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Catching the Legendary Dogs FAQ

Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions

Version 1.02 ©2001 Written by Phil Erwin
Created: 7/28/2001 Last Updated: 10/5/2001

As anyone can attest to who has tried catching the three Legendary Dogs in Pokémon Gold/Silver, capturing them can be a Herculean task that takes on mythic proportions. It seems that capturing these Dogs was purposely designed to be impossible. Hair may be pulled out, things may get thrown about, and language most foul may be used.

This document describes my best solutions and suggestions to catching them without cheating. I have accomplished capturing all three, it only took the better part of an entire weekend to do it. Definitely the most difficult thing to accomplish in the game by far.

This FAQ will cover the following topics to help you:

• How the Dogs move from region to region. Most of the time it isn't random!
• What Pokéballs to use for maximum success.
• What kinds of Pokémon will you need?
• How do you capture them?
• Other advice, tips, and strategies.

It will take some time to get them and you may ask "Is it worth it?" In my opinion, most emphatically YES! They are arguably the most powerful of their types (Fire, Water, Electric) with powerful moves and excellent stats. And frankly, they look awesome!

Introduction

There are three Dogs of legend which are being held captive in the Burned Tower in Ecruteak City in the kingdom of Johto. (I've heard of them referred to as Cats also... I don't think that anyone knows exactly what they are but for the sake of argument I will refer to them as Dogs.) Their names are Entei, Raikou, and Suicune.

Capturing these mythical beasts is by no means easy. As a matter of fact it is a very challenging feat. Once freed, they move around the entire kingdom apparently at random in the blink of an eye. If you try to follow them they maddeningly slip around you in the grass. When you do encounter them and attempt to battle, they flee immediately. It's enough to make one go crazy!

Have faith, there is a method to catching them. There are even several factors that are in your favor.

• Any damage you do to the Dogs does not heal. So you can whittle their Health down slowly but surely. The lower their health the easier it is to capture them.
• Once you encounter each of them, they will show up on your Pokédex so you will always know where they are at any given time.

Legendary Dog Descriptions

The following table describes the attributes of each Dog and their movesets.

Raikou (#243)	Health Attack Defense S.Attack S.Defense Speed	131 80 77 108 96 98	Leer (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/30 pp) Reduces opponents defense by 1 Thundershock(Electric/Str 40/Acc 100%/30 pp) Paralyzes opponent (10% success) Quick Attack (Normal/Str 40/Acc 100%/30 pp) Always hits regardless of Speed rating Roar (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/20 pp) Makes the opponent flee
Entei (#244)	Health Attack Defense S.Attack S.Defense Speed	151 101 83 78 66 85	Leer (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/30 pp) Reduces opponents defense Ember (Fire/Str 40/Acc 100%/25 pp) Burns opponent (10% success) Fire Spin (Fire/Str 15/Acc 70%/15 pp) Traps opponent and attacks opponent for 2-5 rounds Roar (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/20 pp) Makes the opponent flee
Suicune (#245)	Health Attack Defense S.Attack S.Defense Speed	139 65 105 88 108 82	Leer (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/30 pp) Reduces opponents defense Water Gun (Water/Str 40/Acc 100%/25 pp) Water attack Gust (Flying/Str 40/Acc 100%/35 pp) Flying attack Roar (Normal/Str NA/Acc 100%/20 pp) Makes the opponent flee

Preparation

Like anything else, success is 90% preparation and 10% perspiration. Knowing what types of Pokéballs to use and what Pokémon you will need on your team puts you in the best possible position for success.

Free the Dogs

First you must free them from their captivity in the lower level of the Burned Tower. I won't put a spoiler here; you'll know when you've freed them from the Tower. It's not a difficult task.

Your key to tracking the Dogs is in using your Pokédex. Once you have encountered each one, they will have a Pokédex listing. Selecting Entei, Raikou, or Suicune and then Area will pull up a map of Johto and where the Dog is currently located. Other alternatives to get them listed in your Pokédex include:

• Trading the Dogs from a friend's game who has captured them.
• Battling a friend through the Game Link Center who has the Dogs in his party.
• Fighting a battle at the Trainers House in Kanto after battling a friend through the Game Link Center who has the Dogs in his party (as stated above).

What Balls To Use

Using the right Pokéballs is very important. Using the wrong ones can cause you to needlessly waste a lot of time and give you a headache. It is possible to catch the Dogs with any Pokéball - you might just have to throw about a hundred of them before you have success!

