Gold received Croconaw from Professor Elm when it was a Totodile. Afterwards, he used Totodile in his first battle with Youngster Joey where it was able to defeat Joey's Rattata with Bite. Later, Totodile went up against Black's Chikorita. Since Totodile had the type-disadvantage, Chikorita was proven to be a tough opponent for Totodile until it was switched in mid-way for Gold's Pidgey. Way after the battle, Totodile starts to collapse and is taken immediately to a Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy, the nurse who takes care of Totodile, advises Gold to keep track of its body temperature.
During Gold's Gym Battle against Falkner, he sends Totodile out to take on his Pidgeot. As Pidgeot was super fast, Totodile's attacks barely made any contact. This was until Totodile made a huge hole in the ceiling, causing Totodile to move swiftly. As a result, Totodile's Water Gun definitely made contact with Pidgeot and took out Pidgeot with Bite. Afterwards, Totodile went up against Articuno and since Articuno was tough to beat, it worked with Pikachu and Pidgey as they couldn't take on the legendary bird alone. Due to their combined power and despite Pikachu's disobedience, Totodile was able to defeat Articuno.
Totodile participated in the basketball tournament and won against Takeo in the end. It had a rematch in with Black's Chikorita but this time, as a Bayleef, where it was narrowly hit by Bayleef's attacks until the battle got interrupted by a Lapras. During Team Rocket's takeover in the Slowpoke Well, it was tied up along with Gold and his other Pokémon.
Totodile took on a giant Sudowoodo in an attempt for it to shrink down to normal size. After Gold caught Sudowoodo, Totodile evolved into a Croconaw. Croconaw reunites with Bugsy's Metapod who evolved into a Butterfree. Croconaw battles Whitney's Miltank but gets canceled when Miltank collapses. After Gold arrived in Cianwood City, Croconaw battled Eusine's Hypno and won despite Hypno's techniques getting the better of Croconaw. Later, it was one of the Pokémon that took on the Black Tyranitar after Black unsealed it.