The Paldea Pokédex contains 400 entries, and completing it in Pokémon Violet is impossible without trading. Twenty-three of those numbered entries never appear in a Violet save file — they exist only in Pokémon Scarlet — and another dozen or so are locked behind evolution methods that no amount of wild-catching will trigger.
Those two groups are where dex completion actually stalls. Wild encounter locations are the easy part: most of the 400 can be found by walking around the right province, and the game’s Pokédex app tells you where you last saw each species. What it doesn’t tell you is that Dudunsparce needs a specific move, that Gholdengo needs 999 coins, or that Palafin can’t evolve unless another player is in your session.
How many Pokémon are in the Paldea Pokédex, and what completion gives you
The Paldea Pokédex holds 400 entries, and all 400 must be caught, not merely seen, to count as complete. Registering the final entry lets you return to Jacq in the biology classroom at Uva Academy for the Shiny Charm, which raises base shiny odds from roughly 1 in 4,096 to about 1 in 1,365. Director Clavell follows up with a Diploma and a ribbon for your trainer profile.
Jacq also hands out smaller rewards at milestones along the way — TM057 False Swipe at 30 registered Pokémon is the one worth reaching early, since a move that always leaves a target at 1 HP makes the next few hundred catches significantly easier. One limitation to know before you chase the charm: it does not affect wild Tera Pokémon or Pokémon from Tera Raid Battles, so it won’t help a raid-based shiny hunt.
Every Pokémon Violet exclusive in the Paldea Pokédex
Violet and Scarlet each lock 23 numbered Paldea entries. The lines below cannot be encountered in Violet at all, and the Scarlet column shows what you’ll be trading away for — useful when you’re arranging a swap and want a fair exchange rather than two identical requests.
| Pokémon Violet exclusive | Scarlet counterpart | Notes |
| Misdreavus, Mismagius | Drifloon, Drifblim | Mismagius needs a Dusk Stone on Misdreavus |
| Gulpin, Swalot | Stunky, Skuntank | Both lines are early-game commons in their own version |
| Ceruledge | Armarouge | Use Malicious Armor on Charcadet; Charcadet itself is in both games |
| Bagon, Shelgon, Salamence | Larvitar, Pupitar, Tyranitar | Salamence at level 50, Tyranitar at level 55 |
| Dreepy, Drakloak, Dragapult | Deino, Zweilous, Hydreigon | Dragapult at level 60, Hydreigon at level 64 |
| Passimian | Oranguru | Both found in Tagtree Thicket and North Province (Area Two) |
| Eiscue | Stonjourner | Eiscue is northern coastline only; Stonjourner is Asado Desert only |
| Clauncher, Clawitzer | Skrelp, Dragalge | Water routes across all four Paldean seas |
| Iron Treads, Iron Bundle, Iron Hands, Iron Jugulis, Iron Moth, Iron Thorns | Great Tusk, Scream Tail, Brute Bonnet, Flutter Mane, Slither Wing, Sandy Shocks | Paradox Pokémon — see below |
| Iron Valiant | Roaring Moon | Hidden cave in Area Zero |
| Miraidon | Koraidon | Registered on finishing the main story |
Paldean Tauros is a special case that catches people out. It shares a single Pokédex entry across both versions, but the form you can catch differs: the Blaze Breed (Fire/Fighting) is Scarlet-only, the Aqua Breed (Water/Fighting) is Violet-only, and the plain Combat Breed appears in both. Catching any one of the three fills the entry, so Tauros doesn’t block completion — it only matters if you want all three forms.
Iron Leaves sits outside the numbered list entirely. It has appeared in Violet through Tera Raid events rather than as a standard entry, with Walking Wake filling the same role in Scarlet, and neither is required for the 400.
The Paradox Pokémon split, and where they actually appear
Violet’s future Paradox Pokémon — the Iron line — are found in the Great Crater of Paldea, better known as Area Zero, and most of them only after the main story is finished. Iron Treads is the exception: it appears in Asado Desert once you’ve dealt with the Titan there, which makes it the first Paradox Pokémon most Violet players register.
The remaining five, plus Iron Valiant in its hidden cave, are post-game Area Zero encounters. That ordering matters for planning, because it means dex completion has a hard gate: you cannot finish the Paldea Pokédex before finishing the story, no matter how thoroughly you’ve swept the overworld.
Evolutions that block completion, and how each one works
These are the entries that stop most Violet dex runs. None can be caught wild, and several give no in-game hint about their requirement.
