4th Gen I am completing the PokéDex for the first time in my life.

[JanicePlayground]

Well.... this is it. It's one of the core objectives of Pokémon, and I'd never dared venture through it. I've been replaying the Pokémon games... and then I just got overwhelmed by this feeling that I should, once and for all, complete the PokéDex.

Well, the Gen IV PokéDex, that is. I've decided that I should complete the PokéDex on my favorite game of all of them: Soul Silver. It's where my absolute strongest team is, as well as being the oldest save file I still have access to (2016).

... and now, I'm completely overwhelmed by the feeling that I have EIGHTY POKÉMON OUT OF FREAKING FOUR HUNDRED NINETY FIVE OR SOMETHING.

HELP ME.

Spoiler:

No, but really. Any words of encouragement? Tips? Any Pokémon you wanna give me through PKHex?

 

[MiamiHeat305]

Just have fun, get lost, the Pokemon you need to catch in order to complete the Pokedex will appear when you least expect them

 

[Palamon]

What Pokemon are you missing? If it's fossils, like the Sinnoh fossils, I encourage you to go to the sinnoh underground and then trade a pokemon over with the fossil attached to it and then just revive it in SoulSilver, that's what I did for Sheildon and Cranidos because I didn't have either of those when I completed my HeartGold Pokedex. Certain Pokemon like mythicals don't count towards Pokedex completion for the diploma, so you can easily avoid those and still "complete the Pokedex" achievement wise in game, anyway.

Also, if you have any of the gba games, migrate some over. If you can trade with yourself, I'd encourage that, too, if you have more than one ds system you can use.

I will not help with giving you cheating advice, however, sorry.

 

[NikolaP]

There are ways to use online features of the DS games, like the GTS, so that might be helpful for you. Here's a link to the thread about it.

 

[moon]

Good luck! I've never managed this, haha, but I'm also not a completionist gamer; I'm usually perfectly fine with playing through the main storyline of any game and not collect every item or reach every achievement. As such I'm majorly impressed by those who do haha. So I hope you manage in the end, using NikolaP's and others' advice :3

 

[ShyRayq]

A basic tip I would give is to just list everything out by location. Go through Bulbapedia, work your way through the game's routes and areas and write down the pokemon you need to catch, by their method. That way you can just cross stuff off when you get to it and catch it. Maybe put pokemon that are encountered under special circumstances in a separate section, like Pokeradar or Safari Zone or Swarms.

The most tedious part of completing the dex is the evolving. Levelling things up takes forever, so I suggest trying to spread it out as much as possible, rather than leaving it all until the end.

You have to remember to be patient, because this takes a long time. Especially since Gen 4 has so many time-based encounters like swarms, day/night exclusives, and safari zone nonsense etc.

 

[Gardevoir1]

It's definitely a long long process. I've only managed to do it twice in all my time playing: once in Emerald and once in Sun.

I guess technically I did it in FireRed too, but only the 151 there.

Good luck and you got this!!!

 

[TheClassyHerddIer]

All I can say is good luck. I completed mine a year or two ago to get the original form magerna from Pokemon home. I only got it because I happened to have an extra darkria that I trade for another mythical and traded that mythical for another and so on all culminating in my last Pokemon to register being hoopa. All of the trading was in the 3ds games obviously
making the trading more tedious than it might of been otherwise, I registered them in Pokemon bank and onto Pokemon home. But if you can get it done its definitely an accomplishment to be happy for.

Also if you're overwhelmed by 495 definitely stay away from the home dex. over 900 Pokemon to register

Edit: just remembered something. complete the regional dex first. When doing the home dex I completed the SWSH dex and when I was done I already had about 400 Pokemon registered. A little less than half

 

[Amore]

I had a similar idea to OP during the first British covid lockdowns in 2020...only I can only get to 486/488 because I don't have a game with Glameow in :(
...I do have Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi though!

Completing the Johto Pokédex before I challenged Red felt like an monumental achievement. By the time I left it I was only 18 Pokémon away from "completing" the National 'Dex as best I could!
For anyone reading this - Pokéwalker is your friend! I started out cycling around my area, then happened to coincide my return to work in hospitality (LOTS of steps) with the National 'Dex routes so the majority weren't traded over.

 

[Zeostar]

This sounds like so much fun to try someday.

I've never managed it. I like finishing the story and jumping straight into another game, so unless I particularly like something I never stick around for the completion aspect.