Highest number of Pokémon you used in a single playthrough

Doesn't need to be Pokémon you used for the entire story - ones that you only used for certain parts/segments count too. How many would you say you used? If you can't remember the exact amount, an estimate or guess would be fine. :D

On a casual playthrough: probably nine. Consists of a full team of six, one dropped team member, and two Pokemon for Hidden Machines.

On a challenge run: seventeen (Skorupi, Minun, Yamask, Charmeleon, Shuppet, Druddigon, Kanto Ninetales, Kanto Dugtrio, Primeape, Toxapex, Rampardos, Lopunny, Pidgeot, Mawile, Audino, Magmortar, and Electivire) in Pokemon Moon. Involved random Pokemon eggs (from an Ultra Sun file) and semi-random forced team changes.

In Gen 6+ games (due to the exp. share), my max is somewhere around 12-14. Pokémon such as Makuhita that levels up and evolves super fast in the early game, or an Arbok/Dunsparce that helps catching things with Glare are common additions for me until I can get my definitive team later in the game.

In pre Gen 6 games, it's usually just 6, sometimes 7 or 8 (not counting HM slaves) but no more than that, because it's wasted time on training creatures that I don't intend to have at the end.

In non-official games, my max so far is 19 Pokémon used, in Radical Red. Had to switch team members in the early/mid game quite a few times and get specific Pokémon for certain battles that I had no way to win otherwise. Got final team assembled at around Blaine.

I used eleven Pokemon on my first playthrough of Sun when the game came out. My final team was Decidueye, shiny Toucannon, Midday Lycanroc, Salazzle, Starmie and Kommo-o but I also used five other Pokemon for good chunks of the game before they were replaced by one of the main six. Those five were: Butterfree, Alolan Raticate, Snorlax (from that Snorlium-Z Munchlax event), Wishiwashi and Passimian. After I beat the game I went back and leveled these five up to match the main team's levels and also rebattled the Elite 4 with them + my starter Decidueye so all 11 are Alolan Champions and in the Hall of Fame.

Once I decide to put a mon on my team it's pretty much there to stay for that playthrough.
I might swap a mon temporarily if it's required for the story or my mons can't learn a required HM or something like that.
So probably 6-8.

Have you ever used more than 6 Pokémon in a single playthrough?

Most people tend to use no more than 6 since that's the maximum number you can carry in your party, but others I've seen have used multiple parties worth (I've seen as many as 3-4 parties for a single playthrough, which is 18-24 Pokémon!).

Have you ever used more than 6? What was your highest number?

I have considered this for a playthrough of X or Y. Either that, or a monotype run. The variety is nice in those games.

Sheep said:

Most people tend to use no more than 6 since that's the maximum number you can carry in your party, but others I've seen have used multiple parties worth (I've seen as many as 3-4 parties for a single playthrough, which is 18-24 Pokémon!).

Have you ever used more than 6? What was your highest number?

Click to expand...

Merged this thread with the other, similar one. Created the older thread one day short of a year ago. How eerie.

Reports back in with a new highest number: 25 for the Proof of Affinity Challenge. Trained up a total of 37, thanks to Poke Jobs and Lucky Eggs. Mainly only used two, however.

Previously I think my limit was maybe 8 or 9. For example in my last Emerald save I couldn't evolve my Feebas until after beating the game anway, so I messed around with Wynaut a bit (impossible in-game, especially pre-Gen IV), then found a Clamperl with good IVs so decided to try that out. In a previous one I subbed in Metagross once I could get one.

