>>48567428I don't think you can reduce it to a simple number or range. At the minimum, each route should have enough Pokemon to provide a reasonable variety of enemies/potential party members while also portraying a believable 'biome' for the area . From there, there are a few other things you can consider:
>Long routes should have a greater number of Pokemon than short ones (this is why most people dislike Hoenn's water routes); short routes can still have increased diversity if you want to trick the player a bit>Each route should have varying distributions for its Pokemon. Part of the fun of catching is figuring out the optimal way to find everything in a route, so a game where every area has exactly 2 common Pokemon, 1 uncommon Pokemon, and one rare Pokemon quickly loses its appeal>Each route should introduce at least one new Pokemon (exceptions could be made for late-game gauntlets like Victory Road, but even those are excellent places to put psuedo-legendaries and other 'unique' mons - just look at how BW's Victory Road)>As a corollary to the above point, don't be afraid to reuse Pokemon from previous routes. Most players appreciate being able to catch something they missed before, and it also helps the region feel more cohesive (see Kalos for what happens when you don't do this). You can have a decent amount of fun with this - try making a rare early-game mon more commonplace in later areas, or hiding a rare catch in a route with an otherwise-identical distribution to another one>Don't worry if your routes aren't bursting with diversity - simpler route distributions can act as foils to more lively forests, caves, and buildingsIf you're still looking for a number, I'd say 3-5 is a good number to shoot for; that being said, you should always remember that the total player experience will always trump raw data.
