Misty: Two Pokémon for the Cascade Badge, Six in a Rematch

Two Pokémon, not one more. That's all Misty fields at her Cerulean City Gym in Gen I, and the only way to earn the Cascade Badge is to beat them. Yet the Water-type Gym Leader will eventually bring out six in a rematch, travel with a Legendary Pokémon in a manga, and head home to run her city after five seasons on the road.

Contents

• Cerulean City, the Cascade Badge and a Team of Two
• From Two Pokémon to Six: A Team That Grows with Each Generation
• A Rematch You Earn by Phone, and the Tournaments
• "The Mermaid in Shorts": The Character Through the Games
• In the Anime: Five Seasons Before the Gym
• Two Manga, Two Mistys
• Misty at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Cerulean City, the Cascade Badge and a Team of Two

Misty runs the Cerulean City Gym, in Kanto, and her specialty fits in a single word: Water. The Cascade Badge goes to Trainers who can beat her in battle, and there's no other way to get it.

Gen I gives her just two Pokémon: a level 18 Staryu and a level 21 Starmie. The second one is the Pokémon she takes everywhere, and its dual Water and Psychic typing makes it far less predictable than an ordinary Water-type Pokémon.

The winner doesn't leave empty-handed, but the reward changes from one game to the next: Bubble Beam in Gen I, Water Pulse in FireRed and LeafGreen, Scald in Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee. That last pair also reshuffles the duo — a level 18 Psyduck takes Staryu's place, alongside a level 19 Starmie.

🌊 The Pokémon that backs her up in Cerulean City in Let's Go has its own section: see the Psyduck plushies and figures.

From Two Pokémon to Six: A Team That Grows with Each Generation

The return to Kanto in Gold, Silver and Crystal changes the scale. Misty fields four Pokémon there: Golduck and Quagsire at level 42, Lapras at level 44 and Starmie at level 47. Along the way, Quagsire brings the Ground type into a team that's supposed to be purely aquatic, Earthquake included.

The remakes of that generation keep the same quartet and power it up (49, 49, 52 and 54) while slipping Starmie a Sitrus Berry. Water Pulse replaces Surf on all four Pokémon, and Lapras trades Perish Song and Blizzard for Sing and Body Slam.

Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee give her a five-Pokémon rematch: Golduck, Starmie, Dewgong and Vaporeon at level 56, Gyarados at level 57. Nearly forty levels separate this team from the Gym duo, which pushes the battle to the very end of the game.

A Rematch You Earn by Phone, and the Tournaments

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, the rematch takes two steps to earn. First you need to have beaten all sixteen Gym Leaders, then find Misty at the tip of Route 25, between 4 and 6 in the afternoon — and hope Suicune isn't around, because its presence makes her vanish from the scene.

Once you have her number, a call on Wednesday between 4:00 and 9:59 in the morning triggers the invitation, and the battle doesn't take place in Cerulean City but at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City. She's waiting for the player there with six Pokémon: Starmie and Milotic at level 60, Quagsire and Lapras at level 56, Floatzel and Lanturn at level 54.

That Lanturn deserves a closer look. It's only half Water type, the other half being Electric, and it knows Thunderbolt, just like the Starmie on the same team. A Water specialist packing the tools to punish opposing Water-type Pokémon: the rematch doesn't play out like the Gym battle.

The Black and White sequels take her out of Kanto for the Pokémon World Tournament, where she enters several brackets, including the Type Expert tournament and the Kanto Leaders tournament. The roster adjusts to the format: three Pokémon in Single Battles, four in Double and Rotation Battles, and her full list in Triple Battles. From one battle to the next, their Ability can change, and so can their gender; beating her earns 1 Battle Point.

"The Mermaid in Shorts": The Character Through the Games

The games have never presented her with a straight face. Her tagline bills her as the franchise's favorite mermaid, the French text of Gen I openly wavers between "brat" and "mermaid", and Gen III settles on the phrase that stuck with her in French: the mermaid in shorts (the English games call her "the Tomboyish Mermaid"). The sign at the entrance to Cerulean City repeats it word for word.

Inside the Gym, she sums up her method in a single line: attack with Water-type Pokémon, with no other subtlety announced. One of her students describes her as a Trainer who's still learning, while insisting she won't lose to the visitor.

Three rumors about her go around, all recorded in the game. A young man on the Seafoam Islands says that she comes there to train; a lady at Cerulean Cape, known as a spot for couples, claims she has high hopes there; and the local newspaper reports her admiration for Lorelei, of the Elite Four.

