I started playing PokeOne recently, a really fun community run Pokemon MMO. This guide covers the beginning of Kanto in Pallet Town. We will get our first Pokemon from Professor Oak and then defeat Gary before heading to Route 1.

You will start in your upstairs bedroom. Head downstairs to talk to mom and she will give you a quest to go speak to professor Oak.

You will find professor Oak in the building which is down and to the right from the building you start in.

Pick your first Pokemon

Go inside and talk to professor Oak who is standing in the middle. Here you can decide which Pokemon will be your first. Personally I prefer Bulbasaur because he is very effective against the first two gyms (rock and water). This time I will go with the water type, Squirtle. Charamander is a fire type and Bulbasaur is a grass type.

How to defeat Gary in Pallet Town

Now you will want to leave Pallet Town by heading north. However, your rival Gary will be waiting for you and you will need to beat him to keep going.

Gary will always have the best Pokemon to fight against the Pokemon you picked. So if you picked Squirtle he will pick Bulbasaur, if you picked Charamander he will pick Squirtle and so on. In order to beat him in this first battle my recommendation is that you keep attacking with your most damaging move.

For me the most damaging move is Tackle and most likely it will be the same for all the starter Pokemon. Keep hitting Tackle over and over again and you should survive and win. If you do end up dying I would recommend trying this strategy again, sometimes Gary gets lucky. For future encounters it can be good to try to catch a Pokemon which will be a good counter to Gary’s Pokemon. You will meet Gary several times throughout the story.

Once you have defeated Gary you can go back to mom in the building you started in. Talk to mom and she will heal your Pokemon back up to full health.