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Completing the Pokédex With Gen 1 (Pokémon Red)

There are 151 Pokémon in Red's Pokédex. Only 150 are needed to get the certificate from the Game Freak employee in Celadon City. The game is programmed to accept any 150, meaning if you use the Mew glitch to get Mew, you can skip another Pokémon. That said, this page focuses on getting the 150 Pokémon that aren't Mew.

In order to complete the Pokédex in Pokémon Red with only Gen 1 games you will need access to at minimum a copy of Pokémon Green (if using Japanese Red) or Blue (if using International).
Access to only Yellow and/or Japanese Blue is not sufficient, as Magmar is only available in Japanese Green/International Blue.

Version Exclusives

The following version-exclusive Pokémon have to be traded from another game:

• Sandshrew, Sandslash (Japanese Green/International Blue, Japanese Blue, or Yellow)
• Vulpix, Ninetales (Japanese Green/International Blue or Yellow)
• Meowth, Persian (Japanese Green/International Blue or Japanese Blue)
• Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebel (Japanese Green/International Blue or Yellow)
• Magmar (Japanese Green/International Blue)
• Pinsir (Japanese Green/International Blue, Japanese Blue, or Yellow)

Mutually Exclusive Pokémon

Several Pokémon are mutually exclusive, meaning that if you get one species, you cannot get at least one other species. The list of mutually exclusive species is below.

• Starters: Bulbasaur/Ivysaur/Venusaur, Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard, Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise
• Hitmons: Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan
• Fossils: Omanyte/Omastar, Kabuto/Kabutops
• Eeveelutions: Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon

If you have access to Pokémon Stadium, you can get all of these by defeating the Elite Four and Rival.

Otherwise, you will need multiple files. For the Hitmons and the Fossils, if you have one other game available to you, you can pick one of them while the other game picks the second, and then trade. However, for Starters and Eeveelutions, the trade process is a little more complicated.

If you have access to 2 other games, then each game can pick a different Starter and Eeveelution, and you can trade around to get them all in your Pokédex. If you have access to Yellow Version, you can also just trade all the Starters from Yellow, because Yellow players get all three Starters.
However if you only have access to 2 games total (Red and one other), you would need to do the following:

• Pick a Starter on one game, play until Celadon, and pick an Eeveelution.
• On the second game, pick a different Starter, play until Celadon, and pick a different Eeveelution. (Note: If you are trying to complete the Pokédex on both games, you will actually need for both files to keep their Starter in its base form so that you can trade that form.)
• Trade the second game's Starter and Eeveelution to the first game.
• Start a new file on the second game, pick the third Starter, and pick the third Eeveelution in Celadon.

Now you will have 2 starters and 2 Eeveelutions on your first file and the third starter and Eeveelution on the second. At this point, trade back and forth until the game you're trying to complete the Pokédex on has data for each Starter and Eeveelution.
Note that you will need to trade your Starter and Fossil at each evolutionary stage, because you only have access to one of each species and you can't un-evolve any Pokémon. This is why I recommended keeping your Starter unevolved in the steps above, especially if you're also trying to complete the Pokédex in the second game. Wait until you have all three unevolved Starters available, trade them, and then you can go ahead and evolve them (and trade again).

If you have access to Gold, Silver, or Crystal, you wouldn't need to worry about this due to breeding. See the Red and Gen 2 page for more information.

Trade Evolutions

Four Pokémon evolve by trading: Machoke, Graveler, Kadabra, and Haunter. The easiest way to get data for them is to trade them to another game and immediately trade the newly-evolved Pokémon back.