Pokemon Picross (Nintendo 3DS eShop)

Titles	Pokémon Picross ポケモンピクロス (Pokémon Pikurosu)
Platform	Nintendo 3DS – Nintendo eShop download only
Developer	Jupiter Corporation
Publisher	Nintendo
Director	Tomohiro Matsui
Producers	Masayuki Wada · Eisuke Kasejima · Hitoshi Yamagami · Makoto Nakayama
Music	Yuka Tsujiyoko
Players	1 (single player)
Genre	Puzzle (Picross / nonogram), free-to-start
Generation	Generation VI
Puzzles	312 in the Standard World (304 Pokémon stages and 8 tutorial puzzles), the Pokémon stages again in Alt-World, and 128 Mural tiles
Areas	31 (Areas 00–30)
Price	Free to start; Picrite purchases capped at 5,000 bought (about US$30 or £27 at most)
Released	2 December 2015 (Japan) · 3 December 2015 (North America, Europe) · 4 December 2015 (Australia)
Re-releases	None; new downloads ended when the 3DS eShop closed on 27 March 2023 (redownloads still allowed)
Rating	ESRB E · PEGI 3 · CERO A · ACB G
Predecessor	None in the Pokémon series (a Game Boy Pokémon Picross was cancelled in 1999)
Successor	None
Sales	No download figures published

Overview · Quick Answers · How Picross works · Pokémon & skills · Areas · Mega Picross & Alt-World · Murals & Daily Training · Picrites · Regional Variations · Glitches · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Sales & Reviews · Media

Overview

Pokémon Picross is a Pokémon-themed puzzle game for the Nintendo 3DS. It was first announced during a Nintendo Direct broadcast on 12 November 2015, and its initial release came on 2 December 2015, when it arrived in Japan; it followed in North America and Europe on 3 December 2015, and the next day it was released in Australia.

The game was released as part of the Generation VI side series or spin-off games and features 312 different puzzles in its Standard World, featuring many of the Pokémon up to Generation VI, with Alt-World’s Mega Picross versions of the Pokémon stages and 128 Mural tiles on top. Of particular note is that Pokémon Picross includes the Legendaries, Mythical and Mega Evolved Pokémon that featured in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, although Mew is only available through a password, Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre appear as murals rather than as stages, and Phione is the one Mythical Pokémon left out.

What really set it apart was the way it was sold. Pokémon Picross was a free download from the Nintendo eShop, and the first two Areas cost nothing, but almost everything after that, from new Areas and a bigger Energy gauge to the Mega Pencil and Alt-World, is paid for in Picrites, the game’s crystal currency. Picrites are earned by completing missions, collecting medals and doing Professor Tetra’s Daily Training, and they could also be bought, but only up to 5,000: after that the shop stopped charging, which kept the cost of unlocking everything to about US$30 or £27.

The 3DS eShop closed on 27 March 2023, so the game can no longer be downloaded for the first time, although anyone who already has it can still redownload it and finish it with Picrites earned in play.

Quick Answers

The questions people ask about Pokémon Picross, answered first and explained further down the page.

How much does it cost to unlock everything in Pokémon Picross?

No more than about US$30 or £27. The game stops selling Picrites once you have bought 5,000 of them, and the shop then gives out free Picrites instead. The cheapest way to reach the cap was the two one-off starter packs plus a 4,000 pack: $29.97, £26.97, €29.97 or ¥2,980. More →

How many puzzles are in Pokémon Picross?

The Standard World holds 312 puzzles: 304 Pokémon stages across Areas 01 to 30 plus eight tutorial puzzles in Area 00. Alt-World then replays the Pokémon stages under Mega Picross rules, Mural Mode adds 128 tiles, and Professor Tetra’s Daily Training sets fresh puzzles every day. More →

Can you still download or play Pokémon Picross?

Only if it is already linked to your Nintendo Account or Nintendo Network ID. New downloads ended when the 3DS eShop closed on 27 March 2023, even though the game was free. Owners can still redownload it, but Picrites can now only be earned in play, because the in-game shop can no longer take money. More →

How do you catch Mythical Pokémon and Mew in Pokémon Picross?

