Obtaining every Pokémon without getting any badges!?

So, looking through my "guide" of catching as many Pokémon as possible without getting any badges left me... unhappy. Why? Because Sword/Shield are such an outlier here. They get far too many Pokémon before the first badge. It eclipsed pretty much everything else, ruining the point of it all.

So I began to think. Maybe I could just eliminate Sword/Shield and look at how much is possible with the other games. And then it dawned on me that... if I'm gonna do that, then I may as well check each individual generation. So, to start with, we're gonna see how this works with Gen 1 only. Then Gen 1+2. Then Gen 3 only. Then Gen 3+4. Then Gen 3+4+5. Then Gen 3+4+5+6. Then Gen 1+2+3+4+5+6+7.

In this post, I'm gonna be doing Gen 1, then Gen 1+2, and then Gen 3. I'm stopping there for the very pragmatic reason of "that's when I got tired of working on this, I'll get back to the rest later".

So we start with Gen 1 only. To begin with, there's the starter. In Red and Blue, you get a choice between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. In Yellow, you're stuck with Pikachu. We can use multiple save files to get all of these starters. While Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle can be fully evolved, Pikachu cannot. The Yellow Pikachu is unable to evolve into Raichu unless traded to another game first. And we can't evolve it even with trading, since we lack a Thunder Stone. For now, we only get ten starters, and evolve each that we can. (Current total: 10)

On Route 1, we can catch and evolve Pidgey and Rattata. (Current total: 15)

On Route 22, we can catch Nidoran-F, Nidoran-M, and Spearow. In Yellow, we also get Mankey. Our lack of Moon Stones means that we can only evolve the two Nidorans once each. (Current total: 23)

In Viridian Forest, we can catch Caterpie and Weedle. Note that Weedle is not in Yellow. (Current total: 29)

And that's it. Just 29 Pokémon before the first badge. 29 out of 151 is about 19.2%. Which is far more reasonable than Sword/Shield, which got to nearly two-thirds of the National Dex without a badge all on its own, expanded to over four-fifths once you start connecting to other games. Going down to about a fifth is more reasonable.

Anyways, let's beat Brock in Pewter City and move on.

On Route 3, Red/Blue can get Jigglypuff and Yellow can get Sandshrew. Can't evolve Jigglypuff without a Moon Stone though. (Current total: 32)

On Route 4, we can buy a Magikarp and then evolve it. (Current total: 34)

In Mt. Moon, we can catch Zubat, Geodude, Paras, and Clefairy. Note that Graveler requires a trade to evolve, but that's easily done. (Current total: 42)

We can also find two Moon Stones in Mt. Moon. On a single save file, we'd have to choose two Pokémon from amongst Nidorina, Nidorino, Clefairy, and Jigglypuff, and evolve those ones. But because we have multiple save files, we can just use Moon Stones differently in each game to evolve all four of them. (Current total: 46)

On the other side of Mt. Moon, we reach the other side of Route 4. Here, Red can catch and evolve Ekans. Note that this is red-exclusive. (Current total: 48)

On Route 24, we can get Abra in Red/Blue, Oddish in Red/Yellow, Bellsprout in Blue/Yellow, and Venonat in Yellow. We need a trade to evolve Kadabra, and we currently lack Leaf Stones to evolve Gloom and Weepinbell. (Current total: 57)

Moving on to Route 5, here, we can get the Blue-exclusive Meowth. (Current total: 59)

In Red/Blue, there's an in-game trade in Vermillion City. By giving up a spare Spearow, you can get a Farfetch'd. (Current total: 60)

On Route 11, you can catch Drowzee. (Current total: 62)

In Diglett's Cave, you can catch Diglett. (Current total: 64)

On the other side of Diglett's Cave, you end up on the east part of Route 2. Here, you can do an in-game trade to get a Mr. Mime. The trainer that you're trading with will want an Abra in Red/Blue and a Clefairy in Yellow. Either way is fine. (Current total: 65)

While you can go through the SS Anne now if you want, you cannot do anything further until you beat Misty and earn the ability to use Cut. Well, let's go do that now.

Heading east of Cerulean onto Route 9, we can get some new Pokémon. Yellow can find Machop and Magnemite here, while Red/Blue can find Voltorb. You do need to trade to evolve Machoke. (Current total: 72)

In Rock Tunnel, you can find Onix. (Current total: 73)

West of Lavender Town is Route 8. Here, you can find Growlithe in Red and Vulpix in Blue. You can't evolve them yet though, cause we don't have Fire Stones. (Current total: 75)

In Celadon City, we can get a free Eevee, and purchase a Porygon. (Current total: 77)

We also get access to the Department Store. Here, we can buy two Thunder Stones for Pikachu and Eevee, three Fire Stones for Growlithe, Vulpix, and Eevee, a Water Stone for Eevee, and two Leaf Stones for Gloom and Weepinbell. (Current total: 85)

On Route 16, you can catch a Doduo. (Current total: 87)

Then we can complete the Team Rocket Hideout dungeon to get the Silph Scope, and then climb the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. Here, we can catch Gastly and Cubone. Note that Haunter requires a trade to evolve. (Current total: 92)

After rescuing Mr. Fuji, we get the Poké Flute, and can wake the sleeping Snorlax on Route 12 to catch it. (Current total: 93)

In Yellow, you can head to Route 17 to catch Ponyta. (Current total: 95)

