How To Beat the Pokémon Red Seed

Full Spoiler Log

30 4 30 seed spoiler log (does not spoil key-item locations)

Starter

You definitely want to pick Poliwrath. This is the only Pokémon you'll need for the game. You don't have to bother catching a lot of Pokémon because the 6-Pokémon and 12-Pokémon Oak aides don't have anything important. You will need to buy some Pokéballs to catch HM slaves, but otherwise you'll only be using Poliwrath for fights. Since the randomizer boosts catch rate, you can yoloball with considerable success.

Poliwrath's Moveset

Psybeam will carry you in the early game. Toxic is great for killing while stalling against tankier Pokémon. Poliwrath will learn 2 moves by leveling up: Withdraw at Lv. 16 and Water Gun at Lv. 19. Withdraw isn't worth, but STAB Water Gun really is. I ran Psybeam, Scratch, Toxic, and Water Gun till midgame.

Celadon Department Store sells TM07 Thunderpunch, which Poliwrath can learn. You might find this useful (I taught over Scratch). When you acquire Surf, teach it over Water Gun. Poliwrath can also learn Strength, which I chose to teach over Thunderpunch, but it's probably better to keep Thunderpunch and go all Special attacks. Sabrina gives you the TM Psychic, which is extremely good and should replace Psybeam. This yields the following endgame moveset:

Psychic, Strength/Thunderpunch, Toxic, Surf

Key Item Locations

The key items are listed below in the order you'll probably want to collect them.

Detailed Route

Walk to the grass to trigger the Oak cutscene. After the rival fight, talk to Gary's sister in the east house in Pallet Town. She gives you Oak's Parcel. Talk to Oak with it. Then stop in the PokéMart in Viridian to get the PokéFlute.

Remember you need to defeat all Gym Leaders to access the Elite Four and beat the game. You can find a Full Restore hidden in this Viridian City tree, which may prove useful:

Full Restore location

Make sure you're using all the PokéCenters so you can fly to them later. Proceed from Viridian to Brock and Misty just like the vanilla game. In Mt. Moon, make sure to take the rightside fossil, which is the Lift Key. Do not take Dome Fossil; it will brick your progress!

In Cerulean, you can choose to just fight Misty and proceed to Vermilion. Nugget Bridge and the route leading to Bill is technically optional this seed... but you may want to do it anyway. Bill gives you the SS Anne Ticket, and the Captain of the SS Anne gives you bicycle, which is good quality of life and lets you go the faster way to Fuschia (west of Celadon on the bike route). The EXP is nice too, but you can skip all of this if you choose.

In Vermilion, you can find HM01 Cut by talking to the fisherman in the house next to the PokéCenter:

HM01 location

If you've chosen to visit Bill, go to the SS Anne, talk to the Captain for the bicycle. Fight Lt. Surge at the gym. The PokéMart here sells Escape Ropes; you'll want to buy a couple. Then exit Vermilion to the east and play the PokéFlute to wake the "Snorlax". North from there to Lavender Town. Then from Lavender west to Celadon.

Celadon has a lot of good things. Pick up HM03 Surf from the gambling addict (Coincase in vanilla) and teach to Poliwrath. You can buy TM07 Thunderpunch at the Department Store for Poliwrath and any consumibles you need. Then go to the casino and interact with the Rocket Grunt and the poster to access the hideout. You need to find the Rocket in the lowest floor who gives the Lift Key in vanilla; he has the Tea in this seed. Then go to the elevator to fight Giovanni for HM02 Fly.

Fight Erika at the gym and then proceed to Fuschia. If you have the bicycle, the west route is the fastest; otherwise fly to Vermilion and go east and south along the routes to Fuschia. Fight Koga first so you can use Surf on the overworld. This can make getting to the Gold Teeth in the Safari Zone easier. Look up where the Gold Teeth are in vanilla; they're in the same place for this seed. Then exit the Safari Zone and turn the teeth in to the Warden for HM04 Strength (also same as vanilla). Before leaving Fuschia, make sure you enter the house next to the Warden's house. The fisherman inside will give you the Bike Voucher. Fly back to Cerulean to turn the voucher in for the Card Key.

Fly to any of the cities adjacent to Saffron. Go to Saffron. Enter the Silph Co. Tower and fight Giovanni. You'll want to look up a map for here. You already have the Card Key so you can open any of the doors to make your way to Giovanni. The rival will ambush you when you get close.

After defeating Giovanni, use an escape rope and fly to Pallet Town. Surf south to Cinnabar. Use the center to be able to fly here later! Enter the Cinnabar Mansion. Look up a map for this area. Proceed to the bottom floor where the Secret Key is in vanilla; this is the Sylph Scope in this seed. Acquire it and use an escape rope. Then fly to Lavender Town.

Ascend to the top of the PokéTower. Defeat the Rockets on the top floor to rescue the old man, who will teleport you to his house. Talk to him in his house to receive the Secret Key. Then fly to Cinnabar Island.

Enter the gym and defeat Blaine. The quiz answers are "Yes" to the 1st one and the one in the bottom left corner, and "No" to all the others.

Fly to Viridian and defeat Giovanni in the gym for the last badge.

Last thing to do is traverse Victory Road west of Viridian and beat the Elite Four. Good luck! Before the fights, you may want to fly to Celadon and buy some XSpecials. They'll be really strong for Poliwrath's moveset. The Mart at the entrance to the Elite Four sells Max Potions and Full Restores. These will also be very useful.

Feel free to consult sg4e's playthrough of the seed for additional help, but be aware that the route isn't optimal since it's blind and some areas explored are unnecessary.