Catching Legendaries
If you were ever serious about battling and want good legendaries to use in battle, then this guide is for you. I'm not going to go through every legend and specifically tell you how and where you find it -- there are already plenty of those on the Internet -- but rather tips on getting a good nature and good IVs. If you're the kind that doesn't really care about battling and what kind of legendary you get, just the fact that you own it, then I wouldn't recommend this, since it tells you to do a bunch of extra work. Remember that this guide is based a lot off my experiences. I, for one, have found it nearly impossible to catch a legendary (besides Dialga and Palkia) without inflicting a status condition on it first, but if you caught one without doing that, then good for you. You don't need to tell me that; I know it's possible, I've done it before, but I'm trying to make this guide to catch legendaries as efficient as possible, so pressing your luck and hoping that it'll stay in the ball isn't exactly efficient in my book. Just thought I'd take care of that before people start e-mailing me about it...Preparing for the Catch
Before battling the legendary, you need to stock up on specific Pokemon and items.Pokeballs
Of course, if you wanted to catch any Pokemon, you need some Pokeballs. Legendaries are mostly found in caves (with the exception of Dialga, Palkia, Mesprit, and Cresselia) so stock up on a lot of Dusk Balls, because you'll need them. I'd recommend at least 30, although you should buy 50 just in case. For any of the Pokemon that don't live in caves, you'll just have to stick with the regular Ultra Ball. It'll also be a good idea to bring a Quick Ball as well. Usually it's only Dialga and Palkia that get caught in the Quick Balls (the others usually don't even shake once) but there's really no harm in bringing it and still that slight chance that you might get an easy catch, so you might as well.Also, if you haven't used it already, be prepared to use your Master Ball, because it'll make a life a lot easier when catching a good legendary. You might be going "No way am I going to use it" right now, but you'll understand later. You won't technically be "using" it.
Pokemon
Be sure to bring at least 1 tank (a Pokemon that can take lots of hits) with you, because you'll need to be able to take repeated hits if your Dusk Balls and Ultra Balls fail. I recommend a Bronzong because it's immune to Ground type attacks (at least, if you caught a Levitate one; if you caught a Heat Proof one, then I recommend catching another one), resistant to a load of types, and, most importantly, 4x resistant to Psychic types, which is the type you'll be attacked with the most by legendaries. It has good defenses all around and a lot of useful moves -- the perfect legendary catcher. It's especially good against Azelf, which is probably the legendary you'll have the most difficulty catching.Next on the list is, of course, status inflicters. You probably won't necessarily need these for Dialga and Palkia, but with any other legendary, it's almost a must. Even with a sliver of HP left but no status condition, you'll find yourself chucking balls endlessly at Uxie or whatever until you run out. So remember: bring a status-er. Sleep and paralysis both work great. I like sleep a lot because it disables the legendary altogether for a short amount of time; what's annoying about it is that you have to reapply as soon as the Pokemon wakes up. Paralysis works 24/7 (unlesss the Pokemon has Refresh, which I think only Arceus does) and cripples the legendary by lowering its speed dramatically and occasionally making it fully paralyzed, but it isn't as reliable. It's a lot easier to work with though, and less Pokemon have sleep inducing moves, so go with paralysis if you have a lot of tanks and can afford to be hit with a lot of attacks. Otherwise, go with Sleep if you have a team full of frail Pokemon that die in 2 hits. Bronzong, like above, is an excellent role for this with its Hypnosis attack.
So basically, if you want a good Pokemon all around that can stay in battle with a legendary, Bronzong is one of the best, if not the best. Uxie is also good too and I recommend that you catch it first from all the other legendaries, because it also has great defenses and a sleep inducing move (Yawn); it also has Amnesia, something that Bronzong doesn't have, which is a HUGE help against Azelf, who will Nasty Plot you to death.
You also need some Pokemon to damage the legendary but not kill it. False Swipe is also a good idea, but there isn't really many Pokemon in DP that have False Swipe, so if you don't have it, an under-leveled Pokemon with some decent attacks will work fine, although it's not entirely reliable and will most likely die in one hit. Basically, just bring any Pokemon that will surely not kill the legendary when it's at low health. Or really, you can just use your regular Pokemon and wittle the HP down. It doesn't matter.
The fourth and final thing, and the most trouble saving when catching for a good nature, is a Synchronizer. A Synchronizer is a Pokemon with Synchronize (I wouldn't have guessed D:) at the first slot of your party with the nature of the legendary that you want. Basically, this makes the legendary (and, in any other case, any wild Pokemon) have a 50% chance of getting the nature of your Synchronizer. If you have a Modest Abra with Synchronize, then the legendary you're facing will have a 50% chance of having a Modest nature also. This is really useful, and will save a lot of time. I recommend Abras and Kadabras, since they're the easiest to catch. Natu is also good, but it only comes rarely since it's a swarm Pokemon. Put the Synchronizer in the first slot of your party before catching the legendary, or else it won't work.
And, just for easy reading, here are all the things that you need to catch a legendary:
- 30-50 Dusk Balls (if it lives in a cave)
- 30-50 Ultra Balls (anything else)
- 1 Quick Ball
- Master Ball
- A bunch of Super Repels (obvious, so not mentioned earlier)
- At least one tank
- At least one status inflicter
- Some Pokemon that will damage but not kill
- A Synchronizer with your preferred nature at the front of your party
Okay, now that you've got all your supplies and Pokemon ready, it's time to go catch the legendary.
