dratini safari zone yellow

Can I catch Dratini in Pokemon Yellow?

Yes, in Pokemon Yellow, you can catch Dratini. It is available in a few different locations.

How do you catch a Dratini in yellow?

When you hook Dratini on your fishing Rod, just start chucking Balls and eventually you will catch it. As for the other pokemon, the more common pokemon (Exeggutor, Rhydon, Both Nidors, etc.) throw a rock or two and then throw a Safari Ball. All other pokemon, just throw the Ball and hope to catch it.

Can you catch a Dragonite in Pokemon Yellow?

Yes, you can catch a Dragonite in Pokemon Yellow. Dragonair evolves at level 55 and turns into Dragonite. Yellow owners can also fish for Dragonite in the Safari Zone, but it requires a lot of luck.

Can you catch Dragonair in Pokemon Yellow?

Yes, you can catch Dragonair in Pokemon Yellow. Dratini evolves at level 30 and turns into Dragonair. Yellow owners can also fish for Dragonair in the Safari Zone.

Is there a trick to catching Dratini in Safari Zone?

There is no specific trick to catching Dratini in the Safari Zone. It is recommended to either start tossing balls or throw a rock and then start tossing. Using bait may make it harder to catch Dratini, as it already has a low capture rate.

Pokemon Yellow: How to Catch Dratini/Dragonair

To catch Dratini or Dragonair in Pokemon Yellow, visit the Safari Zone or use a fishing rod. Dratini can be caught by fishing in the Safari Zone lake, while Dragonair requires leveling up a caught Dratini to level 55.

Where can I find Dratini in Safari Zone in Pokémon Yellow?

To find Dratini in the Safari Zone in Pokemon Yellow, go to the lake directly in front of the entrance. Fish using a fishing rod, specifically a Super Rod, to increase your chances of encountering Dratini.

What is the rarest Pokémon in the Safari Zone?

In Pokemon Yellow’s Safari Zone, Chansey and Dragonair are among the rarest Pokemon to find. Chansey has the lowest catch rate among the Safari Zone Pokemon, while Dragonair has a lower catch rate compared to Dratini.

What is the catch rate of Dragonair in yellow?

The catch rate of Dragonair in Pokemon Yellow is 27. To increase your chances of catching Dragonair, it is recommended to use Ultra Balls and lower its HP as much as possible.

Can you catch everything in Pokemon Yellow?

No, you cannot catch all 151 Pokemon in Pokemon Yellow. There are some Pokemon that are exclusive to Pokemon Red and Blue versions. Additionally, Raichu cannot be caught in Pokemon Yellow and must be obtained through evolution by evolving Pikachu.

Where can I find Gyarados in Pokemon Yellow?

In Pokemon Yellow, Gyarados does not appear in the wild. To obtain Gyarados, you need to raise a Magikarp to level 20. Magikarp can be caught by fishing in Fuchsia City.

What Pokémon cannot be caught in yellow?

In Pokemon Yellow, some Pokemon cannot be caught. These include Ekans, Meowth, Koffing, Electabuzz, Magmar, and the evolutions of the exclusive Pokemon from Red and Blue versions. These Pokemon can only be obtained through trading or other means.

How rare is it to catch a Dratini?

The chance of encountering a Dratini in Pokemon Yellow is 15%. When you hook a Dratini, be sure to press the A button to set the hook, or else it may get away. There is also a 1% chance of encountering a Dragonair.

How many Pokémon are obtainable in yellow?

In Pokemon Yellow, there are a total of 151 Pokemon that can be obtained. This includes both Pokemon that can be caught in the wild and those that can be obtained through other methods such as trading.

How do you get Dratini easily?

To get Dratini easily in Pokemon Yellow, you can find it in specific locations such as the lake northeast of Alfornada, Casseroya Lake, and North Province Area Two. Your best chances of finding Dratini are by fishing at a bubbling spot, or by leaving the area and returning if you don’t find it right away.

What happens when you catch all 150 Pokemon in yellow?

If you manage to catch all 150 Pokemon in Pokemon Yellow, you will receive a diploma in the game as a reward for completing the Pokedex.

Why is Dratini so hard to catch?

