Although the motto is “gotta catch ’em all,” some creatures in the Pokémon series will do everything in their power to prevent you from capturing them. Some Pokémon are infamous for how impossible they are to obtain, either from their availability or their abysmally low their catch rates are compared to every other pocket monster in existence. There are a few Pokémon in particular that even series veterans are unlikely to have, especially in certain games where they are unavailable to players who don’t know specific exploits.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Some of the catch rate percentages of Pokémon have fluctuated over the series, becoming much easier to obtain depending on which game you’re playing. For example, the Pokémon Beldum has a 3 catch rate in most of the mainline games, but the spin-off Pokémon Legends: Z-A makes the creature far easier to get with a 20 catch rate, meaning one in five Poké Balls will likely contain the Pokémon. With the upcoming Pokémon Winds and Waves possibly changing capture rates for some creatures, it’s likely that only Legendary or Mythical Pokémon will keep the difficulty tied to their collection.
5. Any Regi Legendary (Regirock/Regice/Registeel/Regigigas)
Although they became easier to catch in later games, the original Regi trio of Pokémon were infamously hard to track down in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Before you could even discover these creatures out in the wild, you first had to go to a secret diving spot on Route 134, which was hard to reach without knowing the water rapid patterns in that area. After you dive in the right spot, you must enter a mysterious cave, where only braille writing gives you a hint at what to do next.
Only players who had a Pokémon with Dig could use it on the back braille wall to enter a second cave within the first one, showing secrets within secrets here. By placing a Wailord first on your team and a Relicanth last, you can read the braille inscriptions in the second cave to unlock three caves around the Hoenn region map that lead to Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. Even when you travel to these caves, you have to follow obtuse instructions to unlock the chambers that host the Regi Pokémon, from using HM moves in odd places to even standing without moving for a set period of time.
Even opening up the Regi chambers still reveals Legendary Pokémon who have the lowest catch rates in the entire Gen 3 games, with a 0.4% chance of catching it at full health with a standard Poké Ball. Each Regi is Level 40, and demands some status moves to be used on it to increase your odds of catching any of the three. Simultaneously, Regigigas is a Pokémon of equal rarity, only appearing in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum if you’ve caught and transferred all of the original Regi trio Pokémon to those games.
4. Raikou/Entei/Suicune
The original versions of Entei, Raikou, and Suicune are incredibly difficult to catch in their first games, specifically Pokémon Silver, Gold, FireRed, and LeafGreen. The Kanto remakes featured perhaps the most frustrating versions of these Pokémon to get, as only one of the three “Legendary Dog Trio” showed up in your adventure based on the starter you picked. For example, players who (correctly) picked Charmander only encountered Suicune, while those with Squirtle could find Raikou and anyone with Bulbasaur had Entei to battle.
You had no way of discovering any of these Legendary Pokémon outside of sheer luck in Pokémon FireRed or LeafGreen before you were able to track it throughout your region map. However, much like Mesprit and Cresselia in the Gen 4 games, these Pokémon would flee the moment they could in battle, giving you only one chance to throw a Poke Ball at it before it left. This meant you weren’t able to damage it to increase your odds, with your only option being tied to using a Pokémon with a higher Speed stat able to induce Sleep or confusion to prevent it from fleeing.
That being said, in the Gen 4 Pokémon games, you had Quick Balls that increased a Pokémon’s capture rate if you threw them early in a battle. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen didn’t have that, instead giving Raikou, Entei, and Suicune the move Roar, which ended wild battles instantly. This created multiple layers of escape tools you had to work around, on top of an already ridiculous 3 capture rate with 0.4% odds again. Many players either gave up or persistent for countless hours to finally get these Gen 2 icons.
3. Deoxys
Deoxys is a Mythical Pokémon that very Pokémon games even offer, in contrast to other Mythical creatures like Jirachi, which is given to you for free in Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. In the Gen 3 games, Deoxys was only available through an AuroraTicket, which allowed players to travel to Birth Island in their game. This location was completely inaccessible to anyone who didn’t attend specific Nintendo events in their area, including promotions that lasted for a very limited amount of time.
Sometimes, Deoxys was only obtainable in spin-off games, such as Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs back in Gen 4. Much like Manaphy, players could only get Deoxys in mainline titles if they transferred it from the spin-off, making it difficult to encounter for casual players. From that point onward, Deoxys has only returned through limited getaways in other Generations, not recurring in mainline titles like other Mythical Pokémon have done time and time again.
2. Landorus
The Ground/Flying-type Landorus combines a lot of the grievances of past Pokémon games into its existence, to the point where many players never realized it existed in the original Pokémon Black and White. This Pokémon could only be found when you had the other Legendary creatures Tornadus and Thundurus in your party, but those two Pokémon were version exclusives. You needed to trade with another player to get Tornadus and Thundurus together, yet those two Pokemon didn’t make things easy.
Tornadus and Thundurus were both wandering Pokémon, very similar to Raikou, Entei, and Suicune from the Gen 3 Kanto remakes. You had to use in-game clues to track down abnormal weather to find those Pokémon, and even when you did, either one had a 3 capture rate that was best overcome through a Master Ball. When you did manage to find another person and track down the right Legendary, only then would Landorus appear at the Abundant Shrine in your game, still boasting a tough 3 capture rate through its Incarnate Forme.
Yet, Landorus also has a Therian Forme accessible in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, an alternate version of itself that appears through a transfer from the Dream Radar only. Future games would see the Pokémon show up with similar restrictions, either requiring Thundurus and Tornadus again or showing up in odd places. With Gen 9 seeing the Pokémon available only through the use of Pokémon HOME, Landorus is consistently seen as a Pokémon not worth the effort.
1. Volcanion
Volcanion is a Pokémon I doubt a majority of players have in any game, whether they’re veterans of the franchise or not. Beyond just a 3 capture rate like other Mythical Pokémon, Volcanion is only gained from restricted events in almost every game it’s ever been in. In Pokémon X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, and Omega Ruby, this Fire/Water-type only appeared in small windows from 2016 to 2017 across a few months. Even when the Pokémon came back for Pokémon Sword and Shield, it followed the same event formula, appearing online for brief windows that many fans missed.
Some Generations only saw this Pokémon through Pokémon HOME, trading, or the exceedingly rare Pokémon Bank. Even after more than a decade, Volcanion hardly has a place in players’ memory, largely for how little it is featured next to other popular Pokémon with similar rarity. Thankfully, this Pokémon has appeared again in Pokémon Legends: Z-A through its Mega Dimensions DLC, so perhaps its limited time in the spotlight can grow beyond being an impossible catch many players never tried.
What is the hardest Pokémon you’ve ever tried to catch? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
