Pokémon Gold and Silver/Route 32

Many of the Trainers you'll meet up with on Route #32 will be using Water-type Pokémon, and the caves have lots of wild Rock-types, so it's best to move your Grass-type Pokémon to the top of your party. That way, you'll always have the advantage when a battle begins.

Route 32

New Pokémon

Gold	Silver	Crystal
Tentacool Magikarp Mareep Hoppip Wooper	Ekans Tentacool Magikarp Mareep Hoppip Wooper	Ekans Tentacool Magikarp Wooper

The game plan

You need to cross the cave at the end of Route #32 to get Azalea Town. On the way, we'll pass the entrance to the Ruins of Alph. For now, catch some Pokémon, do some fishing, and keep heading south. As you pass the corpulent man near the pokemon center, he'll stop you and offer a slowpoke tail at the astronomical price of one millon pokebucks! You can't even collect that much, so obviously refuse. It's just a scam, anyway; slowpoke tails are useless for anything but an actual slowpoke. Besides, it's cruel to even cut off a slowpoke's tail, despite the fact that they'll grow back.

The Miracle Seed and TM 05

The first guy you encounter on the route will refuse to allow passage unless you have beaten Falkner and collected the Togepi egg. Once both tasks are done, he rewards your exploits with a Miracle Seed ! When equipped, this nifty item powers up your Pokémon's Grass type moves. Come back when you learn Cut to get to the guy south of him on the ledge. He will give you TM 05 (Roar) for your trouble.

Calendar Event #2: Ms. Friday

Every Friday, one of the Day siblings will be standing in the forest, waiting to talk to you. She could also be at the bottom of the route behind the PokéCenter. Sometimes if you save and keep playing she changes spots. Like her sister Tuscany on Route #29, Frieda only appears once a week, on Fridays. She will give you Poison Barb simply for talking to her. When a Pokémon holds Poison Barb, the item powers up your Pokémon's Poison type moves.

Pick up the old rod and start fishing

Talk to the fisherman closest to the healing machine inside the Pokémon Center. He will offer you one of his fishing rods, the Old Rod. With the Old Rod, you can walk up to water and start fishing for Water-type Pokémon. Unlike the Old Rod in Red/Blue/Yellow, this Rod can catch something other than Magikarp (although you will end up catching a lot of those). If you fish here now, you can net a Tentacool, and if you trade numbers with Ralph on Route #32, he'll give you a call when the Qwilfish swarm. Outside of swarms, these rare fish can only be caught with a Super Rod.

Trainers and Items

Trainers

Youngster Albert: 128 Rattata (lvl. 6, 72 EXP) Zubat (lvl. 8, 91 EXP) Fisher Ralph: 400 (Phone) Goldeen (lvl. 10, 237 EXP) Camper Roland: 180 Nidoran♂ (lvl. 9, 115 EXP) Fisher Henry: 320 Poliwag (lvl. 8, 132 EXP) Poliwag (lvl. 8, 132 EXP) Bird Keeper Peter: 192 Pidgey (lvl. 6, 70 EXP) Pidgey (lvl. 6, 70 EXP) Spearow (lvl. 8, 99 EXP)

Picnicker Liz: 180 (Phone) Nidoran♀ (lvl. 9, 112 EXP) Fisher Justin: 200 Magikarp (lvl. 5, 21 EXP) Magikarp (lvl. 5, 21 EXP) Magikarp (lvl. 15, 63 EXP) Magikarp (lvl. 5, 21 EXP) Youngster Gordon: 160 Wooper (lvl. 10, 111 EXP) Items Miracle Seed Potion (G/S only) Repel (Crystal only) Super Potion (hidden in the grass before the bridge) Great Ball x2 (2nd hidden behind the Pokécenter) Old Rod Poison Barb (on Friday) TM 05 (Roar) - come back with Cut

No more Mareep!

Up to this point, Crystal players have had the luxury of being able to catch every Pokémon from both the Gold and Silver versions. But Route #32 is the first area in which a Gold/Silver Pokémon has disappeared; Mareep, the beloved electric sheep, no longer wanders Route #32, or anywhere in Crystal.

You'll have to wait a long time before you get your first chance at an Electric Pokémon, so you might just want to trade for a Mareep with a friend who has Gold or Silver. They're very easy to find in both of those versions.

Pokémon Found

Route #32 encounters

	Gold			Silver			Crystal
	Morn	Day	Night	Morn	Day	Night	Morn	Day	Night
Hoppip	10%	10%	N/A	5%	20%	N/A	20%	20%	N/A
Pidgey	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%	4%	N/A
Ekans	N/A	N/A	N/A	20%	30%	10%	16%	16%	N/A
Rattata	20%	25%	25%	15%	15%	10%	40%	40%	40%
Bellsprout	20%	25%	25%	25%	10%	20%	20%	20%	16%
Mareep	45%	40%	20%	25%	25%	25%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Wooper	5%	N/A	30%	10%	N/A	35%	N/A	N/A	8%
Zubat	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	10%	N/A	N/A	16%
Gastly	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	8%
Hoothoot	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	12%

Route #32 Fishing

	Old Rod	Good Rod	Super Rod
Magikarp	70%	30%	25%
Qwilfish * Numbers increase during swarms	0% *	0% *	15% *
Tentacool	30%	70%	60%

#23 Ekans	#194 Wooper
Only Silver and Crystal players can catch an Ekans, but Gold players can buy one at the Goldenrod Game Corner. Ekans learns a variety of fun moves like Wrap, Bite, and Acid, but never gets anything powerful enough to make it worth using. Its token new move is Haze (which restores altered stats and conditions)… at level 43. Yep, Team Rocket can have this Pokémon, and they're welcome to it.	Wooper's odd mix of Ground and Water types grants it limited resistance to Water, Fire, Poison, and Steel attacks, and complete immunity to Electric. Its only weakness is to Grass, which absolutely wrecks it. Wooper has some good moves like Water Gun (at start) and Earthquake (level 31), but generally poor stats. When it evolves into Quagsire at level 20, its stats nearly double, except Speed which drops drastically.
#179 Mareep	#129 Magikarp
You'll definitely want a Mareep, since it's the only Electric Pokémon you'll be able to get for the next several hours. As Electric Pokémon go, it's slow and doesn't learn many Electric attacks, but it evolves quickly and has a great Special Attack. One tip: Never delay evolved form Flaaffy from evolving into Ampharos (its third stage), or you won't be able to learn Thunder Punch.	Magikarp can now learn a third skill, Flail, at level 30. Of course, you'd be insane to stick with Magikarp for that long, since it can evolve into a super-strong Gyarados at level 20. Gyarados can now learn Rain Dance, but is basically unchanged. It's probably a good idea to keep the Magikarp out of the way for now as you can catch the Red Gyarados later on in the game.
#72 Tentacool	#211 Qwilfish
Tentacool is pretty much the same as it was in Red/Blue/Yellow. It now starts with Poison Sting instead of Acid, but doesn't have any new moves or anything. Tentacool and evolved form Tentacruel are still under-appreciated Pokémon that are strong in Speed and Special Attack.	Like Tentacool, Qwilfish is a mix of Water and Poison types. Like Tentacool, its best move is a late game Hydro Pump. But it does differ in a few ways: It gets some nice defensive techniques like Minimize and Harden, and has a higher Attack score. It's a good idea to stick with Tentacool instead, however.