This Is Pokemon's Most Evil City

Exploration. That’s what Pokemon is all about. Every single game brings a completely brand new world to explore, filled with a ton of new experiences, interactions, and Pokemon to capture. But exploration and battling aren’t everything. A part of the charm in Pokemon is the various towns and cities the player stops by throughout their journey. But looking deeper, we see that not all Pokemon cities are created equal. While some are a peaceful break from the elements, others turn out to be… the exact opposite of that. There are some places that, with just a few mistakes, can end up being your worst nightmare. Today, we’re going to look at the most evil one: Cerulean City. Because with a simple setup, this quiet little town can create a near inescapable softlock, making anyone foolish enough trapped there for eternity…
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Extra Video Footage: @vincentchongpro, @VGMoose, @Nagafenoflvalice
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[@yeetboi-os5kb]

Ok well that's his fault for going to a 2nd gym with just a lvl 5 caterpie and a lvl 5 magikarp.

[@Samsungor]

Victim blaming? Smh

[@CrimsonDamian]

I'm curious on what happened to his starter and how he made it through Mt. Moon with just two level 5 pokemon. That probably would have stopped him long before he left for Cerulean

[@PokemonWoop]

The "run in with team rocket" was just a narrative to explain him not having any Pokemon in cerulean city. The soft lock showcased would require you to release everything but 1 weak Pokemon (like magikarp)

[@yeetboi-os5kb]

@@PokemonWoop Oh, but still I wouldn't let some bitch take my shit like that I'm scrapping

[@Trey5S5S]

@@PokemonWoop You could have any number of weak Pokemon as long as they don't have any attacking moves. Basically, any number of lvl 14 and below Magikarp or lvl 6 and below Kakuna/Metapod with only Harden at this point in the game would pretty much guarantee the soft-lock.

[@ivanbluecool]

Yeah I don't get why they put such a strange road block from the first and second gym. My guess is this is basically symbolic of "point of no return" where you must go through the gym challenges and can't run back home until you mature

[@cedric15773]

I mean, realistically, you wouldn’t be able to get through Mt Moon in the first place with just a Caterpie and a Magikarp. This sort of “soft lock” is less likely to happen than even the Cinnabar Island soft lock.

[@ivanbluecool]

@@cedric15773 with millions of players. Somebody might have gotten lucky enough to get in a messy situation. I'm sure someone did with the Magikarp finnion trade or trick house in Jp. Never underestimate Humanity and their ability to get the 1 percent odds

[@slavishentity6705]

@@cedric15773 yeah you'd have to release all your pokémon, spend all your money and drop all your items

[@PokemonWoop]

I mean it kind of makes sense from a game design standpoint since they don't want you to skip Misty, but at the same time it just feels weird that there's no normal way out of Cerulean City

[@ivanbluecool]

@@PokemonWoop yeah at least let us go back to pewter in case we did forget to get magikarp or something. It's the start of the game and it already bares you from playing while after 3 you have access to so many cities

[@BADGRAPHIX]

No way you're getting through Mt. Moon with a team that's too weak to beat a single wild encounter west of Cerulean.

[@vicksin]

you're right, you don't. the softlock setup is just releasing everyone else you have right after getting through Mt Moon

[@fortello7219]

Ignoring the random police officer, how is anyone supposed to leave Cerulean at all??? If you don't have a top down perspective you can't see the back door exit through that guy's house. There's no exit that doesn't lead to a dead end!

[@mari_zz]

And in a realistic scenario, why would a random civilian's house be the only exit in a town? lol Tbf the girl is teaching her Slowpoke Cut, so NPCs know they can cut those trees and maybe every civilian in Cerulean has a Pokemon who knows Cut.

[@andreivaldez2929]

Just use no-clip and walk through the walls, bro.

[@garg4531]

That's not a back door. It's a hole Team Rocket made, so it's not even supposed to be there

[@yokaipinata1416]

All of you breaking down how this city not only is faulty in terms of gameplay but _also_ doesn't even make sense *in-universe* is wonderful. ❤

[@orangesilver8]

@@mari_zz She's teaching it sonic boom

[@muma-kitty1639]

brings back memories of my brother getting stuck here so often because he only ever used his starter and the rest of his team was under lv 15, and of course charmeleon isnt going to do too well against misty on its own

[@orktv4673]

This has to be the most cruel yet natural softlock Pokémon has to offer.