Most of those listed below are specialty balls available from Kurt in Azalea Town, which he creates from Apricorns that you supply to him.

I have created a table that once and for all answers the question of which balls are best to use for capturing the Legendary Dogs. This information was gathered using an emulator and many repetitive hours, but represents the most accurate data available.

Below is a list of all the balls and what their chance is (per use) of success. This success rate is valid only for a dog who has been reduced to 1 Health and is asleep. Note that the capture rates shown are specific for this condition and the effectiveness is also specific to the Dogs and not Pokémon in general.

Wrong

These balls listed below have proven to be pretty much useless.

Moon Balls (Yellow Apricorns) 5%. The capture rate for this is surprisingly high considering it's inappropriateness to the task. This should only be used on Pokémon who evolve using the Moon Stone.

Friend Balls (Green Apricorns) 4%. It's a nice thought that the Dog would instantly trust you using this ball, but it's happiness does not impact the game itself.

Lure Balls (Blue Apricorns) 3%. No surprise here, this ball is only effective against Pokémon caught with a fishing rod. What is a surprise is that you can catch a Legendary Dog with one at all, but you can!

Heavy Balls (Black Apricorns) 2%. Some may think that this ball would be effective since the dogs are large, but this is only good for very specific Pokémon (Golem, Onix, Gyrados, Lapras, Dragonite, Mantine, Lugia, and especially Snorlax).

Great Balls (600) 2%. Don't even think of using these, they're horribly ineffective for this task.

Level Balls (Red Apricorns) 1%. This data was gathered using a Pokémon who was 32nd level which is less than the 40th level of the Dogs. Level balls are only effective when you are higher level than your opponent, so it is no surprise that it was useless. When I get information about this ball at higher levels I will post it.

Park Balls (Given by Park Attendant) N/A. Included for completeness sake, you will never find a dog in the Park.

Right

There were four balls that tied for effectiveness.

Pokéballs (200) 7%. Common sense would say that these balls should be unworthy for the honor of catching these Dogs, but apparently this is not so. They work.

Ultra Balls (1200) 7%. These balls are effective too, but why spend 1200 when a normal Pokéball is just as good at a sixth of the price?

Fast Balls (White Apricorns) 7%. I have read that these balls are supposed to be ineffective except for Magnemite, Grimer, and Tangela Pokémon. This appears to be in error and should be disregarded. Fast balls are intended to be effective against Pokémon that attempt to flee often and that is exactly what the Dogs do. This ball works well.

Love Balls (Pink Apricorns) 7%. How weird. Love balls are intended to be used when you lead Pokémon is the opposite gender of your opponent. The Legendary Dogs are genderless so it would reason that this ball should not be useful. Well, it works just fine, so go figure.

Level Balls (Red Apricorns) This should be the best choice by far under certain circumstances-if your lead Pokémon (i.e. your Sleeper, see below) is level 81 or higher. With a Level Ball, if your level is greater than twice the Pokémon, it is four times as effective as a standard Pokéball and if your level is greater than four times the level of the Pokémon, then it is EIGHT times as effective as a Pokéball. If you choose to use these-since the Dogs are level 40-your Sleeper should be level 81 or more. Have at least 10 or 20 of these pokéballs, preferably more. This may not be feasible, though, because you can only get one per day from Kurt. Hopefully you'll have been stocking up on these.

Master Ball If you have earned the Master Ball and are looking for a use for it, you could use it on one of the Dogs. It is 100% accurate, all you have to do make the encounter and throw. In my view, I think I'd rather use it on Lugia or Ho-oh. This a decision only you can make.

Your Dogcatching Team

To maximize you chances for success, you need to put together a dedicated team of Dogcatchers. Their responsibility is to 1) reduce the Dog to 1 Health point and 2) put him to sleep. Then your job will be to throw your ball of choice to trap him.

Your team will consist of three Pokémon, referred to below as the Transporter, the Sleeper, and the Debilitater. It will be shown that it is possible to merge the duties of Sleeper and Debilitator into one Pokémon.

Each Pokémon will have specific moves necessary to accomplish its duties. Since each one can only learn certain moves, choosing the right types is paramount. A Pokémon may learn a move from 1) leveling up, 2) breeding the move, or 3) using a TM (Technical Machine). How each one learns the relevant skills is outlined in the table below.

The Transporter

This Pokémon will be responsible for moving you quickly around Johto. He must have the Fly move. This shouldn't be too difficult, you will most likely have such a Pokémon already by this time in the game. There are many choices for this, including Pidgeotto/Pidgeot, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Dragonite, Crobat, Murkrow just to name a few.

