Pokémon Gold and Silver/Goldenrod City

'Route #34 leads to a large city that has a Radio Tower, a Bike Shop, and s huge Department Store. There are many things to see and do there—make sure you've accomplished them all before you head off to the next city or route. Team Rocket is skulking around the city.'

Get a free bike
Sensing that you're a guy (or gal) who gets around, the manager of the Bike Shop (lower right corner of the city) will offer you a freebie if you promise to advertise his shop by riding around.

The Tame tester
Certain Pokémon now evolve based on the hidden stat "Tameness." If you want to check how tame a Pokémon is, put it in your top slot and talk to the women in the house above the Bike Shop. She'll tell you what you Pokémon thinks of you, so you know how much you need to spoil it.

Name rater
If a witty name for a favorite Pokémon has finally occurred to you, come to the guy who lives to the left of the Gym and he'll let you change its name. Unfortunately, he won't let you change the names of Pokémon you received from other players or in-game traders.

Bill's house
Bill's home is here in Goldenrod City (the rightmost house in the southern portion), but he's currently away in Ecruteak City. If you drop by to visit his family, they'll give you his phone number so you can call him whenever, and se he can call you when your box fills up.

Bill will head back home after you meet him in Ecruteak City, and if you come back to his house afterwards, he'll have a very nice surprise waiting for you.

Trade Eon Mail for Revives
A woman in the Goldenrod City Pokémon Center wants Eon Mail in a big way. She'll trade you a Revive for each one you give her. The best way to get Eon Mail is by using Mystery Gift with a Pokémon Pikachu 2 GS (shown right). Since Mail costs 0 watts, you can do it over and over again and get an unlimited amount of Eon Mail. If you don't have a Pokémon Pikachu 2 GS, the only way you can get Eon Mail is as a random Mystery Gift item.

Get the Squirtbottle
In Gold and Silver, the women in the small house in the Northeast corner of Goldenrod will give you a free Squirtbottle after you beat Whitney. But it's a little more difficult in Crystal. You'll have to head northeast, cutting through Route #35, and find the woman's daughter standing by the Sudowoodo tree on Route #36. Follow her home and mom will give you the Squirtbottle you need to proceed.

Run an errande for the border guard
As you leave Goldenrod to the north, talk to the guard in the guardhouse. He'll ask you to deliver a message to his friend way back on Route #31. The message comes around the neck of a Spearow, so you'll need an empty slot in your party to do it. If you complete the errand, you'll get TM 50 (Nightmare) from the friend and an HP Up the next time you talk to the guard. You can do it now if you want, but if you wait until you unblock the path to Violet City at Route 36, it will be a lot easier.

The Radio Tower
The Radio Tower is currently giving away Radio Cards to anyone who can pass their Pokémon quiz. For a pro like you, the quiz should be no problem. But if you do mess up, you can always try again (or just cheat: The answers are Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No). Once you insert your Radio Card into your PokéGear, you can enjoy their wide array of programs (see the sidebar on the right)

There's one new program in Crystal on station 10.5: Buena's Password show. Here's how it works: Visit her on the second floor to get the Blue Card. Listen to the show between 6pm and midnight, then visit her on the station's 2nd floor and repeat the password. Every time you do this, you'll get a point on your Blue Card, which can be redeemed for the fantastic prizes indicated in the table on the left.

The Goldenrod City Tunnel
This tunnel connects the lower and upper corners of the Western side of Goldenrod City. It's home to a handful of trainers, the Pokémon Salon, and a pair of shops with erratic business hours. It's also where you'll find the Coin Case. With this item, you can begin gambling at the Goldenrod City Game Corner (see below) whenever you're ready.

The door at the end of the side path leads to the warehouse beneath the Department Store, but it's currently locked.

(Relatively) cheap trinkets shop
The top shop is only open Monday mornings from 4am to 9am. It sells valuable items (like Nuggest) that have no use, but could be resold at other shops for a small profit (500~1000 each). If you have a lot of cash, it might not be a bad idea to buy a bunch so you won't risk losing your money if all of your Pokémon faint.

Pokémon Salon
A nice beauty treatment will improve the "tameness" of any Pokémon (you can get one done once a day). The middle shop is manned by two brothers: The younger works Sun., Wed., and Fri. and costs 300; the elder (who does a slightly better job) works Tues., Thurs., and Sat., and charges 500. It's closed on Mondays.

Bitter medicine
The bottom shop is only open on weekends. It sells items that heal or revive Pokémon, and are cheaper than the standard Pokémon Mart versions. The catch is that Pokémon hat ethe medicine, so using it will lower their "tameness".

Department Store
You can get all sorts of great things here. The supplements on the fourth floor permanently beef up your Pokémon, the TM's are great (note that Headbutt and Rock Smash aren't available until you earn them elsewhere first), and the Lemonade for sale on the sixth floor is the most economical healing item in the game. If you can make it to one of the occasional rooftop sales, a new feature in Crystal, you can get even better deals.

Free TMs on Sunday
The woman in red behind the counter on the fifth floor shows up on Sundays. She'll give you one free TM when you first talk to her: TM 27 (Return) if your lead Pokémon is in a good mood, or TM 21 (Frustration) if it's in a bad mood. Unless you routinely abuse your Pokémon, TM 27 is the one you want, so check with the Tame Tester first.

Trade for a Machop
Also on the fifth floor is a boy who will trade his Machop for your Abra. Don't miss this opportunity to get a great Pokémon early! As a nice bonus, it comes with a free Gold Berry in its pouch.

Great bargains on the roof
There's no real schedule to the rooftop sales held at the Department Store, but if you traded phone numbers with Todd on Route #34, he'll give you a heads up when one happens. Everything is about 25% off, and the stock (which may change on later sales) includes some hard-to-find items.

Game Corner
Once you have the Coin Case, you can play in the Game Corner. If you don't have the patience to play, you can buy coins at 50 coins for 100. The following prizes are available:



Gym Battle 3: WHITNEY


All the Pokémon in Whitney's Clefairy-shaped Gym (squint at the map if you can't see the Clefairy) are plain-vanilla Normal Pokémon. That means the Machop you can trade for in the Department Store would be obscenely powerful (even a low-level one can take down most of the Junior Trainers' Pokémon in one shot), and that your Gastly is just plain immortal. Of course, that works both ways since Normal Pokémon are immune to Ghost techniques. But you can use your Gastly to put your foes to sleep and then swap in something else.

Whitney has some tough Pokémon: Clefairy's Metronome can screw up your careful plans (or backfire completely), and Miltank gives out a serious beating. Put it to sleep with Gastly and use a Rock-type Pokémon (they have partial resistance to Normal) to take it down.