Heart Gold and Soul Silver News/Info

Ok, so today sees the release of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver in Japan (US and Europe have to wait till spring next year). A lot has changed in Johto since the old Gameboy Colour games, and we’re here to bring you a brief run down of everything known so far. 

Gyms and Gym Leaders: Almost all Gym’s on both sides of Mt. Silver have had a redesign, and a lot of the Gym leaders have had their levels tweaked. Most of them have gone up (the Kanto lot especially), but a couple (including Whitney) have gone down in level. All the Kanto Gym Leaders now hand out TMs when beat

Red has been training up in mount silver since we last saw him, and he’s gotten impressive as well. His Pikachu is up to level 88 now while his Venusaur, Blastoise and Charizard are now at 84 and his Snorlax is now at level 82 (all up 7 levels). He’s also switched out his lowest level 73 Espeon for a level 80 Lapras. And you thought he was tough before.

For those of you hoping that the Leaf Green/Fire Red version of Kanto, prepare to be disappointed. It’s mostly the Gold/Silver/Crystal version. Cinnabar Island volcano still blew (so that’s gone), Mt. Moon is still small and there’s no Safari Zone in Fuchsia. However, Viridian Forest (which was removed in G/S/C) still exists in the game, and in the old Safari Zone’s place is HG/SS version of the Pal Park, so if you still have some Pokémon on GBA games, here’s where you can get them picked up.

Speaking of Safari Zone, it was said that it was moved, we now know where. Remember that strange new area west of Cianwood? Well that’s where the new Safari Zone is located. It mostly works like the other Safari Zones, there are 6 areas and each one has a specific list of Pokémon contained within. The new twist, however, is that you can rearrange the areas in any way you like using a computer in the entrance. This means that if you want to search a certain area for a certain Pokémon, you can shift it to be the entrance area and not waste too many precious steps to get there.

Bizarrely, Johto Pokédex has increased from 251 to 256. The extra 5 Pokémon are Yanmega, Likiliky, Mamoswine, Ambipom and Tangrowth. All these Pokémon evolve from standard Johto Pokédex Pokémon via the learning of moves, which may explain why they were added.

Team Rocket has had a bit of change in leadership. Several admins (all named after real life rockets) have been introduced. Lambda, Athena and Apollo will crop up at various points in the game to fight for Team Rocket’s honour (and to try and take over the world, of course). During the battle of the Goldenrod Radio Tower, you will actually disguise yourself as a member of Team Rocket to sneak in.

Speaking of Bosses of Team Rocket, Giovanni is back in this game. He’ll appear during a special event to do with Celebi, and you’ll get to battle him as well. No idea’s how to activate this event… probably by using a download item like Darkrai and Shaymin in Platinum

Remember those Kimono Girls who all have Eeveelution Pokémon? Remember they’d have an important part in the story? Well one of the things they’ll do is let you be able to find both Ho-Oh and Lugia… which you can’t do until you battle and beat them all. Depending on which version you get, depends on the level of those Pokémon. On Heart Gold, Ho-oh will be level 45, same level as Lugia on Soul Silver. The other legendary will be level 70

Speaking of legendaries, here’s a quick rundown of all the ones in the game: Entei and Raikou roam around the world, while you have to follow Suicune to several places in both Johto and Kanto before being able to fight and catch it on route 25. All dogs are at level 40. Articuno is in the seafoam caves, Zapdos is outside the power plant and Moltres is in Silver Cave. All 3 birds are at level 50. Mewtwo is at level 70 hiding in Cerulean Cave. As described in the previous post, Heart Gold will allow you to get Kyogre while Soul Silver will let you get a Groudon in route 47 after getting the National Pokédex, getting a Kanto starter and picking up a coloured orb. Once you’ve caught one of them, trade to get the other one (must be from a HG/SS game) and show them to Oak, he’ll give you another orb that will let you catch Rayquaza from the same place. Latias and Latios both roam the lands at level 35 each.

After you beat your rival several times across both Johto and Kanto, he’ll end up training around the Dragon’s Den. Head up there and you could end up in a double battle with him against both Clair and Lance.

Any Pokémon you have will follow you. They use the one at the start of your party. If it’s a very large one and you enter a small area, it will re-enter its ball. Also if the Pokémon is shiny, it will be shiny in its over world sprite. While walking around, it does have a chance of picking up items like berries and accessories, like they did in Amity Square

After you’ve beaten Red, all of the gym leaders leave their gyms at certain times/days. If you go meet up with them, they’ll get added to your contact list and they’ll then call you for rematches.

And that’s it for the moment… and while that’s a lot of info and this post is MASSIVE already, here’s a side note. Remember Melee! Pokémon Scramble? Well it’s heading over to the US under the new name of Pokémon Rumble. No release date yet, but it shouldn’t be within the next month or two. Hopefully it will also be released in Europe before the end of the year

And that really is it… for now anyway. More when we have it.

Read 40 comments

  1. So which ever game i choose, whether it is Heart Gold, or Soul Silver, i get both Ho-oh and Lugia? Which version would you choose, Soul Silver or Heart Gold, and why?

