My Shadow Snorlax Ribbon Master Journey
Table of Contents:
Introduction
One of my original goals when I got into Pokémon video games from the beginning was to develop a Ribbon Master that originated as a Shadow Pokémon. Ribbons were introduced in generation three and serve as permanent markers that are affixed to your Pokémon for accomplishing certain tasks, and these markers persist as you trade between games and migrate to new generations. A Ribbon Master, therefore, is completed when a particular Pokémon has earned every ribbon possible based on which games it can visit and which tasks it is eligible to accomplish. Shadow Pokémon purified in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD are currently the only ones who can earn every ribbon.
At first, I was thinking that I would do a whole party of six Shadow Pokémon, taking them up through the generations together, but I have now settled on just doing one since I think it is quite a lot of work. I want to take my Ribbon Master into as many games as possible, which at the time of this writing means that I'm quite limited (see this Reddit post for compatibility with Switch games). Only 18 of the original Shadow Pokémon may visit every game to earn every ribbon, and only one of these is able to additionally acquire a Gigantamax mark: Shadow Snorlax. I therefore have selected this as my first Ribbon Master, and I think it will also be fun since I have never used Snorlax in any of my playthroughs.
Generation Three
January 31, 2025
Today I finally managed to bring down Team Cipher, the criminal syndicate that had been terrorizing the Orre region by stealing the emotions of Pokémon, forcing them each into a shadow state. While using my Snag Machine, I was able rescue many Pokémon from the Cipher admins, including a Snorlax who seems like a promising ally. I’m afraid I have to leave the Orre region at this time, but I promise to return and purify all of the Pokémon that I was able to rescue. For now they are being kept in the HQ lab in a comatose state where they will not feel pain. I need to take some time to think about what name would be fitting for the poor Snorlax.
August 22, 2026
Today I was finally able to return to the Pokémon HQ Lab in the Orre region to purify the Pokémon that I rescued from Team Cipher last year. The HQ Lab staff were able to help me achieve this with their special purifying chamber. I decided to give a name to the Snorlax I mentioned in an earlier entry: Snow. He earned his first ribbon, the National Ribbon, after working hard to free his mind from the shadows. I brought him with me to the Hoenn region, where we will train together in preparation for the region’s battle tower and contest hall. He appears to be in good spirits.
August 29, 2026
The coolest thing happened today! I went through my second time challenging the Hoenn Elite Four and becoming the champion, and afterward I saw a television broadcast showing that Latios was roaming the region. I decided to take Snow out to visit the berry master and water some of our berries we already had planted, and Snow's first encounter (and mine after seeing the television broadcast) was with the Latios on Route 119! We threw a Master Ball at him and nicknamed him Latimer. I think he will be a good battle partner for Snow as we train and get ready for battles!
September 1, 2026
For the last two days, Snow and I have been working our way through the Hoenn Battle Tower, and we were finally able to defeat our eighth set of seven trainers (56 total victories) and earned the Level 50 Winning Ribbon! Since my last entry, we had taken Latimer along with Pertula, my Swampert friend who was given to me by Professor Birch when I first arrived in Hoenn a couple of years ago, to Mt. Battle in the Orre region to do some training while we earned coupons for special berries. We followed that up with some effort value training in Hoenn until all three team members were level 50. I got a little cocky during the first four sets of seven trainers (the first 28 challengers), since Latimer was able to steamroll most of them, but it was noticeably more difficult in the second half, with all three team members coming in to protect and work together with the others. I think I will definitely have to consider changing up our moves a bit when we come back in the future to take on the Level 100 Battle Tower challenge. I had been trying not to use too many TMs since I will end up switching them for the contest ribbons later, but I think it would make things a lot smoother if I did.
Latimer the Latios
Lv. 50, Male, Mild, Soul Dew
HP 152, Atk 102, Def 79, SpA 176, SpD 137, Spe 121
Dragon Claw, Refresh, Psychic, Recover
Snow the Snorlax
Lv. 50, Male, Lonely, Leftovers
HP 242, Att 157, Def 70, SpA 77, SpD 121, Spe 55
Body Slam, Shadow Ball, Curse, Refresh
Pertula the Swampert
Lv. 50, Female, Lax, Soft Sand
HP 185, Atk 131, Def 121, SpA 106, SpD 99, Spe 85
Dig, Ice Beam, Waterfall, Dive
September 4, 2026
The day after my last entry, Latimer and Snow and Pertula and I all went out and finished training effort values. We need to grow some more berrites for Pertula to eat some to reduce some of the effort points we don't want, since she pulled a lot of weight while we fought our way to Hoenn champion status last year. We just raised the effort points we could and then visited Slateport City and received effort ribbons from the lady in the market there. We brought along three other of my Pokémon friends who, along with Pertula, became Hoenn champions last year (Manectric, Breloom, and Altaria), so that all six could get effort ribbons before making the trip to Orre to take on the Mt. Battle challenge.
