All Legendary Pokemon in FireRed/LeafGreen: Locations, Tips, and Strategies

Everyone loves Legendary Pokemon, which gives players some excitement when catching them. There’s always a sense of accomplishment when you get at least one legendary in the game that you’re playing. 

We’ve made this guide about all Legendary Pokemon in FireRed/LeafGreen to keep new and returning players on their toes when trying to capture the games’ rarest and toughest mons.

These games have Gen 1 Legendary Pokemon, including some new ones.

We’ll give you a lot of nice information and other things you’ll need when it comes to hunting down these Pokemon. Think of it as a cheat sheet, in case you forgot where they are and how to battle them.

Other Related Topics

• Pokemon Emerald Legendary Locations
• 10 Most Powerful Legendary Pokemon
• Pokemon FireRed Legendary Pokemon Cheats
• PokeMMO Legendary Hunting

What Are Legendary Pokemon?

As most of you might’ve already known by now, Legendary Pokemon is often described as a powerful Pokemon in the franchise’s lore. 

These Pokemon are often mysterious and elusive. There’s always only one of them that you can catch per game, and sometimes they are version-exclusive and rarely appear in the sequel games.

In of gameplay, not every legendary excels in Pokemon battles. It all depends on how the player builds the Pokemon, anyway. One thing’s for sure, some Legendary Pokemon have exclusive moves.

Preparations for Legendary Hunting

Before you head out and start hunting, a lot of these Legendary Pokemon can only be accessed once you progress the story at a certain point. Don’t worry, as the Legendary Pokemon will stay in their location if you progress or finish the main story. 

We’ll tell you the earliest possibility when you can fight these Legendaries.

Always stack up on Poke Balls and Ultra Balls if you’re able to do so. Don’t forget about the Repels when you don’t want the struggles of random encounters as you’re climbing up the Legendary’s respective location.

Maybe bring some healing items as well, but healing your Pokemon isn’t a top priority. As long as you have a full team and catch the Legendary, you’ll be fine. 

Have a Pokemon as well that knows Fly or Surf and others that we’ll mention in each guide. Always save first before engaging the Legendary, so that you’ll just load the save file again.

All Legendary Pokemon in FireRed/LeafGreen

We’ll give a detailed guide on how you can get each legendary that can be caught in the game naturally. 

At the very least, this is where you don’t have to do anything outside of the game like connecting to something else.

Articuno

Type: Ice/Flying
Level: 50
Location: Seafoam Islands
Moves: 

• Mist (Ice)
• Agility (Psychic)
• Mind Reader (Normal)
• Ice Beam (Ice)

Guide for Catching Articuno in FR/LG:

Getting to the Seafoam Islands can be done very early after you beat Gym Leader Koga. Surf from Route 19 (South) to Route 20 where the Seafoam Islands are located. 

The location itself is a puzzle and you need Pokemon that has STRENGTH and SURF. You need Strength to move the rocks and Surf to get to Articuno. 

Stock up on some Ice Heals as well because you might need them. The Seafoam Islands is a bit of a puzzle, so be patient with it.

Battle Strategy:

If your starter is Charmander, then having a Charizard with a strong Fire move is your best friend. 

Articuno is weak to Fire and Charizard is resistant to Ice. Ice Beam is Articuno’s only offensive move, so you won’t have problems using Charizard unless it gets frozen.

Other good Fire-types like Arcanine (FireRed only) and Ninetails (LeafGreen only) are good.

Rock moves are the most effective against Articuno. The only problem is that most s of this move type are weak to Ice. 

For instance, Pokemon like Graveler (Golem if you have one), Onix, and Rhyhorn/Rhydon are not very good against Ice. You may be able to blast Articuno with strong Rock moves, but they can also get punished as well.

It wouldn’t hurt if you send them out first and if they faint, just switch until you’re ready to set up the field for your Fire-type Pokemon.

Don’t bother reducing Articuno’s stats if Mist is active, since stats won’t be reduced if this is up.

Avoid inflicting Articuno with damage-dealing status conditions like Burn and Poison if you want to capture it.

On the other hand, having a Pokemon with Electric moves can be good as well, like Raichu or even just a Magneton.

