Pokemon Living Pokedex Progress

[InsaneNutter]

So i've been playing Pokemon on and off since Pokemon Red was released here in 1999. I finished the Pokedex on Red, then Yellow, then near enough on Gold too, I only need a couple to have all 251 in the Pokedex.

After that i never really finished a Pokedex, let alone tried to collect one of every Pokemon, until now. So i decided to compleate a Living Pokedex where i'm the OT of every Pokemon where possible.

Over the last year i've finished a lot of Pokemon games. Pokemon Y, Omega Ruby, Black, White 2 and Heart Gold and as of a few weeks ago Pokemon Moon. Some of these i didn't have a lot to do on, some i've played through from the start.

So the end result is i've now finished at least one Pokemon game in every pair / trio of games and imported a lot of Pokemon up from GEN 3 on wards to GEN 6.

Due to the tedious process of doing this i've mainly imported my squads from the GBA games / early DS games, along with game event Pokemon and Pokemon from actual events. For White and Black 2 i imported everything as I caught a lot of Pokemon in these games, plus it was pretty easy importing a box full at a time without messing about with annoying mini games to import Pokemon.

After that i numbered boxes 1-30, 31-60 and so on. I then placed all the Pokemon i had up to present in the relevant box space, if i had any duplicates I could evolve i placed that Pokemon in the place it should go once evolved. So for example I might have had Bulbasaur, Bulbasaur and another Bulbasaur in the first box. I'd then evolve two of those Bulbasaurs to end up with all three unique Pokemon.

One thing i am doing though is only adding Pokemon where I'm the original trainer to my living dex where possible, I know this won't be possible for all Pokemon as some have only ever been event only. But where possible all Pokemon will have been caught by me or hatched from eggs by myself and have the same OT

So at it stands at the moment the Pokedex starts out like this:

And is now fully complete right to the end of GEN 2:

With the addition of a box containing every Unown:

When i finish the Pokedex i might go for other Pokemon's alternate forms as a long term goal!

So that's basically what i've been doing, i've seen many guides on the internet along with spreadsheets for helping with a living Pokedex, none of which i've really found that useful.

I've essentially imported all the Pokemon i plan to use from past games, ordered them and finally started at Bulbasaur and worked my way though the Pokedex from there, filling in the gaps as I go.

I'm using Bulbapedia to see which Pokemon i need next, then what game / location will be the quickest to obtain it from, or if it's something i need to use the GTS for and then breed.

This post is more for my own records, however I thought others might find it interesting. I started my living dex in October 2016 ish and got everything imported in to GEN 6, along with GEN 1 mostly finished. However Sun / Moon came out so i've not really managed to progress much until recently.

So as of 12/02/17 GEN 2 is finished.

 

[UnknownRespected]

Nice, I want to do that except I'm not gonna transfer anything. 'Cause in Gen. III, IV and VI, every Pokémon can be found at at least one place in at least one of the games from that gen, I thought that would be cooler.

No breeding except for stuff like starters, fossils, Eevee, things that would require you to restart games multiple times to get enough of them because I'm not that masochist.

I'm still stuck on the part where I have to play through all my games though, lol. All my save files for previous games I eventually got rid of at some point for whatever reason, so they all need to be played through over again before I can do anything. Gonna take me forever because I don't have the motivation for games like Pokémon anymore.
Only save file I really still had was from Omega Ruby, even my Y save file I no longer have. I went back through Diamond a few weeks ago and mostly completed that (only have the whole of Battle Island left), and I started FireRed some time ago, got to Cerulean City, I need to finish that.
Once they're all finished I can start going back through every route and getting everything I need.

Gen. V I'm thinking I might as well try and make a living Unova dex, B2/W2 one has a decent selection and I guess that could be a nice goal to go for after I'm done with everything else heh. I have Sun too, but I honestly don't really like Gen. VII, so won't really play it beyond completing the main game, nevermind trying to form a living dex. Won't even bother getting Moon.

I hadn't even thought about Unowns tbh, I'll have to do that.


