I did it. I collected all 721 Pokémon.

I began this adventure back in March by identifying potential sources from which I could obtain Pokémon and finding various ways to bring them to current generation games. Ultimately, the path that led me to this achievement included:

• Beating HeartGold, Black Version 2, Y, and Omega Ruby
• Obtaining the GameCube demo disk of Pokémon Colosseum
• Using a Gameboy Advance SP, DS (Phat), and my New 3DS to trade Pokémon up from older generation games
• Trading on the Global Trade System
• Leveling up and evolving a formidable number of Pokémon
• Grinding Battle Points to obtain special evolution-triggering items
• Hijacking my wife’s 3DS and copy of Alpha Sapphire to send myself Pokémon that only evolve during a trade while holding certain items
• Snagging every Pokémon 20th Anniversary giveaway for 2016, be it via GameStop code card or in-game gift via the Internet
• Trading through the /r/pokemontrades subreddit to make up for missing an extremely limited re-release of a Pokémon that occurred during my honeymoon

Sun & Moon release in eight days, at which point I’ll have at least 60 more monsters to catch, but for now… I am the champion.

I had originally promised to chronicle this journey, and while I unfortunately didn’t manage to publish posts along the way, I still would like to revisit some of the more interesting moments of the quest. I’ll be making further updates to this series detailing some of the highlights of catchin’ ’em all, so stay tuned.