Guide to filling out the National Pokédex in Pokémon Platinum

This guide will contain everything you could possibly need to know about filling out a National (& living) Sinnoh Pokedex. This guide has been written from the context of using Pokemon Platinum as the "main" game, and as such the information here is not 100% applicable when using other gen 4 games.

I wrote this guide alongside my attempt at completing a living gen 4 Pokedex, and many parts of it were written in advance so I had a plan to follow.

As part of this guide, two additional webpages are provided (but not included as they are massive) which will prove indispensable to anyone making a serious attempt:

• A wild Pokemon reference sheet encompassing every single Pokemon you're able to catch in the wild
• A required evolution reference sheet which details which Pokemon need to be evolved, and how many you need to catch to complete a National Pokedex at the very least, and a living dex if you're willing to go the extra mile

This guide was inspired by two videos made by Jrose11 which outlined what you needed to catch to complete a Sinnoh Pokedex. If you want some additional background information, these videos are a great start:

Without much ado, lets get straight into it.

Preface - Completing the Sinnoh Pokédex

Before you can begin to start catching Pokémon to fill out your caught/living Pokédex, you will need to receive the National Pokédex by completing your Sinnoh Pokédex and showing it to Professor Rowan. (Just viewing Pokémon is enough)
Even though you can get a head-start now, it's generally a good idea to do this before starting anyway. This entire guide (except for this section) will assume that you have defeated the Elite Four at least once, and obtained the National Pokédex.

Here are some general tips and tricks I found useful throughout my gameplay. If you've already gotten this far, you can skip this section if you'd like.

• For savvy spenders, Fresh Water is a really good item for healing. It has the same great cost efficiency as the Hyper Potion, but in 50hp increments so you don't waste as much.
  Can be bought from the 5th floor in the Veilstone Department Store for 300 each.

• Alternatively, instead of needing to worry about cash at all, there's a trainer you can rematch with near the top of Route 212 on the left of the Pokémon Mansion. Rebattling her with the Vs. Seeker (which you get from Lucas/Dawn shortly after the first gym leader) can give you up to 24,400 on each rebattle, assuming you have an Amulet Coin or Luck Incense equipped. She uses a sole Roselia, so use something weak to that (like flying-type moves) and you'll be King Midas soon enough.

• The first time you enter Eterna Forest, Iron Island, and (much later in the game) Stark Mountain, a trainer teams up with you to travel through the area together. This is one of the best opportunities to grind for experience in the game.
  You face double wild Pokémon battles, with experience from both only going to your Pokémon. And after every battle, your partner heals all of your Pokémon (PP included). Since you are constantly fighting double the amount of pokemon you usually are and don't need to stop for healing, it is a very fast way to get experience.
  They're unofficially named the Stat Trainers.

• Barring that, the best trainer to grind experience from is this fisherman on Route 222, left of Sunyshore City. (You can't use the Vs. Seeker in Victory Road, and it's tedious to repeatedly battle the Elite 4)
  He has two level 43 Gyarados' and a Remoraid, which when defeated with a Lucky Egg grants 7,000 EXP in total on every rebattle. (This changes depending on if and how you're sharing EXP, will explain it more later)

Remaining Pokémon

After beating the Elite 4 and the Champion, you will still be missing some Pokémon before your Sinnoh Pokédex is completed.

Azelf , Mesprit and Uxie must be encountered at their respective lakes. Note that Azelf and Uxie are proper encounters; expect to catch them now, or defeat the Elite 4 again to respawn them. Mesprit leaves it's cave and becomes a roaming pokemon, however it still fills out your Pokédex.

Manaphy can be filled out either by receiving its WFC event / Pokémon Ranger egg, or by reading a book in the office room of the Pokémon Mansion.

Rotom is encountered in the 2nd room of the Old Chateau on the second floor; interact with the television set during the night.

Your mileage may vary at this point, depending on if you've missed any trainers. There is a very good reference on how to spot them (and catch most of them) here.

Completing the National Pokédex

Here's some background information you should read up on before attempting to fill out your Pokédex:

Catch rates

This section is adapted from this Smogon guide, and is useful for more detailed information. I'll cover it briefly here.

I won't bore you with the specific equations, however the numbers are important when determining what equipment and moves to use when attempting to catch a legendary or a Pokémon with a really low catch rate.

Here's a table detailing the catch multiplier some ball types apply when attempting to catch a Pokémon:

Master Ball	255x
Timer Ball (30+ turns)	4x
Dusk Ball (In cave / night-time)	3.5x
Net Ball (Against a Bug or Water-type Pokémon)	3x
Repeat Ball (Against previously caught Pokémon)	3x
Ultra Ball	2x
Great Ball	1.5x
Poké Ball	1x

You're not going to have an abundance of Master Balls without cheating, and Timer Balls / Repeat Balls are just not practical for what we're doing.

