Welcome back, fellow Pokefans, to the second installment of my documenting the quest to obtain every Pokemon. I’m basically writing this entry playing catch up with my actual progress, because I decided to start writing these entries after I had already begun this journey. I think, however, this particular section of Pokemon shenanigans is interesting enough, and I wouldn't want to skip over anything interest, since who knows how much of that there will be during this?

The Legendary Pokemon of Hoenn

So, after spending some time breeding various highly evolved Pokemon to fill out my collection, I figured I should shake it up a bit. There are a lot of Legendary Pokemon from the third generation of games that I was missing, so I popped Emerald in and decided to have a go with them. Now, Gen 3 is where Legendaries really started to go off the rails in the series, with Gen 1 having only 4 (5 with Mew), and Gen 2 having 6, Gen 3 comes packed with a full 10 Legendaries. I only played Emerald once, and didn't mess with it much after beating the Elite Four, so I didn’t really have any idea what the process was like. Fortunately, I had gotten Jirachi and Deoxys somewhere previously (some Event I’m sure), so that leaves 8, and they are:

- Regirock, Registeel and Regice

- Latios and Latias

- Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza

So, let’s get to work right? First thing I notice when turning on the game - it’s telling me the battery is dead. And for one second, I think “Well this quest was over fast”, but then the game tells me it can still be played, but “time based events” will not occur. Whatever, I don’t need your stupid berries.

Ok, up first, let’s get the Regi trio. Using trusty Bulbapedia, I looked up Regirock, who I learned is hiding in the Desert Ruins off of Route 111. I hopped on my Swablu and was on my way. Only, once I got to where the entrance should be, its just a wall. What gives?

Some more reading reveals that in order to open the path to the Regis, you must complete a puzzle in the Sealed Chamber. Ok... so you have to go down a dive spot on Route 134. After wandering for about 10 minutes I look up the path, and finally find my way down into the Sealed Chamber. After navigating through the area, following the encrypted directions for its “puzzles”, and reaching the end... nothing happens. Apparently you need to have a Relicanth and a Wailord in your party, and I don’t own either of those, and they’re fairly rare. I actually end up catching a Wailmer and leveling it a few times to get it to evolve.

Anyway, after about an hour to get both of those, I return to the sealed chamber, with the two newbies in tow. At the end, put Wailord into the first position of the party, and Relicanth in the 6th, and suddenly the cave rumbles, and now the way is open. Time to actually go get those Regis. Finally reaching them was as simple as entering their various homes, so through the Desert Ruins, Island Cave, and Ancient tomb I went, and acquired the Legendary Regis. Phew.

Next up, I went for Groudon and Kyogre, the Legendaries that appear in the box art for Ruby and Sapphire. These guys are strange, as they exist in special areas that actually move around the world. The way you find them is by visiting the region’s Weather Institute, where a scientist will tell you about a strange weather event happening somewhere. If its a sudden drought, Groudon has appeared, if its intense rainfall, then Kyogre is around. Part of the trick is, once you’ve found what Route they are on, you have a certain amount of time to find them, or they move on. Kyogre is found through a special dive spot that only appears in intense rain, and a cave entrance opens to Groudon during a drought. It took me a few tries, but I eventually tracked them both down, and added them to my collection.

Rayquaza, the Emerald mascot, is actually really simple by comparison. I simply needed to climb the Sky Tower on Route 131, and there he is. Good to have an easy one. Last on my list is Latios/Latias. The problem here is that you can only get one in a single version of the game. Luckily I think you can get one in Heart Gold and Soul Silver as well (pretty sure at least), so I’ll have to save that for another day. The way you start the Latios/as “event” is apparently by watching the TV in your house after beating the Elite Four, after which your Mom will ask you what color the Pokemon on the TV was, red or blue. The one you pick will be wandering the region, ready to be encountered if you happen to be on the Route it is on, and get a little lucky. I remembered talking to her when I completed the game, not really thinking about it, and I have no idea which one I picked. I didn't have it, so it must have just been wandering the region all this time.

It took a while, but by looking up their level and using repels, I eventually ran into the Eon Pokemon Latias, and then it was mine. Finally, the Legendaries of Hoenn were in my possession (except Latios).

Then, of course, it was time to trade them up. I have to go through Platinum before White for 2 reasons, the fact that Emerald can only trade up to Gen 4, not 5, and also the fact that I still need a Regigigas. Regigigas can only be obtained in Platinum by bringing the 3 Regis from Hoenn to its lair. Anyway, transferring from Gen 3 to 4 requires the use of a location in Sinnoh called the Pal Park. You put both the GBA and DS game into a DS at the same time, and select to migrate Pokemon from the main menu of Platinum. The game also restricts you to migrating up to 6 Pokemon once a day. Wait a sec...

Time based events no longer function. Well crap.

For the second time in this process, I think this is it, now I’ll never get them all. I don’t want to buy another copy of Emerald, play it through, catch the Legendaries, and try to trade them up before the battery dies on that one too. I ask the almighty Google for help, and after quite a bit of searching, I find something. There is a way to break the 6 Pokemon per day limit to the Pal Park, as long as you have 2 GBA Pokemon games. Fire Red - now it’s your time to shine.

Here is my understanding of how the system is intended to work:

• In order to trade between games, the DS and the GBA cartridge must be set to the same time, meaning their clocks must be aligned.

• If they are not the same, the migration process will ask you want to align the clocks, this is supposed to delay any migrations for 24 hours afterwards.

• If the clocks are the same, the game checks if the GBA game has migrated in the past 24 hours (I assume this is some flag stored in the game code?)

The issue for me I think comes from the fact that I can align the two clocks, but since time does not progress in Emerald, it will never think the 24 hours has expired, and presumably falls out of alignment (not sure how close they need to be).

Anyway, this is the process to circumvent all of that nonsense:

1. I started by aligning the clock with Emerald and Platinum in my DS. Not entirely sure if this is necessary to start with.

2. Turn off the DS, switch Fire Red in for Emerald.

3. Before doing anything else, move the DS clock ahead 1 day.

4. Try to migrate from Fire Red to Platinum. It will tell you the DS clock has been changed, so you can’t for 24 hours. This seems to set the “you can’t migrate” flag in Fire Red, and remove the “you've changed the DS clock” flag from the DS? Kind of guessing, but that makes some sense.

5. Turn off the DS again, switch Emerald back in.

6. Amazingly, I can now migrate from Emerald.

Finally, after quite some time and a whole lot of internet searching, I have moved all of the Legendary Pokemon of the Hoenn region up into Platinum. There’s still a long way to go, but that is another important step in the process completed.