Research How long does it take to obtain a Pokémon of each type in each game?

[Nitro Indigo]

In JRRPokeTrainer98's second video about the worst types in each region, he said that you can catch a Pokémon of every type on Melemele Island. This got me wondering: how long would it take for someone playing through each game normally, without trading, to get a Pokémon of every (existing) type?

I'm hoping to compile this research into a video.

Here's my observations:

• FireRed and LeafGreen would obviously be the longest, since they won't let you have any Dark-types until the postgame even with trading*, but the Johto games aren't much better. In Gold and Silver, the ONLY Dark-type you can get in Johto is Umbreon. Crystal added Sneasel to the Ice Path, while HGSS have Murkrow in the Safari Zone's swamp.
• In all games, you obviously have your Grass, Fire, and Water starters, and you'll usually find Normal, Flying, and Bug types before the first badge. Occasionally, there'll be one species that's another type, like Electric or Dark. Dragon and Ice types are usually reserved for lategame.
• I haven't played SwSh, but I know that you can get a HUGE variety of Pokémon early on in the Wild Area before Motostoke.
• In BW, it's hard to have a variety of Pokémon before the first badge because the game pretty much forces you to use an Elemental Monkey for the gym battle.

Anything else?

*I wonder if the reason why Game Freak changed so many Pokémon to Fairy was to make sure remakes wouldn't have this problem again?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Great idea for a thread.

In Sinnoh, I'm reasonably certain that you need six badges to get an Ice type. Snover, Swinub, and Snorunt are all exclusive to Route 216/217, and though you can get an Eevee you can't evolve it until then as well. In Diamond and Pearl, the same is true of the Dragon type since the section of Wayward Cave containing Gible is blocked until then (Platinum, of course, lets you enter earlier) and that's the only Dragon-type in the Sinnoh Dex besides the version mascot.

*I wonder if the reason why Game Freak changed so many Pokémon to Fairy was to make sure remakes wouldn't have this problem again?

The same reasoning goes for making most of the Kanto regional variant Pokemon Dark, Ghost, or Dragon - all types that needed more representation in the Kanto Dex.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

As far as I recall, you can't get any Ice-types in B2W2 until Giant Chasm after the eighth badge.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So I got curious about this and quickly knocked up a table of types by availability, using Badges as the criteria. I've only covered the first five generations as I think Wonder Trading makes this point moot in later gens, plus Gen VI is where type availability started to expand more widely. Please excuse the crudity of the list as it was done using Microsoft Word. Happy to be corrected on any of this as it was done quickly and mostly using Bulbapedia for reference, but I think by and large it's pretty accurate.

Where there are two or more numbers, this denotes where different versions change access to certain species. So for example, in Sinnoh the player needs two badges to encounter Ponyta, which is first found on Route 206. In Platinum Ponyta is also available in Route 207, hence the player does not need any badges to encounter it. Remakes very rarely change Pokemon accessibility except for a couple of notable exceptions: for example, in GS players cannot catch a Fire type until reaching Goldenrod City (Vulpix and Growlithe, both found on Route 36). In Crystal, Growlithe is available on Route 35 before beating Falkner, and in HGSS the player can obtain an Egg containing Slugma in the Violet City Pokemon Centre. To give another example, in GS players can catch Mareep after defeating Falkner. In Crystal, Mareep is absent and Pichu/Elekid are the first Electric types obtainable. In HGSS, the player can either catch a Mareep before Falkner or hatch one, meaning no badges are needed.

There are a couple of quirks - in Kanto you can theoretically get an Ice type with one badge (Jynx) via an in-game trade, but you cannot obtain Poliwhirl until later on, by which time the player is able to make their way to other areas to catch Shellder anyway. LGPE allows you to trade for the Dark-type Alolan Rattata in Cerulean, making Dark available where previously it wasn't at all.

