Introduction
This'll be my very first actual walkthrough, and I'm going to hurl myself straight into the deep waters; It's going to be a walkthrough of a Pokemon game! This guide will cover the entire game of Pokemon: Silver Version, complete with screenshots I took, tips of Pokemon you just have to get, item locations and an in-depth explanation of the important battles such as gym battles, the Elite Four, Team Rocket, etc. So, without further ado... Let our adventure begin.

Welcome to the world of Pokemon!
Okay, so the first thing you do is to tell Prof. Oak the time. That's quite an epic way to start your journey, isn't it? Just by telling an old manwhat time it is... anyway, be sure to set the time to match the time in the real world, and confirm by pressing 'YES'.

            

Prof. Oak will introduce himself to you, and welcome you to the game. He'll also ask your name. Once you've figured out a name for your character, Prof. Oak will tell you about the adventures and dreams and fairies and unicorns and... Errr, ahem... Well, just about all the dreams and adventures that await you, and that he'll be seeing you later. And after that, the adventure begins!

BTW, I'll be naming my character “ORDAN”.

Your house
As a Pokemon standard, you start your adventure in your own room. Be sure to check the Options, and change the game's text speed to Fast. Believe me, it's necessary. Other than that, you should save the game for the first time. There's no Potion in your PC, so don't bother checking your PC for now. There's a Town Map you can check out, but the only meaningful thing you can do here is to go downstairs, where Mom will approach you. She will give you the PokeGear, and asks you what day it is, and whether to turn on Daylight Saving Time. When she goes back to her seat, exit your house.

New Bark Town and Elm's Pokemon Lab
You'll be outside in New Bark Town. Go to the building to the left of you, and you'll visit Elm's Pokemon Lab. Be sure not to talk to the guy next to the house, because he'll kick you in the nads. Anyway, let's enter Elm's Pokemon Lab. In here a scripted event will have Elm telling you that he got an E-mail from Mr. Pokemon, and that he has a thing that you should get for Elm. You'll need to choose a Pokemon for a partner for this errand.



Now, here's where you need to make a decision. Because if you choose one of the three starter Pokemon, the rest becomes unavailable to you for the entire game. Unless you exploit a glitch, but that's for another time... If you choose Cyndaquil, you made a solid choice. Cyndaquil has a high Speed stat, and a nice Special Attack stat to make his fire attacks nice and strong. I'm personally not a huge fan of Totodile. He has a high Attack stat, which will make moves like Bite and Slash that it'll learn very strong, but his lower Special Attack won't make it very great with water attacks. I believe Totodile is the most balanced choice though, as it won't have a difficult time with most of the gyms throughout the game. Then there is Chikorita, which I'm sure is everybody's favourite Gen II starter... right? Chikorita has high Defense and Special Defense, and learns moves like Reflect and Synthesis, making it more of a choice for support.

Once you've chosen your partner for the rest of the game, you could choose to give him or her a name. After the conversation with Elm, go down towards the exit. The scientist will approach you, and give you a Potion. When you exit Elm's Pokemon lab, head through the exit on the left, towards Route 29...

Prof. Elm's errand
So, we're in Route 29. There are a couple of tutorial NPCs here which tell you about jumping off of ledges, saving your progress, and the tall grass containing Pokemon. BTW, the Pokemon you can encounter on Route 29 are Ratatta, Pidgey, Sentret, and, at night, Hoothoot. Travel to the left, across the tall grass, until you see a small gap in the ledge above you. Above from there, there is a patch of tall grass which leads to a dead end and an item just waiting to be picked up. It's a Potion. Take it with you, it's always good to have a few Potions on hand.

            

If you keep travelling to the left from there, ignoring the house above you, you'll probably notice an odd tree. The one with the NPC standing next to it. These trees are really useful, they contain useful items each new day. This one holds a Berry. It'll become useless fairly quickly as they only heal 10 HP, but it's a smart idea to let a low-level Pokemon Hold one of these, as they automatically heal your Pokemon in battle when their HP drops to half.

Cherrygrove City is not far now. Just keep travelling to the left, and you'll reach it.