Dratini is considered to be hard to catch because it typically spawns at a higher level than most base evolution forms in the game. This means that trainers may need to level up their Pokemon and have stronger Pokeballs to increase their chances of capturing Dratini.

How rare is it to find a Dragonite?

Dragonite is a very rare Pokemon to find in the wild. Some believe that it only appears on a specific island in the ocean, making it even more elusive.

What Pokémon is rarer?

Among the Pokemon in the original 150, some of the rarest include Lapras, Kangaskhan, Aerodactyl, Dragonite, Alakazam, Omastar, Kabutops, and Mewtwo. These Pokemon have lower encounter rates or can only be obtained through special means.

What is the #1 rarest Pokémon in Pokemon Go?

In Pokemon Go, the #1 rarest Pokemon is a tie between three mythical Pokemon: Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie. These Pokemon only spawn in specific regions and are very difficult to find.

What is the rarest Pokémon to be seen?

Among the original 150 Pokemon, some of the rarest include Lapras, Kangaskhan, Aerodactyl, Dragonite, Alakazam, Omastar, Kabutops, and Mewtwo. These Pokemon have lower encounter rates or can only be obtained through special means.

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Pokémon Yellow Nuzlocke Guide

This guide contains useful information for a Yellow Nuzlocke . Lists of all of the available Pokémon, the number of encounters, and detailed overviews of all Boss battles .

Yellow Encounters

A fun aspect of Nuzlocke runs is the variety of encounters forcing you to try out new Pokémon you've never used before. That is why it's important to know which Pokémon will be available during a run. We've compiled a list of every encounter for Pokémon Yellow so you can quickly see who you might want on your team!

Pokémon Yellow has 45 different encounter locations with 94 different Pokémon available as wild encounters. Hover over a Pokémon to see where to encounter it!

1 Dragon Pokémon encounters

• Dratini - Safari Zone

2 Ice Pokémon encounters

• Dewgong - Seafoam Islands and Cinnabar Island
• Articuno - Seafoam Islands

2 Ghost Pokémon encounters

• Gastly - Pokémon Tower
• Haunter - Pokémon Tower

3 Fire Pokémon encounters

• Charmander - Route 24
• Vulpix - Celadon City
• Ponyta - Route 17

5 Electric Pokémon encounters

• Pikachu - Starter
• Magnemite - Route 10 and Power Plant
• Magneton - Power Plant
• Voltorb - Power Plant
• Zapdos - Power Plant

5 Rock Pokémon encounters

• Geodude - Mt. Moon, Rock Tunnel and Victory Road
• Graveler - Victory Road and Cerulean Cave
• Onix - Rock Tunnel and Victory Road
• Rhyhorn - Cerulean Cave
• Rhydon - Cinnabar Island and Cerulean Cave

6 Fighting Pokémon encounters

• Mankey - Route 22, Route 3, Route 4 and Route 23
• Primeape - Route 23
• Machop - Route 10 and Rock Tunnel
• Machoke - Route 5 and Victory Road
• Hitmonlee - Saffron City
• Hitmonchan - Saffron City

8 Bug Pokémon encounters

• Caterpie - Viridian Forest
• Metapod - Viridian Forest
• Paras - Mt. Moon
• Parasect - Route 18
• Venonat - Route 24, Route 25, Route 15 and Route 14
• Venomoth - Route 15 and Route 14
• Scyther - Celadon City
• Pinsir - Celadon City and Safari Zone

8 Psychic Pokémon encounters

• Abra - Route 5, Route 6, Route 8, Route 7 and Celadon City
• Kadabra - Route 8
• Slowpoke - Route 12 and Route 13
• Slowbro - Route 12 and Route 13
• Drowzee - Route 11
• Exeggcute - Safari Zone
• Mr. Mime - undefined
• Mewtwo - Cerulean Cave

9 Grass Pokémon encounters

• Bulbasaur - Cerulean City
• Oddish - Route 24, Route 25, Route 12, Route 15, Route 14 and Route 13
• Gloom - Route 12, Route 15, Route 14 and Route 13
• Bellsprout - Route 24, Route 25, Route 12, Route 15, Route 14 and Route 13
• Weepinbell - Route 12, Route 15, Route 14 and Route 13
• Tangela - Safari Zone

