Achieving a 100% completion in Pokémon Emerald is notoriously challenging, but a recent analysis by a fan has revealed just how daunting it can be. According to calculations by YouTube content creator Astroid Videos, truly 100% completing the game would take an astronomical 81 sextillion years—81,461,313,208,320,429,708,284 years to be precise. This time frame far exceeds the estimated age of the universe, highlighting the extreme difficulty of the task.
To understand this immense duration, it’s important to grasp the extent of what a 100% run entails. Besides completing the Pokédex, battling all the gyms, and conquering the Battle Frontier, the challenge also includes creating a living Pokédex. This means capturing every Pokémon and its different forms, as well as collecting shiny versions of all of them—rare alternate color palette versions with a 1/8192 chance of encountering them.
The task becomes even more complex when adding the requirement for maximum perfect IVs (individual values) for each Pokémon, both shiny and non-shiny. Perfect IVs are the ideal stats for a Pokémon, and obtaining them is incredibly rare, especially since Pokémon Emerald lacks the breeding mechanics of later games that help in acquiring perfect IVs. With a 1/32 chance for each stat, finding a Pokémon with perfect IVs requires hitting that rare chance six times simultaneously.
Further complicating matters is Spinda, a Pokémon with over four billion possible appearances due to its varying spot patterns. Capturing all these forms, including shiny and perfect IV versions, adds an enormous layer of difficulty. Spinda alone demands an unfathomable amount of time and effort, making the completion challenge seem virtually impossible.
The proposed 100% completion of Pokémon Emerald would be the most formidable challenge ever, with a completion time so vast it’s beyond practical reach. While Astroid Videos’ estimations might have some variance, the sheer scale of the task means it remains an unattainable feat for any player. In the best-case scenario, some estimates might be adjusted slightly, but even then, the challenge would still be insurmountably difficult.
