Recently, avid Pokemon Home users discovered a special reward Pokemon for completing a Living National Pokedex in the new Pokemon storage system. Upon completing a Living National Dex (comprised of all 890 Pokemon in the entire series), players are gifted with an original color scheme Magearna - previously unavailable in any game. Obviously, big Pokemon fans would want to get this exclusive Pokemon, but the task of completing a Living National Dex is quite a tremendous feat and is perhaps a bit too extreme to ask for.
The Living Dex Challenge
A complete Living Dex is the single-most time consuming and challenging task a player can partake in, and getting all of them into Pokemon Home is not as easy as it sounds. In total. there are 890 Pokemon that must be collected, including "mythical" Pokemon that are limited to events only. Pokemon like Zeraora and Hoopa were only available through code or Mystery Gift, never actually in-game, so players are quite literally unable to obtain these Pokemon currently. These Pokemon are usually excluded from the Pokedex for purposes of completing a National Pokedex in previous games, but not a Living Dex.
It is worth noting that to obtain the special Magearna, it seems players are required to have these limited-time Pokemon. In addition to that, to get this special Magearna players would need the paid version of Pokemon Home since the free version only allows one box of Pokemon to be stored at a time. The premium plan is $16 for a full year. If players are working with previous games, they will also need a Pokemon Bank subscription (much cheaper at $5 for a full year) though Game Freak is offering a month free for a limited time as part of Pokemon Home's release.
This is slightly mitigated by the fact that the (mobile phone) Pokemon Home app allows players to trade Pokemon using the GTS - which was absent from Sword and Shield. However, as with almost every iteration of the GTS, players often demand similarly unobtainable Pokemon in exchange for the Pokemon a player is seeking, making it still virtually impossible to obtain the Mythical Pokemon required. The GTS trading needs some work still, as it doesn't allow Pokemon to evolve via trading to help complete the National Pokedex in the first place.
The Sword and Shield Problem
Every Pokemon game has Pokemon that are unobtainable in that specific game. Some Pokemon can go generations without being obtainable, meaning players will have to dig up older games to snag them. This is painfully apparent in Sword and Shield which features a painfully limited array of older Pokemon to snag, meaning players may have to rely on games like Sun and Moon to round out their collection.
While Game Freak is adding more Pokemon in the Sword and Shield Expansion Pass, it will only be adding around 200 Pokemon which still leaves many in limbo. There are several Pokemon from each generation that would unobtainable unless players own other entries in the series (that would have to be transferred through Pokemon Bank) or trade for them (which, as stated before, can be quite a nightmare). While there could be more Pokemon on the way after that, Game Freak has only made note of the 200+ returning Pokemon at the time of this writing.
As an example, if a player is playing through Sword or Shield trying to do this challenge, but has not played Sun and Moon, there are around 30 Pokemon that will be unobtainable - and that's just from the most recent generation prior to Sword and Shield. At least many Legendary Pokemon are confirmed to be returning in the new co-op game mode coming with The Crown Tundra DLC, though it's currently unknown if this game mode will include Mythical Pokemon as well or just the previous catch-able Legendaries. On top of that, Magearna can't even be transferred into Sword or Shield at as of February 2020, meaning that players can't even use their cool new limited-edition Magearna.
No Going Back
Another major complaint that many fans have about this challenge is that they are required to put in all of their Pokemon into Pokemon Home meaning that the Pokemon will be stuck there until Game Freak decides to allow them to be transferred into a new game. Pokemon transferred to Pokemon Home cannot be transferred back to any old service (like Pokemon Bank) or to previous generations of games.
The only games currently compatible are Sword and Shield and the Let's Go games, but Pokemon Go and Pokemon Bank can transfer to Home but not back. This means that if players move Pokemon from say Pokemon Sun into Bank and then Home, there is no way to move that Pokemon back to Sun. While this may not be a big deal for some players, others are skeptical to put their Pokemon into a storage system where they cannot be used until Game Freak says so. If that Pokemon is one of the many missing Pokemon in Sword and Shield then it is stuck in Pokemon Bank indefinitely.
Overall, the Living National Dex challenge is a very daunting one and is mainly for those truly dedicated to the series. It's good that Nintendo is rewarding those who put the grueling time and effort into creating a Living Dex, but having this exclusive Pokemon be the reward for such a task is perhaps asking a bit much of the fanbase. The task wouldn't be so bad if there were more ways to obtain many of the Pokemon, but since some of the Pokemon are Mythical event Pokemon, they are just downright impossible to get. Hopefully, Game Freak will either loosen up this requirement and make a new reward for the Living Dex or at least make some of the Mythical Pokemon available again.
Pokemon Home is available now for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.