Pokemon: Complete multiple Diplomas in a generation

[Princess Rescuer]

I am an experienced strategy guide writer. Though I must admit, my guides have niche appeal at best. They are guides for games not many people care about. Umihara Kawase games are mainstream compared to them. Even my Goldeneye guide is for an obscure difficulty that hardly anyone cares about. But today, I have a treat. A guide that will help you live the dream- to Catch Em All. And get a Diploma. MULTIPLE Diplomas even! This guide is inspired by a dual input TAS (of Red and Blue) and a joke in the Honest Trailer (again, for Red and Blue). While it doesn't necessarily have to be for Red and Blue, that is what inspired this. It's time to take the meme to the extreme and meet its full potential!

Trading is a feature intended to promote social activity and teamwork among Pokemon players. Both games in a generation are intentionally missing Pokemon in order to encourage trading, with the goal of getting exclusive Pokemon. There's one problem though- like most multiplayer features in a game, trades are almost NEVER mutually beneficial. 1 player gets something out of it, the other player is worse off. It's a feature that, outside of idyllic collectivist rural villages in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Iran (heh) where kohais are eager to do the bidding of and please their senpais, has most likely ended more friendships than it started. Especially in individualistic, self-interested countries like the USA, Canada, Quebec, Mexico, Ireland, Scotland, England, New Zealand, Australia, and Russia (heh), where every player has one goal in mind- to be the very best of the best of the best! (At least according to the creators of Pokemon). So trading, the efficient and social method for being prepared for any challenge and completing the Pokedex (which grants players the Diploma). You will be prepared for anything- the Elite Four, postgame challenges like the Symbols in Emerald or the Black Tower from Black 2 are no match for you! You are prepared for anything!

Due to Nintendo handhelds being extremely popular, and region-free, getting the equipment is the easy part. You should easily find two machines- two GBA SPs, two Regular DSes, two 3DSes, whatever you need- on the cheap. Depending on the generation, you need one of each copy of the generation, be it Gold and Silver, Diamond and Pearl, Black 2 and White 2, whichever one you want to excel at. And a Link Cable, if you're playing on an older system. If you're rich, or if the systems are dirt cheap (which they should be if you're retro-collecting them), this should be the easy part. Be sure to get enough chargers as well. If the games are GBA or older, bear in mind that you can also utilize the Game Boy Player if you don't want to risk running out of battery and losing progress. If you are poor (or just thrifty), DS and older are also region-free. Trading must be done between two copies of the same region, so you can import two of the cheaper/cheapest ones. Knowing more languages certainly helps. You probably shouldn't attempt this challenge if you don't like being too powerful- as you can also access non-Rare Candied Level 100 Pokemon that can destroy everything with relatively little effort.

Normally when trading, you need to negotiate and try to make it sound worth it. You don't need to with this method- because in this playthrough, you are the kohai, dilligently and productively doing the legwork for your senpai. By buying multiple of the same machine and starting, you have willingly and eagerly agreed to the servitude and bidding, for rewards which your senpai will reap. You will venture, you will catch and level up all of the Pokemon in your version, and then agree to the most disadvantageous trades imaginable for cannon fodder beginning Pokemon to hand your powerful Pocket Monsters over to your senpai- which is completely okay and not at all abusive or enslaving- because the senpai on the other file is also you!!! Now you will play the other copy- and trounce the game with your hopefully very powerful Pokemon you got from your Kohai's gratuitous obedience and generosity in order to easily catch your version's Pokemon- and good thing too- because the roles are about to switch between you and the other you.

You will repay your former Kohai, now enjoying the ease and luxury of your servitude (and getting their rewards sooner thanks to their hard work from before that directly benefited you so you can can shower the other you with the other version't best and most exclusive Pokemon as well with no negotiations or battling-for-keeps or anything inconvenient like that if you were to go outside and hunt down any strange player who happened to still play the old favorite you prefer.

There's no need to "make it up" to anyone else or be "fair" to them- when it's just you, friendships with yourself that border on indentured slavery are perfectly consensual and permissible. As long as you enjoy hard work, you will have no reservations going on lengthy quests and adventures in any Pokemon region, begrudgingly- no- cheerfully toiling away with the most tedious tasks and challenging battles with gigantic and powerful beasts who would swiftly gobble you for breakfast, enjoying the meager rewards of luxuriously bequeathing your spoils onto your other self, happy to bask in their brilliance thanks to how much more powerful you've made them. It is worth it- as you switch roles and make their job of braving the world and showering you with foreign specialties that much more pleasant.

Now that you are such a cool, amazing, brilliant, genius, productive, victorious champion, you have earned yourself not one, but two Diplomas. You deserve it- your prowess to work smarter AND harder has netted you two of something most kids would be ecstatic with only one of. Equality, compromise, negotiation, logic, all a race to the bottom. Your galaxy brain is far too spacious for such simple and obvious solutions. You are more interesting, deep, multi-faceted, smart, and powerful than that. Rather than being a people-pleasing simpleton, you have shrewdly purchased multiple machines when one would satisfy- and employed two opposite-attracting personalities to do so. You have studied and learned to be both the servant, extraordinarily hardworking, thorough, with boundless generosity to ease and please any superior. You tell them you are not worthy, but indeed you are worthy. Worthy of being the main source, the prime wellspring, of your world's quality. You are, at the same time, the master, whose eyes will do more work than your hands, yet commands levels of power and control that moves mountains and changes destinies. You absorb the finest gifts and the most luxurious treasures- and everyone is happy when you do- because you end up using it for great purposes as well. Such relationships would alert the authorities if practiced with another person- yet they emanate beams of radiance and a masterwork of cognition when linked together in the same mind, the way two machines link together to facilitate trades advantageous to a single side.

But wait! If you are even wealthier and more ambitious (or just foolishly optimistic) there is even one more method! Get more than two of the same machine, one of one version, and as many of the other version as other machines remain. You may even require just two machines, and numerous cartridges of the other version. The same kohai-and-senpai dynamic applies- though this time, the unique cartridge is the senpai while all cartridges of the other version are all kohais, suiting the interests of the senpai file (all are you as before). What, you ask, is the purpose of more than one kohai file? Why is it superior to a single other one? In the event of a nonlinear game or specialized team, this method ensures all the trades with the senpai file will all be optimal.

When it comes time to feed all kohai files, the senpai file's team of even more powerful (with less/no downsides/sacrifices) will be able to collect as many exclusives for one (or as many as needed) kohai files- and it will be even easier! If the postgame or toughest challenges of one particular version compared to another is much more challenging for you, make sure the unique one-cartridge version is the one you struggle with and will be the master copy (in more ways than one) getting the best of everything. If you've ever wanted to trounce the daunting Gen 5 Hard Mode, for example, this is the way to do it. If you struggle with Pokemon and can't be bothered to play the game optimally by learning everything there is to know, this one-sided trading method can be abused to victory.