Scarlet & Violet is one of the easiest games to complete the Pokedex in a LONG time. That being said, there's still a handful of Pokemon in these games that proves challenging to obtain.

Here's 14 (Technically 27) of the hardest Pokemon to obtain in Scarlet & Violet.

1. Palafin

Dubbed as the hardest to Obtain Pokemon in Scarlet & Violet, you won't be getting your hands on a Palafin UNLESS you have friends. In order to obtain Palafin, you must have a Finizen, Palafin's Pre-evolution. Your next step is to invite your friends over to play in your save file using the Union Circle which requires the Nintendo Internet Pass. Step #3 is to level up your Finizen to Level 38 WHILE PLAYING WITH FRIENDS IN UNION CIRCLE and it'll evolve into Palafin. Yup, Pokemon added a new evolution method which requires you to play over the internet with friends. For me personally, I got lucky when it came to obtaining a Palafin through Terastal Raid Dens. The only other way to obtain Palafin is through 5-7 Star Raid Dens AFTER the main story of Scarlet & Violet and you're gonna NEED outside help for these raids as well. Pokemon CLEARLY didn't make obtaining Palafin easy for you.

2. Pawmot, Bramblegast & Rabsca

Pawmot, Bramblegast & Rellor all share the same evolution method: Walk 1000 steps in Let's Go Mode. This method of evolution is time consuming especially if you don't know cheats/hacks to beat the system. In my case, I used one of the hacks where you let a pokemon out in Let's Go mode, then stood on top of a Pokemon Center where the Pokemon in question will then run around aimlessly on its own searching for the player. An issue many players faced with this method, including myself, is that Pawmo, Bramblin & Rellor won't evolve the second they reach 1000 steps. This resulted in myself walking around with the Pokemon in question ALOT longer than necessary. Instead, as soon as you think the target Pokemon has reached the required amount of steps, level them up and their evolution should trigger.

3. Iron Valiant & Roaring Moon

These two Paradox Pokemon have the lowest catch rate of all the Pokemon in the games. They also spawn in one area within Area Zero and no where else. In Area Zero, you can't use your map. Therefore, locating their spawn area is a hell in and of itself. These two were harder to catch than the 6 different legendaries combined!!! It doesn't matter what I did. I'd use the back strike technique, give them a status condition, wear down their health, use 30+ Pokeballs of ALL kinds and still wouldn't trigger their capture. It took me defeating 22 (by the time I finally started to keep track) Valiants before I could successfully capture one.

4. The Treasures of Ruin

The Treasures of Ruin are 4 different Legendary Pokemon you can find in Scarlet & Violet besides Miraidon & Koraidon. In order to even encounter ANY of these legendaries, you have to go on a treasure hunt and locate 8 different glowing stakes per Legendary scattered all across the Paldea Region. Locating these stakes is no easy feat as some of them are hidden in locations not even on your map/they're located in caves which ARENT recorded on your map. If you do locate all 36 stakes, you'll finally have access to all of the Treasures Legendaries in which on their own aren't all that easy to catch. Like my previous entry, they're easier to obtain than Iron Valiant as I didn't need to invoke status conditions on them. However, I still had to use AT LEAST 15 Pokeballs per Legendary before they finally allowed me to capture them. These legendaries also wield a move that allows them to deplete 1/2 of their target's HP in one move so do be careful. Each Legendary is a dual Dark type, so make sure to go into each fight with a Fighting or Fairy Type on hand.

5. Annihilape

Annihilape is the new evolution to Primeape and it has an evolution method insanely similar to how alot of Pokemon evolved in Legends Arceus. In order to evolve Primeape, it needs to use the move Rage Fist 20 times. Primeape learns the move Rage Fist at level 35. It's a time consuming method to use a move so many times, and it was my least favorite part of Legends Arceus. It sucks that Pokemon brought back this evolution method BUT if you wanna complete your Pokedex or obtain Annihilape in general, you gotta suck it up and endure the torture.

6. Armarouge & Ceruledge

Charcadet has version exclusive evolutions and it's actually quite hard to evolve them especially if you don't know how. Charcadet doesn't evolve through leveling up BUT instead when exposed to certain items you don't get access to until about the 1/2 way mark of the game. When you find the town of Zapapico, there's a man in Scarlet and a Woman in Violet who stand next to a water fountain. Talk to them, they'll ask that you get them Pokemon Fragments and if you give them the quoted amount of Fragments, they'll give you suits of armor that's necessary to evolve Charcadet into Armarouge or Ceruledge. In Scarlet, you'll be tasked to obtain 10 Bronzor Fragments. In Violet, you'll be tasked with obtaining 10 Sinistea Fragments. Luckily, you can obtain both Bronzor and Sinistea around the town of Alfornada. On the downside however, the Pokemon in and around Alfornada are level 40+ so go there at your own risk.

