I've never completed any Pokédex, even a regional one. I imagine I'm not alone in this. I have games from Gen III through V, but due to not having anyone to trade with in Gen III, the not having the patience or interest during the brief time global wireless trades were available for Gen IV-V, I never completed any Pokédex. I came pretty close on the original Sinnoh and Unova versions but at times when I wasn't active on these forums (a user agreed to store a bunch of Pokémon for me then never came back online, after which I resolved to only ever use the in-game GTS) and the GTS was full of unreasonable demands.
Now, with Pokémon having left me well, well behind I know I can't complete the National Pokédex, but I did decided to investigate how close I could get. I consider Gen III and IV to be a combined package given how I play the games, with Gen V separate so, using Bulbapedia and a look in my old storage save I figured out that I can get infuriatingly close:
- Gen III-IV: 488/493
- Gen V: 147/156
In Gen III-IV through a combination of LeafGreen, Emerald, HeartGold, Diamond and Platinum there are only 2 non-event Pokémon I can't obtain: Glameow and its evolution Purugly, which are exclusive to Pearl out of the five games of Gen IV. I have some event Pokémon but sadly lost my Darkrai, Shaymin and Deoxys to the charlatan I mentioned previously, and will never manage those again. I do have Pokémon God, Mew, and Celebi though!
In Gen V the sheer number of special legendaries sees me further away from completing the Unova Pokédex than I would be the previous gens' National Pokédex. Alongside event-exclusive legendaries Keldeo, Meloetta and Genesect (I think I may have got my hands on the latter once, but back when I only had one Gen V game and eventually I took the plunge to restart it as I liked the game), my purchasing of Black and then its direct sequel means I can't access Solosis or Rufflet and their evolutions (can't even see the latter in Black 2, which brings its own issues) or Thundurus.
So yeah, with two DS' for trading (well, one Lite and one DSi), the good fortune to have working Wi-Fi to obtain some event Pokémon and the patience to keep them, I can get one National Pokédex 98.98% complete and 94.23% of the largest single generation of Pokémon introduced. I can actually complete one regional Pokédex, the Gen IV Johto Pokédex:
Given some of us on here will be absolute diehards with games from Red through to Sword, with multiple consoles whilst others may only have the one generation and/or console, I'm curious. Can you, without outside help / GTS (I assume that hasn't gone away in the new generations), currently complete any Pokédex? If so, which one and how?