Might go for Gen. I/II just for laughs, box management sucks but I can backup Pokémon to .pk2 with PKHeX, keep them organized in folders on my computer, and when I'm done it's easy to re-add them to my save file in Pokédex order. I guess others may see this as cheating, I see it as added convenience though since I wouldn't actually be cheating to obtain any Pokémon (aside from Mew/Celebi.)

 

[YoshiMoshi]

I completed a living pokdex up to and including gen 6 as myself as original trainer. I traded with nobody but myself throighout. I started in gen 3 and went up completing a living pokdex. I would imagine it's even easier now as u need less games to do it. I even get all semi permanent forms. I'm just missing lots of shiny pokemon and many many spinda lol. I have multiple arcesus, genesect etc so I can have all forms.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I am breeding, i dont fancy playing games though multiple times when i dont need to!

As it stands i've actually done the hard bits and got all the legendary Pokemon I need from GEN 1 to 5. These are often duplicated in newer games, so quite easy to get them all if you have finished one game in each pair / trio. Plus Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire hand the legendries out from past games like candy!

From GEN 6 / 7 theirs 3 Pokemon so far i'm going to struggle with I think

• Xerneas - I would have to play Pokemon X to get this with myself as the OT.
• Cosmoem - I'd need another Cosmog to evolve, which means playing though Pokemon Sun.
• Solgaleo - I'd have to get this when playing though Pokemon Sun to get another Cosmog.

Pokemon which are currently impossible to get with yourself as the OT to the best of my knowledge are as follows:

• Jirachi
• Arceus (Not possible to transfer the unreleased event)
• Keldeo
• Meloetta
• Genesect
• Diancie
• Hoopa
• Volcanion

Marshadow - Event not released yet, so unknown at this point.

I'm still stuck on the part where I have to play through all my games though, lol

That was my biggest problem about this time last year, Heart Gold was half finished, White I had one gym badge and i'd never even started Black 2. I was Post Elite 4 on Omega Ruby and just Before the Elite 4 on X. It took me until November to finish everything on them, however i just played casually without any urgency.

I honestly don't really like Gen. VII, so won't really play it beyond completing the main game, nevermind trying to form a living dex. Won't even bother getting Moon.

I'm mixed on how i feel on GEN 7, Gamefreak did something different which is nice to see, however it feels a bit too different in places. For example no national Pokedex, that is a strange move in my opinion. I can't put my finger on what it is, i didn't dislike Moon to be fair, but if I had to rank the Pokemon games in order of been my favorite it certainly would be no where near the top.

Might go for Gen. I/II just for laughs, box management sucks but I can backup Pokémon to .pk2 with PKHeX, keep them organized in folders on my computer, and when I'm done it's easy to re-add them to my save file in Pokédex order.

GEN 1 would be brutal for a living dex, you would have to start the game at least 9 times to get each starter and their evolutions, then play the games though to the point where you get Eevee and the Fossil Pokemon 4 times. I guess you could breed in GEN 2 though then trade backwards to GEN 1, so could in theory be done with starting 3 GEN 1 games, possibly two as i think you get a GEN 1 starter Pokemon if you complete a GEN 2 game from what i remember.

A GEN 2 living dex might actually be fun to do, as GEN 2 is my all time favorite generation. I agree about using PKHeX to organise your Pokemon though, i dont see anything wrong with that as you caught them legit, your simply using modern tools to make organisation easier.

I completed a living pokdex up to and including gen 6 as myself as original trainer. I traded with nobody but myself throighout. I started in gen 3 and went up completing a living pokdex. I would imagine it's even easier now as u need less games to do it. I even get all semi permanent forms. I'm just missing lots of shiny pokemon and many many spinda lol. I have multiple arcesus, genesect etc so I can have all forms.

That's dedication, certainly the more you advance in generations the easier it gets i think, especially with online trading. So far i've not needed to trade online for any, I have a traded a couple from a friend of mine who has played the opposite versions to myself, which ive then got eggs of, as for spinder, i'd get one and be happy haha!

