The Hardest Pokémon to Catch?

This was inspired by Xen 's recent achievement in successfully catching a shiny Chansey in the FRLG Safari Zone, which is arguably the hardest feat in a Pokémon game. Consider the fact that Chansey, along with Kangaskhan, Tauros, and Scyther/Pinsir, all top out at a 4% encounter rate (assuming you're in the right area for it to be 4%), but Chansey has the lowest catch rate of all of these Pokémon, and you have FRLG Safari Zone Chansey definitely being the hardest thing to catch...

... or is it? Well, I don't know, that's why I made this topic. Are there any contenders to fight Chansey for the title of hardest thing to catch? Has anyone with a background in statistics crunched the numbers and come to a conclusion on this? Or is there still room for debate?

It's theoretically possible to use a Master Ball on anything outside the Kanto/RSE/Sinnoh Safari Zone/Great Marsh, and therefore I think that automatically means a Safari Zone/Great Marsh Pokémon has to win this argument, but let's say for the sake of debate that you already used your Master Ball. :B

(Feel free to discuss spin-offs too!)
 

Raidx

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I don't remember exact probabilities, but in DPPt, catching a Munchlax (especially shiny) was EXTREMELY hard because it had a 1% encounter rate and you can only check a honey slathered tree once every few hours and hope it's a Munchlax or something like that. Idk exactly how it worked but it was along those lines, super difficult to catch.
 
Beldum & Metang can be found in HG/SS' Safari Zone. Both have a catch rate of 3 (the lowest possible catch rate, shared with most Legendaries), require stacking multiple objects in certain areas and a waiting period of 70 DAYS to even show up, and are over 20-30 times more likely to flee than they are to be caught. And I've seen people actually contemplate the idea of looking for shiny Beldum/Metang in the Safari Zone as well to add on to the insanity. I can't see anything being more insane and difficult to catch than those honestly.

The shiny hunting community I frequent had a Safari Week event earlier this month where 2 people managed to do the impossible and catch shiny Chansey in the Safari Zone - one in FR/LG and the other in HG/SS. Unless Xen is who I think s/he is, that's a rather incredible coincidence...
 
I don't remember exact probabilities, but in DPPt, catching a Munchlax (especially shiny) was EXTREMELY hard because it had a 1% encounter rate and you can only check a honey slathered tree once every few hours and hope it's a Munchlax or something like that. Idk exactly how it worked but it was along those lines, super difficult to catch.
Yeah munchlax is really hard to find. I just saw a youtube video about it and it said, you must have the right ID or something and you to put honey on the tree if it's there. The player cannot speed up the time of the DS because it is followed with real time. And put another problem looking for it is that there are also more pokemon in the honey tree other than Munchlax so you might miss it while checking it.

But in Sun and Moon, catching beldum with a Heavy Ball is the meaning of hard. It has very low to none chance to catch one with a Heavy Ball if I read it correctly.
 

DHR-107

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But in Sun and Moon, catching beldum with a Heavy Ball is the meaning of hard. It has very low to none chance to catch one with a Heavy Ball if I read it correctly.
It's not mathematically possible. I believe one of the deep code miners proved it outright that its not legal. The penalty from 3 catch rate + Beldum's light weight and the mechanics of the heavy ball means it can never reach the threshold for capturing.

Any low encounter + shiny probably takes the cake here, but Safari Zone where the Pokemon in question can run away is a cherry on top. I would also argue getting a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Colosseum legitimately is also incredibly difficult as you don't know if its shiny until you purify it, even if the shadow version IS shiny!
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Abra RBY, FRLG, and... Pokémon Go.
The one thing the games share with Pokémon Go, is if you don't catch it in one go, it basically disappears/Teleports... No False Swipe shenanigans.

Oh, and to make it more rare: Shiny Abra in FR/LG.

For actual encounters: Lati twins, and Johto Trio (except Suicune in Crystal). Add "Shiny" and there you go.
 
Getting Tapus into Apricorn Balls was probably the longest grind I've done since you only get one shot per reset (especially after stalling Terrain for Koko and Fini for setup). I ended up giving up after a week trying to get natures and Hidden Powers on top of that. Then again any static Pokemon gets increasingly more difficult once you factor in Nature/HP/IVs/Shininess.

As for theoretically hard Pokemon, if you had Raikou or Entei as your roaming Pokemon in FRLG and they used Roar, they disappeared forever meaning you had a 1/4 chance (I think) of missing out per turn before you even threw a ball with less than 1% chance of capture. And if you were twelve year old me and had no idea about this, you were forever deprived of your Entei.
 
