Pokémon GO: All Legendary Pokémon & How to Catch Them

There are currently 58 Legendary Pokémon that players can catch in POGO, but actually getting them can be tricky.

Knowing which ones are available in which situations, and how to approach each one, is the difference between hoping and catching them all.

Luckily, you'll find all that information and more in this guide!

The Complete List of Legendary Pokémon in Pokémon GO

This is the complete up-to-date roster of Legendary Pokémon as of mid 2026. Niantic (the devs) are yet to release Arceus, the Ultra Beasts, Type: Null, Silvally, Ultra Necrozma, Calyrex, Glastrier, Spectrier, Koraidon, Miraidon, the four Treasures of Ruin, the Indigo Disk DLC roster, or anything from Paldea.

How Catching a Legendary Actually Works

While catching Pokémon always involves a similar process, there are some important differences in how Legendary Pokémon are actually caught.

To get access to Legendary's, you'll need to win the raid battle or beat Giovanni. Doing so will grant you a certain number of Premier Balls, with the number changing based on the following:

• Damage contribution to the raid

• Friendship level with at least one other trainer in the lobby

• Team gym control

Stacking all of these together can net you several extra Premier Balls (the way Legendary Pokémon are caught), which matters most when you're chasing your first Legendary and every throw counts.

But here's how it all comes together.

You can only use those Premier Balls for catching a Legendary, and you have just a 2 to 3% chance of catching per throw. To increase your chances, you'll need to stack various multipliers to grow your chances. Here's a list of multipliers you can stack:

• Curveball throw: 1.7x multiplier

• Excellent throw (smallest target circle): 2.0x

• Great throw:up to 1.7x

• Nice throw: up to 1.3x

• Golden Razz Berry: 2.5x

• Type medal at gold tier: roughly 1.3x

Stacking together an Excellent Curveball with Golden Razz Berries and a gold-tier medal will allow you to reach a multiplier of around 10x, which can raise the initial 3% chance to roughly 25%. While this is still not a high catch rate, having plenty of Premier Balls makes a huge difference.

Where you throw also matters, or you risk getting the Premier Ball deflected and wasted. The best timing for a throw is when they're idle during a roar animation, or in between actions. If you find yourself short on Premier Balls, focus on Great or Excellent throws.

How to Catch Legendaries: The Main Routes

These are the different game content where you'll find Legendary Pokémon.

5-Star Raids

Most opportunities to catch Legendary Pokémon come from defeating a raid boss that runs on weekly schedules or is attached to seasonal events. Expect to run these a lot to catch a Legendary, and it helps to save time by planning the battle to have the upper hand in terms of elemental counter, which also gives you extra Premier Balls.

Special Research

Some Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, like Mew, are locked behind Special Research instead, and these can take days or weeks and even months to complete. Here's a list of the currently active ones in-game.

• Cosmog (the entire Solgaleo / Lunala line): This is the “A Cosmic Companion” Special Research that started in September 2022, but is no longer available. You determine the evolutionary path based on whether the Pokémon evolves during the day or at night, for 100 candy.

• Zygarde: The “From A to Zygarde” research plus Route exploration. This involves collecting Zygarde Cells from Routes, and this can take a while to complete, with Cells capped at 3 per day. You'll have to take advantage of Go Tour Kalos events, which bump the limit to 25. Completing Forme requires 250 cells in total.

• Kubfu and Urshifu: From the Final Strike Special Research beginning May 2025. This involves setting Kubfu as your Buddy and defeating 30 Dark-type Pokémon in Max Battles or Raids. The Rapid Strike Special Research is similar but involves Water-type instead of Dark.

• Eternatus: the GO Pass Max Finale from August 2025, where you'll need to reach Rank 60 on the free pass. While Eternatus is catchable, you don't get to keep its Eternamax form, which is exclusive to this event battle.

