Whew! Today ends my first week of playing Pokemon Gold. I'm glad everyone's enjoyed playing along with me and I know you're all eager to see what happens next. I've gotten tons of Emails asking all kinds of wonderful questions, which I'll try to answer soon. First though, let me read back through previous days and correct some of the assumptions I made. Most of the things were guessed wrong because of my inability to read Japanese.

Day 1

What I believed was a walkie-talkie is really a cellular phone. I guess that isn't a big difference but you can give your phone number to trainers after you beat them (or get beat by them). Then, when they catch new Pokemon they'll call you and ask you to stop by for another challenge.

I mentioned that you could write and attach a note to certain Pokemon. You can even get different kinds of stationary. It's kinda neat but doesn't really help you beat the game.

The other items that 'look like boxes or shields' are actually potions, spirit fruits, the 'kings mark', the 'steel coat' and other items. Some are automatically used by your Pokemon during a battle, some help your Pokemon evolve when traded.

The giant plants that look like Bulbasaur bulbs contain nuts or Spirit Fruit that you can use like potions to heal your Pokemon. The seeds grow back after a while too so you can come back and pick them again. There's another use too. Depending on the color of the nut a certain character in the game will trade you for some very helpful items!

Pokemon won't breed in there boxes.

Pokemon Number 201, named 'Unknown' in the Pojodex, has 26 forms that are catchable after beating a series of four puzzles. There's even an add-on to the Pokedex that lets you see all of the forms you've run across so far. Each one is a letter in the alphabet and represents a word. For instance, the E and B that I found first mean; Engage and Bear. Many of you have seen the poster for the third Pokemon movie, in Japan. Did you notice the word ENTEI at the bottom, made out of Annons?

I assumed that the third 'booth' upstairs in the Pokemon Center was for the IR cable. Looks like I was wrong. It's a 'Time Capsule' and is used for passing Pokemon numbers 1 through 150 'back in time' and getting unique items.

Day 2

The girl in the second gym didn't use Grass Pokemon, she used Bug Pokemon. I was confusing their energy types with the trading card game. Oops.

Your rival is NOT a girl, but a boy with long hair. My mistake!

The bird I chased around was a Farfetch'd.

Day 3

The Pokemon daycare is also the place you breed Pokemon. To do this, I gave a male Pokemon to the old man and a female to the old woman and went walking.

Day 4

What I thought was an auction was really a 'Bug Catching Contest', similar to the Safari Zone in red/blue. A great place to pick up a Scyther if you're lucky.

I didn't use the CUT technique on the giant tree Pokemon. It was actually my 'Squirtle water' that I picked up from a girl earlier in the game.

Days 5 & 6

The two Pokemon definitely are evolved forms of Eevee but you don't need stones to evolve them. Instead, there are places that you can visit and assist your Eevees toward evolution. One of them is called the 'Happiness Center'.

The Pokemon in the barn was that giant cow Pokemon, but this one is ill. After giving him 8 or so nuts he is 'healed' and you can pick up something handy.

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Most of the corrections above were discovered by readers and sent in with even more tips. I appreciate all the wonderful investigators out there! Along with these corrections I've had a lot of common questions, which I'll try to answer.

Q. When are you going to post the next day of the journal?

A. As you can imagine, there's a LOT of exciting Pokemon news coming out every day and the Pojosama is busy posting it all for you. We'll publish the journal as fast as possible without neglecting the other areas of Pojo.com too!

Q. How long have you been playing Gold?

A. Since late November, 1999. You may be wondering why we've only posted a week's worth of play so far? We don't want to give away all of the secrets at once, rather we're hoping to give you a taste of Pokemon Gold, as if you yourself were playing the game day-by-day.

Q. Do you need any help with Pokemon Gold?

A. I'm always eager to read about your own progress in the game and you never know when I'll overlook something neat.

Q. Where can I catch a certain Pokemon? How do I get past a certain puzzle?

A. The internet walkthroughs, especially Edo's, which is also available from www.pojo.com, are a great resource for sharing secrets and tactics. We don't want to post a step-by-step explanation in the journal but feel free to email if you need help with your own exploration.

Q. Where can I get the GameBoy emulator? Where can I get the Pokemon ROMs?

A. I don't know. I found a decent emulator and Rom on the internet that I've used for some of the screen captures because taking a photograph of the GameBoy screen doesn't always look that great. I've heard that some of the emulators have trouble keeping tack of time during gameplay and no, I can't send you any of them. Please, be very aware of the legal issues before downloading any 'hack' or 'emulator' from the internet.

Q. Where is the skateboard in Pokemon Gold?

A. Nowhere. Early reports were either incorrect or the programmers decided to leave it out of the game. I can't imagine what advantage it would have over the bicycle anyway.

Q. How do you pick a girl as the main character?

A. You don't. Again, this must have been programmed out of the game. I'm not sure why. Hopefully they'll put this into the English version.

Q. Are the starting Pokemon male or female?

A. Wonderful question! My water-type Pokemon is a girl. The fire-type Pokemon I started with on Silver was a boy. So I guess it's just random.

Q. Where do you live? How old are you?

A. It's safe to say I live in the United States. Somewhere near Chicago. I'm old enough that I caught the Pokemon bug (no pun intended) from my son. My favorite Pokemon activity is playing the Trading Card Game. Second would be playing the Game Boy games.

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And finally…

Day 7

Southwest of the Pokemon ranch is an underwater tunnel and a set of docks with some Fisherman. It was around here that I discovered I could break some of the rocks lying on the beach and fight the Krabbys that are underneath. Only, I didn't use my Graveler's Strength technique to break the rocks, I used a technique learned from a TM08! After re-visiting some of the other caves with my rock-smashing TM08, I found a platform with three statues on it. As I climbed the steps, they began flashing and came to life! It was the three legendary dogs! Too bad they ran away before I could catch them.

Speaking of HMs, I gave my Farfetch'd the FLY HM, and I've found two new HMs. One lets me get rid of whirlpools that block my way while Surfing and the other lets me climb up waterfalls.

Here's that Farfetch'd battling a Porygon held by another trainer. Have you seen Porygon2 in the Pojo's Pojodex?

I've also discovered that you can set a 'Default Item' in the backpack and use it by hitting Select+Start. This makes it a lot easier to use the fishing rods, for example, without digging around in the backpack every time.

Remember Lance from Red/Blue? Well I found him near a lake in the Northern section of the world. Not only that, but there was a Shiny Gyarados swimming in the lake! He's tough. My next goal is to find a regular, blue Gyarados and see what happens when I breed it with the Shiny Gyarados.

I'm getting closer to the last city on the 'New World' map. Some of the caves contain intricate puzzles that you have to beat before you can go on. In one particular Ice Cave I was slipping and sliding all over. Check out the awesome trainer on a snowboard I had to fight.

I've heard some rumours that you're able to print Pokedex information, but I can neither confirm nor deny this as I don't own the GameBoy printer. Yet.

I finally tradded a Pokemon with one of the people in the houses. Here you can see me giving away my Drowzee for a Machop.

Where are all the fire pokemon? I guess I should have started with the Fire Pokemon because so far the only Fire Pokemon I had a chance to catch was a Growlithe. I've fought Charmander and Charmeleon in trainer battles, as well as a Magmar… but that's it!

Phew, what a long and unorganized day! I think I re-visited every town at least three times. Tomorrow I'm either going to get my eight badge or I'm going to do some serious experimenting with that Annon Pokemon I found near the beginning of my quest.

Wish me luck!

Good Haunting,

On to the next page
of Ron's Gold Journal.