The nice bonus to taking on that challenge was that by the time we got to the top of the mountain, the four remaining Pokémon whom I rescued from Team Cipher last year were able to break out of their shadow states. I wasn't sure if we would actually be able to make it all the way through Mt. Battle on the first try since Latimer, Snow, and Pertula were all between levels 51-53 when we started, and I knew that the highest Pokémon in the last ten battles are level 70.
Thankfully, we gained levels pretty fast, and all six of my Pokémon friends were in the mid to late 60s by the time we got to the top. I had to use a couple revives during the last ten challenges, but we managed to finish on that first try! I started with Snow and Latimer and then just brought in whoever had a type advantage if they fainted (there were a lot of explosions!). All now have their earth badges, and we just need to earn enough coupons to get the last berry we need for Hoenn contests.
September 8, 2026
Over the past four days, Snow and our crew have been working hard to achieve 56 consecutive wins in the open level version of the Battle Tower in Hoenn. I have heard that the Level 100 version is a little easier, but I thought I would try open level first before I spent so much time leveling our team. I will say that it was definitely harder than our Level 50 achievement. We got wiped out several times, including multiple times in our sixth set of seven challengers, but eventually we learned enough about how our team could be successful against each opponent and succeeded in earning our victory ribbons. Surprisingly, Salon Maiden Anabel, who challenged us as our 35th opponent, was kind of a pushover. Pertula has decided that she wants to stay in Hoenn and not come with us when we eventually travel to Sinnoh to earn more ribbons there, so we befriended a little Snorunt named Amelia, who Snow and I plan to raise and train in her place. Thanks for everything, Pertula!
Latimer the Latios
Lv. 72, Male, Mild, Soul Dew
HP 211, Atk 143, Def 108, SpA 282, SpD 218, Spe 172
Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt, Psychic, Recover
Snow the Snorlax
Lv. 72, Male, Lonely, Shell Bell
HP 355, Att 231, Def 100, SpA 106, SpD 167, Spe 67
Body Slam, Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Curse
Pertula the Swampert
Lv. 72, Female, Lax, Leftovers
HP 290, Atk 179, Def 194, SpA 137, SpD 134, Spe 110
Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Protect
September 12, 2026
After a very long slog, Snow and Latimer finally earned enough coupons at Mt. Battle in the Orre region to exchange for the last berry we want to use for blending and contests in the Hoenn region. To celebrate, we visited Brigette, Lanette's sister, who developed the mass storage system. Snow had a fun time playing around in the system, and we even put his marker up for display in Brigette's showcase. The Hoenn contests are the last things we need to do to earn ribbons before we move on to the Sinnoh region, so we are going to go around and finish up some miscellaneous tasks, like making friends with legendary Pokémon, while we can take advantage of Snow and Latimer's presence.
September 13, 2026
Today was probably the longest day Snow and I spent together since we started working on getting him all of the ribbons across the Hoenn and Orre regions. Latimer joined us in making friends with all of the various legendary Pokémon around Hoenn, including Groudin, Kyogre, and Rayqyaza. All five of us and Amelia then traveled quickly to Kanto to take on the Elite Four and acquire our champion ribbons there instead of in Hoenn, which was really fun. Snow and Latimer together just obliterated every Pokémon they threw at us, since the pair's effort values are all maxed out and their levels are so high. Snow felt bad when Blue seemed so disappointed to lose to us, but I assured him that Blue always reacts that way. We then came back to Hoenn and collected the last berries we had been growing to get Snow, Latimer, and Amelia the Pokéblocks they needed to raise their conditions, which allowed us to acquire all five of the contest scarves from the Pokémon Fan Club chairperson in Slateport City.
