Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow: How to Obtain All HMs

If you’ve dusted off your old Game Boy (or fired up the Virtual Console) and jumped back into
Pokémon Red, Blue, or Yellow, you’ve probably remembered two things very quickly:
random encounters are everywhere, and you’re not getting far without your trusty
HMs. Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, and Flash are your golden tickets to exploring
every corner of Kanto.

The problem? Gen 1 isn’t exactly generous with in-game hints. Miss an item, skip a house, or
walk past a suspiciously nice stranger, and suddenly you’re stuck outside a cave in the dark,
wondering where on earth Flash is hiding.

This guide walks you step-by-step through how to obtain all HMs in Pokémon Red, Blue,
and Yellow with simple directions, tips, and a few nostalgic “don’t make my mistakes”
warnings. Whether you’re replaying for fun or doing a challenge run, this will make sure you
never miss a crucial Hidden Machine again.

What Are HMs in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow?

HMs (Hidden Machines) are special items that permanently teach your Pokémon
moves that can be used both in battle and on the overworld. In the Gen 1 Kanto games, there are
five HMs:

• HM01 – Cut
• HM02 – Fly
• HM03 – Surf
• HM04 – Strength
• HM05 – Flash

Once a Pokémon learns an HM move in these games, it cannot forget it by
normal means. There’s no Move Deleter in Red, Blue, or Yellow, so picking your “HM mules” (those
poor Pokémon who carry all your utility moves) is part of the strategy.

HMs also tie into the badge system. You might own an HM, but you can’t always use it outside of
battle until you’ve earned the right Gym Badge. So the order in which you collect them
naturally follows your journey around Kanto.

HM01 – Cut

What Cut Does

Cut is a Normal-type attack that also lets you slice down small trees blocking
paths on the overworld. It’s your first real “progression gate” move: no Cut, no getting into
certain areas, no badge, no story progress.

How to Get HM01 Cut

1. Play normally until you reach Vermilion City.
2. Get a ticket and board the S.S. Anne at the south of town.
3. Explore the ship and defeat your rival on the upper deck.
4. Head into the captain’s quarters at the front of the ship.
5. Talk to the seasick captain and choose to help him (yes, you literally “rub his back”).
6. He’ll reward you with HM01 – Cut.

Don’t leave Vermilion without using Cut to open up the path to Vermilion Gym.
Also, do not trigger the S.S. Anne’s departure before grabbing Cut. Once the ship
leaves, it’s gone, and so is your chance to get that HM in a normal playthrough.

Good Pokémon for Cut

Solid Cut users in Red/Blue/Yellow include:

• Farfetch’d (trade in Vermilion City, can also learn Fly)
• Paras / Parasect
• Bellsprout / Oddish lines (depending on version)

Many players like using a traded Farfetch’d so one Pokémon covers both Cut and
Fly, freeing up move slots on their main team.

HM02 – Fly

What Fly Does

Fly is a two-turn Flying-type move in battle, but its real value is out of
battle: once you’ve learned it and earned the right badge, you can fast-travel to any
previously visited town or city. In a game with lots of backtracking, that’s a
lifesaver.

How to Get HM02 Fly

You’ll find Fly on Route 16, which sits just west of Celadon
City near the entrance to Cycling Road:

1. From Celadon City, head west to Route 16.
2. You’ll see a small Cuttable tree blocking a path north of the main road.
3. Use Cut to remove the tree and enter the building behind it.
4. Walk through the building and exit out the back.
5. You’ll find a small house tucked away. Go inside.
6. Talk to the girl inside the house to receive HM02 – Fly.

You can get Fly as soon as you can reach Celadon and have Cut, which means you can drastically
speed up your travel for the rest of the game.

Recommended Fly Users

Common Fly carriers include:

• Pidgeot – your early-game bird that often stays useful.
• Fearow – fast and hits reasonably hard.
• Charizard – in Yellow, your starter Pikachu can’t Fly, but Charizard has you covered later.
• Farfetch’d – again, a great HM hybrid for Fly and Cut.

HM03 – Surf

What Surf Does

Surf is one of the best moves in Gen 1, period. It’s a strong Water-type
attack and also lets you travel across water on the overworld. It opens up
routes to Cinnabar Island, the Seafoam Islands, and more.