[@PokemonWoop]

Definitely the most simple one for sure

[@Trey5S5S]

I don't think you could call it "natural". Considering the battles you would need to get through Mt. Moon and Team Rocket prior to entering the city, it's next to impossible for this to ever happen during a normal playthrough. You'd pretty much have to do this to yourself on purpose and release your stronger pokemon before getting stuck in the city.

[@lolidk3379]

Soft lock picking if it was a creepypasta

[@FishdipDeen]

It looks like it'll be possible to train via the random encounters. For example, lv6-7 Ekans only know Wrap and leer, meaning with enough misses/leers you could knock them out. It could be possible for caterpie to get enough training to evolve, and then eventually switch train magikarp.

[@BDubbyy]

Ekans can only be found in Fire Red version so if you have Leaf Green you're out of luck

[@kayoh9364]

​@BDubbyy the LG equivalent is a level 6 Sandshrew with Scratch and Defense Curl, which is harder but theoretically not impossible. Also Mankey with Scratch, Leer, and Low Kick.

[@Trey5S5S]

@@BDubbyy That was only one example dude (hence why he specifically said "for example"). While it's true that all pokemon on that route have at least 1 attacking move, they also all have at least 1 non-attacking move. The point he was making was that, through sheer chance alone, it's possible to bet on enough non-attack choices from the random encounters to let Caterpie beat them and level up.

[@danzaragoza001]

Just tried this It took me like 45 minutes at 4x speed to reach level 10 w Caterpie battling only level 6 Sandshrew cause any other mon knocks it out, once it evolves into Butterfree it's a lot easier grind there being able to fight any wild mon I'm not sure if Ekans would be easier for leer lowering your already low defense

[@kafeimewtwo2410]

@@danzaragoza001I was able to knock out a level 6 ekans surprisingly easily but i only just started

[@WhiteRaven696]

I mean, it's literally impossible to run into this unintentionally. lol You'd have to release any and all strong Pokémon upon reaching Cerulean, spending all your money on items and throwing said items away, because Team Rocket just can't steal your team or items.

[@vicksin]

someone just found the concept of softlock picking for the first time check out Pikasprey Yellow sometime

[@Kazooples]

I’m obsessed with softlocking in Pokémon, the youtuber Pikasprey does similar videos to this but shows how long it takes to actually get out of these softlocks, I love it.

[@Freddie7191]

Meanwhile, gen 1 Red is Brocking through walls with a level 255 Missingno.

[@JosephShemelewski]

Hell yea at least til it levels up to level 1

[@unnamedperrson]

@@JosephShemelewski doesnt it stay level 255 if its caught at that level?

[@JosephShemelewski]

@@unnamedperrson I double checked if it gets any experience at all it goes back to level 1. I'm not sure about how rare candies work if it's at 255 because that's the limit of the gameboy. Also any level up it can evolve into a kangaskhan

[@kayoh9364]

I tried the "softlock" myself. A level 5 caterpie can defeat a level 6 Sandshrew, in theory. But only if you get like 10 Defense Curls in a row. This took 30 minutes of resetting at ~2x speed. And caterpie doesnt even level up from one Sandshrew, so you need two to level up and a third to evolve. From there you just grind your way to Butterfree, and then grind your way to Gyarados, and then proceed to get through the rest of the game pretty much normally. Of course, the lock can be made even worse by just removing Caterpie from the equation. Escaping with a level 5 Magikarp would be infinitely more difficult - first you'd need to burn Splash's PP (use splash vs a wild pokemon, immediately run away, then save if magikarp didnt take damage and reset if not). Then you still need the same luck to beat a Sandshrew, but now with even more need for critical hits. Regardless of whether it's actually escapable or not, it's not great game design that you have no way to grind money and only one way to grind Exp at this point.

[@Randroth]

Maybe Cerulean City is so evil because the nearby Mewtwo is influencing them with its Psychic powers. In Gen II, the Mewtwo is gone and what happens? The city is completely redesigned, and it no longer traps you. You can enter and exit freely, just like any other city. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!