Alternate forms is something i might well do when i finish my living dex, I think I could do Vivillon with myself as the OT by getting Scatterbug eggs traded to myself. I know someone whos done this and has save games started in different regions, thinking about it that would be something good to post up as i'm sure I have these saves somewhere.

 

[UnknownRespected]

You can have Arceus from your own OT through Entree Forest in B/W.

At this point you'd need to use PokeStock to add Arceus to your Entree Forest if you didn't already have it, but it would be legal. (Not sure if there are other programs for editing Entree Forest, I'd be interested if there is.)

I'll probably be playing through my games on emulator with speed up function, I don't think I'd finish them within the next 5 years otherwise... but once I've beaten the Elite Four, defeated all trainers and done all post-game content, I'm sending the save files back over to my retail cartridges and doing the actual catching + collecting on real hardware. Though for trading purposes I might use speed up function to speed up the capturing of hundreds of Route 1 Pokémon.


I don't mind there being no Gyms in Gen. VII, in fact I think that's a pretty cool idea. I'm sure a lot of people before Sun/Moon was even announced thought it would be great if they started making Pokémon games that had the same gameplay but different setting.
My problem is that Pokémon designs seem to have gone down the shitter since the end of Gen. VI, and they've just been pushing bad ideas in general since then (my opinion, of course.)

Gen. V was all good, people liked to complain about Garbodor and Trubbish but those are the only ones (and they weren't even that bad tbh, Trubbish was kinda cute even.)
Gen. VI was pretty good too, if there were bad designs it was only one or two here and there but the vast majority of it was great. Starting near the end though, Diancie was -amazing-, but I'm not a fan of Hoopa's normal form, although it's still not that bad. Its alternate form is getting there though, and then they have Volcanion which I just won't ever be able to like. If they had never added that donut on top of it it might have been amazing.
Then Gen. VII comes and... I don't even like half of the Pokémon designs. Litten and Torracat look really cool, too bad they ruined that with Incineroar. Vikavolt looks amazing, too bad you gotta go through Charjabug to get it. What's up with Persian's alolan forme? Just to name a few...
I love Lycanroc which is probably the one thing that makes me regret Gen. VII, lol. I like Primarina a lot, Alolan Vulpix/Ninetales too, and tbh I like Type: Null and Silvally a lot. That's a whole 4 out of everything else, lol. Not to say that this means everything else is bad, but imo there's a loot of bad in there, mixed in with a handful of good-but-I-can-live-without (meaning they're good, I just won't really care about missing out on them.)

Then they started adding stuff like Zygarde's 100% forme, I'm playing Pokémon I don't want to feel like I'm playing Transformers. In the games that's technically Gen. VII (thankfully) but this was a thing in the anime since Gen. VI
From Zygarde 100% forme they moved on to adding all those Ultra Beasts and this is where I stopped bothering. Really?
Some of the Ultra Beasts designs look... okay... I guess, but I just feel like the concept of Ultra Beasts in general doesn't fit at all in the Pokémon universe. I'd rather have more regular legendaries that aren't specifically made to look like not-Pokémon.

Then there's Z-moves, which admittedly I can just choose to not use (what I did.) I wasn't the biggest fan of mega evolution in Gen. VI, but most of the mega evolution designs aren't bad, and I've grown to like them for the most part.
They just make even less sense to me, I mean damn you've seen them. It was funny at first but it just got old after the first day. Why is my Pokémon dropping a boulder the size of a small town onto its opponent? Why is my Pokémon causing an explosion the size of a small town? Why is my Pokémon slamming into its opponent at mach speed?
The effects of Z-moves are fine, but the animations are waaaaaay overdone. I would have liked them a lot more if they toned that down. I would rather they kept the same animations just with extra effects/more damage dealt, but hey they need to appeal to the children who are easily amused by exaggerated stuff like this so they'd never do that.

