How To Get the Unown Dex in Pokémon Crystal

You can get the Unown Mode for your PokéDex from a Scientist outside the Ruins of Alph’s central hall. He’ll show up once you’ve captured three different Unown forms.

To catch Unown, you must solve one of the puzzles around the Ruins of Alph. This will drop you into the main hall where certain forms of Unown will spawn.

The PokéDex’s Unown Mode (also called the Unown Dex) helps you keep track of which Unown forms you’ve encountered so far. You can also print the shape of each Unown if you own a Game Boy Printer.

How To Find & Catch Unown

Wild Unown need to be summoned before they can be caught.

You can do this by solving one of the sliding puzzles located in four chambers connected to the Ruins of Alph.

Ruins of Alph in the Johto map.

Tip: You can enter the Ruins of Alph from the north (Route 36) or the east (Route 32). Both roads start on Violet City’s western side.

Each of these sliding puzzles summons different forms of Unown. You need to solve them all if you want to catch all 26 forms.

Only the first two chambers are easily accessible from the Ruins of Alph. The entrances to the other two chambers are deep inside Union Cave.

But here’s an overview to help you find the forms you want:

Chamber Location	Puzzle Image	Associated Unown Forms
Top Right Corner	Kabuto	A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K
Bottom Right Corner	Aerodactyl	S, T, U, Y, W
Union Cave Basement Top	Ho Oh	X, Y, Z
Union Cave Basement Bottom	Omanyte	L, M, N, O, P, Q, R

Tip: The ! and ? Unown forms appear in the main hall after all other forms have been caught.

We only need to solve one of these puzzles to unlock the Unown Dex, so let’s take the Top Right Corner chamber as an example.

Assuming you’re coming in from Route 26 (Violet City’s north-western exit), you just have to walk a few paces right and you’ll find your destination.

Path from the northern entrance to the Ruins of Alph to the Top Right Chamber.

Interact with the stone tablet in the middle of the room to start solving the slide puzzle.

Top Right Chamber at Ruins of Alph.

This is how it should look when it’s done:

Complete Kabuto puzzle at Ruins of Alph.

Once completed, a cutscene will play where you fall into the main hall.

The game will then tell you there’s a presence in the room with you to indicate the Unown have arrived.

Dialogue announcing the presence of Unown.

Since we did the Kabuto puzzle, we have an even chance of finding A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K-shaped Unown.

Unlocking the Unown Mode

Once you’ve solved the puzzle and summoned some Unown, you need to catch three of them – and make sure they’re all different forms.

Three different Unown forms (V, U, T).

Run around the main hall (the one with all the statues) and Unown will start popping up.

After catching three different forms of Unown, head back out of the main hall by way of the ladder in the middle of the room.

Ladder leading outside in the Ruins of Alph.

You’ll notice a new scientist NPC standing around the entrance.

Approach him and a cutscene will start where he’ll offer to upgrade your PokéDex.

A scientist at Ruins of Alph asks about your PokéDex.

This unlocks the Unown Mode, also known as the Unown Dex.

Receiving the upgraded PokéDex with the Unown Mode.

What Does the Unown Dex Do?

The Unown Dex helps you keep track of every different Unown form you’ve encountered and caught. It does this in the order you catch them instead of in alphabetical order.

You can access this special PokéDex section by going to the regular PokéDex screen from your START menu and hitting the SELECT button.

At first, it will look like this:

Early Unown Dex.

But eventually you can get a full Unown Dex with all 26 different forms.

Complete (and alphabetically sorted) Unown Dex.

What Do You Get for Catching All Unown?

Completing the Unown Dex unlocks the printer at the Ruins of Alph Research Center.

Players on the original Game Boy Color hardware can use the Game Boy Printer accessory to print out the shape of the 26 forms. But if you’re playing on anything but a GBC then you pretty much get nothing at all for your hard work catching all the Unown.

Although if you do have a Game Boy Printer, just head to the research lab where you got the Unown Mode installed and check the printer in the back of the room to access this functionality.

Approaching the printer in the research lab.

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Nelson Chitty

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Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.

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