Pokémon Red and Blue/Saffron City

Saffron City is home to the Silph Company, the makers of the fabulous Silph Scope. So how did Giovanni get his paws on the Silph Scope prototype? Is the company in cahoots with Team Rocket? The only way to find out will be to use a little industrial espionage, so get your team built up strong and prepare to go on a stealth mission!

File:Pokemon RBY SaffronCity.png

Saffron City

Poké Mart
Great Ball	600
Hyper Potion	1500
Max Repel	700
Escape Rope	550
Full Heal	600
Revive	1500

Team Rocket occupation

Fans of the TV show are probably beginning to notice that the ruthless Team Rocket of the game doesn't have a whole heck of a lot in common with the bumbling idiots depicted on TV. Their mission of world dominance has led them to Saffron City, headquarters of the Silph Company. Team Rocket has basically occupied the entire city, sending respectable citizens running while they force the staff of Silph Co. to make advanced weaponry for their nefarious purposes.

Mr. Psychic

Saffron's a pretty dull place for a city of its size. Outside of the Pokémon Center and the Poké Mart, there are only two buildings you can enter at this time. One is the Fighting Dojo (the left of the two Gyms at the top of town), and the other is Mr. Psychic's house (bottom right corner of town). Enter and he will give you your heart's desire — as long as your heart's desire is TM 29, Psychic. And it might as well be, since Psychic does a lot of damage, almost always hits, and has a 30% chance of temporarily lowering its target's Special statistic.

Mimic Girl

Once you've driven the Rockets away by reclaiming the Silph Company building, you can enter the house in the upper-left corner of town. The little girl who lives here loves to mimic other people. She repeats everything you say, and you won't be able to have a normal conversation with her at all unless you bring her a Poké Doll. If you don't have one, head back to the Celadon Department Store to buy one. Give it to Copycat to receive TM 31, Mimic, in return. This skill automatically repeats the last attack done to you by your opponent. Not always useful, but at least virtually any Pokémon can learn it. Maybe now she'll feel less shy and be able to relate to people properly! There's also a hidden Nugget near her computer.

The Fighting Dojo

Dojo trainers
	Blackbelt	775
	Machop	LV31
	Mankey	LV31
	Primeape	LV31
	Blackbelt	800
	Machop	LV32
	Machoke	LV32

	Blackbelt	900
	Primeape	LV36
	Blackbelt	775
	Mankey	LV31
	Mankey	LV31
	Primeape	LV31
	Blackbelt	925
	Hitmonlee	LV37
	Hitmonchan	LV37

Choices

Although Hitmonlee is completely unable to deal with threats like a low-level Haunter, he's still a good Pokémon. Chan is versatile, but that's about it.

You won't get a badge for taking down this optional Gym, but you will get something just as good: one of two Pokémon that can be found nowhere else in the game. Besides, beating this Gym is a cinch. The Pokémon used by the Blackbelts may be powerful, but all rely on the same Fighting and Normal-style attacks. That means a single Ghost-type enemy can take down everything without being hit (Hitmonchan does have one seldom-used Fire-type technique, but that's all you have to fear). When you've bested the Karate Master, he'll offer you your pick of his pets.

Gym Battle 5: SABRINA

	SABRINA	4257
	Kadabra	LV38
	Mr. Mime	LV37
	Venomoth	LV38
	Alakazam	LV43
	SABRINA	4950
	Abra	LV50
	Kadabra	LV50
	Alakazam	LV50

5	Psychic	310
	Kadabra	LV31
	Slowpoke	LV31
	Mr. Mime	LV31
	Kadabra	LV31
6	Psychic	340
	Mr. Mime	LV34
	Kadabra	LV34
7	Psychic	330
	Slowpoke	LV33
	Slowpoke	LV33
	Slowbro	LV33

Sabrina's Gym
1	Psychic	380
	Slowbro	LV38
2	Channeler	1140
	Haunter	LV38
3	Channeler	990
	Gastly	LV33
	Gastly	LV33
	Haunter	LV33
4	Channeler	1020
	Gastly	LV34
	Haunter	LV34

You can't get into Sabrina's Gym until you've saved the Silph Co. President within the Silph Company building. Only then will the Rocket blocking the door go away, and you can enter Sabrina's maze of teleport squares.

The least confrontational way to reach Sabrina is to take teleporter A, then walk straight across to D, then straight down to O, then straight across twice to N and M. However, if you're trying to maximize your experience, simply move vertically from one teleporter to the next, fighting the trainer in each room. By the time you get to Sabrina, you will have fought them all.

Sabrina's Abra shouldn't cause much of a problem in Yellow, since it only knows Teleport and Flash and can't deal you any damage. Kadabra is also not especially strong. It is Alakazam and his consistent use of the move Recover that will be a serious pain. Bug Pokémon are strong here, so a Parasect or Butterfree should be okay against Alakazam. The best way to deal with Sabrina is to take advantage of her Psychics' weak defense with strong Ground, Flying or even Normal-type attacks. Dugtrio and his Dig and Earthquake work well, as well as Charizard's Slash, which has a high critical-hit ratio. Other pokemon with high physical attack power will do, as long as they don't have low special.

Defeating Sabrina will net you the Marsh Badge as well as TM 46, which contains the randomly-damaging Psywave Psychic-type attack. The Marsh Badge gives you the ability to command Pokémon as high as level 70, although you're not likely to have need of such power for quite some time.

#106 Hitmonlee	#107 Hitmonchan
Lee has an impressive repertoire of Fighting-type kicks. The Jump Kicks do solid damage (although misses occasionally backfire to damage him), and the Rolling Kick, while not as strong, can stop enemy attacks before they begin. Speedy and powerful, he's among the best of the Fighting Pokémon.	In addition to the multiple-hit Comet Punch, Hitmonchan learns Fire, Ice and Thunder Punch skills, which do damage of the appropriate type and, 10% of the time, Burn, Freeze or Paralyze your foes. While this versatility is nice, these skills rely on Hitmonchan's dismally low Special, seriously hampering their effectiveness.