Caught Lugia - Wait, was that meant to be difficult?

[bigfatcarp93]

So, I just caught Lugia in SoulSilver, in about 90 seconds using a fast ball. As in, the first fast ball I threw. I was expecting that to be really hard, like Mewtwo where I spent about an hour and a half on the fucking bastard because he keeps healing himself. But no, I just swaggered in, did a couple of attacks, tossed a ball and DONE.

I skipped onto the internet expecting to find verification that Lugia is easy to catch, perhaps a bunch of people moaning about Pokémon being ruined forever because the Legendaries are getting too easy. But no, conversely, everyone actually seems to ***** about Lugia being too hard to catch, ''even by Legendary standards.''

So, Escapist, what have been your experiences with the Diving Pokémon? Easy to catch? Hard to catch? Nightmare? I'm a genius strategist? I just got lucky? I can go die in a fire? DO DISCUSS!

(And if you're curious as to the exact process: Lvl. 44 Feraligatr in first, Blizzard, Blizzard, Crunch, switch to Ampharos, Thunder Wave, heavy ball, doesn't work, fast ball, fin.)

 

[Diablo2000]

Fast Ball is supose to be used in the FIRST turn for maximum efficiency. If you take many turns you might as well caught Lugia using a Pokeball.
Legendary pokemon have a lower catch rate but they are not impossible... Roaming pokemon whoever are the real bastards.

But, yes, Legendaries are getting easier to catch, in Black and White you have to catch the legendary at the end and in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire the games just gives you one, free of charge.
Gonne are the times where I spend 99 Ultra Balls to catch Zaptos... That fucking bastard. (And for your information, I didn't catch him... Had to reload to do so...)

 

[Foolery]

Legendary pokemon have a lower catch rate but they are not impossible... Roaming pokemon whoever are the real bastards.

Get a Ghastly, raise until it has Mean Look, then just keep it in your first slot when going out into the grass. Pretty decent strategy. Pokemon has never been overly difficult.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Fast Ball is supose to be used in the FIRST turn for maximum efficiency. If you take many turns you might as well caught Lugia using a Pokeball.

...So I basically did just get staggeringly lucky?

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Legendary pokemon have a lower catch rate but they are not impossible... Roaming pokemon whoever are the real bastards.

Get a Ghastly, raise until it has Mean Look, then just keep it in your first slot when going out into the grass. Pretty decent strategy. Pokemon has never been overly difficult.

What if the Roamer has Roar?

 

[DrOswald]

Catching any single pokemon is easy, and is generally getting easier as there are more generations. But that is to make it viable to catch them all or collect a living dex, which is far more difficult than it was back in the day. 721 pokemon man, with 51 legionaries/mythical.

Lugia was no harder for me to catch than most legendaries for me in soul silver, Mewtwo was cake though. Got him with a quick ball.

But in any case, Lugia is statistically no easier or harder to catch than other legendary pokemon. You just hit that 4.5% chance on the first try.

 

[Foolery]

Legendary pokemon have a lower catch rate but they are not impossible... Roaming pokemon whoever are the real bastards.

Get a Ghastly, raise until it has Mean Look, then just keep it in your first slot when going out into the grass. Pretty decent strategy. Pokemon has never been overly difficult.

What if the Roamer has Roar?

Use Lick, inflict paralysis? Alternately, use Hypnosis, another Ghastly move. Eh, it's a game of chance, honestly, these just improve your odds.

 

[Aerosteam]

Catch rates are completely random. There's no such thing as a pokemon that is hard to catch. Except roaming ones.

 

[Lufia Erim]

So, I just caught Lugia in SoulSilver, in about 90 seconds using a fast ball. As in, the first fast ball I threw. I was expecting that to be really hard, like Mewtwo where I spent about an hour and a half on the fucking bastard because he keeps healing himself. But no, I just swaggered in, did a couple of attacks, tossed a ball and DONE.

I skipped onto the internet expecting to find verification that Lugia is easy to catch, perhaps a bunch of people moaning about Pokémon being ruined forever because the Legendaries are getting too easy. But no, conversely, everyone actually seems to ***** about Lugia being too hard to catch, ''even by Legendary standards.''

So, Escapist, what have been your experiences with the Diving Pokémon? Easy to catch? Hard to catch? Nightmare? I'm a genius strategist? I just got lucky? I can go die in a fire? DO DISCUSS!

(And if you're curious as to the exact process: Lvl. 44 Feraligatr in first, Blizzard, Blizzard, Crunch, switch to Ampharos, Thunder Wave, heavy ball, doesn't work, fast ball, fin.)

There is a % rate for catching pokemon. And that rate is never 0 ( unless you are in a trainer battle). It's entirely possible to catch a legendary on the first turn at full health with a simple pokeball. It's just extremely unlikely.

 

[Elfgore]

It's not uncommon to hear someone catching a legendary on the first go. I've got Heatran and Raquaza on my first thrown ball after a one attack. Alpha and Omega had people saying how hard catching Raquaza and then Deoxys was and I caught them both in under 5 minutes.

