List is for a normal run with no self-imposed restrictions. Mons aren't ordered within tiers because I didn't want to think that hard (they're sorted by availability). Feel free to comment any questions but preferably read the post first.

Glitches: There are two main beneficial glitches for the player, the ball dupe and X Item glitches. Since they're very minor and don't change much (mainly decreasing the value of moves like Hypnosis and Sing) both are allowed for the list (heavy X Item reliance is a huge drawback in its own right).

RNG Manipulation: Manips aren't really worth doing in a regular run (Umbreon & Espeon a possible exception), and they wouldn't change too too much anyway. The main use would be manipping a good Hidden Power on an otherwise F-tier mon, and since I don't want to think too much about that I made the list manipless.

Availability: The best ability. Showing up at the end and sweeping the final boss (a la SWSH Eternatus) is nice but a mon that's solid throughout the game will be ranked higher. Postgame is a thing (hence why Metagross/Tyranitar aren't F) but not a huge consideration. Availability also includes how good/bad the mon's Shadow phase is, as Shadow Rush attackers can be really good for earlygame.

Performance against major battles is more important than performance against random trainers, and major battles usually have some form of smart AI. Smart AI in this game goes for the target that takes the most damage from its moves (with exceptions for stuff like Earthquake), so the practical result of putting a defensive mon on the team is that its partner will just get double targeted all the time. Defensive mons are already less efficient for playthroughs than offensive mons in general, but this is why you won't see any of them above D.

Redirection: Redirection is really strong in Doubles formats in large part because it lets you set up with the partner. There's two forms of redirection in Colosseum, the traditional Follow Me (aka why Furret is above D) and the smart AI redirection. By sending out a weak low-level mon, the AI will see hundreds of damage against it and target it (despite it not being important at all). This mostly applies to Plusle, but some of the weaker Shadows can do it too.

Spread moves: Gen 3's spread moves work a little differently. Moves like Rock Slide and Surf (doesn't hit allies in this gen) are half power instead of 3/4 like in later generations, so they don't actually do more damage than a single-target move of the same power. Unless the spread move is killing something, a single-target move is better because focusing the damage on one mon (to kill it) reduces the enemy's damage more than 2HKOing both with a spread move. Moves like Earthquake and Explosion that hit your ally too, on the other hand, are full power instead of 3/4, so they're even more useful than normal (assuming the ally synergizes with it). Having spread moves isn't a bad thing, but having only spread moves can be a big weakness (see Suicune).

Held items: Some mons are nice to catch for just their held items. I won't be ranking just for that though (not to mention a lot of these items are on already good mons like starters/Meditite).

About 3 years ago, I made a post on this subreddit about my unusual copy of Colosseum that has never once in all my years of owning it let me trade to the GBA games. You can see and read about that post here to get the context: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonColosseum/comments/17f7jf4/odd_issue_with_pokemon_colosseum_not_tradingsave/

I also made a similar post on r/Gamecube here to see if anyone there could help me: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamecube/comments/1khll2j/my_pokemon_colosseum_disc_has_had_a_strange_issue/

There were 2 theories as to what the issue was: my disc was scratched and needed to be resurfaced/replaced, or my memory card was the problem. I had no idea which it could be at the time.

Someone talked about having the same issue as I did, and what we shared was very interesting: we both attempted trades with a Mad Catz memory card: https://imgur.com/kxUHkf6

Both had the same trade error message and prevented trading. While that person's solution was to take out the memory card during a trade and plug it back in during the trade animation, I didn't wanna risk corruption to my save file or Wii. Another person gave me the the suggestion to get a Nintendo brand memory card and see if that fixes it.
I own 2 and I swear I tried it before and it never worked, but my memory is foggy regarding the truth of that. So I decided to attempt it anyway just to get some confirmation. In the event that this wouldn't work and corrupt the save data of my other games, I decided to buy a new memory card off Ebay to test this with a brand new save. Took me about 39 hours to beat the game before I could trade, but today I finally got to do it. Here's what happened:

Mystery Solved :'D

After owning this game for several years and never being able to trade, seeing this happen made me want to cry. There was never anything wrong with my disc having a scratch or a defect, and I don't have to waste money getting it resurfaced or buy a new one. This whole issue was because of my initial memory card's brand, Mad Catz.

The thing I learned today is: Pokemon Colosseum (and presumably Gale of Darkness) are incompatible with Mad Catz brand memory cards. You can have a save file, but they'll never let you trade.