I don't remember exact probabilities, but in DPPt, catching a Munchlax (especially shiny) was EXTREMELY hard because it had a 1% encounter rate and you can only check a honey slathered tree once every few hours and hope it's a Munchlax or something like that. Idk exactly how it worked but it was along those lines, super difficult to catch.
iirc it's 1% on four specific trees, so it's not even a uniform 1%, making it even rarer.

As for theoretically hard Pokemon, if you had Raikou or Entei as your roaming Pokemon in FRLG and they used Roar, they disappeared forever meaning you had a 1/4 chance (I think) of missing out per turn before you even threw a ball with less than 1% chance of capture. And if you were twelve year old me and had no idea about this, you were forever deprived of your Entei.
I had that, I recently went to catch Entei in FR in Poké Balls so this was something I had to deal with. Saving before each encounter and resetting when it used Roar was very un fun.
 
It's not mathematically possible. I believe one of the deep code miners proved it outright that its not legal. The penalty from 3 catch rate + Beldum's light weight and the mechanics of the heavy ball means it can never reach the threshold for capturing.

Any low encounter + shiny probably takes the cake here, but Safari Zone where the Pokemon in question can run away is a cherry on top. I would also argue getting a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Colosseum legitimately is also incredibly difficult as you don't know if its shiny until you purify it, even if the shadow version IS shiny!
Incorrect. Purification has absolutely no effect on shiny data - if a shiny Shadow Pokemon is purified, it stays shiny.

What actually makes shiny Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum a ballache is how they are partially determined based on trainer IDs, which even for the same Pokemon differ between you and the trainer you snag from. So you could find a trainer with a shiny Shadow Pokemon, only for it to lose its shininess when you snag it because your trainer ID overwrites the trainers. So the only way you'd ever find a shiny Shadow Pokemon and keep it is by catching it and then checking your summary.
 

Xen

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RSE Wynaut, hands down. It's kinda hard to catch a Pokemon when their habitat is Mirage Island, which you can't even access unless a party Pokemon's personality value/PID matches up to the island's generated value, which changes daily. Over the past 14 years, I've only ever seen the island once, and that was because I RNG'd a Pokemon that would trigger it since the island's value was stuck at a static 0 (yay for dead internal batteries). The majority of players have never even seen it once.

I'm also surprised no one brought up RSE/DPPt Feebas. Only showing up in certain randomized tiles in their respective areas means you'll have to sink a lot of time into actually locating the exact nest in order to catch them, unless you get lucky and hit a Feebas tile within the first few rod throws. DPPt is the worst offender here since there are only four tiles within Mt. Coronet that change daily. At least with RSE, there are six tiles that stick around for at least a couple of days, and you can shuffle them at will using the Dewford Hall's trendy phrase.

However, if you want the hardest Pokemon to catch by raw catch rate instead of the difficulty of encountering it, I second Safari Zone Beldum.

The shiny hunting community I frequent had a Safari Week event earlier this month where 2 people managed to do the impossible and catch shiny Chansey in the Safari Zone - one in FR/LG and the other in HG/SS. Unless Xen is who I think s/he is, that's a rather incredible coincidence...
First time I've heard of safari week. I wasn't actively shiny hunting it; it was a random find during my FR playthrough while I was headed to get the Surf TM. That is definitely interesting though. Guess July must be Chansey month, heh.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
For Spin offs, the most insane is Mystery Dungeon is Kecleon. First you have to find a shop, which is random, and steal from it. You then have to survive the horde of steroid buffed Kecleon and KO one. Even then, it only works if you've maxed out your recruitment chances. In Red and Blue, that means your leader at over Level 90 and holding a Friend Bow which boosts if from -33.9% up to a whopping 0.1% chance. (Yes, it has a negative recruitment chance.) I didn't play those games, but I think you have to escape the dungeon with it alive to keep it. In Time, Darkness, and Sky, you need a Level 90+ Leader holding an Amber Tear or Golden Mask with the Fast Friend IQ Skill, which is only in the B and H IQ groups to bring it the chance from -49.5% to a 0.5%.
 
I'd argue Exeggcute and Chansey in Red/Blue are worse just due to the fact that a) you have to get two and b) they are much, much rarer than Kecleon.

Kecleon does suck though
 

Codraroll

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A case could be made for Salamence in Sun/Moon too.

Bagon can be encountered in a single patch of grass on Route 2. The encounter rate? 1 %. It can SOS call allies, which will be other Bagon 99 % of the time. But that last remaining 1 %, it will call Salamence. Catching it is comparatively easy, though, since it has a catch rate of 45.

But let's face it, we would never have known it was there if it hadn't been for datamining*. It would only be spoken of as an apocryphal Internet legend.

*However, without datamining, no hacking, so pictures of Salamence with a catch location of Route 3 would still have been quite convincing...
 