Gen. VI was -starting- to steer in a direction I wasn't sure I was a fan of, with Mega evolutions and -some- of the later Pokémon designs, but it wasn't enough to make me dislike the games. But Gen. VII just confirmed that this was the direction they were going in and it made me lose interest entirely. At this point I doubt that they'd go back, they'll only continue down that path. Which don't get me wrong, is great for the people who -do- like it, I just don't and I'll be playing the older games instead. I doubt I'll even consider buying eventual Gen. VIII games.
If they release D/P remakes in Gen. VII I'm 100% buying those, though, but anything else, I won't. I didn't have plans to transfer anything from Gen. VI to Gen. VII, since I don't like it I'd rather keep my Pokémon in Gen. VI, but if a D/P remake was made I'm 100% transferring to Diamond remake, lol. Then at least I'd be able to have my favorite Gen. VII Pokémon alongside everybody else.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Nice that's something I was never aware of, i'll certainly have to look in to that!

 

[UnknownRespected]

Lol I didn't expect you'd end up posting while I was editing my post, oh well.
Wrote the first part on my phone while I was in bed but I wasn't about to write all the rest using a phone, so I was waiting to add it into my post once I got to my computer.

Quick search for "Entree Forest Editor" didn't find anything else than PokéStock, it's here if you'll need it:
https://projectpokemon.org/forums/forums/topic/12622-pokestock-bw-updated-for-b2w2/
You'll want PokéCGear. It's a little bit difficult to use though (it isn't nearly as straightforward as it seems) and I've not used it in a long time so I wouldn't be able to really help with that. I mean I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out on your own, it's just that I remember the program having some quirks about it and worked a bit weird.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Cheers for the info @UnknownRespected, it turns out @suloku had released BW Tool sometime last year which included a legit forest with the Global Link Arceus accessible, along with various other Pokemon too!

That is really useful as i never got to try the Entree Forest before the servers were turned off for the DS games, that happened way too early if you ask me!

The Global Link Arceus imports through Pokebank fine, so I've replaced my Michina Arceus with that in my living Pokedex, great stuff!

 

[InsaneNutter]

So i never did update this thread on the progress of my living Pokedex, I actually did finally finish my Gen 6 living Pokedex on 16th April 2017!

Once i got to Gen 5 progress was pretty fast as importing Pokemon from Gen 5 to 6 via Poké Transporter is quick compared to previous generations. Having played though 2x Gen 5 games I had so many of the Pokemon already.

For the ones i didn't have my strategy was looking on Bulbapedia which game it would be easiest to get the Pokemon in. Sometimes this was a Gen 5 game, sometimes it was easily obtainable in the wild in Gen 6, then sometime's it would be a friend safari Pokemon on Pokemon X. I had unlocked a lot different friend safaris from adding random people on Reddit, which greatly helped.

One Pokemon i did struggle with was Cherrim, as in Gen 6 it was a Mirage Forest only Pokemon and i never seemed to get that Mirage Forest. On Gen 5 it was only obtainable on Black / White and not Black / White 2, i'd used a different OT on White, the only game I could obtain it, so it wouldn't fit in with my Pokedex goal as having the same OT for all the Pokemon. Not that I had one anyway, no one on the GTS would seem to trade me one for some reason. The next day however i noticed my cousin was online and he had a Cherrim. He traded it to me, so i put it in the day care center, got two eggs then traded it him back.

After that i just worked though the Pokedex, doing a couple of Pokemon on an evening after i'd finished work, finally getting the last Gen 6 Pokemon i required on 16th April 2017.

I took a break for a bit after that before going for as many alternate forms of Pokemon as I could get. I've got most of these, however still need some such as the different size Pumpkaboo's. Pokemon Dream Radar helped with quite a few of these as it hands legendries out from past games. Plus the actual work we'd done on Digiex collecting the distributions helped me with a couple of these too! For alternate forms I wasn't strictly having myself as the OT, that was purely for the living Pokedex.

Some of these such as getting a different coloured Flabebe was a right pain! However i realised you could breed them with a Ditto and you'd get the colour of the Flabebe you put in with the Ditto. So this was a great help once i eventually got one of each colour.

The hardest one to do was the different Vivillon forms. I just kept making trades for them on the GTS and putting Scatterbug's on the GTS asking for Vivillon in return. I gradually got them all doing this, however it did take quite a while.