Therefore Dusk Balls are the most practical option. They're somewhat expensive (not a problem at this point in the game, though) and only work in the darkness, but barring that they're almost twice as effective as Ultra Balls.

The other important multiplier is status afflictions:

As there are no moves that reliably cause freezes (let alone without causing damage), sleep is the only practical option with a 2x multiplier. I wouldn't say it's the "best", because it is not a permanent status affliction. Paralysis, even though it's lower at 1.5x, does not resolve itself over time. Choosing between sleep and paralysis is up to personal preference, however there are some circumstances where sleep is always better than paralysis (for example, against a Pokémon that knows Refresh).

While it's true that reducing the HP of a Pokémon also helps your catch rate, it's not a reliable strategy. Plenty of the difficult-to-catch Pokémon use moves that damage or heal themselves.

Roaming Pokémon

Wild Pokémon Items

Some evolutions require items (such as evolution stones or held items for trading), or maybe you just want to get your hands on something that would help you greatly, like a Lucky Egg .

A commonly overlooked way to get these items is to get them from wild Pokémon. Here's a table of items you can find from wild Pokémon. They spawn already holding the items, so you can use Thief mid-battle to take them.

The most important thing that will help you with this is to have a pokemon with the Compound Eyes ability at the front of your party. It increases the chance of items spawning, from 50% to 60% or 5% to 20% depending on the item.

I used Butterfree for this as it has Compound Eyes and can learn Thief.

Custom WFC / Mystery Gifts

However controversial within the community, there is a fan-made WFC server that restores the network capabilities of Pokémon Platinum as the official WFC servers have been taken down.

Pokémon gained via this method are not considered "legitimate" by the community (even though they are considered legal by the games), so if you care about that then you should not use this.

This is the most ideal way to get event items for legendary Pokémon, and the WFC-only unobtainable Pokémon.

To unlock Mystery Gifts, you must talk to a man in the Jubilife TV Station on the bottom of the 3rd floor. He will ask for you to provide some words, to which you should give him "Everyone Happy Wi-Fi Connection", which will then unlock the Mystery Gift -> Get via Nintendo WFC option in the main menu of your game.

There is a video guide here on how to set up your (3)DS to connect to the fan server to be able to receive the custom mystery gifts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivlzqEMqhD4

Depending on the day of the year, you can either get a single kind of mystery gift or a random gift every time you connect. It's based on the day of the year you've set your DS to, however I couldn't find a list that indicated which Pokémon were available on which day.

Experience sharing

This is something strange that I encountered when trying to maximise the amount of experience sharing over as many Pokémon as I could to save time grinding.

You might expect switching a Pokémon out mid-battle is equivalent to giving an Exp. Share , but the game is more nuanced than that when calculating which Pokémon gets however much experience.

The game divides Pokémon into "pools", the first pool being all of the Pokémon in battle and a pool for each Pokémon holding an Exp. Share.

For these examples, lets say that after defeating a Pokémon the game is trying to split 3000 EXP. Pokémon #1 will be holding a Lucky Egg , while Pokémon #2 will be holding an Exp. Share :

Simple enough, right? It's what you expect. The 3,000 EXP gets evenly divided between each pool. However lets say that you start off with Pokémon #1 (still holding the Lucky Egg), and switch to Pokémon #3 which then finishes the Pokémon battle. What happens now?

Hang on, what happened here? Why is the experience not split evenly?

It's because the game lumps all Pokémon that were in battle into a single pool, and then splits that pool's share even further. As the pool was allocated 1500 EXP, it had to halve it again to give to the Pokémon within that pool.

Not a deal breaker, but it's something to keep in mind.

However, this all changes when you introduce a level 100 Pokémon into the mix. Lets use those two examples again, except this time Pokémon #1 will be level 100 and holding nothing, while Pokémon #3 will be holding a Lucky Egg:

The game still splits the 3000 EXP evenly across the pools, but this time the pools change who they give the experience to.
In the first example, even though the pool has already been allocated 1500 EXP, it cannot give the level 100 Pokémon any experience so it goes to waste. In the second example however, instead of throwing it away it just reallocates the 750 EXP back onto Pokémon #3.

This also happens without a Pokémon using Exp. Share. Contrary to what this section implies, if you really wanted to maximize the amount of experience you gain from each Pokémon battle, then the best choice is to start with a Pokémon holding a Lucky Egg, and switch out to a level 100 Pokémon who will actually do the battle. All of the experience will go to the Pokémon holding the Lucky Egg, and as such (3000 x 1.5 = 4500) is greater than (1500 x 1 + 1500 x 1.5 = 3750) per battle.

If you do decide however to use an Exp. Share to vary who gains experience a bit, then keep the above information in mind.

