You can enter the cave from Violet City, Blackthorn City, Route 31, Route 45, and

Route 46.
You'll need Flash to light your way through the cave and Rock Smash and Surf to find all of
the items inside. While there are a lot of fabulous items inside the cave, including TM 13, you
don't have to enter.

Dark Cave Level 1, Violet Side

Dark Cave Level 2, Blackthorn Side

Catch some early Pokmon

The Dark Cave connects Route 31 with Routes 45 and 46, in Johto's East. But unless you know
Flash, Rock Smash, and Surf, you can't use it to go anywhere. You can, however, sneak in very
early on in the game and catch some rare Pokmon.

In Gold and Silver, you can hang around for a bit until you spot a Geodude. You'll have many
opportunities to catch this Pokmon, but you may prefer to do it early since Ground/Rock-type
Pokmon are particularly useful against the Flying-type Pokmon in the Violet City Gym. You
can also snag a Zubat.
If you're playing Crystal instead, this cave remains an opportunity to catch a Geodude and a
Zubat, but that's hardly worth the trip. It's the level 2 Teddiursa, which only appears in the
morning, that is most exciting. Cowardly Teddiursa tend to run away immediately, so you may
need Gastly to use Hypnosis or Mean Look to keep it from bolting. If you carefully raise
Teddiursa from a cub, it will become a very powerful Ursaring at later levels.
If you're extremely lucky, you may also run into a Dunsparce. This is the only place you can find
this Pokmon, but the odds of catching one are extremely low when they're not "swarming". To
find out when this happens, you'll need to give your phone number to the only trainer on Route
#33.
Items

Potion

Dire Hit (Crystal only)

Full Heal

Hyper Potion

TM13 (Snore)

Blackglasses (from the guy in the top western corner of level 2)

Elixir (Hidden, Level 1)

Escape Rope

Pokmon Found
Dark Cave Floor 1; Violet Side encounters
Gold
Silver
Crystal
Morn Day Night Morn Day Night Morn Day Night
Teddiursa

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

5%

0%

0%

60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 60%

Geodude

39% 39% 39% 39% 39% 39% 34% 39% 39%

Zubat

1% * 1% * 1% * 1% * 1% * 1% * 1% * 1% * 1% *

Dunsparce
*Numbers increase during swarms

Dark Cave Floor 2; Blackthorn Side encounters

Gold
Silver
Crystal
Morn Day Night Morn Day Night Morn Day Night
Teddiursa
Ursaring
Geodude
Graveler
Zubat
Golbat
Wobbuffet

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

5%

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

10%

15%

N/A

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

20%

20%

20%

20%

20%

20%

20%

20%

20%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

30%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

15%

15%

15%

15%

15%

15%

N/A

N/A

15%

Rock Smash
If you smash a rock, you may encounter the following:

Krabby (90%)

Shuckle (10%)
#216 Teddiursa

#206 Dunsparce

Getting Dunsparce is a lot of work, and you're

bound to be disappointed with the results. It's
Teddiursa always escapes at the first
just another Normal-type Pokmon with
opportunity, so you'll need Mean Look or a
average stats and very few good attacks. In fact,
Sleep move to snag one. It has good reason to
the only offensive move it gets before level 26
run: It knows that if it bides its time (30 levels)
is its starting move, Rage, which is pretty
it will grow up into an Ursaring, one of the best
useless. You'll probably just want to leave
Normal Pokmon. It has solid stats and some
Dunsparce in your box.
interesting moves: Rest and Snore make a good
combo, Dark-type Faint Attack wrecks
Psychics, and Thrash is a serious beating
(although Ursaring won't learn it until level 59).
#74 Geodude

Now that there are new Rock and Ground

techniques, forget your old Geodude, Graveler,
or Golem and start from scratch with one from
Gold, Silver and Crystal. It can learn great new
attacks like Ground-type Magnitude (very
powerful at level 16!) and Rock-type Roll
(decent at level 31).