Your Most Difficult/Easiest Legendary Capture

[Toastie]

So, are there any legendaries which took you absolutely ages to capture? Are there any that you caught quickly?
Personally, I never had much luck with legendaries in Gens III or IV. I couldn't even capture Zapdos (even though I must've thrown about 200 Ultra Balls at it.) I managed to capture Darkrai, but that took many tries.
In Gen V, however, I've been rather lucky. I got Victini in 3 Ultra Balls without giving it a status affliction. I just caught Tornadus in 11 Ultra Balls (probably the first roaming legendary I've caught.)
There's nothing more painful than the silence after three shakes of a Pokeball...

 

[Linkachu]

Kyurem has made me sad. I've attempted catching it twice, and it struggled to death both times. I still haven't gone back to attempt catching it again. This is easily my most troublesome catch in ages. >=o

Actually, I take that back. Capturing the legendaries in Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD was hell. Being beaten down by them - as Shadow Pokemon no less - and their partner at the same time made it pretty damn tough to sponge hits until the PokeBall finally decided to work.

Easiest... I can't clearly remember, but Zekrom/Dialga/Palkia and Platinum Giratina were pretty easy. I didn't have much trouble with the event Darkrai and Shaymin either.

 

[KoL]

My easiest capture by far would have to be a first-turn Quick Ball capture against Terrakion on White. Nothing more needs to be said on that one.

The hardest I've had is Sapphire's Rayquaza. Although Rest does provide some opportunities to capture the thing while it is asleep, trying to wear it down before it wakes up again with a team 8 levels lower than it isn't easy, and taking repeated Outrages ain't fun either. Makes me very grateful for Dusk Balls, a luxury that wasn't afforded back in Gen III.

Platinum's Giratina gets an honorable mention for Struggling itself to death quite often (three of his moves have only 5 PP,) HeartGold's Ho-Oh for almost annihilating my entire team before eventually giving in to capture, and finally Pearl's Palkia for being retardedly easy.

 

[Secad MS]

Easiest Legendary? That would have to be the Palkia and Dialga of Pokemon Platinum. I caught both on the second Quick Ball. That was pretty awesome. I caught Heatran the same night, using fourteen Ultra Balls. Usually, I go through my entire bag. However, the Musketeer Trio wasn't that bad, though Cobalion did eat through nearly my whole bag before I caught it. Its attacks were decently weak on my Serperior, so it wasn't too bad.

As for most difficult capture, I would have to say Cresselia on my Diamond, before it erased itself. I had chased it for literally two years, even catching Mesperit before I caught it. One day on vacation, there was a toss of a Quick Ball, three shakes and a click, and much dancing afterwards. The dang thing just kept running!

 

[Louie Forest]

Most difficult? Darkrai. The first time I made it faint. The second time it was shiny, got it to almost dead, then threw all 99 ultra balls. Then I had to run away. IT APPEARED TO BE CAUGHT

Easiest was Zekrom, easy. One ultra ball at half health, and it was mine. Woop.

 

[VongolaFreddy]

Easiest legendary for me was articuno. Just threw a great ball at after weakening it to yellow and caught it. Hardest was kyurem took me 20 ultra balls, 15 great balls, 4 dusk balls, 2 premier balls, and finally caught it with my last great ball.

 

[Doubled]

I'll say that the hardest for me was Cobalion in Black. 1 or something HP left and it was paralyzed, but even after 30 something balls (Quick, Ultra, Dusk, and Timer), it still wouldn't go down. It had also knocked out all but two of my team, so I didn't have too much time left. So I finally threw a another Timer Ball and finally got it.

Easiest capture was Dialga in Platinum. Seriously, this is the rankest crap ever. Go ahead and say "that's impossible" or "you're lying", but All I did was hit it with close Combat and throw a Pokeball at it. I hadn't anything else, so that was all I could do.

 

[Shocari]

Easiest? Anything in Colosseum/XD. I always caught everything with one or two balls, no exceptions. But that might just be me being lucky.