Mythical Pokémon turn up on their own. A hidden timer of 20 to 48 hours runs, Professor Tetra announces big news, and a 20×15 stage opens for a limited window, usually an hour. Mew is different: it needs an eight-digit password that Nintendo shared on social media in early 2016, and each region had its own codes. More →

What are Alt-World and Mega Picross, and how do you unlock them?

After stage S05-03, Professor Tetra teaches Mega Picross, where some clue numbers cover two neighbouring rows or columns at once. After three practice puzzles, Alt-World can be opened for 300 Picrites. It repeats every Area’s Pokémon in a new order, all played under Mega Picross rules, with its own missions. More →

Can you finish Pokémon Picross without paying?

Yes, given patience. Everything costs around 6,160 Picrites in total, and they can all be earned through missions, the 100 medals (3 Picrites each) and Professor Tetra’s Daily Training, which pays out every day. Waiting out the Energy gauge and skill cooldowns costs nothing; real money only made progress quicker. More →

How Picross works

Picross is Nintendo’s name for nonograms, the logic puzzles also known as paint-by-numbers, and Jupiter has been making them for Nintendo since Mario’s Picross in 1995. Pokémon Picross plays much like Jupiter’s Picross e downloads for the 3DS, but it builds a small Pokémon adventure around the puzzles: every finished picture is a Pokémon caught, the Pokémon you catch become helpers with skills of their own, and a currency called Picrites decides how quickly you can travel.

The game begins in Professor Tetra’s lab, Area 00, where eight tutorial puzzles teach the basics on small grids. From there a branching map of 30 more Areas opens up.

• 312Standard World puzzles
• 31Areas, numbered 00–30
• 12Pokémon skills
• 1,169missions in the Standard World

Who’s who

Professor Tetra

Tetra (テトラ博士, Dr. Tetra in Japanese) is the researcher whose lab forms Area 00. She teaches Picross, gives the player Squirtle and Eevee, introduces Mega Picross and Alt-World, sells the Mega Pencil, runs the Daily Training and announces each Mythical visitor. Her name comes from the prefix tetra- (four). Italian is the only language to rename her, as Professoressa Quadri, from quadro (square).

Pokémon and skills

There are about 300 Pokémon to catch: the 304 stages, each a different species or form, run from Kanto through Kalos and include 48 Mega Evolutions, the Legendary Pokémon and 13 Mythical species. Each one you catch becomes a helper with one of 12 skills, so the collection is also your toolkit. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre appear as the two murals rather than as stages, and four extra stages (Mew, Ash-Greninja and two Zygarde Formes) were added through passwords.

Catching Pokémon and setting a partyEvery Pokémon whose picture you complete joins your collection, starting with the Squirtle and Eevee that Professor Tetra hands over after the tutorial. Before a stage you can set up to five of them as helpers. A party may include only one Mega Evolution, and a Mega cannot be set alongside its own base form. Each Pokémon gets a profile screen showing its skill and how long it needs to recover after using it.

Pokémon skillsThere are 12 support skills, and a Pokémon’s type largely decides which it has: Pikachu slows the timer (Slow Time), Squirtle turns clue numbers blue where squares can be confirmed (Blue Force), Eevee uncovers squares in a vertical strip (Rising Reveal) and Mew stops the clock (Freeze Time). Other skills reveal crosses, squares, diamonds or random scatters of cells, or fix mistakes automatically. Evolved, Mega, Legendary and Mythical Pokémon have stronger versions, and every skill has a cooldown afterwards.

Legendary PokémonLegendary Pokémon, from Articuno and Mewtwo to Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Kyurem, appear as ordinary stages in the Areas, usually on the larger grids. Raikou and Zapdos in Area 20 are 20×15 puzzles, for example. Once caught, they carry stronger skills than everyday Pokémon, but their recovery time after using a skill cannot be cut short with Picrites, the same rule that applies to Mythical Pokémon.

