Living Dex Project

[Duck]

What is this?

The general goal is to create a Living Pokedex containing one of every Pokemon (even if across many different games), including different forms when they behave differently in some way besides just aesthetics: different typing, different stats, etc.

But this excludes forms that only exist inside battle (e.g.: Aegislash), and for my sanity's sake, forms that can't be traded (e.g.: Giratina Origin, Kyurem-White, Calyrex Ice Rider), forms that are Pokemon + Item (e.g.: Arceus Fire, Silvally Ice) and forms that are time dependent (e.g.: Shaymin Sky Form).

I have access to the raw Switch save files and I'm gonna use that to not deal with Pokemon Home or a Nintendo Online Subscription (and also not have to bother some irl friends to serve as a trade mule so I can ferry stuff from one game to another, which could bypass this need).

How to route it?

So, some things are easy enough to route:

• all Gen IX Pokémon have to be obtained on either Scarlet or Violet
• all Hisuian Pokémon have to be obtained on Pokémon Legends Arceus

And before looking too hard into it, I'm fairly sure we'll need to dip into Sword and Shield for some reason or another (probaby the box legends), which that means there are like 5 games we'll probably need to play through to (near) completion or even post game.

Ideally we don't want to make that number of games increase, and even more ideally, we want to concentrate the bulk of catching on Pokemon Legends Arceus and Scarlet / Violet since the Open World aspect makes things a lot easier (don't have to waste time relying on random encounters in the tall grass, stuff like that).

So, I sifted through the available Pokemon for Sword, Shield, Scarlet, Violet and Legends Arceus and out of the 1105 Pokemon on my list, a total of 120 can't be obtained in any of those games (I think, it took me all day, I could have made some data entry errors), so we need to figure out what to do with them.

So let's deal with the biggest problem children first and see where that takes us.

Spoiler:

Meltan and Melmetal

Those two Pokémon are only available on Pokémon Go (or HOME, I guess, in the case of Melmetal), and the main problems with them for me is that 1) it's dangerous outside, 2) getting them involves the usage of real money and 3) I can't get them out of the game (modded switches shouldn't go online on official servers in general).

I suppose I could capture Meltan symbolically via the research task path and then hack it in (and Melmetal symbolizing the HOME gift) but that has a lot of RNG involved, and like I said, I don't live in a place nice enough for playing PoGo.

So I'll make the executive decision of hacking them both in (and not count them as progress in general, I guess) since they're not available in any mainline games by themselves.

Gimmighoul Roaming

Same argument above goes for this guy, but I'm only really going to bother with it if it gets announced somewhere in the middle of this project.

Event Only

Zarude, Zeraora, Marshadow, Volcanion, Hoopa, Diancie, Genesect and Meloetta are flat out unobtainable. They are event only and at best I could mimic the event to allow capturing them but I'm not even sure if I can.

So, I'm hacking them in, pretending I just "got" them via event.

Mew and Jirachi

Mew and Jirachi are available in BDSP, keyed only by the presence of save data from a few other games, which is easy enough to get.

With that, we're forced to add those games to our "to play" list, which could be worse. While it only has Pokemon from the first 4 generations (one of which is entirely available in PLA already), it has pretty much every Pokemon from those first 4 generations except like 5, all of which we can get elsewhere.

Celebi

Celebi is one of those 5 Pokémon we can get elsewhere, that elsewhere being in Crystal. It was originally event only, but the VC release lets anyone get it.

This is also useful since Crystal is generally fast specially with turbo and most Pokemon from the first 2 generations are available there and are probably easier to get there in general.

Deoxys (aka the most annoying mythical)

Deoxys is available at the end of the ORAS story. Not great, but there are a bunch of Pokemon that are easy to grab on ORAS that we would need to get in the post game on BDSP, so by playing the extra game we can cut down BDSP time by a lot. Should be fine, right?

Well, no. Because there's only 1 Deoxys available and I'd need 4 - one for each Deoxys form. ORAS are long games, I'm not playing it to completion 4 times only because of Deoxys.

And since I'm the one making the rules, I'll just capture one Deoxys form and ignore its other forms. Sad, but sanity saving.

Victini

Victini is in an annoying position where it's technically not an event only Pokemon, it's location is. Which means that hacking the key item that unlocks the location (thus mimicking the event) is easy enough.

While I could call it event only, there are a bunch of other Gen V Pokémon I need to catch that aren't available anywhere else, and with this I'd only need to get like 2 badges. Enough to make me suffer through Unova.

