Roaming legendaries

[Sheep]

Roaming legendaries are ones you have to explore the overworld under certain conditions to encounter. Some of them only show under a certain time of day/weather, others need to be encountered a certain amount of times before they can be caught, and others flee on the first turn when encountered. Here's a list of roamers.

Did you like catching roaming Pokémon? What did you think of the fleeing roamers from gens II and III? (Since they fled on the first turn, anyone else used Mean Look or a method like that to catch them? Or did you just use the Master Ball? :D)

 

[fir3princ3ss]

I love the roaming Pokemon! Mainly thinking of the Gen II ones. I remember accidentally coming across them while training various Pokemon in post game. I would try and chip away at their health as I came across them because I hadn't known about mean look or similar methods to keep them in one spot. I had already used my master ball on Suicune so couldn't just throw that for either of the roaming legendaries. I do think I eventually ended up catching them both, just took ages!

 

[Raticate128]

Gen 2 springs to mind mainly for me also.

I didn't like roaming legendaries at first because thought they were almost impossible to catch without a Master Ball. Over time I grew to like them though. I enjoy raising Pokemon with Mean Look, False Swipe, and a Sleep move, and using them to whittle roaming legendaries down over the course of several battles. Then finally catching them. Nowadays I never use the Master Ball.

It's a good sidequest that gives you a sense of achievement when you finally catch them. :)

 

[Valroxen]

I like them yea, it can be irritating to catch them sometimes but the uniqueness of it is something to admire

 

[Pokedream.su]

I wouldn't mind them if they weren't broken in some games, like them using roar to never show up again.

 

[Duck]

I like the concept but not sure I like the execution.

For one, some things like "oops, that sleeping Pokémon just slept-ran from your sorry self" don't make a lick of sense. The fact that it'll still be sleeping even if like a week has passed makes for even less.

I think the way the Galarian birds were implemented is a better way to do it. They scamper to different parts of the world, they'll run from you in the overworld so you need to use some thinking in engaging in the encounter but after you start the encounter it behaves as a normal battle.

 

[Sydian]

roamers need to stop being a thing lol it's just annoying. i like how the galarian birds were done in the crown tundra dlc at least bc like you can SEE the birds roaming and they have specific patterns to keep you on your toes about it. and they're in specific areas rather than roaming the entirety of the region. but like mesprit, latixs, genies, etc. y'all suck. pick a location damn

also can we talk about how in hgss, entei, a whole ass fire type, can show up on the water????? sir????? this is an arby's

 

[Megan]

I managed to catch all the roamers in SoulSilver. It involved a lot of route changing and ball throws but eventually I got all of them. There is a feeling of accomplishment, however, these encounters heavily rely on RNG which is why I can see why people don't like them.

I don't like the way gen 6 handled it by making them fly away immediately until you encountered them an arbitrary amount of times. At least the actual battle was straightforward.

Personally, I think the most interesting way I've seen so far (ignoring gen 8 because I haven't played them) is Suicune in Crystal. You'll encounter it in the overworld and it'll run immediately, but at least it is accompanied by a story bit, most of the time. So even if it runs, at least you get a little bit of something. And of course the actual encounter is pretty straightforward, as well.

 

[Lordecoxinha]

I remember being 11 and clueless, wondering why that Latias in Emerald was running from me.

I like the concept though.

 

[colours]

part of me misses roaming legends, but then the other part of me is like "roaming legendaries sounds like a pain in the ass to shiny hunt for", so.... :x

i mean, conceptually they're really cool!! it was just really annoying back then for me to fly here and there and everywhere to keep up with the roaming legends back then. x.x haven't had much experience with the birds in CT, though i liked Articuno's double team thing!

 

[Zeostar]

It's nice to have something to toss my masterball at.

 

[Sheep]

It's nice to have something to toss my masterball at.

lol yeah, this was me years ago... then I stopped liking the way it looks. much pickier about what I catch things I plan to use in now @_@

 

[Roni]

yeah i'd keep the Master Ball around for a roamer should there be one. first one i ever encountered was a Latias in Emerald and was super shocked lol.

i try to get Raikou whenever i can in HGSS bcs i love that specific dog for some reason.

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

Yeah I liked how it was setup in early games, where their health stayed the same.

It was fun-nnoying, it made sense they wouldn't fight you unless you made them fight, they just want to explore the world.

But it made it better that we actually had options for trapping them, if we were fast enough. that's why i had my trusty haunter, and later crobat.
Haunter served double duty in putting them to sleep.

Never got to use my masterball the first time, actually I can't even remember what game this was, but I remember I had fallen asleep playing, woke up and saw this awesome rare pokemon, or I was just flipping through the menu too fast and hit the master ball by accident....

you ever try to reach through a screen to try to stop something horrible from happening? yeah that was me, even worse it was wasted because


"the trainer blocked the ball, hey what do you think you're doing"

It was a trainer battle.

 

[Lysander]

Not really a big fan of roaming legendaries, can easily get tedious trying to catch them without a Master Ball

 

[TheClassyHerddIer]

I think its a fun challenge when you know what to do I didn't know you had to use mean look until my friend told me. I thought the only way was with a master ball

 

[Gardevoir1]

I always thought they were annoying because they kept fleeing and I could only get a single ball in before they ran away, making me do a ton of work to find them again. Didn't know about mean look / other moves back when I was young so I just ran in and out of routes blindly trying to find latios

 

[ReKoil]

The hunting them down part was the most annoying to me. Switch back n forth between routes over & over and check if it's on the route or not. This could take a really long time if unlucky. Don't really have a problem with how you encountered them/caught them. I did use mean look though.

 

[PokemonPotatoHero]

3 dogs, so tough to catch as they have roar