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Game Boy (GBC enhanced)

Pokemon Generation 1

Developer
Game Freak
Publisher
Nintendo
Genre
RPG
Released
1998-09-12

Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition is an enhanced release of Pokemon Red and Blue, retuned to follow the anime. You start with a Pikachu that walks behind you on the overworld, Jessie & James turn up as recurring Team Rocket bosses, and - uniquely in Generation I - all three Kanto starters can be collected as free gifts in a single playthrough.

What this guide covers

  • A full walkthrough from Pallet Town to the Indigo Plateau
  • All 151 Pokemon with Generation I base stats, types, evolutions and exactly how to get each one in Yellow
  • The 13 Pokemon that are impossible to obtain on a Yellow cartridge
  • Every Gym Leader and Elite Four team at the exact levels Yellow uses
  • The Champion's three possible teams and the choice that decides which one you face
  • The Generation I type chart, including the famous Ghost-versus-Psychic bug
  • The mechanics under the hood: Stat Exp, DVs, badge boosts and the crit formula

Platform note

Yellow shipped on a black Game Boy cartridge with Super Game Boy and Game Boy Color enhancements. It is not a Game Boy Color exclusive - it runs on an original Game Boy. It was re-released worldwide on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on 27 February 2016.

Release dates

  • Japan: 12 September 1998
  • Australia: 3 September 1999
  • North America: 19 October 1999 (some sources say the 18th)
  • Europe: 16 June 2000

The player character is Red in his classic outfit - not literally Ash Ketchum - and the rival is Blue, Professor Oak's grandson. Daisy, who gives you the Town Map in Pallet Town, is Blue's sister.

Spatial guide

Kanto Atlas

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Pokédex A catchable, trainable creature. All 151 Generation I Pokemon are Creatures. Characters A person in the game world. Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Champion, Team Rocket and the NPCs who hand out gifts are all Characters; which one a Character is, is a Role term rather than a separate shape. Items Something the player can hold, buy, find or be given. Moves A battle action a creature can learn. In Generation I a move has exactly one elemental type, and that type decides whether it is physical or special. Locations Somewhere in the game world: a town, a route, a cave, a building. Places contain one another. Types An elemental type. Types are subjects rather than labels here: they have their own page, their own colour and their own pairwise effectiveness chart. Roles What a character is to the player: a Gym Leader, one of the Elite Four, the Champion, Team Rocket, or an NPC who gives you something. A taxonomy rather than a column because a character can be more than one — Giovanni runs the Viridian Gym AND Team Rocket. Damage Classes Physical, special or status. In Generation I this is decided by the move's TYPE, not by the move — it is stored per move here because that is what the verified data says, and a follow-up will assert the 165 stored values against the 15 types that define them. Item Categories What sort of item this is. Place Types What sort of place this is. Machine Kinds Whether a move is taught by a TM (single use) or an HM (reusable, and needed outside battle). Encounter Methods How a creature is met in that place, including grass encounters, surfing, old-rod casts, gifts, trades and one-time battles. Times of Day When something can happen. Generation I has no day/night cycle, so every row reads "Any Time".

Chapters

  1. Getting Started 4 sections

    Pikachu, the Pokedex, and the two catches on Route 22 that decide whether your first gym is easy or miserable.

  2. Walkthrough 2 sections

    Pallet Town to the Indigo Plateau, badge by badge. Standard badge order is Boulder, Cascade, Thunder, Rainbow, Soul, Marsh, Volcano, Earth.

  3. Gym Leaders 3 sections

    All eight Yellow gym teams at the exact levels the game uses, with the counters Yellow deliberately hands you.

  4. Elite Four & Champion 3 sections

    Five battles back to back with no healing in between, and a Champion whose team you decided in the first hour of the game.

  5. Post-Game 4 sections

    Cerulean Cave, Mewtwo, the legendary birds and the 13 Pokemon you can never catch on a Yellow cartridge.

  6. Game Mechanics 5 sections

    Stat Exp, DVs, badge boosts, the base-speed crit formula and the rest of Generation I's strange machinery.

  7. Type Chart 1 sections

    The complete Generation I effectiveness matrix, including the bugs that make Gen 1 play unlike every later generation.

Featured strategies

All strategies