Best Way to Complete the Pokedex?

[girlslikegirls]

I dunno about you, but I'm having a lot of fun with X. I finished the main game about 54 hours into playing it, and still find myself going back to it for completion and breeding. I did get the Poke Bank, so my goal is to fill up my Poke Bank with hand hatched / bred Pokemon. Basically, I've organized my boxes into the different types (not counting flying, or dual types) available and have set out to fill those boxes and breed each Pokemon with ditto. I know it's not possible to do EVERY Pokemon, but it's a lot of fun. As soon as the Pokemon are hatched, I send them to my Poke Bank and keep the original in my main game file. Thus far I have about...380ish Pokemon in my save file, and have only bred probably 10 - 15 (not including my Grass Type Team).

How do you guys go about completing the Pokedex? What are your favorite type of Pokemon to collect?

 

[VisualJae]

Completing the Pokédex?

Transfer everything you have from older generation games all into your current file. Breed out the pre-evolutions that you don't have and evolve as necessary. Abuse Wonder Trade and the GTS for the remaining ones you don't have access to.

Manually hunt down event-only legendaries through people you know or online communities.

For breeding:
- Get a Talonflame with Flame Body and teach it Fly.
- Get the Hatching O-Power.
- Keep a Ditto permanently at the daycare.
- Pick 5 Pokémon you wish to breed; put all but one in your party (i.e. keep a spot open).
- Pair Poke#1 with Ditto; now you have two revolving spots in your party (party: Talonflame, Poke#2, Poke#3, Poke#4).
- Pick up egg #1, retrieve Poke#1, pair Poke#2 with Ditto, deposit Poke#1 in the PC (party: Talonflame, Poke#3, Poke#4, 1x egg).
- Pick up egg #2, retrieve Poke#2, pair Poke#3 with Ditto, deposit Poke#2 in the PC (party: Talonflame, Poke#4, 2x eggs).
- Pick up egg #3, retrieve Poke#3, pair Poke#4 with Ditto, deposit Poke#3 in the PC (party: Talonflame, 3x eggs).
- Pick up egg #4, retrieve Poke#4, deposit Poke#4 in the PC, take out Poke#5, pair it with Ditto (party: Talonflame, 4x eggs).
- Pick up egg #5, option to deposit an egg and retrieve Poke#5 to deposit in the PC, or just come back for it later (party: Talonflame, 5x eggs).
- Fly to Lumiose City, pop the Hatching O-Power, bike in circles around the Prism Tower.

Much easier in ORAS, though. Also recommend completing regional Pokédex first in order to obtain the Oval Charm to speed up the egg creation process.

 

[Fannie]

Members of this site or other Pokemon forums are extremely helpful. When I first got X and ORAS after quiting Pokemon for a while I wanted to avoid asking for much in Quick Trades when I didn't have anything of value in return so I'd breed a ton of starters and abuse the bojangles out of Wonder Trade in the hope of getting some Pokemon I needed. I did get some but I needn't have worried about asking in the forums because people genuinely like to help. I'd say that the best way if you're like me and aren't keen on the idea of buying previous games to fill your dex.

 

[Itcheeee]

I personally caught all my 1st gens in FR/LG, 3rd in R/S/E, and 2nt in HG/SS. Same with 4th/5th gens, from their respective games. I found the easiest way to get some legendaries was by playing all the games, and Colosseum/XD helped a lot. Make sure you get the event legendaries each month, Celebi is avalible now and if you need a Mew I'm sure someone here has one :D I have a spare Mew from last months event if you really need it, I never clone/mess with my Pokemon or games.

