Pokemon: 7 Hardest Mythical Pokemon To Catch In The Franchise

These days, it’s relatively easy to catch Mythical Pokemon in the series of games, whether you’re playing a mainline Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch or wandering around with Pokemon Go. Before Generation 6, however, Mythical Pokemon were often not widely released outside of specific, limited event distributions, including some location-specific events, meaning they were often nigh impossible to get your hands on unless you were lucky (or knew how to hack the Pokemon into your game).

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Thankfully, Mythical Pokemon aren’t quite as limited to attain nowadays thanks to online global distributions and the appearances of more Mythical Pokemon in newer, more accessible games, though that doesn’t mean some of them are any easier to catch! This article will be covering the most difficult Mythical Pokemon to catch within the games, from early generation OGs to some newer Switch appearances.

7 Celebi

Still Difficult To Obtain, Even Now

Pokemon Gold and Silver

Systems

Released: October 14, 2000
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Limited to specific in-person events in the 2000s
Became more widely available through online events starting from Pokemon X and Y
Easier to get in Pokemon Go than in most main-series titles

Celebi is a Mythical Pokemon that only really became easily accessible in the last few years, being incredibly difficult to get your hands on before that — even in its original Generation 2 titles — unless players had access to rare time and location-limited events, a Virtual Console release of Pokemon Crystal, or the very specific Japanese Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc and the associated Japanese console necessary to play it. Thanks to Pokemon Go — the usual success story for the boost in accessibility for Mythicals in recent years — Celebi is now fairly easy to get your hands on in Pokemon Go… though this doesn’t necessarily mean Celebi is still a walk in the park to get in full Pokemon games on console.

While Celebi first became common within online distributions back in 2016 for X and Y, even these distributions weren’t fully global events, and Celebi was only available to those in Europe and America. Even when it comes to online distributions now, the last time Celebi was obtainable in an event was in a 2022 event for Sword and Shield. That means Celebi is unobtainable in the last two main-series games, Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet. Alongside this, the only way Celebi can be transferred into certain main-series console games through Pokemon Home from Go is if players somehow already have a Celebi in those games, defeating the point of transferring Celebi in the first place. All in all, Celebi is one difficult Pokemon to get your hands on, even today.

6 Jirachi

Easy To Get — As Long As You Have Other Games, That Is

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

Systems

Released: March 19, 2003
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Initially released in Gen 3’s Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
Only available at first through two GameCube spin-off games
Now available in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl — as long as you also have Sword or Shield

Jirachi is yet another Pokemon that, until very recently, was a nightmare to get your hands on. Despite being a Generation 3 Pokemon, Jirachi was initially only available in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire to players who either had a US-exclusive Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc or to players with a Europe-exclusive copy of Pokemon Channel, a niche GameCube game that had players watch short videos. Both of these methods required players to both own and fully beat an entirely separate game. Beyond this, Jirachi was also occasionally available through limited events, some easily accessible and others very rare, though Jirachi had no distribution events whatsoever between 2018 and 2022.

Unfortunately, even today, Jirachi still requires players to have purchased another game to be able to get their hands on it — at least in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Players can only get Jirachi in a special Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl event if they have save data on their system from Sword and Shield. At the very least, this time, you don’t need to have completed the entire game first.

5 Manaphy

Ever Played Pokemon Ranger?

Pokemon Ranger

Systems

Released: October 30, 2006

Originally only accessible through Pokemon Ranger
Occasionally appeared in location-limited, exclusive online events
Thankfully, it is much easier to obtain today thanks to Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl‘s Manaphy was an incredibly tedious Pokemon to obtain back when it originally came out if you weren’t fortunate enough to be able to access its rare location-based events in Japan, America, or South Korea. To get their hands on a Manaphy, players would also have to own a copy of any of the Pokemon Ranger games and fully complete whichever game they have to get their hands on a Manaphy egg, which could then be transferred to Diamond or Pearl. This still works now, except only the first Ranger game still allows transferring between games, and players are limited to one single Manaphy per copy of Ranger — even if they reset their Ranger game after transferring their first Manaphy.

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In later games, Manaphy was somewhat easier to obtain through online events starting from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, though these events were still very limited. It wasn’t until Pokemon: Legend Arceus‘ release that Manaphy finally became easily obtainable in a main-series game; Legends Arceus features Manaphy (and its evolution, Phione, which can only be accessed in earlier games through breeding your Ranger-transferred Manaphy) in a certain quest that allows you to battle and capture several of these elusive Pokemon in one go.

4 Mew

May As Well Be Hiding Under A Truck

A screenshot of Mew floating in the sky in the Pokemon anime.