Cherrygrove City and the annoying old man
The first thing you'll come across when you enter Cherrygrove City is the old man standing there, doing nothing. When you talk to him, he'll take you on a tour of the city, telling you everything you need to know about the Poke Center, the Poke Mart, and other things. The tour ends at the old man's house, and he'll give you a Map Card for your PokeGear. Now you can check the world map any time you want.

After the old man walks into his house, feel free to explore Cherrygrove for a bit. Heal your starter Pokemon, and after that, why not go for a little shopping? Like I said earlier, you can never have too many Potions with you. Also, buying a few Antidotes may not be a bad idea. There's a good chance you'll run into a Poison-type Pokemon on Route 30, so it never hurts to be prepared.

            

When you feel like progressing, exit Cherrygrove City, upwards left from the Poke Mart.

Route 30
On to the next Route. Here you will meet new Pokemon. Sentret will be gone, but you'll encounter Weedle and Kakuna. Weedle is the one I was talking about before when I told you you might want to stock up on Antidotes. Weedle knows Poison Sting, which has a chance of poisoning your Pokemon, which steadily decreases your Pokemon's HP (even outside of battles!!). Weedle can be especially dangerous when you choose Chikorita as your partner, as the Grass-type is weak to Poison, and as such the chances of Chikorita getting poisoned from Poison Sting will be higher than normal. Kakuna is the evolved form of Weedle, but it hasn't got Poison Sting, or any other offensive move for that matter. They earn you a lot of EXP Points when you defeat 'em, so be sure to take them out when you find one.

By going up, you'll come across a house with an item tree next to it. This tree will contain another Berry, and the man inside will give you ANOTHER Berry. So there's no excuse for being short on Berries, now is there?

Keep going up, and you'll reach a crossway. To the left, the advancing road will be blocked by two trainers having an epic stand-off, so you can't go that way yet. The path to the right is the one you want to take to reach Mr. Pokemon's house. Taking that path will lead you to branching paths, but both lead to the same place, so don't worry about taking either one. Eventually, you'll reach Mr. Pokemon's house. There's an item tree to the left of the house, containing a PSNCureberry. It works the same as a Berry, only it cures your Pokemon of Poison status.

Inside is Mr. Pokemon, and none other than Prof. Oak. Mr. Pokemon will give you the thing Elm wanted you to get; a Mystery Egg. Prof. Oak will approach you to tell you that he sees potential in you as a Pokemon Trainer, and will give you a PokeDex. Afterwards, Mr. Pokemon will heal your Pokemon, and you can exit the building.

Prof. Elm's panic
Once outside, you'll immediately be called by Prof. Elm, telling you to come back to his lab at once. Follow the path back down to Cherrygrove City. However, it might be a good idea to train your Pokemon up a few levels, to, let's say, level 9. You have your first trainer battle coming up in a few seconds...

A battle with '???'!
When you arrive in Cherrygrove City, you should heal your Pokemon at a Poke Center. After that, just head to the exit on the right. Down the path, you'll run into the guy who was stading next to Elm's Pokemon Lab in New Bark Town! He'll challenge you to your first Trainer battle. The Pokemon he has changes according to which Pokemon you chose at Elm's Lab. And you'll always be at a type disadvantage. If you picked Cyndaquil, he'll send out Totodile. If you picked Totodile, he'll send out Chikorita, and if you picked Chikorita, he'll send out Cyndaquil.

             

Even if your Pokemon has a type disadvantage, don't let this fool you into thinking this will be a tough battle. You'll probably still have a couple of Potions with you, and if you have trained your Pokemon like I said earlier, you'll have little to no problems. His Pok?mon will be at level 5, where they will only have Normal-type attacks, and will do regular damage to you. You, on the other hand, have items to your advantage. So use them!

When you defeat him, he'll mention his name, for some reason. He will say his name is '???'. No, that's not an error. His name actually is '???' at this point. He'll shove you aside, and make his way out of Cherrygrove City. Keep going right until you reach New Bark Town (use the ledges to your advantage! If you play it smart, you can jump the ledges in such a way so that you won't have to cross the tall grass. Saves you some time!)

            

When you arrive in New Bark Town, enter Elm's Pokemon Lab. There'll be a policeman there, whom you'll have to give the name of the guy you just battled. After thinking of a suiting name for him, talk to Elm. He'll be miserable for a second, but after that he'll shine up and asks you if you got that thing from Mr. Pokemon. Elm will flinch backwards by his discovery, and will notice your PokeDex. He says you should take the Pokemon League challenge. But before you're off, you should talk to Mom first.

