Saffron City

Saffron City is a central city in the Kanto region. It is surrounded by other cities and towns, with Cerulean City to the north, Lavender Town to the east, Vermilion City to the south and Celadon City to the west. It also has a series of underground passages connecting Routes 5 and 6 and Routes 7 and 8. Each entrance can only be accessed by going through a security checkpoint which is initially failed until the guard is bribed.

During the events of the original run, randomized FireRed and Anniversary Red, Saffron City is controlled by Team Rocket for a time and certain key locations are blocked off until the city is liberated.

Fighting Dojo
The Fighting Dojo is the former gym of Saffron City. It specialises in Fighting-type Pokémon and the reward for successfully defeating the Karate Master Kiyo is a choice between Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. It lost its gym status after Sabrina and her fellow Psychic-type subordinates moved in next door and defeated them.

It is from this dojo that the Hivemind chose C3KO the Hitmonlee.

This building is one of the few not to be blocked by Team Rocket. The cause for this is unknown.

In HeartGold, the dojo acts as a meeting point for gym leader to engage in rematches with Aoooo.

Silph Co. HQ
The Silph Co. HQ is the central building in Saffron City and the largest. It has several floors and is devoted primarily to researching new technology to make life easier for people such as the Master Ball and Silph Scope. These inventions attracted the attention of Team Rocket who subsequently besieged the city, stealing the Silph Scope.

After being defeated in Celadon City, Giovanni, Team Rocket's boss, retreated to this building. Although a guard was posted outside the building, he fell asleep, allowing a youth to slip past and save the company director who was being held by Giovanni. The director gave the youth the only Master Ball and discontinued the product.

In subsequent years, security was tightened and access restricted to the first floor.

Pokémon Trainer Fan Club
The Pokémon Trainer Fan Club is a fan club dedicated to certain trainers, such as gym leaders and champions. The Fan Club only appears in FireRed, shutting down sometime in the 2 years following the events of that game.

Magnet Train
The Magnet Train is a superfast train connecting Saffron City with Goldenrod City in Johto. In order to ride it, a train pass is required. Initially it cannot run as the power plant to the north east has been sabotaged, but afterwards it will run.

Saffron Gym
Saffron Gym is run by Sabrina. To get to her, a maze of teleporting pads must be navigated. She specialises in Psychic-type Pokémon but in the randomized playthroughs, she was a Normal-type Pokémon trainer both times.

The gym is one of the buildings guarded by Team Rocket, presumably to stop the trainers within from interfering with their activities.

During the Anniversary Crystal run, the gym was redesigned for the second battle. The trainers inside were removed and the warp tiles were rearranged to form single square platforms surrounded by warp tiles. After spending seven hours navigating the gym with little success, the chat abandoned the task and fled to Goldenrod City. The gym was dubbed Sabrina's Wild Ride, a reference to another notoriously difficult puzzle - the Rocket Hideout, otherwise known as Giovanni's Wild Ride.

Sabrina
Sabrina is the Psychic-type leader of Saffron Gym. In the randomized playthroughs though, she became a Normal-type gym leader, the only Kanto leader to have the same typing in both runs. Upon defeat, she awards challengers with the Marsh badge and a TM, and allows them to use Rock Smash outside of battle if they are capable of doing so.

Copycat
The Copycat is a young girl who is a big fan of Pokédolls. She is also very good at imitating, hence her nickname of Copycat. She provides one of the few pieces of evidence that the protagonist does actually speak. After her house is demolished to make way for the Magnet Train, she loses one of her dolls, greatly upsetting her. She awards a train pass to whoever returns the doll to her.

Her house is one of the buildings guarded by Team Rocket.

Mr Psychic
Mr Psychic is a psychic man who hands out TM28, which is the move Psychic. His house is one of the buildings guarded by Team Rocket, presumably to prevent him from interfering with their plans.

Kiyo
Kiyo is the Karate Master and later Karate King. Initially he runs the Fighting Dojo but soon leaves to train in Johto for a time.