Magearna and Ash Greninja

Magearna's event was a QR Code, which means that it's actually still available - just look up the QR Code online.

It won't even be a setback since there are still a bunch of Alolan forms and Gen 7 Pokemon that never breached containment apparently.

Ash Greninja is from the demo and would be sent to Sun / Moon, so I'll either see if I can play the demo and transfer that way or just hack it in.

The rest

Which is basically Gen 6 starters (I could get them in USUM but that's postgame, so no thanks) and Furfrou.

Quick enough to get so a quick dip into XY will round out the Pokemon.

How many games will it take?

11 games to capture and train (and hack in a few cases) a total of 1102 Pokémon,, most of which will need to played more than once (but we can finish a bunch of them relatively early).

As for choosing Pokemon available in a lot of stuff, I guess I'll play it by ear a bit? I do know that I need to catch everything that's available in PLA on PLA or else I won't trigger a certain event and getting that Pokemon elsewere would be trickier, but the rest can be more fluid I suppose.

Updates

1. Pokémon White
2. Pokémon X
3. Pokémon Crystal - Pt. 1
4. Pokémon Crystal - Pt. 2
5. Legends Arceus

Update #1 - Pokémon White

Spoiler:

Pokémon White (Game 1)

So we start the game and pick Snivy as the starter, taking care to reset until it's female - that's important. It took me 15 resets.

After that we beat the rivals and go through the usual story beats, until reaching Unova Route 1. Then we catch two Patrat, box one of them and go beat up an ecofascist in the local rally.

Then we waltz all the way to a junkyard and grab Panpour, and then we go beat Chili. After that we can let Panpour take a nap in the box for the rest of the game.

We beat a few more fascists, help the advance of science, and beat a few more fascists. After that we train a bit until Snivy evolves. It wasn't in the script, but I caught an Audino here because why not?

Patrat evolved and got to retire. Servine basically became the sole remaining Pokemon in the party. After a while, I got bored and went to fight Lenora. I made sure I didn't forget Blitzle before moving along though.

In the forest I caught three Sewaddles, one of which went straight to the box. After that we deal with Team Plasma and make our way to Castelia City. In Castelia City we get a bunch of stuff: a Water Stone to evolve Panpour, the Exp Share, Quick Balls and a ride to Liberty Garden where we catch Victini.

We also get access to the Pokemon Masseuse, which means we can max out Sewaddle's happiness with a bit of clock changing. After that we get to Nimbasa which is all the plot we need to do in this Generation.

I basically bully some athlethes until Servine, Sewaddle, Sewaddle and Swadloon evolve. We could continue grinding Blitzle into Zebstrika now, but might as well do it with the other chunk of grinding we'll need to do later.

New Pokemon: Victini, Serperior, Patrat, Watchog, Simipour, Audino, Sewaddle, Swadloon, Leavanny (+ 9)

Pokémon White (Game 2)

So we start the game and pick Tepig as the starter, taking care to reset until it's female - that's important. It only took me 3 resets, which was nice for a change.

Follow the same general beats with the only things of note being we get Pansage and beat Cress instead of Chili. After that we deal with Team Plasma, get the C-Gear and that's it for this game.

New Pokemon: Pansage (+ 1)

Pokémon White (Game 3)

And now we start a new game for the last time, this time picking Oshawott - the gender doesn't matter this time, in fact things are slightly more convenient if it's male.

Once again, we do things until we get Pansear, beat Corn, get the C-Gear and then we export (our analog for trading) all the Pokémon from Games 2 and 3 to Game 1.

New Pokemon: Pansear (+ 1)

Pokémon White (Game 1 - Reprise)

Now that we've finished all the trades, we trek back towards Striaton - or rather, the Day Care - stopping to capture another Blitzle we forgot along the way.

After biking left and right for a while, we get 2 Snivy and 2 Tepig, we can box one of each.

After that we go all the way back to Nimbasa and go back to bullying the athletes. In the process Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig and Tepig evolve, and we box Servine and Pignite.

After that we've finished the few Pokemon that would level up quickly enough via battling so we go back to the Daycare until they're one level to evolution. And then Blitzle evolves.

Now, Pignite and Dewott are fucking like bunnies in the daycare, popping eggs left, right and center and even the fast grinding method is being annoying. Part of the reason I hate playing Gen V games, they're in the unique position of having the new formula but not the new Exp Share / easier ways to grind.

But eventually they evolve into Samurott and Emboar and we can put down Pokemon White for good.

New Pokemon: Snivy, Servine, Tepig, Pignite, Emboar, Samurott, Blitzle, Zebstrika (+ 8)
Obtained: 19 / 1102 (1.7 %%)

​

 

[braxtonbegaming]

Sounds awesome, looking forward to reading about your progress.

 

[Duck]

Reply

@braxtonbegaming: Thank you!

Update #2 - Pokémon X

Spoiler:

Pokémon X (Games 1 and 2)

As it turns out, you can trade in Pokémon X as soon as you get 2 Pokémon, so for the first two games we just restart until we get 2 female starters. I went for Froakie and Chespin, since a Fennekin without any possible obedience problems would probably help with Viola.

Chespin was quick, only took 1 reset. Froakie on the other hand, took 19 resets.

Pokémon X (Game 3)

After that we play the reset game again until we get a female Fennekin, but we can finally just get started in general.

Then we get Pokeballs and can send Froakie and Chespin over. After that, we spend some time monkey hunting on Santalune Forest - we need to get one of each monkey. We'll box them all when we get to the next city but only Panpour is already "done".

After a bit of training, we got to beat Viola easily enough, and with that we get the Exp Share which makes our lives so much easier. During training and just walking towards Lumiose, Fennekin, Froakie and Chespin evolve.

Once in Lumiose we play the reset game again to get a female Squirtle. Unfortunately enough you get the starter immediately after a battle so it's gonna be annoying, it took me 11 resets.

Still, after that we drop by the Stone Emporium and get the stones to evolve Pansage and Pansear. On the way to Camphrier we get Furfrou on Route 5 - it's important to make sure it's male - and work our way over to Camphrier.

There, we do the Parfum Palace subplot, beat (but not capture) Snorlax and unlock the Day Care and the Battle Chateau which is the last bit of progression we need to do here.

While we wait for the eggs to drop, we look around for two Duckletts - we can box one of them -, in the meanwhile Squirtle evolves and 2 Fennekin, 2 Chespin, 2 Froakie and 2 Squirtles hatch (we box one of each).

After that it's only a matter of grinding out the evolutions on the Battle Chateau. After a while I got enough money to send a Writ and that really sped up the process. (Although the loss of obedience after Level 30 from Frogadier and Quilladin was a bit of a setback.)

By the time I was done, I was a Marquis in the Battle Chateau. Even managed to rematch Viola once (and almost lost because it's surprisingly good against a lot of my team. If it had like Scald or Hydro Pump like it should have in the first place, I would have lost.)

New Pokemon: Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise, Simisage, Simisear, Panpour, Ducklett, Swanna, Chespin, Quilladin, Chesnaught, Fennekin, Braixen, Delphox, Froakie, Frogadier, Greninja, Furfrou (+ 18)
Obtained: 37 / 1102 (3.4 %)

​

 

[Janp]

Now this is a project! Good luck!

 

[Duck]

Reply

@Janp: Thank you! I'll certainly need it.

Update #3 - Pokémon Crystal (Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney)

Spoiler:

So this is an interesting game because there's only really 1 Pokémon we need to get here - Celebi. That said, by the powers of turbo, a lot of Pokemon are more convenient to get here.

We still shouldn't get anything from PLA since we need to capture stuff over there anyways, but we have the latitude to get a lot of things here if they're less annoying. Especially if they aren't available in SV or SwSh.

So we'll play it by ear and maybe catch a few things here and there if they're convenient.

Segment 1 - Falkner

First we start two games to get Chikorita and Totodile and port them over to the real game where we pick Cyndaquil. This time around there's no need for them to be female.

Once they're in the main game, we could start our catching spree but most of those Pokemon are actually available in many places and so are their evolutions. And since this isn't a Professor Oak, we can postpone captures.

As it turns out, on Rt. 29, we only need 1 Pidgey, 1 Rattata, 1 Hoothoot and 1 Sentret - we can get their evolutions later - changing the clock as needed. We also drop by Rt. 46 to grab a Spearow.

On Rt. 30 we grab 1 Poliwag, 1 Ledyba, 1 Spinarak and 3 Caterpies and 3 Weedles. We could get those evolutions later, but they're quick enough to grind might as well do them now. Then, on Rt. 31 we capture Bellsprout and we're done with capturing for this segment.

So we just beat up the monks and grab the badge. The only thing of note is that Cyndaquil evolved.