Non-Legendary Pokémon

Unobtainable Pokémon

Before we get into where you can obtain each Pokémon, I'll list all the Pokémon you won't be able to catch without interactions from other games, WFC or trading.
(Note that some legendaries also fall under this category, but are listed in a different section)

This list will not include evolutions/pre-evolutions of Pokémon already listed for brevity.

Pokémon	Games available	Description
Bulbasaur , Charmander , Squirtle	FR/LG/HG/SS	One of the trio can be received in HG/SS per save file in the post-game from Prof. Oak after defeating Red. In FR/LG however you can pick the starter you want and trade it to Platinum via Pal Park.
Chikorita , Cyndaquil , Totodile	HG/SS/E	Likewise, one of the trio can be received from Prof. Birch in Emerald after completing the Hoenn Pokédex. Of course, it's easier to just get the starters from HG/SS instead.
Treecko , Torchic , Mudkip	HG/SS/R/S/E	After defeating Red in HG/SS, you can talk to Steven Stone in Silph Co. where he will give you one of the three Pokémon. Again it's easier to just start a new game of R/S/E and then instantly migrate each starter to Platinum.
Turtwig , Chimchar , Piplup	D/P/Pt	Depending on who you started with, you will need to grab the other two starters. Just start a new game in one of the core gen 4 games and trade as soon as possible.
Cranidos or Shieldon	D/P/Pt	Semi-version exclusive. Cranidos is available as a fossil in Diamond, while Shieldon is available in Pearl. Platinum can receive one of the two, depending on your Trainer ID (odd for Cranidos, even for Shieldon)
Trapinch	D/P/HG/SS/R/S/E	Trapinch's evolution family is strange in that none of them can be caught in Platinum, but it can in almost every other game that Platinum can interact with.
Clamperl	D/P/HG/SS/R/S/E	Similar to the above. It's marginally harder to catch Clamperl in HG/SS due to needing to find it during a swarm, so get it via another game.
Murkrow , Stunky	D	Version exclusive. Murkrow can be found in Eterna Forest at Night, and requires the 1st gym badge to get there. Stunky can be first found under Cycling Road in Route 206, which requires the 2nd gym badge for Cut.
Misdreavus , Glameow	P	Version exclusive. Misdreavus can be found in Eterna Forest at Night, and requires the 1st gym badge to get there. Glameow requires the 5th gym badge (Fantina in D/P) to be able to use Surf on Route 218, as the grass patch is on the other side.
Mewtwo	FR/LG/HG/SS	Can be found at the end of Cerulean Cave (Requires entering the Hall of Fame in FR/LG, however requires all 8 Kanto badges to enter in HG/SS)
Lugia , Ho-Oh	HG/SS	Legendaries available in both games.
Rayquaza	R/S/E	Can be encountered at the top of the Sky Pillar after the conclusion of Team Aqua's/Magma's story.
Latias , Kyogre	HG/S/E	Kyogre/Groudon are encountered in R/S in their respective game's story, however both can be captured in the post-game of Emerald. In HG/SS, the respective legendary's orb can be obtained from Mr. Pokémon after defeating Red (and obtaining the National Pokédex), and encountered at the Embedded Tower. Latias/Latios are also encountered roaming in their respective games (post-game), however in Emerald you can pick one of the two. The other legendary of the duo can be encountered with an event item: Eon Ticket in R/S/E, Enigma Stone in HG/SS.
Latios , Groudon	SS/R/E	See above.
Mew , Celebi , Jirachi , Deoxys	WFC	These Pokémon must be obtained from WFC, unless you obtain the following (legitimately or not): - Old Sea Map in Emerald for Mew (note that this event item was only distributed in Japan, so a Japanese version of the game is required for it to be considered legitimate by future games) - Aurora Ticket to catch Deoxys in FR/LG/Emerald. - A US Pokémon Colosseum bonus disk to obtain Jirachi in Ruby/Sapphire. - A JP Pokémon Colosseum bonus disk, complete with a JP GBA and JP copy of Ruby/Sapphire for Celebi. Note that this requires finishing the game and additional steps that I won't go into detail here.

Trade Evolutionary Pokémon

To evolve and obtain some Pokémon, they must be traded to another game. If a required hold item is listed, the Pokémon must be holding that item to evolve.

Traded Pokémon	Received Pokémon	Required Hold Item
Kadabra	Alakazam	None
Machoke	Machamp	None
Graveler	Golem	None
Poliwhirl	Politoed	King's Rock
Slowpoke	Slowking	King's Rock
Scyther	Scizor	Metal Coat
Seadra	Kingdra	Dragon Scale
Porygon	Porygon2	Up-Grade
Porygon2	Porygon-Z	Dubious Disc
Clamperl	Huntail	Deep Sea Tooth
Clamperl	Gorebyss	Deep Sea Scale
Rhydon	Rhyperior	Protector
Electabuzz	Electivire	Electirizer
Magmar	Magmortar	Magmarizer
Dusclops	Dusknoir	Reaper Cloth
Haunter	Gengar	None

Note that Gengar is listed here for completeness. It's easier to use the Dual-Slot method to obtain Gengar, as listed below.