- Pawmot — walk Pawmo for 1,000 steps using Let’s Go, then level it up.
- Brambleghast — walk Bramblin for 1,000 steps using Let’s Go, then level it up.
- Rabsca — walk Rellor for 1,000 steps using Let’s Go, then level it up.
- Dudunsparce — level up Dunsparce while it knows Hyper Drill.
- Farigiraf — level up Girafarig while it knows Twin Beam.
- Annihilape — use Rage Fist 20 times with Primeape, then level it up.
- Kingambit — give Bisharp the Leader’s Crest, then defeat three Bisharp that lead Pawniard packs, then level it up.
- Palafin — level Finizen to 38 or above while in a Union Circle group with another player.
- Maushold — level Tandemaus to 25 or above; the Family of Three or Four form is decided randomly.
- Tsareena — level up Steenee while it knows Stomp.
- Sudowoodo — level up Bonsly while it knows Mimic.
- Gengar, Scizor, Slowking — trade evolutions; Scizor needs a Metal Coat and Slowking a King’s Rock.
The three walking evolutions share a practical trap: the step counter only advances while the Pokémon is out in Let’s Go mode, and it resets if you swap it out. The efficient approach is to send out one of the three whenever you’re travelling across a province anyway, rather than farming steps deliberately. Toxtricity is worth a separate mention — Toxel evolves at level 30, but its nature decides whether you get the Amped or Low Key form, so check the nature before evolving if you care which one lands in your box.
The Ruinous quartet and their shrines
Four legendary Pokémon in the Paldea Pokédex are gated behind a stake-hunting puzzle rather than an encounter. Each is sealed inside a shrine by eight stakes of a matching colour scattered across the region; pull all eight, and the shrine can be opened.
| Pokémon | Stake colour | Shrine location |
| Wo-Chien | Purple | South Province (Area One) |
| Chien-Pao | Yellow | West Province (Area One) |
| Ting-Lu | Green | Socorrat Trail, near Casseroya Lake |
| Chi-Yu | Blue | North Province (Area Two) |
All four appear in both versions, so no trading is needed here. What does trip people up is that a shrine won’t open until every stake of that colour is removed, and the stakes sit in unmarked spots across huge stretches of terrain — this is the part of the dex most worth consulting a map for rather than sweeping blind.
Gimmighoul, Gholdengo and the 999-coin wall
Gholdengo is the single longest-running task in the Paldea Pokédex. Chest Form Gimmighoul appears at watchtowers, ruins and similar structures across Paldea, and each one you defeat or interact with yields Gimmighoul Coins — but evolving it requires 999 coins in your bag, then a level up.
Chest Form encounters give a meaningful chunk of coins at once, which makes them the efficient route, and they respawn over time at their fixed locations. Start collecting during the main story rather than treating Gholdengo as a post-game task; players who leave it until last routinely find it’s the only entry standing between them and the Shiny Charm.
Three separate Pokédexes since the Expansion Pass
Pokémon Violet now tracks three regional Pokédexes rather than one, and they’re scored independently:
| Pokédex | Entries | Completion requirement |
| Paldea | 400 | All 400 caught; reward is the Shiny Charm |
| Kitakami (The Teal Mask) | 200 | All 200 caught; reward is the Glimmering Charm |
| Blueberry (The Indigo Disk) | 243 | 240 required — Walking Wake, Iron Leaves and Pecharunt are registerable but optional |
Completing the Paldea Pokédex first is still the sensible order, because a large share of Kitakami’s 200 entries are species you’ll already have caught in Paldea, and the Blueberry Pokédex adds its own version-exclusive splits on top. Finishing Paldea does not become harder or easier once the expansions are installed — the 400-entry target and the Shiny Charm reward are unchanged, and a Shiny Charm earned before the DLC stays yours.
The order that saves the most time
Work through the dex in this sequence and you’ll avoid the two most common dead ends. Collect Gimmighoul Coins continuously from your first watchtower onward. Keep a Pawmo, Bramblin or Rellor in Let’s Go rotation while you travel. Clear the story before planning your Area Zero sweep, since six of Violet’s seven Paradox entries won’t exist for you until then. Leave trading until last, so you can hand over one consolidated list of the 23 Scarlet exclusives plus your trade evolutions instead of arranging a dozen separate swaps.
If you’re missing exactly one entry and can’t identify it, open the Pokédex app and filter by unregistered — the awkward evolutions above account for the overwhelming majority of single-entry gaps, and Gholdengo accounts for most of the rest.
