Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Legendary Pokémon guide

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl has many Legendary Pokémon to catch, outside of the ones that grace the cover. Our Legendary Pokémon guide will explain the best method to catch Legendary Pokémon and where to find them.

Note that this guide focuses on Pokémon that you can find in the regular overworld, not in the new Ramanas Park or through gifts.

How to catch Legendary Pokémon

Once you find the Legendary Pokémon, the best thing to do is to lower its health as much as possible and to put it to sleep. This is the best method for catching Pokémon in general.

To prepare to catch Legendary Pokémon, you should have a Pokémon with a sleep-inducing move, like Sleep Powder or Hypnosis. (We used Gardevoir with Hypnosis.) You should also stock up on Quick Balls, Ultra Balls, and Timer Balls, as you’ll likely go through a lot of the latter two. You can teach an eligible Pokémon TM54, False Swipe.

To catch Legendary Pokémon successfully, follow these steps:

1. Save before you encounter the Pokémon, just in case.
2. Engage the Pokémon in battle.
3. Throw a Quick Ball right away.
4. If that fails, put the Pokémon to sleep.
5. Lower the Pokémon’s health as low as possible. You can use the move False Swipe to leave it at 1 HP.
6. Keep putting it back to sleep if it wakes up.
7. Chuck Ultra Balls at it until you catch it. If the battle goes on for longer than 10 turns, use Timer Balls instead.

Finding Legendary Pokémon in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Below, we list the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl Legendary Pokémon you can find hanging out in the underworld. Note that everything except Dialga and Palkia requires you to have beaten the Pokémon League. Some of these also require that you complete the Sinnoh region Pokédex.

The three Mythical Pokémon (Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus) are not yet accessible in the game and will likely be added to the game later through events.

Dialga and Palkia

Dialga is only available for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Palkia is only available for Pokémon Shining Pearl. As mandatory parts of the story, Dialga and Palkia are atop Spear Pillar, and you’ll need to catch your respective Legendary right after defeating Cyrus from Team Galactic.

To register the other in your Pokédex, talk to Cynthia’s grandma in Celestic Town after beating the Pokémon League.

Mesprit

Mesprit will be waiting for you at Lake Verity, near your hometown. Once you interact with Mesprit, it’ll run off. This will log it as seen in your Pokédex, but if you want to actually catch it, you’ll need to find it using the Marking Map Pokétch app.

Azelf

Azelf will be chilling at Lake Valor for you.

Uxie

Image: The Pokémon Company/ILCA inc. via Polygon

Just like Azelf, Uxie will be waiting at its respective lake: Lake Acuity.

Giratina

Image: The Pokémon Company/ILCA inc. via Polygon

Giratina is hanging out in Turnback Cave, a secret cavern off of Route 214. Head east down Spring Path, a route that only opens once you unlock the National Pokédex, and it’ll be deep in the cave.

The cave is randomized, and you’ll need to pass through three rooms with pillars in it before encountering Giratina. If you pass through more than 30 rooms without seeing the three pillars, you’ll have to restart. The rooms are random, so you should just be prepared to run through a lot (and see a lot of wild Pokémon) before getting to Giratina.

Cresselia

Image: The Pokémon Company/ILCA inc. via Polygon

To get to Cresselia, you’ll need to head to Canalave City. Go into Sailor Eldritch’s house, and interact with the child having nightmares. Then talk to the sailor outside, who tell you about losing his drive to sail now that his kid is sick. He’ll ask you to go to Fullmoon Island to grab a feather to wake up his son. Cresselia will be sitting at the center of this tiny island.

Heatran

Heatran is sitting in the depths of Stark Mountain, an area you can only access after completing the Sinnoh Pokédex and upgrading to the National Pokédex. Stark Mountain is on that northeast island, east of the Survival Area.

Regigigas

After getting the National Pokédex, you can head to Snowpoint Temple in Snowpoint City. If you bring Regirock, Regice, and Registeel to the Regigigas sleeping in the middle, it will awaken, allowing you to catch it.

The three Regis can be caught at Ramanas Park.