How to Get HM03 Surf

Surf is hidden in the Safari Zone in Fuchsia City:

1. Reach Fuchsia City and enter the Safari Zone (north of town).
2. Pay the entry fee and start exploring. You have a step limit, so plan your path.
3. Your goal is the Secret House, found deep inside the Safari Zone’s final area.
4. When you reach the Secret House, go inside and talk to the man there.
5. He’ll reward you with HM03 – Surf for making it that far.

It can take a few tries if you’re unfamiliar with the layout, but Surf is absolutely worth the
effort. Grab other useful items while you’re there, especially the Gold Teeth
you’ll need for Strength.

Best Surf Users

Great Surf candidates include:

• Lapras (gift at Silph Co.) – bulky, great typing, and iconic.
• Blastoise – if you chose Squirtle, it’s basically begging for Surf.
• Vaporeon – high Special stat, turns Surf into a powerhouse.
• Gyarados – good user even if it learns strong physical moves later.

HM04 – Strength

What Strength Does

Strength is a Normal-type attack with solid power in battle, but its main use
is on the overworld: it lets you push boulders. You’ll need it for obstacle
puzzles in places like Fuchsia City’s gym vicinity and the Safari area, and
especially for navigating caves such as the Seafoam Islands.

How to Get HM04 Strength

Strength is tied to a mini fetch quest with the Safari Zone Warden:

1. While in the Safari Zone, locate the Gold Teeth item. It looks like a Poké Ball on the ground near the Secret House area.
2. Finish your Safari run (or let the step counter expire) and leave.
3. In Fuchsia City, find the Warden’s house, located just east of the Pokémon Center.
4. Talk to the Warden. He’ll struggle to speak clearly at first.
5. Give him the Gold Teeth. In gratitude, he’ll reward you with HM04 – Strength.

There’s also a convenient bonus: once you can use Strength in his house, you can push the
boulder to grab a handy item (usually a Rare Candy).

Good Strength Users

Many Normal- or Rock-type Pokémon work well with Strength:

• Snorlax – great attack stat, makes excellent use of it.
• Kangaskhan – another strong physical attacker.
• Nidoking / Nidoqueen – often become utility powerhouses in Gen 1 runs.

HM05 – Flash

What Flash Does

Flash is a relatively weak Electric-type move in battle, but its overworld
effect is crucial for one big reason: it lights up dark caves. Without it,
places like Rock Tunnel are miserable to navigate unless you’re using a map.

How to Get HM05 Flash

Flash comes from one of Professor Oak’s aides on Route 2:

1. From Vermilion City or Pewter City, use Diglett’s Cave to travel between the two sides of Kanto.
2. Exit the cave on the Route 2 side (south of Pewter City).
3. Go into the small building just south of the cave exit.
4. Inside, talk to Professor Oak’s aide.
5. He’ll check whether you’ve caught at least 10 different Pokémon species.
6. If you meet that requirement, he’ll reward you with HM05 – Flash.

While Flash is technically optional if you’re comfortable stumbling through Rock Tunnel, your
sanity (and your eyes) will thank you for picking it up.

Who Should Learn Flash?

Because Flash isn’t very strong in battle and can’t be forgotten, many players give it to a
utility Pokémon they don’t use in their main battling lineup, such as:

• Voltorb / Electrode
• Magnemite
• A spare Grass- or Normal-type that’s mostly there for utility

Badges and When You Can Use Each HM

In Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, simply owning an HM isn’t enough. You also need the
corresponding Gym Badge to use its overworld effect:

• Cut – usable outside battle after earning the Cascade Badge from Misty in Cerulean City.
• Fly – usable after the Thunder Badge from Lt. Surge in Vermilion City.
• Surf – usable after the Soul Badge from Koga in Fuchsia City.
• Strength – usable after the Rainbow Badge from Erika in Celadon City.
• Flash – requires catching at least 10 different Pokémon; its field use is tied to early progression through Rock Tunnel after earning the Boulder Badge from Brock.

The game nudges you into a natural order, but if you know what you’re doing, you can grab some
HMs earlier than you might expect and save yourself a lot of walking.