Moltres

Type: Fire/Flying
Level: 50
Location: Mt. Ember
Moves:

• Fire Spin (Fire)
• Agility (Psychic)
• Endure (Normal)
• Flamethrower (Fire)

Guide for Catching Moltres in FR/LG:

Mt. Ember is accessed when you head to One Island. To the right side, just use Surf, head north, and you’ll be in Mt. Ember. 

You need a Pokemon with STRENGTH so that you can push the rocks. Climbing up Mt. Ember isn’t as hard as going down the Seafoam Islands, so you’ll be good. 

Bring some Burn Heals just in case because Moltres can Burn your Pokemon.

Battle Strategy:

In this fight, the Rock Pokemon can excel like Graveler or Golem, if you have one. Onix or any other Pokemon that can use Rock moves, since Moltres receives x4 damage from Rock. 

The Rock Pokemon are also resistant to Fire moves, so it’s an easy ride for you.

If Squirtle is your starter, then a pumped-up Blastoise with strong Water moves like Surf or Hydro Pump can make a short work of Articuno.

Any other Water Pokemon can do like Starmie or Gyarados are good enough since they are resistant to Fire.

Electric Pokemon can also pull out some good damage due to the Flying-type of Moltres that is weak to Electric. 

Moltres itself doesn’t have punishing moves, so Endure is actually helpful for your case. 

When it has Endure up, feel free to hit it since it will not die right away, leaving it with 1 HP. This provides you the chance to catch it.

Zapdos

Type: Electric/Flying
Level: 50
Location: Power Plant
Moves:

• Thunder Wave (Electric)
• Agility (Psychic)
• Detect (Fighting)
• Drill Peck (Flying)

Guide for Catching Zapdos in FR/LG:

Getting to the Power Plant is easy, simply Surf from Route 10 all the way to the South. The Power Plant itself isn’t that hard to navigate since there are no obstacles. 

It’s just a maze where Zapdos is in the same room. Stock up on a lot of Paralyze Heals because Zapdos can be a pain with its Paralyzing moves.

Battle Strategy:

In this fight, the Electric Pokemon aren’t ideal due to Zapdos’ resistance against those moves.

Rock-type Pokemon with Rock moves are ideal. That is because despite Zapdos being an Electric type, it doesn’t have any Electric damaging move. 

Thunder Wave does guarantee Paralysis, which is why Paralyze Heal is needed.

Zapdos’ moveset includes Drill Peck, which is not very effective against Rock-type Pokemon. Strong Rock moves can easily take out Zapdos unless Detect is up which functions like Protect. 

Rock moves will do x4 moves on Zapdos, so make sure the hits count. Having Ground Pokemon like Nidoking and Nidoqueen can be good for negating Paralysis.

Nidoking and Nidoqueen can also learn Rock moves like Sand Storm and Rock Tomb. These may not deal tremendous damage, but they are good for shaving off Zapdos’ HP until it’s ready to be caught.

Mewtwo

Type: Psychic
Level: 70
Location: Cerulean Cave
Moves:

• Swift (Normal)
• Recover (Normal)
• Safeguard (Normal)
• Psychic (Psychic)

Guide for Catching Mewtwo in FR/LG:

Going to the Cerulean Cave is easy because you just need to Surf west of Cerulean City. 

You can only access this cave after you’ve beaten the Elite Four (Main Story) and handed the Sapphire to Celio in One Island. 

You can also bring a Pokemon with Rock Smash and more importantly, with SURF.

The real pain here is going down where Mewtwo is. Even though there are only three floors, you’ll be moving around everywhere to get to Mewtwo. 

Pack up some Max Repels, healing items, and a ton of Poke Balls. Enemies in the Cerulean Cave can go as low as level 48 and as high as level 65.

Battle Strategy:

Mewtwo is going to be hard as hell. Psychic is strong enough to knock out at least one of your Pokemon. 

You should always have a Pokemon above level 70. The good news is that Psychic only has around 10PP. Maybe Mewtwo will run out of it, so Swift is your next problem, which is a priority move.

Unfortunately, most of Mewtwo’s weaknesses aren’t very accessible or good, such as Bug and Dark-type moves. 

Haunter and Gengar can perhaps damage Mewtwo, but Psychic will also annihilate them. If you can afford to teach Shadow Ball to a Pokemon like Snorlax, then that can give you a fighting chance.