10 Ground Pokémon encounters

• Sandshrew - Route 3 and Route 4
• Diglett - Diglett's Cave
• Dugtrio - Route 11 and Diglett's Cave
• Cubone - Pokémon Tower and Safari Zone
• Marowak - Safari Zone

13 Flying Pokémon encounters

• Pidgey - Route 1, Route 2, Viridian Forest, Route 24, Route 25, Route 5, Route 6, Route 11, Route 12, Route 8, Route 7, Route 13 and Route 21
• Pidgeotto - Viridian Forest, Route 24, Route 25, Route 5, Route 6, Route 11, Route 12, Route 8, Route 7, Route 15, Route 14, Route 13 and Route 21
• Spearow - Route 22, Route 3, Route 4, Route 9, Route 16 and Route 18
• Fearow - Route 9, Route 16, Route 17, Route 18 and Route 23
• Zubat - Mt. Moon, Rock Tunnel and Seafoam Islands
• Golbat - Seafoam Islands, Victory Road and Cerulean Cave
• Farfetch’d - Route 12 and Route 13
• Doduo - Route 16, Route 17 and Route 18
• Dodrio - Route 17
• Gyarados - Fuschia City

18 Normal Pokémon encounters

• Rattata - Route 1, Route 22, Route 2, Route 3, Route 4, Route 5, Route 6, Route 11, Route 9, Route 10, Route 8, Route 7, Route 16, Route 18 and Route 21
• Raticate - Route 11, Route 9, Route 10, Route 16, Route 18, Pokémon Mansion and Route 21
• Clefairy - Mt. Moon
• Jigglypuff - Route 5, Route 6, Route 8 and Route 7
• Wigglytuff - Celadon City
• Lickitung - Cerulean Cave
• Chansey - Cerulean Cave
• Tauros - Safari Zone
• Ditto - Pokémon Mansion and Cerulean Cave
• Porygon - Celadon City
• Snorlax - Route 12 and Route 16

19 Poison Pokémon encounters

• Nidoran♀ - undefined
• Nidorina - Route 9 and Route 23
• Nidoran♂ - undefined
• Nidorino - Route 9, Safari Zone and Route 23
• Tentacool - Pallet Town, Vermillion City, Route 11, Route 17, Route 18, Route 13, Route 19, Route 20, Seafoam Islands and Route 21
• Tentacruel - Route 19, Route 20 and Route 21
• Grimer - Power Plant and Pokémon Mansion
• Muk - Power Plant, Cinnabar Island and Pokémon Mansion

20 Water Pokémon encounters

• Psyduck - Route 6
• Golduck - Route 6
• Poliwag - Pallet Town, Viridian City, Route 22, Route 24, Route 25, Route 6, Vermillion City, Route 11, Route 10, Route 12, Route 17, Route 18, Fuschia City, Safari Zone, Route 13, Route 19, Route 20, Seafoam Islands, Route 21, Route 23 and Cerulean Cave
• Poliwhirl - Route 22 and Route 23
• Seel - Seafoam Islands
• Shellder - Vermillion City, Route 17 and Route 18
• Krabby - Route 25, Route 10 and Seafoam Islands
• Kingler - Route 25, Route 10 and Seafoam Islands
• Horsea - Route 11, Route 10, Route 12 and Route 13
• Seadra - Route 12 and Route 13
• Goldeen - Pallet Town, Viridian City, Route 22, Route 24, Route 25, Route 6, Vermillion City, Route 11, Route 10, Route 12, Route 17, Route 18, Fuschia City, Safari Zone, Route 13, Route 19, Route 20, Seafoam Islands, Route 21, Route 23 and Cerulean Cave
• Seaking - Route 24 and Cerulean Cave
• Staryu - Pallet Town, Vermillion City, Route 19, Route 20, Seafoam Islands and Route 21
• Magikarp - Pallet Town, Viridian City, Route 22, Route 4, Route 24, Route 25, Route 6, Vermillion City, Route 11, Route 10, Route 12, Route 17, Route 18, Fuschia City, Safari Zone, Route 13, Route 19, Route 20, Seafoam Islands, Route 21, Route 23 and Cerulean Cave

