My Legendary Pokémon capturing spree is almost completed. I have ten of the eleven Pokémon that I can capture. The only one that eludes me is the elusive Raikou of elusiveness, the elusive eluder!
The thing is, when I go Legendary Hunting, I always take with me a Catcher Pokemon. Most people use a Smeargle, but I don't. In fact, many years ago, I bred five Gallades for each of my Fourth Gen games. Each Gallade was bred with Mean Look (egg move), taught the False Swipe and Thunder Wave TM's, and learned Hypnosis at level 50 as a Kirlia before I evolved them with a Dawn Stone. As of now, one resides in my Sixth Gen games, one in my Fifth Gen games, and the other three are in my Fourth Gen games. The moveset provides incredible potential for catching Pokémon. Runners are no match, since Mean Look prevents them from fleeing. Thunder Wave is instant Paralysis, and Hypnosis works for those who are immune to Thunder Wave. False Swipe is fairly obvious, since it always leaves them with 1 HP. I've given them all the name "Catcher", since that's what they're for.
Going in, I wanted to catch them all using Apricorn Balls, so throughout my journey, I stockpiled the balls, always going to Kurt and getting more every day.
The first one I caught was Ho-oh, way back when I first had the Clear Bell and the Rainbow Wing, once I had all eight badges. I needed all eight because I needed to be able to fully control my Catcher. The battle was fairly simple, and I eventually caught it using a Love Ball. I named her Alexstraza, after the matron of the Red Dragonflight, and ruler of life, from Warcraft. I know it's supposed to be spelled "Alexstrasza", but there is a hard limit on how many characters a name can have.
Next up was Lugia. Truthfully, getting to Lugia was harder than actually catching it. Took me almost an hour of wandring the Isles until I finally found it's lair. The battle itself was simple. Weakened it to 1 HP, Paralyzed it, and tossed a Fast Ball. Caught it on the first try. I gave him the name Malygos, patron of the Blue Dragonflight and father of magic, again from Warcraft.
The next one on the list was Suicune, found on Route 25. Again, this battle was fairly easy, since I could just tank it out using my level 100 Chansey, Esmeral. Any damage that Suicune dealt was instantly healed off thanks to the Leftovers and Esmeral's monstrous 642 HP. Again, I caught it using a Fast Ball, and named her Bubbles. Yes, after the Powerpuff Girls.
Moving along, Articuno was the next target. I knew an easy path to get to it. By surfing to Seafoam Islands from Fuchsia City, I was basically given a "back door" to Articuno. The battle was pretty basic, again I relied on Esmeral to tank all the hits while I tossed a bunch of balls. I decided that for the bird trio, I'd give them names of gemstones, but I didn't want to use either Ruby or Sapphire, since those are Pokémon games. So, I decided that I'd give Articuno the name "Amethyst". Strangely, this one was also caught in a Fast Ball.
Then comes Zapdos. Getting to it was super easy, and I simply employed the exact same strategy I used for Suicune and Articuno. Even caught it using a Fast Ball as well. Following my theme of using gemstones as names, Zapdos was given the name "Topaz".
The thing with Moltres is that it's not in the same spot it was found in Red and Blue. It's actually found in the lower routes of Mt. Silver Cave, opposite of the path you'd take to find Red. Again the battle was easy, since it only uses Special Attacks, I could once again employ Esmeral as a tank. This time though, the succeeding ball wasn't a Fast Ball! Shock and horror! It was actually a Friend Ball that worked. In keeping with the theme, Moltres was named "Garnet".
In my previous post, I mentioned that there were ten Legendary Pokémon that I needed to capture. In reality, there were actually eleven. I had forgotten the original master of Pokémon battling, Mewtwo. Of course, this meant that I had to go through the entirety of the Cerulean Cave, and finally reached him. I beat him down hard, and eventually caught him using a Friend Ball. I gave him the name "Arrancar", which comes from the Bleach manga/anime.
The next Pokémon was Kyogre, and I could only get access to this one after I beat Red. Once I beat him, I could get the Kanto starter from Oak, and then the Blue Orb from Mr. Pokémon. The battle with Kyogre was pretty simple, since I could just reuse the same method I used against most of the Pokémon so far. Weaken with Catcher, then tank it with Esmeral. I ended up catching it in a Heavy Ball, and decided to name it William.
And now comes the runners. This game features three of them, and the first one I went after was Latias. I had to tank her with Catcher, since Mean Look requires Catcher to stay in. Fortunatley, Latias is only level 35, so her attacks are fairly weak. I ended up catching her in a Level Ball, and named her Etna, after the Beauty Queen Demon Lord of Disgaea.
Back to Johto for the next runner. This time, it's Entei, the volcano Pokémon. Yesterday, both Raikou and Entei were giving me a bunch of trouble, but I just now caught it super easily using a Love Ball. I decided to name her "Blossom", again after the Powerpuff Girls. Take one guess what Raikou's nickname will be once I catch it?
Now, for Rayquaza and the Gen 4 Box Legends, I can't catch them because I don't have the required Pokémon to unlock them. If I kept my Kyogre in Heart Gold and ended up replaying Soul Silver before transferring it, I could eventually get two more Rayquazas, but I don't really NEED two more.
