Viridian City: Kanto's Final Gym, from Giovanni to Blue

Viridian City holds a special place in Kanto: when your adventure starts in this region, you pass through the city right at the start, but its badge is the last one you earn. Over the course of your visits, the green city hands the player a parcel for Professor Oak, serves as a classroom for beginner Trainers and, depending on the version, is home to either Giovanni's Gym or Blue's.

Contents

• Viridian City, the Green City at the End of Route 1
• A Parcel, an Old Man and a School: The Player's First Steps
• The Viridian Gym and the Earth Badge
• Trainer House, Ponds and Other Spots Around Town
• What Changes in Viridian City from One Game to the Next
• Viridian City on Screen: The Anime, Origins and Generations
• Viridian City at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Viridian City, the Green City at the End of Route 1

Three routes meet in Viridian City, in Kanto: Route 1 comes up from the south, Route 2 heads off north and Route 22 slips away to the west. You explore it in Red and Blue, Yellow, Gold and Silver, Crystal, FireRed and LeafGreen, HeartGold and SoulSilver and Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee.

Everything about its identity points to greenery. Its French name, Jadielle, comes from jade green, and its names in other languages stay in the same palette: Viridian City in English, after a blue-tinged green, Tokiwa City in Japanese, after the color of trees that keep their leaves all year round, Smeraldopoli in Italian and Ciudad Verde in Spanish.

The town sign tells the same story: in the French games it reads "Verte comme l'espérance" ("green as hope") everywhere except in Generation IV, which prefers "La ville éternellement verte" ("the eternally green city"). The HeartGold and SoulSilver town map describes it as surrounded by greenery, while the Let's Go map praises an environmentally conscious city, covered in flowers in every season.

A Parcel, an Old Man and a School: The Player's First Steps

Your first visit is basically a tutorial. As soon as they arrive, the hero of Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes stops by the Poké Mart, where the clerk hands over Oak's Parcel to deliver to Professor Oak. Until then, there's no heading north in the first- and third-generation games: a grumpy old man lies across the path, demanding his coffee.

He gets his good mood back once the parcel has reached its destination, and then gives the player a lesson in catching Pokémon, Poké Balls at the ready; FireRed and LeafGreen also throw in Teachy TV as a gift. The original Japanese version was less tame: the old man wasn't waiting for any coffee, he was blind drunk, which he readily admits once the parcel is delivered. In Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes, this former catching expert leaves the road clear and would rather reminisce about his youth.

To brush up on the fundamentals of battling and training, Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes open a Trainers' School right in the middle of town. In the three original games, a local also gives a short lesson on two caterpillars, Caterpie and Weedle; in Japan, the first is classified as the Caterpillar Pokémon, the second as the Hairy Caterpillar Pokémon.

The Viridian Gym and the Earth Badge

Heads up: this section reveals how the Team Rocket storyline ends in the Kanto games. No Gym in the region is fought later than this one: it's the eighth, the one that completes your badge collection. Wherever it appears, winning earns you the Earth Badge; in HeartGold and SoulSilver, the badge also lets you use Rock Climb outside of battle.

Behind the Gym Leader title lurks Giovanni, loyal to Ground-type Pokémon in Red, Blue and Yellow as well as in FireRed and LeafGreen. This is where the hero fights a final duel against the boss of Team Rocket; once beaten, Giovanni leaves the city, and his post along with it.

Gold, Silver and Crystal, followed by their remakes, take this to its logical conclusion: Blue, the rival of the hero of Red, Blue and Yellow, has taken over the Gym, and it no longer specializes in any type. Let's Go, on the other hand, gives the place back to Giovanni and his Ground-type Pokémon, at least until his defeat: as in Red, Blue and Yellow, Blue then inherits the Gym.

🚀 Giovanni rules over both the Gym and Team Rocket: check out our Team Rocket collection.

Trainer House, Ponds and Other Spots Around Town

Meganium, Typhlosion and Feraligatr, the three starters of Johto in their final stage, make up the team of the resident sparring partner at the Trainer House, which you'll find in Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes. This two-story building allows only one battle per day, against a trio set to level 50.