We now have access to all the fishing rods. Throughout various locations in Kanto, we can get Shellder, Poliwag, Goldeen, Krabby, Horsea, Staryu, Psyduck, Slowpoke, and Tentacool. Note that Psyduck and Slowpoke are not found via fishing in Yellow, so you have to get them in Red/Blue (since you can't Surf yet). (Current total: 114)

At this point, Red/Blue has two in-game trades available to it. In Cerulean, someone will give you a Jynx if you have a spare Poliwhirl. And in the gate between Route 18 and Fuchsia City, someone will give you a Lickitung if you have a spare Slowbro. We can easily fulfill both of these now. (Current total: 116)

On Route 14 and Route 15, we can catch Ditto in Red/Blue. (Current total: 117)

Now we need to go through the Safari Zone to get the HMs for Surf and Strength. On the way, we can catch Dratini, Exeggcute, Rhyhorn, Tangela (Yellow), Chansey, Scyther (Red/Yellow), Pinsir (Blue/Yellow), Tauros, and Kangaskhan. (Current total: 130)

After that, return to Saffron City. You can complete the Fighting Dojo to obtain your choice of Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan. With multiple save files, you can get both. (Current total: 132)

You can also clear out Silph Co. to get a free Lapras. (Current total: 133)

And that's it! We only have two badges, but we're over 88% of the way there. Well, let's get our third badge and see if that gives us any more. The question is: Which one is our third badge? You can choose to fight either Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Koga, or Erika here. Sabrina's badge lets you do... literally nothing. So that's useless. Lt. Surge's badge lets you use Fly, which... doesn't help us get any new Pokémon. Well, okay. In Yellow, beating Lt. Surge is necessary in order to obtain Squirtle, but we don't have to worry about that, since we already got one in Red/Blue. So that's useless. Erika's badge lets you use Strength, which sounds helpful at first, until you realize that the only dungeons that require Strength to get through also require Surf to reach, so we can't use that. That leaves Koga, which will let us use Surf, so that's the badge we want to obtain.

Now that we can use Surf, we can access the Power Plant. Here, we can get Electabuzz (in Red), Grimer (in Yellow), and Zapdos (in any version). (Current total: 137)

On Cinnabar Island, we can revive our fossils. This gives us Kabuto, Omanyte, and Aerodactyl. Multiple save files is key here. (Current total: 142)

In Pokémon Mansion, you can find Koffing in Red/Blue and Magmar in Blue specifically. (Current total: 145)

And while you can't make it through the Seafoam Islands yet, you can at least get far enough to catch yourself a wild Seel. (Current total: 147)

Not bad. Only four Pokémon to go. We're gonna need to claim Erika's badge now, in order to use Strength. This lets us finish the Seafoam Islands to get Articuno. (Current total: 148)

And... that's it. Yep, only one additional Pokémon here.

We only have four badges at this point, and we have more than 98% of all the Pokémon that exist in these games.

Sadly, getting a fifth badge doesn't get you anything extra. Nor does getting a sixth. Or a seventh. But once you get eight badges, you can go to Victory Road, where Moltres is waiting for you. (Current total: 149)

And that's all you can do before beating the game. After beating the game, you can access Cerulean Cave and go catch yourself a Mewtwo. (Current total: 150)

With that... we're done! And our Pokédex is only 99.34% complete.

Yeah. Very sadly, Mew cannot be obtained through any means (except glitches or hacks), so... we're done here.

All right, let's move on to Gen 2. Now, one thing to note is that, initially, you can only trade with other Gen 2 games. To unlock the ability to trade with Gen 1, you must enter the Ecruteak City Pokémon Center (inaccessible until you get three badges) and then wait one day. Much like my initial post here, I'm gonna assume that we have access to a single save file that already has access to this feature from the beginning. However, this save file can ONLY be used to facilitate intergenerational trades. It cannot be used for anything else. No Pokémon or items can be used here.

So, let's start with Gen 2. We obviously get nine starters here. (Current total: 9)

Then on Route 29, we get different things depending on time of day. In morning/day, we get Pidgey, Sentret, and Rattata. At night, we get Rattata and Hoothoot. (Rattata is available at both times of day.) In Crystal specifically, you can also get Hoppip in the morning/day. (Current total: 21)

Heading north to Route 46, we can catch Geodude, Spearow, and one other Pokémon that depends on the version. Gold/Silver gets Jigglypuff and Crystal gets Phanpy. Note that we will need a trade to evolve Graveler to Golem. And we can't evolve Jigglypuff without a Moon Stone. (Current total: 29)

Except the thing is... there IS a Moon Stone that we have access to. Your mom can save your money, and she will occasionally buy items if you give her enough money. And one of those items is a Moon Stone. You just need to give her $18270. And, well, theoretically, we do have a way of getting infinite money. The berry trees in this game will regrow their berries daily, and each berry can be sold for $5 apiece. This means that if you wait an absurdly long number of days, you can get a Moon Stone. This is really tedious, but possible. That's how you get a Wigglytuff this early on a single save file.

But with multiple save files, you can opt to work smarter, not harder. What you need to do is start a new game, get as much money as you can, and then buy the most expensive items possible. Trade over Pokémon holding those items, then reset your game. Repeat until you have a ton of items on one save file, and sell them all to get that $18270. And then you have a Moon Stone. Regardless how you do it, either way, you get yourself a Moon Stone. (Current total: 30)

On Route 30, you can get Caterpie (Gold/Crystal, morning/day), Weedle (Silver/Crystal, morning/day), Spinarak (Gold/Crystal, night), Ledyba (Silver/Crystal, morning), Zubat (Crystal, night), and Poliwag (Crystal, night). (Current total: 45)

Note that Poliwhirl cannot yet evolve, since we don't have a Water Stone, nor a King's Rock.