The Sleeper

The responsibility of the Sleeper is to get the first attack and put the Dog to sleep immediately. He will be your lead Pokémon located in slot number 1, the top slot of your party. He must have the following attributes:

• A high Speed rating of at least 100 or more. High Speed is crucial to getting the initiative of the first round in battle.

• Equipped with the Quick Claw for added insurance on getting the first strike.

• A sleep-inducing move to put the Dog to sleep. Moves like Sing and Hypnosis are good (55% and 60% accurate respectively) but you really want to go with a more accurate move such as Sleep Powder or Lovely Kiss (75% accurate). Ideally, the Spore move is the best (100% accurate!!!) but the only Pokémon that has that move is the Paras/Parasect which are LOW speed and generally unsuitable (but patient trainers might have a reward coming).

  Sleep Move	Accuracy
  Sing	55%
  Hypnosis	60%
  Lovely Kiss	75%
  Sleep Powder	75%
  Spore	100%

• Bonus: If your Sleeper Pokémon can learn Sweet Scent, go ahead and teach/breed the move. It isn't strictly required, but it can save a bit of running around in the grass. Just use the move and bring the Dog to you!

Jumpluff is a good choice for Sleeper.

The Debilitater

Your Debilitator's goal is attacking and weakening the Dog without knocking it out. Your ideal Debilitator will have the following abilities:

• The False Swipe move. This ensures that you leave him with at least one hit point and not make it faint.

• A high Attack score (since False Swipe is a normal-type attack). At least 100 should be the goal and the higher the better. You can go with a lower score but it will take that much longer to weaken the beast.

Scyther is a good choice for the Debilitator.

1. Move learned through gaining levels
2. Move is breedable
3. TM move

Ideally, it would be great to freeze them solid with Ice Beam or Blizzard, but you can end up killing him and that is definitely not good. If a Dog faints he won't come back and you'll have to turn the power off/on and start again. Sleep gives the same bonus to catching as Freezing and does not threaten a K.O., so Sleep is preferred. Do NOT Confuse the Dog with Confuse Ray or the like, as it doesn't add to the catch chance and he could K.O. himself.

There are other moves that are tempting to use such as Mean Look or Spider Web. These trap the Pokémon during battle and prevent them from running away. Unfortunately, all the Legendary Dogs know Roar which trumps Mean Look by making you run away! Nobody said this would be easy.

For Patient Trainers

It is possible to have one Pokémon that will act as both Sleeper and Debilitator, but it will take some work and patience. The advantage of a dual role of both is that you will not waste one round while you change from your Sleeper to your Debilitator.

Parasect would be the best choice for this double-duty uber-Pokémon. Unfortunately, it's below-average in Speed, topping out at only 158 at level 100. Because of Pokémon genes (these are also called DV's which you cannot see directly), you will be able to achieve a Speed of between 128 and 158 with careful training (i.e. no Rare Candies), which really isn't too bad. Discussion of genes is outside the scope of this document; see the Links section at the end for more information. Since Parasect can learn both False Swipe and Spore, he makes an ideal Sleeper/Debilitator.

In my experiments with Parasect, I achieved a Speed of 101 at level 64 (topping out at level 100 with a Speed of 156). Equipped with a Quick Claw, this made a formidable Sleeper/Debilitator. Incidentally, it also makes an unrivaled choice for entering the Bug Catching Contest with.

Method of Catching

Mastering the legendary beasts entails two grueling parts: encountering them and catching them. The following will hopefully make this ordeal as painless as possible.

Encountering

The Dogs blaze through the kingdom of Johto through the tall grasses seemingly at random. There is both randomness and method to their madness, however.

They move only in Routes, not cities, parks, caves, or anywhere else. These routes are numbered. The land of Johto ranges from Route 29 to Route 46. (Note: the Dogs will not enter Route 41, which is in the sea. Apparently they don't like to get wet!)

The Dogs change locations according to these rules:

• If you walk, ride your bike, or Surf to a new area, they will all move either one Route higher or one Route lower than the one they left (i.e. from Route 35 to either 36 or 34). Their movement will wrap from Route 46 to 29 and vice-versa. Whether they move one up or one down appears to be simply 50-50.

• If you Fly or Teleport, all their locations will be randomized.

• Infrequently, their locations will change randomly with no cause at all. This is designed to cause you to develop a premature ulcer.

• If you are in the same area as a Dog but do not encounter him after awhile, all the Dogs will move on to another area. The definition of awhile is unclear as of now. It is most likely a specific number of steps, but what that number is I do not know.