Notable Pokémon

• Pikachu#025
• Squirtle#007
• Eevee#133
• Groudon#383
• Kyogre#382

• Pikachu – Star of the key art and the HOME Menu icon; its skill is Slow Time.
• Squirtle – One of the two Pokémon Professor Tetra gives you; Blue Force highlights lines with certain squares.
• Eevee – The other gift Pokémon; Rising Reveal uncovers a vertical strip of squares.
• Groudon – Its Primal Reversion is one of the two 64-tile murals.
• Kyogre – Primal Kyogre is the second mural, and a Kyogre in the party is a mission goal on the Manaphy stage.

Mythical Pokémon

Fourteen Mythical stages, covering 13 species, are tied to hidden countdowns of 20 to 48 hours that keep running even while the game is closed. When one expires, Professor Tetra announces big news and a red exclamation mark shows which Area holds the visitor. Most stay for an hour, but Diancie and Hoopa Unbound leave after 45 minutes, Arceus after 30 and Genesect after 15. A stage entered in time can still be finished after its window closes.

The 13 Mythical species with timed stages, where they appear and how long each one stays:

• ManaphyArea 02 · 1 hour
• CelebiArea 04 · 1 hour
• JirachiArea 07 · 1 hour
• HoopaConfined, Area 08 · Unbound, Area 29
• Shaymin (Sky Forme)Area 09 · 1 hour
• Keldeo (Resolute Form)Area 11 · 1 hour
• DeoxysArea 16 · 1 hour
• DarkraiArea 18 · 1 hour
• Meloetta (Aria Forme)Area 21 · 1 hour
• VictiniArea 24 · 1 hour
• GenesectArea 26 · 15 minutes
• DiancieArea 27 · 45 minutes
• ArceusArea 30 · 30 minutes

Password stages

Four special stages were locked behind eight-digit passwords: Ash-Greninja (S03-06), Mew (S04-07), and Zygarde’s 10% Forme (S05-07) and Complete Forme (S05-08). Nintendo of America released its Mew and Ash-Greninja codes in January 2016, and Nintendo UK posted the PAL codes between 23 February and 3 March 2016. Each region had different codes. Once all four were entered, the password button disappeared from the bottom screen.

• MewS04-07
• Ash-GreninjaS03-06
• ZygardeS05-07 and S05-08

Areas

The Standard World map is split into 31 Areas, numbered 00 to 30. Each new Area opens once a named stage in an earlier Area has been cleared and, from Area 02 onwards, a Picrite fee has been paid; the fees climb from 50 to 250 and add up to 4,660 Picrites. Areas 01 to 30 each have an Alt-World twin holding the same Pokémon in a different order, played under Mega Picross rules. Stage counts below include Mythical, password and Mega Evolution stages.

Area	Puzzles	Unlock cost (Picrites)	Opens after	Missions	Notes
00	8	Free	Start of the game	0	Professor Tetra’s lab: eight item puzzles (Poké Ball, Potion, Egg, Repel, Poké Doll, Ultra Ball, Ether, Antidote) at 5×5 and 10×10. Squirtle and Eevee are handed over on leaving. No Alt-World twin.
01	3	Free	Clear Area 00	10	First three Pokémon stages; no Picrite fee. Professor Tetra makes the first Energy upgrade compulsory after S01-02.
02	5	50	Clear Area 01	19	Mythical: Manaphy (S02-05, 20×15; 20-hour wait, one-hour window).
03	6	60	Clear S02-03	24	Password stage S03-06: Ash-Greninja.
04	8	70	Clear S03-03	32	Mythical: Celebi. Password stage S04-07: Mew.
05	8	80	Clear S04-04	31	Password stages S05-07 and S05-08: Zygarde 10% Forme and Complete Forme. Mega Picross is introduced after S05-03; Alt-World then opens for 300 Picrites.
06	6	90	Clear S05-04	24
07	7	100	Clear S05-05	28	Mythical: Jirachi.
08	8	110	Clear S06-05	30	Mythical: Hoopa Confined.
09	9	120	Clear S08-04	35	Mythical: Shaymin Sky Forme.
10	10	130	Clear S08-05	39
11	8	140	Clear S09-03	32	Mythical: Keldeo Resolute Form.
12	9	140	Clear S11-05	34
13	7	120	Clear S12-04	27
14	10	150	Clear S12-03	38
15	12	170	Clear S13-05	47
16	11	160	Clear S14-06	42	Mythical: Deoxys.
17	10	150	Clear S14-08	40
18	12	170	Clear S15-06	46	Mythical: Darkrai.
19	11	160	Clear S17-06	42
20	14	190	Clear S18-07	55	Mega Ampharos (S20-02) beside Ampharos, plus Legendary stages for Raikou and Zapdos (both 20×15) and Zekrom.
21	13	230	Clear S20-11	49	Mythical: Meloetta Aria Forme.
22	11	210	Clear S20-12	42
23	12	220	Clear S21-06	47
24	13	230	Clear S21-07	52	Mythical: Victini.
25	15	250	Clear S22-06	58
26	13	230	Clear S23-10	51	Mythical: Genesect (15-minute window).
27	13	230	Clear S24-11	51	Mythical: Diancie (45-minute window).
28	13	230	Clear S25-11	52
29	12	220	Clear S26-12	46	Mythical: Hoopa Unbound (45-minute window).
30	15	250	Clear S29-10	46	Final Area. Mythical: Arceus (48-hour wait, 30-minute window).
Total	312	4,660		1,169	304 Pokémon stages plus 8 tutorial puzzles; Alt-World repeats the Pokémon stages as Mega Picross; 128 Mural tiles are won from missions.

