Well, as you may have heard, today's my birthday, and I am going to get a Pokemon Soulsilver a few days later.

And I am not a gigantic fan, but my parents are liek. "You will love it."

So I need somebody to teach me the basics. Lutino has helped, but I need somebody else too x3

I would want you to write a short deion on Pokemon [Soulsilver] and its functions. It would be good if you could bold / underline the main points, but unnecessary. 

 I am quite a noobie at the selection of starter pokemon, and the rarities. Those are my two biggest i-dont-know-about-pokemanses.

 Thank you in advance,

Staz.

[[Please do not call me Twint due to some... horrible reason. Which I cannot explain ]] 

Well, I'm gonna explain the basics of the 2nd Gen remake games. I have a HeartGold but they are basically the same. It'll probably be rather long, since I tend to get ahead of myself, but all the info is straight to the point.

Starter Pokemon: 

Chikorita: Probably one of the hardest to start out with due to the first two gym leaders having a type advantage(attacks doing x2 or even x4 damage than normal), and even then it's not very useful against any of the gyms through the game so I wouldn't recommend picking this one since it takes mostly experienced trainers to get through the game with it.

Cyndaquil: A favorite of mine but at the same time not the most useful. It's has an advantage in the second and sixth gyms as well as being able to take down a few of the Elite Four (final bosses that you have to fight in a row without being able to stop and go to the PokeCenter; you can still use healing items though.)

Totodile: Probably the best to start out with. I've used him in both my original Gold and HeartGold and he has a good advantage with few disadvantages early on. It has no advantages or disadvantages through the first two gyms but in the third gym I did have trouble with the leader's Milktank but that can be solved with a little luck and a bit more training. It has an advantage in the forth gym and doesn't have a disadvantage until the sixth where you should have a good enough team to take down the electric Pokemon with no trouble. With Totodile I'd also suggest you keep him as a Croconaw until he reaches level 51 and learns Hydro Pump. Otherwise your Feraligatr will have to be lvl 63 to learn it. You can stop an evolution by pressing 'B' while it's trying to change.

Gyms:

Note: I recommend fighting all the trainers in Gyms. Even if it's not nescissary, it's still good experience for your Pokemon.  

First: Flying type based. You really can't get a Pokemon with an advantage so just power up your team to anywhere from Lvl 12-15 (you really only need two at this level).

Second: Bug type based. Fire and Flying work well here. Cyndaquil is the only fire type you can get early on, but it's easy enough to raise a Pidgey or Spearow or even a Butterfree and take them down. A Lvl 16-20 flying type will give you an easy run.

Third: Normal type based. You really can't get a type advantage and you really have to level up good to take down Whitney's Milktank. I believe my starter was lvl 20 (tough run) and my backup Butterfree was lvl 16 or so. It took me plenty of tries to take her down so I'd say level up as much as you can (Lvl 20-25) to face her.

Forth: If you chose Totodile, this Gym is a breeze and you'll really only be going back to the PokeCenter to regain you PP (powerpoints, how your Pokemon attacks). Just use Bite for all the Gastly and it'll be a one-hit-K'O' if he's over level 20. This will also get you a bunch of experience before you face Morty. Just keep Biting!

Fifth: This is where your flying Pokemon will come in handy again. Fighting types are weak against Flying and they can be taken down rather easily. 

Sixth: I forgot a lot about this gym, so you're on your own on how to deal with the Magnemite but the Steelix can be taken down with Fire or Water attacks.

Seventh: By now you should have probably found a Mareep (rout 34, 42, 43) so use it's electric attacks on the Seel and Dewgong and on the Piloswine use Water, Gras.s, or Fire.

Eighth: The final and most difficult (I still haven't beaten it but that's because I'm training a specific Pokemon for it). Use Electric on Gyrados and teach your Croconaw/Feraligatr (if you chose that) Ice Beam to take down the Dragonair. As for the Kingdra... you're just going to have to level up and try to overpower it unless you somehow got a Dragon type.

Pokemon To Definitely Grab:

Caterpie: Evolving it into a Butterfree gives you a major advantage at the start, even if you might not use it for the entire run (although I kept it, most ditch it later on). It can use Flying and Psychic attacks as well as Stats inflicting ones. Can be found in Ilex Forest or even before that.
Recommended Moveset: Confusion, Gust (or another flying move you can teach it), Sleep Powder (works wonders when you're facing a stronger opponent that you need a few extra shots at), Poison Powder (chips away the health for you but they can still attack you.

Mareep: The best electric type to get close to the start. Period. Evolve it into Flaaffy then immediately into Ampharos in order to learn ThunderPunch. Other than that, the moves are up to you until later when you should teach it Power Gem and Signal Beam.

