You’re a couple of entries away from completing your Pokedex. You’ve combed Paldea far and wide, for your sins, clambered up every poorly-textured cliff and lifted every stuttering blade of grass. But you just can’t find that lastPokemon. You’ve got the Legendaries boxed off, you’ve cleared out Kitakami, so what can it be?
A quick Google told me mine was a version exclusive. I thought I’d traded for all of them already, but I was wrong. It might have been Slither Wing for one of you, it might be Gulpin for another. For me, it was Cramorant. The bulbous-eyed bird was the bane of my existence when I, for some unknown reason, decided to complete the Kitakamian ‘dex. It was so frustrating thatI wrote a whole article about it. And then a kind stranger sent me an email that changed the game.
The email let me in on a secret club. A trading club. A club that people across the world use to fill out their Pokedexes without ever uttering a word to one another. I don’t know how everyone knows about it – they can’t email every person who’s stuck with a single entry left – but once you understand their secret code, your Pokedex struggles are over.
The email I received was actually kind of rude. “It’s one of the easiest exclusives to get,” it read, passive aggression seeping from my screen. But I could hardly complain, as this almost-kind stranger let me in on the secret code to get my hands on a Cramorant. 08450877. It’s so simple, so obvious, and yet you’d never think to try it. Let me explain.
Cramorant’s National Pokedex number is 845. Morpeko’s is 877. Turning these numbers into four-digits puts the zero in front of each. Slap them together and pop the eight-digit code intoPokemon Scarlet & Violet’strading system, et voila. You’re telling the world that you want a Cramorant, and you’re willing to trade a Morpeko for it. This is how I completed the Pokedex, and this is how you can too.
There are limitations to this, of course. It never took me more than ten seconds to match with another player also using the code, but it was almost 15 minutes before I found someone offering a Cramorant and not another Morpeko for my own. I don’t know why so many people had Pikachu clones and so few blue birds, but it took a minute. I tried switching the code around to 08770845 to see if the first half was what you wanted and the second what you wanted, but no luck. I had fewer hits and they were still offering Morpeko.
The answer was patience. I persevered, and got my Cramorant. Thank you, annoyed emailer. Now it’s time to share the love.
There is another obvious caveat: the codes have to be universal. I don’t know where they’re written or how the rest of the world is communicating them to each other, but slapping together two random Pokedex numbers isn’t going to cut it. 03991017 is as likely to work as getting Ogerpon in a Wonder Trade. Less likely, I’d wager.
Cramorant and Morpeko are equivalent Pokemon. They’re the Galarian regionals for Scarlet & Violet. 07650766 works though, if you want to trade your Oranguru for a Passimian. Again, equivalents. I found a tradee or two with that code. The Paradox Pokemon are trickier, because there are so many of them to choose from, thus diluting the pool of players searching with your specific code. Of all the codes I tried, the Cramorant and Morpeko combo was comfortably the most popular.
It’s not a surefire way of completing the Pokedex, but you don’t lose anything by trying out a code when you’re down to those last few ‘dex entries. It worked for me, and it could work for you, too. It’s a secret trading ring that players have invented to circumvent the annoying version exclusives, a code that everyone should be aware of. I was let in on the secret, and now you’re invited to the club, too.
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