    • Well, with the game aspect, it doesn’t matter which one you choose

      But if you pick gold then these pokemon are exclusive to it:
      Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Spinarak, Ariados, Gligar, Gliscor, Mantyke, Mantine, Phanpy, Donphan, Sableye, Claydol and Kyogre.

      However if you pick silver these pokemon are exclusive to it:
      Vulpix, Ninetales, Meowth, Persian, Ledyba, Ledian, Delibird, Skarmony, Teddiursa, Ursaring, Mawile, Gulpin, Swalot, Groudon.

      If any of these are in your ideal team go for the one they are in.
      I’m picking silver not because of this but because I like Lugia more, he’s cooler, and will be easier to find and catch in silver, HAPPY DAYS!

  4. Ho-oh has stronger attack while Lugia has stronger defense so for my battle style I prefer Ho-oh.

    Totodile is NOT water and dragon, the whole evolution chain is water only. While it may be ‘strong’ it has limited STAB moves and low special attack. In my opinion Cyderquil is stronger but I prefer Chikorita myself as it’s cuter and is harder to use at the start of the game due to the first 2 gyms.

  5. lugia because i’m more into off side moves and high defences and i like all three johto pokemon but TOTODILE is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO stronger and cooler by miles i also like chikoritas off side move’s and cyndaquil because of it’s wicked evolution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!pacapacka RULE’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Lugia obviously

    and i see what the totodile people are saying but Typhlosion will dominate Feraligtr
    and not because it is stronger(feraligatr clearly has higher normal attack) but becuse typhlo has higher speed and special attack and (if u had forgotten) typhlosion can use thunderpunch it can dominate lances dragon team with the combination of Rollout and thunderpunch making it the most useful all-round starter. But if because of the new updates it will no longer be able to learn thunderpunch straight way because that move isn’t a tm anymore. So in the new version the stronger of those 2 starters will be totodile until u defeat the pokemon league and gain access to more tms and moves.
    Chikorita is terrible and a waste of a starter spot( it is a bit cute)
    so erm go cyndaquil and totodile ( sorry for the long post lol, i really needed to express myself)

  7. personally id say lugia rocks!!! i prefer lugia to ho-oh as i do agree that offense is a great strategy but it is also important to have a good balance of both defence and offence besides u get both of them in the game anyway im going with both versions and as for the starters im sticking with the one i picked in the original gameboy versions 🙂 cyndaquil its got amazing evolutions and i have found it to be the best to play with from the begining tbh ive always had a soft spot for the fire type haha but yh they are all awesome 🙂

  8. These games (gold and silver) were the first pokemon games i ever got and straight away they were my favourites and to this day remain so. When ever i played, I always played with Totodile, but sometimes with Cyndaquil. I can’t decide which one i am going to pick, butfor sure im going for lugia because i dont know why, but it just seems better to me. i dont care about its stats and what not because a better trained lugia can beat a ho-oh any day. no offence to chikorita, but it just isnt ever as good as it should be. it is sooooo much better in the anime than in the game and always can beat things with an advantage over it. it is always hard to level up and by the time it finally evolves, there are no decent attacks that it can learn. i am still not sure whether to pick totodile or cyndaquil but i will research further and make the best decision…hopefully…ive always had a soft spot for totodile….idk

  9. tbh I dnt really raise legendary pkmn. but lugia and ho-oh have got nothing on mewtwo!!! I think a trainer should go and take on the pkmn league with a team of non legendaries so u can test yourself. personally I chose totadile 4 the original games but since then ive learned that really cyndaquil is by far the BEST STARTER EVER!!!! What is everybodies team going to be? I’m havin Slowbro, Victreebell, Pigeot, Typhlosion, Ampharos and Espeon!!!! cnt wait!

    • thats a good team but im gonna go with FERALIGATOR,ampharos,lugia,flareon,umbreon,and either stellix,jynx,or victreebell.someone please tell me if my team is good and help me with my last poemon i might also think murkrow but i juss figured out u can catch wild stelix

  10. i have played pokemon since it came out in the late 90s. i loved charmander (CHARIZARD ROCKS) and bulbasaur (with whom i could beat the whole game in 8 or less hours) as my starters but when i got silver and gold i tried something random. well almost. i beat it with cyndaquil first as my starter choice, but on my next play through i picked totodile. I was quite surprised as to what i found. He was strong, had a decent defense and could take something down in as close to no effort as possible. and as an added bonus, his final evolution is a complete bad ass. so imo, TOTODILE!!!! 😀 haha but ya i also like lugia better just for the fact i could always could catch it easier in the original games (poke ball capture vs broken great balls and frustrating busted ultra balls).

    anyways, hope i helped.

    I CAN’T WAIT FOR MARCH 15th!!!! 😀

  11. I hope there are move tutors for Firepunch, Icepunch, and Thunderpunch since they aren’t TMs anymore. I’d like for my Aggron to know it, but the only way I can think of that is breading an Aaron to know it, but is that possible?