On Route 31, we can get a Bellsprout. In Crystal, you can also find Gastly at night, which requires a trade to evolve. You cannot evolve Weepinbell without a Leaf Stone. (Current total: 50)

Moving on to Dark Cave, you can find Dunsparce here. In Crystal, you can also get a Teddiursa. (Current total: 53)

In Violet City, you can do an in-game trade, giving up a Bellsprout to obtain an Onix. (Current total: 54) Can't evolve it without a Metal Coat though.

West of Violet City is Route 36. Exclusive to Crystal is a patch of tall grass that is not found on this route in any other game. Here, you can catch Growlithe in the morning/day. Can't evolve it without a Fire Stone though. (Current total: 55)

Lastly, you can go to the Ruins of Alph to catch an Unown. (Current total: 56)

That's all we can do in these games, so let's connect to Gen 1 and see what these games give us. For starters, we get the all the Gen 1 starters. We also get Pikachu. We get both Nidorans. And we get Mankey. For full details on how these are obtained, see the Gen 1 section above. Note that you'll have to do more Moon Stone grinding for those Nidorans. Have fun with that. (Current total: 74)

For the Gen 1 games, Gen 2 can give them Jigglypuff, Zubat, Growlithe, Poliwag, Bellsprout, Geodude, Gastly, and Onix, as well as evolving the Nidorans fully. This gives the Gen 1 games a total of 47 Pokémon before beating Brock.

Anyways, at this point, Gen 2 defeats Falkner. After doing so, Professor Elm gives the player an Egg, which will hatch into a Togepi. (Current total: 76)

On Route 32, you can catch Mareep (Gold/Silver), Wooper (all versions), and Ekans (Silver/Crystal). Note that the time of day each is available is different depending on version. (Current total: 83)

You also get the Old Rod here, and, with the current locations we have access to, enables us to catch Magikarp, Tentacool, Krabby, Goldeen, and Qwilfish. (Current total: 92)

Note that Qwilfish is tricky. It normally only appears with the Super Rod, but, during a swarm, it can be caught with any rod. Swarms in Gen 2 are triggered by getting phone numbers of certain trainers. In the case of Qwilfish, the trainer you need to register in your Pokégear is Fisherman Ralph. And, well, he's on Route 32, so we have access to him.

In the Union Cave, you can catch Sandshrew in Gold/Crystal. (Current total: 94)

Emerging out the other side at Azalea Town, here, you can find Slowpoke in the Slowpoke Well. No King's Rock yet, so we can only evolve it into Slowbro and not Slowking. (Current total: 96)

In Ilex Forest, you can catch Oddish and Paras. In Crystal, you can also catch Psyduck and Venonat. Note that Gloom cannot yet be evolved. (Current total: 104)

Now, at this point, you need to train a Slowpoke to Level 34. At that point, it will learn Headbutt and enable you to get Pokémon by headbutting trees. Depending on location, you can get Exeggcute (can't evolve yet), Pineco, Aipom, or Heracross. (Current total: 109)

We're not done yet. The next thing you have to do is catch a lot of Slowpoke. Why? Because we need their wild held items. They have a 2% chance of holding a King's Rock, and we need two King's Rocks. This wouldn't be so bad if we had a move like Thief that lets us steal enemy held items, but we don't yet have access to that, so we just have to keep catching them until we get two King's Rocks. Then that lets us evolve Slowpoke into Slowking and Poliwhirl into Politoed. (Current total: 111)

That's all we can do until we beat Bugsy, but we can still connect to Gen 1 to obtain some more Pokémon. Gen 1 gives us Clefairy (and it can evolve in a Gen 1 game, so no more Moon Stone grinding), Diglett, Meowth, Abra, Farfetch'd, Drowzee, and Mr. Mime. (Current total: 124)

On the flip side of the coin, Gen 2 gives to Gen 1: Tentacool, Slowpoke, Krabby, and Goldeen. Gen 1's total is now at 80.

Now that we can use Cut in Gen 2, we can make our way through the Ilex Forest. Emerging on Route 34, here we can get Ditto. In Crystal, you can find Snubbull here as well. (Current total: 127)

We also get access to the Day Care here. You'd think that we'd breed here to get Pichu, Cleffa, and Igglybuff. However, this isn't necessary. In Crystal, you can get an Egg by talking to the Day Care Man. This Egg will randomly hatch into either Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid, or Magby. These can be fully-evolved, of course, with Tyrogue evolving multiple times. (Current total: 140)

In Goldenrod City, we can do an in-game trade, giving up a Drowzee (Gold/Silver) or Abra (Crystal) to obtain a Machop. (Current total: 143)

And then there's the Game Corner. Here, we can get a Dratini in Gold/Silver, a Cubone in Crystal, and a Wobbuffet in Crystal. (Current total: 149)

Route 35 is the natural habitat of Yanma. (Current total: 150)

In the National Park, we can catch a Sunkern in the park normally. During the bug-catching contest, you can also get Scyther and Pinsir. (Current total: 153)

Route 36 offers Vulpix in Silver and Stantler in Gold/Silver. (Current total: 155)

