See Every Pokémon with the Habitat List!

If you’ve been traveling through Unova over the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen quite a variety of Pokémon. But how do you make sure you’ve seen every one? Well, a new function added to the Pokédex in Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 can help!

The Habitat List shows you whether you’ve seen all the Pokémon that live in any given area, as well as which Pokémon you’ve caught. As you’ll see, it may seem like a relatively minor feature, but it’s a huge advance that will make the Pokédex much more useful.

When you first receive your Pokédex, the Habitat List won’t be available. After you’ve defeated Aspertia City Gym Leader Cheren, you’ll bump into Bianca, and she’ll update it to add the Habitat List function.

When you open the Habitat List, you’ll see a list of locations in Unova. Next to each location, you might see a gray Poké Ball icon, a red Poké Ball icon, or an exclamation mark. If there’s a gray Poké Ball, then you’ve seen all the Pokémon in that area. A red Poké Ball means you’ve caught at least one of each Pokémon in the area. And, if you see an exclamation mark, it means the Habitat List has been updated since the last time you checked it. If there is no icon next to a location name, it means you haven’t seen all the Pokémon in that area—so you should keep looking!

For each area, you might see up to three Poké Ball icons. That’s because the Habitat List is actually three lists in one: it tells you which Pokémon you’ll run into by walking around (in tall grass or in caves, for example), which Pokémon you’ll encounter while on the water’s surface using Surf, and which Pokémon you can snag when fishing.

You can get a detailed list of which Pokémon you’ve caught—and which ones you’ve seen but haven’t caught—by selecting a specific area. On this screen, you can quickly tell if you’ve encountered all the Pokémon in a particular area if there’s a Poké Ball icon in the top-right corner. If the icon is not present, keep looking for Pokémon in that area until you find one you haven’t seen.

Also, when you’re examining an area, you can toggle between land, water surface, and fishing. You do this by tapping the three big icons at the bottom of the screen.

There’s another important thing to note about the Habitat List: If you’ve caught a Pokémon in one area, it will be checked off in every area where that Pokémon can be encountered. For example, if you catch Patrat in Floccesy Ranch, it will also be listed as caught for Route 19, Route 20, and Virbank Complex.

This diagram of the Habitat List from the recently released Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 Official Pokémon Unova Strategy Guide: Volume 1 provides a great breakdown of how to understand all the key information the Habitat List provides:

With the help of the Habitat List, you’ll know exactly where to go to encounter any Pokémon you may have missed during your adventure—so you can finish completing your Pokédex with ease!