Dual-Slot Pokémon

These Pokémon can only (or most easily) be caught by inserting a GBA cartridge into the same console at the same time as Pokémon Platinum. Depending on the cartridge, you can encounter different Pokémon in some locations.

Check here for more detailed information.

Pokémon	Inserted Game	Encountered at
Caterpie	FireRed	Route 204, Eterna Forest
Metapod	FireRed	Eterna Forest
Ekans	FireRed	Route 212
Arbok	FireRed	Great Marsh
Growlithe	FireRed	Route 201, Route 202
Weedle	LeafGreen	Route 204, Eterna Forest
Kakuna	LeafGreen	Eterna Forest
Sandshrew	LeafGreen	Wayward Cave
Sandslash	LeafGreen	Route 228
Vulpix	LeafGreen	Route 209, Route 214
Seedot	Ruby	Route 203, Route 204, Route 210, Eterna Forest
Nuzleaf	Ruby	Route 210, Route 229
Mawile	Ruby	Iron Island
Zangoose	Ruby	Route 208, Route 210
Solrock	Ruby	Lake Verity, Lake Acuity, Lake Valor, Mt. Coronet, Sendoff Spring, Turnback Cave
Lotad	Sapphire	Route 203, Route 204, Route 205, Route 212
Lombre	Sapphire	Route 212, Route 229
Sableye	Sapphire	Iron Island
Seviper	Sapphire	Route 208, Route 210
Lunatone	Sapphire	Lake Verity, Lake Acuity, Lake Valor, Mt. Coronet, Sendoff Spring, Turnback Cave
Pineco	Emerald	Route 203, Route 204, Route 210, Route 229, Eterna Forest
Shuckle	Emerald	Route 224
Teddiursa	Emerald	Lake Acuity
Ursaring	Emerald	Route 216, Route 217, Acuity Lakefront
Gengar	Any	Old Chateau

Swarm Pokémon

After obtaining the National Pokédex, you can talk to Dawn's/Lucas' little brother in their house in Sandgem Town and he will tell you of a different Pokémon outbreak every day.

The Pokémon mentioned will also list the route that they're found in, and are the only way to obtain these Pokémon in Platinum.

Note that the Pokémon are somewhat predetermined and can't be manipulated by saving and loading before finding out what Pokémon outbreak is happening. You can however set the clock to before midnight, and upon the time hitting midnight the currently swarming Pokémon will change.

See here for more information.

Farfetch'd	Delibird
Doduo	Phanpy
Drowzee	Larvitar
Krabby	Zigzagoon
Voltorb	Slakoth
Cubone	Makuhita
Pinsir	Skitty
Natu	Electrike
Dunsparce	Spoink
Snubbull	Spinda
Corsola	Beldum

Breed-only Pokémon

These Pokémon are the lowest in their respective evolution chains, and are not available elsewhere*.

So to obtain these Pokémon, put the Pokémon in the second column (or any other Pokémon in their evolutionary line) in the daycare with another (preferably a Ditto , otherwise you would have to ensure that your second column Pokémon are all female).

(* Munchlax is included here because you may find it easier to breed a Snorlax instead of praying to find one on a tree)

Bred Pokémon	Daycare Pokémon	Required hold item
Seel	Dewgong	None
Ledyba	Ledian	None
Spinarak	Ariados	None
Elekid	Electabuzz	None
Magby	Magmar	None
Taillow	Swellow	None
Whismur	Loudred	None
Shuppet	Banette	None
Wynaut	Wobbuffet	Lax Incense
Spheal	Sealeo	None
Munchlax	Snorlax	Full Incense

Fossil Pokémon

You can sometimes find these fossils by trawling around in the Underground and digging at treasure in the wall. You can then take these fossils to the Oreburgh Mining Museum where after giving them to the scientist he will chase you out of the building. You can go right back in and he will give you the Pokémon, but make sure to have room in your party.

As stated in an above section, on Platinum either the Skull Fossil or Armor Fossil are available depending on your Trainer ID.

Note that only the Skull Fossil and Armor Fossil are able to be found until you unlock the National Pokédex.

Pokémon	Fossil Item
Cranidos	Skull Fossil
Shieldon	Armor Fossil
Omanyte	Helix Fossil
Kabuto	Dome Fossil
Lileep	Root Fossil
Anorith	Claw Fossil
Aerodactyl	Old Amber

Poké Radar

After obtaining the National Pokédex and talking to Dawn's/Lucas' brother, talk to Dawn/Lucas and they will give you the Poké Radar and a demonstration on how to use it.

While it's useful to greatly increase the chances of finding a shiny Pokémon, we'll be using it to encounter some Pokémon that are not normally found without using it.

