Goldenrod City: Johto's Biggest City, Whitney's Gym and Radio Tower

Johto's most sprawling city, Goldenrod City brings together a train station facing Kanto, an underground passage, a Game Corner, a department store, a Normal-type Gym and the Radio Tower. The player isn't done with it once they've pocketed its Badge: Team Rocket strikes hard there a few Badges later.

Contents

• Location, station and name origin of Goldenrod City
• Whitney's Gym and the Plain Badge
• The Radio Tower, the station that broadcasts to the whole region
• When Team Rocket takes the Radio Tower hostage
• Department Store, Game Corner, Bill: Goldenrod City's other spots
• Goldenrod City on screen and on cards
• Goldenrod City at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Location, station and name origin of Goldenrod City

Goldenrod City is located in Johto and so appears in every adventure set in the region: Gold and Silver, Crystal and the remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver. It sits between Route 34, which comes in from the south, and Route 35, which heads north.

Its station is served by the Magnet Train, a line with only two stops, Goldenrod City and Saffron City, which links Johto and Kanto.

Its French name, Doublonville, comes from the doubloon, an old gold coin: that makes it the only Johto city whose French name doesn't come from a plant. Its radio tower evokes Osaka's Tsūtenkaku, and that's no coincidence: in a region modeled on Kansai and Tōkai, Goldenrod City clearly plays the role of the great Japanese metropolis. English-speaking players know it as Goldenrod City, German players as Dukatia City.

Whitney's Gym and the Plain Badge

The third stop on the Gym Leader circuit of Johto, the city's Gym is run by Whitney, who relies on the Normal type. Whoever topples her walks away with TM45, which contains Attract, and the Plain Badge.

That Badge unlocks another reward. The florist, whose shop occupies the northeast corner of the city, then hands over the Squirt Bottle, the tool that lets you dislodge the Sudowoodo planted on Route 36: as long as it stays put, the road to Ecruteak City remains closed.

In the remakes, the shop has other uses. Once you've faced the Sudowoodo, the florist gives you the Berry Pots, and her stall, empty until then, starts selling Mulch at 200 Pokémon Dollars apiece. She also gives the Gracidea to anyone who shows her a Shaymin at the head of their party.

The Radio Tower, the station that broadcasts to the whole region

This tower broadcasts all of Johto's radio programs. Kanto has its own station, in Lavender Town: these really are two separate buildings, each serving its own region.

At the reception desk, visitors are offered a five-question quiz, covering anything from the Game Corner's slot machines to HMs and shops; one question even asks whether Falkner runs the Violet City Gym. A perfect score earns you the Radio Card, which lets you listen to broadcasts on the Pokégear.

The same desk runs the Lucky Number Show every day, a draw checked against the ID number of each of the player's Pokémon. Matching the last two digits earns a PP Up, three an Exp. Share, and a perfect match on all five digits a Master Ball.

When Team Rocket takes the Radio Tower hostage

Spoiler warning: this section reveals what goes on behind the invasion and how it ends. Once the player has earned the seventh Badge, they find the city under the thumb of Team Rocket: its members hold the radio station and have also taken over the basement of the Department Store. The climb goes floor by floor, clearing out the Grunts one by one, with the right wing still off-limits for now. The Trainers filling the tower at that point are only there for the duration of the invasion.

The real director, meanwhile, is no longer at his post: the invaders are holding him captive beneath the Department Store, and it's an impostor who waits for the player in his office on the top floor. Once defeated, the fake director gives up the Basement Key; with it, a hidden passage opens between the city's underground and the department store's basement levels. Once freed, the real head of the station hands over the Card Key: it opens the shutter closed on the second floor and finally gives access to the right half of the building.

In Gold and Silver, the director shows his gratitude once Team Rocket's last recruit has been beaten, by offering a feather tied to a Legendary Pokémon: the Rainbow Wing in Pokémon Gold, the key to meeting Ho-Oh, and the Silver Wing in Pokémon Silver, without which Lugia stays out of reach.

