In the long run, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl don’t have very much to offer players that the original versions of Diamond & Pearl (and especially Platinum) don’t. Still, they’re the only Sinnoh region games on the Switch — and they’re especially noteworthy for being the only non-event source of Shiny Arceus. If you’ve been playing these games and would like to 100% complete them, we’ve got a full list of requirements written up for you!
100% Required
Tracking true 100% completion is rather easy in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl — keep an eye on your trainer card. When you’ve obtained a black trainer card with five stars, it means you’ve fully finished the game! There are other things to do too, of course, but these tasks are definitely required.
- Complete the National Pokédex. This entails catching all 493 available Pokémon. Mythical Pokémon don’t count toward in-game completion, but they’re a welcome inclusion if you have access to them. If you’re looking for places to find rare Pokémon, check out this guide. If you’re looking for Legendary Pokémon locations, try this one instead!
- Defeat the Sinnoh Champion. This should be rather obvious, but you do need to defeat Cynthia of the Elite Four to receive a star on your trainer card. She’s extra tough this time around, as her Pokémon are fully EV and IV trained. Make sure to bring a Garchomp counter!
- Win a Super Contest Show on Master Rank. You can’t jump right into Master Rank, though. First, your Pokémon needs to complete all of the lower ranks to work its way up to the top. Pick one of your favorite Pokémon for this task, as it’ll receive a bunch of fancy ribbons along the way. If you’ve got a favorite Shiny Pokémon, they’d be a great contender for this!
- Rack up a 100-win streak in the Battle Tower. This is probably the toughest task in the game — BDSP’s Battle Tower is absolutely brutal. Your best bet is to bring setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Shell Smash Cloyster.
- Collect at least 100 statues in the Grand Underground. In other words: dig, dig, dig! You can keep track of how many statues you’ve collected via the back of your trainer card, so keep that in mind. And keep your Gym Badges polished!
Once you’ve accomplished all five of these tasks, you’ll notice your trainer card has turned black. Congratulations — you’ve done it! That’s technically all you need to do to achieve 100% completion in this game. Of course, there’s more to do, but only if you really want to — the choice is yours. If you have any questions, feel free to drop by our Discord community!
100% Optional
Since 100% completion is technically tracked in these games, certain tasks that seem like they’d be required don’t necessarily count. That being said, if you’re looking for a thorough completion run, these are worth looking into. You can then decide for yourself if these challenges are worth your time.
- Obtain every key item. This entails things like the Catching Charm, the Oval Charm, the Pal Pad, and the Shiny Charm. There are around 30 key items to collect, give or take, but some of them only remain in your inventory for a limited time. Remember to obtain the Secret Key by catching Rotom!
- Purchase all clothing options. Unfortunately, the Platinum outfit is event-exclusive, so if you didn’t obtain it while the distribution was live, you’re out of luck. Collecting all of the available outfits also has no bearing on the progress of your trainer card, which is why we placed this task in the optional section.
- Receive all non-repeatable Gift Pokémon. In this game, there are quite a few. There’s the Eevee and the Happiny egg in Hearthome City, the Riolu egg at Iron Island, and then the Mew and Jirachi in Floaroma Town. You can only get those Mythical Pokémon if you have save data from other Pokémon games.
- Catalog all forms and gender differences in your Pokédex. Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl don’t include regional forms of any of its Pokémon, but in classic Sinnoh fashion, many of its Pokémon do have gender differences. If you’re crazy, you can even try and catalogue every Shiny Pokémon!
- Pick a favorite Pokémon and decorate it with every ribbon in the game. We’re including this here because you can only access the Ribbon Syndicate in the Resort Area if one of your Pokémon has a bunch of ribbons. There are a total of 22 ribbons to collect, and a few of them are purchased from the Ribbon Syndicate itself. Check out our infinite money guide if you need some extra cash.
- Complete all in-game trades. There aren’t too many in this game. If you do go for this task, you’ll meet one of the nastiest villains in Pokémon: Mindy, who trades you a Haunter holding an Everstone so it doesn’t evolve during your trade. Vile.
- Visit every area in the game. Beat all of their trainers and collect all of their items. One easy-to-miss location is Route 224, which is located east of the Pokémon League. To access it, enter a cave on the east side of Victory Road and team up with Marley. As far as collecting each route’s items go, many of them are hidden to the naked eye — so this task definitely isn’t required for full completion.
- Rematch your rival and the Elite Four. Their teams power up after you defeat them for the first time. Cynthia’s team powers up twice, so you’ll have to rematch the Elite Four two separate times. On her strongest team, her Garchomp is Level 88. It’s got both Swords Dance and a Yache Berry (plus full EV training), so make sure you’re ready.
And that’s just about everything! Compared to other games in the Pokémon series – especially Pokémon Legends: Arceus – Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl aren’t super difficult to fully complete. The 100-win streak at the Battle Tower is going to be your biggest roadblock, but other than that, things should be relatively smooth. If you’d like to read up on some more BDSP guides to help you inch closer toward 100%, check out our full list right here. We’ve got a big lineup of 100% completion guides that you can check out via the link below, too. Have fun!
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