Since you said that we've already used our Master Ball:

I'm going to go with BW2 Azelf:
- one in the game
- catch rate of 3
- knows nasty plot therefore if you are unlucky with ultra balls it will just wipe out your whole team at +6
 
Try Shiny hunting for Manaphy - you only get one Manaphy per Pokémon Ranger cartridge (and you have to beat the game and complete a bonus mission) and with the way the transfer works, you cannot Soft Reset to try and get another.

OM! FRLG Abra can be stopped by Arena Trap and Taunt, whereas in RBY, Teleport has a 25% to fail (just like all non-damaging moves the AI uses). Not to mention you can use a Sleep move in either version.

Xen Wynaut is relatively easy to get in RSE since you get it in an egg in Lavaridge Town. Not to mention you can just catch Wobbuffet in the Safari Zone and breed that as an alternative.

Altissimo Exeggcute has a 20% encounter rate and a Catch Rate of 90 - not too bad actually. Rhyhorn and Tauros are more tricky. And while Chansey is hard to get in the Safari Zone, you can just grab one in Cerulean Cave instead. (Astonishing how many RBY OU mons are in the Safari Zone)

DoubleOD Azelf only has Future Sight, Extrasensory and Last Resort to attack with - Sableye takes no damage from any of these because Gen 5 made Future Sight deal type-based damage.
 
iirc it's 1% on four specific trees, so it's not even a uniform 1%, making it even rarer.
And there's even worse with that: if you re-slather the tree immediately after encountering a Pokémon, you have a 90% chance of finding a Pokémon in the same category as the last one. Munchlax is itself a category, so you have to cycle through your Munchlax trees before re-slathering them to maximize your chances.

Assuming you check your two Munchlax trees (if you don't know your secret ID) twice a day (so 4 encounters per day), you have a 25% chance of finding a Munchlax in one week, 70% in one month and 91% in two months. Better trade a Snorlax with HG/SS or transfer it from FR/LG and then breed it with the incense, it's much faster this way.
 
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Altissimo Exeggcute has a 20% encounter rate and a Catch Rate of 90 - not too bad actually. Rhyhorn and Tauros are more tricky. And while Chansey is hard to get in the Safari Zone, you can just grab one in Cerulean Cave instead. (Astonishing how many RBY OU mons are in the Safari Zone)
I'd argue Exeggcute and Chansey in Red/Blue are worse just due to the fact that a) you have to get two and b) they are much, much rarer than Kecleon.

Kecleon does suck though
I'm talking about Mystery Dungeon. Kecleon isn't in the original Red/Blue.
 

Pikachu315111

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Pokemon who have self-fainting moves are annoying to catch. Obvious mentions would be Voltorb and Koffing family, but recently Sun & Moon had two which were annoying to catch.
First is Minior who has a catch rate of 30, can't be afflicted by Status Ailments unless you knock it below half HP, and at the levels you encounter it will know Self-Destruct (and that's not including Minior has 7 forms so if you want a specific color/all of them, well, good luck. Getting a Pokemon with Damp might be useful).
Then we have Riolu in the post game. They're not only a 10% encounter but come packing Final Gambit (if you're lucky they may SOS call a Lucario who won't have Final Gambit, but most of the time they'd just call another Riolu. Or a Chansey).

And this might be a personal experience, but Tapu Fini was annoying as its Misty Surge prevented it from being afflicted by Status Ailments (until it went away) and had Aqua Ring. Actually put Pokemon who can heal themselves on the annoying to catch list too, especially Legendaries *looks at Mewtwo & Deoxys*.
 
Pokemon who have self-fainting moves are annoying to catch. Obvious mentions would be Voltorb and Koffing family, but recently Sun & Moon had two which were annoying to catch.
First is Minior who has a catch rate of 30, can't be afflicted by Status Ailments unless you knock it below half HP, and at the levels you encounter it will know Self-Destruct (and that's not including Minior has 7 forms so if you want a specific color/all of them, well, good luck. Getting a Pokemon with Damp might be useful).
Then we have Riolu in the post game. They're not only a 10% encounter but come packing Final Gambit (if you're lucky they may SOS call a Lucario who won't have Final Gambit, but most of the time they'd just call another Riolu. Or a Chansey).

And this might be a personal experience, but Tapu Fini was annoying as its Misty Surge prevented it from being afflicted by Status Ailments (until it went away) and had Aqua Ring. Actually put Pokemon who can heal themselves on the annoying to catch list too, especially Legendaries *looks at Mewtwo & Deoxys*.
To add to the self fainting, Kyogre in Emerald knows Double-Edge AND Rest. It can both heal itself back to full and kill itself with recoil.
 