🚀 Did Team Rocket leave you a souvenir from Goldenrod City? Keep the adventure going with our Team Rocket collection.

Department Store, Game Corner, Bill: Goldenrod City's other spots

The Department Store's shelves offer an especially wide range of items. A customer there is also waiting for a trade: his Machop, holding a Gold Berry in the original games and a Macho Brace in the remakes, for a Drowzee, or an Abra in Crystal. The department store connects through its basement to the Goldenrod Tunnel, an underground passage where you run into Trainers and shops, while Johto's Game Corner stands at street level.

Relocated from Cerulean City, the owner of Miracle Cycle is struggling to sell his bikes in his new shop. So he bets on advertising: the player rides off with a free bike, on the condition that they sing its praises. An Eevee is also waiting for them with Bill, whose house sits beside one of the entrances to the underground passage, provided they've first met him at the Pokémon Center in Ecruteak City; the gift is level 20 in Gold, Silver and Crystal, and level 5 in the remakes.

Other residents lend a hand. Next to the department store, the fortune-teller rates how attached the Pokémon at the head of your party is to you, while the Name Rater, renamed Spécialiste des noms in the French remakes, changes Pokémon nicknames. For those who have beaten the League, Crystal also stations a Move Tutor in front of the Game Corner on Wednesdays and Saturdays who gives his lessons in exchange for coins. In Japan, the game even put a Pokémon Communication Center in place of the city's Pokémon Center.

Goldenrod City on screen and on cards

Spoiler warning: this section gives away the ending of EP160. It's EP158, "A Goldenrod Opportunity," that brings Ash Ketchum and his companions to the city, at the very start of season 4. The visit lasts three episodes: the battle against Whitney takes up two of them, before EP160 shifts its focus to the Radio Tower. Team Rocket goes on air disguised as the Dugtrio Trio, a Pokémon ventriloquist act, and the star host doesn't suspect a thing: DJ Mary even goes as far as praising the realism of their "puppet" Meowth.

She then interviews Ash, who has just earned the Plain Badge. But the trio has destroyed the tapes of the radio drama scheduled after the interview, so the station has to perform it live: Mary narrates the story of Prince Goldenrod on the air, and the roles go to the fake ventriloquists as well as to Ash's group. The crooks seize the chance to rewrite the script on the air and grab Pikachu, and the host has to improvise to keep the plot together. Once unmasked and defeated, they let her finish the story as it was written, and the radio drama is a huge hit.

In DP143, in season 12, Lyra mentions Goldenrod City and its tower during a festival held in Sinnoh. "The Legacy," an episode of Pokémon Generations, brings the city back for a flashback: Looker tells Silver that, the day before, Grunts held hostages in the tower in an attempt to reach Giovanni, a call that went unanswered. On the Trading Card Game side, the tower made its debut in the Neo Destiny expansion, released in France in June 2002.

Goldenrod City at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What type of Pokémon does the Goldenrod City Gym use?
  The Normal type. Gym Leader Whitney gives out TM45, which contains Attract, along with the Plain Badge.
• Where do you get the Squirt Bottle?
  From the Goldenrod City florist, once you've beaten Whitney. This item lets you take on the Sudowoodo blocking Route 36, the way to Ecruteak City.
• Where do you get a bike in Johto?
  In Goldenrod City, at Miracle Cycle, the shop that moved there from Cerulean City. Short on customers, its owner gives the player one for free, and in return the player agrees to advertise it.
• How do you get the Radio Card?
  By acing the quiz offered at the Radio Tower's reception desk. The card then lets you listen to the radio on the Pokégear.
• Where do you get Bill's Eevee?
  At his house in Goldenrod City, after meeting him at the Pokémon Center in Ecruteak City. It's level 20 in Gold, Silver and Crystal, and level 5 in the remakes.

In short

Goldenrod City is as much a crossroads as a metropolis: a Badge, a train, a department store and a radio station share its streets. In the games, Team Rocket ends up seizing its tower, a power grab that Pokémon Generations revisits in a flashback; the anime, for its part, turned it into the studio for a radio drama performed live.