I have also claimed all three Regis. I couldn't say which one was hardest, except that I might never have figured their secret puzzle rooms out were it not for faqs on the topic. Each one - Registeel, Regice, and Regirock - is hiding behind a room that requires some sort of strange movement sequence to enter. Your instructions are written in Braille, which is actually mentioned in the game's manual but I took that as some kind of dopey joke. The capture battles were typical of Legendary fights: save before starting, waste tons of Ultra Balls, restart several times after an overzealous knockout.

I've also settled down on my famous berry runs. Now I only monitor one loamy patch: the 4X strip just west of Lilycove. Lately it has been yielded extra Sitrus and Leppa berries, just because I feel low on them at the moment.

But you're here to read about Latios, as promised in my last post. Quick recap: Latios is normally not obtainable in Sapphire (just as Latias can't normally be found in Ruby.) To find Latios, you have to somehow get an EON Ticket, either through E3 2003, eBay, a friend who already has it, or on Nintendo's summer Toys R Us tour. Once you download the ticket into your inventory, then the Lilycove ferry will take you to Southern Island. And it's just the one in Lilycove, strangely enough. I talked to the ferry girl in Slateport and almost cried when she didn't mention the Island. Because, you see, you only get one shot at this trip. Screw it up and your pokedex is forever incomplete.

I saved the game. This is, after all, a Legendary Hunt... where the purpose is to catch, not to kill. My first three attempts at catching Latios failed when Metagross knocked him out accidentally after blowing through 15+ Ultra Balls. Sure, the experience would be nice, but I'm persuing a higher calling. Metagross turned out to be a fine choice for beating down Latios, however, as Latios's obnoxious Luster Purge attack is not effective against Metagross. He only has five Luster Purges; the real problem is the twenty Recovers, which he can use to keep himself out of Ultra Ball danger. His other attacks are Dragon Dance (who cares) and Psychic. Again, the Psychic attack does little against mighty Metagross.

On my fourth try, I endured some easy back-and-forth and Metagross used Metal Claw and Psychic, and Latios countered with Luster Purge and Recover. Eventually Latios's health was in the red, thanks to some wasteful Dragon Dancing instead of Recovering. I tossed out the obligatory initial Ultra Ball and caught him. On the first ball. Uncanny. I was in my office lunch room at the time and let out a "YEEE-AAAAAAAH!"

So now I have a pocketful of extra Ultra Balls. Want some?

Time: 93:06
Badges: 8
Pokedex: 117 (seen: 174)
Party: Metagross lv47, Flygon lv46, Raichu lv50, Wailord lv43, Razorbeak (Swellow) lv55, Ralts lv4