GamesAdventurePokemonPokemon professor estimates it’d take you over 81 sextillion years to truly 100% Emerald, long enough for the sun to explode over 10 trillion timesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesAdventurePokemonPokemon professor estimates it’d take you over 81 sextillion years to truly 100% Emerald, long enough for the sun to explode over 10 trillion timesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon games have always been particularly challenging for completionists, but one number-crunching fan has now worked out that the time it’d take to truly 100% Pokemon Emerald is way higher than any of us could have imagined. It’s, uh, over 81 sextillion years – 81,461,313,208,320,429,708,284, to be exact.
Howcould it be possible for a 100% run of Pokemon Emerald to take so much longer than the universe is thought to have existed? Well, first we’ve got to unpack what it means to truly 100% Emerald.YouTubecontent creator Astroid Videos has taken it to an extreme level – far beyond completing the Pokedex, collecting all the gym battles, and clearing out the Battle Frontier. On top of all that, the criteria involves creating alivingPokedex (basically, owning one of every individual Pokemon you can possibly get, including their different forms), as well as shiny versions (1/8192-rarity alternate color palette versions) of all of them.
This would already take a long time, but that’s not the end of it, as Astroid Videos suggests obtaining maximum perfect IV versions (basically, the strongest possible randomly generated values for each of the six main stats) of both the shiny and non-shiny Pokemon. Oh, and we can’t forget to grind them all up to level 100, as well as earn every possible Ribbon from the Pokemon Contests on all of them, can we?
I’m sure you already see why this would be so time-consuming – the perfect IV requirement is a particular problem in Pokemon Emerald because there’s no way to breed for maximum perfect IV Pokemon like you can in later installments. When breeding Pokemon, you can only guarantee at most three perfect IVs out of the possible six, meaning the chance of finding them is very rare, and that’s even worse for wild Pokemon. For the record, each stat generally has a 1/32 chance of being perfect, so for the Pokemon you can’t breed, you’ve just gotta hit that 1/32 six times, simultaneously. Yikes.
How to 100% Pokémon - YouTubeWatch On
How to 100% Pokémon - YouTube
How to 100% Pokémon - YouTube

So, it’s already really tough, but how can we make itbillionsof times worse? The answer is with one of generation three’s most unique Pokemon – Spinda. This cute panda-like Pokemon has the greatest number of forms to capture, because it has a different spot pattern for every single personality value (a hidden, unchangeable value in each individual Pokemon’s code). That means that there are over four billion different appearances to find – 4,294,967,296, to be exact – which in itself would take more time than any player could possibly manage. Combine that with Astroid Videos’othercriteria of finding both shiny and perfect IV versions of all of these, not to mention the ribbons and level grinding… yeah. Sextillions of years suddenly sounds about right.
Laughing then crying in the face of 1-in-8000 odds, the luckiest and unluckiest Pokemon Sapphire player finds 2 shiny starters at the same time and then immediately loses them both.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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1
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
3
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4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”