[@Xylarxcode]

I'll never forget when I was following a guide for this game way back in the earlier days of this franchise and it mentioned how, when you leave Mt Moon to make sure you've done everything you wanted to do there, because once you enter Cerulean City, it'll be your 'prison' for a while. They continued to call it a 'beautiful prison, but a prison nonetheless'. I thought it was such a weird and ominous way to describe Cerulean.

[@animesjogoseseriesclassica8282]

Easy. It is Snowpoint City. Only the worst place in the world could have created a monster like Mindy. I really wanted a Gengar, dammit !😂😂😂

[@TaIathar]

My favorite part of this video is the realization of what you would have to do as a follow-up to Pikasprey's Graveler softlock. Yikes...

[@giddy7079]

Can't wait to see a "I beat Woop's impossible Cerulean City Softlocke" video from someone lmao I don't actually know, but I wonder if you can get really lucky against the wild pokemon somehow. The level 6 ekans or sandshrew aren't that much higher leveled and if they chose the right sequence of moves, maybe you could eventually beat enough to level up. Maybe that's already been disproven though.

[@andreivaldez2929]

You probably could, especially with luck considering how bad the wild pokemon are at picking moves - literally seen a wild Wurmple click String Shot 4 times in a row instead of attacking during my last Emerald run. Slowly level up one pokemon, level up the other, then crawl your way out.

[@giddy7079]

@@andreivaldez2929 As soon as caterpie evolves even - butterfree has pretty good stats early game so i think it wouldn't be that difficult. Unless if ur rival has charmander then it would be more challenging.

[@Trey5S5S]

​@@andreivaldez2929 The wild pokemon aren't "bad" at picking moves, they are just programmed to choose moves at random. They aren't thinking about their moves, they just merely act, hence being "wild".

[@PokemonWoop]

You know, I would actually like to try to see how long it would take Caterpie to reach level 10 by defeating Ekans

[@giddy7079]

@@PokemonWoop next video confirmed!

[@FallenMonkey087]

All the comments: wHy OnLy tWo WeAk pOkEmon??? uNREalistic!1!1 Me: Interesting Softlock bro 🗿

[@paulpavlus6664]

Northpeatleburg is one prime example to me.

[@pokegon100]

I got stuck here as a kid. Started with charmander, and it really taught me to train my other Pokemon.

[@Enigmatic_Soldier]

well i mean the design is weird but lets be real: you cant even get this far with 2 lvl 5 pokemon, especially them being caterpie and magikarp

[@giddy7079]

Yeah, unless in a fictional setting where Team Rocket actually stole Red's money and some of his pokemon, it's very unlikely that this would happen. It is interesting to see though.

[@captainweekend5276]

Yeah this is less a softlock and more a prison of your own making, you'd basically have to choose to do this since you need to waste all your money and release any strong pokemon, there's basically no way to organically fail this, also it's early enough into the game that whilst annoying, you're losing a few hours progress at most if you're playing efficiently. Honestly the video is basically a guide on how to prank someone by bricking their playthrough, but if you're gonna do that it's easier to just delete their save lol.

[@AgusSkywalker]

You can't reach Cerulean with that team but you can totally end up with that team once you're in Cerulean. Just release all your pokemon but one (Magikarp ftw!) and you're softlocked. Even worse because you can't even trade with one pokemon in gen 3. And the point is not that this would never happen to rhe average player. The point is that GF goes to extreme lengths to prevent these kind of situations so it's funny when players find them anyway.

[@TheEmilyba]

Man I love the presentation of your videos. Really makes a great juxtaposition with the silly wooper profile pic.