Codraroll

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This one possibly doesn't fall fully under the scope of this thread, but... Mew in RBY. It's completely possible to get without external input such as cheating devices, or glitching out the cartridge. Good luck finding out how without a guide, though.

Also in the "without a guide" category, Weavile in SM is a good contender. Imagine being entirely new to Pokémon, without access to the Internet. You see that Gladion uses this cool, black-and-red Dark/Ice type in his final battle. Where do you proceed from there?

Another one like that is Chimecho in RS. It is a 2 % encounter in three small patches of grass in one of the game's most far-flung and remote locations, the summit of Mt. Pyre, which you visit twice during the story. The route itself is a dead end, and the grass lies away the main path, but you might pass through all three patches once while looking for items. That is, if you can see there's anything there at all, since there's fog in the area. Both of the items are hidden anyway, so at a glance there doesn't seem to be any reason to enter the grass at all. There is nothing else of note in the grass, unless you count a marginally higher chance to find Shuppet/Duskull than inside Mt. Pyre's higher floors (they aren't version exclusives, but in Ruby Shuppet is a 10 % encounter on the top three floors of Mt. Pyre, 13 % in the grass at the summit. The same in reverse for Duskull in Sapphire and Emerald). You'd have to spend an unreasonable amount of time in an inconspicuous patch of grass in the middle of nowhere to find Chimecho.

However, the worst thing is that *there is no trainer in the game that uses Chimecho*. Not in RS, at least, there may be some in Emerald. As such, the Pokédex doesn't allude to its existence at all. You see, Chimecho's Index Number is the highest of all Gen III Pokémon, implying that it was the last Pokémon to be added to the games. The existence of Chingling in Gen IV suggests they were meant to be a Gen IV family (and one may hypothesize that Chimecho replaced the beta sprite creature that later became Gastrodon). It was presumably added too late to be distributed among any trainers, and too late to get a sensible capture location. It might have been dumped on Mt. Pyre as an easter egg, and remained the most obscure Pokémon in the game (if not the franchise) had it not been for the fact that James captured one in the Anime. If not for that little fluke of screenwriting, most casual players would miss Chimecho completely.

Worst thing is... no, wait, second worst thing is: When you catch it, it turns out to be rather... ass. Its stats are worse than any of the evolved Psychic types in the game (Its BST is higher than Kadabra's, but distribution is important, as Kadabra illustrates by being one of the best Pokémon in the game anyway), and its movepool is shallower than the puddles on Route 120. And the actual worst thing is: When this all-too-rare, useless Pokémon received an evolutionary relative in Gen IV, it turned out to be a pre-evolution.
 

Xen

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Xen Wynaut is relatively easy to get in RSE since you get it in an egg in Lavaridge Town. Not to mention you can just catch Wobbuffet in the Safari Zone and breed that as an alternative.
Oh I know. I probably should've reworded it better; Wynaut's not too hard to get through breeding, and you do get a freebie egg to boot, but in terms of physically catching a Wynaut in the wild, it's the hardest Pokémon to find and catch in RSE hands-down (and arguably in the whole franchise)
 
I'd argue Exeggcute and Chansey in Red/Blue are worse just due to the fact that a) you have to get two and b) they are much, much rarer than Kecleon.

Kecleon does suck though
IMO, the Time/Darkness/Sky Kecleon are the most difficult, due to not using substitute (or even having it, for that matter), and having 255 stats across the board. You're essentially forced to use evasion orbs and violent seeds to even stand a chance. Sure, the recruit rate is higher, but you have to fight swarms of the most powerful Pokemon in the game.


Getting one isn't even that rewarding, because they are absolute ass in the level one dungeons, Taking something like 1000 exp to get off level ONE, AND they have a total of 1 for every stat. So everything one-shots you. ._.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
IMO, the Time/Darkness/Sky Kecleon are the most difficult, due to not using substitute (or even having it, for that matter), and having 255 stats across the board. You're essentially forced to use evasion orbs and violent seeds to even stand a chance. Sure, the recruit rate is higher, but you have to fight swarms of the most powerful Pokemon in the game.


Getting one isn't even that rewarding, because they are absolute ass in the level one dungeons, Taking something like 1000 exp to get off level ONE, AND they have a total of 1 for every stat. So everything one-shots you. ._.
I use a Sunkern with Linked Endure+Endeavor+Vacuum Cut and a bag full of Max Elixirs. You won't die, but you'll probably be kicked out of the dungeon before recruiting one. Recruiting one is like trying to breed a Shiny except you have to kill the eggs before they kill you, and the eggs are very good at killing! (Outside of context, that last sentence sounds like I'm probably on drugs... o_0)

The Level 1 Dungeon Punishing is ether not letting crime pay off or the game saying it's not impressed.
 

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