Mythical Pokémon Mean I’m Never Gonna Catch ‘Em All (& I’m Fine With That)

Summary Missing Mythical Pokémon is common due to time-limited distribution events, making it hard to complete the full Pokédex.

Mythical Pokémon are rare and interesting, but not essential for gameplay.

Enjoying the game experience is more important than obsessing over capturing every Mythical Pokémon.

As much as I love Pokémon, Mythical Pokémon have always posed a big issue for me when it comes to completing the Pokédex. Over the years, however, I have come to terms with this, and it no longer bothers me as much as it once did. As a result, I am able to enjoy playing the games in a more relaxed way, without worrying about aiming for completion of any one Pokémon game.

Although it is easy to conflate the two, especially given their similar treatment in Pokémon lore, Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are different categories. While the former are obtainable in-game, the latter are only available through special distributions, which have taken various forms over the years. This time-limited availability makes Mythical Pokémon extremely rare, and consequently very hard to obtain at times, at least not without resorting to cheating. It is, of course, possible to hack a game save file to add a Mythical Pokémon, and some Pokémon games do have glitches which allow people to find normally inaccessible Mythical Pokémon.

It Is Relatively Easy To Miss Out On Event Distributions For Pokémon Games

Limited-Time Events

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Over the years, I have missed out on obtaining plenty of Mythical Pokémon, especially those belonging to older Generations. When Pokémon are only available under specific circumstances, and for a limited time, then it isn't surprising that these distributions can be missed. This was especially true for me when I was younger, and such distributions were universally reliant on attending special in-person events. When news took longer to reach me, or I was playing an older game, it was far from unusual to learn that I had frustratingly long-since missed the opportunity to get one Mythical Pokémon or another.

I began playing Pokémon games with Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon Emerald, both of which were capable of receiving the AuroraTicket at certain distribution events. This ticket allows the player character to take a boat to Birth Island in either game, where a single Deoxys can be caught. In the UK, it was available exclusively for one month at Vue Cinemas in 2005, from October 8 to November 6. However, between not having a reliable stream of gaming news at the time and not really knowing that such events even existed, I did not learn about this distribution until years later.

Of course, Deoxys is a Mythical Pokémon that has become easier to capture over time, largely due to one being available in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This marked the first time that I was able to capture Deoxys myself. Although catching it was satisfying, the experience was not as dramatic as might be expected of something that had been nearly a decade in the making. I was already very familiar with Deoxys through the anime and online discussion; in the end, it was simply another Pokémon, and not even one that I was likely to use in battle.

Mythical Pokémon Represent Only A Small Fraction Of Each Generation’s Content

Each Gen Has Plenty Of New Pokémon

There have been many other Mythical Pokémon over the years, many of whom have had distributions that I have missed for various reasons. Some of these have become available again in time, and others have not. While it can be disappointing to not obtain these Mythicals, it is not as big of a concern of mine as it once was. Much like with Deoxys, or any other Mythical that I have been able to catch, they are not Pokémon that I am likely to use in battle, making their only real purpose seem to be completing the Pokédex.

Other early-franchise Mythical Pokémon include Mew and Celebi, both being the only Mythical introduced for their respective Generations.

Personally, learning about the lore of a Pokémon is a perfectly acceptable substitute for actually obtaining one in-game. After all, each new generation brings a new region, characters and plenty of interesting new Pokémon. It would simply be impractical for me to capture and train an entire region’s Pokédex for battle (especially given the existence of version exclusives), meaning that plenty of Pokémon will inevitably languish in Boxes in favor of a small group of regular team members. Because of this, actually completing the Pokédex is far from my focus when playing a Pokémon game.

Related Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Hardest-To-Catch Pokémon For Pokédex Completion Scarlet and Violet feature some of the hardest to catch Pokémon in the series’ history, from incredibly low spawn rates to obscure evolution methods.

When I play a Pokémon game, I do so for the experience of exploring a region, battling villains, and catching a variety of Pokémon along the way. Filling a Pokédex to the best of my ability is a fun goal to aim for, but in the end I do not worry about being unable to do so. If I cannot obtain a Pokémon for any reason, I simply read about it instead and move on. The games are bigger than a single impossible capture, and a space in a PC Box is far from enough to ruin the experience.

Missing Mythical Pokémon Should Not Affect One’s Enjoyment Of A Game

One Pokémon Can't Ruin The Experience

The inherently rare nature of Mythical Pokémon distributions make it unlikely that I will be able to fill all the gaps they have left in my collection. Of course, many have become permanently available in certain games without the need to access a time-limited event, but others remain more out of reach. For example, Zeraora has been completely unobtainable for two Generations now, and was released exclusively as an Event Pokémon for Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Although I was better informed than my childhood self and in a position to obtain it, others undoubtedly weren’t.

Related 10 Rarest Event Pokémon Across The Entire History Of Games Wi-Fi event distributions have been a common feature in Pokémon games over the past decade, but some giveaway Pokémon are rarer than others.

This is a cycle, and one that is unlikely to be broken any time soon. For better or worse, Mythical Pokémon are part of every Generation, and will undoubtedly continue to be so. But as with my own experience, without regularly repeated events or the Pokémon becoming available through solely in-game methods, an increasing number of people will always be lacking at least a few Mythicals in their Pokémon collection. No matter the specifics of a distribution, people becoming newly invested in the franchise will always find they have missed some.

Ultimately, I think that it is okay to miss out on Mythical Pokémon. Although I can understand the frustration and disappointment of missing out on a distribution, Mythicals are only a small handful of species in the franchise. There are still hundreds of other interesting (and more readily available) Pokémon to catch, and I will never use all of them in any case. The classic Pokémon tagline may encourage people to “Catch ‘Em All,” but I am content with simply catching most instead.