            

On your way to the exit you'll be stopped by the scientist again. He'll give you five Poke Balls to get started. How thoughtful of him! Now, let's head to Mom. When you tell Mom about your sudden decision to go on a journey, she will wave you goodbye without any hesitation, and asks you if she should save money for you. There's an option to not make her do this, but honestly, why would you? Free money, oh yeah!

So, after talking to Mom, exit your house, and New Bark Town. We're off to catch 'em all!

Time to catch some Pokemon

Now, most Pokemon in Route 29 don't really stand out as a good addition to your team. Except maybe for Pidgey, who evolves into Pidgeot at level 36. Hoothoot is a big disappointment, and Ratatta and Sentret are not that great either. I would advise you to go to Route 46, through the checkpoint to the north.

            

You can catch all-new Pokemon in this Route, including Geodude (which is a must-have for now), Spearow, and the quite rare Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff isn't a bad catch. It's the most difficult Pokemon to catch this early on, but it knows Sing, which might help you out when catching other Pokemon. In any case, you should catch a Geodude here. It'll come in really handy against the first Gym Leader.

Going on to Route 30. There's Weedle here, which should make for a nice addition to the team due to its Poison Sting. Poisoning your opponents is a very effective battle strategy. You're going to be fighting against some Grass-type Pokemon soon, too, so if you didn't get Cyndaquil as a starter, Weedle is a great companion for now.

At the crossway, go left this time. The battle between the two Trainers is now over, and you can pass. Be sure to challenge the Trainer in the tall grass to a battle. TIP: Always put the weakest Pokemon in the front of your party, so it gets sent out in battle! When the battle starts, switch out the weakest Pokemon for a stronger one. That way, at the end of the battle, the weakest Pokemon will get half the EXP Points! Easy training.

So this first trainer only has a Level 4 Rattata. Any Pokemon should be able to take it out with ease. After you win, talk to this Trainer, and you'll be asked for your phone number. This is so that these trainers can call you up for a rematch in the future. There are also some trainers who call you up to tip you about a rare Pokemon... So don't be shy about it, add them to your phone list! (do NOT do this in real life, though. That could end up bad)

Keep going up, and you'll meet another trainer just past the ledge. He has a Level 2 Pidgey, and a Level 4 Rattata. Again, shouldn't be any trouble for you. After the battle, just keep going up. There's a blue-haired girl there, but she's not a Trainer. If you go up a little more, you'll fight a Bug Catcher with two Level 3 Caterpie. Don't worry, Caterpie are not dangerous at all, their only moves are Tackle and String Shot, which will lower your Speed stat.

            

Up ahead is Dark Cave, and an item. This item contains an Antidote. Dark Cave will be... well, pitch dark, so you shouldn't try to explore it just yet. However, there are Pokemon in here. These Pokemon are Geodude, Zubat and the ultra-rare Dunsparce. Don't bother to try your luck on finding a Dunsparce, because I don't think you'll find it. Believe me, I have faith in you, but there's like a 0.1% chance of encountering one. Dunsparce is one of the Pokemon a Trainer will call you about later. You might want to get a Zubat though. They're a little weak in the beginning, but as a Golbat at Level 21 (and certainly as a Crobat), they will definitely prove their worth.

Back outside Dark Cave, you should go to the left. There's a snoozy fat guy with an item tree next to it. It contains a Bitter Berry, which heals Confusion. Go down, through the gap in the ledge. There's an item containing a Pokeball. Always good to have more Pokeballs on hand.

There's another Bug Catcher here, who has three Level 2 Caterpie, and one Level 3 Weedle. Stomp 'em good. After the battle, talk to the Trainer and accept the Trainer's phone number, and continue to the left.

You can catch a Bellsprout in this tall grass. If you didn't choose Chikorita at the start, be sure to pick this one up. It's an ugly mother, but it's the only Grass-type you'll meet in a while. Besides, there's a kid in Voilet City just up ahead, who wants one and will trade you an Onix for it.

Okay, after you decided on whether to catch Bellsprout or not, head upwards through the gap, and left through the checkpoint. We're now in Voilet City, and soon, we'll challenge our first gym!