Mega Picross & Alt-World

Pokémon Picross has two Mega twists. Mega Picross bends the rules of Picross itself and fills a whole second world, while the Mega Evolution stages add 48 more Pokémon to catch once you own the Mega Pencil.

Mega Picross and Alt-WorldMega Picross bends the standard rules: some clue numbers are drawn across two neighbouring rows or columns, and the run they describe can snake between both lines. After stage S05-03 Professor Tetra runs three practice puzzles, then offers Alt-World for 300 Picrites. Alt-World mirrors every Area, places the same Pokémon in a different order and plays them all under Mega Picross rules, with its own set of missions. Players can switch between the two worlds at will.

Mega Evolution stages and the Mega PencilMega Evolved Pokémon have their own stages, 48 in all, branching off the map near their base forms (Mega Ampharos sits next to Ampharos in Area 20, for example). They stay locked until you buy the Mega Pencil from Professor Tetra for 500 Picrites, a one-off purchase. Around 380 Picrites from missions and medals can only be earned once you own it, so the pencil largely pays for itself by the end of the game.

Mural Mode & Daily Training

Away from the map there are three more things to chase: the two Primal murals, Professor Tetra’s Daily Training and a list of 100 medals.

Mural ModeSome missions award a Mural tile instead of Picrites. The 128 tiles belong to two murals, Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, each an 8×8 arrangement of 64 separate 10×10 puzzles. Tiles are found only in the Standard World. Mural puzzles use no Energy, each mural keeps a running timer, and a finished mural can be reset to chase a quicker time. The medals Embodiment of the Land and Embodiment of the Sea mark the two completions.

Professor Tetra’s Daily TrainingOnce a day Professor Tetra sets a burst of small puzzles to be finished one after another against the clock, and helper Pokémon cannot be used. The reward rises with your progress: 4 Picrites in the first Areas, climbing to 10 once Area 25 is reached. Your training level adds up to 3 more, and beating the target time adds a further 2.

MedalsA list of 100 medals tracks goals across the whole game, from earning your first mural tile (First Step to Primal) and unlocking every Area (Master Traveler) to reaching the ending (Hall of Fame) and clearing every Standard, Alt-World and Mural puzzle (Pokémon Picross Master). Each pays 3 Picrites, 300 in all. The last, Perfect Medalist, needs every other medal.

Picrites and the free-to-start model

Pokémon Picross cost nothing to download, but almost every step forward has a price in Picrites, the crystal currency that opens new Areas, enlarges the Energy gauge, buys the Mega Pencil and unlocks Alt-World. Picrites trickle in from missions, medals and Daily Training, and they could also be bought in the eShop. What set the game apart from other free-to-start titles was a firm ceiling: after 5,000 bought Picrites the shop stopped charging, putting a full unlock at about the price of a boxed budget game.