That's all I can write at the moment. Told ya I'd get ahead of myself, but I really think this will help for a beginner. That's good enough to start out with and if you need any more help or anything else explained, just ask. I'll keep an eye on this thread ;3 

I guess I could help you with the stuff Loki didn't explain, like items. ;D  I have other games not just Heartgold/Soulsilver, so I know a lot about Pokemon.  For the elite four I traded my Lv. 100 Salamence to my HeartGold game by using both mine and my sister's DSi.  Then I went to the union room in both games and traded. xD  So I had an easy time beating the Elite Four, and because of that I sorta rushed through the Elite Four and can't really explain about it. ;(

And whenever you're facing a Gym Leader, Elite Four, legendary, or some powerful trainer, save right before you battle them so that if your Pokemon get knocked out you can turn off the power and when you turn it back on and play, nothing would have happened and you'll be standing where you saved, the opponent will be in front of you.  Then you could challenge them again and try to beat them.

Also in the video game you should talk to trainers along your way because some of them will tell you useful information and some might even give you items to help you battle.

------------------------------------------------------------ 

Important Items

This section will explain about items that are useful.  Some items listed here you will not see until you reach a certain point in the game.  Basic items like Potions and Pokeballs will be in shops even when you first start your game while more rare and helpful items will appear in shops once you reach certain points in the game.

Potion- This is important when you first start.  If your Pokemon's HP (Health Points) get low, you should use this.  It recovers up to 20 HP, and you can get one by buying them from a Shop (it's those buildings that look like Nurse Centers except are blue).  They are pretty cheap, too.  I suggest you buy a few of these before Gym Battles.

Super Potion- This item heals up to 50 HP instead of the 20 HP that the Potion heals.  It heals more, but they are more expensive than Potions and are less likely to find.

Hyper Potion- This item is very helpful.  It heals up to 200 HP, but it is more expensive than the Super Potion and the Potion and is even harder to find.

Max Potion- It fully heals your Pokemon's HP, but sadly it's pretty expensive and hard to find.  Use it wisely, like when your Pokemon's health is very low.

Full Restore- This is the most effective Potion.  Not only does it fully restore your Pokemon's health, but it also cures it's status Problem.  But it's more expensive then the rest of the potions and is very rare (but gets easier as you progress through the game).

Revive- It revives a fainted Pokemon, restoring all of their PP points but only restores half of their HP.  I'm not sure if you can find it, but it is very expensive in shops.

Max Revive- It revives a fainted Pokemon, restoring all of their PP points and all their HP.  I'm not sure if you can get this in HeartGold, though.  In Pokemon Pearl the only way to get it is find it underground (and i'm not sure but maybe while travelling too) and it's not in shops either.  And due to the fact that you can't go underground in HeartGold/Soulsilver, i'm not sure if you can get it.

Antidote- It heals poison.  It is also pretty cheap in shops.

Parlyz Heal- It heals paralysis.  It is also pretty cheap in shops.

Awakening- Awakens a sleeping Pokemon.

Full Heal- Heals all status problems.  It's a bit more expensive than the other status healing potions.

Burn Heal- Heals a burn.  It is pretty cheap in shops.

Ice Heal- Thaws out a frozen Pokemon.  It is pretty cheap in shops.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm tired. :P  I'll explain more later. xD 

I have no help. 

My advice is merely: Why not just... play it. D: It's fun to find out things for yourself. It isn't a big mind-bender of a game. But if you need a guide to walk you through everything you can always go to GameFaqs or something and find a walkthrough. 

I kinda agree with Grayvs. I tend to get carried away when I get a chance to show off my Pokemon knowledge.

When I first got my Gold version, I was seven and my dad made me select Totodile instead of Cydaquil like I wanted and I played through the game totally on my own. No guide and no help. It's fun like that. :3

So even though I told you how to get through the game, do whatever you want. Catch a Venonat, fight Morty with a normal type, do whatever you want even if it means not beating it as fast. The great thing about Pokemon is that there's no wrong way to play. If you wanna use Chickorita, then go for it. There's no point in playing if you're not having fun ;3

well,this is mainly on pokemon walking.

once you get to the daycare Ethan will tell you certain things. here are some i know.

UNOWN in Ruins of ALph (but trust me this one is scary if you turn your radio to the center of it.)

water types in rain.

fire types get mad in rain.

cyndaquil likes route 33(?)

nothing on chikorita...

Bellsprout dances on sprout tower.

clefairy does something at whitney's gym

and a few others.

also your pokemon will turn around and bark or growl in ruins of alph,other than UNOWN.

I do think that you should play through the game on your own, but...

Quick Tips.

In your party you will need>

A water type to learn surf. I would suggest octillery because they can learn Ice Beam which is very useful as you will soon discover. Two water types may be required because you will need to learn

>Surf

>Whirlpool

>Waterfall

..to proceed through the game. 

You should also get a flying type such as Pidgey,  Spearow or HootHoot to learn Fly whch can transport you from city to city.

>Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday there are bug catching competitions in the National Park. Some pokemon can only be aquired this way.

Kitten, thats not true. o_o;

EDIT: Wait, never mind.  I misunderstood what you were saying. ^^; 

Just play through the game and have fun ^-^ That's what I did.

Daisy,thats great idea.

:3

oh nad ignore the fire types don't like water things proffeser's say...the type chart lies!

I found entei while surfing....he seemed to be bathing.