1 Dragon Pokémon DRAGON

2 ice pokémon ice, 2 ghost pokémon ghost, 3 fire pokémon fire, 5 electric pokémon electric, 5 rock pokémon rock, 6 fighting pokémon fighting, 8 bug pokémon bug, 8 psychic pokémon psychic, 9 grass pokémon grass, 10 ground pokémon ground, 13 flying pokémon flying, 18 normal pokémon normal, 19 poison pokémon poison, 20 water pokémon water, yellow boss battles.

In order to complete a Yellow Nuzlocke and become the Champion, you will need to win 26 Boss battles throughout the Kanto region - ranging from bickering Rival & Evil team fights, to Gym Leaders & ultimately the Elite Four.

These can be a challenge, especially when your dear nicknamed nuzlocke mons are at risk. So below we've listed detailed overviews of all these fights! Giving you all the information you'll need to face everything from Blue's Eevee to Lance's Dragonite .

8 Gym Leader fights

5 Elite Four fights

7 Rival fights

6 Evil Team fights

Select your starter type

Like all Pokémon games, you will have to select a starter. The type will update some of the boss teams to match. For example, if your starter was a grass type Blue might have a fire type to take advantage!

Gym Leader fights

- pewter city gym.

has a team of 0, made up of a level undefined undefined. The level cap for this fight is level null.

Pewter City Gym

- cerulean city gym, cerulean city gym, - vermillion city gym, vermillion city gym, - celadon city gym, celadon city gym, - saffron city gym, saffron city gym, - fuschia city gym, fuschia city gym, - cinnabar island gym, cinnabar island gym, - viridian city gym, viridian city gym, elite four fights, - indigo plateau, indigo plateau, rival fights, - professor oak's lab, professor oak's lab, - s.s. anne, - pokemon tower, pokemon tower, - silph co., - victory road, victory road, evil team fights, - team rocket, team rocket, - rocket hideout, rocket hideout, - silph co. boss, silph co. boss.

Now that you're ready to take on the Pokémon Yellow Nuzlocke Challenge , why not keep track of all your encounters with the Nuzlocke Tracker ? Start Tracking

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How to Catch Dratini in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Last Updated: December 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Ishrak . Ishrak is a Gaming & Video Expert specializing in sharing Pokémon and Minecraft videos. With over seven years of gaming and streaming experience, Ishrak has a follower base of over 30,000 YouTube subscribers and over 8 million views. He is also a Pokémon ROM-Hacker and some of his most popular videos highlight tips and advice for people learning how to play Pokémon games. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 810,059 times.

Dratini is a rare, Dragon-type Pokémon that, if raised right, can be a great addition to your team. You can find this elusive Pokémon in the Safari Zone, or you can cough up a pocketful of credits at the Rocket Game Center. See Step 1 below to find out how to add Dratini to your Pokedex without breaking a sweat.

Catching Dratini in the Safari Zone

• When you hook a Pokémon, you will need to press the A button to set the hook, otherwise the Pokémon will get away.
• There is a 1% chance that you will catch a Dragonair, Dratini's evolution.

• Throwing Bait followed by a Rock will cancel the effects of each. If you want to improve the catch chance, either throw one Rock, or a Bait followed by two rocks.

Buying Dratini in Celadon City

Community Q&A

• Dratini evolves at Level 30 to Dragonair and Level 55 to Dragonite. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Dratini will usually be higher level and less pricey if you catch it rather than paying coins for it.
• The best moves for this are thunder fire and ice punch with dragon tail.
• Don't evolve the Dratini until level 75 to get the best move.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://masternoobs.com/pokemon-frlg-dratini-dragonair-dragonite/
• ↑ https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dratini_(Pok%C3%A9mon)
• ↑ https://www.smogon.com/dex/dp/pokemon/dratini/
• ↑ https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Celadon_Game_Corner

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Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow

In this article, I will tell the story of what I went through to catch a level 15 Dragonair in the Safari Zone in the Nintendo 3DS virtual console version of Pokémon Yellow back in 2019. But before I tell the story, an introduction is in order.

