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Java Games Fan Fiction Website LinksLatias & Latios Guide
Latias and Latios are the two legendary flying Pokémon made for Ruby & Sapphire. Latias is red and exclusive to Sapphire, Latios is blue is exclusive to Ruby, and you can choose only one of them in Emerald. As seen in the Ruby & Sapphire introductions, Latios is larger than Latias. Latias has a greater Defense and Sp.Defense than Latios, and Latios has a greater Attack and Sp.Attack than Latias. If you have seen Latias, you can earn a Watmel berry. If you have seen Latios, you can earn a Durin berry. If you have ever gotten an Eon Ticket for use with the e-Reader, you can take the ferry S.S. Tidal to Southern Island where you will find the Latias or Latios that was not originally included in your game.
It is needless to say that Latias and Latios are two very tough Pokémon to catch. It is very unlikely that you will catch them on your first sighting without using a Master Ball. I have made this guide to teach you how to catch Latias or Latios quickly and with only Ultra Balls. I will now be refering to Latias and Latios as "them" and "they", but remember that you will only be chasing one of them in your game.
Finding Latias/Latios
- They will only appear after you have beaten the Elite 4 and have viewed the downstairs TV in your house with a news report on people seeing a mysterious red or blue Pokémon flying accross Hoenn: Latias for Sapphire and Latios for Ruby.
- They will travel accross Hoenn by moving from route to route in a random and logical way. This movement takes place whenever you move into another area, including routes, towns, cities, buildings, caves, forests, ships, etc. Once you have encountered one before, you will be able to track it through your Pokédex by checking it's area information.
- They will only move to another route that is directly connected to the one they are currently on, passing through towns and cities that are in their way and always landing on a route. If a route/town/city has multiple exits to different routes, then they will choose one of them at random. For example, they can go from Route 118 to routes 110, 111, 117, 119, or 123. Mauville City acts as a conductor in that Latias/Latios is able to use it to get to routes 110, 111, and 117.
- They will teleport to a random route in Hoenn when you enter any buildings, caves, or forests, including the Safari Zone. This random teleportation occurs when entering, when exiting, and when changing rooms. They also teleport when you use certain moves outside of battle, including Fly, Dive, Dig, and Teleport.
- You may not move back and forward between two or three areas trying to make them move into your area. They will either mock your behavior by moving back and forward between two to three routes, or teleport to another random route.
- If you turn off or reset your game, then the next time you play it, they will start on another random route in Hoenn, maybe even the route you have saved on.
- Even if you are on the same route as them while diving, you won't find them under the water. It is illogical and I've already tried it (seriously).
- When you are finally on the same route as them, you will need to encounter two random Pokémon in the tall grass or while surfing. Latias or Latios will be the second Pokémon you encounter. Its not the first Pokémon because they don't want you to find it by mistake while you were just passing through. I guess its not the third+ Pokémon because they don't want you to be in the dark when trying to find it.
Catching Latias/Latios
- They will always run away from battle if they have the chance. The only way to prevent them from escaping is by using a Pokémon with the Shadow Tag ability or using a Pokémon with the Mean Look move. You can temporarily stop them from escaping by putting them to sleep or freezing them.
- They will keep any damage and status effects that you have given them in previous encounters, including the same amount of PP for all of their moves. Do not try to use Toxic on them. Do not try to poison them or burn them or you will most likely kill them by mistake. This is okay if you plan to heal their status problems using Haze.
- Don't use your Master Ball catching these Pokémon. You're better off using your Master Ball for Rayquaza or another much tougher Pokémon.
- I'm not sure if the Timer Ball's round count will work on a Latias/Latios that has escaped many times from battle. Just to be on the safe side, don't count on it.
My Strategy
Catching Latias and Latios is quite easy if you think about the rules that I described above. All you really need is a Pokémon who knows False Swipe and a Pokémon who knows a move such as Sing or Sleep Powder. Both Pokémon will need to be quicker than the level 40 Latias/Latios. Good examples of these Pokémon are Sceptile and Altaria that are above level 55. The Swablu that you can recieve in Pokémon Box RS has both Sing and False Swipe and is the absolute best Pokémon you can use for catching any wild or legendary Pokémon. Finally, you will need at least 20 Ultra Balls.
Go to any route with a building, forest, or cave that you can enter and exit from. Move around and try to encounter 2 random Pokémon, just run away from them instead of wasting your time fighting them. If you don't see Latias or Latios in the 2nd random battle, then go into that building/forest/cave and come back out to try two random battles again. Eventually you will see Latias or Latios for the first time and you will now be able to track it down wherever it goes. Even though you know its going to run away, use a faster Pokémon to try to bring its HP as low as possible without making it faint. Anything that will put it below half HP is just fine.
Now you are going to have to track them down many times by running around Hoenn trying to cut them off, or you can keep doing the enter & exit trick I that just showed you, substituting random battles for checking your Pokédex. You probably won't get onto the same route as them if there is a forest or cave seperating you, or if they are on the route right next to yours. Again, even though they will run away after you have done your move, keep trying to False Swipe them until they are left with only 1 HP. When they only have 1 HP left, use your other Pokémon to put them to Sleep and then keep throwing Ultra Balls at them.