Vermilion City is a bustling coastal city.
After the city itself, moored on the dock, is a large luxury liner, the S.S. Anne, which needs to be explored before it's possible to access this city's gym. Head to the dock and take on S.S. Anne right after checking out the city. However, you must have the S.S ticket in order to get on it (you can get it in Route 25 if you haven't gotten it yet).
PokéMart
| Poké Mart | |
| Poké Ball |  200
|
| Super Potion | 700
|
| Ice Heal | 250
|
| Awakening | 200
|
| Parlyz Heal | 200
|
| Repel | 350
|
Vermilion City Gym
Try visiting S.S. Anne before accessing this gym, which is initially barred.
Lt. Surge is the leader. He's standing behind an electric field. You must activate two electric switches (which look like trash bins) to open the field. Stand next to a switch and press A to activate it. The second switch is always next to the first switch. Find the right combination by trial and error.
| FireRed and LeafGreen | |
|---|---|
| Trainer | Pokemon |
 Sailor Dwayne Reward: 672 |
|
 Engineer Bailey Reward: 1,008 |
|
 Gentleman Tucker Reward: 1,656 |
|
 Leader Lt. Surge Reward: 2400 |
|
This is an electric-type gym. Electric Pokémon are weak against ground-type attacks and electric-type attacks don't affect ground-type Pokémon. Using a ground-type Pokémon isn't a bad idea. Lt. Surge's best Pokémon is Raichu, fast and somewhat high leveled. It also uses Double Team, which causes your attacks to miss more often.
- If you own a Geodude, use it to beat the gym. It will help against Lt. Surge's Pokémon, which do laughable damage, thanks to Geodude's immunity to Electric, resist to Normal and high Defense stat. Use Magnitude to defeat them.
- Diglett is also very useful for beating the gym. It's fast and learns Magnitude too. Digletts can be found nearby in Diglett's Cave. It's recommended to use either of these two Pokémon.
Lt. Surge will award you the Thunder Badge upon defeat. This badge will slightly increase the Speed of your Pokemon, and allow you to use Fly outside of battle. Lt. Surge will also award you TM34 Shock Wave, a decent electric-type move that is unaffected by Accuracy losses.
Pokémon found
| FireRed | Level | Encounter Rate | LeafGreen | Level | Encounter Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfing | |||||
 Tentacool
|
5-40 | 100% | Tentacool
|
5-40 | 100% |
| Old Rod | |||||
 Magikarp
|
5-10 | 100% | Magikarp
|
5-10 | 100% |
| Good Rod | |||||
| Magikarp
|
5-15 | 20% | Magikarp
|
5-15 | 20% |
 Horsea
|
5-15 | 60% | Horsea
|
5-15 | 20% |
 Krabby
|
5-15 | 20% | Krabby
|
5-15 | 60% |
| Super Rod | |||||
 Gyarados
|
15-25 | 15% | Gyarados
|
15-25 | 15% |
| Horsea
|
15-35 | 44% | Krabby
|
15-35 | 44% |
 Shellder
|
15-25 | 40% |  Staryu
|
15-25 | 40% |
 Psyduck
|
25-35 | 1% |  Slowpoke
|
25-35 | 1% |
Trades
This trade can be found in the house with the orange roof, north of the gym.
| Trade | For |
|---|---|
 Spearow
|
 Farfetch'd
|
New Pokémon
| #83 Farfetch'd |
|---|
|
Key items
- The Vs. Seeker can be found in Vermilion's Pokémon Center. Highly recommended, it allows rematches with previously defeated trainers, making it easy to train Pokémon and earn money. The trainers may display stronger Pokémon and different dialogue in the rematches. Some trainers change more than once, requiring more than one rematch. There isn't quite a way to know which trainers change.
- The Old Rod allows for fishing and is obtained from the house next to the Pokémon Center. However, it disappointingly mostly catches low level Magikarp.
- In the green roofed house above the gym, there is a Pokémon Fan Club. The Chairman there will give you a Bike Voucher. Take it to the bike shop in Cerulean City and get a Bicycle.
Items
- Max Ether (Hidden in the corner south of the Pokémon Center)
- Vs. Seeker (Given to you by the purple haired girl at the Pokémon Center)
- Old Rod (Given to you by the Fisherman in the house next to the Pokémon Center)
- Bike Voucher (Given to you by the Old Man in the green roofed house)
- TM34 Shock Wave (Given to you by Lt. Surge after you beat him)