Hey guys, this is my first thread on Smogon and wanted to do something that would help people in completing their 'Living Dex' for sixth generation games. With access to ALL sixth generation games, you can complete the Living Dex, bar the Event Legendaries.
For those that do not know a Living Dex is when you have a complete set of all Pokemon in all evolutionary forms. For example instead of just having Venasaur, you would have Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venasaur, and so on. This goes for all 721 Pokemon (Some people don't use the event Pokemon such as Genesect etc, in their Living Dex's because they can be very difficult to get a hold of, so I won't focus too much into these event Pokemon)
First things first why would you want a Living Dex?
Well the Living Dex allows you to have a complete National Dex in any sixth generation game, as I will be doing this for X and Y, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This is provided you will be able to trade between the games, which I recommend that you have access to Pokebank for this. You will also have access to all the Pokemon in the game, which when going for competitive breeds, allows you to already have access to these Pokemon - I will not add anything more to the competitive aspects as this is a guide solely on helping you complete the Living Dex. You will also be able to transfer all these Pokemon via Poke Transporter to the next generation games, so when Sun and Moon are available you will be on of the first to have a completed National Dex, once you have all the Pokemon in those games too. This will allow you to get your 'Shiny Charm' in any sixth generation game you play, or if the Shiny Charm is in the next generation games, to get that a lot quicker!
Now onto a few basic ways to help your way to completing the Living Dex:
- Having a good team of Pokemon - I also recommend you getting a Pokemon that has access to moves such as Earthquake, Rock Slide, and other multiple targeting moves. Which I will go into later.
- Having the Oval Charm - I will go onto how to get this later also, it helps the speed in which you receive eggs which quicken's your process in completing the Dex.
- Pokebank (Pokebank is something that I really recommend getting, it is not necessary but when you want to complete the Dex on mutliple games, then it allows you to quicken the process in sending them over)
- Patience, a lot of patience is needed when going for your own Living Dex as you will not be able to get this quickly or over night.
- A copy of each game is HIGHLY recommended, but not necessary, I had access to Pokemon X and Omega Ruby, which was enough to help me completing the Dex.
- Pokemon Box's ordered 1-30, 31-60 and so on until you reach 721-750. This will be your last box, which isn't required as this holds Volcanion, which you may not need, if just going for the National Dex.
Let's get started! Depending on what games your are playing through you want to catch each Pokemon in each route, which is very tedious at times, giving those small percentage of Pokemon that have very low encounter rates. When I first picked up my copy of Omega Ruby and X, I decided to play through the game and try to do what the slogan says 'Catch em all'. I picked up both copies in February, I have played Pokemon throughout my life, but had a 6-12 month break. So when I picked up my copies, I instantly played through the game, catching every Pokemon in every route. I had not left any routes in the game until I had caught all the Pokemon available there. So once I had finished both Omega Ruby and X, I had already caught a lot of Pokemon which aided me in my journey to completing the Living Dex. I highly recommend you to do so, or if you have already completed the game, go through and do what I done, and catch every Pokemon that you can, that you have not already caught.
Next up, getting your Oval Charm, I done mostly all my training/breeding on Pokemon X, as I found it easier, but that was me, and may not apply to you, you may prefer breeding and training on Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, which is not wrong at all. Getting the Oval Charm requires you to complete the Pokedex for the region that you are in (Hoenn/Kalos dex's). So I recommend catching all the Pokemon you can, and getting all the evolutionary lines for the regular Pokedex that you have. So say you have done this already, you can now go to Professor Sycamore/Birch and recieve your Oval Charm.
(I will go into breeding/levelling up Pokemon in a seperate part of the thread at the end).
Some tips -
Getting the other game exclusive Pokemon/starters/Legendaries -
- Game exclusive Pokemon - you need to have access to a friend, another version of the game, or the GTS. You want to capture your own game exclusive Pokemon, such as Zangoose/Seviper, or Spritzee and Swirlex. You want to trade your friend, or your own game to get these. You can also capture these and put them into the GTS, and ask for the other Pokemon, you will usually get a trade if not in the next 5 minutes but within the hour. I found this very easy, and not at all a problem.