I'm including Pokemon you can evolve, but not ones that require an inaccessible item or another game to do so (ie trading). So as an example, in Johto you can catch Shellder with only three badges, but you cannot evolve it in GS before reaching Kanto (Crystal gives access to Water Stones earlier on), meaning that Seel is the first Pokemon you can catch and evolve into an Ice type in GS but not in Crystal. Steel is also listed as needing three badges in Johto because although you can obtain Onix without any badges you need to trade it to evolve it; Magnemite is the first "real" Steel type one can catch. Note that I'm not including starters because they skew the results - Fire Pokemon are often available much later than Grass and Water types. This is especially notable in regions such as Hoenn and Sinnoh where choosing the Fire starter can radically alter the options available to the player's team.

Interestingly, there is only one example on this list where the game version chosen makes the results differ markedly. In Sinnoh, Stunky and Murkrow are both exclusive to Diamond and Murkrow is obtainable with one badge, meaning Pearl players cannot obtain a Dark Pokemon until Spiritomb (which requires two badges). In Platinum, both Stunky and Murkrow are absent but Spiritomb now requires three badges to access.

(Edited for a couple of minor corrections)

 

[Nitro Indigo]

although you can obtain Onix with one badge you need to trade it to evolve it

I think we should factor in the availability of evolution items into this. For example, in GS, the earliest guaranteed way to get a Metal Coat is to get one from a wild Magnemite with a 2% chance, which you can only do after the fourth badge. Also, I'd only count level evolutions by the point of the game where you're expected to be at that level.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I think we should factor in the availability of evolution items into this. For example, in GS, the earliest guaranteed way to get a Metal Coat is to get one from a wild Magnemite with a 2% chance, which you can only do after the fourth badge.

Yes, but as I mentioned, you need another game to evolve a Pokemon using the Metal Coat, so I'm going by the wording of your original post: how long would it take for someone playing through each game normally, without trading, to get a Pokémon of every (existing) type?

Plus in the case of the Metal Coat you can only get it by catching Magnemite, which is itself a Steel-type Pokemon, so it's moot anyway.

You can catch Magnemite with only three badges (you don't have to have beaten Morty to access Route 37, where Magnemite is wild).

Also, I'd only count level evolutions by the point of the game where you're expected to be at that level.

That's a highly subjective thing. Some people legitimately do choose to train their Pokemon up the moment they catch them. In the Sinnoh titles the game even factors in the possibility that you'll evolve your starter as soon as you get it (when meeting Rowan for the second time, he will exclaim "your Pokemon has evolved already?!" if that's the case). A lot of Pokemon can also be caught fairly close to their evolution level so that muddies the water too.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Plus in the case of the Metal Coat you can only get it by catching Magnemite, which is itself a Steel-type Pokemon, so it's moot anyway.

D'oh.

What I meant was that while you could grind, say, your Piplup into an Empoleon before the first badge and have an early Steel-type, most people don't have the patience for that.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

D'oh.

What I meant was that while you could grind, say, your Piplup into an Empoleon before the first badge and have an early Steel-type, most people don't have the patience for that.

Yeah, and that was part of my reasoning for omitting starters from this list (as otherwise you could count Piplup as Steel). If I choose Chimchar and you choose Piplup, then you have access to an early Steel-type and I don't, and I have access to an early Fighting-type and you don't, and so on. I was going for what every player will have access to.

However, I maintain that focusing on evolution levels is too subjective and different playstyles will yield different results - hence it is fundamentally accurate to say, for instance, that once you've caught a Seel you've effectively got an Ice type, since it evolves by level. Whereas in the case of Shellder, it is impossible to evolve it (at least in GS) before you've encountered other Ice-types such as Jynx and Swinub anyway. In the case of Pokemon which evolve by level, different players will evolve theirs at different times, so there's no point where "the game intends you to be a certain level". Some people use one Pokemon, some people use three or four, some people raise a full squad of six.

Eevee is a good example of this since it doesn't evolve at a fixed level. As a young player I idled around Goldenrod/Ecruteak for ages before taking on Morty, by which time my Eevee had evolved into Umbreon while barely gaining any levels. Someone who rushes through and completes the game in 5 hours might only have their Eevee evolve into Umbreon after defeating Clair. For them, it took until the eighth badge to get a Dark type. For me, it was (effectively speaking) as soon as I got it.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Double posting to share a few reflections on the table I made.

