Written by Gluxbox 4/8/10

Capturing a Legend

The time had come to finally stop being a wuss.  I had procrastinated long enough, it was time to progress in HeartGold and face the music.

It was time to capture Ho-Oh!

After taking on the Kimono Girls (which was no easy task), I took my team to the Bell Tower.  The guards were impressed to see my Badge collection and allowed me to pass through.

First we came up on this lovely path with orange and yellow trees.  (Why is it autumn here and nowhere else?)  As you can see, Surfachu was very eager to climb to the top of the Bell Tower!

The Kimono Girls were waiting at the top of the tower.  Using the Clear Bell, we were able to summon the LEGENDARY BEAST!  It swooped in from the sky and bore down upon me with it’s massive size.

Quickly, I saved the game.  Then took a deep breath and entered the EPIC BATTLE!

Remember how I had Surfachu as the head of my party?  Big mistake.  My Surfachu is a newer member of my party and I’ve been working on building up his experience.  So he was only like Level 35 at the time of this battle.  Before Surfachu could even unleash his Surf attack, he was bombarded by Sacred Fire.

And he fainted.  NOO!!!

Other members in my party were:  Typhlosion, Jirachi, Gallade, Phione, and Altaria.  (If you’re thinking “Muh??” about the pokemon I have, most of them are NOT from HG/SS.  I transfered them from my Platinum game lol!)  Using Phione’s water attacks, I was able to take a decent chunk out of Ho-Oh’s HP.

But Phione would have killed Ho-Oh if I left it out there.  So I decided to try Gallade, who has been designated as my Roaming Legendary Catcher.  Sure, Ho-Oh wasn’t going to flee from this battle, but I could still use Gallade’s Hypnosis and False Swipe.

So then Ho-Oh was asleep and down to a sliver of HP.  Great time for throwing Pokeballs, right?  Meh.  I tried!  I threw around 8 Heavy Balls, a few Dusk Balls, etc.  Once I had used them all up, Ho-Oh woke up and burnt Gallade to a crisp.  Dang it!

Next, I sent in Altaria.  Not to attack Ho-Oh, but to Sing it to sleep again.  That worked for a little while, but my Ultra Balls were having little effect on the giant bird.  Finally Altaria had felt enough Extrasensory attacks and it was time to switch it out.

Since Ho-Oh kept using this Psychic attack, I figured maybe Jirachi would be OK in the battle.  It was a good plan, Ho-Oh kept using Extrasensory and it was barely making a dent in Jirachi’s HP!  Hooray!  But Jirachi didn’t have any ‘status altering’ moves.  I couldn’t put Ho-Oh to sleep anymore.

However, once Jirachi’s HP started getting low, I remembered that Jirachi had the move Rest.  So I figured I’d use that to save my Potions.  Rest is a move that technically takes 3 turns to fully complete.  I decided to throw Pokeballs while I waited for Jirachi to wake up.

The FIRST Ultra Ball I threw while Jirachi was asleep magically LOCKED HO-OH INSIDE!  HOORAY!!

So apparently [in my game, at least] it is not as effective to make Ho-Oh go to sleep – rather, put your OWN Pokemon to sleep and then Ho-Oh becomes cooperative!  *shrug*

Afterwards, I took Ho-Oh to the Goldenrod Tunnel to take a commemorative photo.

And then I inappropriately named my Ho-Oh “Ho-Bag.”  Hehehhehehehehehe!!!  xP