Smart HM Management: Don’t Ruin Your Move Sets

Because you can’t delete HMs in Gen 1, treating them like normal moves can come back to haunt
you. A few tips:

• Designate at least one HM “mule.” A Farfetch’d with Cut and Fly, or a
  Lapras with Surf and Strength, can carry a lot of utility so your main sweepers don’t have to.
• Prioritize good HMs on strong Pokémon. Surf is powerful, so it’s fine on a
  main Water-type. Strength is decent on a physical attacker. Flash, however, is better on a
  Pokémon you won’t rely on in tough fights.
• Don’t rush to teach them. You don’t need Fly on your best bird until you’re
  traveling a lot; you don’t need Surf on your long-term Water-type until you actually leave
  Fuchsia for watery routes.

500+ Words of Real-World Experience: Living the HM Life in Kanto

Anyone who grew up with Red, Blue, or Yellow probably has at least one “HM disaster” story. For
a lot of us, it started with that moment when we realized we’d just wasted a precious move slot
on a main team member with something like Cut… and there was no Move Deleter to save us.

One classic experience is the Rock Tunnel + Flash combo. Many players
completely miss Flash on Route 2 the first time through. The game doesn’t explicitly tell you,
“Hey, go back through Diglett’s Cave, talk to a random aide, and make sure you’ve caught ten
different species.” So what happens? You walk into Rock Tunnel with no Flash, see nothing but a
tiny circle around your sprite (or total darkness on some displays), and start wandering.

For a lot of kids in the ’90s, Rock Tunnel became a shared trauma. You’d draw your own map on
paper, memorize the sound of the encounter jingle, and bump into every Trainer in there by pure
accident. When you finally learned about Flash later, it felt like discovering fire. The next
time you played, going out of your way to grab Flash early almost felt like cheating.

Another big HM “aha” moment hits in the Safari Zone. At first, the Safari Zone
feels like a weird mini-game where Pokémon constantly run away and your steps are numbered. But
Surf and the Gold Teeth are hidden there, and they’re easy to miss if you don’t know where
you’re going. Many of us burned through all our steps on the first run, chasing rare Pokémon
like Kangaskhan or Chansey, only to time out just short of the Secret House.

Eventually, you start treating the Safari Zone like a mission: first run is for HM03
Surf and the Gold Teeth, later runs are for catching. Once you grab
Surf, the game really opens up. Suddenly you’re cruising down Route 19, exploring the Seafoam
Islands, and finally making your way to Cinnabar Island instead of staring at a map wondering,
“So… how do I actually get there?”

Strength has its own little charm. The Warden’s house in Fuchsia City comes across as a joke at
first: here’s this guy mumbling nonsense until you realize his missing Gold Teeth are the key.
When you return them and he hands over HM04 – Strength, it’s one of those
moments that makes the world feel connected. You were already in the Safari Zone for Surf, and
now that same trip pays off again.

Fly, meanwhile, is a pure quality-of-life upgrade. Before you get it, you’re doing long walks
back through routes, caves, and cities you’ve cleared already. Once you unlock Fly on Route 16,
Kanto shrinks in the best way. You can pop back to Cerulean to grab a forgotten item, drop into
Pewter for fossils, or fly to Pallet to surf south in seconds. It turns what used to be a
marathon into a quick hop.

And then there’s Surf, the star of the HM lineup. Even outside of exploration, Surf is just an
amazing move. Many players will tell you that teaching Surf to Lapras, Blastoise, or Vaporeon
made them feel unstoppable. It’s strong, accurate, and learned via an HM, so you never run out
of PP using it for travel and battles alike. Going from splashing around on land routes to riding
your Pokémon across the ocean feels like a genuine power upgrade.

Looking back, HMs in Red, Blue, and Yellow are clunky by modern standards, but they’re also a
huge part of what made those games feel like adventures. Every time you obtained a new HM, the
world quietly changed. Trees that used to block your way suddenly vanished. Dark caves became
manageable. Oceans turned into highways. Even if you’ve played newer generations with streamlined
travel, there’s something undeniably charming about old-school HM design.

So if you’re replaying Pokémon Red, Blue, or Yellow today, lean into the nostalgia. Plan your HM
users, don’t be afraid to dedicate one or two team slots to utility Pokémon, and enjoy the
feeling of unlocking Kanto piece by piece. Once all five HMs are in your bag and assigned, the
region stops being a maze and starts feeling like your backyard again.