There are currently 1,025 Pokémon in the national Pokédex, which is already a lot of creatures to collect if you truly want to catch them all. But thanks to a variety of factors, catching one of each Pokémon doesn't paint a full picture of what's out there. So, join me as I find out just how many Pokémon you actually need to build a living Pokédex.
A living Pokédex, or living dex as I'll call it from now on, is a complete collection of one of every Pokémon that you store in one place. It's pretty hard to do this in any given game's own storage system, so for this and other reasons, we have Pokémon Home, a tool that lets you store and transfer Pokémon from across different games into one place. Tons of trainers around the world aim to create living dexes and have even built tools to help others achieve the same goal. I have PokéPC's National Living Dex Guide to thank for a lot of my research.
So, why are there more than 1,025 Pokémon in a living dex? Well, that comes down to the various forms that certain Pokémon can take. Factors like gender differences, color and pattern variations, and regional forms all rack up the total number of creatures to collect, but not all of them contribute to the final total.
For example, any temporary transformations like Mega Evolutions or Dynamax forms don't count, as the transformation goes away once the Pokémon enters your box. This rules out the form change of the mythical Pokémon, Meloetta, which only remains in battle, but Keldeo's Ordinary and Resolute forms count as separate entries.
Similarly, other legendaries like the gen 4 Pokémon Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina only count for one form, as their transformations aren't permanent. Ogerpon and Arceus fall into a similar category thanks to their reliance on held items to change form. Some legendaries get multiple entries, though. Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, and Enamorus each have an Incarnate Forme and a Therian Forme that you can catch separately, so they count for two variants. Shaymin, Zygarde, and Hoopa each get their transformations, and Deoxys counts for a whopping four whole entries.
Then, there are regional species. Thanks to the feature that Pokémon added in Sun and Moon, we have regional variants of 55 different species originating in Alola, Galar, Hisui, and Paldea. Some even get multiple regional variants - looking at you, Meowth. On top of all of these, there are the Pokémon with naturally occurring variants to collect. This ranges from the four color variants of Squawkabilly and six different Rotoms, all the way to Vivillon's 20 unique wing patterns and Alcremie's astonishing 63 possible flavor and decoration combinations.
At least all of these variants look unique, making them fun to collect and admire once they're in your dex. The thing that really gets my Gogoat is the seemingly random gender variations. Most Pokémon come in two sexes, so during generation four, Game Freak decided to have some fun with the Pokémon world's equivalent of sexual dimorphism. Some of these differences are cute and noticeable, like female Pikachu's heart-shaped tail tip or Wobuffet's bright red lipstick, but others just seem like they exist to make collectors' lives miserable. What do you mean, the only difference between a male and female Torchic is a single-pixel black dot on their butt?
Taking all of this into account, a complete living dex contains 1,389 distinct entries, over 350 more than the 1,025 species listed in the National Pokédex. I've not included the cap Pikachus, as by my logic, those are just costumes, but if you throw those in as well, you hit around 1,400. If you want a living dex AND a living shiny dex, your workload doubles. Luckily, the paid version of Pokémon Home can hold up to 6,000 Pokémon, so it's not like you need to shell out tons more just to house your collection.
But that's not all. I haven't mentioned the one gen 3 Pokémon that strikes fear into the heart of every collector - Spinda. This spiral-eyed creature is famous for its unique spot patterns, so it must have a lot of variations, right? The math above only accounts for the nine Spinda patterns that you can find in Pokémon Go, and most living dex trackers only include one. If you really want to catch them all, good luck, because you'll need to find over 4.2 billion Spindas, each with a unique combination of spots generated by its underlying code.
There you go, trainers. That's how many Pokémon you really need for a living dex. Stop by our Pokémon Legends: Z-A mystery gift codes and Pokémon Go codes guides to see if you can grab any additions to your collection for free, and let us know how your progress goes in the Pocket Tactics Discord server.