- Starters, simply breed your own starter Pokemon, for example you chose Froakie, breed it so you have 2 more Froakies and then put an offer in on the GTS for Fennekin and Chespin, as well as the Hoenn starters and the other starters you receive from Professor Sycamore, and post game in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. You will also get these trades fairly quickly.
- Finally the Legendary Pokemon, this is the tricky part, now what you want to do, which I done, was breed a Pokemon that does not have any pre evolutions or evolutions. I chose Kanghaskan and Mawile, as these are very popular Pokemon, and do not require evolution to do so. You want to place them in the day care centre, and use the infinite loop, on the Battle Resort, or in Lumiose City. Use the loop either over night/whilst at school and other times that you do not have access to playing Pokemon. Once you have left them in the day care for a good several hours, your Pokemon will be at level 100. Once there, place an offer in the GTS for the other game exclusive legendary. This is not the most reliable way, but I was able to get them all through this way, so I guess it works.
So now, you have the Oval Charm and the respected Dex for your game complete, place all the Pokemon in the boxes in order that they are in, you can do this beforehand, it does not really matter, it helps you keep track of what Pokemon you need, and what you already have. So start of with the first generation - Kanto.
There is no real tips on where to catch the Pokemon etc, you will have to look up on where to find the Pokemon for each box yourself, which you can easily find on many popular online websites if you type the name of the Pokemon in. Start of by doing box by box, and whilst doing so, start getting the Pokemon such as legendary Pokemon via GTS/trading forums whilst you fill these boxes up. You can easily finish, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Kalos in a day, if you have the patience. I started my Living Dex, with basically half the Pokemon in the game, and finished the Living Dex within a week. The two regions you will most likely struggle with if you do not have access to Pokemon Black(2)/White(2) are Pokemon from Sinnoh and Unova, as there are a large amount of Pokemon in these regions that are not easily accessible. A lot of the Pokemon are only found via Mirage Spots or Friend Safari's which can be a real pain to do. So what I can recommend for Mirage Spot Pokemon, is to catch the Pokemon in a mirage spot that you have for that day and trade for the other Mirage Spot Pokemon, as you have no guarantee that the next day you will have access the Mirage Spot that you need. The same with Friend Safari.
I cannot tell you how long it will be before you complete the Living Dex, based on the lack of knowledge I know about how many Pokemon you have all together, or how patient you are, but it IS possible, as I have done so myself in just a few months.
Guides -
Breeding - Breeding is very simple, and all you need is a ditto, and a Pokemon from each evolutionary line. Just simply pop your Pokemon such as Raichu in the day care centre, ride your bike for a minute or two (Maybe longer), and you will have an egg. I would get all the eggs that I needed for a box at a time, and then hatched them using infinite loops which can save time and messing around. I recommend you to get the Egg Hatching Power for this, which you can find out how to get easily online.
Levelling up - You may already have ways to have you like to level your Pokemon up - Victory Road/Elite Four etc. I chose Horde's, now I know this sounds a bit silly, I would grind on the Weepinbell's on Route 119 in Kalos I think it was. This allowed me to train Pokemon and gain about 1000+ EXP per horde, and even more if you use the EXP boosting Power. It allowed me to evolve the Pokemon I needed, and then swap them out as soon as I wanted to, as the Pokemon Centre was very close which you cannot do with the Elite Four until you have beat the champion. The only Pokemon I used to level up in the Elite Four, was those such as Tyranitar, Salamence and others that have a slower level up rate, and a higher level that they evolve. You can also use Blissey Bases - I did NOT use these but if you can I recommend you to do so, my 2ds camera would not pick up the codes unfortunately which would of saved me a lot of time. You can also find very good guides online for these.
Event Pokemon - There is nothing really I can say for these, but look online to when they're being released near you, either via WiFi or through IRL events. I got mine through trading my Shiny Pokemon, and through WiFi events, and they CAN be very difficult to get so make sure to take that into account.
There may be more things to add, which I cannot think of at the moment, but I wanted to put this guide out there to help people complete the Living Dex and hopefully get some feedback and comments from those who have completed theirs or completing to help those that need it. Maybe post your ways that you levelled up, how a Living Dex may become more useful in later games, and spark some discussion on the Living Dex that you have found useful and to all around help those 'Catch em' all!'
Note - Please remember - This is my first guide and I am very open to help with making this guide/topic better, so if you can help out in making this guide better, and help those in the post to complete their Living Dex too!