Hardest? Ho-Oh in any handheld incarnation. Each battle pretty much took over 9000 of any kind of ball before he finally succumbed. It wasn't until later I discovered that Heavy Balls work wonders on him. Rayquaza was a bitch to me in Ruby, and I sometimes used Delibird to heal him once he started Struggling.

 

[dafg 猫君]

Easiest zekrom, uxie, and ho-oh just threw a quickball on 1st turn XD

hardest rayquaza .... -.-

 

[Indie]

When I was younger, my newbiness shined through, and I failed to capture any legendaries in either Saphire or Leaf green, the only exception being Mewtwo. He was a toughie, but I got him in the end. While my Mewtwo became a treasure among our 9-10 year old circle, I didn't have much luck with legendaries in that generation :<

Come gen IV, I was confident to improve my legendary roster. The boiled up anxiety of previous generations legendary failures made me waste my master ball on Dialga before I could consider otherwise. Afterwards though, Diamond was fairly succesful. I captured Azelf, Uxie, Mespirit and Girantina, (all bar mesprit with the grace of Dusk balls) and along with my friend, supplied our class with Manaphy. In SoulSilver, I captured Lugia after some arduation, however I stopped playing after that point for various reasons.

 

[neodragonoidx15]

The easiest that i caught is kyurem only pokeball i just did one try i was 12 when ive done that.The hardest for me is mew i cant catch it i tried 700 times but i always get being killed my pokemons are weak i was 6 when i want to catch it i played pokemon gold my dad caught it for me when it was my birth day his a cool dad for me hehe

 

[The iFlare]

The easiest that i caught is kyurem only pokeball i just did one try i was 12 when ive done that.The hardest for me is mew i cant catch it i tried 700 times but i always get being killed my pokemons are weak i was 6 when i want to catch it i played pokemon gold my dad caught it for me when it was my birth day his a cool dad for me hehe

What? Uhm... Not to be rude... But does anyone know whats trying to be said here? It seemed like an intresting story, but I can't understand a word of it... T~T

Anyways.... The easiest legendary capture for me was Palkia in Pokemon Platinum... The first turn I threw a greatball and caught it without even weakening it. As for the hardest... Giritina, Platinum, no doubt... I prepared for that battle so much... Healing items, movesets, all the ultraballs I could afford... I simply did not want to use that masterball... Lets just say this is how it ended... Only one of my pokemon survived hanging on with 1hp Giritina nearly struggled itself to death, and I ended up having to use that masterball anyway... And I couldn't restart the battle because I forgot to save before Giritina... D'oh! So yeah... That sucked... Took a lot of battles to get that money I wasted on ultraballs back... T~T

 

[Foxy]

A few months back I did another run on my Crystal for nostalgias sake. Well...that damn Suicune gave me hell. I'm not sure how many ultra balls, great balls, and poke balls I wasted but in the end I caught it with a great ball. Several resets after the initial fight. Suicune on Crystal, and Raikou in SoulSilver are my most difficult. For some reason I don't think the beasts of Johto like me, they were difficult in colleseum too. Regice in Sapphire also gets an honorable mention. Easiest...I'd have to say Lugia in SoulSilver. The first heavy ball I throw...I don't think I've ever had such good luck as I did then XD

 

[Rolly]

Easiest was probably when I was going to catch Azelf just a few months ago on a Platinum playthrough. I recall throwing one Ultra Ball without even trying to lower it's HP. I caught it directly.

Hardest is probably when I was going to catch Articuno on my first ever playthrough on PokéMon Leaf Green. That damn bird put me through hell. Even if it's HP was down to red and it was asleep, it just wouldn't get chaught. I got it after a few tries.

 

[Brendan Savem]

My easiest pokemon to capture is actually Cresselia, in both Diamon and Platinum. I easily managed to capture the pokemon with quickballs, Not even any damage in Diamond, in yellow zone for Platinum.

