Home | About | Blog | Photos | Links | Webrings

Dorm Room

A Pokemon Journey

2025-02-16

For the past few years I've been working on a Pokemon Origin Living Dex. If you're wondering why, it's largely because I played Pokemon Infinite Fusion and regained my love for the series. I then grabbed my old copy of Pokemon Sun and worked diligently to finally, for the first time in my life, catch 'em all. After doing so, something clicked - or broke - in me, and I decided I'd take on one of the more difficult Pokemon challenges, and do so in my own way.

I decided to try to catch ALL of them, and to do so in their earliest game, on original hardware, and trade them forward into Pokemon Home. Additionally, I wanted to experience each game and each generation that I never did, playing Generations 4 - 9 for the first time. I decided to do all this in ... probably 2023? I haven't really kept track. Of course, no good Pokemon challenge isn't without its rules, and while mine changed and evolved over time, requiring me to re-catch Pokemon and re-play games I didn't expect to, this is pretty close to final.

General Rules:

  • All Pokemon must come from their originating region.
  • If possible, use the earliest game they were obtainable in.
  • Collect all of them on original hardware, using original methods.
  • Collect all of them inside Pokeballs.
  • Legendaries and Mythicals are to be caught using Premier Balls
  • Collect all forms including gender differences.
  • OT must be "Dorm" or "Dormedas" unless impossible
  • The regional Pokedex of each game must be completed within that game before any of it is transferred forward.
    • Rolling the pokemon forward into the next gen will naturally complete all of the Pokedexes in each game.
  • While I understand how to use Pokemon editing software, it is only allowed to be used in order to:
    • Efficiently move Pokemon (PKSM on 3DS)
    • Add time-limited event distributions to older titles in order to obtain Pokemon from that region for the living dex.
  • Only the region matters. Where a pokemon was caught within a region does not, as that information is lost as Pokemon are transferred forward.

Process Rules:

  • Must play through a version of the game and beat the Elite 4 once before trading between games or transferring Pokemon from a previous generation into the game.
  • The other version of the game can have Pokemon traded to it in order to speed up its completion.

Exceptions:

  • Generations 1 and 2, while accessible via the virtual console, are unused
    • Kanto pokemon come from FireRed/LeafGreen (Gen3)
    • Johto pokemon come from HeartGold/SoulSilver (Gen4)
  • Kanto Pokemon caught in FireRed/LeafGreen (as well as all Deoxys, even if caught in Emerald) are caught in a normal Pokeball.
  • Pokemon which cannot move forward (Spiky-eared Pichu, Costumed Pikachu) do not need to be captured.

Miscellaneous:

  • Generation 5 (Black, White, Black 2, White 2) all take place in the same region, and because I want to play Black 2 / White 2, one of my starters will be from the sequel games.

Fun notes:

Apparently, from Generation 2 - 5, any eggs which are created as a result of breeding are ALWAYS stored in a Pokeball. This allows Safari Zone exclusive Pokemon to legally be in Pokeballs. (So, yes, my requires-level-55-to-evolve Dragonite was once a level 5 Dratini. And yes, I didn't know about this til later.)

My Manaphy egg was obtained legitimately from a copy of Pokemon Ranger which my friend has had in their possession their whole life. It is possible to reset the entire ROM of Pokemon Ranger to distribute multiple Manaphy eggs, and I did this for them as a thanks for giving me mine.

Current Status

So where am I at in my journey so far? I've completed a variety of generations and completed the Pokedex in most of those. The list is as follows:

  • Gen 1: COMPLETE + ALL FORMS
  • Gen 2: Game completed, almost done collecting forms
  • Gen 3: Game completed, missing some forms
  • Gen 4: Game completed, missing some forms
  • Gen 5: One game almost through Elite 4, incomplete
  • Gen 6: Not yet started
  • Gen 7: Played Sun, need to replay with Ultra Sun and catch forms
  • Gen 8: Game completed, missing some forms
  • Gen 9: Game completed, missing some forms

Of the games with missing forms, it's usually less than 20 Pokemon that need to be bred or caught and then possibly evolved. Once I finish another ~10 hours of work, Generations 1 - 4 will be complete, and I can return my attention to Generation 5.