I have to admit, I've been pretty anxious about taking Snow to participate in the Hoenn contests, since I have never done contests before in any region. We tested out the normal smart contest after maxing out Snow's condition the best we could (smart is his best attribute), and managed to win first place. We then replaced a couple of his battle moves with Rest and Snore, since we don't plan to do anymore battling here in Hoenn. This helped us cruise right through all four of the cool contests and the cute contests. I was shocked that an artist came up to us after our first master contest victory (coolness) and offered to make a sketch of Snow, which is now on display on the second floor of the Lilycove Museum, but I was doubly shocked that the artist showed up again after our second master contest victory and created another piece of art showing off Snow's cuteness, which is also now hanging in the second floor gallery!
September 14, 2026
This morning, Snow and I were able to finish getting all of the Hoenn contest ribbons! We got first place in all 20 contests on the first try every time, thanks to all of the work we did caring for berries and earning our scarves. We received maximum points in every master contest, so we had the painter visit us five times total to create pieces of art for Snow. That means that the second floor of the Lilycove Museum will always be full of Snow, even after he goes on to other lands. We will soon make our way to Sinnoh to make even more new friends and have more fun adventures, but first we are training a timid Gastly friend named Genesis who, along with Amelia, is going to help Snow and Latimer with the Sinnoh battle tower. Expect more progress reports from us soon!
Bonus Memories
Generation Four
September 24, 2026
Over the past week and a half, Snow and I have had a great time getting to know people in the Sinnoh region and making lots of new friends. Snow decided that he wanted to focus on enhancing his friendship with me, so I took him for massages twice a day and had him wear a soothe bell while we were adventuring. As a result, Snow was given a ribbon by Dr. Footstep in Pastoria City. We also visited a woman named Julia in Sunyshore City every day and talked to her about her life experiences. She gave us seven ribbons, one for each day of the week. Aside from befriending Heatran, Giratina, Cresselia, and Regigigas, our other main task was earning enough currency to purchase ribbons from the Ribbon Syndicate. So far, we only have the first two, but we are making plenty of money as we go while boosting up Amelia's level, so it shouldn't take much longer. One other thing we did was bring rare berries that we had been cultivating in Hoenn to the Sinnoh region, so that they will be available here to whoever wants to use them!
We have visited the battle tower in the fight area of Sinnoh a couple of times. We earned one ribbon for defeating 21 challengers in a row in single battles, but we still have a lot to do there. While doing all of these things, Snow and I have also been working with Hayley to bring Pokémon to Fury Ranch, which I started with her earlier this year. It was fun to watch Snow sleep while the dozens of other Pokémon who have already made their home there were nudging him and trying to get him to play.
October 1, 2026
It took an entire week, but Snow and I were finally able to conquer the singles tower and get our second Tower Tycoon ribbon (we were still putting in time at Hayley's ranch most days too). We lost many times, and it was getting a little disheartening. Our strategy was to start with Genesis, who could usually knock out the first Pokémon sent out by our opponent, and then use Destiny Bond to take out the remaining two Pokémon. We were having Amelia hold a Choice Scarf at first, but during the early rounds it was too troublesome, since most opponents could not knock her out. We therefore opted instead to have her hold a Lum Berry until we got to the fifth or sixth round of seven. The next problem we kept running into was that by the sixth and seventh sets of seven opponents, Genesis usually could not knock out the opponents anymore. Eventually I had the idea that we should put Snow in first, so that he could weaken the first Pokémon sent out for Genesis to finish off, although sometimes Snow was able to take care of the job by himself. It was especially satisfying when our opponent used a Fighting-type move when we swapped to Genesis, making it fail. Anyway, now that we have the hang of things, I am hoping that it won't take as long for us to collect the remaining Battle Tower ribbons. We will write again soon!
Genesis the Gengar
Lv. 50, Male, Timid, Focus Sash
HP 135, Atk 67, Def 80, SpA 169, SpD 86, Spe 176
Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Counter, Destiny Bond
Snow the Snorlax
Lv. 100, Male, Lonely, Leftovers
HP 490, Att 319, Def 138, SpA 146, SpD 231, Spe 92
Body Slam, Rest, Earthquake, Curse
Amelia the Froslass
Lv. 88, Female, Hasty, Choice Scarf
HP 260, Atk 146, Def 125, SpA 205, SpD 152, Spe 244
Thunderbolt, Taunt, Ice Beam, Destiny Bond
October 7, 2026
It's been another week, and I'm happy to report that Snow and I are making great progress on the Sinnoh Battle Tower ribbons. We partnered up exlusively with Cheryl to earn our Multi Ability Ribbon. After struggling so much at singles battles, we were surprised how smoothly it went with her Latios and Porygon friends. We only lost matches twice! After that, we got to bring back Latimer to help us earn our Double Ability Ribbon, and we only lost once. Unfortunately, it was on our 50th consecutive battle, but I do feel like we have our opponents nailed down pretty well. Our last Battle Tower ribbon requires us to split up our team to be in two places at once. Last night, Snow and Amelia and Alto (our Altaria friend from Hoenn) and I traveled to Johto so that we could start our last ribbon effort while Genesis and Latimer remain with Dawn in Sinnoh. Snow took a side trip with me today down to Quiet Cave, where we are trying to befriend a Spiritomb.