Pokémon	Location
Nidoran♀	Route 201
Nidoran♂	Route 201
Nidorina	Valor Lakefront, Route 221
Nidorino	Valor Lakefront, Route 221
Venonat	Route 229
Venomoth	Route 229
Mankey	Route 225, Route 226
Primeape	Route 225, Route 226
Slowpoke	Route 205 (North)
Grimer	Route 212 (South)
Tauros	Route 210 (South)
Sentret	Route 202
Togepi	Route 230
Mareep	Valley Windworks
Flaaffy	Route 222
Hoppip	Route 205 (South)
Sunkern	Route 204 (North)
Wobbuffet	Lake Verity, Lake Valor
Stantler	Route 207
Smeargle	Route 208, Route 212 (North)
Tyrogue	Route 211
Miltank	Route 210 (South)
Poochyena	Route 214
Swellow	Route 213
Kirlia	Route 209
Nincada	Eterna Forest
Loudred	Mt. Coronet
Aron	Fuego Ironworks
Torkoal	Route 227, Stark Mountain
Baltoy	Route 206
Bagon	Route 210 (North)

Trophy Garden

The Trophy Garden is an area for special wild Pokémon out the back of the Pokémon Mansion, near the top of Route 212.

After obtaining the National Pokédex, you can talk to Mr. Backlot in his office who will then inform you of a special Pokémon that is appearing in his garden for the next 24 hours.

Contrary to the swarm mechanic, the Pokémon that show up in the garden are not pre-determined. You can save before talking to Mr. Backlot, and continue to reload the save if the Pokémon he announces is not the one you want.

I've included alternate ways to catch these Pokémon as it may be faster for you to get them via alternative means while waiting for the timer to reset:

Pokémon	Alternate way to obtain
Happiny	Breed Chansey or Blissey with Luck Incense
Clefairy	Catch at Mt. Coronet (any cave, sunrise or night)
Mime Jr.	Breed Mr. Mime with Odd Incense Catch in Pokémon Diamond on Route 209 & 210
Bonsly	Breed Sudowoodo with Rock Incense Catch in Pokémon Pearl on Route 209 & 210
Castform	Trade from R/S/E
Minun	Trade from R/S/E
Plusle	Trade from R/S/E
Azurill	Breed Marill or Azumarill with Sea Incense Catch in Great Marsh in Pokémon Pearl / Diamond
Igglybuff	Breed Jigglypuff or Wigglytuff
Cleffa	Catch at Mt. Coronet (cave upper 1F, sunrise or night) Breed Clefairy or Clefable
Eevee	Given as an Egg from Bebe in Hearthome City
Ditto	Route 218 in Pokémon Diamond / Pearl Desert Underpass in Emerald
Chansey	Catch in Route 209 and Route 210 South
Meowth	Trade from R/S/E

Great Marsh

The Great Marsh is the Pokémon Safari equivalent in the Gen 4 core series games. It has the same bait & rock mechanic from previous games, and likewise it has some rare Pokémon in it that are either harder to find elsewhere or only appear here.

There are two categories of Pokémon you can find here; permanent and rotating. Permanent Pokémon always have a chance of appearing, while rotating Pokémon change every day. Likewise to swarming Pokémon, the Pokémon that rotate are somewhat predetermined, but you can forcibly rotate them by setting your clock to just before midnight and waiting in-game for it to change to the next day.

Each of the rotating Pokémon are usually confined to a single area of the Great Marsh. You can check which Pokémon have currently been rotated in (and at what area) by using the binoculars on the second floor of the Great Marsh reception area.

Pokémon	Encounter type	Areas encountered	Rotation chance
Wooper	Surfing	All	Permanent
Quagsire	Surfing	All	Permanent
Carvanha	Fishing (super rod)	All	Permanent
Yanma	Grass	All	Permanent
Tangela	Grass	All	Permanent
Tropius	Grass	Areas 1 & 2	Permanent
Skorupi	Grass	All	Rotating (5/32)
Carnivine	Grass	All	Rotating (3/32)
Paras	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Exeggcute	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Kangaskhan	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Shroomish	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Gulpin	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Kecleon	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Drapion	Grass	All	Rotating (2/32)
Toxicroak	Grass	All	Rotating (1/32)

Note that the signs for the areas for the Great Marsh are a bit misleading (you can't actually access area 4 from it's stop). Here's a map showing you where the areas are actually located (courtesy of Bulbapedia):

Honey Trees

There are 21 yellow-leafed trees across Sinnoh that allow you to slather Honey on them to attract Pokémon, and 6 in-game hours later a Pokémon will show up on the tree. The Pokémon is decided the moment you slather the honey and not when you encounter it, so you could imagine this becomes extremely frustrating when trying to get rarer Pokémon from this method.