[@PokemonWoop]

Yeah it's pretty funny putting overdramatic editing and then having wooper pop up lol

[@DrakeBaku]

Cool story but unless your playing a nuzlock and have no experience with a pokemon game, it will be entirely impossible to grt this softlock, and dont tell me a nuzlocker can have no experience with pokemkn games, cause nuzlocks were created and are used pretty much solely by those who played so much pokemon, they need a new difficulty, while accepting that these situations are part of the new game, so yeah.. Also iirc, that house has no real backdoor, the rocket broke through the wall for some reason, which does end up making the city even worse for those who dont have cut XD Seeing peopel commenting about the backdoor as yoi called it, made me want to state this little fact Xd

[@PokemonWoop]

I guess it's just a law for all Cerulean City citizens to have a Pokemon with cut

[@bigmaxdxko]

This pissed me off but at least if you get passed the rival you can abuse an oversight at nugget bridge in FRLG where if you intentionally lose to the Team Rocket member that gives you a nugget you can farm infinite nuggets that come useful for the game corner later on.

[@vxrtxxs1395]

Why is this video so scary

[@nazh7279]

Because it's good

[@andreivaldez2929]

Because you're stupid. Why are you walking around with two level 5 Pokémon, and how did he get that far into the game without anything else, even his starter? It's contrived as hell.

[@RJV-s3l]

There needs to be a fan game/rom hack that is all escape rooms in soft-locked style.

[@XEqualsPenguin]

I have ranted to friends numerous times that Cerulean City _sucks_ , if only from a livability perspective. Having a road lead from _behind_ someone's house in gen 1/3 was absurd. It's slightly better in gen 2 and reasonable in gen 4, but the ledges are so weird.

[@YunaBelmont1]

Excellent video Woop, thanks for it Here's what I would do in that situation: -Sell Rare candy and gain 4,800p IIRC -Buy all that on PokeBalls (I think it would be like 24 of them) -Try to catch the pokemon with the best catch rate -Use it to train with wild mons and train Caterpie and Magikarp too -Then you can exit the void (If I haven't done a mistake on my hypothesis)

[@y8knsnsnzmzz]

Reminds me of when I got trapped in this city as a kid, unable to beat misty or my rival. I was just bad at the game but it was so frustrating.

[@PokemonWoop]

Another victim of Cerulean City...

[@lasercraft32]

Well maybe if Red hadn't released all the Pokemon from his PC he wouldn't be in this situation lol.

[@secondbeamship]

By this point in your journey you would’ve already had stronger Pokémon. Even if most fainted and only the weak mons were not fainted you could use the pokecenter.

[@Not-A-Somnambulist]

Aw come on guys. How could y’all forget the classic walk thru walls *glitch*?

[@mickkelley3776]

He could have sold the rare candy - yeah, it's very valuable, but it's better to lose out on a free level than it is to be essentially stuck in purgatory. Another option is save-scumming until he manages to get the luck he needs to successfully defeat the wild Pokémon. It lets him retain the rare candy, but it's also a LOT slower and very luck-dependent. Pick your poison-type, Red, if you wanna get out then you'll have to go through the pain. If there were one of those berry spots he could access, then he'd be able to grab a bunch of those and sell them for enough money for a Poké Ball, but alas, this will remain as one contingency the Pokémon Company *didn't* think of.

[@PokemonWoop]

Yeah, Caterpie theoretically could beat Ekans if it misses, but because of how little exp each one would give, it would take forever to evolve it into Butterfree

[@dvillines26]

Selling the Rare Candy means 12 Poke Balls means you get at least one, maybe even three of Spearow/Rattata/Mankey. then you're cooking. literally this wasn't actually a trap until the Rare Candy was used.

[@christiancinnabars1402]

