell you that he didn’t find Bill up in his house on Route 25, but rather a Pokémon that talked. Oh boy! You can shake your Joy-Con or Poké Ball Plus after the fight to see a scene with your partner looking confidently in regards to your rival.
Anyway, heal up your Pokémon if you need to, and then head north onto Route 24.