Do I Need to Catch All Pokémon to Complete Pokédex? (Are You Supposed to Catch All Pokémon?)

I have come across many players online who claimed they completed the Pokedex. It always baffled me how they achieved what I believe to be among the greatest honors in the Pokémon world.

During my amateur phase, I thought I could achieve this by only breeding and hatching eggs and using Poké balls to catch Pokémon🤦.

Gradually, I learned to be strategic 😎 in how I caught and encountered various Pokémon, which made completing the Pokédex less daunting, even the National Dex.

You will also need to catch all Pokémon, and not just encounter or see them. Anyone hoping to complete the Pokédex should know the following:

Via Gifdb

What is the Best Way to Complete a Pokédex?

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There is no single best way to complete a Pokédex since a player would benefit best from leveraging a blend of different methods.

One of the most common ways to achieve this is to breed Pokémon. For the best outcome, place a Ditto with a non-legendary Pokémon at the daycare or nursery, and then once you collect the egg, cycle 🚴‍♂️ or walk🚶 a given distance to hatch it.

As a result, you will have the base form of a given Pokémon, especially the rare kinds. Since some Pokémon require special items to evolve faster, another tip is to collect evolution items under stone pillars🪨 while roaming around the Wild Area.

Another common way to complete your Pokédex is stocking up on dusk, quick, and ultra balls and then using them to increase your chances of catching wild Pokémon.

Furthermore, look out for surprise trades, where other players put up some of their Pokémon for sale. That offers an excellent opportunity to acquire the Pokémon you need to complete the Pokédex. Lastly, you can establish a team whose mission is the Pokédex’s completion.

Many of the Pokémon are hard to catch 😖mostly because they keep slipping away. To ease this, the table below shows some of the moves the team could use in their Pokédex completion mission:

Move:	Description:
Sleep-inducing moves	Moves like the lovely kiss and hypnosis help inflict sleep on their targets, except those with insomnia abilities
Arena Trap	Prevents the target from fleeing while in battle
Shadow Tag	Prevents the target from fleeing while in battle
Sunny Day	Brightens up the field, eliminating harmful weather conditions
False Swipe	A move that leaves the opponent with one hit point, just enough to keep them from fainting

Should You Catch Every Pokémon You Encounter?

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As explained earlier, the use of Poké balls is among the most popular means of catching Pokémon. You should set out to catch every Pokémon you encounter only if you can access a lot of Poké balls 🤾. There are scenarios where you have only a few Poké balls left.

It would be smart 😏 for you to conserve these balls in anticipation of using them to catch rare Pokémon or those with high Combat Power (CP).

Otherwise, if you have plenty of balls saved up, utilize them to your desired level to earn rewards and experience points.

Via Gifdb

How Many Pokémon Do You Need to Complete Pokédex?

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Depending on whether you are completing the Sinnoh Dex or the National Dex, the quantity of Pokémon you will need for Pokedex completion will vary.

For the Sinnoh Pokédex (Sinnoh Dex), you require 150/151 Pokémon to complete it. All you need is to encounter a Pokémon for it to make its first entry in the Pokédex.

For the National Pokédex, you require 493 Pokémon to complete it. What makes the National Pokédex harder to complete 😰than Sinnoh Dex is that you must catch all the Pokémon and not merely encounter them for them to appear in the Pokédex.