There is a way this Red can still escape. Since his Caterpie is level 5 and knows Tackle, he can spam encounters on Route 4 and look for three specific Pokemon. The one he wants to encounter the most is a Level 8 Spearow. Since it learns Peck, Growl, and Leer, there is a ~66% chance per turn that it will use a non-damaging move. At minimum IVs with a -ATK nature, it will take Caterpie 13 hits to KO a max IV level 8 Spearow, making the chances of winning the battle an astonishing *0.4%* chance. But it is there. If the Caterpie has a +ATK nature instead, and the Spearow has min IVs in both HP and DEF _and_ a -DEF nature, then it would take as little as 6 hits to clear. However, if the Spearow uses Growl, then obviously Caterpie's damage output suffers and so does the chance of winning. The next up depends on the version. In LeafGreen, you can find a Level 6 Sandshrew that knows Scratch and Defense Curl. If you 50/50 the system around _20_ times, then you can win. I should also mention that Tackle has 95% accuracy this gen. For FireRed, a Level 6 Ekans can be found instead, knowing Wrap and Leer. Since Wrap is only 85% accurate and does way less damage than Scratch, plus it learning Leer instead of Defense Curl, this Ekans is actually way easier to RNG than Sandshrew. But you still have to land 7 - 8 Tackles in a row without getting hit by too many Wraps. Once your Defense is lowered enough, then Wrap will spell game over all the same. Even with those prime conditions, it is still very easy to lose to those mons. But if you game the system enough times, then eventually Caterpie can level up and evolve. Do note that Metapod actually has lower Attack than Caterpie, so saving its evolution until Level 9 would make the process _much_ faster. Once you hit Level 10 with a Metapod and evolve into Butterfree, it's GG. Spam Confusion into Level 6 Ekans or Sandshrew until you get to ~ Level 18 - 20 (or Level 15 if you're confident in your Sleep Powder turns). Then start to switch train Magikarp. Once _that_ hits Level 20, it's actually over and Blue + Misty get steamrolled.

[@Darth.Augustus]

Then Red calls his mom and asks her to trade his magicarp for level 100 Snorlax.

[@PokemonWoop]

Mom saves the day like always

[@williamdrum9899]

Fuschia City also did the "puzzle city" thing but not as effectively, it was more of a nuisance than anything else

[@ScarletRebel96]

Just let us walk around that stupid tree we been screaming for 20 years , seriously glad they did away with HM moves

[@PokemonWoop]

I get that they didn't want you to just immediately go to Vermillion but it ends up making the city's design feel weirdly trapped

[@garg4531]

I never thought about this before (other than the aspect of not being able to head back to Mt. Moon for whatever weird reason), but it's honestly terrifying to think about now, as impossible as this situation is under normal circumstances

[@dvillines26]

if he had sold the Rare Candy for money rather than using it, he could buy Poke Balls. The sell price is 2,400. That's TWELVE Poke Balls. you can catch a couple of Pokemon almost for sure with that, and Rattata and Spearow in particular are pretty capable at that point in the game. but yeah this isn't a true softlock until the Rare Candy is used.

[@kalosianporygon]

Next time on Woop: how do Sootopolis City move out of their city?

[@PokemonWoop]

Sounds like an interesting idea...

[@j11889]

guys check out how easily i get stuck when i go out of my way to get stuck

[@tenebrasm]

Pokémon creepypasta is back...

[@nicolasromani3523]

Shit like this is why i always bring a Nidoking or Nidoqueen to Cerulean City, just in case.

[@shadykitty7493]

i was trapped there for eternity as a kid cuz i had a charmander lol

[@williamkelley8322]

Reset back to where you saved the game in the poke center. Then, get the rare candy and sell it to buy a pokeball. Save the game again and try to catch something. Repeat until you do. This would be a hard mess to get out of but not impossible

[@EbubechukwuChukwuma-oy7cr]

I've been stuck at part of the game before, this reminds me of that dreadful memory. I feel sorry for red facing the same thing. Anyway, great video. ✌️

[@TheBoomerSlayer]

Not to even mention the cynical bike 'salesman' that wants to scam 10 year olds who just walked LITERALLY through an entire mountain :^)

[@PokemonWoop]

$1 million pokedollars - a deal of a lifetime

[@kissmiasma95]

Don't even have the old rod yet.

[@crushbeast29]

I guess this is the ending where red becomes bussy meat.

[@mari_zz]

huh?

[@WhiteRaven696]

@@mari_zz Red would have to sell himself to make money to buy Pokéballs to catch the wild Pokémon.

[@mari_zz]

@@WhiteRaven696 It's my fault, I shouldn't have asked...

[@PokemonWoop]

Basically

[@mugenpm9979]

It seems like you have to deliberately make a bunch of bad decisions in order to be in a situation for a game made 25 years ago.

[@DrkDragonz66]

Grind on lv6 ekans until u get lucky. Only knows 85% ACC Wrap and Leer.

