Can You Catch Every Pokemon In The World?

This "Pokemon Go" craze underway has become an international phenomenon, with not just players but some Pokemon themselves scattered across the globe. And someone has just literally caught all the Pokemon in the world, putting your own casual gaming efforts totally to shame. Late in July, "Pokemon Go" Trainer Nick Johnson announced on Reddit that he had caught all of the Pokemon available in North America (142 in total), and by now Johnson has apparently managed to catch literally all the Pokemon available in the world (145 of the critters, to be exact) through physically traveling to their locations. That's dedication.

Johnson didn't do it alone, though. In the final stages of his global Pokemon quest, Johnson received sponsorship from Expedia and Marriott who funded his trips to Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Tokyo to find the Pokemon that were not available in North America. Mr. Mime is Europe-only, Farfetch'd is only in Asia, and Australia harbored Kangaskhan (turned out that final leg of the trip, to Tokyo, wasn't even necessary, but Johnson took it anyways). Last but not least, there were plenty of helpful friendly locals along the way, too. Hopefully they are sharing vicariously in Johnson's Poke-glory.

But Johnson didn't drop his whole life to play "Pokemon Go," either. For most of the duration of his quest, the Brooklyn-based author continued working full-time in his day job at a startup and played "Pokemon Go" in the evenings, wandering through Brooklyn, Manhattan, and then New Jersey before venturing abroad. Johnson's up to eight hours of nightly game play and an average of eight miles of walking per day (after full days of work) are certainly no joke, though.

About his "Pokemon Go" accomplishment, Johnson says "It was an incredible experience to be able to travel all over the world with Expedia and Marriott Rewards to catch 'em all. The best part for me was the community I encountered in each city I visited. I received hundreds of messages of supports and plenty of tips from local players, without which I never would have caught em all." You can follow the rest of Johnson's trip and other adventures on Snapchat at @nja212.

Maybe now you feel a little less guilty about your own "Pokemon Go" habit, which is likely to be minor by comparison. Though it is possible to catch all of North America's Pokemon in about 100 hours of game play, it's not an especially likely outcome. According to informal mathematical modeling of "Pokemon Go," the frequency with which each available Pokemon shows up in the game can vary widely, from perhaps 8 percent of the time for common Pokemon to just three hundredths of a percent of the time for the rarest ones.

Don't forget, though, that there are actually 151 Pokemon in the original games — inexplicably and frustratingly, 6 Pokemon are missing from "Pokemon Go" at present. These include the "Legendary" Pokemon (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, and Mewtwo) plus good old Ditto. If and when Nintendo decides to get its act together and release the rest, I expect we'll see Trainer Johnson hot on their tails, wherever that may take him, so he can truly catch 'em all.

Image: Courtesy of Nick Johnson, Giphy