At this point, you need to win the Bug-Catching Contest twice. Each win gets you a Sun Stone, and you'll need two of them, in order to evolve Sunkern and Gloom into Sunflora and Bellossom. (Current total: 157)

Finally, there's Mystery Gifting that we have to do. When you Mystery Gift in Gen 2, you can receive random items by connecting to another game, and among the items available are evolution stones. Since Mystery Gift can be unlocked by talking to an NPC in Goldenrod, we now have access to it. This gives us Raichu, Ninetales, Vileplume, Arcanine, Poliwrath, Victreebel, and Exeggutor. Alternatively, you can just trade the Pokémon to Gen 1 and then buy the stones directly. (Current total: 164)

And then we can connect to Gen 1 to receive Ponyta, Magnemite, Doduo, Shellder, Voltorb, Lickitung, Rhyhorn, Chansey, Tangela, Kangaskhan, Horsea, Staryu, Tauros, Lapras, Eevee, Porygon, and Snorlax. (Current total: 195)

Meanwhile, Gen 1 is able to receive Electabuzz and Magmar from Gen 2, bringing it up to 135.

Now that we can beat Whitney, this lets us gain the Squirtbottle item from the house next to the Goldenrod Gym. This lets us battle and catch the Sudowoodo on Route 36. (Current total: 196)

In Burned Tower, you can find Koffing. In Gold/Silver, you can also use Rock Smash here to sometimes find wild Shuckle. (Current total: 199)

Route 38 is home to Miltank. (Current total: 200)

We get the Good Rod in Olivine City, and by re-exploring previous locations, we can find Chinchou and Corsola. (Current total: 203)

While we can't fully explore Mt. Mortar without Surf and Waterfall, you can hang out in there long enough to find a Marill. (Current total: 205)

On Route 43, you can catch Girafarig in Gold/Silver. (Current total: 206)

And now for the hard part. Raikou, Entei, and Suicune are all roaming the map (not Suicune in Crystal). And you need to catch all three. Good luck. (Current total: 209)

Lastly, you can find wild Magnemite on Route 38, and you'll need to catch a lot of them, because they have a 2% chance of holding a Metal Coat, which enables you to evolve Onix and Scyther into Steelix and Scizor. (Current total: 211)

Finally, Gen 1 gives us Seel, Grimer, Omanyte, Kabuto, Aerodactyl, and Zapdos. (Current total: 221)

As for Gen 2 giving to Gen 1, there's nothing to give anymore. At this point, Gen 1 is just missing legendary Pokémon, and none of the Gen 1 legendaries can be obtained in a Gen 2 game. So Gen 1 remains stuck at 147.

Moving right along... we can now use Surf, so we can access the back of Union Cave and access the back of the Ruins of Alph as a result. This gives us access to the tall grass in the Ruins of Alph for the first time, enabling us to get Natu and Smeargle. (Current total: 224)

On Route 41, we can find Mantine in Gold/Crystal. (Current total: 225)

Lastly, Gen 1 can give us Articuno here. (Current total: 226)

And that's it for now. Our next badge is an interesting one. We can choose to fight either Chuck, Jasmine, or Pryce. Jasmine's badge gives us nothing. Chuck's badge gives us Fly, which is worthless in terms of catching new Pokémon. And Pryce's badge gives us Whirlpool. Whirlpool is the one we want, so let's go defeat Pryce.

Now that you can use Whirlpool, you can access the Whirl Islands, home to wild Horsea. We already have a Horsea, but we'll need to grind here to find one with its wild held item. There's a 2% chance that it holds a Dragon Scale. Luckily, this time, you don't actually need to catch the Horsea, since we get the TM for Thief in the Team Rocket HQ in Mahogany Town. This lets us get a Dragon Scale, which can be used to evolve Seadra into Kingdra. (Current total: 227)

Our next problem is getting to Route 44. There's a guy blocking the way who won't move until you stop Team Rocket's takeover of the Radio Tower, and that takeover doesn't happen until you get seven badges. There's literally nothing we can do here. We just have to get the next two badges from Chuck and Jasmine.

Clearing the Radio Tower also gives us an item that is helpful: the Rainbow Wing (Gold), the Silver Wing (Silver), and the Clear Bell (Crystal). This lets us catch the Pokémon that appears on the box of the game: Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Suicune. We already have Suicune, but Ho-Oh and Lugia are new to us. (Current total: 229)

On Route 44, you can find Remoraid in Gold/Silver. (Current total: 231)

In the Ice Path, you can find Swinub in all versions, Delibird in Silver/Crystal, and Sneasel in Crystal. (Current total: 235)

On Route 45, we can get Gligar in Gold/Crystal and Skarmory in Silver/Crystal. (Current total: 237)

Getting the final badge doesn't actually get us any new Pokémon in Gen 2, but getting the final badge in Gen 1 will get us Moltres, which can then be traded over. (Current total: 238)

And now we just beat the game. We have a Pokédex of 238 at this point, which is about 94.82% complete. Not bad, but could be better. Let's see what the postgame has for us.