Pokemon Red and Blue

Systems

Released: September 28, 1998
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Possibly the first Pokemon GameFreak used to test in-person distributions in the 90s
Available mostly through in-person events for two decades
Players had to download a WiiWare game called My Pokemon Ranch to get it during Gen 4

Mew didn’t really become accessible until recently, but its availability is still surprisingly dependent on having played through certain side games. This included a strange WiiWare game called ‘My Pokemon Ranch,’ intended as a companion game for owners of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Even back in the 90s, it was especially shockingly hard to get — in fact, its first distribution event was limited to a tiny number of Japanese players through a distribution method that was then considered very experimental. Mew’s scarcity was part of the reason why so many rumors appeared about how to get it.

Getting your hands on Mew became a little easier with the introduction of Hoenn thanks to the Faraway Island event, though this remained an exclusive event in Japan and Taiwan. However, in 2007, Mew did get global distributions in select locations for short periods of time. Availability became a lot better in the 2010s thanks to games like Pokemon Go and the rise in online distributions in the main series of games. Nowadays, Mew can be caught in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl if the player has save data from Pokemon Let’s Go: Eevee or Pikachu.

3 Magearna

Better Get Catching ‘Em All

Pokemon Sun and Moon

Released: November 18, 2016

Regular Magearna is at least easier than most others on this list to catch
Can be caught in Alola thanks to a special QR code
Original Color Magearna is easily one of the most difficult Pokemon to get in Pokemon history

Magearna is a slightly niche and somewhat forgettable Pokemon for most players, being a Mythical that first appeared in Pokemon Sun and Moon‘s Alola region. As a Mythical, it had the typical special release associated with most Mythicals, as it could only be accessed through a region-specific QR code that players would have to scan with their 3DS camera. Thankfully, these codes are still available to find and still work despite the 3DS’ Wi-Fi functions being shut down. This is the only time Magearna has ever been distributed, still making it a fairly rare Pokemon to have in your Dex.

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However, for hardcore Pokedex completionists, Magearna is something like the final boss of Pokemon catching. Magearna has a special ‘Original Color’ form that can only be received once every single Pokemon up to Eternatus is registered on Pokemon Home. Its special form only changes in color, with its coloration changing to resemble that of a Pokeball. Filling the Dex up to Eternatus is a difficult enough task as it is, as players will need to have access to event-exclusive Mythical Pokemon from years prior. That being said, this task used to be even harder — originally, players needed to have an entire living Dex saved in Pokemon Home before Original Color Magearna was unlocked!

2 Darkrai

This Nightmare Pokemon Is Also A Nightmare To Catch

pokemon-fan-art-paradox-darkrai-iron-singularity-feb-2024

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl

Systems

Released: April 22, 2007
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Originally available in Gen 4, but only through a limited event
Now more readily available, including as a special Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Has one of the lowest catch rates of any Pokemon

Darkrai was initially distributed through Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. In Platinum, players could catch it by visiting Newmoon Island through a special Wi-Fi event item called the Member Card. Strangely, though Darkrai and its event were coded into Diamond and Pearl, the Member Card was never officially distributed outside of Platinum, leaving the event inaccessible in those games without cheats. Instead, Diamond and Pearl players could only get Darkrai through a movie-related, in-person distribution event.

Beyond the Gen 4 games, Darkrai could only be obtained if players could go to in-person events or receive physical distribution codes. It wasn’t until Pokemon Legends: Arceus that Darkrai made an appearance in a main series game without being attached to a distribution event of some sort, meaning Darkrai was all but impossible to catch for over a decade. However, as with many other Mythicals covered here, this special appearance is once again only possible if players have save game data for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Alongside all of this, Darkrai has one of the lowest catch rates of any Pokemon seen in the games, having only a 1.6% base rate chance of being caught.

1 Generation 6 Mythicals

Only One Has Had A Recent Distribution

Pokemon X and Y

Systems

Released: October 12, 2023
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Kalos’ Mythicals were initially only distributed in events
Only Volcanion had a recent event during 2022 in Sword and Shield
Diancie hasn’t had an online distribution since 2015

Kalos’ three Mythical Pokémon are some of the rarest Mythical Pokemon available to the series, even in today’s era of readily-available Mythical and Legendary distributions. All three of them were originally only distributed through regional, limited events, and despite the emergence of online distribution events making once-rare Pokemon much easier to get your hands on, the only one of these three to have a relatively recent event is Volcanion, which was distributed in Sword and Shield back in 2022. Hoopa did have some special distribution events in Sun and Moon in particular, but Diancie has not had a single distribution event for nearly a decade, since Generation 7’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This also means that Diancie is now impossible to trade out of X and Y due to Pokemon Bank closing down alongside the 3DS’s Wi-Fi capabilities.

However, all three of these Pokemon are available in Pokemon Go, meaning that they can be traded from Go to Home, and then into a mainline game. Of course, catching these Pokemon in the main series games is much different to catching them in Go. With the much anticipated release of Pokemon Legends: Z-A hopefully coming soon, maybe these three will soon make a reappearance for the first time in a very long time. We can only hope!