[@PokemonWoop]

Would work, although with intimidate + low experience gains it would still take forever

[@SonicMeters]

Cool story for this run I loved it

[@PokemonWoop]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@frankieinjapan]

If this was RBY, you could wait for a dozen consecutive 1/256 glitches fo happen to actually defeat a wild pokémon 😂

[@mazharsiddiqi7288]

Awesome video Was always annoyed by one way Cerulean city in my Leaf Green playthroughs

[@PokemonWoop]

Yeah, really weird design for everyone having to leave through a random person's house

[@kirbyofthestarsfan]

This was usually where my runs of Pokemom Fire Red always stop lol Where I forgot to level up a few of my mons and the only options around are just weak Ekans and Spearows to level up

[@dvillines26]

not beating all the trainers in Mt. Moon is almost always a blunder.

[@maccheesey2746]

U can definitely beat the wild Pokémon eventually if u slam ur head against them enough

[@HamOfTheNorth]

This shit used to fucking terrify me when i was like 6

[@Dilbert1999]

How the heck did he make it past Brock and all the way through Mt. Moon with that team?

[@alexdelarco]

Damn, I love your videos!

[@PokemonWoop]

Appreciate it

[@derAlphabet]

just trade your level 99 Mewtwo over and sweep. Your friend can have Caterpie. :)

[@PokemonWoop]

Sounds like a fair trade to me

[@kalosianporygon]

*Glitch City joins the chat*

[@nicolasromani3523]

Kind of off topic but doesn't it feel that training for the gyms in gen 4 is kinda...tedious? Like, i need to do a lot of re matches, make a genocide of wild mons and ultimately spend hours to get to the level of the gyms?

[@CoolPorygon]

"horribly designed" you were with me until this point. soft locking is very interesting, but this is not possible by accident. no one is progressing through mt. moon in such a way. it is impossible for this situation to happen organically. interesting, yes. but not a reflection of poor game design. it's about as damning as saying "what the hell, I made a new game and it deleted my data!". yeah, you consciously did that.

[@dvillines26]

yeah idk if this really demonstrates why Cerulean is poorly designed. the one-way ledge, the spike in levels of the Gym trainers and rival, this creates a situation where if you were, idk, kind of unintentionally doing minimum battles, your Pokemon would be weak enough to be stuck having to grind in a patch where everything has underwhelming experience yields. I remember having to do it once in Fire Red, and actually considering deleting my game and starting over.

[@AmmojerseyRTA]

Love this narrative. Really captures the feel of gen 1 Pokémon 👌

[@PokemonWoop]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@KIKAN_THE_RAT]

What did you do with your starter

[@j.corbygaming]

What?

[@ketsupo]

eated him 😋

[@PokemonWoop]

He didn't make it... 😔

[@chaosvolt]

Pikasprey: "Rookie numbers, kid!"

[@paulpavlus6664]

5:03 He means the Police force is in Team Rocket's back pocket.

[@JustJulyo]

Such a cruel cruel world

[@PokemonWoop]

Indeed...

[@potcotch7165]

This is gonna be a good video

[@nicolasmouzakis650]

Hey, can I ask what is the first music track in the video. The one that plays up until minute 1:12

[@nazh7279]

Another Great Woop Video❤

[@PhilipMurphy8]

This is going to be a excellent video

[@toxicweas]

Wait can the npc actually take all your stuff?

[@SirScrewloose]

No. This is an in-universe explanation for a very contrived situation

[@PokemonWoop]

No, the team rocket bit was just part of the story. In reality, to get this softlock, you'd have to get rid of everything you own besides a level 2-5 pokemon

[@karatgaming5792]

Here's one escape tactic: Keep your starter!

[@nazh7279]

Woop Woop

[@PokemonWoop]

🦆🦆

[@victorapellegrinosc]

Did I miss something? How does Red only have a Caterpie and Magikarp?

[@Termies]

Bro dropped peak 😭🙏

[@PokemonWoop]

your comment is peak :)

[@chrispokemon5990]

Oh wow

[@PokemonWoop]

Wow there it is

[@chrispokemon5990]

@PokemonWoop oh yes the DOLL

[@JstnRbnsn]

👀