4th Gen Over specialise, breed weakness, The 3 dogs.

[Runeaddyste]

I don't know if this has occured for anyone else in Silver, Gold, Crystal, Soul Silver or Heart Gold, but I seem to have a hell of a lot of trouble catching the 3 Dogs. This is my louge on HG on catching these beasts.

Suicune: set battle near Bill's house. Thrown 39 Ultra balls and 1 Timer before Capture.

Reikou: Area's battled include Route 37 and route 28. Escaped 32 times before using Haunter to hold him in battle. Used False swipe with Farfetch'd 8 times. Caught 2 battles after putting him to sleep 1st and only time. Reason for not catching before: ran out of balls. Total Ultra balls thrown - 79. total Quick balls thrown - 12.

Entei: Area's battled include routes 30, 35, 36 and 37. Escaped 40 times before using Haunter to hold him in battle. Used cut from lvl 57 Feraligatr once and 3 False swipes from Farfetch'd. Still haven't caught despite 1hp and paralysis taking hold. Total Ultra balls thrown - 92, total Quick balls thrown - 8.

I know it seems a bit anal that I louged everything down, but this does have a purpose. I want to see how much time I've wasted compared to everyone else. For those who used ActionReplay to get the Dogs, don't comment on this.

 

[Oblivion Wing]

well it took me a while to get raiku, i lowered his hp, put him to sleep, and i mean look him and it took me 12 battles, 34 masterballs. Entei i did the same thing, and used 22 ultra balls, and suicune i didn't even bother so i used a master ball. Lugia is the one that gave me the hard time, he ran out of moves and used struggle so he died on the spot, so i had to turn off/turn on and battle him 3 times till a master ball catched him (and i got soul silver so lv. 40).

 

[Johto Contender]

I've False Swiped all three of them, and it took me: 35 pokeballs, 7 premier balls, 10 great balls, 10 Ultra Balls, a fast ball, a quick ball, 2 dive balls, and 3 net balls. Ugh, it took ten minutes to catch it, and that was JUST SUICUNE!! The other two are at 1 hp, but refuse to be caught :(

 

[teejermiester]

The Dogs

I caught suicune with like, five ultra balls, but then I went to the store, bought 150 ultra balls, and went to catch the dogs. So far, I have only caught raikou, and entei has wasted another ~200. It's just rediculous.

I used my Crobat to mean look them, then false swiped them with my scyther.

 

[polkop]

I've False Swiped all three of them, and it took me: 35 pokeballs, 7 premier balls, 10 great balls, 10 Ultra Balls, a fast ball, a quick ball, 2 dive balls, and 3 net balls. Ugh, it took ten minutes to catch it, and that was JUST SUICUNE!! The other two are at 1 hp, but refuse to be caught :(

I don't want to deceive you, but if you fail to catch a Suicune with PPOKEBALL, GREAT BALL, FAST BALL and DIVE BALL, it is totally normal. It is almost impossible to catch the dogs with those pokeball. (Except the fast ball for Raikou)

For myself, I have kind of the opposite problem.
I walk, Entei appear. I use Mean Look, he can't escape. Before I catch him, I trew my pokeball because I don't want them in my bag anymore.Once I don't have anymore pokeball, I catch tthem in the first other kind of pokeball I threw to them, even if my only goal is to waste my pokeball. I always catch them rapidly.

 

[Pikachu3828]

Actually I didn't have much trouble with the legendary dogs (or any roaming Pokémon actually) in Heart Gold. It's unusual as normally I hate roaming Pokémon with a passion as I really struggle to catch them (Gold, Diamond)

Here are my times:

Raikou: Caught on first encounter with Quick Ball

Suicine: About 10 Dusk/Ultra Balls

Entei: Took about 3 encounters to get it paralysed and damaged enough and then about 4 Dusk balls.

 

[Daydream]

I didn't have much trouble with Suicune and Entei, I got them both on flukes with a Dusk Ball and Quick Ball respectively. Raikou took a bit longer, but eventually caught him with a fast ball.

But I quite like the challenge of catching Legendaries, and the added challenge when it's a Roamer.

 

[dieter57]

i don't like aimlessly running around the world trying to capture two pokemon i will never use.
so i just got a couple of master balls from my bros game and boxed them.
i actually did try for my latios. caught with a moon ball.