 

[TheMasterKoga]

What I would do to get harder to get pokemon was find a friend safari with something good for competitive like speed boost whirlipede. Then I would put them on GTS with the caption "speed boost" and usually I would be able to get the harder to find pokemon fairly easily. GTS can be your friend

 

[Imperator161]

I caught as many things as I could as I went through the main story, and evolved as many Pokemon as possible. I also tried to keep Pokemon on the GTS to ask for things I didn't have that were somewhat hard to get (version exclusives, Pokemon that need to be traded while holding a certain item to evolve, and ultimately, legendaries that I didn't feel like catching for the time being). Once Bank came out, I picked up all of the starters from the GTS or from my older games, and bred and evolved them. Before gen IV/V wifi came out, I made sure to transfer all of the legendaries I needed forward, and then I made a list of everything else I needed (which wasn't much at that point). I then either caught the Pokemon in another game or traded for it, and then bred it with the best nature I could think of and leveled it up until it evolved. I think trading has made Pokedex completion a lot easier than it used to be, and by using a variety of Pokemon as I played through the game, I filled up a lot of my Pokedex without even trying.

Now, I'm making a competitive Pokedex, where I breed a Pokemon from each evolution line with egg moves and an appropriate nature. I track them in a large spreadsheet, and try to keep them in order in my PC, though I haven't updated it in a while. I've started to get more into special balls now, like dream balls and apricorn balls, so I breed with those whenever I can. I have about 450 hours on X right now, mostly from breeding. At some point, I need to EV train everything and evolve them (have done that with a few of my freshly-bred Pokemon, but not many of them). I did a little too much breeding in December/January, so I'm taking a break from it right now and doing challenges on RBY instead for a change of pace, but I'll probably go back to breeding within the next couple of months.

I'm also working on a foreign dex. To do that, I used to do a lot of wonder trades at odd hours. If I got a foreign Pokemon that I didn't have, I evolved it to its final stage, then either kept it or wonder traded it away again. I also go on the GTS and look for a few potential foreign Pokemon at a time, and try to trade for those. I don't think that that Pokedex is going to be completed anytime soon, but it's fun to work on it.

 

[Banz]

Best way to complete the Pokédex? That will differ from generation to generation, but having an extra GB/GBA/DS/3DS with the complementary game will make it a lot easier.
In Generation 1 however, you can use the Mew Glitch and its variants to catch any Pokémon unavailable in the game. I'm currently making a guide for this.

 

[girlslikegirls]

Completing the Pokédex?

Transfer everything you have from older generation games all into your current file. Breed out the pre-evolutions that you don't have and evolve as necessary. Abuse Wonder Trade and the GTS for the remaining ones you don't have access to.

Manually hunt down event-only legendaries through people you know or online communities.

For breeding:
- Get a Talonflame with Flame Body and teach it Fly.
- Get the Hatching O-Power.
- Keep a Ditto permanently at the daycare.
- Pick 5 Pokémon you wish to breed; put all but one in your party (i.e. keep a spot open).
- Pair Poke#1 with Ditto; now you have two revolving spots in your party (party: Talonflame, Poke#2, Poke#3, Poke#4).
- Pick up egg #1, retrieve Poke#1, pair Poke#2 with Ditto, deposit Poke#1 in the PC (party: Talonflame, Poke#3, Poke#4, 1x egg).
- Pick up egg #2, retrieve Poke#2, pair Poke#3 with Ditto, deposit Poke#2 in the PC (party: Talonflame, Poke#4, 2x eggs).
- Pick up egg #3, retrieve Poke#3, pair Poke#4 with Ditto, deposit Poke#3 in the PC (party: Talonflame, 3x eggs).
- Pick up egg #4, retrieve Poke#4, deposit Poke#4 in the PC, take out Poke#5, pair it with Ditto (party: Talonflame, 4x eggs).
- Pick up egg #5, option to deposit an egg and retrieve Poke#5 to deposit in the PC, or just come back for it later (party: Talonflame, 5x eggs).
- Fly to Lumiose City, pop the Hatching O-Power, bike in circles around the Prism Tower.

Much easier in ORAS, though. Also recommend completing regional Pokédex first in order to obtain the Oval Charm to speed up the egg creation process.

