Gym guide

The Gym guide is a title in the core series Pokémon games belonging to at least seven characters, each corresponding to a different region. In each case, the guide is usually found at the front of each Pokémon Gym, ready to offer tactical advice to novice Trainers. He congratulates the player upon defeating the Gym Leader, and offers more advice for the player's journey. He can occasionally be sarcastic.

Some Gym guides do not stay inside their gyms. The Celadon Gym guide is never seen in his Gym, and instead appears at the Rocket Game Corner, where he plays the slot machines. Similarly, the Cianwood Gym guide is found in the city's Pokémon Center instead of the Gym. The Petalburg Gym guide will vanish after the player has defeated Norman, and, in Generation II only, the Cinnabar Gym guide will arrive after Blaine has been defeated.

No official name was released for the Gym guide in the first four generations. This gave rise to the fanon name "Jim Gai"—a pun on "Gym guy". Two of the Gym guides were given individual names:

• In Unova, he is given the name Clyde (Japanese: ガイドー Gaidō) and if the player talks to him before challenging the Gym Leader of any Unova Gym, he will give a Fresh Water. At the Nimbasa^B2W2, Mistralton^B2W2, Opelucid^B2W2, Aspertia, Striaton, and Nacrene Gyms, he approaches the player and gives the water, rather than requiring the player to approach him to receive it.
• In Galar, he is given the name Dan (Japanese: ダンペイ Danpei) and is a referee who reports the player's results to the Pokémon League HQ. Dan appears at the start of every Gym Mission to explain the player's objective, except in Spikemuth, where he is replaced by a Team Yell Grunt.