Legendary & Special Pokémon Guide - Locations & How to Catch | PolishedDex | PolishedDex
Legendary & Special Pokémon Guide - Locations & How to Catch
Looking for a legendary or event Pokémon? Trying to fill out your dex? Check out this guide for information!
Author: Cammy, Rev3lation
Last updated: March 12, 2026
Introduction
Legendary Pokémon are available for you to encounter throughout your journey in Polished Crystal. Each Pokémon has a specific location and set of requirements to encounter.
This guide covers legendary and event encounters available in the game, including roaming legendaries and static encounters. It also contains SPOILERS!
Who This Guide Is For
This guide is for players who want to:
Are trying to complete their Pokédex
Looking for strategies to catch legendary Pokémon
Want to know where and how to find all legendary Pokémon in Polished Crystal
Legendary Dogs
The three legendary dogs can be encountered in Polished Crystal, but each has a different encounter method.
Release the hounds
Progress through the story until you can access Burned Tower in Ecruteak City
Every time you move between routes, both dogs randomly jump to a different route that they are adjactent to currently
Eusine will show you Raikou and Entei's Pokédex entries when you speak to him in Celadon City, so you can better hunt for them if you haven't seen them yet
You have approximately a 29.3% chance to encounter it when triggering a wild encounter in a route a roamer is on
It can roam on Routes: 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 [16]
Cannot appear on water routes (Routes 40 and 41)
If you are having trouble chasing them around the map, try walking between two regions that border each other (e.g., Route 32 and Route 33) to trigger them moving to another route. Rinse and repeat until you find them.
Suicune (Static Encounter)
Unlike Raikou and Entei, Suicune has a special storyline with multiple appearances before you can battle it.
Suicune's Journey:
Cianwood City - After releasing the beasts, when you arrive in Cianwood City go to the north, you'll see Suicune briefly appear and disappear. Eusine will challenge you to a battle. [17]
Route 42 - Suicune makes another brief appearance (this is set as a map scene after Cianwood)
Tin Tower 1F - After getting the Clear Bell you can enter Tin Tower. On the first floor, a cutscene will trigger:
If you haven't caught Raikou, it will appear and flee
If you haven't caught Entei, it will appear and flee
Suicune will approach and you can battle it at Level 40[18]
Important Notes:
You must progress through Sucicune's storyline (Cianwood → Route 42 → get Clear Bell → Tin Tower) to battle it
Uncaught, knocked-out roamers will now respawn at a higher level when you beat the Champion
Although Suicune is initially stationary at Tin Tower, it'll respawn as a roamer in the same way if you KO it
Use Repels with a Pokémon at a higher level than wilds and lower than roamers to guarantee an encounter with the roamer
Soundproof Wigglytuff with Mean Look (Soundproof unavailable on Faithful) will be the best at preventing roamers from escaping or Roaring, while also dealing damage to them and putting them to sleep.
Releasing a caught roamer now makes it respawnable, which is practically a re-roll. It's particularly useful to Shiny hunters
Spiky-eared Pichu
The Spiky-eared Pichu is a special variant of Pichu that you can obtain after beating the Elite Four.
Navigate to the forest shrine (the small shrine structure in the forest)
Interact with the shrine
After a cutscene, Celebi will appear for battle at Level 30[3]
Important Notes:
Celebi is a one-time encounter only - the GS Ball is consumed when you use it
Save before the battle! If you defeat or run from Celebi without catching it, you cannot retry
After catching Celebi, you can trigger a special time-travel storyline involving Giovanni by returning to the shrine with Celebi in your party [3]
Galarian Legendary Birds
The Galarian forms of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres can be encountered at Cherrygrove Bay using special lures obtained from Rocket Hideout B4F in Celadon City.
How to Obtain the Lures
Progress through the plot until you can access Rocket Hideout B4F (which is in the Celadon Game Corner)
Battle three Team Leaders to obtain the lures: [1]
Moltres will be standing at coordinates (18, 22) [13]
Interact with it to trigger the battle at Level 65
Special Event: Lawrence
After catching all three Kanto legendary birds (Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres), a special event will trigger with a character named Lawrence when you catch the third bird.
Ho-Oh
Ho-Oh can be encountered at the Tin Tower Roof after obtaining the Rainbow Wing.
How to Get the Rainbow Wing
Beat the Elite Four and complete the main story
Progress through the legendary beasts storyline at Tin Tower 1F (see Suicune section above)
After the Suicune encounter completes, the three sages will remain in Tin Tower 1F
Capture all three legendary dogs and defeat the first round of the Elite 4. Talk to the central sage who will give you the Rainbow Wing[19]
The stairway to the upper floors will open with an earthquake effect
How to Encounter Ho-Oh
With the Rainbow Wing in your Key Items, enter Tin Tower
Navigate through all 10 floors of Tin Tower to reach the roof
Catch all three Kanto legendary birds: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres (see Kanto Legendary Birds section above)
When you catch the third bird, a special event will trigger
Lawrence will appear and challenge you to a battle. He will wait to battle you at Shamouti Shrine Ruins (accessible from Noisy Forest in the Orange Archipelago)
After defeating Lawrence, he will give you the Silver Wing[23]
Lawrence will then disappear
How to Encounter Lugia
With the Silver Wing in your Key Items, navigate to the Whirl Islands (Routes 40 and 41 between Olivine City and Cianwood City)
Enter the North-East Whirl Island entrance and work your way down through the caves
You'll need Surf, Strength, Flash and Whirlpool to navigate
Make your way to Whirl Island B2F and find the entrance to the Lugia Chamber
While holding it, Mewtwo will appear in its Armored form in battle, gaining a Steel typing and having its stats redistributed to be slightly more defensive
Remove the item to revert to regular form
Bloodmoon Ursaluna
Bloodmoon Ursaluna is a special form of Ursaluna that can be encountered at Murky Swamp.
Navigate to Violet Outskirts, accessible by Surf from Violet City or Route 42
Enter the house there, where its ghost will be haunting an object in the house. Search all the objects to find it and start the battle! (Level 60)
Important Notes:
You can encounter Hisuian Typhlosion early, as soon as you can use Surf in the overworld. However, without the SilphScope2 you cannot reveal its ghost, and you are forced to run from the battle
This is a unique form that cannot be obtained through evolution
Other Pokémon
Werkin' on it :)
Tips for Catching Legendaries
Save before every encounter - Legendary Pokémon are one-time encounters in most cases. Save states are nice, actually saving through the game menu is even better.
Bring plenty of Ultra Balls - Or another specialty Poké Ball for better catch rates. My personal strategy here is to use Quick Balls & resetting. But, I'm a bit lazy in terms of battling.
Use status conditions - Sleep and paralysis improve catch rates!
Lower their HP carefully - False Swipe is helpful to get them to 1 HP without fainting them.
[1] Team Leaders and Lures
Rocket Hideout B4F — maps/RocketHideoutB4F.asm
[2] Wonder Trade and Spiky-eared Pichu
Wonder Trade System — engine/events/wonder_trade.asm
Goldenrod Pokécom Center — maps/GoldenrodPokecomCenter1F.asm