  13. HEY DUDE THANKS HEART GOLD AND SOUL SILVER HAVE NOT COME OUT YET FOR ME BUT NOW I KNOW ALL ABOUT THEM AND WHAT TO DO! BUT WILL THERE BE A MIX BETWEEN HEART GOLD AND SOULD SILVER LIKE THEY USED DIMAND AND PEARL TO MAKE PLATINUM? BECAUSE IF SO ILL WAIT. ALSO (IM ASKING THE AUTHOR OF THIS POST) WICH STARTER POKEMON AND GAME ARE BETTER TO GET? MOST PPL SAY HEART GOLD AND TODIDILE. AND ARE THE OLD POKEMON LIKE TODIDILE REALY COMING BACK? ALSO WILL THEY BE ADDING NEW POKEMON? I HAVE MANY MORE QUESTIONS SO REPLY BACK ON MY WEBSITE THROUGH THE COMMENT INFO!
    ~RHEDDY~

    • So do I and lots. Well this is basicly it, Pokemon Gold and Silver had Crystal where you chase Suicine round differently to the other Ledgendary dogs, where as now in Heart Gold and Soul Silver you chase Suicine exactly as you would in Crystal, so it looks like Nintendo and the Pokemon company are trying to mix all of the games made so far by taking individual parts (like pokemon following you like Pikachu in Yellow or Suicine in Crystal) and takng pokemon from the Sinnoh Reigon which are at the start before defeating Lance and the Eleat Four that are classics from the origanals but their evolved forms. For example: Tangla evolves into Tangrowth which is a Sinnoh Pokemon and theer are about four others as well that wern’t in the first Gold and Silver games.

  14. ho-ho is meant for an attacking strategy person lugia defensive
    i have a reason for liking ho ho better than lugia because i had both toys and lugia’s head fell off and it wasn’t supposed to and also im more attacking but i would like to know what the starters are like attacking defense and that stuff so if i go for gold i can pick the most defensive starter

  18. I DONT HAVE THE GAME YET CAUSE IT ISNT CUMING OUT TILL MAY15 I THNK BUT I AGREE WAY EVERY 1 WHO SAYZ TO PIC CYNTIQUIL CAUSE IT EVALUTEZ INTO TYPHLOSION THE BEST POKEMON EVER! THE LEGENDARY POKEMON LUGIA AND HO-OH BOTH R AWSOME AND LEARN AWSOME MOVES BUT I PERSONALY WOULD PIC HO-OH CAUSE SHE/HE LEARNS THE MOVE SACRED FIRE THE STRONGEST FIRE MOVE THE STRONGEST WATER MOVE IS HYDRO PUMP OR FOR URE BLASTOISE HYDRO CANNON(NOTE: ONLY BLASTOISE CAN LEARN HYDRO CANNON) IF U GO WITH LUGIA PIC A FIRE POKEMON AND IF U GO WITH HO-OH PIC A WATER IF U GO UP AGAINST LUGIA REMEMBER TO HAVE A POKEMON THAT KNOWS THE MOVE THUNDER BOLT OR THUNDER AND THAT HE OR SHE HAS THE MOVE PARALYSE POWDER MOVE HAVE FUN WITHB THE GAME BUT I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER 2 MONTHS

  19. totodile is the best starter because it has a defense and attack and can learn dragon moves and earthquake good against lance, but if you want to beat the gyms go for cyndaquil but it wont do so well against dragons, water pokemon but if you want to use chicorita get a good water pokemon in your team like slowbrow or sloking, dewgong, or lanturn, poliwrath or politoad, even quagsire if you want defense But the whole Hoho and lugia- they are basically even but lugia has a higher attack but ho ho has a higher special attack

  20. there are no move tutors for fire punch, thunder punch, thunder punch, you have to go to the colliseum and buy it with your points, the only move tutors are in blackthorn city for dragon type pokemon and the pokemon starters, a lot of the good tms are either in the coliseum or in the Kanto region

  26. ho-oh obviously.
    starter:typhlosion cuz it can learn fighting type and roc type moves also
    ho-oh is better tha lugia becuz it has a high hp and i kicked the butt on lance level 75 dragonite with my level 56 ho-oh

  27. well i like ho-oh better cause i like dealing with the enemy quick and fire types usually have higher attacks and/or special attacks. i mean yeah feralagator has a pretty strong attack /defense but u run into more grass types in the beginning than fire rock steel and other types that are weak to water types. plus the 2nd gym leader uses BUG that ARE WEAK to FIRE!so use fire types but grass are strong against water types that u run into later but i prefer fire. BURN THEM ALL DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  28. I like lugia more not just because i have soul silver and becuz i am his number 1 fan.he’s just awesome.
    plus i kicked some shizwizzle in the elite4 along with my super awsome FERALIGATOR(i named him waterstep c:)just a phew days ago i beat red(ash)using mewtwo,waterstep(teehee),lugia and ho-oh.theeen i got the three birds and dogs so i am practicly an expert.

  29. I like totadile most I got it and it rocks plus i beat the game and never caught one pokemon so i only used totodile crocanwa and feraligator oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i love feraligator plus it only knows sheer cold gullitoin fisher and hydro cannon oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Feraligator aka master pokemon number1!!!!!!! Feraligator rocks p.s sorry for my long post. Try spelling omgip

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