Pokemon Emerald Littleroot Town and Route 101 Walkthrough

Littleroot Town and Route 101 is a dedicated section page for Phase 1: Stone Badge. Set the clock, rescue Professor Birch, choose Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip, and start north toward Oldale.

Trainer Art

Key Emerald trainers for this section are shown here so boss, rival, villain, and Frontier pages have the right character context.

ManifestPokemon Emerald trainer image set Assets3 trainer portraits

Route Plan

Primary source maps covered here: Littleroot Town, Littleroot Town Brendans House 1F, Littleroot Town Brendans House 2F, Littleroot Town Mays House 1F, Littleroot Town Mays House 2F, Littleroot Town Professor Birch's Lab, Route 101. Follow this page as its own checklist, then return to the phase index when the wild Pokemon, trainers, items, and boss notes are complete.

Starter Choice

All three Hoenn starters are viable in Emerald, but they ask different things from the rest of your team. Mudkip is the smoothest full-game pick, Torchic rewards a little early training with huge Fighting coverage, and Treecko is the fast technical choice that wants better backup into Fire, Flying, and Ice matchups.

Pokemon	Evolution path / role	Pros	Cons	Emerald matchup notes
Treecko	Treecko -> Grovyle -> Sceptile; fast Grass special attacker	Best immediate answer to Roxanne once Absorb is online; very fast all game; Leaf Blade gives a clean midgame Grass attack; useful into many Water routes and Wallace's Water-heavy Champion team.	Thin early movepool before stronger Grass attacks; Fire, Flying, Bug, Poison, and Ice pressure can force switches; Wattson is not free because Magnemite and Magneton resist Grass.	Pair it with Geodude, Makuhita, Wingull, or another sturdy answer for Wattson, Flannery, and Winona. Treecko feels sharp if you like speed and planned coverage instead of one-starter autopilot.
Torchic	Torchic -> Combusken -> Blaziken; Fire attacker that gains Fighting typing	Combusken's Double Kick gives an answer to Roxanne if you train before the Gym; excellent into Steel, Ice, Dark, and Normal targets; Blaziken can carry major fights with strong mixed offense.	Weak start into Rock until evolution; later Water, Ground, Flying, and Psychic matchups need support; Wallace is the least friendly Champion matchup for this line.	Build around it with Water, Electric, or Grass teammates. Torchic is the most explosive choice if you are willing to cover its bad defensive matchups instead of expecting it to tank everything.
Mudkip	Mudkip -> Marshtomp -> Swampert; bulky Water/Ground anchor after evolution	Easiest early route through Roxanne; Marshtomp's Ground typing blanks Wattson's Electric attacks; strong into Flannery and many Team Magma fights; stays reliable through Victory Road and the Battle Frontier.	Slowest of the three; after evolving it has a 4x Grass weakness; can feel plain if you want a faster or more aggressive starter.	Keep a Flying, Fire, Bug, or Poison answer ready for Grass types and Ludicolo-style problems. Mudkip is the safest recommendation for a first Emerald playthrough or a low-friction badge run.

Wild Pokemon

Area / subarea	Method	Pokemon	Level range	Odds	Time / condition	Requirements
Route 101	Tall grass / cave floor	Poochyena	Lv. 2-3	45%	Any time	None
Route 101	Tall grass / cave floor	Wurmple	Lv. 2-3	45%	Any time	None
Route 101	Tall grass / cave floor	Zigzagoon	Lv. 2-3	10%	Any time	None

Trainers

No mandatory trainer battles are sourced for this section.

Items

Completion Checklist

• Clear the main objective: Set the clock, rescue Professor Birch, choose Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip, and start north toward Oldale.
• Review every wild Pokemon method listed for the section.
• Fight or deliberately skip every trainer listed in route order.
• Collect visible items, hidden items, and scripted rewards you care about before moving on.

Source Notes

• Source of truth: pret/pokeemerald wild_encounters.json, map map.json object/background events, map scripts.inc, trainers.h, and trainer_parties.h.
• Encounter odds are aggregated by species and method from Emerald slot rates. Most rows are marked Any time because Emerald has no normal day/night wild encounter split.
• Pokemon table sprites use locally cached Emerald front sprites from /guides/pokemon-emerald-pokemon-sprites.json.
• Trainer art on this page uses the local Emerald trainer manifest and reused Hoenn character art where Emerald-specific artwork is not available.