You know that feeling. You’ve spent forty-five minutes chucking Ultra Balls at a sliver of health, your heart syncing up with the rhythmic rock-rock-click of the capture animation. Then, the inevitable happens. The bird flees, or your game crashes, or you realize you accidentally used your Master Ball on a Level 3 Pidgey. Dealing with pokemon all legendaries and mythicals is basically a rite of passage for anyone who’s ever picked up a Nintendo handheld. But here’s the thing: most people still get the distinction between these two groups totally wrong. It isn't just about how hard they hit in battle; it’s about how you actually get your hands on them.
Back in 1996, the world was simpler. We had the Kanto birds—Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres—and the terrifying psychic powerhouse Mewtwo. Then there was Mew. Mew changed everything because it wasn't actually in the game, at least not in a way that made sense to a ten-year-old. That single distinction birthed the "Mythical" category, a group of creatures so elusive they usually require a physical trip to a store or a specific online distribution.
The Core Difference Most Trainers Miss
Legendaries are fixed. They are baked into the code as static encounters. You see them on the box art, you climb a mountain to find them, and they usually represent some massive force of nature. Groudon creates continents. Kyogre expands the sea. Dialga literally manages the flow of time. If you own the game, you can catch the Legendary.
Mythicals are different. Honestly, they’re more like digital ghosts.
Think about Celebi or Victini. You can't just stumble upon them while exploring a forest. For decades, players had to wait for a "Mystery Event" or a special movie tie-in code. This created a weird tier of rarity where a Legendary like Rayquaza is technically "common" compared to a Mythical like Marshadow. If you missed the distribution window for a Mythical, you were basically out of luck unless you found someone willing to trade a precious souvenir from 2017.
From Kanto to Paldea: A Timeline of Power
Every generation tries to up the ante. In the early days, Legendaries were just very strong animals. Articuno was a cold bird. Moltres was a hot bird. By the time we got to Generation IV (Sinnoh), Game Freak decided to go full "cosmic horror." They gave us Arceus, the literal creator of the universe. It’s hard to scale up from God.
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- The Titans of Kanto and Johto: These were grounded. Lugia lived in the ocean, Ho-Oh lived on a tower. They felt like local myths that happened to be true.
- The Weather and Creation Eras: Hoenn and Sinnoh shifted toward global stakes. This is where we saw the introduction of "Minor Legendaries" like the Regis or the Lake Trio. They serve as guardians or puzzles rather than world-enders.
- The Modern Shift: Look at Scarlet and Violet. Koraidon and Miraidon are Legendaries, sure, but they’re also your motorcycles. It’s a huge tonal shift from the days when seeing a Legendary meant the world was ending. Now, they're your buddies.
Why Mewtwo Still Scares People
Mewtwo remains the gold standard for pokemon all legendaries and mythicals. Why? Because it’s personal. It wasn't born from a cloud or a cosmic egg. It was built in a lab by humans who played God and lost. When you find those journals in the Cinnabar Mansion, it feels like a horror movie. That kind of storytelling is what makes a Legendary stick in your brain. It’s not just the stats—though a base stat total of 680 definitely helps—it’s the vibe.
The Mythical Distribution Problem
Let's talk about the "Mew under the truck" rumors. We all believed them. We spent hours trying to push that pixelated vehicle because we desperately wanted the one creature we couldn't find. Game Freak saw that hunger and turned it into a marketing machine.
For years, Mythicals were locked behind "Real World" barriers. You had to go to Toys "R" Us. You had to go to GameStop. You had to see a movie in a theater. This was cool for a while, but it created a massive gap in the Pokedex for anyone living in a rural area or a country without these partnerships.
Recently, the wall has started to crumble. Pokemon Legends: Arceus allowed players to catch Shaymin and Darkrai if they had save data from other games. It’s a better system, frankly. It rewards you for being a fan without making you drive three hours for a serial code. But even now, Zarude remains one of the hardest catches in the franchise simply because its distribution was so limited.