Introduction

Safari zone mechanics in pokémon yellow, my main purpose in the safari zone, introducing safari zone dragonair, my dragonair safari, dragonite trainer capture video, my take-aways, why is dragonair in the pokémon yellow safari zone, recommendation.

I recently wrote two frustrating video game stories. My first story was about what I went through to bring you a review of a 2006 visual novel translation called Midsummer Haze – specifically, how I had to re-do the same thing 43 times to unlock the second half of the game. That story reminded me of how I had struggled to withstand the AI spamming a powerful attack in Persona 3 FES in 2010. One thing those stories had in common was that my suffering was necessary to complete the games. I needed to endure Midsummer Haze’s random trigger mechanic in order to write my review, and I needed to survive the Persona 3 FES battle to advance without re-doing the battle. But not all frustrating video game stories are required to complete the game. Sometimes we make lives harder on ourselves for no good reason.

Now to the Safari Zone.

Pokémon Yellow is the third version of the generation one Pokémon games. It is very similar to the first two versions, Pokémon Red and Blue, but it has the player start with a Pikachu (which cannot evolve) instead of the choice of Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander, it tweaks the enemy trainers, and it adds a few flourishes to make the game slightly more similar to the anime. Pokémon Yellow presents the definitive generation one Pokémon experience.

Nintendo re-released Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2016 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Pokémon Red and Green in Japan. My New Leaf Journal colleague Victor V. Gurbo and I had both played the generation one Pokémon games many times as kids. However, we never battled since we did not meet until high school. We decided to buy the Virtual Console version of Pokémon Yellow and have the battle we could never have as kids.

(Note: I won our three battles taking advantage of the fact that I had a much better understanding of generation one battle mechanics than did Victor at the time.)

We did not make haste in building our teams. In 2019, as I was recovering from surgery (see my game stories on Pokémon Trading Card Game and Mario Party from that period), I decided to complete my play-through Yellow and work on putting together my team to take on Victor. The process went slowly, in part because I was debating which Pokémon I would use (we were not trading with other games, so I had to be careful about my move choices since most moves can only be taught once). But I made steady progress, reaching the Safari Zone in Fuchsia City around April of 2019.

Before continuing, I will offer a brief explanation of the Safari Zone. This is a special area in the generation one Pokémon games wherein the player can catch many Pokémon, but catching Pokémon works with different rules than it does outside of the Safari Zone. A player ordinarily battles wild Pokémon with his or her own Pokémon and tries to weaken the wild Pokémon (without making it faint) before throwing a version of a Poké Ball at it. Various factors affect the likelihood that the player will catch the Pokémon. These factors include:

• The type of ball the player throws (Poké Ball, Great Ball, or Ultra Ball – Master Ball, of which there is one, has a 100% catch-rate)
• The amount of health the wild Pokémon has (closer to 0 increases the odds that it will stay in the ball)
• Status effects on the wild Pokémon (these increase the catch probability)
• The wild Pokémon’s level and natural catch rate (some wild Pokémon have high catch-rates, which make them easier to catch, while other wild Pokémon have low catch-rates)

While many factors go into catching Pokémon, the process is ultimately simple. Many Pokémon with high catch rates are amenable to capture by throwing a Poké Ball without actually engaging in battle. One unique aspect of the generation one Pokémon games is that it is possible to “miss” the Pokémon with the ball. This occurs when the catch probability is very low. In all subsequent games, the Pokémon always breaks out of the ball if it cannot be caught instead of dodging the ball entirely.

Things are different in the Safari Zone. The player pays for a round of the Safari Game and leaves his or her Pokémon outside. In return, the player is given 30 Safari Balls. The player can only use Safari Balls in the Safari Zone. Safari Balls cannot be used outside of the Safari Zone. A player’s Safari Zone run ends either when he or she takes a certain number of steps or runs out of Safari Balls.