Gen 7 wasn't really that hard to do, however i did play though Pokemon Sun just to get the following Pokemon with myself as the OT:

• Cosmoem
• Solgaleo
• Buzzwole
• Kartana

So that was my living Pokedex complete, however then Nintendo related Ultra Sun / Moon which are a cash grab in my opinion as theirs no Pokemon game ready for the switch yet.

This made me feel playing though Pokemon Sun was a mistake, although i did hatch a shiny Bagon so it wasn't all bad.

I'm yet to finish Ultra Sun or Moon so don't have the few new Pokemon introduced in that. However what sucks here is each ultra version has a new exclusive Pokemon to that version, so i'd have to finish both games to get all these Pokemon with myself as the OT. This isn't going to happen any time soon as i don't fancy playing though Gen 7 a total of 4 times. However if i finish Ultra Sun (currently at the start of the 4th island) I can at least get an Xerneas with myself as the OT, as this is the only Pokemon i'm missing from Gen 6 thats obtainable with myself as the OT i don't have.

I also have enough Type: Null's to evolve in Silvally and obtain each of its forums. This is not something i'm even going to attempt any time soon though. As to how i got so many Type Null's, well I kept breeding Mareanie, putting it on the GTS and asking for Type: Null. I could get 1 or 2 a day from the GTS doing that. People in Japan seemed to like trading their Type: Null away for them which surprised me.

At present i am working on finishing Ultra Sun, however i'm not really in any rush to do so. I'm more looking foward to playing Crystal on the Virtual Console when it's released later this month.

So that's how my living dex has progressed, however what's all this without some pictures? So I shall leave you with them.

The Gen 1 to 6 Living Pokedex:

Volcanion and the different Vivillon forms:

The Unown's:

The rest of the Alternate Forms I have so far:

The Gen 7 living Pokedex:

A collection of Type: Null's from GTS trading, maybe one day i'll get all the Silvally forms:

 

[UnknownRespected]

Holy crap, this thread was almost a year ago.

I've changed my point of view on most of Gen. VII since then, though I'm still not going anywhere near Z-Moves (and the previous Gens. were honestly better still.)

Can't disagree on US/UM being just a cash grab, and there is plenty of evidence in S/M that point towards the fact they specifically held content from those games so that they could sell it later at full price for what is essentially just DLC.
Heck just look at all the empty plots in some of the cities that were specifically there only so they could add the Photo Club and the Surf Association buildings later (and the NPCs talk about how they're "preparing the land for something to be build there later.")

It wouldn't be so bad if they were making another Black 2/White 2, with lots of new areas, new content, new gameplay, etc., but they didn't. Literally just Emerald, except split into two versions so they can sell more copies, and in the process, making it so those who bought the original S/M wasted their money, kinda.

To be fair, the original S/M are still somewhat relevant... they have the Gen. II and V starters available through Island Scan, while US/UM have the Gen. I, III, IV and VI starters. So I guess if you don't want to transfer from the older games, or can't, then it's still worth having S/M just for those (it's also the only way to obtain them in Apricorn Balls.)
S/M are still worth playing for the UB Missions too, imo. They butchered the post-game for US/UM.


I've made like, zero progress on my living dex. Not even sure how I'll be doing it anymore, or if I'll even be bothering tbh. I wanted to get all the Pokémon from their respective games/gens, but I'm not so sure about it anymore. Though it would be nice to complete a living dex in Gen. IV, and transfer it all the way up so that I can have a completed Pokédex in all the games along the way.

But also I'm considering just not bothering with that, and just getting living dex between Gen. VI and VII, for convenience reasons. Since honestly I wouldn't really gain anything from completing the Pokédex in all the older games anyway, I might as well not bother. Though I'll be getting Gen. I-IV legendaries from Pt/HG/SS, and the others from their respective Gens.

Still not sure, anyway. Completing National Dex in Gen. IV and transferring it along the way would seem like a fun goal too.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I still dislike / like Gen 7, I do love the idea of going to different island and the fact it is different to the other Pokemon games. I just feel Game Freak dropped the ball this time, then when they had the chance to take what was good about Sun and Moon to improve it, they got lazy. I'd imagine they had limited resources to dedicate to Ultra Sun / Moon as there working on a Switch game.

