Mar 05, 2026
3 min read
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, are remakes of the original games that started the franchise 30 years ago.While relatively simple for a turn-based RPG, if you have never played these remakes or the original red and blue, there are many things to remember when learning Kanto, the Switch experience here.Tips to help you on your way to victory.
Starter is a hidden difficulty setting
The first big decision you'll make in FireRed and LeafGreen is which Pokemon to pick from Professor Oak at the start of the game.
Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle each have their advantages and disadvantages, but who you choose will determine how easy your first gym battle will be before you even catch a second monster.The first three gyms are based on Rock, Water, and Electric types, and being a Grass type, Bulbasaur is weak to the first two and resistant to the third.Squirtle's water-type is good against the first.Gym and least second resistant.Charmander, for its part, is weak to rock and water attacks like Fire Pokemon, so it's at a disadvantage for the first two gyms.FireRed and LeafGreen, however, give the little guy a hand.It can learn the Steel-type move Metal Claw, which will weaken Brock's Rock-type team in the first gym.You'll need to train up to level 13 to learn it, but it'll let you get to the first gym easier than in the original games.
There is one more thing to consider when choosing a starter
Much, much later, in FireRed and LeafGreen, you'll find one of the three legendary beasts that roam the game.Whether Entei, Raikou, or Suicune appear in your save depends on which initial you choose.The legendary that spawns will be the one that is strong against your starting type.Entei will spawn if you choose Bulbasaur, Raikou will spawn for Squirtle, and Suicune will float if you choose Charmander.
This is for the physical/specific partition
One of the biggest changes Pokémon introduced to the games after FireRed and LeafGreen was the separation of "physical" and "special" attacks on a case-by-case basis, instead of depending on the basic type of movement.Before this change, for example, normal-type moves were still considered physical attacks, regardless of their nature.Thus, an attack like Hyper Beam, which is a large burst of energy, was considered a physical attack in every game before Diamond and Pearl, as if it was a simple one with a punch or a kick.Pokemon have separate stats for physical and special attacks, so there are examples of monsters with stat distributions that may not be compatible with their base type.Later games add nuances to the system, but keep that in mind when building your team and their moves, as some monsters may have physical or special abilities that are incompatible with other aspects of their arsenal.The full physical/special breakdown is as follows:
Do not accidentally save your game
Wrote a separate post about this, but it bears repeating that the Switch versions of FireRed and LeafGreen have a shortcut to soft reset the game by pressing all four face buttons at once.This is great for Blink hunters trying to find a rare monster, but for anyone else, it's a risk, losing hours of progress without saving.You can bypass this by going to the Button Mapping menu in the Accessibility Settings on your console.Go ahead and disable X or Y. You can still use the plus and minus buttons to do the same input.
In that vein, FireRed and LeafGreen are older games, and that means they were practically standard before auto-save.You have to save manually after every big capture, when you kill a gym leader or when Team Rocket's plan fails.Don't be surprised by unexpected reboots or a dead battery on your Switch.Make it a habit when you can.
Each game has a unique set of monsters.
Like all Pokémon games that come out in pairs, FireRed and LeafGreen have some Pokémon that you can only catch in one of the two games.The idea is that you trade with people who have other versions to make it a social experience, but that means you have to be aware if your preferences are exclusive to one version.However, remember that any Pokemon outside of the original 150 won't be available until after the game, regardless of which game you're playing.
Fire Red Exclusive Pokémon
- Deoxys attack form
LeafGreen is a special Pokémon
- Deoxys defense form
You will need HM, but there are some hidden functions for them
If you haven't gone back to the older Pokémon games, you may not be familiar with HMs or Hidden Moves.These are navigation moves that help your Pokémon move around the world, such as surfing to navigate underwater or flash lighting up a dark cave.But sometimes there are hidden benefits associated with it.For example, Cut is used to chop down trees blocking a certain path, but when you're out of potions or in random battles.It can also be used to cut down the tall grass that wild Pokémon roam around in, if you want them to move through the area undisturbed.These moves are taught by the HM, cannot be forgotten manually, and must be removed via the NPC Move Deleter found in Fuchsia City.A team's move list can be overridden, allowing some players to capture HM users assigned to their team and not use them in combat, but assign these moves to avoid interfering with their actual team's limited move set.
EXP.Share is not given to you early and you have to find it
Most modern Pokemon games share battle experience between your team, but in the old days you had to manually train everyone or use an item called EXP.You share to share your experience.In FireRed and LeafGreen Share EXP arrives a bit late when you arrive in Fuchsia City.It is given to you by one of Professor Oak's assistants in the building on Route 15 after he catches 50 Pokemon.This will help you grind a bit in the second half of the game.
Becoming rich soon is easy but boring
Cheat not removed from FireRed and LeafGreen allows you to get infinite nuggets, which are items that can be sold at a high price.If you repeatedly lose at the end of the battle battle in Celeste City, you will get a nugget every time you talk to a trainer at the end of the challenge.TikTok's Alexia Raye shows it all in the video below:
Unfortunately, there are no online games, which makes business development difficult
Some Pokemon like Golem, Alakazam, and Gengar are only available if you trade their previous evolution with another player, which will activate their evolution.Currently, you can easily trade with a friend online, but FireRed and LeafGreen only support local multiplayer, so you'll need to find a friend in real life to trade those pesky Pokemon back and forth.This is especially the case as someone who likes Golem and was hoping to get one in my ride.So keep that in mind if you're hoping to buy one of these trading monsters.
You can find tips for good Pokemon gamebreaking, patient minmaxing on the web
Pokemon fans have spent decades perfecting the crash-reduction process of taking apart old games and putting them back together in ways we imagine from the wild rumors our friends told each other about what was possible in these games as kids.So if you're looking for advice from people who know the finer details, like when to look for things that might be under Pokemon, you can find it on subreddits and old forums.