• If a Dog encounter ends without it being captured, all their locations will be randomized. This includes whiting out (all your Pokémon fainted), your RUNning, or being forced from battle with Roar.

• At the beginning of a game session all the locations are randomized. So, don't get the idea that you can SAVE the game when you are in the same area as a Dog and it'll be in the same place if you restart your game.

You will be using your Pokédex as a kind of radar to see what Route they are currently in. This begins a great cat-and-mouse game.

The goal is to move in such a way that you land in the same Route as the Dog at the same time. There are very few "tricks" to this, but there is a strategy. It is a little bit like chess, actually, in the choosing of moves. It does you ABSOLUTELY no good to be one route away from them (i.e. if Entei is in Route 36 and you're in Route 37, you're in a worthless position. He might as well be on the Moon.) This can be a source of great frustration because he appears to be so close. This is such an important concept, I'll say it again:

It does you absolutely no good to be one route away from a Legendary Dog!

Where you want to be is two routes away from him. Then you move one route closer to him and PRAY that he chooses to move one route closer to you. This will land you two in the SAME route at the same time. Each Route is numbered and it is the numbers that must be two away from each other. It makes no difference if the Dog indicator in your Pokédex appears close to your location. Routes 31 and 36 appear to be close to each other on the map, but they are numerically five away and might as well be a million miles from you.

Follow this logic to make you and the Dog be in the same area at the same time:

1. If you are not in the same area as the Dog, are you two Routes away? If so, move one Route closer to him.

2. If you aren't two Routes away, is it four? This is a potentially viable situation. Move one Route closer and see if he moved closer as well. If so, you will be two areas away and can go to Step 1.

3. If he's more than four Routes away, randomize his location by using Fly. Go to Step 1.

To keep things simple, it is highly recommended to focus on capturing only one Dog at a time. There is nothing wrong with checking the locations of all three, one at a time, in your Pokédex. In practice, however, you will get a rhythm going of check-the-Pokédex-move-check-the-Pokédex-Fly-check-the-Pokédex-move and it's harder to do that if you have to move the Pokédex pointer every time. If it doesn't bother you, though, do it! In the beginning you'll be three times as likely to purposely run into them.

Once you two are in the same Route together, jump in the grass and move around in it like crazy until you get an encounter (or use Sweet Scent if you have it). If the Dog is in the same Route as you, there's about a 10-20% chance per encounter that you'll meet him. Just RUN from the other encounters and keep it up.

I have read that you should have LOTS of Max Repels with you and to use them at this point to avoid all the low-level encounters you will get in the grass. They are okay to use as long as your Sleeper is not greater than 40th level. If your lead Pokémon is higher than 40th level, Max Repel will also repel the Dogs. I recommend going with the highest level Sleeper and Debilitator you have (because of the Speed advantages) and not use Max Repels. Also note that if you plan on using Sweet Scent, employing Max Repels is a waste of time. Sweet Scent forces a normal encounter of any-level Pokémon irrespective of any repellant being used. Use one or the other.

Periodically check your Pokédex because the Dog will eventually move somewhere else of it's own accord if you don't encounter it after awhile in one location.

I had pretty good luck hanging out in Route 37, which is just kitty-corner from Route 36 and just south of Ecruteak City. If I saw a Dog in Route 35 (two routes away) then I could easily move to Route 36. The same logic applied watching Route 39.

Battling

You've found him. He's right on your screen in all his glory, hooray and huzzah! Now all you have to do is capture him. You pretty much have one chance per encounter given the Dogs proclivity for fleeing. When you are battling one of the legendary Dogs, follow this procedure:

1. Use your best Sleep move and pray that it works. When he's (she's?) asleep,

2. If the Dog hasn't been completely weakened to 1 HP, switch to your Debilitator and slash it up as much as you can with False Swipe. If you want to live dangerously you can use other more powerful moves to knock it down quicker but you risk knocking it out. (If you do happen to knock it out, reset the power because they don't come back.) Use False Swipe exclusively when it's down to less than 25% of maximum hit points.

3. When it is asleep and has only 1 hit point, it is as good as it's going to get. Start throwing PokéBalls, Fast Balls, or Level Balls at it while invoking the sacred name of your preferred deity. It's just a matter of time and luck.

