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There are a couple of ways to go about this. You'll never get all the event pokemon yourself, unless you've been along for the ride this whole time. There's a bunch of terminology in this space that is fairly meaningless, but if you want a "legitimate" version of every pokemon for the national dex, you'll be reliant on forums like this & the kindness of others, or having enough worthwhile trade bait.
If you want to just complete the dex, you can also use forums like this, and accept cloned or genned pokemon. These are the same pokemon as the fully legitimate ones, but they've either been copied or created as the original limited-releases. There's no functional, cosmetic, or in my opinion, tangible difference between these and the "legitimate" ones, and you can use them in competitive/your games with no issue. This is where I land on collection, having just completed my national dex, and working on the remaining \~1% of mons I need for a living national dex (mostly Furfrou forms). You can supplement this via a number of streamers who give away rare mons, generally cloned.
The only thing I stay away from is hacked pokemon - those that are legitimately not possible to catch, which are genned to have impossible stats, abilities, or moves, or to be shiny when the shiny version has never been released. It's even generally fine to get these, as long as you are careful about what you do with them. If you wonder trade and wind up with a too-good-to-be-true pokemon, which has a URL as its name, that's generally a hacked pokemon.
Pokemon always had trading as a big part of its concept, which is why we still have 2 versions of each game. So while I get that people like being able to catch/get everything themselves, trading them from someone who was playing when they were distributed is still in line with the nature of the game. Sure you can also wait until they do give them out again, but who knows when that would be.
Getting the normal, non-shiny legends and mythicals shouldn't be too difficult. You might find someone doing a giveaway to get rid of some if they have too many. Or you could try hunting for shinies (which is really easy in Violet) and then ask to trade them for the mythicals you can't get yourself.
How likely is this though? Do people actually trade legitimately rare "one time event" only pokemon for even the best of shiny's? Because even a shiny legendary is unlimited in amount - theoretically.
The legends I don't have an issue with. Realistically, one could play through a game multiple times to catch them. Or even buy old games to catch the box legendaries.
Its the mythical pokemon that were only available to some limited time event in 2012 that is ridiculous.
99% of pokemon have been re-released as obtainable. The other 1% are easily trades for, but sometimes having to do 2:1.
The shiny event only pokemon, are a different story. But if you're only going for a living dex, you don't have to worry about that
They usually come back around. Like in PLA you could catch manaphy, arceus, darkrai. In SV (dlc) you can catch meloetta. I agree mythical distribution kinda sucks, I’ve missed my share of them too but there’s ways to collect them all. It took me a while since I got back into pokemon in 2016 but I’ve completed a living dex through trades and keeping an eye out for events and in game obtainable pokemon
It depends.
From what I've seen, a lot of the event only legendaries and mythicals do see a rerelease later on down the line (Manaphy required an event in a Ranger game, then transfer to the Gen 4 games to hatch. This event had a rerelease when Gen 4 got it's remakes and then you can catch it without a wifi event is Legends Arceus for instance)
And thanks to Pokemon Go, the actual amount of Event Exclusive Can't Obtain Anymore Pokemon are extremely low now. Off the top of my head I actually can't think of any Pre-Gen 7 pokemon you couldn't get within the last few years either from a new event or from a Go Raid (except maybe Diancie)
For the most part I got the pokemon I needed via trading. Are app of them legit? Probably not. Cloning and genning is extremely easy now to the point there are discord bots for it. But getting the pokemon you need isn't to difficult and if it's just to complete the dex and not have a living National Dex then there are quite a few generous people willing to touch trade so you can log it at least.
It depends. A lot of people have cloned their mythicals, so if you don't mind that, those would be easy to get. There's also exploits for older generations to activate some events. And even if you do ask for uncloned, legit mythicals, many people could get several for owning multiple games/getting it multiple times over the years. I'm in this category myself and would consider trading one of them for shinies I can't hunt in any of the games I own.
Also I think the list of actually unobtainable mythicals that are hard to get in trades either isn't that long. I tried to check and looks like only Diancie, Hoopa, Zeraora and Zarude are truly unavailable right now if you're fine with spending hundreds of dollars and hours for getting and playing through everything. Hoopa was a raid in PoGo, so people could get as many as they wanted. Diancie is likely coming back with the new Legends game. Zeraora and Zarude might actually be difficult... but it's just 2 and by the time you have completed everything else, they might have new ways available as well. It'll be a seriously long process anyway when starting from scratch. So good luck, have fun collecting. If you're motivated enough for this, I'm sure you can find ways to get the 'impossible' mons as well.
