Life

Someone Claims To Have Caught Every Single Pokemon

by Elizabeth Ballou

Well, there go my chances of being the very best Pokemon Master that ever was. RIP, childhood dreams... again. Can you win "Pokemon Go"? Not officially, but Brooklynite Nick Johnson has already beaten me, and the rest of the freshly pocket-monster-obsessed "Pokemon Go" players all over the world, to catching all the Pokemon in "Pokemon Go." This is something I find highly impressive, since I've been playing the game every day (if only while walking to and from my apartment on some days), and have still only seen around 60 critters. Johnson, though, claims he has caught or evolved 142. Although there are officially 151 Pokemon in the first generation — that includes Mew and Mewtwo — nine Pokemon aren't available yet, so Johnson is off the hook for those. At least, he is for right now, anyway.

Just an FYI: the legendary Pokemon (Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, Mew, and Mewtwo) aren't available to anyone yet, although they probably will be at a later date. Four Pokemon are specific to certain regions:

  • Tauros: North America
  • Kangaskhan: Australia/New Zealand
  • Mr. Mime: Europe
  • Farfetch'd: Asia

And no one has been able to find Ditto anywhere, although a coder has tried (and failed). So our Mr. Johnson has caught a Tauros, but not a Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime, or Farfetch'd. All right. We can still give him an A++++ for effort, considering everything he did to catch his Pokemon crew.

Here are some of the crazy things he did to be able to nab every Pokemon available:

  1. He took an Uber to Jersey City to catch a Porygon, one of the last Pokemon he caught. Johnson asked his Uber driver to just drive around until he caught it.
  2. He would go to Grand Army Plaza in Central Park to do serious Pokemon-catching, and he'd make sure to be there on the hour (and the half-hour). That's when he noticed the rarest Pokemon spawning.
  3. He walked an average of eight miles per day since "Pokemon Go" came out.
  4. He walked in a straight line in order to hatch his eggs, since the game apparently calculates distance by measuring how much distance you've covered.
  5. He bought Egg Incubators to hatch his eggs, because according to him, they give you the best bang for your buck out of any item in the Shop.

Daaaamn, Nick. Looks like I have some catching up to do.

Images: Getty; SCMP News/Twitter; Giphy