Now that we can explore Kanto, we can get Houndour, Murkrow, and Slugma. (Current total: 243)

In the Silph Co. building, we can obtain the Up-Grade item, which, when held by Porygon, will evolve it into Porygon2 upon being traded. (Current total: 244)

In Crystal, Larvitar is available as a prize from the Celadon Game Corner. (Current total: 247)

And, of course, Gen 1 can get Mewtwo in the postgame, and trade it over. (Current total: 248)

Finally, if you're playing on the Virtual Console version of the game, Crystal has one additional Pokémon that it can get. It can obtain the GS Ball from the Goldenrod City Pokémon Center, give it to Kurt in Azalea Town, wait a day, and then go to the shrine in the Ilex Forest to obtain a Celebi. (Current total: 248 cartridge, 249 Virtual Console)

There's still one last Pokémon to get, but it's not available until we get all the Kanto badges. So... let's do that now. After that's done, you can access Mt. Silver, which is home to wild Misdreavus. (Current total: 249 cartridge, 250 Virtual Console)

This gives us a total completion of just over 99.2% on cartridge, and just over 99.6% on Virtual Console. Sadly, we still come up short. This is because Mew is unavailable in all versions of these games. Darn.

Now we move on to Gen 3. Gen 3 is unique in that it is the only generation that is unable to receive any Pokémon from any other generation. You'd think that this means we can just play these games normally, but no. This is because Gen 3 places severe trading restrictions on the player, for literally no reason. This has never been repeated before in any Pokémon game before nor since.

For Ruby and Sapphire, there are no trade restrictions.

For FireRed and LeafGreen, you can ONLY trade with other copies of FireRed/LeafGreen, until you complete Celio's Network Machine. Additionally, you cannot trade to obtain any Egg, nor any Pokémon that's not in the Kanto Dex. Obtaining the National Dex will unblock these trades. (To obtain the National Dex, you need to have 60 or more Pokémon in your Dex, complete the Sevii Islands side quest, beat the game, and talk to Professor Oak after doing all that.)

For Emerald, you can only trade with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and cannot trade to obtain any Egg, nor any Pokémon that's not in the Hoenn Dex. Obtaining the National Dex unblocks these, and also allows you to trade with FireRed/LeafGreen. (To obtain the National Dex, you need to talk to Professor Birch after beating the game.)

See, Ruby/Sapphire make it easy. They just give you the National Dex automatically after you obtain a Pokémon that's not in the Hoenn Dex.

Right. So how is this going to work?

Well, it's not pretty, but here's the best solution that I came up with. We're going to have a copy of Ruby/Sapphire as our "main" version. This will be the place where the Pokédex will be checked and completed. All other copies of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald will just export their Pokémon to this main version. Since there's no trade restrictions on what Ruby/Sapphire can receive, this works. For FireRed/LeafGreen, they can't trade over to Ruby/Sapphire directly. So we will have another version of FireRed/LeafGreen available that has already completed the Celio Network and can make the trade for us. This version of FireRed/LeafGreen is an intermediary that will facilitate the trade. As always, no Pokémon or items can be obtained in these versions unless traded in from one of the games we are actually playing.

Not only is this an inelegant solution, but also... there's a problem with it. That main version of the game that is not allowed to actually progress? Yeah, that's not a thing. In all Pokémon games, it is not possible to trade until the Pokédex is obtained. Additionally, starting with Gen 3, you cannot trade unless you have at least two non-Egg Pokémon in your party. This means that some Pokémon have to be obtained on our main version. So the best thing we can do is... just ignore this. We'll have extra Pokémon, and just pretend we don't. That's really not ideal, but hey, that's how the game works. Go blame Nintendo and Game Freak.

So anyways, let's start with FireRed/LeafGreen. I'm doing this one first because it is very similar to Red/Blue/Yellow, so this feels a little redundant, so I'm getting it out of the way.

First, we get nine starters. (Current total: 9)

Then, on Route 1, we get Pidgey and Rattata. (Current total: 14)

Then, on Route 22, we get Mankey and Spearow. (Current total: 18)

And then in Viridian Forest, we get Caterpie, Weedle, and Pikachu. Pikachu can't evolve yet since we don't have a Thunder Stone. (Current total: 25)

That's all we can do before Brock. So... on to Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.

It begins with nine starters. (Current total: 36)

Route 101 gives us Zigzagoon, Poochyena, and Wurmple. Wurmple will need to be evolved twice. (Current total: 43)

Route 103 has Wingull. (Current total: 45)

Route 102 has Ralts (all versions), Lotad (Sapphire/Emerald), Seedot (Ruby/Emerald), and Surskit (Ruby/Sapphire). Note that we cannot evolve Nuzleaf and Lombre without a Leaf Stone or Water Stone, respectively. (Current total: 54)

Route 104 has Taillow in all versions, and Marill in Emerald version. (Current total: 58)

In Petalburg Woods, you can catch Shroomish and Slakoth. (Current total: 63)

In Ruby/Sapphire, there's an in-game trade in Rustboro City, where you can give up a Slakoth for a Makuhita. (Current total: 65)

On Route 116, you can catch Skitty, Whismur, and Nincada. In Emerald, you can also get Abra here. Skitty cannot evolve without a Moon Stone. (Current total: 75)

And that's all we can get until we beat Roxanne.

So let's go defeat Brock/Roxanne and continue.