My hardest pokemon isn´t one pokemon, it´s three, and they´re all in Platinum. I´m talking about the birds. I cleared the maingame a year and a half ago and I still don´t have even a single bird. Moltres probably only has like 10hp left and it´s sleeping, and the best I got was two shakes. Articuno is yellow zone and asleep too, I got three shakes last time, I nearly cried. Zapdos is red zone, but still not sleeping yet, he´s still faster than my hypnosis specialist, not even one shake out of that bird. I´ll have another shot at capturing the birds sometime later, when I get a strong enough pokemon with either block or mean look.

 

[cloveria1215]

My easiest capture was Cobalion in black. I was prepared for a long dawned out capture.I got it to low hp then thew a ultra ball. three shakes later, I had a Cobalion. I'm still amazed that it took a few minutes My hardest capture was ho-oh in Soul Silver, It took least 20 great balls and 30 ultra balls

 

[Pokemon Emporer]

My easiest was defiantly terrakion in black. I just threw a quick ball right when we went into battle! It shook once and caught it! (what's up with only being one shake? :$) Talk about dumb luck!!! My hardest would be latios in soulsilver. It was too fast for my pokemon. (all I had was a metagross. Got it from a friend.) So I had to run all over kanto! It took my about a week because I had to rely on JUST quick balls. Ugh.

 

[BEARSHARK04]

I just started a new game on Pearl, and I'd have to say that this time, Palkia was pretty pathetic. Just one quick ball.
On the other hand, Giratina just raped my team into the cold darkness of infinity my first time through.

 

[Shiny Motley]

I admit, back in FR/LG, Zapdos took me forever to catch. I didn't have a master ball, and I didn't want to waste it on it even if I had one, so at slowly whittled its health down to 1 HP.

I used...
-40 Ultra Balls
-5 Timer Balls
-16 Great Balls
-1 Pokeball

And guess which one caught it in the end? That's right, the Pokeball.

 

[Dark Soul]

As far as I can remember, my easiest capture (Not counting the legendaries caught with a Master Ball, of course.) was Groudon in Emerald. I threw four or five Ultra Balls, and sheerly for the heck of it, then threw a Great Ball. And, by golly, it worked. I still can't believe I did that.

Giratina in Platinum was definitly quite hard. I wasted a Quick Ball, about twenty-five Ultra Balls and one or two Timer Balls on him before catching it.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

My easiest capture by far would have to be a first-turn Quick Ball capture against Terrakion on White. Nothing more needs to be said on that one.

I've caught a few legendaries like that. It's always worth just throwing a ball at the start of a battle just to see if it works.

My hardest would probably be any of the roaming legendaries in Platinum, just because I didn't have any master balls. Tracking them down was an absolute nightmare.

 

[Coreysawrus]

Cobalion, Tornadus, Thundurus and Reshiram all caught on full hp using only one pokeball.

Hardest was Kyogre in Sapphire took me a full month to capture him you can imagine my anger after I forgot to save after capturing him :|

 

[TyphlosionRulez]

Other than using Master Balls, Rayquaza was the easiest. I put it to sleep and threw a Dusk Ball. Instant capture.


And my hardest was Mewtwo.But I caught it with a Dusk Ball eventually.


Oh and those are both on HeartGold.


Dusk Balls always work for me. It's weird.

 

[Toru]

Hmmm I can remember two. A lot of people here have seem to have had easy swipes on legendaries with one ball - well, so have I

I was lucky enough to snag Thundurus with a single Quick Ball in White. On the opposite hand, one of my hardest captures was Uxie in Platinum - it took me 40+ Dusk Balls and several soft rests to eventually capture the damn thing :/

 

[Stark]

Registeel. Battle starts, throw a Poke Ball first as I only have one left asides proper balls. Catch Registeel.

In Gen II, Ho-Oh was always actually impossible for me to catch. Regardless of the situation, I never ever owned a Gen II Ho-Oh. That's how stubborn it was ;-;

 

[Cycloneblaze]

I seem to remember Giratina in Diamond taking a geological epoch to catch. But that was years ago now.
Most of my legendaries were fairly easy to catch. Though I don't remember any that were surprisingly/remarkably easy to catch.