-While one might assume Ghost is a late-game type, it's actually often available comparatively early: the player only needs two badges to catch Gastly in Pokemon Tower in RGBYFRLGLGPE (though realistically speaking most will have three or four by this point). Hoenn and Sinnoh only require one, though this is dependent on version as Sableye (catchable in Granite Cave) is unavailable in Ruby, and Gastly is only available in the Eterna Forest in Platinum. Unova gives access to Ghosts the latest (Yamask in the Relic Castle, which requires three badges), while Johto allows the player to catch Gastly before their first badge in the Sprout Tower.

-The same is true of Psychic: Kanto, Johto, and Unova all only require one badge to catch Abra, Slowpoke, and Munna respectively, while Hoenn and Sinnoh give access to Ralts and Abra long before the first badge.

-Dark has some pretty notable variance, coming in at 3 in Gen II, then 0 in Gen III, then 1, 2, or 3 in Gen IV, then 0 again in Gen V (LGPE not counted).

-Unova is the only region to gate Bug, Flying, and Poison behind the first badge

-Out of the first five regions, Sinnoh is the one with the greatest range of types available early, with 12 different types obtainable before the first badge (but only in Platinum). Johto surprisingly comes second with 11, though this varies between titles. Unova has the least, with 5.

-To no-one's surprise, Normal is the earliest type overall if starters are not considered, coming before the first badge in all titles to date. No other type has this distinction.

-As expected, Ice is overall the latest type - the average number of badges the player needs to encounter one is 4.1. Dragon isn't far behind though, with the average number of badges coming to 3.7.

 

[DHR-107]

Codraroll did a great article on the Ice type here: https://www.smogon.com/articles/shafted-by-design

He covers the earliest time any type is available from any game. Might be helpful for the information you are working on here.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

-Unova is the only region to gate Bug, Flying, and Poison behind the first badge

Huh. I forgot you couldn't get Pidove in Route 1.

Out of the first five regions, Sinnoh is the one with the greatest range of types available early, with 12 different types obtainable before the first badge (but only in Platinum)

That's surprising. How many types are available in Diamond and Pearl?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Huh. I forgot you couldn't get Pidove in Route 1.

I suspect the other early-game mons were gated because Pidove would give an advantage against Cilan, Roggenrola would give an advantage against Chili, and Blitzle would give an advantage against Cress.

That's surprising. How many types are available in Diamond and Pearl?

DP allows you to catch Normal (Bidoof and Starly), Flying (Starly and Zubat), Electric (Shinx), Bug (Kricketot), Grass (Budew), Poison (Zubat and Budew), Water (Psyduck), Fighting (Machop), Ground (Geodude and Onix), Rock (also Geodude and Onix), and Psychic (Abra) before the first badge.

Platinum adds Ponyta, giving you Fire as a 12th type.

 

[Scorpio]

Some of my observations on the regions that haven’t really been discussed yet:
-Kalos gives access to ten types before the first gym, and then everything else prior to the second gym with the exception of Ice; that requires three gym badges, since the earliest one can get one is Route 12 with Lapras.
-In S/M you get access to 14 types (15 if you chose Rowlet) before the first trial; US/UM adds one more type with Dragon (in the form of Noibat). Post 1st trial you can catch the rest of the types without heading to Akala, though Rock of all types is the last you can access, requiring Tauros Charge.
-In Sw/Sh, even in the base game and even without going through Dens, you can potentially get every type save for Dragon before your first badge thanks to the Wild Area (and Dragon comes fairly shortly afterwards)

 

[Hugin]

Some of my observations on the regions that haven’t really been discussed yet:
-Kalos gives access to ten types before the first gym, and then everything else prior to the second gym with the exception of Ice; that requires three gym badges, since the earliest one can get one is Route 12 with Lapras.
-In S/M you get access to 14 types (15 if you chose Rowlet) before the first trial; US/UM adds one more type with Dragon (in the form of Noibat). Post 1st trial you can catch the rest of the types without heading to Akala, though Rock of all types is the last you can access, requiring Tauros Charge.
-In Sw/Sh, even in the base game and even without going through Dens, you can potentially get every type save for Dragon before your first badge thanks to the Wild Area (and Dragon comes fairly shortly afterwards)

Thank you for doing this.

