Catching them all used to be simple. You’d run through some tall grass, chuck a Great Ball at a Pidgey, and call it a day. But the list of mythical pokemon changes the rules entirely. These aren't just rare monsters; they are the ghosts of the franchise, creatures that—technically—you aren't even supposed to find through normal gameplay.
They are the "Event Only" crew.
If you grew up in the late nineties, you remember the playground rumors about Mew being under a truck near the S.S. Anne. It wasn't there. It was never there. But that singular lie birthed a decades-long obsession with these specific, elusive entries in the Pokédex.
What Actually Counts as a Mythical?
People mix up Legendaries and Mythicals constantly. It's an easy mistake. Both are powerful. Both look cool on a trading card. However, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company draw a very hard line in the sand.
Legendary Pokémon, like Lugia or Zacian, are usually the "box art" stars. You buy the game, you play the story, you catch the God of Time. It's guaranteed.
Mythical Pokémon are different. They are the gatekept. Usually, a list of mythical pokemon includes only those that require an outside distribution—a Mystery Gift code, a physical trip to a GameStop in 2011, or a specific movie tie-in. If you can catch it just by finishing the main quest without an internet connection or a special ticket, it’s probably not Mythical.
Things got weird recently, though. Pokémon Legends: Arceus and the Crown Tundra DLC for Sword & Shield started letting players catch former Mythicals like Keldeo or Shaymin through in-game quests. This honestly blurred the lines for a lot of fans. But in the official competitive circuit and the National Pokédex, that "Mythical" tag sticks forever.
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The Kanto and Johto Originals
Mew is the blueprint. It was literally programmed into Red and Green at the last second by Shigeki Morimoto as a prank, without Nintendo’s explicit permission. There was only enough space left on the cartridge for a tiny bit of data. That prank saved the franchise. When Nintendo announced a "Legendary Pokémon Offer" in CoroCoro Comic to give away 20 Mews to winners, over 70,000 people entered.
Then came Celebi. The "Voice of the Forest."
For Western players, Celebi was a nightmare to get. While Japanese players used the Mobile Game Boy Adapter to access the GS Ball event in Pokémon Crystal, kids in the States were mostly stuck waiting for the 20th Anniversary distributions or the 3DS Virtual Console release years later. Celebi remains one of the most iconic "cute" mythicals, a trend that continued for generations.
The God of All Pokémon and the Sinnoh Trio
If we’re looking at a list of mythical pokemon that actually impacts the lore, we have to talk about Generation 4. This was the peak of "Event" culture.
Arceus is the big one. According to the games, it literally created the universe with its thousand arms. For over a decade, the "Azure Flute" item—which was meant to trigger the Arceus encounter in Diamond and Pearl—was never officially released because Game Freak thought it was "too confusing" for players. We had to wait until 2022 to officially use that item in the remakes.
Then there's Darkrai and Shaymin.
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- Darkrai: The personification of nightmares. It lives on Newmoon Island.
- Shaymin: A hedgehog that turns into a reindeer-looking thing (Sky Forme) when it touches a Gracidea flower.
Wait, we can't forget Manaphy. You could only get Manaphy by literally buying a spin-off game called Pokémon Ranger, beating it, and transferring an egg. It’s arguably the most annoying Mythical to obtain in its original format.
The Power Creep of the Unova and Kalos Eras
By the time Black and White rolled around, the list of mythical pokemon started getting "edgy."
Victini was the first, holding the #000 spot in the Unova Dex. But then we got Genesect—a literal prehistoric bug modified by Team Plasma with a giant laser cannon on its back. This was a shift. We moved from forest spirits and dream-eaters to cyborgs and biological weapons.
The Kalos region gave us:
- Diancie: A rock/fairy type that is basically a mutated Carbink. It’s the only Mythical capable of Mega Evolution.
- Hoopa: A genie that can warp space-time. This guy is the reason why you can find Legendaries from other regions in later games; he pulls them through "Hoopa Rings."
- Volcanion: Steam-powered. It looks like a walking boiler. It was the first Fire/Water type, which is a terrifyingly good defensive combination.
Meltan and the Go Connection
In 2018, something weird happened. A Nut-headed silver blob started appearing in Pokémon GO. No one knew what it was. It wasn't in any leaks.
Meltan became the first Mythical to debut in a mobile game. It also became the first Mythical that can evolve. If you feed it 400 candies in GO, it turns into Melmetal, a massive hulking giant of liquid metal. To get it into your console games, you have to link your GO account to Pokémon HOME or Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee. It changed the meta. Melmetal is a tank in competitive play, especially with its signature move, Double Iron Bash.
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Every Mythical Pokemon Ever Released
Trying to keep track of these is a headache because they don't appear in the standard regional Pokédexes usually. Here is the definitive breakdown by the generation they were introduced:
- Gen 1: Mew.
- Gen 2: Celebi.
- Gen 3: Jirachi (the wish-maker) and Deoxys (the space virus). Interestingly, Deoxys was demoted to "standard" catchable status in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
- Gen 4: Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus.
- Gen 5: Victini, Keldeo (the musketeer pony), Meloetta, and Genesect.
- Gen 6: Diancie, Hoopa, and Volcanion.
- Gen 7: Magearna (the soul-heart robot), Marshadow (the fighting shadow), Zeraora (the electric cat), and the Meltan line.
- Gen 8: Zarude. The rogue monkey from the jungle.
- Gen 9: Pecharunt. This is the latest addition, a tiny peach-shaped ghost that controls people with "binding mochi."
Why Pecharunt is Actually Terrifying
If you haven't played the Mochi-Mayhem epilogue in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you're missing out on the darkest bit of lore Game Freak has written in years. Pecharunt isn't a "hero" Pokémon. It’s a parasite. It used its toxic mochi to enslave the "Loyal Three" (Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti) and basically forced them to do its bidding.
Seeing your friendly rivals like Arven and Nemona get possessed and do a "chicken dance" because of a Mythical Pokémon was... a choice. It shows that the list of mythical pokemon isn't just full of cute mascots. Some of these things are genuine threats to the world.
How to Get Them Now
Most people think they’ve missed the boat. You didn't.
While you can't go back to a 2006 Toys "R" Us event, modern games have made several Mythicals permanent additions.
- You can get Mew and Jirachi in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl just for having save data from other Switch Pokémon games.
- Keldeo is a static encounter in the Sword & Shield DLC if you find all the footprints.
- Magearna is still available via a QR code in the 3DS Sun and Moon games (and yes, the code still works).
- Arceus, Shaymin, and Darkrai are all catchable in Legends: Arceus if you meet specific save-data requirements.
The "rarest" ones are currently Zeraora and Zarude. They haven't been distributed in years. If you see one in a trade, be careful; the GTS is flooded with "genned" or hacked versions of these because they are so hard to find legitimately.
Actionable Next Steps for Collectors
- Check your save data: If you own a Switch, ensure you have save files for Let's Go, Sword/Shield, and Legends: Arceus. This unlocks the Mew, Jirachi, and Shaymin quests in newer titles.
- Download Pokémon HOME: This is the only way to move Mythicals between generations. If you manage to complete the entire National Dex in HOME, you get a special "Original Color" Magearna as a reward.
- Monitor Mystery Gift: Follow the official Pokémon social media accounts. Mythical distributions usually only last for a month and they happen maybe once a year at most.
- Verify legality: If you are trading for a Mythical, check its "Ribbons." Real event Pokémon almost always have a Classic or Wishing Ribbon that prevents them from being traded on the Wonder Trade/GTS. If it doesn't have the ribbon, it's a fake.