Your best bet here is to somewhat fight defensively. Mewtwo is just one Pokemon, but its move Recover move may cause trouble and prolong your struggle.

Aside from Shadow Ball, bombard it with your strongest moves. Using Yawn can be good because even if Mewtwo has Safeguard on, it will still fall asleep. 

If all else fails, use the Master Ball on it right away.

Legendary Trio

These three Legendary Pokemon can be obtained once all requirements are fulfilled below. 

It is also important to note that only one of them can be encountered and caught depending on which Starter Pokemon you chose. 

They function the same when they are encountered in the wild by random chance. Don’t worry, we’ll be guiding you along the way.

Requirements for catching the Trio 

1. The Elite Four should be defeated.
2. The National PokeDex should be obtained.

Once both of these conditions are met, the Trio, or in this case one of them will start roaming around the Region of Kanto. 

You will encounter them at random in the tall grasses. They do not appear in caves or enclosed areas even if they have encounters. 

Listed below are tips on how you can encounter them:

• Stock on a lot of Max Repels.
• Put a Pokemon that is Level 49 in the first slot of your party.
• Head to any section with Tall Grass. It’s ideal that you do this in areas where there are no encounters above level 49, which is what your slot 1 Pokemon is.
• Always save the game.
• With your Max Repel active, run around until you encounter them. This way, all below level 49 Pokemon will not appear. The Legendary Trio is at level 50, so you’ll get the best chances of encountering them.
• Keep transferring from one tall grass to another. One thing to note is that if the Legendary Trio will likely spawn in an area, let’s say Route 2, they will be there until you encounter them. However, if you go to a door or transition point, they will spawn somewhere else. 
• Move to another area with tall grass and do the process over and over again until they will spawn.

Just rinse and repeat, use Max Repel, run around the tall grass, and wait for the encounter. Saving before u your Max Repels is a good idea. 

Reload the game and you’ll be able to do everything again. Luck plays a big factor here, but once you do encounter them, you’re off to the battle strategy section.

Battle Strategy:

It doesn’t matter which one of the Legendary Trio you encounter; they are not that hard to fight. 

The real pain is that Raikou and Entei may use Roar or Suicune will use Gust. These moves will blow your Pokemon away, thus ending the battle. In turn, the Legendary will run away and you have to find them again.

Just use the moves that you have to shave off the Legendary’s HP. Plus, around this time, you would already have Pokemon beyond level 50. 

There’s no danger of getting knocked out, and the danger lies more when you knock them out. If all else fails, use your Master Ball for this moment.

Unobtainable Legendaries

Ho-oh, Lugia, and Deoxys are also in FireRed/LeafGreen. 

The problem is that you need to connect your GBA to get them through special Mystery Gift codes. It’s hard to do that now since there’s no way to get the codes. 

Your best bet is to use cheats to get these three. 

Related article: Pokemon LeafGreen: Legendary Wild Pokemon Encounter Cheats

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Legendary should I use the Master Ball?

The best one would be for Raikou, Entei, or Suicune. The other ones listed can be obtained through easy encounters. Just save and reload if you fail to catch them. 

There’s always a spot for you to do this. For the Trio, the pain is finding them through random encounters. Save yourself from the pain and use the Master Ball for the Trio.

Will the Legendaries disappear if I fail to catch them?

The answer is no, if you accidentally killed the Legendary, you just need to beat the Elite Four. They will respawn again. That’s why you have to save, so if you fail, just reload and try again.

Do the Legendaries disappear if I don’t catch them right away?

No, they just stay where they are until you decide to catch them.

Are Legendaries strong to use?

It all depends on how you use them. The good thing is that you can level them up and modify their moves. 

You can obtain the Legendary Birds before the first Elite Four fight, so you can use them if they fit with your team.

In Closing

That pretty much covers all the Legendary Pokemon that you can get in FireRed/LeafGreen. 

Some of them are challenging, but sometimes the challenge isn’t just by catching them. The challenge is more on getting to where they are located.

Then, there is the Trio, where they are just naturally a pain to find. Hopefully, this guide is enough to help you catch the Legendary of your dreams.

Feel free to share any tips you have when it comes to catching any of them.