FireRed/LeafGreen advances to Route 3, where it finds Nidoran-F, Nidoran-M, and Jigglypuff. All of these require Moon Stones, which we do not have. (Current total: 80)

On Route 4, we can buy a Magikarp. (Current total: 82)

In Mt. Moon, you can catch Zubat, Geodude, Paras, and Clefairy. (Current total: 90)

And now we get to the fun part: Moon Stones. So, there's two Moon Stones found in Mt. Moon. But in addition to that, wild Clefairy appear here, and they have a 5% chance of holding a Moon Stone. So you can use Thief against wild Clefairy to get Moon Stones until you have the five that you need to evolve Nidorina, Nidorino, Jigglypuff, and Clefairy. You still have one left, which can be traded over to the Hoenn games to evolve Skitty. (Current total: 95)

Now the issue of Golbat. You can raise its happiness and it will eventually evolve into a Crobat. However, FireRed/LeafGreen actually will automatically stop any evolution that would result in a non-Kanto Pokémon until the National Dex is obtained (they are the only Pokémon games that have this tight of a restriction). Because of that, this needs to be traded over to Hoenn first, and then evolved in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. (Current total: 96)

On Route 4, you can find Ekans in FireRed and Sandshrew in LeafGreen. (Current total: 100)

On Route 24, you can find Oddish in FireRed and Bellsprout in LeafGreen. You cannot fully evolve either one without a Leaf Stone. (Current total: 104)

On Route 5, you can find a Meowth. (Current total: 106)

In Vermillion City, there's an in-game trade that will give you a Farfetch'd if you give up a Spearow. (Current total: 107)

On Route 11, you can catch Drowzee. (Current total: 109)

In Diglett's Cave, you can catch Diglett. (Current total: 111)

Exiting out of Diglett's Cave, we find ourselves on the other side of Route 2, which has a house that contains an in-game trade. By giving up an Abra, we obtain a Mr. Mime. (Current total: 112)

Nothing more we can do until Misty is defeated, so back to Hoenn.

We can now have Mr. Briney take us to Dewford Island, where we obtain the Old Rod. This lets us fish in the areas that we had already previously explored, finding Tentacool and Goldeen in the process. (Current total: 116)

Then we can go into Granite Cave, where we find Mawile (Ruby), Sableye (Sapphire/Emerald), and Aron (all versions). (Current total: 121)

Now at this point, you are meant to fight Brawly. But you don't have to. Mr. Briney will take you to Slateport as soon as the Letter is delivered to Steven, whether you bothered to defeat Brawly or not. Skipping Brawly renders you unable to use Flash outside of battle, which will make getting through Granite Cave harder, but it's still doable. With that, we arrive in Slateport City.

Heading north to Route 110, we catch Plusle, Minun, Electrike, and Gulpin. (Current total: 127)

On Route 117, we can catch Volbeat and Illumise. In Ruby/Sapphire, you can get Roselia as well. (Current total: 130)

Route 117 is also home to the Day Care. Since we can now breed, we can trade over Pikachu, Clefairy, and Jigglypuff, and breed them to get their baby forms: Pichu, Cleffa, and Igglybuff. Note that we CANNOT breed Marill to get Azurill, since that would require the Sea Incense, which is not yet available to us. (Current total: 133)

That's all the Pokémon we can get with a single badge. So now we beat Misty and Wattson (Brawly unlocks us no new Pokémon) and proceed.

Heading east of Cerulean lets us reach Route 9, containing Voltorb. (Current total: 135)

The Rock Tunnel contains Machop and Onix. (Current total: 139)

On Route 8, we can get Growlithe in FireRed and Vulpix in LeafGreen. No Fire Stones yet, so no evolution. (Current total: 141)

In Celadon City, we obtain a free Eevee. We can also buy a Porygon. (Current total: 143)

And now we can buy evolution stones. This gets us Raichu, Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Arcanine, Ninetales, Vileplume, and Victreebel. (Current total: 151)

On Route 16, we can catch Doduo. (Current total: 153)

After obtaining the Silph Scope, we can scale Pokémon Tower, obtaining Gastly and Cubone in the process. (Current total: 158)

This gives us the Poké Flute, which can be used to wake Snorlax, which we catch. (Current total: 159)

We can now go get the other two fishing rods, and with them, explore all of Kanto to obtain Shellder (FireRed), Staryu (LeafGreen), Horsea, Psyduck (FireRed), Slowpoke (LeafGreen), Poliwag, Krabby, and Grimer. (Current total: 176)

There's also two in-game trades now available to us. In Cerulean, we can give up a Poliwhirl to obtain a Jynx, and on Route 18, we can give up a Golduck (FireRed) or Slowbro (LeafGreen) to obtain a Lickitung. (Current total: 178)

On Route 14, you can catch Ditto and Venonat. (Current total: 181)

And then in the Safari Zone, you can catch Dratini, Exeggcute, Rhyhorn, Chansey, Scyther (FireRed), Pinsir (LeafGreen), Tauros, and Kangaskhan. (Current total: 193)

By clearing the Fighting Dojo of Saffron City, you can obtain either a Hitmonlee or a Hitmonchan. Doing it on multiple save files will get you both. (Current total: 195)

And by clearing Silph Co., you can obtain a free Lapras. (Current total: 196)

That's all for FireRed/LeafGreen, but since we can trade stuff to Ruby/Sapphire, we can use this to obtain some new evolutions, since non-Kanto Pokémon are currently locked for us in FireRed/LeafGreen. First of all, we can evolve Chansey into Blissey. Secondly, we can breed Jynx to obtain Smoochum. We can also breed Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan to get Tyrogue, and then evolve Tyrogue into Hitmontop. (Current total: 200)

There's also Espeon and Umbreon. These require it to be day and night, respectively. However, there is no clock in FireRed/LeafGreen, so you'll need to trade your Eevee over to Ruby/Sapphire to get these ones. (Current total: 202)

