Heart & Soul Walkthrough & Progression Guide

This is a source-backed progression companion for Pokémon Heart & Soul. It is built to help you move from the Johto badges to the Pokémon League with the exact reference pages you need for each stage.

It deliberately does not pretend that every story event has been fully mapped yet. Where the game source establishes a milestone or access check, it is included below. Kanto and detailed story-event routing will be added once their full paths have been verified from source.

Plan each stage

Before a major battle, use the Gym Leaders guide for full boss teams, the Locations index to review available areas, and Level Caps as a separate difficulty-planning reference. Level-cap thresholds are presented in badge order; this guide does not assign a threshold to a named Gym unless that relationship is source-verified.

Johto badge milestones

1. Violet City — Falkner

Falkner's Gym battle is the first verified Johto Gym milestone. Winning the battle sets the first badge flag in the game source.

Prepare with: Gym Leaders
Explore and plan encounters: Locations

2. Azalea Town — Bugsy

Bugsy's Gym battle is the second verified Johto Gym milestone. Winning the battle sets the second badge flag.

Prepare with: Gym Leaders
Review available areas: Locations

3. Goldenrod City — Whitney

Whitney's Gym battle concludes the third verified Johto badge sequence.

Prepare with: Gym Leaders
Review available areas: Locations

4. Ecruteak City — Morty

Morty's Gym battle is the fourth verified Johto Gym milestone.

Prepare with: Gym Leaders
Review available areas: Locations

Mid-game badges — Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce

The source has separate Gym victories for Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce, which set badges five, six, and seven. Their scripts include alternate branches based on the other victories, so this guide treats them as a flexible mid-game block rather than inventing a forced order.

Prepare for each battle: Gym Leaders
Plan your team: Team Builder
Review areas: Locations

8. Blackthorn City — Clair, Dragon's Den, and Reception Gate

Clair's Gym victory sends the player to Dragon's Den. The eighth badge is awarded at the Dragon's Den Shrine, and the Reception Gate checks for that badge before allowing League access.

Prepare with: Gym Leaders
Plan your final Johto team: Team Builder
Review your level-cap setting: Level Caps

The Pokémon League and Champion

The League is the Johto climax. The Champion's Room contains the initial Lance battle; use the Elite Four guide for the complete League teams and battle data.

Full League teams: Elite Four
Build around type matchups: Type Chart
Review your team: Team Builder

Key field-move pickups to keep in view

The source explicitly awards or contains pickups for Cut, Surf, Strength, Fly, Whirlpool, and Waterfall during the Johto portion of the game. Use the TM & HM guide for their verified locations.

This is an item-location reminder, not a claim that obtaining an item alone enables every overworld action.

Find the items: TM & HM Locations

Optional and postgame references

What is coming next

Kanto progression and detailed event-by-event routing need a deeper source pass before they belong in this guide. They will be added as verified, useful sections -- not padded guesses.