Completing the Sinnoh Pokédex

A Full Pokédex is the Key to Post-Story Content

After entering the Hall of Fame in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, you can find even more areas to explore, quests to embark on, and Pokémon to catch. But before you can get started, you’ll need to bring Professor Rowan a completed Sinnoh Pokédex. Doing so will require all entries to be at least partially unlocked for the 150 Pokémon initially available in the Sinnoh region. That means you only have to see the Pokémon—you don’t actually have to catch ’em all for Professor Rowan to sign off on your work. If the credits have rolled but your Pokédex still has a few glaring holes in it, this short guide should help you track down those last elusive catches.

General Advice for Finding Pokémon

You’d be surprised by how much of your Pokédex you’ll fill out by battling with other Trainers! Save for a few exceptions like Unown and the Legendary Pokémon, most Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex can be found on someone’s team. However, not all Trainers in the region are easy to find. Some Trainers with rare Pokémon are located on alternate routes that you might have missed, or in optional areas that you may not have visited. Others are tucked away in places you couldn’t initially reach because you didn’t have access to the necessary hidden move. Taking a victory lap through the Sinnoh region with your new items and Pokétch apps could very well be all it takes to find the Trainers you missed.

The Vs. Seeker—which you can receive from the professor’s assistant on Route 207—is a key item that can help you locate any Trainers you’ve missed on past excursions. Simply use it near a Trainer and take note of the icon that appears above their head. A single red “!” lets you know that you haven’t battled them yet. If a red “!!” icon pops up instead, that means you’ve defeated them before and they’re ready for a rematch.

How to Find Drifloon, Unown, Dialga, and Palkia

There are several hard-to-find Pokémon in the Sinnoh region that can trip up even the most tenacious of Trainers.

Sinnoh Pokédex Entry No. 65: Drifloon

If your mathematical prowess allowed you to zip through the Hearthome City Gym without battling the Trainers there, then you may have missed an easy way to see Drifloon. Once you’ve claimed the Relic Badge, you can’t go back and battle them, so you’ll have to find a wild Drifloon instead. It may take a while, though—how’s your Friday looking? Yes, wild Drifloon only appear on Fridays, but outside of that wrinkle they’re quite easy to find. Just visit the Valley Windworks east of Floaroma Town after driving out Team Galactic from the building, and you’ll see one waiting for you near the entrance.

Sinnoh Pokédex Entry No. 114: Unown

No Trainer in Sinnoh has an Unown on their team, so you’ll need to encounter the Symbol Pokémon in the wild. They can only be found at Solaceon Ruins, an optional area that you can visit by entering the cave at the far-east end of Solaceon Town. Unown are the only wild Pokémon that inhabit these ruins, so finding one shouldn’t be difficult.

There are 28 variations of Unown inhabiting Solaceon Ruins, but you only need to see one to earn its Pokédex entry. However, if you are interested in catching them all, there’s a bit of a trick to it. A message on the wall at the beginning of the dungeon spells out a series of instructions in Unown letters. These symbols tell you to start with the top-right stairs in that room, then take the lower-left stairs in the next room, and so on. If followed correctly, the instructions will take you through a series of six rooms that end in a chamber with treasures and a message from the Unown. The first room of the sequence is populated only by “F” Unown, the second features “R” Unown, and the third through sixth rooms are home to “I,” “E,” “N,” and “D” Unown, respectively. If you don’t follow the instructions correctly, you’ll end up in a dead-end room that’s populated by a mix of Unown representing the remaining 20 letters.

If you manage to catch an Unown for each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, head south from Veilstone City and visit the cave on Route 214. There you’ll find a so-called Ruin Maniac digging a tunnel to the final chamber of Solaceon Ruins. He’ll make a little more progress with each new variety of Unown you catch. Once you’ve caught all 26 alphabetical Unown, the Ruin Maniac will complete his tunnel at last, allowing you to access a room where you can catch “!” and “?” Unown.

Sinnoh Pokédex Entry No. 149 or No. 150: The Final Legendary Pokémon

By the time you’re ready to defeat the Champion and enter the Hall of Fame, you’ve probably tracked down all the Legendary Pokémon that play a major role in the game’s story. Hopefully, you also figured out how to catch (or at least see) each of them along the way. But what about the final Legendary Pokémon—the one that appears on the cover of the opposite game version from the one you’re playing? The answer lies in Celestic Town. If you visit Cynthia’s grandmother inside her home (the large house north of the cave entrance), she’ll show you a book with a picture of a Legendary Pokémon inside. That picture might not be worth a thousand words, but seeing it is all you need to round out your Pokédex with Dialga in Pokémon Shining Pearl or Palkia in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond.