I know this is an unusual thing to blog about, but I feel it was a large achievement.

As of about 3pm GMT, I have obtained all 490 legitimate Pokemon in Diamond/Pearl. It was a long and hard quest, and there were many things that helped me along the way. My journey started way back in May, obtaining Piplup, then the other two starters, I headed across the Sinnoh region, catching as many as I could. This however was a task that I couldn't possibly do alone.

I noticed that the GPS was a little unreliable. Its hard to find decent trades. So I resorted to using a website to find them all. In order to really complete the game fully, you need to make friends, especially those with Diamond/Pearl, but also older versions help too. The Wi-Fi chat on Serebii.net was especially useful because quite simply, although there are loads looking for "shinys" or "EV trained" creatures, you'll find the odd trade thats reasonable. The other advantage is if the trade isn't for what you can give, you can always negociate.

Some people will however not give things up unless for Shiny creatures. If you have them, great. If not, you might find it hard to obtain Lugia or Ho-oh, or similar creatures. The forum does have its share of young kids who insist you're either a n00b or a scammer. This was apparent when I decided obtaining all 490 was impossible, but the dex entries wasn't. I asked for the Dex entry to Raikou, the last legendary I needed. I had imported a Master Ball over to sweeten the deal. "Give me the Raikou for the Dex entry and you'll get a master ball for free." I thought it'd attract people to do the trade. Instead I got abuse, even some punk who falsely accused me of scamming him out of a starter Pokemon. So much distrust on the internet. Besides, why would I even say "I'll give you a Master Ball for doing it" with the intent on scamming? Well, it turns out the punk couldn't produce enough evidence to suggest I did do it, heck, he gave the wrong Pal Code! Honestly!

There are a bunch you need to evolve, and you really do need to establish a contact. If you trade someone a Pokemon early on, If you want the trade evolutions, get their details. If you establish trust, then theres no problem with it at all. Some may see it as grooming if it goes out of hand, but always ensure you're nowhere near whoever you're trading with. Failing that, you could always use the GPS trick, which I will not state on here for risks of informing glitches.

There are some you just need to plain evolve, and it takes time. There are also some you can't get via normal means, so scout around for those who will trade for them. They're around, somewhere! It took me about 3 months to do it, and I didn't play for two weeks at one time, so with perseverance, it shouldn't be hard.

What am I doing now? Complelling a Lv100 team to take on the internet. After that, I'd probably sit around, waiting for the events to come out. It'll take time, but it should be around sooner, rather than later! We hope!