Trainer Becomes A Pokemon Master Before Beating The First Gym
There are two goals in every Pokemon game: fill out your PokeDex and beat all the gyms. One trainer took this first goal to heart and decided that catching 'em all would be their first priority. This backwards strategy might seem improbable or impossible, but they have the screenshot to prove that they caught 400 Pokemon before even taking on the first gym.
Reddit user dee3108 posted a screenshot on r/gaming showing off their 400 Pokemon from the latest Pokemon games. Initially, this might not seem too impressive, but dee3108 hasn't been doing much of anything but surprise trading. That's it. There were a few dozen Pokemon that they were able to catch on the way to the Bridge Field, but many, many more wait in later parts of the game. Our Pokemon trainer extraordinaire skipped out on that and opted instead to spend — wait for it — 246 hours patiently making surprise trades. Patience is key, according to dee3108.
Surprise trading doesn't always give you a new Pokemon. Oftentimes, players are using the surprise trade to rid themselves of copies of unwanted Pokemon that they already have. Breeding for the sake of shinies usually yields hundreds — even thousands — of extra Mimikyus, Yampers, or Charmanders. This accounts for the hundreds of hours dee3108 put in to filling out their PokeDex. Even so, this persistent and patient trainer managed to get both of the games' legendaries, and even a shiny or two thanks to surprise trading.
Replying to a comment asking if they had gotten Zamazenta and Zacian, dee3108 said, "I had to [do] tradebacks and offer my Mew as collateral... I did get sent a shiny Yamper though, I don't think the person knew what it was." The thread thoroughly congratulated this talented trainer and asked them what they intend to do next. Dee3108 is ready to head out on their real Pokemon adventure, beat the gyms, and finally get some of the quality of life improvement items to make catching 'em all so much easier.
"I've got 3/6 for my shiny team," they said. "So I think I'm going to finally go get the bike now to make my life so much easier."