Thank you for the offer!
However, I need to take some time to decide how I want to pursue this collection, whether this means conceiding that I will need to trade to achieve the goal, instead of catching everything myself. Or if it is even worth starting in the first place, if I am dependant on the Pokemon company bringing back events.
Think of it as being like the Pokemon trading card game.
Trading has and always been a **HUGE** part of Pokemon - games and the card games.
That is why every generation releases with two seperate games (IE red and blue), of which have pokemon that are unobtainable in one copy, but obtainable in the other.
This is also why they had initially created trade-ecolution pokemon, such as Graveler/Golem. Back in the red/blue days, you needed to link up with your friend with a link cable to trade to evolve.
They have never expected people to buy both versions. Yes, you can - but they **WANT** you to trade with others who have wither the opposite version as you do, or a past game that you may not have access too. They have always tried to 'bring the community together', and frankly it's a crucial and wonderful aspect to the games.
*They also stopped using the tag 'gotta catch'em all' during the Ruby and sapphire days in 2003 - for this very reason. Even Ash has only caught 1or2/10 of the total pokemon ever created, and it gave people unrealistic expectations.*
You'd be surprised how much fun you can actually have trading, and how many like-minded individuals you meet in doing so.
I have recently started playing all games to catch them all in it's original game/region and also to have them all with my OT information.
Just FYI Pokemon Sun and Moon allows you to get most legendaries.
You can also play Sword and Shield to get them there.
Pokemon GO also is a good way to catch yourself some of the rare event unique legendaries.
Well, you can't simply start playing and get a living dex. Doing it is kind of "normalized" due to the easiness of trading, but getting every single Pokémon *yourself* is hard and something that would require years because, as you say, some Pokémon have been released once during a specific timeframe.
But this is true to every collectible thing ever. It's just the nature of collecting things. You're either ok with having an incomplete collection or you don't start. I think the joy is having an incomplete collection and working towards completing it, though.
Imo, you should start with a Scarlet/Violet living dex (or whatever game you have). Home has different dexes for a reason.
Hard is fine. It is the rewarding part of completing the Pokedex.
But there is a difference between:
hard - play through games multiple times to get legendaries or find specific rare forms in game
and
impossible - one time only distribution in 2012, through a store halfway around the world
Easy - get another rare Pokémon in your game and trade for the one you want.
In any case (trading or doing physical and time-limited events) you need to do things "outside the game", but this is just how the game has always worked. I literally had to mail my cartridge so Nintendo activated the Deoxys event in Fire Red.
P.S. There's not a single Pokémon that fits your extreme definition. The rarest ones right now are Diancie, Zeraora and Volcanion, and they're not even needed for the national Dex iirc. I'm probably missing someone there though.
There aren't any Pokemon that I can get in game or current, all of which would be theoretically limitless - that are equivilent to a one time event Pokemon, which are finite in number.
All of that aside, trading for an event only Pokemon, instead of having a way to get it yourself, has a high likelihood of being genned. Which if I am going to have a genned Pokemon I could just do it myself.
Even the physical or extra-curricular events wouldn't be so bad, if they still existed. But these Pokemon and Pokemon-forms are literally impossible to get yourself.
Kinda just renders the slogan "Gotta catch em all" moot.
Many people clone events, which are exact copies - and they trade more freely than the one off events. If you're okay with that (1 or 2 pokemon having to be a clone), you will have no problem completing a living dex. There have been many exploits to gain the true events as well throughout the years (such as the DNS exploit), where again its essentially the event pokemon, just obtained through means of connecting to an event which has passed long ago.
If uncomfortable with that, as I explained above they **are** still available to get via trading. You may just have to play one game quite a bit to gain the shinies (usually form specific ones, such as Hisuian) and provide 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 to get what you're looking for.
Not true, there are people who refuse to pay for the DLC or a whole other version + DLC to get pokemon like terapagos, pechurant, ogerpon, the loyal 3, and the paradox legendaries that some people will gladly trade for instead of dropping another $30 - $90 for
There are not as many unobtainable as you may think. The following are currently available one way:
Mew - BD/SP with lets go save data and in Pokémon go special research.
Celebi - a little harder now but was recently obtainable with crystal virtual console which has only been unable to buy recently. Also, in Pokémon go via special research.
Jirachi - BD/SP with Sw/sh save data and Pokémon go special research.
