There are 151 Pokémon in Yellow'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. As Mew was only available through events that are no longer active, this page will assume you do not have access to Mew.
In order to complete the Pokédex in Pokémon Yellow with Gen 1 and 2 games, you will need access to at minimum one of the following combinations:
The following version-exclusive Pokémon have to be traded from another game:
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.
If you are playing an original Game Boy cartridge copy and have access to Pokémon Stadium, you can get an unlimited number of these by defeating the Elite Four and Rival repeatedly.
Otherwise, if you have access to Yellow and Gen 1 only, you would want to follow the steps listed on the Yellow and Gen 1 page.
If you have access to Yellow, Gen 1, and Gen 2, you can follow the following steps:
If you have access to Yellow and Gen 2, you can follow the following steps:
Four Pokémon evolve by trading: Machoke, Graveler, Kadabra, and Haunter. You can get Machamp via in-game trade, meaning you will only need to trade for Golem, Haunter, and Alakazam. The easiest way to get data for them is to trade them to another game and immediately trade the newly-evolved Pokémon back.
You only get one Pikachu or Raichu in the game, and it is the Pikachu you start with. It will reject the Thunderstone, so you cannot get a Raichu without trading. You can either trade for a Pikachu or Raichu from another version, or trade your starter Pikachu to another version, evolve it there, and then trade it back. Note that if you do this, Pikachu will no longer follow you.