I knew Kalos had WIDE availability, didn't realize that SM had done the same thing. I suspect that was in reaction to the blowback over the Elemental Monkeys, but I think it's a good direction for the series. The "pick this one mon every playthrough or suffer" method is really bad for replayability.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

In Sw/Sh, even in the base game and even without going through Dens, you can potentially get every type save for Dragon before your first badge thanks to the Wild Area (and Dragon comes fairly shortly afterwards)

Just wondering, what's the earliest point you can get Dragon? I also know that it has the earliest time you can get Ice (Vanillish).

 

[Blanca Weiss]

Just wondering, what's the earliest point you can get Dragon? I also know that it has the earliest time you can get Ice (Vanillish).

I think it was XY with only 1 badge (Axew in connecting cave) and gen7 Bagon after the first trial

 

[Scorpio]

Just wondering, what's the earliest point you can get Dragon? I also know that it has the earliest time you can get Ice (Vanillish).

Without Den fishing, you get Applin on Route 5; if you use Dens, one in the Rolling Fields will net earlier Trapinch, Axew, and Noibat. And if you got IoA you can get Jangmo-o in Challenge Road/Potbottom Desert or Goomy in Soothing Wetlands (and Forest of Focus, but IDK if Thunderstorms are badge-limited on IoA like they are with the main Wild Area).

Also it’s not just Vanillish. You can also get Swinub in the Rolling Fields when it’s snowing.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I suspect the other early-game mons were gated because Pidove would give an advantage aginst Cilan, Roggenrola would give an advantage against Chili, and Blitzle would give an advantage against Cress.

With no disrespect to the elemental monkeys, I find it a bit odd that they were so deadset on people using the monkey specifically against the Striaton Gym. I mean it's one thing to push people towards getting a Pokemon that has a type advantage, but the thing is most other gyms in the Pokemon games, including all of the subsequent ones in BW1, readily offer Pokemon who have an advantage against the gym in the nearby routes or dungeons. The gyms from Lenora onwards don't necessarily force you to use a specific Pokemon against them but they offer a set of Pokemon nearby for you to possibly catch to gain an advantage.

- For Lenora, the nearby outside of Pinwheel has a few Fighting-type Pokemon.
- In Burgh's case, Darumaka and Pidove are nearby.
- Sandile is available right before Elesa.
- Clay is also somewhat of a case with Ducklett being on the bridge nearby, Vanillite in the Cold Storage, and Deerling in the nearby route.
- Skyla is right next to Chargestone Cave which has Klink, Tynamo, and Joltik, and Zebstrika is also readily available nearby too.
- Mienfoo is right next to Icirrus.
- Twist Mountain offers both Cubchoo and Cryogonal for Drayden or Iris.

Frankly this does raise the question as to why for the Striaton Gym they specifically railroaded you to a specific Pokemon instead of offering Pidove/Blitzle/Roggenrola, maybe because it was the first gym and they wanted to make it a tutorial or something? Because frankly the design process from Lenora onwards is a common one that is there since the Kanto games (Bellsprout/Oddish shows up around Route 24/25 for Misty, Diglett is in the cave right next to Lt. Surge, Growlithe/Vulpix and Doduo are around the routes near Celadon for Erika, Blaine is literally surrounded by water) and even in the Johto ones off the top of my head (Geodude and HGSS Mareep shows up before Falkner, Heracross before Whitney, and Stantler before Morty for example, and an Ice-type dungeon right before Clair). I don't recall Hoenn or Sinnoh doing this off the top of my head, but older games often did the sort of availability you mentioned, and even in BW1 every gym after Striaton readily offers type-advantageous Pokemon right before the Gym itself to be caught. It's a bit odd they wanted to railroad the monkey specifically so hard.