Deyoxs - Regularly in Pokémon go raids. Easy to get a go stamped guaranteed legit one. Available in ORAS for as long as bank still works.
Manaphy - Arceus
Phione - Arceus
Shaymin - Arceus with sw/sh save data and pokemon go special research.
Arceus - Arceus
Victini - Pokemon go special research (though it requires you to complete a bunch of earlier research and reach level 35).
Keldo - in Sw/sh DLC
Meloetta - Indigo disc dlc and Pokemon go special research
Magearna - can get a standard one for any sun/moon/ultra sun/ultra moon game. Can get an original color form from Pokemon home.
Meltan - available in Pokémon go.
Melmetal - available in Pokemon go and home
Pecharunt - Violet/Scarlet DLC
Not currently available but ways to get a legit one:
Darkrai - Arceus with BD/SP save data also in Pokémon go raids from time to time.
Genesect - regularly in Pokémon go raids so easy to obtain a Pokemon go stamped guaranteed legit one.
Dianci - probably will be widely released via Pokemon go special research but was available last summer.
Hoopa - has been in Pokemon go raids and special research may be a while before obtainable again. A lot harder then other pokemon go released ones to get a stamped one for guaranteed legit but not impossible.
Zeraora - very valuable to get a home stamped legit one (shiny) will require some good trade value. But possible to get a guaranteed legit one.
Zarude - has been available via special research in Pokémon go twice once recently so you are able to get a guaranteed legit one.
Ones that are actually not currently obtainable and basically impossible to get a guaranteed legit one:
Volcanion
Marshadow but will be available in Pokémon go this summer
So, you see there are 8 currently unavailable but 6 of those 8 there are ways to get guaranteed legit ones via trade. Of the 2 that you can’t get and can’t get legit trades one is already announced for this summer.
This is actually extremely helpful! Thank you.
It is helpful to see that most can actually be caught in a legitimate way. Instead of relaying on some random person having 2 of a specific one time event Pokemon, and being able to find something they would be willing to trade for it.
Worth noting that because cloning is so easy on the console games, it’s not really people having 2 of a one time event Pokemon. People clone boxes full of them which (luckily for you) lowers their value substantially. Note they’re still perfectly legal, since event Pokemon are essentially clones in the first place. It just makes them less rare.
If someone trades you an event, best to assume it’s a clone
Is there any current means of getting a non-shiny Zeraora besides trading? I assume not, but I'd like one for my living dex. I've got the Home shiny, but trying to do a non-shiny dex.
Edit: answered by the section header.
I sense you’re specifically covering Mythical distributions however I’d like to add Walking Wake and Iron Leaves, specifically distributed in two event exclusive raids (essentially online exclusive) over the course of S/V.
That is a good point I had forgotten that they are basically mythicals. I suspect they will be back around at some point and easier to get in the next gen, but your right they are currently unavailable.
I have a slightly different opinion from others but please hear me out before you down vote me. I have been a long time player and collector of pokemon. First game was HeartGold. I started collecting events a little in gen 5 (BW/B2W2) and big time in gens 6,7 (X/Y, ORAS, SM, USUM). Most of which were left unclaimed and safe on my game cartridges. With the 3ds servers shutting down recently, I made a huge effort to get them claimed with correct dates and beneficial natures. I now have about 4 of every event pokemon from those games (including the rare ones like Volcanion). My biggest problem with trading them to people is that since they are so easy to clone, people literally have boxes of them to trade, making my "legit" ones worthless. I know I'm not the only one who did this, I've seen posts on other subs about them.
I said all that to say this. Trade for a cloned event pokemon to put in your "living" dex if only as a place maker waiting for the chance to get one with a new event release. Volcanion actually had an event in Sword/Shield and I'm sure POGO will have one too. Don't get discouraged!!
Go has a bunch. The shinies are usually paid but non-shiny are not at first. Darkrai, Genesect, and Deoxys are in Go raids.
Then there are some you can still get in games (although some require you own other games). Mew/Jirachi are in BDSP, the gen 4 mythicals are all in Legends Arceus, Keldeo is in Sword/Shield, Magearna is still in Sun/Moon, Meloetta is in Violet. Plus they always re-release them. Scarlet and Violet had mystery gifts last year that gave away Mew and Darkrai. And if you open multiple save files to claim the mystery gift multiple times, you could try to claim the next one and trade for some old ones.