I do think the first games really needed a proper part 2, not what we ended up getting. Exactly like Black / White 2 where loads of new areas we're added. More than anything Ultra Sun / Moon should have added the national dex and something more than what we got to jusitfy the price. I'm at the start of the 4th island and feel like i'm playing the exact same game i've already played twice before. I've not really read up what happens post game, however from what I gather that's mainly where the changes are and you can get certain past legendries from Ultra Space.

That said i do want a Surfing Pikachu which i know i can get, so i'm somewhat forgiving in certain respects. I just hope the next game is able to make me go "wow this is awesome" like X / Y and Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire did. Those games are the reason i'm back in to Pokemon today.

A living dex is not something i thought i'd ever do, however once you get in to it I think you will find it a lot more fun than you sound, especially if you enjoy the collecting aspect is what you enjoy the most.

Actually getting all the Pokemon from their respective Generation would be possible, however require a lot of time then it even took me to bring everything together from past games and fill in the gaps on Gen 6. If you can get Gen 3 out the way your a good chunk of the way there towards that, as you can't import from Gen 1 or 2 to Gen 3, you have a lot of work to do in Gen 3 to make your life easier in future generations. The migration process from Gen 3 to 4 is tedious and time consuming too. However at least if you migrate to HeartGold and SoulSilver you can do more than 6 Pokemon a day. That was one of the reason i only took my teams and any rare / event and legendary Pokemon from earlier gens.

Start with your goal and see how you go, you can always go back and play the older games sometime in the future if you feel like it.

 

[UnknownRespected]

Actually I was thinking of just Gen. IV to VII. I wouldn't bother with Gen. III.

HG/SS have both Kanto and Johto, and all of the Gen. I and II Pokémon are obtainable in it, I was going to count them as both Kanto + Johto for this purpose.
OR/AS completely replace R/S/E too, so with that and HG/SS I don't even have to bother with Gen. III

The transfers don't really bother me, because between using PokéTransfer or PKHeX to move Pokémon from Gen. IV to V, there isn't really a visible difference in-game (trash bytes are unclear, but I don't care about those and they aren't visible in-game anyway.)

That probably won't be what I'll be doing, either way. I've been thinking I could just leave the older games out of the picture, and just complete a living dex between Gen. VI and VII.
You can get all Gen. I-VI Pokémon between X/Y/OR/AS, including the legendary Pokémon, and all event-only legendaries were conveniently given away in 2016 with Deoxys just being available directly in-game.

Best of all, mass-transferring between games is very quick and easy. I can piece things together by getting exclusives from different games, pool it all together in one game once I'm done, and it would take less than 5-10 minutes to move the entire living dex around between all four Gen. VI games so they get the completed National dex registered.
After that it takes just a few more minutes to send it to Sun, and then move it to Ultra Sun. And then take the time to fill in the Gen. VII Pokémon.

Though, I'm tempted to just do what you did, and keep Gen. VI Living dex in OR/AS rather than transferring it to Gen. VII. They don't even display National dex anyway, so maybe there's no point. And tbh maybe I can have 1-721 living dex stored in OR, and in Ultra Sun, I can build an Alola living dex instead, complete with Alolan forms.


After that, I can still play back through all the Gen. IV-V games again just for fun, even if I'm not completing a Pokédex with them.

 

[InsaneNutter]

That's a fair point, the earlier regions in Pokemon have been re-made at least once, if not multiple times in the case of Kanto.

I always did things the official way in that respect, however your right Pkhex is just as reliable now, which is nice as im sure in a few years time Poketransporter for the 3DS will not be a thing when Nintendo eventually turns the servers off. Long term theirs going to be a problem trading Pokemon up the "official way" due to anything from Gen 5 onward requires a cloud services which will not be around forever.

I do agree from Gen 6 onwards its easy to transfer the Pokemon, i still need to move my living dex to other games and actually do that. It's something i plan to do before transfering it to Gen 8 and beyond if i ever do that.