October 11, 2026
It took us a few more days, but Snow and the rest of our friends and I finally received the last set of Battle Tower ribbons that Snow needed in the Sinnoh region. During this link style mode, we only lost once, thankfully, because we are pretty burned out from all of the battling we have been doing over the past two weeks. In the meantime, we got lots of other ribbons for pretty much our whole crew. This includes footprint ribbons and all of the days of the week ribbons for Latimer, Amelia, and Genesis. We still have a few more to get with Alto, but we will now turn our attention toward doing some exploring in the Johto region. We need to climb Mt. Silver to face Red for the final ribbon here as well as befriend a few legendary Pokémon before we return to Sinnoh and focus on the contest ribbons. After that, we'll be able to move on to the Unova region, although I'm still debating staying in Sinnoh a little while longer to make more friends for my Living Origin Dex.
Latimer the Latios
Lv. 100, Male, Mild, Soul Dew
HP 290, Atk 197, Def 150, SpA 391, SpD 301, Spe 238
Dragon Pulse, Thunderbolt, Psychic, Recover
Genesis the Gengar
Lv. 50, Male, Timid, Focus Sash
HP 135, Atk 67, Def 80, SpA 169, SpD 86, Spe 176
Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Counter, Destiny Bond
Snow the Snorlax
Lv. 100, Male, Lonely, Leftovers
HP 490, Att 319, Def 138, SpA 146, SpD 231, Spe 92
Body Slam, Rest, Earthquake, Curse
Amelia the Froslass
Lv. 89, Female, Hasty, Lum Berry
HP 263, Atk 148, Def 126, SpA 207, SpD 154, Spe 246
Thunderbolt, Taunt, Ice Beam, Destiny Bond
October 16, 2026
Two days ago, Snow and I finished earning him all of the super contest ribbons available in Sinnoh, so we packed up with Amelia, Latimer, and Alto and headed to the Unova region. It took a little while for us to get used to the super contest system. We lost our first master-rank contest, but we didn't lose any after that. We didn't even need to swap out any of Snow's battle moves once I got the hang of it. We had lots of accessories from all of the daily massages Snow and his other friends got, and we also spent some time growing berries to earn a few extra accessories that were useful. We also were able to get all of the colored scarves since Snow, Latimer, and Amelia already had their conditions maxed out in Hoenn.
My strategy was to start with Body Slam to earn three hearts, since we always started the first round in the first position. This would often get us to the fourth position during the second round, where we would use Earthquake to earn four hearts. Sometimes we would end up in the third position, where we would use Curse for three points. If we stayed in the fourth position in the third round, we'd use Curse there for four points. The priority was basically Earthquake, if available, in the fourth position; Curse, if available in the fourth or third position; and otherwise Body Slam. I would have used Rest if I had a turn start in the first position with a Judge who had a high voltage meter, but that just never happened. I feel like in general it's not worth it to play toward getting points through voltage, since it's based more on luck.
So far, Snow has been able to earn all 65 of the ribbons that are authentically available across Hoenn, Kanto, Sinnoh, and Johto. I know that there is a player-hosted server where Pokémon can technically earn the World Ability Ribbon, but I just do not think it means the same thing as it does to a Pokémon that earned it officially when these challenges had real competition.
Bonus Memories
Generation Five Interlude
October 20, 2026
As you may know, if you know anything about ribbons, there are not any ribbons to earn in the Unova region. However, we at least needed to come here to find Brigette again, so that we could use her bank system to visit the Kalos region. However, Snow and all of our other friends wanted to spend some time checking out the Unova region first, so we spent a week here. We spent most of our time exploring the eastern part of the region, which I had not visited before, filling out our Pokédex and battling new opponents. We also engaged in some rematches with the Elite Four and the champion, so that Snow and friends could be entered into the Hall of Fame here.
Bonus Memories