New Pokemon: Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedril, Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, Poliwag, Bellsprout, Sentret, Hoothoot, Ledyba, Spinarak (+ 15)
Obtained: 52 / 1102 (4.7 %)

Segment 2 - Bugsy

After that we go down Rt. 32 and get an Ekans before entering the Union Cave. In Union Cave, we get a Sandshrew and reach Azalea.

We help the city fight off the mafia, and take a dip into the forest before facing Bugsy, where we get one Oddish and one Venonat.

It's a short and uneventful segment, but next one will have more going on.

New Pokemon: Ekans, Sandshrew, Oddish, Venonat (+ 4)
Obtained: 56 / 1102 (5.1 %)

Segment 3 - Whitney

After that we get access to Cut, and more importantly, Headbutt. With Headbutt we can get Noctowl in Ilex Forest, and Exeggcute on Route 34 - and in the process Chikorita and Totodile evolve.

Also on Route 34, we get a Snubbul, 2 Drowzee (one of which we box). and a Ditto - which is one of the few Pokemon we're forced to repeat in multiple games but I need to pick one to count anyways. With Ditto we can breed 2 Chikorita and 2 Totodile.

After that we grind one of those Chikorita and Totodile to evolve. In the meantime we get a Pinsir in the Bug Catching Contest and then beat Whitney.

New Pokemon: Drowzee, Exeggcute, Pinsir, Ditto, Chikorita, Bayleef, Totodile, Croconaw, Noctowl, Snubbul (+ 10)
Obtained: 66 / 1102 (6.0 %)

Crystal doesn't have an in-game box viewer with like, actual graphics (that came in Gen 3), so here's are some (partial and unsorted) box shots on PkHeX

​

 

[Duck]

Update #4 - Pokémon Crystal (Ecruteak ~ The End)

Spoiler:

Segment 4 - Morty

After dealing with the weird tree, we capture 2 Pidgeottos, 1 Ledian and 1 Ariados.

In the Burned Tower we capture Koffing, Weezing and Raticate, as well as unlock the Roaming Dogs.

After that a combination of Quilava and Croconaw beat Morty.

New Pokemon: Pidgeotto, Raticate, Koffing, Weezing, Ledian, Ariados (+ 6)
Obtained: 72 / 1102 (6.5 %)

Chuck and Jasmine

A quick jaunt left and we get Tauros and Miltank on our way to Olivine. We also find Entei and Raikou so they're on our Pokedex for when we want to hunt them down later.

While going to Cianwood, Bayleef, Croconaw and Quilava evolve. I then collect a Shuckle in Cianwood.

New Pokemon: Tauros, Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Shuckle, Miltank (+ 6)
Obtained: 78 / 1102 (7.1 %)

Segment 6 - Pryce

Now that we have Surf, Strength and Fly we can backtrack and get a few more Pokémon we had to pass up.

On Route 30 we catch 3 Poliwhirls, then we drop by the Union Cave where we get Lapras and after a bit of wandering, we reach the Ruins of Alph and get Natu and Smeargle.

In Slowpoke Well we get Slowpoke, Slowbro and a King's Rock to evolve one of our Poliwhirls into Politoed.

On Route 42, we get Goldeen, Seaking, Fearow and Arbok. Then we go onwards to the Lake of Rage, passing by Route 43 where we nab Farfetch'd and Furret.

Drowzee evolved while in Rocket HQ. After some phone manip I manage to get a Water Stone and evolve the final Poliwhirl to Poliwrath and then I beat Pryce.

New Pokemon: Fearow, Arbok, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Farfetch'd, Hypno, Goldeen, Seaking, Lapras, Furret, Natu, Politoed, Smeargle (+ 15)
Obtained: 93 / 1102 (8.4 %)

Segment 7 - Clair

After that I went to Olivine and captured Chinchou which I had forgotten to do so previously, then did the Team Rocket Radio subplot. In the process, Pidgeotto evolved.

After that I took a quick detour to Ecruteak where I capture Suicune and boxed Feraligatr. On Route 44 we get two Weepinbells, and after some clock manip we can evolve one of them into Victreebell.

On the Ice Path we get a Jynx and after reaching Blackthorn, go back to Goldenrod and breed a Smoochum. On Route 45, we grab a Skarmory, and then we go beat Clair.

After proving ourselves in the Dragon Den we get a gift Dratini.

New Pokemon: Pidgeot, Weepinbell, Victrebeel, Jynx, Dratini, Chinchou, Skarmory, Smoochum, Suicune (+ 9)
Obtained: 102 / 1102 (9,3 %)

Segment 8 - Elite 5 and Kanto

On Route 27, we capture Doduo and Dodrio and on Rt. 26 we get a Sandslash, and then we beat the Pokemon League.