There's a lot of complex math that goes into what Pokémon the game decides to put on the tree when slathering honey, but here's a simple way to visualize it:

Pokémon	% Chance of appearing
Combee	32%
Burmy	22%
Wurmple	14%
Cherubi	11%
Aipom	10%
Heracross	1%
Munchlax	0% / 1%
None	10% / 9%

Munchlax is a special case as there are only 4 trees that Munchlax can spawn on. The 4 trees the game picks are based on your Trainer ID and your Secret ID.

You can use this calculator to determine which honey trees spawn Munchlaxes if you only know your Trainer ID (shows you 2 trees), otherwise you can use this calculator to determine all 4 (requires your Secret ID which you can only know with a save editor)

Notable Pokémon

Munchlax / Snorlax

Probably the most controversial Pokémon to catch in gen 4, Munchlax is extremely time consuming to catch because of the aforementioned tree mechanics. Many people have reported trying for weeks to find a single Munchlax with this method, which you then also need to evolve into a Snorlax.

There's an alternative way to obtain Munchlax though. In the post-game content of Heart Gold / Soul Silver (which you will need to play regardless for some legendaries), you end up encountering a Snorlax in Kanto. You can simply catch it, trade it over to Platinum and breed it with a Full Incense to get a Munchlax. Much faster and easier.

Feebas / Milotic

Unown

While not hard to catch a single Unown for your Pokédex, you're probably more interested in getting all 28 variants.

It's relatively straightforward, although you may have to do a quite a few encounters to catch any stragglers.

In Solaceon Ruins, there are 6 "big" rooms and a lot of "small" rooms that you can encounter Unown in. Each of the big rooms only has a single type of Unown (spelling out "FRIEND"), while the remaining 20 letters are found in any of the small rooms. Each have a 5% chance of appearing, so it can be difficult to find a specific variant.

After catching all 26 letter variants, you can enter the Tunnel Maniac's tunnel from Route 214 to go to the top floor of Solaceon Ruins which was previously inaccessible. There you can find the remaining 2 Unown variants: Unown ? and Unown ! .

Porygon

You receive a Porygon by talking to a man in Veilstone City, whose house is behind the Pokémon center. Other than that there's no way to get one.

Spiritomb

Spiritomb is also another Pokémon with weird, unexplained encounter instructions. First, you have to obtain an Odd Keystone from either a trainer on Route 208, from a tree in Twinleaf Town, or an infinite supply from the Underground.

Next, you can place the Odd Keystone in the Hallowed Tower on Route 209 (very bottom right of the route). It will consume the Odd Keystone, and will sit there waiting to be activated.

To activate it, you need to talk to 32 people in the Underground. While the game tries to make you talk to different people by not counting multiple interactions with the same person, in reality the game forgets who you've talked to every time you leave and re-enter the Underground. So you can talk to the same person 32 times; you just have to constantly enter and leave the Underground.

Togepi and Riolu

Togepi and Riolu are given to the player as eggs at different points in the game. Cynthia gives you a Togepi egg after defeating Jupiter at the Team Galactic Eterna City building, and Riley gives you a Riolu egg after you finish navigating Iron Island with him.

While you can get Togepi elsewhere with the help of the Poké Radar , this is the only way to get Riolu (and subsequently Lucario).

Eevee

While getting Eevee itself is straightforward (either as a gift from Bebe in Hearthome City or in the Trophy Garden), what's special about Eevee is that it evolves into so many Pokémon. Here's a list of what you need to do to evolve to each variant:

• Vaporeon : Use a Water Stone on Eevee
• Jolteon : Use a Thunder Stone on Eevee
• Flareon : Use a Fire Stone on Eevee
• Espeon : Level up Eevee with at least 160 friendship during the day
• Umbreon : Level up Eevee with at least 160 friendship during the night
• Leafeon : Level up Eevee at Eterna Forest near the mossy rock
• Glaceon : Level up Eevee at Route 217 near the icy rock

Burmy / Wormadam

Burmy has 3 variants that change depending on the last battle it appeared in:

• Leaf Burmy when last battled outside or in tall grass
• Sandy Burmy when last battled in a cave or on a beach
• Trash Burmy when last battled indoors / in a building.

Its form doesn't change just from being in your party, only when it's brought out to battle. So you can keep it in your party with an Exp. Share to level it up to Wormadam (if female).

Wormadam also has the same three variants, however its variant is permanent and does not change when in battle. So you must make sure that the Burmy you're evolving is already the Wormadam variant you want.

Shellos / Gastrodon

Shellos and Gastrodon have two different variants depending on where they're encountered: Pink on the west side of Sinnoh, and Blue on the east side.

Tyrogue

While getting a Tyrogue isn't complicated, evolving Tyrogue is a different story. Depending on it's attack and defense stats, it can evolve into one of three Pokémon:

• Hitmonlee if its attack is higher than its defense
• Hitmonchan if its attack is lower than its defense
• Hitmontop if its attack is the same as its defense

You can either catch a lot of Tyrogues and hope that its natural stats are what you want, or dump a lot of cash into Proteins (to boost attack) and Irons (to boost defense). Expect to spend quite a bit that way though.

