After the introduction you find yourself in your room playing your SNES. You can explore your room if you like, however you'll probably want to start capturing Pokémon right away.
Head over to your PC and withdraw the Potion from your box; this is optional, but it can come in handy during your early battles. Go downstairs and talk to your mother, who says, "all boys leave home someday", hinting to you to get out of the house.
Talk to the locals of Pallet Town to get to know the world of Pokémon. When you're ready, head towards the long grass outside of town. The local professor, Prof. Oak, will stop you and warn you that it isn't safe to go into the grass without the protection of another Pokémon, and he will lead you to his lab.
Once inside you will meet your rival, the Professor's grandson! He whines that he wants his first Pokémon now and the Prof. says he'll just have to wait and let's you make the first decision of choosing a Pokémon.
Choosing your starter Pokémon is a difficult and important decision. Conveniently, the Pokémon's types are based on the games overall toughness. If you are new to the game of Pokémon you'll do well with Bulbasaur; he's strong against Rock, Water, and Electric types, which are the types of the first three Gym Leader's Pokémon. If you are a pretty good player, but still unsure of yourself, choose Squirtle who is strong against Rock, but weak against Electric Pokémon. If you are a confident Pokémon master, then choose Charmander who has a disadvantage during the first gyms (being weak against Rock and Water Pokémon), but that doesn't mean that he isn't a good choice either.
Once you have chosen your starter, your rival will choose the Pokémon that has the overall advantage against yours. That means if you pick Bulbasaur your rival will choose Charmander, if you choose Charmander your rival chooses Squirtle, and if you choose Squirtle your rival chooses Bulbasaur. After your rival has chosen his starter attempt to leave the lab, and your rival will confront you and demand that you battle. Now, this being your first battle, here are some guidelines:
- When you are losing health be sure to heal yourself with the Potion if you brought it with you.
- If you want to increase the chances of winning than use attacks like "Growl" or "Tail Whip".
- If you want to destroy your opponent than use attacks like "Tackle" or "Scratch".
- If you win you will get File:Pokébuck.png175 and your Pokémon's level may increase from 5 to 6, but this won't happen if you lose.
Once you've got your rival out of the way your adventure really begins. Go out into the grass and a battle may or may not occur. The spot where a Pokémon will pop up is random, but it can only happen in caves, water, and tall grass (all other terrain types are safe). The Pokémon you can battle in this area are Pidgey and Rattata, two very common Pokémon you can encounter almost anywhere at almost any time. Their levels vary from 2 to 20 and they are very weak the first time you encounter them.
You can't capture any Pokémon at the moment because you have no Poké Balls to capture them with, so just work on increasing your Pokémon's experience and leveling it up, gradually making your way along the path. On the way to the next town you can get some trainer tips from local people and signs. Some people will give you a useful item like a Potion so be sure to talk to everybody on the way.