'Pokémon Gold/Silver' Player Shows Genius Way To Avoid Sudowoodo Battle

Pokémon is a series which has always been full of secrets. Okay, sure, Mew was never under that truck in Red and Blue, but players have found loads of hidden things over the years - back in 2020, it was discovered that HeartGold and SoulSilver had been housing a whole extra gift Pokémon in one of its cities, 11 years after its release.

Well, continuing the Johto region discovery trend, one player on Reddit has discovered a really funny way of avoiding the forced Sudowoodo battle on the way to Ecruteak City in Gold and Silver. Nostalgic players will remember this Rock-type Pokémon blocking the path on the journey past Goldenrod City, which could only be moved with a sprinkling of water from the Squirt Bottle and a battle. 

Before we get into it, be sure to take a look at the latest trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet below.

You’ll still need the Squirt Bottle for this little trick, mind you, so it’s by no means a speedrunning tactic, but it’s pretty great. As you can see, u/Kamehamehachoo ends the battle instantly by literally blowing the fake tree away with Whirlwind, with the post-battle animation showing the Pokémon seemingly flying to its doom. That’s one way to put a stop to its path-blocking antics, I suppose.

Big disclaimer though - this unfortunately isn’t a totally unique animation. It turns out that the same thing happens if you simply run away from battle yourself - I guess that the poor Sudowoodo just gets spooked easily. It still lines up perfectly with using Whirlwind though, so if you’re playing through Gold or Silver and don’t feel like adding this ‘mon to your team, you can at the very least give it a memorable sendoff. Why you wouldn’t want to catch it is beyond me, but maybe that’s just the completionist in me talking.

Speaking of Pokémon, we recently got a new trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and they’re looking to be pretty amazing. Most importantly, we were introduced to Lechonk, a brand new Normal-type which, simply put, I would die for. The localisation team has clearly never been better.