Beldum

Beldum is on this list as it's the hardest non-legendary Pokémon to catch. They can be found during a swarm on Route 228.

They're difficult to catch mainly due to the fact that its catch rate is the same as a legendary Pokémon, and the only move it knows is Take Down (which damages itself). Pretty frustrating.

Drifloon

Hinted by the man that works at the Valley Windworks, a single Drifloon appears out the front of the Valley Windworks building every Friday. It's the only way to get this Pokémon.

Mantine

To get a Mantine, you must evolve Mantyke with a Remoraid in your party. Even though it's implied otherwise, the Remoraid does not get consumed in this process.

Legendary Pokémon

If you manage to make any legendary Pokémon faint, you can re-defeat the Elite Four and they will respawn. (You shouldn't be at this point regardless, as I'd highly recommended to save before fighting a legendary Pokémon)

In the case of some Pokémon that are triggered by events (such as the legendary birds and Mesprit, among others), you will also additionally need to repeat what you did to cause them to appear / begin roaming in the first place.

This is something new, and wasn't present in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl.

Giratina

You encounter Giratina throughout the main story for Pokémon Platinum, and are able to capture it in the Distortion World (encountered at level 47).

If you defeat Giratina at this point without capturing it, then it will reappear in the final chamber of Turnback Cave (inside Sendoff Spring).

Inside the final chamber for Turnback Cave is also a portal to the Distortion World, where you can obtain the Griseous Orb . It's Giratina's associated item, and transforms it into it's Origin Forme while not being in the Distortion World.

It does not matter how you navigate Turnback Cave; any door except the one you came from will progress you to the next room. Depending on how many rooms you enter before the final chamber, you can also receive an item in the final chamber which respawns daily. The amount of rooms it takes to reach the final chamber is random, and you get sent back to the entrance if you don't reach it in under 30 rooms.

Azelf , Mesprit and Uxie

As mentioned before, they can be encountered at their three lakes inside each cave. They're encountered at level 50.

Manaphy

Manaphy can only be obtained via a WFC event, or being traded an egg from a Pokémon Ranger game (Pokémon Ranger, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia or Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs) after completing a limited-time mission.

This mission is no longer available normally, however you can use the fan-made WFC server to receive the event which gives you the mission.

Barring that, the only way to obtain an egg from these games is by either activating an Action Replay code in the games, or using a save file that has the Manaphy egg ready to be traded.

There is a save file for Pokémon Ranger with the Manaphy egg available here.

Paraphrased from that page:

1. You will need 2x Nintendo DS's to do this, the first DS you need to load Pokémon Ranger on, the second DS you need to load the Pokémon GEN 4 game you wish to transfer the Manaphy Egg to.
2. On Ranger, tap 'Check the Egg', and tap the screen. Afterwards, tap 'Send the Message', and place the 2 DS' across from each other.
3. Once you're ready, put the Pokémon GEN 4 game in the second DS. Turn it on, and go to the Main Menu (Continue, New Game, etc).
4. In Diamond or Pearl, a new screen should come up, from here follow the instructions provided.

Phione

Breed Manaphy with a Ditto at the Day Care to produce a Phione egg.

Cresselia

After obtaining the National Pokédex, the son of the sailor in Canalave City who takes you to Iron Island becomes sick. After interacting with the boy, the sailor asks you to travel to Fullmoon Island to obtain a Lunar Wing .

On this island, you will interact with Cresselia (counting as "seen" on your Pokédex) who will then become a roaming Pokémon which you can catch later. Give the Lunar Wing to the boy to complete this quest, and to be able to sail again.

Heatran

Heatran is accessible in the final chamber of Stark Mountain, but only after completing the Charon subplot. You need to talk to Buck and the old man in the Battleground in Survival Area before Heatran will appear.

Dialga and Palkia

Dialga and Palkia can be encountered at the Spear Pillar after completing two things:

• Talking to Cynthia's grandmother after obtaining the National Pokédex.
• Obtaining the Adamant Orb and Lustrous Orb from a cave in Mt. Coronet. It was previously inaccessible as it was hidden behind a waterfall.

After these conditions have been completed, entering the Spear Pillar will show a portal to encounter one of the duo. After capturing one, you must exit the spear pillar and re-enter it to show the other Pokémon's portal.

Darkrai

To encounter Darkrai, you need to obtain a Member Card from WFC. With the card, the previously locked Harbor Inn in Canalave City (in the top right) will be accessible.

Enter the Inn, and you will be directed into a bed where you will then have a nightmare on Newmoon Island. Enter the forest and defeat Darkrai (as far as I'm aware you're not able to capture Darkrai while in the nightmare). You will then be able to visit Newmoon Island via the sailor in Canalave City.