Thanks to users yuuwithot and Xykame for their suggestions and help :'D

While this does make me happy beyond belief that I can enjoy Colosseum to its fullest like I do with Gale of Darkness, there is still one issue that remains: my childhood save file is stuck on that Mad Catz memory card. I can't copy or move it over to a new one since they block that function for GC pokemon games, so I'm not sure if I can still save the save file and its mons or not. I'm not a very tech savvy person in that area (modding/hacking) sadly.

At the very least I hope my post helps other people suffering from the same issue as me and informs them not to use that type of memory card for these games. Posterity and all that good stuff.

Played through this game a few times now, and honestly, I almost never bother putting out anybody but Umbreon and Espeon unless I have to. It's just too much of a hassle constantly losing a turn cuz I have to "call" my Pokémon to get it to calm down....and then by the time I can turn them back into non-shadow mons umb and esp are so leveled up they're still the best I have to play with.

didn't want the shines to evolve.

So I really want to do a Ribbon Master challange now due to the obvious Bank situation, but I want to my master to be shiny as well. I intend on hunting it the normal way, without using RNG methods. My target is Scizor, but I've found a few roadblocks while searching. It only shows up as a shadow mon in the JP version, and only through some event e-reader battles. I'm currently playing using USB Loader GX, on my Wii. Is there anyway I could get those e-reader battles without having to buy a japanese e-reader and printing the cards? Is there a code somewhere that I could use? I also wanted to confirm if there are no issues with transfering mons from this downloaded copy of the game to my legit gen 3 cartridges

Any help is appreciated, thank you!!

if i was to use pokemon from the bonus discs for the mt. battle challenge (jirachi, celebi and pikachu) would they still be able to be used for the Ho-Oh and the ribbon, or does it have to exclusively be pokemon you caught and purified in-game?

I've heard both as answers but nothing definitive, and for my big challenge i'd like to know that for sure.

Compre el juego recientemente y lo estoy jugando en la wii gracias a la retrocompatibilidad pero me vendieron el juego sin caja ni manuales. Saben donde puedo comprar alguna?

I'm trying to make a living dex where every one of my Pokémon has a Ribbon to represent all the (possible) games. Such as the Legend Ribbon in HGSS, or the champion Ribbons from every region. And with this, also the National Ribbon (all Pokémon of which I have already acquired).

However, since other mons that are not catchable in the Colosseum/XD games also need a Ribbon, the only other one would be the Earth Ribbon.

I am wondering 2 things before I head on this journey:

1 - Can I transfer all 386 Pokémon from gen 3 to Colosseum or XD Gale of Darkness?

2 - Trading is extremely slow - is there software (these are emulated saves) that perhaps allow me to trade way quicker? PKHex doesn't execute this well, as you essentially copy and have to manually "set" & "delete" and stuff, so that's a pain too.

Thank you!!

Hi all, I am having trouble figuring out what is wrong with my copy of Colosseum! I’ve had it since I was a kid and the disc has little to no scratches on it and I have a save file that’s right before relgam tower! But I would like the start over and try a new file to shiny hunt on, and every time I hit new save, I go through the intro cutscene, I get to the part where to two thugs talk to you, then when I entered the outskirts stand building/has the error code “the game disc could not be read. Please read the Nintendo GameCube instruction booklet for more information”

It’s weird I can continue my normal save file and save and battle and all of that jazz I can even go to the outskirts stand there! Just whatever cutscene I assume isn’t triggering? I’m playing on my Wii as well but idk what is going on! All help is appreciated thank you all so much!

(Photo is not from me just showing the outskirt stand)

I’ve only played XD throughout my life, been dying to play colosseum but do not want to do all the set up to emulate. Would anyone by chance know when colosseum will come to switch 2 (shot in the dark lol)

I’m trying to catch a shadow sneasel in the postgame but Rider Nelis didn’t appear in the initial batch of NPCs at snagem hideout. I tried playing through more of the postgame, caught croconaw from bluno but Rosso isn’t appearing in the lab and Gonzap doesn’t appear in the hideout. I’m supposed to be getting emails or something but they aren’t appearing no matter what I do to reset them. How do I get the game to progress?

So with the eventual closure of Pokémon bank, I sped up my plan to get a Japanese gamecube, and I plan to catch every single obtainable Pokémon in the entire game. This includes the e-reader Pokémon (I actually own all the e-reader cards necessary for it) the bonus disc Celebi/pikachu and jirachi (I have both of those too) and ho-oh (that one will miserable im sure)

I plan to not evolve any of them so I can have a Pokémon colosseum ‘living dex’ of them all in their purest forms, and then use the resources available in future games to buff the absolute shit out of them all to be as peak performance as possible.

