Board 8 > Has anyone here completed a living dex in Pokemon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been working on one myself, and man are there some obnoxious hurdles haha.

Really interested to see how many others have actually pulled it off and to hear any cool stories you had during it

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No. I was one pokemon off (Mew) from finishing my pokedex in gen 1, two pokemon off (Darkrai and Manaphy) in gen 4, and I finished the in-game pokedex in gen 7 (which I don't count). Never attempted a living dex, though.

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I had one in XY. I was proud of myself

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I had one all the way up to and including Sun/Moon, didn't realize they added new Pokemon for USUM, and am now a Zeraora short of having a living dex up to that generation. Currently working on it for Sword/Shield, which is much easier now thanks to the GTS.

I did all of it legit, for the most part. There were a few non-mythical legendaries that I got off the GTS in the 3DS days, but they passed through both Bank and Home so I guess they're legit enough. At this point I only have a few legendaries left that aren't my own thanks to all of the events.

I initially completed the living dex almost solely through Omega Ruby. I had a few pokemon from BW2 that I brought over but nothing crazy. Thankfully that was the year that Nintendo did the mythical events every month, and so I was able to legitimately get every mythical that I needed.

I did what seemed like 30 hours of just riding my bike in circles around the day care breeding and hatching eggs to get that initially done, but once you "catch up", each gen after is pretty simple because there are generally less than 100 new pokemon to get. Oddly enough my final play time in Omega Ruby after completing it was only like 110 hours, which included beating the game, doing all the side content, and the living dex. I'm not a competitive battler though so I didn't spend any time breeding for a team.

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Honestly the worst part of the entire process might have been getting a Melmetal as someone who hates Pokemon GO. It took me over a month of playing to gain levels plus waiting for the mystery box from Let's Go to reset.

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Haven't since GSC I think.
Did get some 451 in Y apparently. Not a living Dex but most of the way. The hardest part has always been the trade ones and exclusive legendaries but usually there's something to help the latter these days. Former always sucked but they've been steadily becoming more accessible each gen. Wild Gengar and Machamp in Sword is a blessing.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

two pokemon off (Darkrai and Manaphy) in gen 4

For some reason I always think Manaphy is Phanpy and was like "that's a weird Pokemon to be missing"

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I've competed the regular Pokedex in every game that I've cared about, but never a concurrent living dex. I always thought that the whole concept was a dumb bad meme. But with the rumor floating around that you need to have every Pokemon stored in Home in order to get the original color Magearna, I may end up doing it for the first time ever if completing the National Dex proves not to be enough.

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I've heard some people say you need not only every Pokemon, but every form of every Pokemon (including Shiny) to have a "Living Pokedex". I'm curious as to how such people factor Spinda into the equation...

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davidponte posted...

I initially completed the living dex almost solely through Omega Ruby. I had a few pokemon from BW2 that I brought over but nothing crazy. Thankfully that was the year that Nintendo did the mythical events every month, and so I was able to legitimately get every mythical that I needed.

This is when I worked on mine too, but dropped it the following year missing out on the new mythicals on accident and wasn't a fan of Sun/Moon so didn't start them until recently

davidponte posted...

Honestly the worst part of the entire process might have been getting a Melmetal as someone who hates Pokemon GO. It took me over a month of playing to gain levels plus waiting for the mystery box from Let's Go to reset.

Yeah not looking forward to that. I'm about to buy Poke Ball Plus bundle just to get Melmetal and Mew

Johnny Eagle posted...

I've heard some people say you need not only every Pokemon, but every form of every Pokemon (including Shiny) to have a "Living Pokedex". I'm curious as to how such people factor Spinda into the equation...

I've heard it's just the basic mons you need. Every shiny seems a bit excessive, especially since some of them have never been available.

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Hey @BetrayedTangy cool sig! And good progress. Why are III and XI not included?