 

[Blanca Weiss]

With no disrespect to the elemental monkeys, I find it a bit odd that they were so deadset on people using the monkey specifically against the Striaton Gym. I mean it's one thing to push people towards getting a Pokemon that has a type advantage, but the thing is most other gyms in the Pokemon games, including all of the subsequent ones in BW1, readily offer Pokemon who have an advantage against the gym in the nearby routes or dungeons. The gyms from Lenora onwards don't necessarily force you to use a specific Pokemon against them but they offer a set of Pokemon nearby for you to possibly catch to gain an advantage.

- For Lenora, the nearby outside of Pinwheel has a few Fighting-type Pokemon.
- In Burgh's case, Darumaka and Pidove are nearby.
- Sandile is available right before Elesa.
- Clay is also somewhat of a case with Ducklett being on the bridge nearby, Vanillite in the Cold Storage, and Deerling in the nearby route.
- Skyla is right next to Chargestone Cave which has Klink, Tynamo, and Joltik, and Zebstrika is also readily available nearby too.
- Mienfoo is right next to Icirrus.
- Twist Mountain offers both Cubchoo and Cryogonal for Drayden or Iris.

Frankly this does raise the question as to why for the Striaton Gym they specifically railroaded you to a specific Pokemon instead of offering Pidove/Blitzle/Roggenrola, maybe because it was the first gym and they wanted to make it a tutorial or something? Because frankly the design process from Lenora onwards is a common one that is there since the Kanto games (Bellsprout/Oddish shows up around Route 24/25 for Misty, Diglett is in the cave right next to Lt. Surge, Growlithe/Vulpix and Doduo are around the routes near Celadon for Erika, Blaine is literally surrounded by water) and even in the Johto ones off the top of my head (Geodude and HGSS Mareep shows up before Falkner, Heracross before Whitney, and Stantler before Morty for example, and an Ice-type dungeon right before Clair). I don't recall Hoenn or Sinnoh doing this off the top of my head, but older games often did the sort of availability you mentioned, and even in BW1 every gym after Striaton readily offers type-advantageous Pokemon right before the Gym itself to be caught. It's a bit odd they wanted to railroad the monkey specifically so hard.

Whats even weirder is that i find that Cheren and Bianca actually teaches type match ups just fine as is. BW1 is the first game to have two main rivals (you only battle Wally twice in RSE and he never has a starter mon) and Bianca is the first rival to choose a starter that is weak against yours. You battle them twice before the first gym and both starters already learn STAB in the second battle. So i always find the Striaton gym to be the most unecessary and unfair gym ever, with the elemental monkeys being one of my least favourite mons of all time.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

With no disrespect to the elemental monkeys, I find it a bit odd that they were so deadset on people using the monkey specifically against the Striaton Gym. I mean it's one thing to push people towards getting a Pokemon that has a type advantage, but the thing is most other gyms in the Pokemon games, including all of the subsequent ones in BW1, readily offer Pokemon who have an advantage against the gym in the nearby routes or dungeons. The gyms from Lenora onwards don't necessarily force you to use a specific Pokemon against them but they offer a set of Pokemon nearby for you to possibly catch to gain an advantage.


Frankly this does raise the question as to why for the Striaton Gym they specifically railroaded you to a specific Pokemon instead of offering Pidove/Blitzle/Roggenrola, maybe because it was the first gym and they wanted to make it a tutorial or something?

I think it's exactly that - they wanted to make getting the monkey a tutorial. Being able to catch other Pokemon wouldn't have explicitly communicated to the player "here is a counter for the gym leader!", though B2W2 does do a similar thing where one of the NPCs tells you "I think you should go and catch a Riolu! It's really strong against the Aspertia Gym leader!" which is as much of a nudge as they can give without literally forcing you to catch one.

They specifically wanted new players to play BW so perhaps they felt they had to go all in on teaching type matchups; so it's almost like they wanted to be sure the message would be received. Which if it's the case is a little aggrandising, and does make replaying the games exceptionally dull since your pool of available Pokemon before gym #1 is so tiny. I expect they wanted to push players into using the monkeys since they're designed to be alternate starters (notice how Cheren and Bianca both use one in place of the usual Water/Fire/Grass trio rivals typically use).

