I'm actually a bit surprised about this one.

I was playing Leaf Green the other day, and I decided that it was time to catch Articuno. So, I loaded up on Ultra balls, assembled my team, and went after it. Did the whole thing about weakening Articuno and then proceeded to chuck the Ultra Balls at it when its HP were down low enough. Well, 12 Ultra balls weren't enough at that time (or my luck was just bad) and I ran out of them...and no other ball will catch it (except the Master Ball, which I am saving for my battle with MewTwo), and (like an idiot ) I had forgotten to save the game right before battling Articuno. So, I opted to "run away" (down to my last Pokemon) and of course Articuno flew away.

"No big deal" I told myself, and I traded Articuno in from Fire Red (where the capture had already been made). Now I had Articuno in my 'Dex.

Well, I went back to the Seafoam Islands to mess around with my itemfinder and see what I could find and, (lo and behold!!) Articuno was back!! This time, I had 20 Ultra Balls and luck was on my side.

So, now I have two Articuno's in the PC and am wondering whether this re-encounter was a fluke. I'm gonna try some tricks with Moltres.

SilverGriffin

Absolutely no idea, if that actually happened.

Oh, and by the way, you should have at least 50+ Ultra Balls when trying to catch any ledgendary, and your Master Ball would be better used on your ledgendary dog (Raikou, Suicune, Entei, depending on your starter) than Mewtwo.

Is it possible to catch Mewtwo without an Action Replay? Or am I just thinking of Mew?

You're thinking of Mew Enigmers. But Mew can also be obtained through a Nintendo Event so... meh. Also, the birds only come back if they faint all of the members in your team. Well, they don't really come back, they just stay there. Are you sure you didn't white out/black out?

Okay, go to Regirock or something, then talk to it. You'll engage in a battle. Now, you should run away. The Regirock will fly away. (Why doesn't it acept the HM Fly again?) Then, leave the chamber. Re enter the chamber. Regirock should be right where you left it. This works with other legendaries as well, but I'm not sure about D/P.

I did it again, with Moltres...only this time, I did it on purpose. I went there, saved the game with me standing next to Moltres, battled Moltres until it had only 1 hp left (it used "endure") then proceeded to throw balls. I threw about 10 ultra balls before I left the battle. Moltres flew away. I left that room then came back, and Moltres had returned.

Interesting!!
SilverGriffin

When you came back, did Moltres have full health, or 1 HP?

I have done this. It will have full health. You can re-encounter the birds if you did not capture or make it faint. DOES NOT WORK IN RS


mewtwo can be caught without a AR in the creulan cave.
If I am right There are no ways to get a mew in FRLG without a gameshark exept for an nintendo event

That is very intresting im gonna try that some time if i restart or get a different version.

Also on the topic of catching legendaries i think it is easier if you use maybe like a haunter or some pokemon with hypnosis that can also take some fair damage and do some fair damage so u can lower its hp and put it to sleep so then it just takes a few ultra balls

Catching mewtwo -

you can catch him with an ultra ball just use the style i said above its rather easy except if he wakes up.

Also the legendary dogs are the hardest to get so its advised to use the masterball on them

wow, and to think those things didn't happen, maybe a glitch, like missingno in red/blue, apparently glitchs can happen in new tech, and for the good of us

Exreom

This doesn't really sound like a glitch to me, but an intentional modification to the game to make capturing the birds or Mewtwo just a bit easier. I assume this wasn't the case in the original RBY (if you lost to a legend, or fled, it was gone forever)?

Just to clarify; this is not a glitch, and furthermore supposed to happen. Also, nothing of the sort happens in RBY.

Maybe you did something with a sequence of events like in the old games with missing no...... = missingno?

Can you faint the bird and have it come back? It would be a great way to train...

no u cant so be prepared. bring 50+ of every ball exsept master ( unless clone item in play) to catch cause it would SUCK to miss a legendary bird ( it sucks for any legendary to me. arcticuno... ) ok so be prepared and dont kill it u are warned

Edit by sN0w: Fixed your triple-post for you. Don't worry... and you don't have to make such a strong apology =p

Quite some luck you have finding this out for us. it can be extremly helpful later in the games. Kudos to you.

it also works on d/p

i never thought that this could actually work but my friend did tell me something about encountering legendaries again.......the problem was, i wasn't listening.........

i don't know why i can't catch articuno.. when i go in to the seafoam island, to the surf part, it just says "the current is much too fast, surf can't be used here." Maybe is it because i accidentally pushed the boulder the wrong way? I can't really remember.. Anyway, i have articuno's data. Btw, does anyone have more than 300 plus data without using cheats in their pokedex? Please tell me? i got about 335..

You haven't blocked off the water flow completely. Follow the Walkthrough exactly, to make sure you get all the boulders moved correctly.