Here we are, late into January 2014. Pokemon X and Y have been out for a while, Pokemon Bank is still mysteriously M.I.A., and my quest to obtain every Pokemon continues on. Without the Bank, I’ve still been doing all my collecting in White, and it has been going pretty well (when I sit down to actually work on it).

I have, finally, collected all Legendary Pokemon - probably the toughest part of this challenge. In total, of the 718 available Pokemon, I now have 518 species in either White or Y. With only 200 to go, the end is starting to come into view, and the majority of the work left is breeding/evolving, and catching the rest of the newcomers in Y. Hopefully the Bank will launch soon, and I’ll be able to transfer everything up and finish the job in Y.

Completing the Legend

After my last post, the Legendary Pokemon I had left to catch were Entei, Lugia, Tornadus and Landorus. Entei ended up being deceptively easy, because when I booted up my copy of Heart Gold he was already roaming the world. After a few battles of weakening and paralyzing him, the Volcano Pokemon was mine. Lugia was now all I needed to close up Gen 2.

To reach Lugia in the Whirl Islands, you have to get the Silver Wing from a man in Pewter City (the starting town from Red/Blue). With that in hand, I navigated the whirlpools and cave networks to reach the area where he resides, which is a pretty neat area full of waterfalls. The room where you face Lugia is pretty cool looking too, as he emerges from a giant waterfall to attack you. Like all those before him, Lugia eventually became mine, and I did one last transfer up from Gen 4 to White.

Now all that remains is Tornadus and Landorus. These wonderful cloud Pokemon are part of a trio of Legendaries in Gen 5. Thundurus is the 3rd, and is exclusive to White, who I had already caught. Tornadus is exclusive to Black, and Landorus can be caught in either version, but only if both of the other 2 are brought to the Abundant Shrine. So, I must return one more time to my copy of Japanese Black to hunt down Tornadus. Simple, right? Wrong.

Tornadus is another roaming Pokemon, meaning he moves around the world and can be encountered in random battles when on whatever route he is currently occupying. These Pokemon tend to move pretty fast, so keeping up with them is tough, and they also always flee on the first turn of battle. Damage you deal does persist between fights, but they can be a pain regardless. In Gen 4 this pain was lessened slightly because roaming Pokemon conveniently showed up on your map on the bottom screen, making it easy to keep up with them. Black does not have this feature.

In order to find out where Tornadus is, you must visit one of the gatehouses between routes and read the scrolling billboard text. These news flashes will tell you that a rainstorm is on a certain route, and if you go straight there, you will be able to find Tornadus. Problem is, I don’t read Japanese, and this is the Japanese version of Black.

My only hope was to look for numbers in the news flashes, visit the route of that number, and see if that was the correct message. After quite a lot of trial and error, I managed to learn to recognize the general layout of the news flash that said where the rainstorm was, and was able to find Tornadus enough times to capture him. If only I hadn’t used my Master Ball on Reshiram way back when I played this version.

Regardless, with Tornadus and Thundurus finally in tow, I was able to summon Landorus and capture him. All Legendary Pokemon acquired!

The Long, Final Stretch

This is sort of like the beginning of the end for my quest, but the end is long and, frankly, boring. I knew this was what I signed up for, and I’m totally on board, but that doesn’t really make it any less dull. Making my way closer to my goal means a lot of breeding, and a lot of evolving. Through my efforts I have at least 1 form of almost all types from Gen 1-5 (with Gens 1 and 2 almost 100% complete). So it really does come down to filling in the gaps.

To remind (or inform) anyone who wasn’t aware, my goal here is not to fill out the Pokedex, which doesn’t require you to actually have all types at once. It is to fill my boxes with all 718 types, which includes having all evolutions at once. Here’s a list of the ones I have caught, bred, or evolved since finishing off the Legendaries.

Natu x2 - I caught 2 of these so that I can evolve 1 into Xatu later.

Seedot - Caught one of these little acorn buggers. I think I had to do some tree headbutting to find one, so I didn’t catch the 3 I need. I’ll breed more later.

Phanpy x2

Tangrowth - Tangrowth is part of a weird group of Gen 4 Pokemon that are evolutions of Gen 1 Pokemon that previously didn’t evolve. Electabuzz and Magmar are the others.

Aron

Lileep

Claydol - I don’t really know what Claydol is supposed to be. I’m pretty sure if I saw one in real life I would have nightmares.

Krokorok

Cofagrigus

Bouffalant - Afro buffalo. That is all.

Vullaby

Cyndaquil

Typhlosion

Totodile - The best Gen 2 starter.

Croconaw

Furret

Ampharos - It physically pains me that this monstrosity will be a part of my collection. If anyone ever says anything else is the worst Pokemon, they are unforgivably wrong.

Azumarill

Xatu

Bellossom

Happiny

Skiploom

Jumpluff

Togetic - Togepi is an ok Pokemon, but I find both of its evolutions creepy and weird for some reason.

Togekiss

Umbreon

Ursaring

Mamoswine - Probably my personal favorite of this group.

That's it for this update. Tune in next time - same Poke-time, same Poke-channel. Well, at some point in the next few months :).