They have that complex formula for catching Pokemon and you just happened to get the lucky resolution quickly.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

So, I just caught Lugia in SoulSilver, in about 90 seconds using a fast ball. As in, the first fast ball I threw. I was expecting that to be really hard, like Mewtwo where I spent about an hour and a half on the fucking bastard because he keeps healing himself. But no, I just swaggered in, did a couple of attacks, tossed a ball and DONE.

I skipped onto the internet expecting to find verification that Lugia is easy to catch, perhaps a bunch of people moaning about Pokémon being ruined forever because the Legendaries are getting too easy. But no, conversely, everyone actually seems to ***** about Lugia being too hard to catch, ''even by Legendary standards.''

So, Escapist, what have been your experiences with the Diving Pokémon? Easy to catch? Hard to catch? Nightmare? I'm a genius strategist? I just got lucky? I can go die in a fire? DO DISCUSS!

(And if you're curious as to the exact process: Lvl. 44 Feraligatr in first, Blizzard, Blizzard, Crunch, switch to Ampharos, Thunder Wave, heavy ball, doesn't work, fast ball, fin.)

One thing that does affect the catch rates on legendaries is their base stats and static stat growth rates. If you catch a legendary easily it's probably gonna be kind of weak compared to ones that were harder to catch. If it's not you got supremely lucky.

Catching the three legendary dogs in Soul Silver was a nightmare, even though I used sleep on them like crazy. But they're all unusually strong too.

 

[Mahorfeus]

If I recall correctly, the legendaries in Black and White were deliberately rigged with high catch rates, since the plot pretty much demands that you use it to fight whichever one N got (not that you HAVE to).

I can't speak for Lugia, but I'm pretty sure all legendaries normally have a low catch rate... probability is just wonky sometimes.

 

[Doom972]

Sometimes you just get lucky. I recently did a playthrough of LeafGreen and decided not to use the Master Ball on Mewtwo. I used Zapdos and got Mewtwo with my first Ultraball.

 

[Raggedstar]

It's luck of the draw. Most legendaries have a low catch rate value, but I believe the more recent games have a higher catch rate (namely Xerneas/Yveltal, who I caught with a single ball. Good thing too, because I forgot to save). I caught Mewtwo (FRLG) and Rayquaza (RSE) with great balls and it was among the first balls I used. I don't believe status was inflicted. I don't remember many things about me catching Lugia, but besides how bulky Lugia is, I don't have any special stories. Though I did catch a nice competitive nature one, which is great because it's my favourite legendary.

Though fuck roaming Pokemon. So glad they're so uncommon these days. Especially the legendary beasts. When they decide to end the battle, there's nothing you can do to keep them in (unless you have someone with sticky cups or ingrain to keep you in). I caught them all in RSE, HGSS and DPPt (not Silver, because I overestimated the power of my Ho-Oh. I can't get Landorus, so I didn't bother to catch Thunderus. Then I couldn't be buggered with Crystal or FR).

I think my hardest legendary catch (besides roaming ones) was Kyogre from AS. Aqua ring is such a terrible attack when you're catching such a bulky Pokemon, omfg. Not to mention there are long cutscenes before and after, so soft resetting is a trying process (thankfully I got a bold one with near perfect IVs on my first try). Kyurem from W2 was also difficult, but mostly because my team was so underlevelled and weak to ice (plus, recover. Grrr!)

 

[RJ 17]

like Mewtwo where I spent about an hour and a half on the fucking bastard because he keeps healing himself.

Pro-Tip: that's why god invented the Master Ball.

Seriously, in looking through the comments there's a couple people talking about blowing through 99 balls on a legendary pokemon. Granted, I haven't played a pokemon game since Sapphire, but doesn't every game give you one Master Ball? Aren't you typically supposed to save that until you come up against the Legendary du Jour? What, are you all blowing it on an Abra or something?

 

[RJ 17]

Nope, hoarding. I'm upset that you can't transfer Gen IV items to Gen V and Gen V items to Gen VI. I have a couple dozen legit Master Balls saved up in Gen IV. Master Balls are for shinies, not Legendaries, particularly shinies that run, roar or can use a self-harming move. Ironically, not too long ago while playing Sapphire I encountered a shiny Electrode that knows Self-Destruct that was right next to the Master Ball. I didn't pick up the Master Ball first because I'm stupid, and my thoughts going into the battle were "Oh well, its not like its actually gonna be a shiny."

Pffft, there's only one Shiny that could ever be worth wasting a Master Ball on...

Spoiler: And that is only because it's the best god-damn pokemon in the franchise...

 

[CritialGaming]

I found that flagpole legendaries tend to be much easier to catch that the rare or roaming ones. In Soulsilver for instance, I caught Lugia very easily, it was the roaming dog trio and mewtwo that took time. In the later generations you kind figure that whatever legendary is on the cover will be fairly easy to catch compared to the rest of them. X and Y not withstanding as they only had 2 and neither was all that hard because you have a masterball and only two pokemon to use it one. (I recommend Mewtwo no Zydrate or whatever his useless ass is called).