Pokémon Gold and Silver/Dark Cave

You can enter the cave from Violet City, Blackthorn City, Route 31, Route 45, and Route 46. You'll need Flash to light your way through the cave and Rock Smash and Surf to find all of the items inside. While there are a lot of fabulous items inside the cave, including TM 13, you don't have to enter.

Dark Cave Level 1, Violet Side

Dark Cave Level 2, Blackthorn Side

Catch some early Pokémon

The Dark Cave connects Route 31 with Routes 45 and 46, in Johto's East. But unless you know Flash, Strength, and Surf, you can't use it to go anywhere. You can, however, sneak in very early on in the game and catch some rare Pokémon as well as pick up a Potion.

In Gold and Silver, you can hang around for a bit until you spot a Geodude. You'll have many opportunities to catch this Pokémon, but you may prefer to do it early since Ground/Rock-type Pokémon are particularly useful against the Flying-type Pokémon in the Violet City Gym. You can also snag a Zubat.

If you're playing Crystal instead, this cave remains an opportunity to catch a Geodude and a Zubat, but that's hardly worth the trip. It's the level 2 Teddiursa, which only appears in the morning, that is most exciting. Cowardly Teddiursa tend to run away immediately, so you may need Gastly to use Hypnosis or Mean Look to keep it from bolting. If you carefully raise Teddiursa from a cub, it will become a very powerful Ursaring at later levels.

If you're extremely lucky, you may also run into a Dunsparce. This is the only place you can find this Pokémon, but the odds of catching one are extremely low when they're not "swarming". To find out when this happens, you'll need to give your phone number to the only trainer on Route 33.

Items

• Potion
• Dire Hit (Crystal only)
• Full Heal
• Hyper Potion
• TM13 (Snore)
• Blackglasses (from the guy in the top western corner of level 2)
• Elixir (Hidden, Level 1)
• Escape Rope

Pokémon found

Route 31 side

Gold and Silver
Pokémon		Level	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	2-4	39%	39%	39%
	Geodude	2-4	60%	60%	60%
	Dunsparce	4	1%	1%	1%
Dunsparce's encounter rate increases during swarms

Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	2, 4	34%	39%	39%
	Geodude	2-4	60%	60%	60%
	Dunsparce	4	1%	1%	1%
	Teddiursa	2	5%	-	-
Dunsparce's encounter rate increases during swarms

Come back here later when you have a Fishing Rod, Surf, and Rock Smash for more Pokémon

Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Rate
Rock Smash
	Krabby	15	90%
	Shuckle	15	10%
Surfing
	Magikarp	5-19	100%

Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Old Rod	Good Rod	Super Rod
	Goldeen	10	15%	-	-
	Magikarp	10	85%	-	-
	Goldeen	20	-	55%	-
	Magikarp	20	-	35%	-
	Goldeen	40	-	-	70%
	Seaking	40	-	-	10%
	Magikarp	40	-	-	20%

Blackthorne side

Gold and Silver
Pokémon		Level	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	23	30%	30%	30%
	Golbat	23	5%	5%	5%
	Geodude	23	30%	30%	30%
	Graveler	25	20%	20%	20%
	Wobbuffet	20, 25	15%	15%	15%

Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Morn.	Day	Night
	Zubat	23	30%	30%	30%
	Golbat	23	5%	5%	5%
	Geodude	23	30%	30%	30%
	Graveler	25	20%	20%	20%
	Wobbuffet	20, 25	-	-	15%
	Teddiursa	20	5%	-	-
	Ursaring	25, 30	10%	15%	-

Come back here later when you have a Fishing Rod and Surf for more Pokémon

Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Rate
Rock Smash
	Krabby	15	90%
	Shuckle	15	10%
Surfing
	Magikarp	5-19	100%

Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Pokémon		Level	Old Rod	Good Rod	Super Rod
	Goldeen	10	15%	-	-
	Magikarp	10	85%	-	-
	Goldeen	20	-	55%	-
	Magikarp	20	-	35%	-
	Goldeen	40	-	-	70%
	Seaking	40	-	-	10%
	Magikarp	40	-	-	20%

#216 Teddiursa

Pure Normal type Teddiursa always escapes at the first opportunity and only appears in the Morning time, so you'll need Mean Look or a Sleep move to snag one. It has good reason to run: It knows that if it bides its time (30 levels) it will grow up into a powerful Ursaring, one of the best Normal Pokémon.

It has solid stats, High Attack and some interesting moves: Rest and Snore make a good combo, Dark type move Faint Attack wrecks Psychics, and several Normal type moves like Fury Swipes, Slash and Thrash which is a serious hard hitter (although Teddiursa gets it at 50 and Ursaring won't learn it until level 59).

#206 Dunsparce

Getting Dunsparce is a lot of work, and you're bound to be disappointed with the results. Very rarely appears and is hard to find unless looking during a swarm.

It's just another Normal-type Pokémon with average stats and very few good attacks. In fact, the only offensive move it gets before level 26 is its starting move, Rage, which is pretty useless. You'll probably just want to tick off your Pokédex and leave Dunsparce in your box.

#074 Geodude

Second opportunity to catch Rock and Ground type Geodude. In Gen 2 it is very helpful as a tank to get through the early routes of the game and actually is very strong against the early Gyms making it a must catch. It has a good Defense stat and decent Attack stat. Is very slow however and has low HP.

It can learn Rock type move Rock Throw now at level 11 and learns great new attacks like Ground type Magnitude at level 16 and Rock type move Roll at level 31. Does learn some of the suicide moves such as Self Destruct and Explosion at high levels. On top of that it learns the best Ground type move Earthquake!

Can learn Strength HM 04 and also Fighting-type move TM 08 Rock Smash which is useful for when in caves.