Legendary Pokemon: how to find and catch

Legendary Pokémon are the one thing in the game with a hard gate: all 48 Gym badges and a Legend Ball.

Last checked: 7 November 2026. The badge rule, the 5 in 1,001 spawn chance, the map legends and the Legend Ball rule were checked against the game code on 7 November 2026. Maintained by the Pokémon Dusk Reborn team. Spotted a mistake? Tell us in #bugs-and-errors on Discord.

The three rules

1. You need all 48 Gym badges. Below that, the map never rolls a legendary for you. The map screen tells you whether you have enough.
2. It has to be a map with a legendary. Each map has its own, listed below. A map with none never spawns one.
3. You need a Legend Ball. The battle refuses any other ball, including a Master Ball, and tells you so before a ball is used. The Legend Ball is sold at Mart Co. for $10,000,000 in Items [Cash], or 800 coins in Items [Coins].

The odds

Every time the map decides that something turns up, there is a 5 in 1,001 chance that the encounter is that map's legendary instead of a normal wild Pokémon, which works out to about 1 in 200. Most steps do not turn anything up, so plan on a lot of exploring. The finding items guide explains how often the map makes that decision.

Which map has which legendary

Before you go

• A legendary battle is a catch like any other, so weaken it carefully and keep it alive. See how to catch a Pokémon.
• Missingno. in the Safari Zone is the exception: it cannot be caught at all.