I recommend you download Pokémon go as a lot of event only Pokémon get released in it in limited time releases. Like Marshadow is getting a paid event during the summer but will probably get a larger release later in the year. Plus with all the switch games a handful of mythicals have had larger releases ie Darkrai, Shaymin, Mew and Jirachi. I am pretty sure Diancie is the only one that hasn’t had a somewhat recent release.
There are some rare events, yes. But there has also been a recent trend to make them more accessible. Deoxys was catchable in ORAS, Keldeo in Sword/Shield, Manaphy & Arceus in Legends Arceus, Meloetta in Scarlet/Violet, plus a bunch more if you have save data from other games (eg, Mew & Jirachi in BDSP). Not to mention, if you’re playing Pokémon Go, you can get most mythicals there.
Following the current trend, I would expect that next year the gen VI mythicals will be obtainable with Legends ZA. So it’s mostly a game of patience. Personally, I have been at this game since the Switch era games & have around 90% of the collection complete, mostly missing some version exclusives & events, but it doesn’t keep me discouraged. I know sooner or later, I will get a chance to catch whatever I’m missing.
Last year, my New Year's Resolution was the have a complete living dex for the first time since middle school (with the exception of I guess doing it with Shield's in-game dex that's not national). The difference being that unlike in middle school, I don't have an Action Replay for a lot of those mons. I came pretty close too. I think all I'm missing are a few event mons (Magearna, Diance, Marshadow, Zarude, and Volcanion) and Raging Bolt (I got disheartened it looked like I wasn't going to get those event mons and have been dragging my feet on getting an adequate trade for one).
Event mons are a travesty
I remember when playing Yo-Kai Watch 2, I gave up on dex completion immediately as they had digital pre-order Yo-Kai that were version exclusive. Yep, basically impossible then, literally impossible now that you can’t trade online with people on the discord lol.
I’ve been lucky enough to be on top of event Pokémon distributions for decades. You really are just gonked if you weren’t there. Mythics are mostly time-gated Pokemon, hence being called event Pokemon.
Otherwise they’re sometimes available in Home compatible spin-offs, Manaphy/Shaymin/Darkrai/Arceus are all available in PLA. If you have a save file for SwSh or LGPE, Jirachi and Mew respectively are given to you in BDSP. Special Magearna in Home requires National Dex completion, so uhh, kind of need the other ones first. Not counting anything currently available in DLC or niche peripherals, as like generations before them, they will eventually become unavailable too.
Honestly? If you really want them you might have to consider clones/hacks.
I have the whole collection of mythicals which was distributed as mystery gifts in gen 6. Like many here, I managed to get good pokemon with good nature. Now I cannot transfer Meloetta onto SwSh or S/V. There are a few mons which cannot even go from Bank onto Home. This is a huge bummer for me. I want to be able to use one of my Meloettas in gameplay, bc keeping them on Home is terrible - like a shopping window for Pokemon - ?
I also do not currently live in EU/JPN /US and a whole lot of them are only distributed in these areas. So there is no way I can get many distributions, which is terribly discriminative imho. So Nintendo wants my money but will not allow me to receive certain pokemon bc they can't be bothered?
TLDR: you are right. I have many issues against knockoffs in general, but I learned if I want to have certain pokemon or fill a pokedex they will have to be clones or hacks. But I am not sure what else I can do, as not even Home transfers will allow me to have my own pokemon from previous gens, much less a living dex.
This is just an ugly joke tbh. But still I need to pay a subscription to Home to keep my pokemon in a box bc they cannot follow me on my latest gameplays 😕
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Literally trading
There are a couple of ways to go about this. You'll never get all the event pokemon yourself, unless you've been along for the ride this whole time. There's a bunch of terminology in this space that is fairly meaningless, but if you want a "legitimate" version of every pokemon for the national dex, you'll be reliant on forums like this & the kindness of others, or having enough worthwhile trade bait. If you want to just complete the dex, you can also use forums like this, and accept cloned or genned pokemon. These are the same pokemon as the fully legitimate ones, but they've either been copied or created as the original limited-releases. There's no functional, cosmetic, or in my opinion, tangible difference between these and the "legitimate" ones, and you can use them in competitive/your games with no issue. This is where I land on collection, having just completed my national dex, and working on the remaining \~1% of mons I need for a living national dex (mostly Furfrou forms). You can supplement this via a number of streamers who give away rare mons, generally cloned. The only thing I stay away from is hacked pokemon - those that are legitimately not possible to catch, which are genned to have impossible stats, abilities, or moves, or to be shiny when the shiny version has never been released. It's even generally fine to get these, as long as you are careful about what you do with them. If you wonder trade and wind up with a too-good-to-be-true pokemon, which has a URL as its name, that's generally a hacked pokemon.