As a side note, I'm not sure why Cheren and Bianca don't have a full Water/Fire/Grass trio each, other than perhaps someone felt that Unova had too few Water-types to showcase without doubling up, and Jellicent was already used by a prominent NPC opponent (Shauntal).

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Since starters are supposed to introduce you to the type chart, it's odd that until Gen 6, they only knew Normal-type attacks at level five. I guess that they didn't want to make the first rival battles too hard.

 

[TailGlowVM]

though B2W2 does do a similar thing where one of the NPCs tells you "I think you should go and catch a Riolu! It's really strong against the Aspertia Gym leader!" which is as much of a nudge as they can give without literally forcing you to catch one.

Interestingly, Riolu doesn't actually learn any Fighting STAB moves in BW2 until Force Palm at Level 15 (except Counter, but Riolu isn't really meant to take hits), which is after you should have completed the first gym. This is changed from Level 11 in BW1, so maybe they meant to give Riolu a proper STAB at a lower level and forgot about it, or changed its learnset before choosing it for this role without thinking about its lack of early Fighting moves.

Is this the only gym where you can't get any advantage? Riolu is the only Fighting type, there's no Rock, Steel or Ghost types for a defensive type advantage, Tepig shouldn't have evolved yet if you're at normal levels, and I don't think anything learns a Fighting type coverage move either. There's Mareep for the Challenge Mode Pidove, though.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Interestingly, Riolu doesn't actually learn any Fighting STAB moves in BW2 until Force Palm at Level 15 (except Counter, but Riolu isn't really meant to take hits), which is after you should have completed the first gym. This is changed from Level 11 in BW1, so maybe they meant to give Riolu a proper STAB at a lower level and forgot about it, or changed its learnset before choosing it for this role without thinking about its lack of early Fighting moves.

Is this the only gym where you can't get any advantage? Riolu is the only Fighting type, there's no Rock, Steel or Ghost types for a defensive type advantage, Tepig shouldn't have evolved yet if you're at normal levels, and I don't think anything learns a Fighting type coverage move either. There's Mareep for the Challenge Mode Pidove, though.

At the time B2W2 was released, you could get a Keldeo at level 15 through an event so that was an option (albeit too overpowered to be reliable).

In Pokemon Red and Blue, if you choose Charmander iirc nothing is an easy option against Brock - the Nidos don't get Double Kick until level 43 in those games (even Poison Sting doesn't come until level 17) and Mankey isn't catchable until later on, unlike in Yellow. Butterfree's Confusion or Beedrill's Poison Sting is your best option - neither Onix or Geodude actually have a Rock move. Or just raising Charmander to the point where Ember muscles past both their weak Special Defence, I guess.

 

[Bakugames]

I don't recall Hoenn

Can only speak for emerald, but hoenn games do offer pokemon with advantages before their gyms, but due to the way you travel the region in the first half of the gane, you often need to backtrack more to catch them instead of having them right next to you (which i personally feels more natural).

Shroomish before roxanne
Zubat before brawly, but tbh wingull, taillow and wurmple do also apply. Especially wurmple for completly walling the gym, and if you get a dustox you only lose like 4 hp the entire battle
Geodude before Watson
Idk how many water types are in this game before Flannery
Norman is a bit weird since you go back to one of the first routes but you can get machop and makuhita for this gym, the later just requiring a quick visit to the captain for dewfort.
Electrike before winona
All the ghosts before tate n liza
Wallace/Juan is the part of the game where you only see water for 20 minutes, so they're the only gym you need to backtrack a lot, but if you go back to lilycove and head the routes, you can get nuzlesf :) (and lombre in other versions). It probably doesnt count at this point though.

In Pokemon Red and Blue, if you choose Charmander iirc nothing is an easy option against Brock

Brock has no rock moves and his pokemon combined have spdef of -20, charmander can easily bruteforce it with ember (brock actually has 5 full heals so if you get a burn you get a free turn). This also applies to butterfree confusion

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Brock has no rock moves and his pokemon combined have spdef of -20, charmander can easily bruteforce it with ember (brock actually has 5 full heals so if you get a burn you get a free turn). This also applies to butterfree confusion

I know, I... said that in my post.