Ever wondered how much it would cost you to legitimately collect the entire Pokemon Emerald Living Pokédex (Living Dex) in 2024? Luckily for us, Pokemon YouTuber and content creator Johnstone did just that in one of his Pokemon videos.
In one of his latest videos, Johnstone made a living dex of all 386 Pokemon found in the Emerald National Pokédex, comprising three generations’ worth of Pokemon to catch. For the uninitiated, a living dex refers to having at least one member of every species of Pokemon caught, including each stage of evolution in an evolutionary line.
His task of creating a living dex in Pokemon Emerald involves catching all 135 Pokemon introduced in the Hoenn region, all 100 Pokemon from the Johto region, and all of the original 151 Pokemon from the Kanto region. He spent 158 hours streaming across multiple sessions on Twitch to complete the challenge, which he then condensed into an almost hour-long YouTube video published on March 30, 2024.
He also did this using physical hardware to play the games and trying to do it as legitimate as possible but with some exceptions like obtaining event tickets required for mythical Pokemon such as Mew and Deoxys through “internet magic”.
A 100% Pokemon Emerald Living Dex costs roughly $1, 300
So, why does one hundred percenting the Pokemon Emerald National Pokédex cost so much?
As mentioned earlier, accomplishing the task required multiple Pokemon games across two different consoles, not just Pokemon Emerald. As such, the costs of each individual game as well as the consoles used to play those games eventually stack up, and thus you’d need a whopping $1, 300 or more depending on the current prices of the games. A pretty hefty amount for most gamers if we say so ourselves.
Here’s a breakdown of what Johnstone bought for the Pokemon Emerald living dex challenge (some prices adjusted):
| Item | Cost (USD) |
| Pokemon Emerald | $60 |
| Analogue Pocket / Gameboy Advance | $250 / $60 |
| Universal Link Cable | $15 |
| Battery replacement kit & soldering iron | $40 |
| Pokemon Sapphire with Eon Ticket | $80 |
| Wii with GameCube Compatibility | $100 |
| Pokemon Colosseum | $50 |
| Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disk | $200 |
| Pokemon Ruby for Colosseum Bonus Disk Compatibility | $40 |
| Pokemon Colosseum Japanese version | $40 |
| Pokemon Colosseum Celebi Bonus Disk | $150 |
| Pokemon FireRed | $60 |
| Pokemon LeafGreen | $60 |
| Pokemon Box Ruby & Sapphire (European Version) | $100 |
| Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness | $150 |
| Estimated Total Cost: | $1, 315 |
As for how much Johnstone’s living dex run actually cost him, he ended up spending $1, 450 on top of the production cost of making the video.
Why Pokemon Emerald Living Dexes Require Many Pokemon Games
At first glance, one might wonder why Johnstone bought so many games just to complete a living dex in Pokemon Emerald. With only three generations worth of games, one might assume you would only need one game from each generation, right?
Unfortunately, prior to the fourth generation of Pokemon games, there was no legitimate way to transfer Pokemon from the first and second-generation games to the third generation. Thus, to complete the National Pokédex in Pokemon Emerald then you would need to buy the first generation remakes, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, as well as the GameCube spinoffs Pokemon Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness. This is exactly how Johnstone managed to complete his Pokemon Emerald living dex without hacking any Pokemon.
Now, finishing the rest of the Pokemon Emerald living dex in just 158 hours is a pretty impressive feat. Johnstone was able to do it as he cut down the time in catching some species of Pokemon by buying all the games and having multiple save files to trade to his main copy of Pokemon Emerald. Furthermore, having Pokemon Box Ruby & Sapphire—basically, the precursor to Pokemon Home—made transferring Pokemon from multiple games a pretty swift task.
If you have some extra cash to burn, you can follow Johnstone’s footsteps and complete the Pokemon Emerald Living Dex yourself. Maybe buy everything that you need as soon as possible because the prices are not getting cheaper.
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