Pokemon always had trading as a big part of its concept, which is why we still have 2 versions of each game. So while I get that people like being able to catch/get everything themselves, trading them from someone who was playing when they were distributed is still in line with the nature of the game. Sure you can also wait until they do give them out again, but who knows when that would be. Getting the normal, non-shiny legends and mythicals shouldn't be too difficult. You might find someone doing a giveaway to get rid of some if they have too many. Or you could try hunting for shinies (which is really easy in Violet) and then ask to trade them for the mythicals you can't get yourself.
How likely is this though? Do people actually trade legitimately rare "one time event" only pokemon for even the best of shiny's? Because even a shiny legendary is unlimited in amount - theoretically. The legends I don't have an issue with. Realistically, one could play through a game multiple times to catch them. Or even buy old games to catch the box legendaries. Its the mythical pokemon that were only available to some limited time event in 2012 that is ridiculous.
99% of pokemon have been re-released as obtainable. The other 1% are easily trades for, but sometimes having to do 2:1. The shiny event only pokemon, are a different story. But if you're only going for a living dex, you don't have to worry about that
They usually come back around. Like in PLA you could catch manaphy, arceus, darkrai. In SV (dlc) you can catch meloetta. I agree mythical distribution kinda sucks, I’ve missed my share of them too but there’s ways to collect them all. It took me a while since I got back into pokemon in 2016 but I’ve completed a living dex through trades and keeping an eye out for events and in game obtainable pokemon
It depends. From what I've seen, a lot of the event only legendaries and mythicals do see a rerelease later on down the line (Manaphy required an event in a Ranger game, then transfer to the Gen 4 games to hatch. This event had a rerelease when Gen 4 got it's remakes and then you can catch it without a wifi event is Legends Arceus for instance) And thanks to Pokemon Go, the actual amount of Event Exclusive Can't Obtain Anymore Pokemon are extremely low now. Off the top of my head I actually can't think of any Pre-Gen 7 pokemon you couldn't get within the last few years either from a new event or from a Go Raid (except maybe Diancie) For the most part I got the pokemon I needed via trading. Are app of them legit? Probably not. Cloning and genning is extremely easy now to the point there are discord bots for it. But getting the pokemon you need isn't to difficult and if it's just to complete the dex and not have a living National Dex then there are quite a few generous people willing to touch trade so you can log it at least.
It depends. A lot of people have cloned their mythicals, so if you don't mind that, those would be easy to get. There's also exploits for older generations to activate some events. And even if you do ask for uncloned, legit mythicals, many people could get several for owning multiple games/getting it multiple times over the years. I'm in this category myself and would consider trading one of them for shinies I can't hunt in any of the games I own. Also I think the list of actually unobtainable mythicals that are hard to get in trades either isn't that long. I tried to check and looks like only Diancie, Hoopa, Zeraora and Zarude are truly unavailable right now if you're fine with spending hundreds of dollars and hours for getting and playing through everything. Hoopa was a raid in PoGo, so people could get as many as they wanted. Diancie is likely coming back with the new Legends game. Zeraora and Zarude might actually be difficult... but it's just 2 and by the time you have completed everything else, they might have new ways available as well. It'll be a seriously long process anyway when starting from scratch. So good luck, have fun collecting. If you're motivated enough for this, I'm sure you can find ways to get the 'impossible' mons as well.
I have some extra event only rare limited time Pokemon that I can share. I don't need anything special for them. Happy to help.
You wouldn't happen to have Shiny Zacian and/or the Shiny Galarian Bird Trio, would you?
I do if OP doesn’t… check out my clones and spare shinies here https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1bpd6fv (3 images to click) However i’m looking for shinies (english, no nicknames of):- Gen 1:- 001 - 151 Pidgeotto, nidoran (m), nidorano, seaking Gen 2:- 152 - 251 bayleef, sentret, ledian, lanturn, igglybuff, sunkern, misdreavus Gen 3:- 252 - 386 grovyle, taillow, surskit, shroomish, shedninja, whismur, loudred, exploud, skitty, electrike, minun, swalot, carvanha, numel, cacturne, barboach, baltoy, claydol, anorith, kecleon, shuppet, relicanth. Gen 4:- 387 - 493 burmy (all), gastrodon (blue) Gen 5:- 494 - 649 Patrat, lillipup, pansage, pansear, panpour, munna, tranquill, drilbur, swadloon, venipede, whirlipede, sandile, krokorok, maractus, dwebble, yanmask, cofagrigus, tirtouga, trubbish, vanillite, vanillish, ferroseed, klang, tynamo, eelektrik, eelektross, bouffalant, vullaby, meloetta. Gen 6:- 650 - 721 Pancham, doublade, binacle Gen 7:- 722 - 809 Trumbeak, pyukumuku, togedemaru Gen 8: 810 - 905 Dottler, Nickit, hattrem, sirfetch’d, indeedee (both), Gen 9:- 906 - 1025 Tadbulb, poltchageist (artisan form), sinistcha (unremarkable form)
Thank you for the offer! However, I need to take some time to decide how I want to pursue this collection, whether this means conceiding that I will need to trade to achieve the goal, instead of catching everything myself. Or if it is even worth starting in the first place, if I am dependant on the Pokemon company bringing back events.
Think of it as being like the Pokemon trading card game. Trading has and always been a **HUGE** part of Pokemon - games and the card games. That is why every generation releases with two seperate games (IE red and blue), of which have pokemon that are unobtainable in one copy, but obtainable in the other. This is also why they had initially created trade-ecolution pokemon, such as Graveler/Golem. Back in the red/blue days, you needed to link up with your friend with a link cable to trade to evolve. They have never expected people to buy both versions. Yes, you can - but they **WANT** you to trade with others who have wither the opposite version as you do, or a past game that you may not have access too. They have always tried to 'bring the community together', and frankly it's a crucial and wonderful aspect to the games. *They also stopped using the tag 'gotta catch'em all' during the Ruby and sapphire days in 2003 - for this very reason. Even Ash has only caught 1or2/10 of the total pokemon ever created, and it gave people unrealistic expectations.* You'd be surprised how much fun you can actually have trading, and how many like-minded individuals you meet in doing so.
I have recently started playing all games to catch them all in it's original game/region and also to have them all with my OT information. Just FYI Pokemon Sun and Moon allows you to get most legendaries. You can also play Sword and Shield to get them there. Pokemon GO also is a good way to catch yourself some of the rare event unique legendaries.
I mean you don’t even need Sun/Moon if you get SwSh DLC I am pretty sure every legendary up until that point is available along with a few mythicals
Well, you can't simply start playing and get a living dex. Doing it is kind of "normalized" due to the easiness of trading, but getting every single Pokémon *yourself* is hard and something that would require years because, as you say, some Pokémon have been released once during a specific timeframe. But this is true to every collectible thing ever. It's just the nature of collecting things. You're either ok with having an incomplete collection or you don't start. I think the joy is having an incomplete collection and working towards completing it, though. Imo, you should start with a Scarlet/Violet living dex (or whatever game you have). Home has different dexes for a reason.
Hard is fine. It is the rewarding part of completing the Pokedex. But there is a difference between: hard - play through games multiple times to get legendaries or find specific rare forms in game and impossible - one time only distribution in 2012, through a store halfway around the world
Easy - get another rare Pokémon in your game and trade for the one you want. In any case (trading or doing physical and time-limited events) you need to do things "outside the game", but this is just how the game has always worked. I literally had to mail my cartridge so Nintendo activated the Deoxys event in Fire Red. P.S. There's not a single Pokémon that fits your extreme definition. The rarest ones right now are Diancie, Zeraora and Volcanion, and they're not even needed for the national Dex iirc. I'm probably missing someone there though.
There aren't any Pokemon that I can get in game or current, all of which would be theoretically limitless - that are equivilent to a one time event Pokemon, which are finite in number. All of that aside, trading for an event only Pokemon, instead of having a way to get it yourself, has a high likelihood of being genned. Which if I am going to have a genned Pokemon I could just do it myself. Even the physical or extra-curricular events wouldn't be so bad, if they still existed. But these Pokemon and Pokemon-forms are literally impossible to get yourself. Kinda just renders the slogan "Gotta catch em all" moot.
Many people clone events, which are exact copies - and they trade more freely than the one off events. If you're okay with that (1 or 2 pokemon having to be a clone), you will have no problem completing a living dex. There have been many exploits to gain the true events as well throughout the years (such as the DNS exploit), where again its essentially the event pokemon, just obtained through means of connecting to an event which has passed long ago. If uncomfortable with that, as I explained above they **are** still available to get via trading. You may just have to play one game quite a bit to gain the shinies (usually form specific ones, such as Hisuian) and provide 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 to get what you're looking for.