Note: I have read that holding pressing "Down" and the B-button simultaneously while the ball is thrown and bouncing helps to capture it. I have no corroborating evidence to substantiate this except for one thing: I had tried the better part of the afternoon with one Dog and spent about 50 Ultra Balls with no luck. When I started using the Down-B combination, I caught him on the fourth ball. Subsequently, though, I haven't seen it help whatsoever. It may be that his number was just up when I did that or there might be something to it, I don't know. That's the best I can offer.

Conclusion

The most important thing to this process is patience, patience, and more patience. Do not expect to capture them the first time. Or the second or third for that matter! I tried for half a day before I caught the first one. I caught the second one about ten minutes later. The third took about a day and a half. I have heard other people say it took them less time, some more. But I promise you one thing: you will surely feel a sense of accomplishment when you catch them all and without any cheats!

If you find yourself getting fatigued, take a break! Drink a soda, go for a bike ride, do your homework... go to sleep if you're like me and stayed determinably up past midnight!

Even after you catch them it will take quite a bit of effort to win them over so that they love and trust you (give them lots of vitamins and haircuts), but they are absolutely essential to the avid collector.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Advice

Any miscellaneous suggestions or advice is listed in this section.

Exhausting the Dogs PP is a bad idea. Since the Dogs' Health does not regenerate, it follows that none of their moves' PP will regenerate either. So, if you encounter a Dog and use Mean Look to trap him (which will require him to Roar to end the encounter) and accomplish this 20 times, then he will be out of Roars and be vulnerable to Mean Look. He would then be trapped in the encounter with you and you could simply throw ball after ball until he succumbs!

However tantalizing this prospect sounds, it's a bad idea and here's why. When any Pokémon completely runs out of moves (all PP's are at zero), it gets a special fifth move, Struggle.

So if you try to exhaust the Dog's Roars then in all probability you will be exhausting his other moves too. This would leave the Dog with very few or no moves at all. When he runs out of moves, he will Struggle, and since he has only 1 Health, he will K.O. himself. Furthermore, since you will have been saving the game up to this point, the Dog will have been saved in this utterly weakened condition. The only solution would be to start the game over from the beginning and no one wants that.

Commonly Asked Questions

Below are some frequently asked questions and their respective answers.

Is there any way to speed up the process? Not really. Capturing all three of the Dogs can take as little as a couple of hours or as long as an entire weekend. It depends primarily on your method of catching them. If you follow all the suggestions in this FAQ the catch time will be minimized.

I've released the Dogs from the Tower but I haven't seen one since. Be patient, continue playing and completing the goals of the game itself. The Dogs can be considered a "side-quest" anyhow; capturing them is not contingent to the story line of the game. You'll just happen to run into one every once in a while as you are searching for other Pokémon in the grass. Just be sure to continue searching in the grass wherever you may be or are going. Once you've encountered one it will then show up in your Pokédex and you'll be able to track and capture it at your leisure.

History

This section describes the history of this document.

Version 1.0 7/28/2001

• Version 1.0. Original document.
• Version 1.01. Added additional information about depleting Dog Roars with Mean Look (thanks to Uiru for the observations!). Added more detail to several sections. Added additional rules for causing Dog movement.
• Version 1.02. Added alternatives for getting the Dogs registered in the Pokédex. Detailed use of Sweet Scent. Overhauled the Pokéball effectiveness list section.

Links

To get more detail about some of the information provided in this document, here are some useful links. Information from these sites was invaluable for the creation of this FAQ.

Gamefaqs Pokémon Gold/Silver FAQs and Guides
This is one-shop shopping for FAQs covering almost every aspect of the game. Check out NickWhiz's Breeding Guide, which provides exhaustive information about breeding Pokémon, such as which Pokémon can breed with other Pokémon, all breedable moves, how long it takes to get and hatch an egg, where the baby's genes and stats come from, how to get Shiny Pokémon, etc. A priceless resource for Pokémon breeding.

Pokémon Catch Rate Formula
Describes the exact formula used to determine the percentage chance of catching a Pokémon based on its type, Health, status ailments, and type of Pokéball used.

Pokémon Base/Max Stats
Invaluable resource that details the Base and Maximum stats (Health, Attack, Defense, S. Attack, S. Defense, and Speed) for all final-evolution Pokémon.

Credits

Thanks to Judi for putting up with my frustrated tirades and incomprehensible babbling.

This FAQ ©2001 Phil Erwin.

Trademarks used herein are copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak Inc, Creatures Inc as applicable.

Contact Info

Feel free to email me if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, counter-points, or success stories. If you feel anything in this document is in error, let me know.

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© 2001 Phil Erwin All rights reserved.