Pokémon Red and Blue/Mt. Moon

'Mt. Moon is crawling with all sorts of new Pokémon as well as several menacing members of Team Rocket. Team Rocket is after Pokémon fossils, no doubt as part of some diabolical scheme. It's up to you to stop them from raiding these lost paleontological treasures!'

Mt. Moon Battle Tactics
This cave is full of s, but once you put a or  at the head of the roster, you'll find them to be little more than an annoyance. Deeper levels of the dungeon have Zubats that use the Supersonic skill to confuse your Pokémon, but that can be shaken simply by swapping the confused fighter for another.

s are a bit trickier. They're weak to Grass and Water, so 's Bubble and 's Vine Whip can wipe them out quickly. But if you don't have either of those guys, you can just grab TM 12 and use it to teach Water Gun to one of your Rattatas, Jigglypuffs, Nidorinas or Nidorinos. Remember that Poison and Rock-type attacks don't do so well against Geodude, and Electric attacks have no effect at all.

Feel free to equip the TM 01, which is Mega Punch. It's a pretty powerful Normal-typed attack, if slightly inaccurate. It will be outclassed by other attacks such as Strength, Body Slam and Double-Edge later on.



More Battles Await
Two nasty surprises await at the end of Mt. Moon (to get to the end, take ladder C to F to G). Blue and Red players may simply want to avoid Rocket #3, since his level 16 can easily slay a half-HP starter monster with Hyper Fang. Yellow players can't avoid their extra battle, though. Use an Escape Rope and come back with a healed party, or heal up with Potions as needed. Yellow players should also watch out for Jessie and James, who will ambush you at the end after the battle over the fossils. This is the first time you battle team Rocket / Jessie & James.

Which fossil should you take? When you get the Dome Fossil cloned (much later in the game), it will become. The Helix Fossil will yield an. You can't go wrong with either one, since chances are you won't want to exchange a member of your high-level team by that time. To get the other one, you'll either have to trade for one, or receive one as a prize in Pokémon Stadium.



Secrets of the Moon Stones
The Moon Stone you picked up in Mt. Moon is a crucial item, and one of only five Moon Stones in Pokémon's world. Moon Stones are the one and only way to make certain Pokémon evolve, of which there are exactly four:,  ,   and. But don't go burning that Moon Stone quite yet: all four of these Pokémon basically stop learning skills once they're evolved, so before you evolve any of them, check the Pokédex and make sure they've learned all the skills you want out of them. Note, though, that all four can still learn a wide variety of skills from TMs and HMs.

There is one Moon Stone here in plain sight, and another hidden in one of the basements. Before you take on Trainer #5 near the two fossils, search the dead end marked D for a second Moon Stone.