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I still have my living dex up to gen 7 including Meltan and Melmetal (currently all sitting in Home)

still haven't played Sword/Shield yet

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I have a ton of pokemon spread out over multiple games,but I'm a bit confused buy Pokemon Bank and now Home and what exactly you need to do to get them all in one place.

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GANON1025 posted...

I have a ton of pokemon spread out over multiple games,but I'm a bit confused buy Pokemon Bank and now Home and what exactly you need to do to get them all in one place.

Bank:
natively works with the 3DS games.
inside Bank there's something called Poke Transporter. this works with Black/White 1 and 2, and the VC Gen 1 and 2 games.
finally, it can send Pokemon from Bank to Home. this is a one-way process.

Home:
only works with Switch games. eventually will also connect to Pokemon Go, somehow.

so getting stuff over would be easiest with the 3DS games. Black and White is possible too. that said, just be aware that the dex is only around 400 right now so there's a lot you'd leave out. Bank is also $5/year, though free for another 2 weeks or so. Home is $3/30 days or $16/year for the paid subscriptions, which is needed to transfer. there's also a free version of Home which has a few less features but fine for most purposes.

tl;dr:
3DS games/Black and White/VC games -> Pokemon Bank
Pokemon Bank -> Home (pay $3 min)
Home -> Switch

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Pretty sure I have one in X or AS, thanks to that year of mythical event releases replenishing my collection after my DS and games were stolen. I probably had one in W or W2, but I think at least one of the mythicals would've been hacked.

Didn't play USUM, LGPE, or Go, so Zeraora, Meltan/metal, and the extra new UBs are preventing a living dex in Home (plus I don't care to pay for a full Home subscription anyway).

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I finished the X and Shield pokedexs. thats good enough

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I have my living dex up to USUM, then out melmetal, and now this gen just out the 2 mixed fossil pokes & Zamazenta

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GuessMyUserName posted...

I have my living dex up to USUM, then out melmetal, and now this gen just out the 2 mixed fossil pokes & Zamazenta

The fossils aren't version exclusive. Just keep digging with the bros and you'll get the fossil pieces for the other two eventually.

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I finished the regular Pokedex in DPP (and RBY except for Mew) but a living dex just sounds like busywork. Even more so, that is.

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mnkboy907 posted...

The fossils aren't version exclusive. Just keep digging with the bros and you'll get the fossil pieces for the other two eventually.

... I did not know this

time to use my million watts

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GuessMyUserName posted...

... I did not know this

time to use my million watts

Make sure you use the brother closer to the Day Care. You won't get them from the other one.

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*now* is the time to use my million watts then

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Yes, I have all 890 in my Home. I'm not doing all the forms though, that's just ridiculous XD

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Yep. Did it back in ORAS and it's been very easy to keep up with since for the most part.

They're in Home along with around 700 other various Pokemon, ranging from previous teams to shinies.

Didn't really do the forms thing because I mostly just care about ease of access to the shiny charm in new games. With Home on my phone though I am slowly GTS/wonder trading for Vivillon forms.

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I kinda have up to the current gen
But I am in the process of creating duplicates for Gen 7 because I don't feel like transfering them over and not keeping any of them in the 3DS games

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I caught 'em all in gen 1, including Mew.

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I have a living dex for gens 1-7, but Im not transferring it to Home. I started fresh for 8. I have the Pokdex completed, but I dont have one of each yet. Not sure if I want to.

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wallmasterz posted...

Hey @BetrayedTangy cool sig! And good progress. Why are III and XI not included?

Thanks man, I had III on my PSP but it broke so I need to find a DS copy. As for XI I didn't have a way to play it, but I just got a PC so I might have to change that.

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alright thanks to that tip fossils complete, up to 883

... gotta get back to my Ultra Moon some day and then eventually finish those Meltan catches

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RySenkari posted...

Yes, I have all 890 in my Home. I'm not doing all the forms though, that's just ridiculous XD

I did forms for things like Deerling/Sawsbuck, and even have the whole Unown alphabet. Fuck doing that for Vivillon or Alcremie though.