Hope to see some positive feedback/Criticism and hope this guide helps you all!
For those that do not know a Living Dex is when you have a complete set of all Pokemon in all evolutionary forms. For example instead of just having Venasaur, you would have Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venasaur, and so on. This goes for all 721 Pokemon (Some people don't use the event Pokemon such as Genesect etc, in their Living Dex's because they can be very difficult to get a hold of, so I won't focus too much into these event Pokemon)
First things first why would you want a Living Dex?
Well the Living Dex allows you to have a complete National Dex in any sixth generation game, as I will be doing this for X and Y, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This is provided you will be able to trade between the games, which I recommend that you have access to Pokebank for this. You will also have access to all the Pokemon in the game, which when going for competitive breeds, allows you to already have access to these Pokemon - I will not add anything more to the competitive aspects as this is a guide solely on helping you complete the Living Dex. You will also be able to transfer all these Pokemon via Poke Transporter to the next generation games, so when Sun and Moon are available you will be on of the first to have a completed National Dex, once you have all the Pokemon in those games too. This will allow you to get your 'Shiny Charm' in any sixth generation game you play, or if the Shiny Charm is in the next generation games, to get that a lot quicker!
Now onto a few basic ways to help your way to completing the Living Dex:
- Having a good team of Pokemon - I also recommend you getting a Pokemon that has access to moves such as Earthquake, Rock Slide, and other multiple targeting moves. Which I will go into later.
- Having the Oval Charm - I will go onto how to get this later also, it helps the speed in which you receive eggs which quicken's your process in completing the Dex.
- Pokebank (Pokebank is something that I really recommend getting, it is not necessary but when you want to complete the Dex on mutliple games, then it allows you to quicken the process in sending them over)
- Patience, a lot of patience is needed when going for your own Living Dex as you will not be able to get this quickly or over night.
- A copy of each game is HIGHLY recommended, but not necessary, I had access to Pokemon X and Omega Ruby, which was enough to help me completing the Dex.
- Pokemon Box's ordered 1-30, 31-60 and so on until you reach 721-750. This will be your last box, which isn't required as this holds Volcanion, which you may not need, if just going for the National Dex.
Let's get started! Depending on what games your are playing through you want to catch each Pokemon in each route, which is very tedious at times, giving those small percentage of Pokemon that have very low encounter rates. When I first picked up my copy of Omega Ruby and X, I decided to play through the game and try to do what the slogan says 'Catch em all'. I picked up both copies in February, I have played Pokemon throughout my life, but had a 6-12 month break. So when I picked up my copies, I instantly played through the game, catching every Pokemon in every route. I had not left any routes in the game until I had caught all the Pokemon available there. So once I had finished both Omega Ruby and X, I had already caught a lot of Pokemon which aided me in my journey to completing the Living Dex. I highly recommend you to do so, or if you have already completed the game, go through and do what I done, and catch every Pokemon that you can, that you have not already caught.
Next up, getting your Oval Charm, I done mostly all my training/breeding on Pokemon X, as I found it easier, but that was me, and may not apply to you, you may prefer breeding and training on Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, which is not wrong at all. Getting the Oval Charm requires you to complete the Pokedex for the region that you are in (Hoenn/Kalos dex's). So I recommend catching all the Pokemon you can, and getting all the evolutionary lines for the regular Pokedex that you have. So say you have done this already, you can now go to Professor Sycamore/Birch and recieve your Oval Charm.
(I will go into breeding/levelling up Pokemon in a seperate part of the thread at the end).
Some tips -
Getting the other game exclusive Pokemon/starters/Legendaries -
- Game exclusive Pokemon - you need to have access to a friend, another version of the game, or the GTS. You want to capture your own game exclusive Pokemon, such as Zangoose/Seviper, or Spritzee and Swirlex. You want to trade your friend, or your own game to get these. You can also capture these and put them into the GTS, and ask for the other Pokemon, you will usually get a trade if not in the next 5 minutes but within the hour. I found this very easy, and not at all a problem.
- Starters, simply breed your own starter Pokemon, for example you chose Froakie, breed it so you have 2 more Froakies and then put an offer in on the GTS for Fennekin and Chespin, as well as the Hoenn starters and the other starters you receive from Professor Sycamore, and post game in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. You will also get these trades fairly quickly.