Wow, thanks for all the tips, friend! Funnily enough, I do have a ditto whose job is basically to stay at the daycare in my X's save file. Lol. We have similar play styles, although I hadn't realized the Hatching O Power was available in Lumiose city.

 

[girlslikegirls]

Members of this site or other Pokemon forums are extremely helpful. When I first got X and ORAS after quiting Pokemon for a while I wanted to avoid asking for much in Quick Trades when I didn't have anything of value in return so I'd breed a ton of starters and abuse the bojangles out of Wonder Trade in the hope of getting some Pokemon I needed. I did get some but I needn't have worried about asking in the forums because people genuinely like to help. I'd say that the best way if you're like me and aren't keen on the idea of buying previous games to fill your dex.

It definitely doesn't surprise me that people are willing to help here in the forms. Seems like a good bunch. :-) I only worry about encountering scammers when it comes to trading Pokemon, but that doesn't seem to be much of a problem here. I friggin' love Wonder Trade although it's hit or miss depending on the time of day for me. I have a a few friends who play and I usually enlist their help for Pokemon that are rarer in the newer games. I'm holding out for a Whimsicott so I can finally start in on my Grass Type play through. ^-^

 

[girlslikegirls]

I personally caught all my 1st gens in FR/LG, 3rd in R/S/E, and 2nt in HG/SS. Same with 4th/5th gens, from their respective games. I found the easiest way to get some legendaries was by playing all the games, and Colosseum/XD helped a lot. Make sure you get the event legendaries each month, Celebi is avalible now and if you need a Mew I'm sure someone here has one :D I have a spare Mew from last months event if you really need it, I never clone/mess with my Pokemon or games.

I have two copies of Celebi (who is my favorite after Shaymin. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MONTH SHAYMIN IS RELEASED!!). Mew was actually my very first event Pokemon. My friend took me with his GF to get it! It's so cute! ~

 

[girlslikegirls]

What I would do to get harder to get pokemon was find a friend safari with something good for competitive like speed boost whirlipede. Then I would put them on GTS with the caption "speed boost" and usually I would be able to get the harder to find pokemon fairly easily. GTS can be your friend

Sadly, GTS confuses me a bit so I haven't played with it much. Safari looks interesting but I haven't quite touched it just yet. lol. I'll look into GTS a little more though! Thanks for the tip. :-)

 

[girlslikegirls]

I caught as many things as I could as I went through the main story, and evolved as many Pokemon as possible. I also tried to keep Pokemon on the GTS to ask for things I didn't have that were somewhat hard to get (version exclusives, Pokemon that need to be traded while holding a certain item to evolve, and ultimately, legendaries that I didn't feel like catching for the time being). Once Bank came out, I picked up all of the starters from the GTS or from my older games, and bred and evolved them. Before gen IV/V wifi came out, I made sure to transfer all of the legendaries I needed forward, and then I made a list of everything else I needed (which wasn't much at that point). I then either caught the Pokemon in another game or traded for it, and then bred it with the best nature I could think of and leveled it up until it evolved. I think trading has made Pokedex completion a lot easier than it used to be, and by using a variety of Pokemon as I played through the game, I filled up a lot of my Pokedex without even trying.

Now, I'm making a competitive Pokedex, where I breed a Pokemon from each evolution line with egg moves and an appropriate nature. I track them in a large spreadsheet, and try to keep them in order in my PC, though I haven't updated it in a while. I've started to get more into special balls now, like dream balls and apricorn balls, so I breed with those whenever I can. I have about 450 hours on X right now, mostly from breeding. At some point, I need to EV train everything and evolve them (have done that with a few of my freshly-bred Pokemon, but not many of them). I did a little too much breeding in December/January, so I'm taking a break from it right now and doing challenges on RBY instead for a change of pace, but I'll probably go back to breeding within the next couple of months.

