Legendary and mythical Pokémon in the clues

Every now and then a PokèVerba clue starts with “Legendary” or “Mythical”. They are the most valuable words in the grid: they cut the possible answers down to a handful.

Legendary and mythical: the difference

Legendary Pokémon are the rare, powerful Pokémon tied to the story of each region: the three Kanto birds (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres), Mewtwo, Lugia and Ho-Oh in Johto, the trio of Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza in Hoenn. Usually there is only one of each, and it doesn’t evolve.

Mythical Pokémon are even rarer: for a long time you could only get them at special events. Mew is the first, then Celebi, Jirachi, Darkrai and others. In the crossword they are marked exactly like that, “Mythical … Pokémon”.

Why they make tight clues

Out of nearly nine hundred Pokémon, legendary and mythical ones are a few dozen, and in each region just a handful. If the clue says “Legendary Fire and Flying type Pokémon from Kanto”, there is only one answer: Moltres. Even without the region, type plus word length is often enough to close it.

One region at a time

Every region has its legendaries, and knowing a few per region gives you a huge advantage:

Kanto: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Mewtwo; Mew is the mythical one;
Johto: the three dogs (Raikou, Entei, Suicune), Lugia and Ho-Oh; Celebi is the mythical one;
Hoenn: Regirock, Regice and Registeel, Latias and Latios, Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza; Jirachi and Deoxys are mythical;
Sinnoh: Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, and the three lake guardians (Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf); among the mythical ones Darkrai, Shaymin and Arceus.

From Unova on there are even more legendaries, but the principle is the same: every game has at least one on its cover, and often a trio alongside it.

Legendaries that evolve

The “doesn’t evolve” rule has a few exceptions, and that’s exactly where the crossword gets interesting:

Cosmog becomes Cosmoem and then Solgaleo or Lunala, in Alola;
Type: Null becomes Silvally, also in Alola;
Kubfu becomes Urshifu, in Galar;
among the mythical ones, Meltan becomes Melmetal.

So a clue like “Mythical Steel type Pokémon that evolves into Melmetal” has only one answer: Meltan.

Tricks to recognise them

Many legendaries come in groups of three, tied to a theme: the three Kanto birds, the three Johto dogs (Raikou, Entei and Suicune), the three Hoenn golems. If you’ve already found one member of the trio in another word, the other two are strong candidates. And look at the length: many legendary names are short and have rare letters, like the Z in Zapdos, or Ho-Oh, which becomes HOOH in the crossword: hyphens, spaces and apostrophes disappear, only the letters remain.

Read the rest of the clue carefully

“Legendary” is almost never enough on its own: there are quite a few Psychic type legendaries, for example. That’s why the clue always adds at least one more piece of data. The type is the most useful, the region comes right after, and sometimes you find the size: many legendaries are huge (Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza are over three metres), others tiny (Celebi and Jirachi are under a metre). A legendary shorter than a metre is a clue you remember, and the same goes for weight: Groudon is over 900 kg.

If the clue doesn’t say “legendary”

The opposite also holds: if the clue simply says “Pokémon” and talks about a long evolution line, it’s almost certainly not a legendary. Taking legendaries off your list of candidates is a small advantage, but on a fifteen-word grid it’s the difference between a name that comes straight away and one that gets you stuck.

Try to spot them in today’s crossword: when you catch one, it goes into your Collection.