Catching the Legendary
Once you've gotten everything set, go to the dwelling of the legendary. Just about all the legendaries have an annoying cave to go through before battling it, so Super Repels might be a good idea. As always, when you get to the room of the legendary, SAVE and then battle it.When you battle it, your first Pokemon should obviously be your Synchronizer. On that first turn, just throw a Quick Ball and see if it catches it. If not, you're Synchronizer's dead, but that doesn't really matter. It has already done its job. Then, on the next turn, throw your Master Ball at it. Just do it. You saved before you battled the legendary right? So it's okay to use it as many times as you want. When you catch it, look at its stats and record them on a piece of paper. If it has a good nature and good stats, too bad, you have to either give it up or lose the Master Ball. When you've got that done, soft reset your game by pressing L+R+Start+Select. This will reset the legendary's nature and IVs. And then battle it again.
Repeat the process at least two more times, so you have 3 sets of stats to compare to. You can do more if you like; I recommend at least five. It also won't hurt to check its IV's online with an IV calculator.
Now that you've gotten the previous stats down, you'll have a good idea on what's considered a good stat and what's considered bad. Now you can finally, "really" catch the legendary.
Again, your Synchronizer is the first one that comes in when you battle it, so you can pretty much depend on the legendary you're going to catch to have a good nature. Once it faints, switch to your status inflictor and paralyze it or put it to sleep. Then, just start battering the Pokemon with the rest of your team until it's down to the reds. When it's HP is so low that you can't risk hitting it with another attack, switch in your tank and then, the boring part, start chucking Pokeballs at it until it gets caught. As always, when you catch it, look at its stats first and compare it to your previous recordings. If the major stats aren't as high as your highest recording, then it's probably a good idea to ditch it. If they are good enough, then I would keep it. However, if you're the super picky type and want every little detail perfect (be prepared to catch the legendary loads more times if you're that kind of person, though) you can check its IVs for the rest of the stats and see whether or not they're good enough. From now on it's just your choice whether or not to keep it or lose it.
If you decide to ditch it, then soft reset and catch the legendary over again and check its stats once more. It's a tedious job and requires a lot of patience to do, so like the warning at the beginning of the guide, if you're unwilling to get perfect stats or just don't care about it all, then don't follow this guide.
And that pretty much wraps it up. Save if you've caught a legendary that you think is good enough, and there you go. One hour spent just for little bits of memory in a Pokemon game, doesn't that sound nice? xD
Running Legendaries
Yeah, before I end this guide, I'll give some tips on catching running legendaries. These you can't really be too picky about, unless you're really dedicated to having the perfect team. The process is still the same though, except with a few complications (like tracking down the legendary over and over again >_>). I, personally, would just stick to the first thing that I get (well, maybe a few exceptions if it's absolutely terrible), but whether or not you want to do that is completely up to you.The only two Pokemon that run are Mesprit and Cresselia. First, you need to track down the legendary: go to Jubilife City first. (Go to Mauville City if you're playing RS and are tracking down Lati@s. For the other games... I don't know since I've never played them. Go look somewhere else for that information.) It has openings to a lot of routes without the stupid gateway things to slow down the process. Really, any city would do, but Jubilife is definitely the best choice. Switch to your Marking Map Poketch app to see the locations of the running Pokemon. The location of the Pokemon will be marked by a little head. Every time you change a route or enter a city, the Pokemon will go to a different route next to the one that it was in previously, although it does occasionally just to the random area. But that doesn't matter.
Now, go to any opening in Jubilife City that leads to a route and go back and forth between Jubilife City and the route. The running Pokemon will move every time you switch locations. As you keep going back and forth between route and city, the running Pokemon is bound to end up on the same route that you keep switching back and forth to. When that happens, go to a patch of grass on that route and wait for a wild Pokemon to appear. Usually, in my experience, the legendary is the first or second Pokemon you run into when on that route. If you run into Mesprit, some dramatic music would play. Cresselia is just like any other wild Pokemon, though.
When you run into them, put them to sleep or paralyze them like you do for any other Pokemon. You can also do the Mean Look/Spider Web thing, but there's not really any good Pokemon that can pull that off and you don't really need it in the early stages of weakening the running legendary. After you status it, it'll run away (although how it runs away in its sleep is beyond me). That's okay; just go back to switching between the route and Jubilife City until the Pokemon comes back. It isn't really that hard to do and should only take a two minutes at max. When you run into it again, start battering it with attacks and track it down again when it runs away.
A Pokemon with False Swipe would be especially useful when catching a running legend because you want your chances of catching it as high as possible. When the Pokemon is down to as low health as you can get and you're at the Pokeball-chucking stage, now would be a good idea to use your Mean Look/Spider Web Pokemon, because it would be a pain to track down the Pokemon over and over again every time you fail to catch it with a Pokeball, which is bound to happen a lot.
Aaand yep, that pretty much covers it all. Hope you enjoyed this guide and helped you catch better and stronger legendaries! However, just one thing: a list of all the DP legendaries with their max stats (beneficial nature, neutral nature, and hindering nature with 31 IVs) would be extremely useful, so if you have a means to find out that information, it would be greatly appreciated if you sent in the info through e-mail.
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