The message she leaves the player in the Fame Checker says the rest: keep training at her Gym, then set out to explore the world once she's stronger. A Super Smash Bros. Melee trophy points the same way, describing her as a tomboy who loves swimming, for whom collecting every Water-type Pokémon is a matter of honor, and adding that a Gym Leader's team reveals their personality.

The Pokémon Stadium games, however, treat her differently. The single-type rule goes out the window entirely: Exeggutor, Wigglytuff, Nidoqueen, Dragonair, Ampharos and Sunflora join her six-Pokémon lineups at level 50. One constant remains all the same: Starmie appears on each of the four teams she fields there.

In the Anime: Five Seasons Before the Gym

The anime series catches her before her career takes off. There, Misty is a young Trainer from Cerulean City: stubborn, crazy about cute Pokémon (Water types first and foremost) and terrified of Bug-type Pokémon. She travels with the group until the fifth season, then heads home to take up her post as Gym Leader: in the series, the games' character profile is where she ends up, not where she starts.

Another animated production dispatches her in just a few shots. Red battles her there and beats her off-screen, so the Cascade Badge changes hands without a single move of the battle being shown on screen.

Two Manga, Two Mistys

The main manga makes her an ally of the hero as early as its sixth chapter. Red runs into her in the middle of a chase: her own Gyarados has gone berserk after experiments carried out on it by Team Rocket, and she has been tracking it since Cerulean City. It's Red who manages to catch it, then give it back to her.

They then travel together, and at Mt. Moon they run into Koga and Team Rocket, before heading on to Cerulean City. There, Misty refuses to hand over the Cascade Badge on brute strength alone: she warns Red that tougher opponents lie ahead and trains him until he's worthy of it. Along the way, the story mentions that she lives a life of luxury, surrounded by dozens of maids.

The Gyarados eventually changes owners for good. Red's Krabby isn't enough to get past the Dragonite guarding the way to Surf, and Misty trades him her sea serpent for the crab. The next arc sees her searching for the missing Red, defending Cerulean City during the Elite Four's offensive and lending her Omanyte as backup.

The following generation gives her her biggest role. She travels with Suicune, beats Whitney of Goldenrod City in a tournament for Gym Leaders only, then ends up trapped on a train with her fellow Leaders. She gets out along with Lt. Surge and Blaine, who confess to her that they hold Raikou and Entei; wounded in a fight with the Masked Man, she hands over Suicune and calls Erika to report in, except it's Red who picks up, with Erika's Pokégear in hand.

The other manga, drawn by Toshihiro Ono, starts from scratch: there, Misty is twelve while Ash is ten, she meets them while out on her bike, then tags along to get paid back for the bicycle that ended up burned to a crisp. Their battle at the Cerulean City Gym is decided over a stolen cap rather than on points, and her older sister Daisy takes the chance to tease her about her taste for younger boys. It's her only battle in the whole book.

Misty at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Which badge does Misty give out?
  The Cascade Badge, at the Cerulean City Gym in Kanto. The only way to earn it is to beat her in battle, and she defends it with Water-type Pokémon only.
• Which Pokémon does Misty use?
  Two in Gen I: Staryu at level 18 and Starmie at level 21. From Gold and Silver onward, she fields four: Golduck, Quagsire, Lapras and Starmie. In her rematch, she goes up to six with Lanturn, Floatzel and Milotic.
• How do you get a rematch against Misty?
  In HeartGold and SoulSilver, you need to have beaten all sixteen Gym Leaders, talk to her at the tip of Route 25 between 4 and 6 in the afternoon to get her number, then call her on a Wednesday between 4:00 and 9:59 in the morning. The battle takes place at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City.
• Why is Misty nicknamed "the mermaid in shorts"?
  It's the phrase Gen III settled on in French, repeated on the sign at the entrance to Cerulean City; the English games call her "the Tomboyish Mermaid." Gen I introduced her differently in French, wavering between "brat" and "mermaid."
• What happens to Misty in the manga?
  In the main manga, she's Red's ally: she gives him her Gyarados in exchange for a Krabby, later travels with Suicune and beats Whitney of Goldenrod City in a tournament between Gym Leaders. In Toshihiro Ono's manga, she's twelve and follows Ash around over a burned-up bike.

In short

Misty runs one of the leanest Gyms in Kanto — two Pokémon, one badge, no frills — and that's exactly what makes her other appearances so striking. Six Pokémon at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City, an Electric-type Lanturn on a Water team, off-type lineups in the Stadium games, a Suicune and a Gym Leaders' tournament in the manga. The Gym's Staryu-and-Starmie duo was only the way in.