• 5,000bought Picrites, then the shop stopped charging
• US$29.97cheapest route to the cap
• ~6,160Picrites to unlock everything
• 4,660Picrites to open Areas 02–30

Picrite packs

Packs were bought with Nintendo eShop funds from a shop on the bottom screen. The two starter offers could each be bought only once; the other packs could be bought again and again until the cap was reached:

How it compared

Pokémon Picross was the third free-to-start Pokémon game on the 3DS in 2015, after Pokémon Shuffle and Pokémon Rumble World, and the second to put a ceiling on spending:

Pokémon Rumble World later got a retail edition with everything included: in Japan in November 2015, Europe and Australia in January 2016 and North America in April 2016. Super Mario Run was Nintendo’s simpler answer a year after Pokémon Picross: free to start, then unlocked in full by a single payment. Jupiter’s own Picross S series on Nintendo Switch, from 2017, went back to a fixed price.

Regional Variations

Japan had Pokémon Picross a day before North America and Europe and two days before Australia, and a few things differed from region to region:

• The four bonus passwords were region-locked: Japan, North America and PAL territories each had their own eight-digit codes for Ash-Greninja, Mew and the two Zygarde Formes.
• Picrite packs were priced locally: from ¥80 to ¥2,500 in Japan, US$0.99 to $24.99 in the United States, £0.89 to £22.49 in the UK and €0.99 to €24.99 in the eurozone.
• The title stays Pokémon Picross in every Western language; the Japanese title is ポケモンピクロス.
• Professor Tetra keeps her name everywhere except Italy, where she is Professoressa Quadri.
• Japan, North America and the PAL region each had a separate Miiverse community for the game until Miiverse closed in November 2017.

Left in the data

• Three medals are programmed into the game but never awarded: Legendary Dream Team, The Reliables and Mythical Dream Team.
• Phione is absent even though every other Mythical Pokémon released up to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, apart from password-only Mew, has its own timed stage.
• Jupiter’s earlier Game Boy Pokémon Picross, previewed in Japanese magazines in spring 1999 and then cancelled, resurfaced as a playable build in the leak of Nintendo data in September 2020.

Glitches, exploits and oddities

One medal can be lost for good if the passwords go in too early:

The missable Code Breaker medal

The Code Breaker medal is awarded for unlocking a password stage, but it can be lost for good. If a player enters all four region passwords before opening the medal screen for the first time, the medal never registers, and because the password button disappears once all four codes are used, there is no way to trigger it again. That also puts Perfect Medalist, which needs every other medal, permanently out of reach on that save file. Opening the medal list once before typing in the codes avoids the problem.

Videos & media

Check out the official trailer for Pokémon Picross, which shows how the puzzles turn into Pokémon portraits.

The official trailer, from The Official Pokémon YouTube channel.

Trivia & facts

• Squirtle and Eevee join your party as soon as the tutorial ends, but their own puzzles only turn up later, so you own both before you have drawn them.
• Catching Arceus, the Mythical Pokémon in the final Area, halves the countdowns for every Mythical Pokémon still to appear.
• Hoopa is the only Pokémon with two Mythical stages: Hoopa Confined in Area 08 and Hoopa Unbound in Area 29.
• The two murals show Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, linking the game to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the newest core games at its release.

• 

  Pikachu fronts both the key art and the game’s HOME Menu icon, and its own skill, Slow Time, slows the puzzle timer.

Behind the scenes

• Satoru Iwata, who died in July 2015, is still credited as an executive producer, alongside Tsunekazu Ishihara.
• Jupiter’s Pokémon puzzles go back to Picross NP Vol. 1, a Japan-only Super Famicom game sold through the Nintendo Power download service from 1 April 1999, whose Character round had 12 Pokémon pictures, from Pikachu and Psyduck to Snorlax and Zapdos.
• Jupiter had tried a Pokémon Picross once before: a Game Boy version was previewed in Japanese magazines, with puzzles of Pikachu and other first-generation Pokémon, before it was cancelled in 1999.

