Today we learned you don’t have to beat Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl in order to unlock the National Dex! As the weeks go on, we’ve seen some incredible Pokemon glitches in the remakes, but this as it turns out, isn’t a glitch! An exploit, absolutely. There’s no telling what this will mean for Pokemon in the future, but there are some National Dex exclusive Pokemon that you can unlock, right after picking up your first gym badge. You just need some patience, or to wait until Pokemon Home. Perhaps this will be patched out by then. What’s the scoop though?

Until now, we assumed you had to see all 150 Pokemon, and beat Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. Then you go to Professor Rowan, and he rewards you with the National Dex. You can skip the entire story and start capturing the really awesome exclusive Pokemon. As it turns out, the only requirement for the National Dex in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl is to get to Eterna City and see all 150 Pokemon in the Pokedex.

This was found by a few enterprising Pokemon fans on Twitter:

“Hilariously, you can legitimately get the National Dex and the Poké Radar with 1 badge. The only requirements are to get to Eterna City and to have all Pokémon viewed in the Sinnoh Dex!”

Now, you can’t glitch the entire Pokdex full – at least that we’re aware of. What can we do to unlock the entire Pokedex that early? You could have a friend (or friends) that will trade you briefly the entire Pokedex. That way, you fill it out at the very beginning. Conversely, wait for Pokemon Home. If you have all the Pokemon in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl stored there, it will be easy to drop those Pokemon down into your game, and suddenly, you’ve got the National Dex!

Then you can head to the Underground when it’s unlocked, and catch some really amazing Pokemon – such as Cacturne at level 16! When you unlock the National Dex, you also get the Poke Radar. This is what Shiny Hunters are desperate to unlock, so they can catch all the shinies they’re after. We’ll have to see how Nintendo handles this, and if there are major changes made. Otherwise, people are going to easily make fresh files on Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, and start the game with the National Dex.