Sail to the island, and you will then be able to battle and catch Darkrai at level 50.

Shaymin

To encounter Shaymin, you must receive Oak's Letter from WFC. At the end of Victory Road, there is an exit on the right that was previously blocked off by a man until you have obtained a National Pokédex.

At the end of this side-cave is Route 224, which the end of is where Professor Oak is waiting for you. After talking to him and writing on the rock, Seabreak Path will open and at the end you will find Shaymin at level 30.

Shaymin knows Leech Seed and Synthesis, so it will be very hard to keep it at low HP. Luckily it is the legendary with the highest catch rate so it's not much of an issue.

Articuno , Zapdos and Moltres

To be able to encounter these Pokémon, you must first talk to Professor Oak in the Pal Park (at the end of Route 221 below Sandgem Town), and then talk to him in his house in Eterna City.

After this, the three legendary birds will start roaming Sinnoh.

Regice , Regirock and Registeel

There are three caves within Sinnoh that house these legendaries, however you need a WFC event  Regigigas in your party before entering the cave. (The one you get from Snowpoint Temple will not work.)

If you enter them without it, they're just regular caves with an item and a hidden Nugget on the floor.

In the caves, there will be buttons on the floor. Step on all of them and interact with the statue to encounter the specific legendary of that cave. You can rebattle them an infinite amount of times, but they will disappear when you catch them.

Regigigas

Regigigas is located at the bottom of the Snowpoint Temple (in Snowpoint City). Previously the temple was locked off to you; but once you approach it with the National Pokédex, a cutscene with Candice plays where she tells the guard to let you in.

You need to have all three elemental titans in your party: Regice , Regirock and Registeel .
These can either be traded in from a Gen 3 game, or caught in-game using the WFC event Regigigas as detailed above.

Arceus

Arceus is unique in that it's intended acquisition through its event is not considered legitimate, as the associated event item was never officially distributed.

The only legitimate version of Arceus is the fateful encounter version you get from a WFC Mystery Gift distribution. The only other Arceus in the game requires you to have the Azure Flute , which you can only get via hacking, save editing or through a Mystery Gift from the unofficial WFC.

Once you have the Azure Flute in your inventory, walk up through Mt. Coronet and when you enter the Spear Pillar, a prompt will appear asking if you want to blow into the flute. Select "Yes" and a small cutscene will play, and a set of stairs of which Arceus will be waiting for you at the top. (You must save before reaching the top of the stairs)

This event Arceus is at level 80, and as it knows moves like Recover and Refresh it is the hardest wild Pokémon fight in the game. Let alone trying to catch it with its extremely tiny catch rate chance.

Arceus was the Pokémon I used my Master Ball on. If you intend to catch Arceus regularly, I wish mercy upon your soul.

Summary

If you want a vague idea of what order to do everything, the only advice I can really give you is to start with the honey tree Pokémon first as you're forced to wait a lot of IRL time before checking the trees. Make sure to cover all of the trees you can find, as it would reduce the amount of times you would need to try again.

Otherwise, this is the order in which I did things:

• Grab as many event items and Pokémon from WFC I could
• Migrate Pokémon from my Emerald and Soul Silver games that I did not want to try and catch in Platinum
• Do all of the legendary events, and catch the legendaries
• Follow the wild Pokémon reference sheet by travelling to each area and sub-area, catching Pokémon I have not previously caught before
• Follow the above non-legendary Pokémon list and catch Pokémon from each section
  • As part of the above, I played Diamond up until the 2nd gym badge to get Murkrow and Stunky, and Pearl up until the 5th gym badge to get Misdreavus and Glameow
• Spend a gruelling amount of time grinding for experience to level up my required evolutions
• Checking the Pokédex to see if I have missed any Pokémon, and going back to get them

That's it, really. Make sure to constantly cross-reference the required evolution table as you're catching Pokémon; it will prevent you from having to backtrack as it will tell you how many Pokémon you need to catch upfront.

What do you get for doing all of this? An in-game certificate and some nice words from Prof. Rowan and Prof. Oak. A couple of weeks very well spent in my opinion.

Please let me know what you think of this guide, or if you have any suggestions / corrections. My email is [email protected], and my twitter handle is @b_bepis. I may or may not update this for the Sinnoh remakes, and add additional articles for other generations. If you're interested in such a thing, be sure to tell me.

Happy catching!

Credits

Bulbapedia and Veekun for information, both consumed by me and my data-crunching scripts

pokesprite for the Pokemon sprites I've used in all of these pages

I was originally using Hugo to generate these webpages, however that quickly fell through when I found out Hugo isn't suited for creating anything that isn't a blog. I ended up writing my own markdown renderer to generate these pages; if you're interested, let me know and I can upload the source code.