7. Gholdengo

In my opinion, it's quite easy to obtain Gholdengo, it's just TIME CONSUMING. Throughout your playthrough of Scarlet & Violet, just keep an eye out for Gimmieghouls in the environment. Most Gimmieghouls will give you 1 token, while chests of Gimmieghouls will give you anywhere between 30-60 Tokens. You need to collect 999 Gimmieghoul Tokens in order to evolve your Gimmieghoul into a Gholdengo. The Gimmieghoul you find in the environment will eventually respawn overtime and so there's pretty much an infinite amount of Tokens to obtain and you don't have to stress out about finding every single one. I was able to obtain Gholdengo after casually playing the game long enough to have found the required amount of coins. I'd rather find Gimmieghouls than Spiritomb Fragments any day.

8. Spiritomb

Speaking of Spiritomb, Spiritomb makes another appearance in this game and you thankfully don't have to collect 108 Souls in order to obtain one. Spiritomb is that rare instance that the Pokedex doesn't tell you where to find one YET they indeed spawn in the wild, you just have to find one. Spiritomb is a rare spawn that happens only at night. You can find Spiritomb at most ruins (if it does spawn that is) BUT most people have had the best luck finding Spiritomb at night located at ruins scattered across the snowy Glaseado Mountain.

9. Slowking & Scizor

Slowking, Scizor and Gengar are the only trade evolution Pokemon present within Scarlet & Violet. Thankfully, there's an in game trade where you can obtain a Gengar but Slowking and Scizor are another story. Give a Slowpoke a Kings Rock and trade it away to evolve it into Slowking. Give a Scyther a Metal Coat and trade it away to evolve it into Scizor. Luckily, people over Link Trade are really nice about trading you their Slowking or Scizor for Pokedex completionists BUT they'll most likely ask for you to give them back as was in my case.

10. Fire Tauros & Water Tauros

Fire Tauros & Water Tauros has the LOWEST Spawn Rate out of all the Scarlet & Violet Pokemon. Standard Paldean Tauros spawns very frequently in given areas but Fire & water type Paldean Tauros is another story. Fire and Water Tauros ISNT required in order to complete your Pokedex thankfully. Within the same areas regular Tauros spawns, very very rarely their Fire or Water typed variants will spawn. Fire Type Tauros has red markings in their fur and are exclusive to Scarlet. Water Type Tauros are bulkier, have blue markings in their fur and different horns and are exclusive to Violet. I still have yet to obtain Water Tauros! I actively Hunted down a Fire Tauros in Scarlet yet no luck BUT by chance I was doing the Kofu wallet quest and happened to stumble upon Fire Tauros. Yeah um... good Luck finding these guys.

11. Goodra

Goodra doesn't spawn in the wild so you'll have to evolve one yourself. Goomy & Sliggoo spawn naturally in marsh areas OR in and around Casseroya Lake. Here's the tricky part, Sliggoo only evolves within rainy conditions! There's no way to tell or not if there's gonna be rain as it happens at random and only sticks around for minutes at a time. IF you want a Goodra, you have to have all the right conditions for your Sliggoo to evolve.

12. Dusk Lycanroc

Scarlet & Violet is the first game Dusk Lycanroc is available to obtain without events. In order to obtain Dusk Lycanroc, you need to catch a wild Rockruff with the ability Own Tempo. Own Tempo Rockruffs are uncommon spawns BUT they spawn pretty regularly to my knowledge as ive caught about three of them. Only Own Tempo Rockruffs can become Dusk Lycanrocs. Own Tempo Rockruffs also ONLY evolve into Dusk form Lycanrocs so you don't have to worry about it evolving into Midday or Midnight forms. Your next step is to level up Rockruff to Level 25 during Dusk/Sunset. When in doubt about what time of day it is in game, open up your map and a circular symbol at the top of the map will tell you if it's day, Dusk or night.

13. All Forms of Oricorio

Although registering one of the four forms of Oricorio is required in order to complete the Pokedex, if you're like me who enjoys having all alternate forms of most Pokemon, then you're gonna want to know how to get all four Oricorio. It's actually quite easy! You can get the yellow Oricorio as a rare spawn on Poco Path. You can find red Oricorio in an abundance right outside of Artazon. The pink and purple Oricorio don't spawn in the wild. Just like in Sun & Moon, you can give Oricorio nectar in order to change their form and typing. Go to the Deli Bird Gifts in Mesagoza where they sell every color of nectar. Buy pink and purple nectar (and yellow if you don't want to bother with catching yellow Oricorio) then feed them to your Oricorios. Now you have every form of Oricorio.

14. Family of Three Maushold

Maushold is actually really easy to obtain, as in you just level up Tandemaus to Lv25 BUT there's two different forms of Maushold: Family of Three and Family of Four. Family of Four Maushold is the easiest and most common form to obtain. Family of Three Maushold has a 1 in 25 chance of happening upon evolution. Basically, Family of Three is REALLY hard to obtain. I got lucky and my first chance at evolving Tandemaus became Family of Three. I traded it away later on in order to register Family of Four in my Pokedex and HEAVILY regret doing so not knowing Family of Three was a rare evolution.

Those are all the hardest to Obtain Pokemon in the new Scarlet & Violet games. If any of you need help in Union Circle/Obtaining Palafin OR would like to trade in order to register any of these guys or version exclusives then I'm willing to lend a hand. I've completed my Dex in Violet so I can confirm I have the entire Pokedex at my disposal (except Scizor, Bramblegast & Water Tauros as I don't have them anymore.) Otherwise, reach out if you want a helping hand!