Power Creep and Competitive Ban Lists
If you play the Video Game Championships (VGC), you know the "Restricted" rule. Usually, you can't just bring a team of six Primordial Groudons and call it a day. The balance would shatter. Legendaries usually have massive stats and signature moves like "Origin Pulse" or "Precipice Blades" that can wipe a whole team in one turn.
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Mythicals are even weirder in competitive play. Most of them have a "100 across the board" stat spread (looking at you, Jirachi and Manaphy). They aren't always the strongest, but they have "gimmick" abilities that make them annoying to deal with. Serene Grace flinches, anyone? It's enough to make a grown player throw their Switch across the room.
Notable Exceptions to the Rules
Sometimes the lines get blurry. Take Type: Null and Silvally. They are technically Legendaries, but they were man-made. Then you have the Ultra Beasts from the Alola region. Are they Legendaries? The game code says yes, but they feel more like invasive species from another dimension. They don't have that "one-of-a-kind" mythic quality that makes Suicune or Entei feel special.
And then there's Phione. Nobody knows what to do with Phione. You get it by breeding a Mythical (Manaphy), but it can't evolve back into Manaphy, and its stats are mediocre. It's the "participation trophy" of the Mythical world.
The Ecological Impact (In-Game, Anyway)
Imagine being a regular citizen in the Pokemon world. You’re just trying to grow some Berries, and suddenly a giant green dragon (Rayquaza) screams through the atmosphere because two ancient sea/land monsters are having a domestic dispute in the harbor. The Legendaries aren't just "bosses." They are ecological disasters waiting to happen.
This is why the player character is always a ten-year-old with nerves of steel. You aren't just catching a bird; you're putting a leash on a hurricane. That’s the power fantasy that keeps us coming back. We want to tame the untamable.
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How to Actually Complete Your Collection
If you're trying to track down pokemon all legendaries and mythicals in 2026, you need a strategy. You can't just wing it.
- Pokemon HOME is your best friend: This is the clearinghouse for everything. If you caught a Kyogre in Sapphire back in 2003, you can (with a lot of hardware and patience) move it all the way to the current generation.
- Watch the Mystery Gift menu: Every few months, Nintendo drops a random Mythical for an anniversary or a tournament. Don't sleep on these. Once the "End Date" passes, that's it.
- The DLC Loophole: Modern games like Sword and Shield or Scarlet and Violet put a lot of old Legendaries into the DLC (like the Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures). It’s the easiest way to catch 'em all without trading your soul away.
- Pokemon GO integration: Weirdly, the mobile game is one of the best ways to get Mythicals like Meltan and Melmetal. Just be ready to walk. A lot.
The Mystery of the Unreleased
Even now, there are secrets. For years, the "Azure Flute" was in the code of the original Sinnoh games, but it was never officially released because Nintendo thought it was "too confusing" for players. We had to wait over a decade to finally use it in the remakes. It makes you wonder what’s sitting in the code of the current games right now, waiting for a trigger that might never come.
The hunt for these creatures is the heartbeat of the series. Whether it’s the trio of legendary dogs roaming the tall grass of Johto or the enigmatic Terapagos hidden in the depths of Area Zero, these Pokemon represent the "extra" in the world. They are the reason we keep looking behind waterfalls and inside dark caves.
What You Should Do Next
Completing a "Living Dex" of every single Legendary and Mythical is a massive undertaking, but it's doable if you stop trying to do it all at once. Start by auditing your current saves. Check your Pokemon HOME boxes and see where the gaps are. Usually, the "box art" Legendaries are easy to trade for on the GTS (Global Trade System) because so many people have duplicates. The real challenge is the Mythicals.
Join a reputable trading community on platforms like Reddit (r/pokemontrades) or Discord. Just be careful—the market is flooded with "genned" or hacked Pokemon. If a deal for a Shiny Mew seems too good to be true, it’s because it is. Focus on the "Legendary Galarian Birds" or the "Treasures of Ruin" first, as those are locally available in current-gen games. Once you have the foundations, you can start hunting the rare event-only Mythicals that define the elite tier of trainers.