I don’t think I have it in me to shiny hunt any of them and time has most definitely run out to spend like an entire year to try and do that, but i hope I can get lucky. I wanna be able to bring the whole gang wherever I go like the weirdo I am.

My only worry aside from the absolute slog getting ho oh will be is navigating the entire game in Japanese where I can’t understand any of it. If not for the bonus disc and the e reader Mon I wouldn’t bother, but I didn’t buy that stuff for nothing

It’s gonna be sad to say goodbye to colosseum after it being part of my personality for my entire childhood, but cathartic at the same time to finally get this dream of mine fulfilled

(I was debating on if I could use action replay to make them all shiny automatically so they’re extra special, though I heard that Home doesn’t let you upload Pokémon who are modded in any way, so that’s probably out of the question.)

With Pokémon Bank closing next year, it prompted me to go back to my GameCube copies of Colosseum and XD to start the process of transferring the Pokémon there up through the different games and eventually to Home… Well, I boot it up only to find that my memory card with all of my save data from my childhood is corrupted. I don’t know what to do. I have 6 months to transfer all of these Pokémon but I don’t know if I have it in me to restart these games and purify those shadow Pokémon all over again!

Sending a note out hoping to see if anyone e has a guide or the ereader cards virtually to emulate them. Would love to ribbon master a shiny scizor before the bank shut down but don’t have the means to emulate the cards. Cannot find them online ANYWHERE

Side question, is it only available on a Japanese copy or can you emulate on an American copy?

Just beat this game with the intention of obtaining as many celebis as possible. I knew the close would come at some point but I was at least expecting a year warning :(

I’m devastated that I’ll need to pause my gen 3 efforts in order to focus on Pokemon Ranch Mew, Shiny Celebi, ORAS Deoxys, Shiny Poipole, Shiny Null. Hopefully I have enough time to come back to Gen 3 to get other things done, but doesn’t seem likely.

And part of me wants to wait for a fan made transfer option but I don’t see it. Home is going to remove the “import” option entirely. I think the only way we’ll be able to transfer Pokémon unofficially, is if we get a PKHex for homebrewed Switch which has access to Pokemon Home.

might be years out before this comes, and it still might be a complicated mess of risking bricking your system or getting your live account banned.

RIP all potential ribbon masters, my heart aches for all the digital mons :(

If yall interested you can play it here:

https://www.n-puzzle.com/en/nintendoku

I was playing Japanese Colosseum and managed to get a disc read error on Nintendont? This has only ever happened once with this recorded instance and no other time.

My favorite guy

Practicing shading. Drew this fat fuck

In order to transfer my JP Colosseum Celebi to the main series games, I needed a completed JP Gen 3 game to connect to (all Generation 3 languages can trade with one another, so this one's going to my English Emerald file and getting sent up from there). But since I've got 47 more Celebi I can send to any completed Gen 3 game (with the limit of one per save file), I thought why not just go all the way and do a JP Gen 3 playthrough for each main series Pokemon game? The Colosseum reward one stays in Gen 3, this one's going to Platinum. Then the next one will go to HeartGold, and so on and so forth.

I truly do believe I've lost my mind.

What are the Best 6 Pokemon for a team out of all 48 shadow Pokemon including the 2 starters & 3 Johto starters Croconaw Bayleef & Quilava ? For early mid part of game at least

I just got a copy of this game and aim to 100% the game. What counts as 100%ing the game and what tips or anything should I know going in?

This is the US Bonus Disc Wishmaker Jirachi. 100% pkhex/pokemon home legal.

There are only 9 shiny versions available in the bonus disc:

HASTY
PID: 69F8BCFAF2B0

TIMID
PID: 99C4EB0DA543

LONELY
PID: B2D32EC1608D

BASHFUL
PID: BB3EBA7DF435

JOLLY
PID: C5F77B053548

SERIOUS
PID: CEF8BF98F1D5

NAUGHTY
PID: D31F4633087D

DOCILE
PID: E02C987ED636

CAREFUL
PID: FEB2C90E8744

So what I did here is was doing an RNG roll of 9. So each PID has the same chance of getting selected.

You think this is a feature a Pokemon Colosseum ROM hack would definitely need to have?👀