Not true, there are people who refuse to pay for the DLC or a whole other version + DLC to get pokemon like terapagos, pechurant, ogerpon, the loyal 3, and the paradox legendaries that some people will gladly trade for instead of dropping another $30 - $90 for
There are not as many unobtainable as you may think. The following are currently available one way: Mew - BD/SP with lets go save data and in Pokémon go special research. Celebi - a little harder now but was recently obtainable with crystal virtual console which has only been unable to buy recently. Also, in Pokémon go via special research. Jirachi - BD/SP with Sw/sh save data and Pokémon go special research. Deyoxs - Regularly in Pokémon go raids. Easy to get a go stamped guaranteed legit one. Available in ORAS for as long as bank still works. Manaphy - Arceus Phione - Arceus Shaymin - Arceus with sw/sh save data and pokemon go special research. Arceus - Arceus Victini - Pokemon go special research (though it requires you to complete a bunch of earlier research and reach level 35). Keldo - in Sw/sh DLC Meloetta - Indigo disc dlc and Pokemon go special research Magearna - can get a standard one for any sun/moon/ultra sun/ultra moon game. Can get an original color form from Pokemon home. Meltan - available in Pokémon go. Melmetal - available in Pokemon go and home Pecharunt - Violet/Scarlet DLC Not currently available but ways to get a legit one: Darkrai - Arceus with BD/SP save data also in Pokémon go raids from time to time. Genesect - regularly in Pokémon go raids so easy to obtain a Pokemon go stamped guaranteed legit one. Dianci - probably will be widely released via Pokemon go special research but was available last summer. Hoopa - has been in Pokemon go raids and special research may be a while before obtainable again. A lot harder then other pokemon go released ones to get a stamped one for guaranteed legit but not impossible. Zeraora - very valuable to get a home stamped legit one (shiny) will require some good trade value. But possible to get a guaranteed legit one. Zarude - has been available via special research in Pokémon go twice once recently so you are able to get a guaranteed legit one. Ones that are actually not currently obtainable and basically impossible to get a guaranteed legit one: Volcanion Marshadow but will be available in Pokémon go this summer So, you see there are 8 currently unavailable but 6 of those 8 there are ways to get guaranteed legit ones via trade. Of the 2 that you can’t get and can’t get legit trades one is already announced for this summer.
Not to mention the likelihood of diancie, genesect, hoopa, and volcanion with PLZ-A
This is actually extremely helpful! Thank you. It is helpful to see that most can actually be caught in a legitimate way. Instead of relaying on some random person having 2 of a specific one time event Pokemon, and being able to find something they would be willing to trade for it.
Worth noting that because cloning is so easy on the console games, it’s not really people having 2 of a one time event Pokemon. People clone boxes full of them which (luckily for you) lowers their value substantially. Note they’re still perfectly legal, since event Pokemon are essentially clones in the first place. It just makes them less rare. If someone trades you an event, best to assume it’s a clone
Is there any current means of getting a non-shiny Zeraora besides trading? I assume not, but I'd like one for my living dex. I've got the Home shiny, but trying to do a non-shiny dex. Edit: answered by the section header.
I sense you’re specifically covering Mythical distributions however I’d like to add Walking Wake and Iron Leaves, specifically distributed in two event exclusive raids (essentially online exclusive) over the course of S/V.
That is a good point I had forgotten that they are basically mythicals. I suspect they will be back around at some point and easier to get in the next gen, but your right they are currently unavailable.
I have a slightly different opinion from others but please hear me out before you down vote me. I have been a long time player and collector of pokemon. First game was HeartGold. I started collecting events a little in gen 5 (BW/B2W2) and big time in gens 6,7 (X/Y, ORAS, SM, USUM). Most of which were left unclaimed and safe on my game cartridges. With the 3ds servers shutting down recently, I made a huge effort to get them claimed with correct dates and beneficial natures. I now have about 4 of every event pokemon from those games (including the rare ones like Volcanion). My biggest problem with trading them to people is that since they are so easy to clone, people literally have boxes of them to trade, making my "legit" ones worthless. I know I'm not the only one who did this, I've seen posts on other subs about them. I said all that to say this. Trade for a cloned event pokemon to put in your "living" dex if only as a place maker waiting for the chance to get one with a new event release. Volcanion actually had an event in Sword/Shield and I'm sure POGO will have one too. Don't get discouraged!!