  

  

Legacy

What came after

• Announced in a Nintendo Direct – 12 November 2015. Revealed as a free-to-start 3DS download for early December
• Japanese release – 2 December 2015. Nintendo eShop download, free to start
• North American and European release – 3 December 2015. Released on the same day in both regions
• Australian release – 4 December 2015. A day after Europe and North America
• Password stages distributed – January to March 2016. Mew, Ash-Greninja and two Zygarde Formes released as region-specific codes
• Miiverse closes – 8 November 2017. The game’s three regional Miiverse communities went offline with the service
• Nintendo 3DS eShop closes – 27 March 2023. New downloads and Picrite purchases end; redownloads remain available to existing owners

Where to play it today

Pokémon Picross has not been downloadable since the Nintendo 3DS eShop closed on 27 March 2023; although it was free, new downloads ended with the shop. Anyone who downloaded it before then can still redownload it on a 3DS or 2DS from the same account. Picrite purchases ended at the same time, so progress now relies on missions, medals and Daily Training. It has never been released on Nintendo Switch, phones or Nintendo Switch Online.

How it was made

Pokémon Picross was made by Jupiter Corporation, the Kyoto studio behind Nintendo’s Picross games since Mario’s Picross in 1995 and the 3DS Picross e downloads. Tomohiro Matsui directed and co-programmed it; Masayuki Wada, Eisuke Kasejima, Hitoshi Yamagami and Makoto Nakayama produced, Shinya Takahashi was general producer, and Satoru Iwata and Tsunekazu Ishihara are credited as executive producers. Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Tetsuya Watanabe advised on game design, Yuka Tsujiyoko handled the sound, Kouki Saitou drew the key art and Mario Club handled debugging. It was not Jupiter’s first try at the idea: a Game Boy Pokémon Picross had been cancelled in 1999. The 3DS game was revealed in the Nintendo Direct of 12 November 2015 as Nintendo’s latest free-to-start release, after Pokémon Shuffle and Pokémon Rumble World, and its December release dates were confirmed in late November.

Pokémon Picross and the anime

Anime tie-in: Ash-GreninjaOne of the four password stages featured Ash-Greninja, the special form that Ash’s Greninja takes in the Pokémon the Series: XYZ anime. Its code was released in January 2016 in North America and February 2016 in Europe, while XY&Z was airing in Japan, months before the Pokémon Sun and Moon Special Demo Version let players carry an Ash-Greninja into the full games.

Sales & reviews

Downloads and sales

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have never published download or revenue figures for Pokémon Picross, and as a download-only game it has no boxed-copy sales to count either. The only hard number attached to its business is the ceiling: no player could spend more than about US$30 on Picrites.

• 75on Metacritic (15 critics)
• 72.86%on GameRankings (closed 2019)
• 8.5/10Nintendo World Report & Gaming Nexus
• Freeto download until 27 March 2023

Review scores

Pokémon Picross was well received by critics, who enjoyed the puzzles and the Pokémon theme a good deal more than the free-to-start model, and it holds 75 out of 100 on Metacritic from 15 critics. Let’s take a look at the scores:

Critics agreed that Pokémon Picross was a sound Picross game wrapped in a charming Pokémon theme, and the argument was over the business model. Kotaku called the crossover close to perfect and pointed out that spending stops at roughly $32. Destructoid praised the missions, mural unlocks and Mega Picross rows as genuine additions to Jupiter’s formula, Cubed3 admired how approachable it is, and Nintendo World Report saw it as an ideal first nonogram game, although GamesBeat still preferred Picross DS. Nintendo Life judged it the best of the Picross e line for anyone willing to pay, while warning that the full experience costs about five times a normal Picross e release. Game Informer was the harshest, arguing that energy limits and Picrite gates suit a fixed set of puzzles poorly, though it credited Nintendo for capping the spending.

Media & artwork

• Official artwork gallery from Pokémon Picross
• Screenshots from Pokémon Picross

Further reading

More 3DS spin-offs, puzzle games and free-to-start Pokémon games on the site: