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Catching Diamond and Pearl Legendaries : A Guide [see sd's topic]

Arseus said:
Well yeah, but you'd be surprised; not everyone wants to, or can clone lots of Master Balls.
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It's surprisingly easy to mooch master balls off the various trading boards. Lots of generous folks around, lol. But yeah, I get what you mean, it feels awesome having some 27/27/27 or something beast in your dusk ball.
 
Meultima said:
It's surprisingly easy to mooch master balls off the various trading boards. Lots of generous folks around, lol. But yeah, I get what you mean, it feels awesome having some 27/27/27 or something beast in your dusk ball.
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Yeah, I'll admit it's easier than ever. I'm going to keep all the PP information and assorted Dusk Ball stuff in the guide, not that anyone will mind I bet. In fact, you just mentioned the main reason I'm only going to use my Master Ball on Mr. Big Bad when the Azure Flute event is out. It feels better to have a great legend pop out of a Dusk Ball when all the others are Master Ball'd.
 
Also, on a note about Quick Balls: I think it goes down every turn. I've seen a Ditto morphed into a magikarp escape from it on the second turn. (First turn I switched from my synchro to a Karp) Which pretty much doesn't make jack sense at all, since repeat balls earn a 100% catch rate (In my experience, anyway, caught over a hundred dittos with this method in Emerald, I do think) on the spot.
 
Well, accoring to Serebii.net and Great Sage, the Quick Ball rate only decreases every five turns, and is merely as effective as a Dusk Ball at maximum. So they're not as great as we first thought it seems.
 
Yeah, but shouldn't a Dusk Ball (4x) be over 100% effective for the copied catch rate of 255 then? It's odd, since a 3x catch rate with repeat balls seems more effective, or maybe I'm just unlucky.
 
Probability to catch a Pokemon = (( 1 + ( MaxHP * 3 - CurHP * 2 ) * CatchRate * BallRate * Status ) / ( MaxHP * 3 )) / 256

Let's say we try and catch a Level 5 Max HP Magikarp.

((1 + (18*3 - 18*2) * 255 * 4 * 1) / (18*3)) / 256)

= ((1 + 18 * 255 *4) / (54)) / 256
= (19380 / 54) / 256
= ~358 / 256
= 1.4

I'm not sure how the game handles decimals, but I'd assume it rounds down, so the result would be 1. If I'm remembering correctly, the result must be above 1 for a 100% catch. So it's possible there is a minuscule chance the Magikarp will break free. I'd say this needs confirmation though.

Also, Meultima, I can't help but notice you've posted in this thread a fair bit. Thanks for showing an interest in this topic, it really motivates me to write more things, and improve that which I have already written.
 
Meultima said:
I'm an Overly Compulsive SRer, I can't help being interested, lol.
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Ahh I see. We'd get along well I bet ;) If I didn't want to get the best legends out there, I probably wouldn't have written this guide in the first place! Anyway, once I get some confirmation on the Catching Formula (probably from X-Act; he's the one who posted it), I'll be sure to edit it into the guide.
 
The one you used was a "simplified" version X-Act posted somewhere. I think the actual formula can be found somewhere on a Ball thread somewhere in Stark Mountain or Bulbapedia, although this version proves to be pretty accurate anyway.
 
Yes, it was indeed posted by X-Act; I didn't know it was simplified however. I just PM'd him asking if I was correct in how it worked. If the real version is too complex, I probably will just include with the simplified version for two reasons.

1. Many people won't actually use the formula, and you don't know the exact HP of a legendary anyway. So it will be inaccurate in this context.

2. I probably won't be able to grasp it myself; I'm a student entering high school who's horrible at maths! Hahaha.
 
In the resource thread, X-Act has posted a formula for full-health capture percentages that he claims is exact (no pun intended).

EDIT: Found it:
Probability to catch a Pokemon whose HP is maxed = ( 1 + ( CatchRate * BallRate * Status ) / 256 ) / 3

The percentages for a first turn Quick Ball are:
Dialga/Palkia: approximately 15.8%
Rate 3 Legends: approximately 1.7%
Shaymin: approximately 24%
 
mm, I just caught palkia. I tried to get good EV's, and their pretty good, but not competitive enough I think. anyways, Palkia is very easy to catch. I never used more than 5 balls, or is it just me?

Anyways, great guide. I'm going to use it to catch those hard-to-catch legendaries with a catch rate of 3.
 
Blastburner said:
mm, I just caught palkia. I tried to get good EV's, and their pretty good, but not competitive enough I think. anyways, Palkia is very easy to catch. I never used more than 5 balls, or is it just me?

Anyways, great guide. I'm going to use it to catch those hard-to-catch legendaries with a catch rate of 3.
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Palkia is very easy to catch (Dialga for me anyway). Just don't expect the rest of the legendaries to be that easy (bar Shaymin perhaps, but it's not legally obtainable yet anyway). One thing is that I'm not 100% sure Cresselia and Mesprit actually have a Catch Rate of 3. I think it may in fact be closer to Dialga and Palkia's. Unless it was just me, I found that they were caught unusually quickly by Dusk Balls. Both of them. I may have just been lucky I suppose. If anybody else was crazy enough to use Dusk Balls on the runners, please post here and state your experiences with them.

Also, I'm glad my guide is a help to you, Blastburner. I'm also glad you bumped my thread, so I can announce this:

X-Act's Catching Formula has been added to the first section of the guide. This is for reference, and included due to popular demand. I'm also kind of glad that it's there; I've heard people saying Paralysis is better than Sleep because you have to keep maintaining it ... well it's not. Sleep has twice the effect as Paralysis would, and really, if you're not using Master Balls, you want to make this as easy as you can.
 
Very good guide... I'm using it to catch my Azelf. :)

Percent Chance to Capture = (( 1 + ( MaxHP * 3 - CurHP * 2 ) * CatchRate * BallRate * Status ) / ( MaxHP * 3 )) / 256

Ball Rates :

Dusk Ball = 4
Net Ball = 3
Ultra Ball = 2

Timer ball begins at 1 and increases every 10 turns, with a cap of 4. Quick Balls begin at 4, and decrease every 5 turns with a low of 1. Neither of these Balls exceed the rate of the Dusk Ball, and are somewhat more circumstantial.

Status :

Freeze : 10
Sleep : 10
Paralysis : 5
Burn : 5
Poison : 5
None : 1

Freeze and Sleep are tied for first, but there are no reliable Freezing moves at this point in time. So, Sleep is our best bet, and significantly higher than Paralysis. Paralysis is, as mentioned, much lower, and not worth it. A legendary should never be Burned or Poisoned, as they both essentially start a death clock with steady HP lowering.

The catch rates of the legendaries are 3, except for Manaphy, who is obtained in an Egg, Dialga and Palkia, who are 30, and Shaymin, which is 45.

Let's say we try and catch a Level 5 Max HP Magikarp with a Dusk Ball. Magikarp’s Catch Rate is 255.

((1 + ((18*3 - 18*2) * 255 * 4 * 1)) / (18*3)) / 256

= ((1 + (18 * 255 * 4 * 1)) / 54) / 256
= ((1 + 18360) / 54) / 256
= (18361 / 54) / 256
= 340 / 256
= 1.328125

Any decimal numbers were not shown, and simply rounded down.
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You're using my formula incorrectly. I fixed your numbers. :) Since the above number is greater than 1, the Pokemon will be caught for sure. Bolded text is what I changed. I don't know why you put the x10 honestly.
 
X-Act said:
Very good guide... I'm using it to catch my Azelf. :)



You're using my formula incorrectly. I fixed your numbers. :) Since the above number is greater than 1, the Pokemon will be caught for sure. Bolded text is what I changed. I don't know why you put the x10 honestly.
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The x 10 was supposed to be x 100, me making a rather large error there indeed. I thought the formula could be translated into % to capture, ie. 0.7 x 100 = 70%, over 1 = over 100%. I guess I left out the second zero XD Other than that, anything was just me being bad at maths. As you can probably tell from some of my numerical posts, and even the PMs I sent, I struggle with numbers, and screw up a lot.

Good luck catching your Azelf, and thanks for finding this formula in the first place! I also fixed the post of course.
 
i tried to catch mespirt with dusk balls i had to get it down to 1 hp adn sleeping before it got in the damn ball so i jsut used my masterball for cresslia
 
You ought to put Smeargle in your guide under the section involving pokemon that are good at catching wild pokemon. Smeargle is fantastic for cathing wild pokemon. Any wild pokemon. Admittedly it has bad stats but sketch gives it such versatility.

False Swipe and Hyper Fang never KO. Can't hit a ghost? Remedy it with Forsight.

Spore sends almost anything to sleep. Insomniacs are cured of thier sleeping disorder by Skill Swap.

Not hiting hard enough? Swords Dance

It packs all sorts of recover moves for if you have spent all you money on balls and have none left for recovery items.

If Smeargle isn't tough enough to do the damage, trick over a focus sash and bring out a hard hitter.

Heal Block comes in useful too against healing legendaries.

Traps fleeing pokemon with Spider Web and Mean Look.

Sunny Day/Rain Dance eliminate the benefitial effects the opponant may be getting or protects them from the likes of Dry Skin.



Smeargle is fantastic at catching wild pokemon. It can be customised for pretty much any prey. It has more uses that I already mentioned, but they have slipped my mind. I have been using Smeargle for a while and not one pokemon has ever escaped cature while it was on my team.
 
Are you sure that Mesprit can't appear in lakes? I swear I once encountered it while surfing on a very small lake in one of the routes.
 
X-Act said:
You're using my formula incorrectly. I fixed your numbers. :) Since the above number is greater than 1, the Pokemon will be caught for sure. Bolded text is what I changed. I don't know why you put the x10 honestly.
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The thing I was pointing out was, I was trying to catch a Magikarp-transformed Ditto with a Quick Ball on turn two, and it escaped. =/

And I do believe Mesprit has a catch rate of 3. I remember staring one down for about half an hour in the middle of the night before it decided to let a dusk ball catch it. It was a pain because I had to keep putting it to sleep and used a couple leppa berries to stock Spore's PP back up. >.<

Shineenigma: I use a level 50-ish Spore/False Swipe/Super Fang/Spider Web Smeargle. It's pretty frail for catching anything of that level though.
 
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