Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue are RPG games where you travel around the Kanto region catching wild Pokémon and training them to battle as part of your team. As you explore, you will visit many towns, battle other trainers and their Pokémon, complete your Pokédex, and become the best Pokémon trainer.
Overworld[edit]
You start off in Pallet Town where you live with your mom. Professor Oak lives nearby. You walk in a grid layout, moving up, down, left, or right. Through your adventures you'll visit many towns and meet many other characters.
There are areas where you may encounter wild Pokémon, who you can battle and catch. These areas also often have other Pokémon trainers who will want to battle you.
Catching Pokémon[edit]
You'll get the vast majority of Pokémon by catching them in the wild. There are four ways to get into random encounters with wild Pokémon:
- Walk in tall grass.
- Surf on water.
- Explore caves.
- Fish on the water.
When you encounter a wild Pokémon, the process is always the same: weaken the Pokémon as much as you can without knocking it out then try to catch it using a Poké Ball, or other type of Ball. Paralyzing, Freezing, or putting a Pokémon to Sleep also makes them easier to catch, and is a requirement for Pokémon like Abra that will run away if not somehow stunned. However, be careful not to burn or poison them as they can run out of HP before you catch 'em.
Wild Pokémon differ drastically from area to area, so use the Poké Finder charts in each area of the Walkthrough to see what Pokémon are available, and how frequently they appear.
Trainer battles[edit]
Battling consists of fighting an opposing trainer's Pokémon with your own.
Evolution[edit]
Many of the Pokémon in the game can evolve into stronger Pokémon. Pokémon evolve in one of three different ways, gaining experience until they reach a specific level, being exposed to an evolutionary stone, or being traded.
Experience[edit]
Pokémon gain levels as they gain experience, or EXP. Most Pokémon evolve when they reach a predetermined level. For example, Rattata evolves into Raticate at level 20 and Mankey evolves into Primeape at level 28. Since EXP can only be gained in battle, you'll need to spend many hours leveling up your Pokémon to evolve them. You can try catching the evolved forms themselves, but they tend to be rarer and harder to catch than the base forms, and many evolved Pokémon (like Beedrill and Butterfree) never appear in the wild. Evolved forms tend to be stronger, but don't learn techniques as quickly as their unevolved forms.
Evolutionary Stones[edit]
There are five kinds of Evolutionary Stones that will trigger an evolution for specific Pokémon. You can use the Stones at any time, but beware: While the evolved forms may have much better stats, they usually lose their ability to learn new moves, with Eevee being the only exception. Before you use a Stone, look up that Pokémon in the Pokédex and make sure they already know every skill you want them to learn. The 5 stones are:
- Thunderstone
- Fire Stone
- Water Stone
- Leaf Stone
- Moon Stone
Trading[edit]
Certain Pokémon will evolve when you receive them from another player in a trade. These are also some of the most powerful Pokémon in the game. Unlike Pokémon that evolve with Stones, traded Pokémon continue to learn the same moves, so there is no reason not to trade for them as soon as you can.
Trading[edit]
You can trade Pokémon with other players. You send them any pokemon from your storage, and they can send you one in exchange. You'll need the appropriate Badge to control traded Pokémon. If you think you can streak through the game with a friend's super-powered Pokémon, you'll be in for a nasty surprise when it just falls asleep at the start of every battle. Each Badge increases the level of Pokémon you can control successfully by around 10, so don't try to get ahead of things. Traded Pokémon gain EXP about 50% faster. So if you're trying to level up a lot of Pokémon, you may want to trade them to your friends and have them do the training for you. However, if you try to just trade them over to a friend and then trade them back, you'll find that the boost is gone. The Pokémon has to be away from its original trainer to receive the bonus.
Characters[edit]
Red[edit]
Red is the protagonist in Red, Blue, and Yellow. He lives with his mom in Pallet Town. Red has extremely pale brown hair that looks grey, a red and white cap and grey eyes. Matching his cap, he wears a red, sleeveless jacket with a white collar and stripes. He has a black undershirt with a yellow backpack over his shoulders. He wears light blue shaggy jeans with black and red shoes. He appears to have a watch on his wrist and tosses a Pokéball in one hand and puts his hand in his pocket with the other. In earlier artwork of him, he had dark black hair. He has a fierce stern expression on his face and a solemn demeanor. In any of the Pokemon games, he never says a word. When dialogue does happen, the only text that appears is "..."
Blue[edit]
Blue is the grandson of Professor Oak. He's not a playable character, but he makes appearances in Red, Blue, and Yellow. Although Blue is annoying and cocky, he's an amazing Pokemon Trainer. Blue has orange hair with a black shirt and shaggy, purple jeans. He has 2 purple wrist bands and is holding an Ultra Ball. He wears a pouch wrapped around his waist and a necklace with a some sort of precious stone hanging from it. He also wears black shows with a small amount of light blue. He has pretty long legs. Other artwork of him shows brown or pale brown hair, like Red's. Blue posseses a "bring it on" or "show me the best you got" expression on his face. He usually ends conversations with "Smell ya later!" He's a cocky, confident, and competitive young boy who seeks the same goals as Red.
Menus[edit]
[edit]
The main menu does not have many features at all. Upon pressing the 
button you'll be brought to a screen with two options: NEW GAME and OPTION. NEW GAME will start a new game and get on with things. However, you might want to visit the OPTION menu to tune things to your idea of perfection. Below is a list of the settings and information about those settings.
| Setting | Description | Options | Versions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Speed | Determines the speed at which letters and words appear in a text box. | Fast, Medium, Slow | All versions |
| Animation/Battle Animation | Determines whether the appearance of graphical animations appear in battle, such as Moves, Weather, and Status Condition. | On, Off | All versions |
| Battle Style | Determines whether or not the player is asked to change Pokemon when the opponent changes their Pokémon for any reason. | Set, Shift | All versions |
| Sound | Determines the output of audio. | Mono, Earphone1, Earphone2, Earphone3 | Yellow |
| Determines the contrast of printing. | Lightest, Lighter, Normal, Darker, Darkest | Yellow |