Daily Adventure Incense (the Galarian Birds Track)

The three Galarian forms (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres) are not available in the wild through any other method, and can only be encountered through the Daily Adventure Incense, your 15-minute incense item. Each one has a base catch rate of just 0.3% and non-Shiny flee after one missed throw. Shiny variants don't flee, but you only get about 1 out of every 20 encounters.

The best strategy upon encountering one is to land your Excellent Curveball throw and stack it with Golden Razz Berries. This gives you the best chance.

GO Battle League and Research Breakthrough

Every GO Battle League season gives players a chance to catch a Legendary Pokémon via a 5-star encounter after reaching Rank 20. This makes PVP worth participating in. As for Research Breakthrough, it's not a steady track for Legendaries at the moment. The March to June 2026 pool has Gyarados, Honedge, Dhelmise, Sinistea, Duraludon, and Dreepy.

Shadow Legendaries: The Other Half of the Roster

These make up half of the game's Legendary roster, but involve different catch rules, meta value, and a different kind of grind. The key detail to remember about Shadow Legendary Pokémon is that they hit much harder than regular Pokémon, but receive more damage as well.

Shadow 5-Star Raids (Weekend Track)

These raids are only available on weekends, and now accept Remote Raid Passes since May 2025, with the roster rotating through Shadow Legendaries like the legendary beasts (Raikou, Entei, Suicune) and other top-tier picks. But the in-person grind for these raids is worth the effort, considering how they all sit near the top of the PVE meta. Shadow Mewtwo, Shadow Ho-oh, Shadow Lugia, and Shadow Cresselia are especially noteworthy.

Be sure to bring a 4-person team when taking these on for best efficiency.

Giovanni's Shadow Roster

Defeat the Legendary-wielding Team GO Rocket boss and you're guaranteed one Shadow Legendary per battle, but the actual Pokémon rotates every one to two months. The battle itself is a big challenge, involving a random Shadow Pokémon for his second slot and a fixed Shadow Legendary as his third, after Shadow Persian, which is always guaranteed to appear.

But with a generous Premier Ball pool and catch difficulty comparable to a 5-star raid, you're getting quite a reward for a job well done.

Region-Locked Legendaries

Only the Lake Trio is region-locked in normal raid rotation: Uxie to Asia Pacific, Mesprit to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and Azelf to the Americas and Greenland, and they do not appear in the wild outside those zones. Other ways to get them include periodic 5-star raids or extremely rare wild encounters that still follow region locking.

Players have used raid passes to play with friends overseas, and longtime players have built trade rings to bypass regional restrictions. Aside from the Lake Trio, no other Legendary Pokémon are region-locked.

Trading, Shinies, and PvP Value

Here are a few additional useful facts.

Legendary Pokémon can be Traded

Unlike Mythical Pokémon, 5-star Raid Legendaries can be traded once between accounts for 20,000 Stardust if both of you already have it registered, or up to 1,000,000 Stardust if not. You get a huge discount if your trade partner has a Best Friend status with you. Galarian legendary birds can be traded as Special Trades, though some Special-research Legendaries can't be traded.

Most Legendaries can be Shiny

But with a rate of 1 in 20, it takes time to find any one Shiny Legendary. The exceptions are usually the newer ones, like Eternatus, but expect even those to eventually have Shiny versions.

Not all Legendary Pokémon are good for PVP

Due to the CP cap in Great League, most Legendary Pokémon can't be used in such events. The Lake Trio, Cobalion, Registeel, Cresselia, and Regirock are among the exceptions.

Legendaries are great for Raid Offense

They're so good for this that they're the primary reason you need more.

The Legendaries you actually need

We recommend having one of each: Mewtwo, Mega Rayquaza access, Dialga, Palkia, Kyogre, Groudon, and one strong Fairy like Xerneas or one of the Tapu line. Having these will give you coverage for most raid scenarios.

For master League PVP, you need a different set of Legendaries. But if you're a collector, then you shouldn't be satisfied until you get every single one!