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does spinda get dex'd per pattern?

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Only in Gen 1

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Grimlyn posted...

does spinda get dex'd per pattern?

There are more possible dot patterns for spinda when it was introduced than boxes in Pokemon Home can fill.

On the other hand, as far as I know, pokemon go has only 8 patterns for it.

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Only gen 1

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I have done it with regional dexes often. I don't have a full living dex in once game, but I could get one in Home without catching anything.

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Is this just having every Pokemon at one point in a game? I did it in either Red or Blue like 20 years ago. I still have a vivid memory of walking around Mount Moon (I think that's what it's called?) looking for a Paras, which was inexplicably the last one I caught. I had a Parasect but no Paras.

I haven't played one since Yellow though.

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I had a living dex of fully evolved pokes from Emerald thru XY. Having the NFE mons seemed like a waste of time. Cheated for the event pokemon, of course

Voted regular Pokedex

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Yeah what does a living dex mean?

If it means having a copy of every single pokemon, not just recorded in the dex, then never.

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pjbasis posted...

Yeah what does a living dex mean?

If it means having a copy of every single pokemon, not just recorded in the dex, then never.

At a minimum it's a copy of every single Pokemon. Some people are more specific and want every form variation and gender difference as well, and some people are insane and go for every shiny.


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Me and my bro got 151 back in the day

Mew came from pokemon stadium so he was legit

That's about it . We didnt pkay anything after.

I'm just NOW catching up on pokemon games and I don't see myself completing anything

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pjbasis posted...

Yeah what does a living dex mean?

If it means having a copy of every single pokemon, not just recorded in the dex, then never.

Yeah, a completed dex just means you can scroll through your Pokedex and see every Pokemon. A living dex means you can scroll through your boxes and see every Pokemon.

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Oh god that sounds gruelling. When you could easily dupe in Gen 2 would be the only way I could stomach trying this.

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some examples from my list in Home







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I've only done it in Gen 1, but I'm planning on completing it for Home and Sword/Shield.

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wg64Z posted...

Oh god that sounds gruelling. When you could easily dupe in Gen 2 would be the only way I could stomach trying this.

Eh, by the time you finish evolving all the Pokemon to complete the dex, it's not really that much more work to breed/catch new copies of the pre-evolutions. I mean yeah there are still some annoying cases like evolving a second Deino, but there aren't many annoying middle stages to worry about.

Well unless you're the sort who just mass trades for the dex entries of fully evolved Pokemon, but that kind of person clearly doesn't care about the collection aspect anyway.

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The most grueling part for me is things like Poipole. Which pretty much requires a second playthrough, unless you got the event or found a trade for one.

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Heroic Bigpun posted...

Me and my bro got 151 back in the day

Mew came from pokemon stadium so he was legit

That's about it . We didnt pkay anything after.

I'm just NOW catching up on pokemon games and I don't see myself completing anything

I'm not sure how I got Mew. Somebody ended up with him somehow in my school (there were a million rumors who got him and how) and he ended up being traded to everyone. There was a glitch where you can trade a Pokemon and if you unplug at the right moment both people end up with a copy right? I think we did that.


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dum unbreedable silvally

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BetrayedTangy posted...

The most grueling part for me is things like Poipole. Which pretty much requires a second playthrough, unless you got the event or found a trade for one.

Oh yeah, or the four members of the Cosmog line when the game only gives you two. Camping out on the GTS got me covered on that, though.

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SavageInTheBox posted...

I'm not sure how I got Mew. Somebody ended up with him somehow in my school (there were a million rumors who got him and how) and he ended up being traded to everyone. There was a glitch where you can trade a Pokemon and if you unplug at the right moment both people end up with a copy right? I think we did that.

One guy was the cool kid on campus because he had a Gameshark and he had people do him all kinds of crazy favors to get Mew. There's the basic stuff like giving him starters and stuff then others would like bring him lunch or something. Looking back on it, since he had a shark I don't know why he would I want the starters other than shitz and giggles.

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