Pokémon Red and Blue/Viridian Forest

New Pokémon Available

Red	Blue	Yellow
Caterpie Weedle Pikachu		Caterpie

The nature preserve is smack-dab in the middle of Route #2, the route that runs between Viridian City and Pewter City. Pokémon are plentiful within its borders, and many trainers come here to capture new specimens for their collections or to challenge other trainers. It's easy to lose yourself in Viridian Forest if you don't know where you're going.

File:Pokemon RBY ViridianForest.png

Viridian Forest

1	Lass	File:Pokébuck.png90
	Nidoran♀	LV6
	Nidoran♂	LV6
2	Bug Catcher	File:Pokébuck.png60
	Weddle	LV6
	Caterpie	LV6
	Caterpie	LV7
	Caterpie	LV7
3	Bug Catcher	File:Pokébuck.png70
	Weddle	LV7
	Kakuna	LV7
	Weedle	LV7
	Metapod	LV6
	Caterpie	LV6
	Metapod	LV6
4	Bug Catcher	File:Pokébuck.png90
	Caterpie	LV8
	Metapod	LV8
5	Bug Catcher	File:Pokébuck.png60
	Weedle	LV9
	Caterpie	LV10
A	Poké Ball
B	Potion
C	Antidote
C	Potion

Viridian Forest encounters

Caterpie	5%	45%	45%
Metapod	5%	40%	25%
Weedle	45%	5%	N/A
Kakuna	40%	5%	N/A
Pikachu	5%	5%	N/A
Pidgey	N/A	N/A	28%
Pidgeotto	N/A	N/A	2%

Through the woods

Duels with Trainers

You'll find rival trainers everywhere you go, and they'll usually challenge you as soon as they see you. Trainers can have anything from one to six Pokémon, and you can't Run from a duel with a trainer, so always be prepared for an extended battle. Keep in mind that the tame Pokémon trainers use are often more powerful than the wild Pokémon found in the surrounding area.

Viridian Forest serves as your first "maze" stage. Its hard to get lost in there, but first timers may wish to explore it slowly to get a feel for the layout. As you cross Viridian Forest, you'll be attacked by both wild Pokémon and various trainers. While encounters with wild Pokémon are random, trainers will only come at you when you cross their line of vision, so you have a degree of control over when they challenge you. Unfortunately, they are usually placed in positions that you have no choice but to pass in front of, but a few can be avoided by walking around them.

If you are having trouble defeating trainers in a given area, it probably means that your Pokémon aren't strong enough and need to be leveled up higher. The highest level Pokémon that a trainer in Viridian Forest has is level 9 (level 10 in Yellow), so as long as most of your Pokémon are level 8 or above, you should be in good shape.

The pets and the wildlife that you encounter in the forest may seem tough, but much of it won't be. Wild and challenger-trained Kakunas and Metapods can't attack, they can only harden (which can make for some long battle that wear down your Pokémon's PP, so be careful). Never try to capture a wild Metapod or Kakuna. Instead, capture Weedles and Caterpies and level them up so they evolve into Kakunas and Metapods that retain their offensive abilities. They evolve fast: Both will be at their third stage of evolution by Level 10!

Pikachu are extremely rare in Red and Blue (and non-existent in Yellow, except for your own) and will take extensive periods of walking around through grass to find them. Be sure not to leave the forest without snagging one. Defeating Misty will be difficult without their help!

#10 Caterpie

#13 Weedle

Caterpies aren't worth getting too excited about. Deciding which of the two bugs to collect comes down to whether you want an awesome Pokémon sooner, or later. If you'll willing to invest a lot of time with Caterpie, he will ultimately end up as a Bug and Flying-type Butterfree that will eventually learn powerful psychic attacks. If you're playing the Yellow version, you don't have much of a choice, Caterpie is all that you can collect without trading.

Weedle doesn't start out much differently than Caterpies. He's pretty weak when you get him, and evolving him into Kakuna doesn't make him much better. But his evolution continues at a lightning pace, and at level 10 you'll have an awesome (at least for the early part of the game) Beedrill.