As we traverse through Kanto we get 3 Gloom on Rt. 24, and then we go back to Johto to get 2 Seel and Lugia on the Whirl Islands as well as get some stones to let us evolve Gloom into Vileplume and Bellossom.

On the way to Fuchsia, one of the Seels evolved. Then we finish beating Gym Leaders and quickly get Venomoth, Granbull and 2 Slugmas around Kanto before returning to Johto for the last time.

Back in Johto, we go to Olivine to get Lanturn, then Blackthorn to get Dragonair, and drop by Azalea to start the GS event and ultimately get Celebi.

And now we get to the hard part: Getting Raikou and Entei. Once we get them, we can get Ho-Oh and end the game but until then we need them. Now, we can get one pretty much for free (as "free" as just finding one can be) with the Master Ball, but the other one's gonna be tricky.

After a while I used my Master Ball on Raikou and I legit lucked out with Entei, managed to get it with one Ultra Ball at full health. Thanks, Lady Luck.

After that, I eventually made my way to Ho-Oh and captured it, leaving me only one Pokemon to get: Magcargo. After some Victory Road training and a few Rare Candies, I got it and can end the game.

New Pokemon: Sandslash, Gloom, Vileplume, Venomoth, Doduo, Dodrio, Seel, Dewdong, Dragonair, Lanturn, Bellossom, Granbull, Slugma, Magcargo, Raikou, Entei, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi (+ 19)
Obtained: 121 / 1102 (11.0 %)

With that we're officially past the 10% mark! Here's the final box shot combined from PkHeX.

In the interest of transparency, I couldn't figure out how to make PkHeX recognize Celebi as legit, probably because I was playing in actual Crystal instead of VC Crystal, so that's why there's the red triangle there. Still, it's as legit as possible and it was caught in-game.

 

[Duck]

Update #5 - Legends Arceus

Spoiler:

Now, after much searching and crying, I came to the realization that unfortunately I will have to play PLA to completion twice due to one Pokémon: Enamorus-Therian.

You see, you only get one Enamorus per save file and it has two forms. There is no breeding in PLA, and even if there was, it's not like Enamorus would be breedable. Now, it's not the end of the world since there are some other one-offs that I can knock out while there anyways but it's still a bit of a bummer.

I considered taking away the Therian forms like I did with Deoxys, but since I haven't played PLA before, I decided I'll do one run that's more casual until I get to Enamorus and then I'll do full 100% on the other save file (coming back to save file one if needed) whenever that happens since I'm not playing them back to back.

And then as the game progressed, I just realized that there wasn't a lot to say about this first run. It's just basically a combination of "do plot beats + catch whatever to get to necessary ranking" except I'll need to catch pretty much everything later anyways.

I did unlock the Incarnates request, but didn't actually finish it yet because engaging them in battle is just so annoying and I don't have the energy for that right now. I'll do it eventually, maybe after I do Game 2, if I continue including PLA.

Because after playing the game, I've seen that the story just has a bunch of racist / colonial undertones that I'm not particularly comfortable engaging and platforming.

Now, I don't think Game Freak was doing it out of malice, just coming from a place of lack of education - which is unfortunately common enough. A lot of colonial powers (and former colonies for that matter) have a tendency to gloss over the realities of colonialism and the tragedies perpetuated against first nations so it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the writing staff just didn't see the many subtly racist themes (the white savior*, the assimilation of the indigenous cultures, having the clans be wrong about their own beliefs, having the main conceit of the story be criticized by the clans while endorsed by God itself, having the clans be set dressing in their own home, the whole mess with Kamado, etc.) they were putting in the story.

* Yamato / Japanese in this case, but the main concept applies.

I did try to look for what indigenous voices (and Ainu voices in particular) were saying about this game, I only found this one review by a person of Ainu heritage, and they do think that it was overall a net win even if it was clumsy. Now, no one group is a monolith, so one review is too small of sample size to get a general view into how the community is viewing this, and regardless of whether they're being happy or not, the decision of whether I want to continue engaging with this game lies with me, and likewise so shall I deal with the consequences, if any.

So, I'll probably do something like Scarlet next, since the routing there is fairly unambiguous, and then if I decide I don't want to continue doing PLA, I'll just do some rerouting and probably shove the missing stuff into BDSP or ORAS or SM or something.