And now here's the fun part: Poliwhirl and Slowpoke will evolve into Politoed and Slowking upon being traded whilst holding a King's Rock. And we DO have access to the King's Rock. It can't be obtained in FireRed/LeafGreen yet. But in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, it's available via Pickup. So if you get two of them, then that gives you two more Pokémon. (Current total: 204)

While we're connecting these games, you can trade over a Leaf Stone and a Water Stone from FireRed/LeafGreen, in order to evolve Nuzleaf and Lombre. (Current total: 206)

And now we can focus on Hoenn exclusively for a bit. First of all, with Wattson's badge, we gain the ability to use Rock Smash. This lets us backtrack to Granite Cave and smash rocks in the lower floors to find Nosepass. (Current total: 207)

On Route 112, you can catch Numel. (Current total: 209)

In Fiery Path, you can catch Koffing, Slugma, and Torkoal. (Current total: 214)

On Route 113, you can catch Spinda and Skarmory (Current total: 216)

On Route 114, you can get Swablu (all versions), Zangoose (Ruby), and Seviper (Sapphire/Emerald). (Current total: 220)

In Meteor Falls, you can catch Solrock (Ruby/Emerald) and Lunatone (Sapphire). (Current total: 222)

Solrock's wild held item is a Sun Stone, so by using Thief, you can obtain one to evolve Gloom into Bellossom. (Current total: 223)

After dealing with Team Magma/Team Aqua, you can head down Jagged Pass, and catch Spoink on the way. (Current total: 225)

In Lavaridge Town, there's an old lady who will give you an Egg that hatches into Wynaut. (Current total: 227)

And that's it. Nothing more to do until we defeat Flannery. So let's do that. In FireRed/LeafGreen, we have our choice of Gym Leaders to fight. Koga gives us Surf, which is the most valuable thing open to us, so let's fight Koga now.

And then we go to the Power Plant. Here, we get Magnemite and Zapdos. In FireRed specifically, you also get Electabuzz. (Current total: 231)

If you make your way to Pallet Town, you can now Surf south of it to access a bit of tall grass on Route 21. That's where Tangela is. (Current total: 232)

When you reach Cinnabar Island, you can revive fossils, obtaining Aerodactyl, Kabuto, and Omanyte. (Current total: 237)

And in the Seafoam Islands, you can find Seel. (Current total: 239)

That's it for Kanto. Back to Hoenn.

Beating Flannery gets you access to the Go-Goggles, which lets you explore Route 111's desert. There, you'll find Cacnea, Baltoy, and Trapinch. (Current total: 246)

You can also get fossils here, which can be revived in Rustboro. This gives you Anorith and Lileep. (Current total: 250)

Finally, by trading over an Electabuzz, you can breed it to obtain Elekid. (Current total: 251)

Moving on to the next gyms, something interesting happens. In the Hoenn games, we actually cannot challenge the Petalburg Gym. Norman simply refuses to fight you until you have four badges, and we skipped Brawly. Our only option is to fight Brawly, and that does absolutely nothing for us.

FireRed/LeafGreen, however, gives us a choice. In the original Red/Blue/Yellow, I fought Erika at this point. She unlocks Strength, which would let us get to Articuno. That's still the case here. However, Erika is not the optimal choice in the remakes. That's because defeating Blaine unlocks access to the Sevii Islands. While the Sevii Islands are mostly unexplorable without Strength, we can get just far enough to get a Ponyta. Since Ponyta evolves into Rapidash, this gets us two Dex entries from Blaine, as opposed to Erika's single Dex entry.

So that make Blaine the most optimal choice, right? No. While that is the case with a single save file, there's something else you can do with multiple save files. You can opt to get Erika's badge on one version, and Blaine's badge on another. Doing this will let you get BOTH Ponyta and Articuno. It's still entirely within the rules, since no game has more than four badges at this point.

So, yeah, go get Ponyta on One Island and then get Articuno in the Seafoam Islands. (Current total: 254)

All right, after doing that, we can now get whatever badge we didn't get previously so that we now have access to Strength AND the Sevii Islands on the same save file. Doing this lets us find Magmar in LeafGreen. And it also lets us access Moltres in both versions. (Current total: 256)

Trading Magmar over to Ruby/Sapphire will allow you to breed it to obtain Magby. (Current total: 257)

In Hoenn, we can now Surf, since we defeated Norman. This lets us access the fisherman on Route 118, who gives us the Good Rod. Going around Hoenn, we can get Wailmer, Corphish, Barboach, and Carvanha this way. (Current total: 265)

While we're in the neighborhood, swing by New Mauville. You can't get anything new here, but you can encounter wild Magnemite. In the Hoenn games, Magnemite's wild held item (5% chance) is a Metal Coat, which can be used to evolve Onix and Scyther into Steelix and Scizor. (Current total: 267)

Actually proceeding through the game, you can catch Kecleon on Route 118. (Current total: 268)

On Route 119, you can catch Tropius. (Current total: 269)

By clearing the Weather Institute, you get a free Castform. (Current total: 270)

And now for the hardest part: fishing for Feebas. Good luck. (Current total: 272)

Route 120 is home to Absol. (Current total: 273)

Route 121 has Shuppet in Emerald version. (Current total: 275)

Mt. Pyre's interior area has Duskull. (Current total: 277)

Mt. Pyre's exterior area has Chimecho. In Ruby/Sapphire, it also has Meditite. (Current total: 280)