However, in Sword I've used 15? 10 in the main story:
- Rillaboom (starter - planned)
- Dubwool (plan)
- Galarian Slowpoke (plan)
- Sirfetch'd (plan)
- Alcremie (caught 3 shinies in raids, perfect IVs so had to be done!)
- Toxtricity (plan)
- Cinderace (got a decent one in a trade, before I knew I could get my own from HOME)
- Cramorant (I laughed when I first saw it spit up a Pikachu)
- Zacian (plan)
- Eternatus (Dynamax Cannon made the Zacian quest much more satisfying)
Then I decided to have a new team for Isle of Armor (half of whom also get competitive action)
- Charizard (Leon's gift)
- Blastoise (bred with Lure Ball)
- Venusaur (Honey's gift)
- Galarian Slowbro (got the judge function, realised my original Slowpoke sucked so bred a new one in a Dream Ball)
- Gengar (caught in a Master Ball as its the only purple one)
- Rapid Strike forme Urshifu
I also bred up a capture Gallade, trained up a Dratini I got in a trade, bred a Torkoal for competitive, and also use a traded Giratina competitively. But I'm not counting those, so 16.

In Shining Pearl I've used 7 before I get to Hearthome, as I tried to use my HOME gift hidden ability starters, only to find that they instantly over-levelled. So I've used two Piplup, Chimchar, Turtwig, Starly, and Shiny Magnemite with a Shiny Buneary and Beast Ball Gible sat waiting in the box. But generally I see myself still sticking to 6.

EDIT: if you count Pokémon trained up in-game for battle facilities then I think Black 2 wins it with over 60 (had plans to do more before I bought a Switch). But I only used a team of 6 in-game, swapping in a capture Gallade for legendaries and hidden grottos. I also EV'd every legendary available in Platinum.

I usually try to plan out my team beforehand. Using a team of 6 ends up the norm in a lot of cases. Before that it was probably less than six; especially early on when I went through with the starter only.

In practice I occasionally change my mind and ditch a Pokemon that I planned on using in favor of a different one. Starters in particular can up that number over 6 if I don't plan on using them.

Another thing to take into account: HMs and their amount. I did manage to distribute them evenly among my team. But in gens 2 and 3 there are so many Water type HMs that it becomes a tough task and I may end up with an HM slave upping the number, as well.

I've seen some interesting challenges that may require using a lot of Pokémon. Although since that can lead to plenty of extra grinding, and I'm not a fan of Rare Candy levelling either, I have yet to try that kind of runs.

I prefer to stick with one team as much as possible, unless for some reason I just can't defeat a specific trainer with that team (or could, but would require a lot of luck to succeed), but so far that never happened to me in any official game.

48 in XY because I did a challenge where you must create a new team for each gym. Permadeath and no items, but nobody asked.
If we're not talking about challenges, my most is 17 in my second Black playthrough.

Maybe 7 to 10? Nowadays, I rarely even fill up my team to six Pokemon because I've since become far more picky on what I want to use on my team.

About 9? Counting ones I've dropped and replaced, as well as temporary party members for the early game. I hate grinding so I just stick to whatever's in my final team as much as possible.

25 ~ 27 ish for the Proof of Affinity Challenge.

That was miserable and I never want to do that again, lol.

If you mean play-through as in storyline play-though, the most that I ever used was 24, which was in Pokémon HeartGold. When I play Pokémon, I typically use a primary team to start my adventure, and then a secondary team after beating the first gym. My play style is to use one team and then switch them after beating the next gym. That means, for example, I play with my primary team until I defeat Falkner, and then box them and switch to my secondary team and use them until I defeat Bugsy, and then I switch to the primary team again and repeat until I defeat every gym. Because HeartGold had 16 gyms instead of the usual 8, I used tertiary and quaternary teams for Kanto as well, which totaled to 24 Pokémon overall. However if we're talking about how much Pokémon that I have used in total regardless, even after beating the game, thus far, for Pokémon Sword, I have used a total of 1,005 Pokémon for my play-through, and the number would only keep on growing because I'm always catching, breeding, and building new competitive teams.

I think around ~70-ish.

I had an idea of going through every region using a team of every single pokemon from that region. So I'd go through Kanto using every fully-evolved Gen 1 pokemon, Johto using every fully-evolved Gen 2 pokemon... I've done that for every gen and I think the most was every Gen 1 pokemon in Fire Red.
Doing this pre-Gen 6 exp-share was hell. I recommend to everyone to never do this.

I use every single Pokémon that can evolve

30, in Pokemon Renegade Platnium.