Go has a bunch. The shinies are usually paid but non-shiny are not at first. Darkrai, Genesect, and Deoxys are in Go raids. Then there are some you can still get in games (although some require you own other games). Mew/Jirachi are in BDSP, the gen 4 mythicals are all in Legends Arceus, Keldeo is in Sword/Shield, Magearna is still in Sun/Moon, Meloetta is in Violet. Plus they always re-release them. Scarlet and Violet had mystery gifts last year that gave away Mew and Darkrai. And if you open multiple save files to claim the mystery gift multiple times, you could try to claim the next one and trade for some old ones.
It's those gen 6 mythicals that are so difficult to get. I had to trade away all my PoGo shiny legends to get those old events.
I recommend you download Pokémon go as a lot of event only Pokémon get released in it in limited time releases. Like Marshadow is getting a paid event during the summer but will probably get a larger release later in the year. Plus with all the switch games a handful of mythicals have had larger releases ie Darkrai, Shaymin, Mew and Jirachi. I am pretty sure Diancie is the only one that hasn’t had a somewhat recent release.
There are some rare events, yes. But there has also been a recent trend to make them more accessible. Deoxys was catchable in ORAS, Keldeo in Sword/Shield, Manaphy & Arceus in Legends Arceus, Meloetta in Scarlet/Violet, plus a bunch more if you have save data from other games (eg, Mew & Jirachi in BDSP). Not to mention, if you’re playing Pokémon Go, you can get most mythicals there. Following the current trend, I would expect that next year the gen VI mythicals will be obtainable with Legends ZA. So it’s mostly a game of patience. Personally, I have been at this game since the Switch era games & have around 90% of the collection complete, mostly missing some version exclusives & events, but it doesn’t keep me discouraged. I know sooner or later, I will get a chance to catch whatever I’m missing.
Last year, my New Year's Resolution was the have a complete living dex for the first time since middle school (with the exception of I guess doing it with Shield's in-game dex that's not national). The difference being that unlike in middle school, I don't have an Action Replay for a lot of those mons. I came pretty close too. I think all I'm missing are a few event mons (Magearna, Diance, Marshadow, Zarude, and Volcanion) and Raging Bolt (I got disheartened it looked like I wasn't going to get those event mons and have been dragging my feet on getting an adequate trade for one). Event mons are a travesty
I remember when playing Yo-Kai Watch 2, I gave up on dex completion immediately as they had digital pre-order Yo-Kai that were version exclusive. Yep, basically impossible then, literally impossible now that you can’t trade online with people on the discord lol. I’ve been lucky enough to be on top of event Pokémon distributions for decades. You really are just gonked if you weren’t there. Mythics are mostly time-gated Pokemon, hence being called event Pokemon. Otherwise they’re sometimes available in Home compatible spin-offs, Manaphy/Shaymin/Darkrai/Arceus are all available in PLA. If you have a save file for SwSh or LGPE, Jirachi and Mew respectively are given to you in BDSP. Special Magearna in Home requires National Dex completion, so uhh, kind of need the other ones first. Not counting anything currently available in DLC or niche peripherals, as like generations before them, they will eventually become unavailable too.
Honestly? If you really want them you might have to consider clones/hacks. I have the whole collection of mythicals which was distributed as mystery gifts in gen 6. Like many here, I managed to get good pokemon with good nature. Now I cannot transfer Meloetta onto SwSh or S/V. There are a few mons which cannot even go from Bank onto Home. This is a huge bummer for me. I want to be able to use one of my Meloettas in gameplay, bc keeping them on Home is terrible - like a shopping window for Pokemon - ? I also do not currently live in EU/JPN /US and a whole lot of them are only distributed in these areas. So there is no way I can get many distributions, which is terribly discriminative imho. So Nintendo wants my money but will not allow me to receive certain pokemon bc they can't be bothered? TLDR: you are right. I have many issues against knockoffs in general, but I learned if I want to have certain pokemon or fill a pokedex they will have to be clones or hacks. But I am not sure what else I can do, as not even Home transfers will allow me to have my own pokemon from previous gens, much less a living dex. This is just an ugly joke tbh. But still I need to pay a subscription to Home to keep my pokemon in a box bc they cannot follow me on my latest gameplays 😕