HeartGold and SoulSilver add a regular appointment: on certain days of the week, Cameron sets up in front of the Trainer House and takes a picture of the player with their team. Dream Eater can also be learned on the spot in FireRed and LeafGreen, from a move tutor standing by the southeast pond; he only offers it once, and only to a Pokémon that can learn it.

To reach the man holding a TM by the southwest pond, you need Cut or Surf: he hands over TM42 in the first two generations, TM85 in HeartGold and SoulSilver and TM11 in Let's Go, where Chop Down and Sea Skim take over. Let's Go also rewards the scavenging of the Pokémon following you: a Grass-type Pokémon sometimes turns up a Pretty Wing among the flowers lining the east side of the Poké Mart, a Water-type Pokémon occasionally brings back a Pearl or a Big Pearl from the little pond, and any hidden item you pick up reappears after 24 hours.

What Changes in Viridian City from One Game to the Next

Wild encounters happen mostly on the water, and the lineup shifts from version to version. Red and Blue offer Magikarp with the Old Rod, then Goldeen, Poliwag and Tentacool with stronger rods; Yellow slips in Horsea. In Gold, Silver and Crystal, Poliwag and Poliwhirl are found on the surface.

FireRed and LeafGreen lean on version exclusives: while surfing, you'll run into Psyduck in FireRed and Slowpoke in LeafGreen, and the Super Rod can hook a Gyarados. HeartGold and SoulSilver let the trees do the talking: a Headbutt can knock down Pineco, Wurmple or Hoothoot, plus Spinarak in HeartGold and Ledyba in SoulSilver, with each tree having its own odds.

The two Let's Go games shake things up even more. Viridian City is where the hero first runs into Jessie and James, and the Poké Mart there expands its stock with each badge you earn. Once the League is beaten, Master Trainers settle in town, each with a single Pokémon between levels 65 and 70, from Meowth to Abra by way of Bellsprout, Drowzee and Oddish, while Pidgey and its evolutions start flying over the city.

Viridian City on Screen: The Anime, Origins and Generations

Heads up: this section reveals how the Pokémon Origins and Pokémon Generations episodes about Giovanni end. In the anime, Viridian City plays a unique role: it's the birthplace of two entire families, since the Nurse Joys as well as the Officer Jennys, identical from one town to the next, all come from there.

Pokémon Origins stops there twice. In "File 1: Red" (PO01), while his Charmander, roughed up by Blue, is nursed back to health at the Pokémon Center, Red gives Professor Oak a call, then heads off toward Pewter City. In "File 3: Giovanni" (PO03), the Gym Leader is back in town, and Blue has already beaten him by the time Red shows up: the hero then realizes that Giovanni runs the Gym and is hiding Team Rocket there. The battle drags on; the defeat shakes Giovanni so deeply that he disbands his organization, while Red, his eighth badge in hand, sets his sights on the Indigo Plateau.

Pokémon Generations, by contrast, shows Giovanni on the run in "The Chase" (PG02). One night, Looker has a task force seal off the Gym, but the raid comes up empty: the Team Rocket boss is gone. From a hilltop overlooking the city, he vows that his organization will never be stopped, since in his eyes Pokémon exist for no other reason than to serve it, before melting into the shadows.

Viridian City at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is the Viridian City Gym Leader?
  Giovanni in Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen and Let's Go, with Ground-type Pokémon. In Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes, Blue has taken his place and has no set type.
• When in the adventure do you take on the Viridian Gym?
  Last: it's the eighth Gym in Kanto, even though you pass through the city itself right at the start of Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes.
• What do you do with Oak's Parcel from Viridian City?
  Take it back to Professor Oak. In the first- and third-generation games, the old man who was blocking the road north then lets the player through and teaches them how to catch a Pokémon.
• What does the Viridian City Trainer House offer?
  One battle a day against a Trainer with Meganium, Typhlosion and Feraligatr, scaled to level 50. The Trainer House appears in Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes.
• Where do the Nurse Joys come from in the anime?
  From Viridian City: the anime makes it the birthplace of every Nurse Joy, and of every Officer Jenny along with them.

In short

Viridian City stays with the player from one end of Kanto to the other: it's both the city of Oak's Parcel and the home of the final Gym. Between the handover from Giovanni to Blue, the old man's lessons, the Trainer House and the anime's Joy family, the green city has changed its face from one generation to the next without ever turning its back on its color.