- Finally the Legendary Pokemon, this is the tricky part, now what you want to do, which I done, was breed a Pokemon that does not have any pre evolutions or evolutions. I chose Kanghaskan and Mawile, as these are very popular Pokemon, and do not require evolution to do so. You want to place them in the day care centre, and use the infinite loop, on the Battle Resort, or in Lumiose City. Use the loop either over night/whilst at school and other times that you do not have access to playing Pokemon. Once you have left them in the day care for a good several hours, your Pokemon will be at level 100. Once there, place an offer in the GTS for the other game exclusive legendary. This is not the most reliable way, but I was able to get them all through this way, so I guess it works.
So now, you have the Oval Charm and the respected Dex for your game complete, place all the Pokemon in the boxes in order that they are in, you can do this beforehand, it does not really matter, it helps you keep track of what Pokemon you need, and what you already have. So start of with the first generation - Kanto.
There is no real tips on where to catch the Pokemon etc, you will have to look up on where to find the Pokemon for each box yourself, which you can easily find on many popular online websites if you type the name of the Pokemon in. Start of by doing box by box, and whilst doing so, start getting the Pokemon such as legendary Pokemon via GTS/trading forums whilst you fill these boxes up. You can easily finish, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Kalos in a day, if you have the patience. I started my Living Dex, with basically half the Pokemon in the game, and finished the Living Dex within a week. The two regions you will most likely struggle with if you do not have access to Pokemon Black(2)/White(2) are Pokemon from Sinnoh and Unova, as there are a large amount of Pokemon in these regions that are not easily accessible. A lot of the Pokemon are only found via Mirage Spots or Friend Safari's which can be a real pain to do. So what I can recommend for Mirage Spot Pokemon, is to catch the Pokemon in a mirage spot that you have for that day and trade for the other Mirage Spot Pokemon, as you have no guarantee that the next day you will have access the Mirage Spot that you need. The same with Friend Safari.
I cannot tell you how long it will be before you complete the Living Dex, based on the lack of knowledge I know about how many Pokemon you have all together, or how patient you are, but it IS possible, as I have done so myself in just a few months.
Guides -
Breeding - Breeding is very simple, and all you need is a ditto, and a Pokemon from each evolutionary line. Just simply pop your Pokemon such as Raichu in the day care centre, ride your bike for a minute or two (Maybe longer), and you will have an egg. I would get all the eggs that I needed for a box at a time, and then hatched them using infinite loops which can save time and messing around. I recommend you to get the Egg Hatching Power for this, which you can find out how to get easily online.
Levelling up - You may already have ways to have you like to level your Pokemon up - Victory Road/Elite Four etc. I chose Horde's, now I know this sounds a bit silly, I would grind on the Weepinbell's on Route 119 in Kalos I think it was. This allowed me to train Pokemon and gain about 1000+ EXP per horde, and even more if you use the EXP boosting Power. It allowed me to evolve the Pokemon I needed, and then swap them out as soon as I wanted to, as the Pokemon Centre was very close which you cannot do with the Elite Four until you have beat the champion. The only Pokemon I used to level up in the Elite Four, was those such as Tyranitar, Salamence and others that have a slower level up rate, and a higher level that they evolve. You can also use Blissey Bases - I did NOT use these but if you can I recommend you to do so, my 2ds camera would not pick up the codes unfortunately which would of saved me a lot of time. You can also find very good guides online for these.
Event Pokemon - There is nothing really I can say for these, but look online to when they're being released near you, either via WiFi or through IRL events. I got mine through trading my Shiny Pokemon, and through WiFi events, and they CAN be very difficult to get so make sure to take that into account.
There may be more things to add, which I cannot think of at the moment, but I wanted to put this guide out there to help people complete the Living Dex and hopefully get some feedback and comments from those who have completed theirs or completing to help those that need it. Maybe post your ways that you levelled up, how a Living Dex may become more useful in later games, and spark some discussion on the Living Dex that you have found useful and to all around help those 'Catch em' all!'
Note - Please remember - This is my first guide and I am very open to help with making this guide/topic better, so if you can help out in making this guide better, and help those in the post to complete their Living Dex too!
Hope to see some positive feedback/Criticism and hope this guide helps you all!
