Event Pokemon are some of the most valuable parts of a trainer’s collection. These come from all sorts of occasions, including movies, online events, and even some extremely rare spin-off games. If you happen to have one, you have likely held onto it for an impressively long time.
These are even more valuable with age, as many Event Pokemon can be transferred all the way from Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire to Pokemon Sword & Shield through Pokemon Home. Of all the Pokemon that could have been earned over the decades, these are some of the hardest and rarest to find in collections.
10 Mystic Ticket Lugia And Ho-Oh
The earliest in-person Event Pokemon are some of the hardest to find nowadays, much because their distribution was much more limited. This was especially the case during the third generation of Pokemon, where many legendary Pokemon hid inside new areas of each game that needed special items to access.
This included Lugia and Ho-Oh, who are found on Navel Rock in Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen, an island that can only be visited with a Mystic Ticket. This item was only distributed at a few stores in America and the Pokemon Rocks America tour in 2005; consequently, this was the only way to catch Lugia and Ho-Oh until Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver many years later.
9 Eon Ticket Latios And Latias
An even earlier ticket had to do with Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire's legendary Dragon-type duo, Latios and Latias. Each version only had one roaming the region after the Elite 4, but the other hides on the inaccessible Southern Island.
The Eon Ticket needed to reach this island was only available from an E3 event in 2003 and a promotion in both Nintendo Power and Toys R Us stores across the US. Fortunately, these events also came in the form of an e-Reader Card, so those who still own one can still technically produce new ones to generate more.
8 VGC Eevee
Another common source for powerful and rare Event Pokemon are competitive events, namely the VGC tournaments that have been running for decades. Many newer events distribute competitive Pokemon from the winning teams online, but older events had much rarer gimmick Pokemon instead.
VGC 2010 included a Shiny Eevee, something especially hard to get in the Pokemon Diamond & Pearl generation since shiny hunting boosts like the Shiny Charm did not exist yet. As a result, this was a massively unique symbol of attending this one-time event.
7 Flying Pikachu
An important note for some Event Pokemon is that Pokemon Sword & Shield lacks many moves only learnable through events, and the game itself won’t let Pokemon use moves they can’t natively learn in Galar. This means that some Pokemon don’t have the same value they used to, but it doesn’t change the oddities of their movesets.
Many people are familiar with Pikachu using Surf, which it can learn through a TR in Pokemon Sword & Shield, but a version that can learn Fly is far rarer. The VGC 2012 tournament gave out several Pikachus with this bizarre attack. Even if it is transferred to the current game and its moves are deleted, this Pikachu will still be signified by its original owner name of World12.
6 Zoroark’s Legendary Beasts
Zoroarks can be found in numerous amounts across the Isle of Armor, but the original Zoroark event was much more complicated. This Pokemon was rarer at the time; in Pokemon Black & White, Zoroark needed a Shiny Entei, Suicune, or Raikou to be transferred from an online event in Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver shortly before the Unova games were released.
That Zoroark doesn’t stand out, but these beasts were only available for a fairly short time online. Since the legendary dogs were mostly available to catch while roaming around a region, shiny versions from old games are particularly uncommon among modern trainers.
5 Steven’s Beldum
The remakes Pokemon OmegaRuby & AlphaSapphire had their own variety of online events, but one in particular never showed up beyond the game’s release. This would be a Shiny Beldum belonging to Hoenn Champion Steven, which was set to appear in the anime version of the series around the same time.
This Pokemon also carried a Metagrossite for Mega Evolution and was even more recognizable due to it having Steven as the original owner’s name. This event was available for only a few months after the release of the games, and a Shiny Beldum is only otherwise available through difficult catching and breeding with a Ditto.
4 Platinum Regigigas
The underrated Regigigas was incredibly difficult to obtain when it first debuted in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl. Before even entering the Snowpoint Temple, you would have to transfer all three Regis from the Game Boy Advance games. Afterward, its high level would make it a huge challenge to capture.
Pokemon Platinum reversed this process, as a movie event provided a Regigigas that unlocked the other Regi temples across Sinnoh. The key value of this Event Pokemon is its remarkably lower level, as it was the first instance of a Level 1 Legendary in the series' history.
3 Newborn Sinnoh Legends
One of these other events happens to involve Pokemon Diamond & Pearl once again, as their legendaries were initially available through the standard game. A later game added one other low level legendary, as catching the high-level Arceus through a movie event would trigger an encounter with Sinnoh Champion Cynthia in Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver.
This encounter gave players the option to choose one newborn legendary from the Sinnoh region. This included Palkia, Dialga, and even the Origin Forme of Giratina from Pokemon Platinum. Once again, the astonishingly low levels of these Pokemon would make them especially rare among any Legendary Pokemon collection.
2 Shiny Tapu Koko
There has been one brief point in time where shiny versions of the Island Guardians from Alola were available. This is exceptionally beneficial because some of these Pokemon were originally shiny locked in Pokemon Sun & Moon, meaning they would only appear as their original color.
Tapu Koko had one of the briefest times available but was more common than the others thanks to its availability online through a Mystery Gift Event for one month in 2019. If its shiny form wasn’t a good enough sign of its rarity, Tapu Koko can be identified through its original owner name of Melemele after its home island.
1 Wishmaker Jirachi
Movie events were an incredibly popular source for legendaries in early Pokemon history, but few of them are reproducible since they involved one-time codes or online events. For the movie featuring the mythical Jirachi, though, a reusable way was given in America thanks to the Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disk, available as a preorder bonus for this classic GameCube game.
These disks still work today and will provide a Jirachi with the original trainer name "WISHMKR" to present its source. These disks are extremely hard to come by, but those who own one can theoretically send new Wishmaker Jirachis to their Nintendo Switch given enough time, dedication, and old Nintendo gadgets.