I'm also working on a foreign dex. To do that, I used to do a lot of wonder trades at odd hours. If I got a foreign Pokemon that I didn't have, I evolved it to its final stage, then either kept it or wonder traded it away again. I also go on the GTS and look for a few potential foreign Pokemon at a time, and try to trade for those. I don't think that that Pokedex is going to be completed anytime soon, but it's fun to work on it.

Y'know, I'm finding that with the hours I actually have time to play (usually 1 - 3am), wonder trade gets me a lot of foreign Pokemon. I didn't realize it mattered until my friend pointed out that you have a higher chance of a shiny with a Japanese version of a certain type of Pokemon. I forgot which one, though.... It definitely sounds like a lot of fun and you have a really interesting method. I'm curious, but have you ever gotten your hand on a friend ball at all? It's my favorite design and I have yet to encounter it in Pokemon X. XD

 

[girlslikegirls]

Best way to complete the Pokédex? That will differ from generation to generation, but having an extra GB/GBA/DS/3DS with the complementary game will make it a lot easier.
In Generation 1 however, you can use the Mew Glitch and its variants to catch any Pokémon unavailable in the game. I'm currently making a guide for this.

oooh nice. I'm not really a fan of using Glitches, but you should definitely post a link to the guide once you finish it. ^-^

 

[Jessie]

I know it's not possible to do EVERY Pokemon, but it's a lot of fun.

Sure it's possible! :) You put a lot of hours in, but it's really cool to see that hard work pay off.

I'm working on a live Pokedex now and I'm not even half way through. My friend has it completed, so he has one of each Pokemon, including one of each evolution. It's really really neat.

Other people have mentioned great resources, and I think one of the best is the Pokecommunity. I've done a ton of baby Pokemon trading on here in the past.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you need any babies. I have access to most, I'm happy to help!

 

[Imperator161]

Y'know, I'm finding that with the hours I actually have time to play (usually 1 - 3am), wonder trade gets me a lot of foreign Pokemon. I didn't realize it mattered until my friend pointed out that you have a higher chance of a shiny with a Japanese version of a certain type of Pokemon. I forgot which one, though.... It definitely sounds like a lot of fun and you have a really interesting method. I'm curious, but have you ever gotten your hand on a friend ball at all? It's my favorite design and I have yet to encounter it in Pokemon X. XD

I think I have a few friend balls, though I'm not sure if any of them came from Wonder Trade or not. I'll have to check. I feel like I don't get as many interesting balls through Wonder Trade as I would like. I have all of my old games and enough systems to transfer stuff up, so if there's a particular Pokemon you were looking for in a friend ball, I could look into whether I have it or could catch it easily.

Re: the shiny thing, that's probably talking about the Masuda method, where you have a better chance of breeding a shiny if you use two Pokemon from different language games. For American players (or other English-speaking players), I find the easiest way to do it is just to breed an English language Pokemon with a Japanese Ditto (preferably a 6 IV one).

I guess I first started getting a lot of Japanese Pokemon because I played at night a lot, though as an east coaster, I got a lot of English language Californian Pokemon, too, which weren't so exciting. After a while, I completed my Pokedex, and realized that I wanted something new to do, and voila, the language dex was born! I find it hardest to get Korean Pokemon (just because I don't encounter many Korean players) and some of the European Pokemon (Spanish is easier because you see a lot of it in Latin America too, but some other languages that are mostly restricted to a single country are hard, especially when I don't play at the same time as the people from those countries).

 

[Fannie]

Sadly, GTS confuses me a bit so I haven't played with it much. Safari looks interesting but I haven't quite touched it just yet. lol. I'll look into GTS a little more though! Thanks for the tip. :-)

My advice regarding GTS would be avoid seeking Pokemon, opt for deposit. A lot of people deposit common Pokemon and ask for very rare/unobtainable Pokemon. I've very rarely found a fair trade from seeking, but if you deposit and set up fair trade conditions yourself it wont take long to get what you're asking. Anyone who scours GTS for the fair trades is a saint because I don't have the patience.