 

[Lucario]

:me catching Thunderus for a friend who lend me White:
-Ok,Thunderus must be around...
Thunderus appears ( full health,if I recall correctly )
:throws quick ball:
Guess what happens next.
It was a pain to catch Giratina in Diamond.Took me a load of Ultra Balls and now it's just standing in a box,along with almost all legends ( expept anything that is event,Regigas,Heatran,Thunderus and Azelf ,but I got Victini )

 

[BeginwiththeEnd]

The easiest capture for me was back in Emerald when I fought Groudon. One turn, threw a great ball as a joke, and it caught it when in the yellow zone. O.O I remember laughing becuase I was expecting hours of widdling it down. The hardest had to be a tie between Mewtwo in Firered and Regigigas in Platinum. If i thought the Regi's in Gen III were bitches to catch, Regigigas literally took me 5 hours to waste 60 Ultra Balls, to then give up and rage in the corner.

 

[NiteFox]

Most definatly Rayquaza in Sapphire. It took me three days in the hot summer time to catch that beast. I remember getting so angry over it. Recently, Azelf in Platimun was awful to capture. I had accidently forgotten to save before the (which the fairy had killed itself) so no re-do at capturing

 

[PokeMaster Lance]

I caught my 2nd Moltress with a Poke ball, and my 2nd Mewtwo with the first Ultra Ball I threw at it. I laughed both times.

 

[PokeMaster Lance]

Most definatly Rayquaza in Sapphire. It took me three days in the hot summer time to catch that beast. I remember getting so angry over it. Recently, Azelf in Platimun was awful to capture. I had accidently forgotten to save before the (which the fairy had killed itself) so no re-do at capturing

I caught my Rayquaza just fine, it's level 100 now, I use it to help train all my other pokemon. (Got it on my Emerald.)

 

[turtledragon101]

Well my two easiest were Rayquaza in Sapphire and Zekrom in White. Now I of corse have no way to prove what i'm about to say but I know what happened and I could hardly believe it myself.

Rayquaza: So I had finally made it to the top of the tower after falling through the cracked holes in the floor with my bicycle about 40 times and I was in no mood for a long drawn out battle and attempted capture. I knew it's types and what moves it had and I was thinking, i'm either gonna kill it or leave it with a yellow or green health bar". So for the sake of me not returning to the PC to get more suitable poke's and having to fall another 40 times through the floor I decided to just throw some ultra balls at the thing and see what happened. This is where things get interesting. The Rayquaza was at full health and had no status condition as throwing a ball was the very first move I made in the encounter. This is where it gets down right insane. On accident I miss-clicked on the pokeball instead of the ultraball. I saw that I made the mistake and thought ohh no big deal I will just try an ultraball next time... But there was no next time. I got the 1/1,000,000 chance or how ever unlikely it is to not only catch Rayquaza with a pokeball, but also on the first move in the encounter. To say the least I was freaking out.

Zekrom: Catching Zekrom was nothing like catching Rayquaza except for the fact that I only used one ball and the capture rate for the ball is the same. I got to N's castle and went through what everyone does with the Zekrom/Reshiram encounter. I fought Zekrom easily and brought it down to 1 HP. Now in my White version I tried my hardest to only use premier balls to catch the legendaries. (I did pretty well too. I think I only used ultra balls on Thundurus and Cobalion.) So with Zekrom with only having a sliver of life left I used a premier ball. 1, 2, 3 shakes later I had caught it on my first thrown ball of the encounter.

Now I know the capture rate of Zekrom is much higher than Rayquaza but I still did not expect the catch to occur with the first ball. And for those who say you should have proof of Rayquaza with a pokeball I tell you I unfortunatly lost my Sapphire version and it seems to be gone forever. I know horrible luck...

As for my hardest legendary capture I can't say. I used my Gallade with mean look, hypnosis, false swipe, and drain punch for Platinum, SS, and White. Not much it can't catch.

 

[Knight Mair]

My easiest catch...

Reshiram. One Premiere Ball.
Second Easiest is Palkia. One Ultra Ball.