The Safari Zone in Hoenn contains mostly Pokémon that we already obtained in FireRed/LeafGreen, but fresh faces include Girafarig, Natu, Heracross, and Phanpy. (Current total: 286)

Now, before we proceed further, go ahead and head back to the Day Care. The Sea Incense is found in Mt. Pyre, and that allows us to finally obtain Azurill. (Current total: 287)

Defeating Team Magma/Team Aqua and clearing out their hideouts opens up Hoenn's eastern seas to you. This lets you access the Shoal Cave, where Spheal and Snorunt are located. (Current total: 292)

You can also get the Super Rod in Mossdeep City, which can be used to fish up Corsola and Luvdisc. (Current total: 294)

You can also fish up a Horsea, which is unnecessary since we already got one in FireRed/LeafGreen. However, Horsea's held item (5% chance) in the Hoenn games is the Dragon Scale, which is needed to evolve Seadra into Kingdra. (Current total: 295)

That's all we can do until we get more badges. In fact, FireRed/LeafGreen can't get any more Pokémon at all until becoming Champion. So, for now, we're just gonna be playing the Hoenn games.

So, we defeat Tate & Liza and gain the ability to use Dive. This enables us to find Chinchou, Relicanth, and Clamperl. We can also fully explore the Abandoned Ship now, which gives us the Scanner, which can be exchanged for either the Deep Sea Tooth or the Deep Sea Scale. With multiple save files, we get both, and that lets us evolve Clamperl both ways. (Current total: 301)

With access to both a Relicanth and a Wailord, the Secret Chamber can be opened, enabling us to solve the puzzles to encounter the Regis. For Regirock, you need to examine the text, then go two steps right (left in Emerald), two steps down, and use Strength (Rock Smash in Emerald). For Regice, you need to either stay still for two minutes (Ruby/Sapphire) or do a lap around the room staying along the walls (Emerald). For Registeel, you need to go to the center of the room and use Fly (Flash in Emerald).

This presents a problem. We can't use Fly without Winona's badge, and we had no reason to get Winona's badge, so we skipped it. Luckily, this is a non-issue, since Registeel can be obtained in Emerald without use of Fly. (Current total: 304)

And now we do storyline stuff to catch the Pokémon on the boxes of these games. Groudon in Ruby, Kyogre in Sapphire, Rayquaza in Emerald. (Current total: 307)

After that, go ahead and defeat Wallace (Ruby/Sapphire) or Juan (Emerald) to obtain the next badge. This lets us use Waterfall. By using Waterfall, we can access the back room of Meteor Falls, which is where you can catch Bagon. (Current total: 310)

Only one badge remains. The Kanto games haven't beaten Giovanni and the Hoenn games haven't beaten Winona. Nothing left to do but to do that. And that badge unlocks us... absolutely nothing!

So now let's beat the game and see what that unlocks for us.

Well, for starters, the Sevii Islands can now be fully explored.

On Three Island, we get Dunsparce. (Current total: 311)

On Four Island, we get Wooper (FireRed), Delibird (FireRed), Sneasel (LeafGreen), and Swinub (both versions). (Current total: 317)

On Five Island, we get Hoppip, Sentret, Qwilfish (FireRed), Remoraid (LeafGreen), Togepi, Murkow (FireRed), and Misdreavus (LeafGreen). (Current total: 329)

Five Island also holds the Rocket Warehouse, inside which you can find an Up-Grade. Giving this to Porygon and trading it will give you a Porygon2. (Current total: 330)

On Six Island, we get Yanma, Spinarak, and Ledyba. (Current total: 335)

On Seven Island, we get Larvitar, Unown, and, in LeafGreen, Mantine. (Current total: 340)

After completing the Sevii Islands storyline, either Raikou, Entei, or Suicune will be roaming Kanto, depending on your starter. With multiple save files, we can get all three. (Current total: 343)

And lastly, Mewtwo awaits you in Cerulean Cave. (Current total: 344)

Moving on to Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, these have a roaming legendary. It's Latios in Ruby, Latias in Sapphire, and your choice of the two in Emerald. We take both. (Current total: 346)

Going to Steven's house in Mossdeep gets us a free Beldum. (Current total: 349)

That's it for Ruby/Sapphire, but Emerald has a few more Pokémon for us.

Going to the Battle Frontier lets you find a wild Sudowoodo, and lets you access a secret cave that wild Smeargle appear in. (Current total: 351)

And then there's the Safari Zone, which, in Emerald, expands a bit after you beat the game. The new areas give you Hoothoot, Mareep, Aipom, Sunkern, Pineco, Gligar, Snubbull, Shuckle, Teddiursa, Houndour, Stantler, and Miltank. (Current total: 371)

Lastly, if you complete your Hoenn Dex in Emerald and talk to Professor Birch, he'll give you your choice of Johto starters. With multiple save files, we can get all three. (Current total: 380)

That's all that you can get with just these games. It's 98.45%. But... we can still do better.

If you are willing to play through Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, that gets you access to a Ho-Oh (Colosseum) or Lugia (XD: Gale of Darkness), giving us an extra 2 Pokémon. If you have the bonus disc that you got for pre-ordering Colosseum (Japanese/American) or Channel (European), then that gives you a Celebi (Japanese), or Jirachi (American/European). That gives you another 2 Pokémon, bringing your total up to 384. That's a much more respectable 99.48%.

Sadly, even if you allow this (which is questionable - I probably wouldn't), you still are incomplete. This is because Mew and Deoxys cannot be obtained in this generation through any means other than events.