Viridian City Gym - Gym Leader Giovanni - Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! Guide - IGN (2024)

It's time to pay another visit to Viridian City, and yet the door to the Gym is still locked. You'll first be paying a visit to Professor Oak's lab one last time before taking on your last gym. This Viridian City Gym page is part of the Walkthrough. If at any time you need an overview of the whole game and its chapters, head back to the Main Walkthrough Page.

Walkthrough

As you walk up to the Gym entrance, you’ll see your Rival standing in front of the door. He approaches you asking who you should talk to about getting into the gym. The options are your Starter, Professor Oak, and the old man standing next to the building.

The correct answer is Professor Oak. So the two of you head back to Pallet Town together to Professor Oak’s lab.

When you arrive Oak and his grandson Blue await you. Blue congratulates you on how well you did getting rid of Team Rocket at Silph Co, and as a reward gives you the mighty Key Stone, the (no pun intended) key to unlocking Mega Evolution with your Pokémon. He also grants you Mega Stones for the original Kanto Starters!: Venusaurite, Charizardite X and Y, and Blastoisinite.

With that out of the way, head out of the lab. Once outside, your Starter goes over to a young girl standing in the flowers. The young girl says she’s making a bouquet for someone special, and also tells you that gossip is saying the Viridian City Gym Leader has finally returned.

Finally it’s time to head over to the Viridian City Gym to take on this mysterious leader.

Viridian City Gym

The previously locked Viridian City Gym is now open for business -- but you won’t know who the Gym Leader is just yet.

But before you can get to Giovanni, you need to fight some of his cronies. With the gym’s trainers based in Ground-Type Pokémon, using Water, Ice, and Grass type moves are going to be your best bet. If they come at you with a fighting type Pokémon, hit them with some Psychic moves and punch through.

The floor is also littered with the tiles from the Rocket Hideout in Celadon, so you’ll have to figure out how to navigate that as well. Luckily, it’s not too hard.

The Trainer closest to the entrance with a Revive near him is Ace Trainer Yuji:

Ace Trainer Yuji

The trainer directly north of the entrance is Ace Trainer Samuel:

Ace Trainer Samuel

The trainer on the southwestern wall is Tamer Cole:

Tamer Cole

Just north of him you’ll find Ace Trainer Kelly waiting:

Ace Trainer Kelly

In the center room that leads towards the gym leader you’ll find two final opponents. The first is Tamer Jason:

Tamer Jason

The second trainer in this room and last of the gym before the gym leader is Black Belt Takashi:

Black Belt Takashi

Time to find out who the mysterious Gym Leader could be. Enter into the darkness and face the dreaded Giovanni! He says that this final time, he won’t hold back!

Gym Leader Giovanni

Giovanni has Pokémon that can hit extremely hard, but if you know how to counter them you should be able to easily take him down. The trick is if you have 1 high leveled Water-type Pokémon, you’ll obliterate him. Especially if you’ve been training up your Blastoise, now that you have Mega Evolution.

For beating Giovanni, he gives you the Earth Badge, for even though he’s the leader of Team Rocket, he’s still a Gym Leader as well. With this final badge, you can now challenge the Pokémon League. He also bestows upon you TM41 - Earthquake, an absolute powerhouse of a move. He announces that as of today, Team Rocket ends, and he will dedicate his life back to Pokémon training and bids you farewell.

Head Towards the Indigo Plateau

As you exit the gym, Blue comes up to you and congratulates you, and says that he’ll look after the Gym now with Giovanni gone.

Now that you've won the Earth Badge, it's time to go to Indigo Plateau. Go on over to the Pokémon Center and heal your Pokémon, then head over to Route 22 on your way to Route 23.