Toughest. Heatran. 8 non successful attempts at catching. The final battle - Sleeping it several times. 1HP by false swipe. In the end I ran out of Dusk Balls, Ultra Balls. All I have left are Quick Balls, Pokéballs and Premiere Balls all of which have a normal catch rate. My 10th Premiere Ball... Catch. There was no chance of me running out of Premiere balls. I stock them by the hundreds.

Also. Attempting to catch really good versions of Mewtwo in a Moon Ball. Not that I had not cought it several thousand other times before hand. I just wanted a Mewtwo in a Premiere Ball. 4 days later. Modest 30 Sp.A, 25 Speed, I thought, I will just go with that.

 

[RLRL]

My easiest, ever, was playing through my english version of black. I used gigalith against reshiram, used 1 stone edge, reshiram was on ~1hp, threw one great ball, and captured. I was literally there like "oh yeah, I'm that badass...."

 

[ThePokeKid]

welllll.... i think my easiest capture was Lugia, even though i didn't use a master ball, it only took like, 18 luxury balls, or premier balls, i can't remember.... (That was in Soul Silver) Buy my hardest capture would have to be Suicune. She, on the other took almost 60 Ultra Balls. At first, i tried net balls wich sucked !!!!! (That was also in Soul Silver) But I LLOOOOOVE suicune, so made sure that I caught her....

 

[Soukolian9102]

My easiest was probably Reshiram on my Black. Caught it with 1 Ultra Ball with 1/2 HP left. Kyurem was easy too. I caught it with a Dusk ball on the 2nd try.
The hardest was Mewtwo on my SoulSilver. I almost rage quitted then by accident pressed the wrong button and threw a Pokeball at it. Thus the story of how I caught that annoying Mewtwo who wasted 49 Ultra Balls.

 

[ShinyZekrom009]

My easiest legendary catch ever? Cobalion with a Dusk Ball right away.

My hardest? Victini. It took me 2 months of constant weakening and Pokeball Throwing before it FINALLY accepted defeat.

BTW the best strategy for trying to catch Legendaries is to PARALYZE it. It doesn't cause damage, it sometimes prevents them from attacking, and it is permanent, unlike Sleep.

 

[animeluxray175]

My easiest? I believe Kyogre with a Master Ball. Too lazy to actually try. :B

Hardest? I actually have two stories. I ran out of Pokeballs trying to capture Dialga, and I forgot to save, but miraculously, I caught it with a final Great Ball. A great ball. It took me FOREVER to catch -roaming- Mesprit, until I FINALLY caught it with a Dusk Ball.

 

[CaelumBlueEyes]

hardest: LATIOS. Geez took me forver to catch him. eventually I got fed up and decided to damage him, and he was STILL roaming around with like 2 hp and I couldn't get him. Finally caught him with an ultra ball. (Ruby version)

Easiest: Ho-oh hands down. (original gold version) caught it with a pokeball and I was 8. I remember that day very well

 

[Linkachu]

On a recent playthrough of HeartGold I had some joyous fun catching Ho-oh. I lost count of how many times I challenged the thing, but it pretty well went like this:

Weakened Ho-oh to the red, put it to sleep, started throwing PokeBalls. Ultra Balls, Heavy Balls, Timer Balls - nothing worked. Became tired of using Hypnosis repeatedly and paralyzed it instead. Kept trying to catch it. Ran out of PokeBalls first.

Left the tower and came back at night with loads more Ultra Balls plus hordes of Dusk Balls. Also added False Swipe to one of my Pokemon. Thus battle #2 began, I weakened Ho-oh to 1 HP, put it to sleep, and started throwing various PokeBalls. Once again became sick of using Hypnosis and paralyzed it. Continued throwing PokeBalls... and ran out again.

Reset and tried again. Same results. Reset and tried again. Same results. Reset and tried again. Yet again the same results. It probably struggled to death a few times. Ho-oh just refused to stay effing caught!

Reset. Challenged Ho-oh again. Threw my Master Ball.

Left the tower satisfied, but missing a part of my soul.