Now one may wonder how the player is supposed to catch Pokémon in the Safari Zone if battling is impossible. In each battle, the player is armed with Safari Balls, Bait, and Rocks. Throwing bait at a Pokémon makes it harder to catch but less likely to flee. Throwing a rock makes it angry, which increases the catch rate but makes it more likely to flee. It should go without saying that throwing a Safari Ball in the direction of a Pokemon is an attempt to catch the Pokémon. A wild Pokémon encounter ends either when the player catches the Pokémon, the player runs from the encounter, or the wild Pokémon flees.

As I noted, every ball in the Pokémon games has a catch rate. The catch rates are relative to the basic Poké Ball. Safari Balls are 1.5x as effective as a Poké Ball, making them equivalent to the regular second-tier Great Balls. They are less effective than Ultra Balls, which are the best regularly-obtainable balls in Pokémon generation one. Ultra Balls have a 2.0x catch-rate.

One can crunch the numbers to determine the optimal Safari Zone catching strategies. An article on The Cave of Dragonflies breaks down the Safari Zone math and lists all of the potential strategies. While there are many approaches, the simplest strategy is the most optimal in generation one. I quote from Dragonfiles :

You may think, as I did when I was initially working this out, that the fourth strategy has the most potential. However, as it turns out, the R/B/Y Safari Zone is broken: the balls-only strategy nearly always wins by a considerable margin, at least in terms of your overall chance of catching the Pokémon per encounter. Wasting your time on bait and rocks is only worth it in a couple of very exceptional cases. Cave of the Dragonflies

The Pokémon development team clearly put a great deal of thought into the Safari Ball/Bait/Rock system in the Safari Zone. But in the end, players are generally well advised to just chuck Safari Balls at anything they want to catch and hope for the best.

There are a very small number of “exceptional” edge cases. One notable example is a level 7 Chansey, albeit a level 7 Chansey only has a 1-in-100 chance of appearing in a specific area of the Safari Zone, which is low enough that I did not know the Pokémon Yellow Safari Zone contained level 7 Chanseys until I conducted some research for this article. I will note that every Safari Zone Pokémon I reference in this article going forward has the best odds of capture with the Safari Ball-only strategy.

The majority of Pokémon that one will encounter in the Safari Zone are relatively easy to catch. However, there are some extreme cases on the other end of the spectrum…

Once I cleared the one story objective I had in the Safari Zone, I attended to practical business. By that stage, I was not 100% sure about the final team I would use against Victor, but I had two definite targets in the Safari Zone: Dratini and Tauros.

Tauros is one of the best Pokémon in generation one (if not the best behind Mewtwo and Mew).

Dratini is part of the sole dragon-Pokémon evolution line in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, evolving into Dragonair at level 35 which in turn evolves into the iconic Dragonite at level 55 (the rarity of dragons gave rise to some urban legends and April Fools jokes ). I had a plan for what I wanted to do with Dragonite, but that plan could not begin without catching a Dratini. The only place this can be done in Pokémon Yellow is the Safari Zone.

Most Pokémon in the Safari Zone are encountered randomly in tall grass (some are common while others are scarce). Dratini is one of the minority of Pokémon that is exclusive to fishing. The player can fish and catch a Dratini in select areas. Dratini only appears in certain bodies of water at a 10-20% rate (20% in one area with the Super Rod), but that is not too bad. I took advantage of the area which yields a level 10 Dratini at a 20% clip to catch a Dratini without too much trouble. According to Dragonfly Cave , I had a 6.64% chance of catching Dratini every time I threw a Safari Ball and Dratini had a 12.5% chance of running.

I caught Tauros surprisingly easily (on my second attempt) despite the fact that it is one of the harder Pokémon to keep in a Safari Ball. I recall catching Dratini on my fourth or fifth try. While there were a couple of other Pokémon that I had some interest in considering for my team if I caught them – namely Chansey and Pinsir – I was not invested enough to devote a great deal of time to the project if I did not happen to get lucky with an encounter.

Having cleared my main objective, my work was surely done.

It was not.

I noted before that Dratini evolves into Dragonair at level 35. Dragonair happens to be high on my list of favorite Pokémon. Dragonair, like Dratini, can also be caught in the Safari Zone (note: only in Yellow). However, despite the fact that Dratini evolves at level 35, wild Safari Zone Dragonair come at level 15 . To be sure, this does not seem to make any sense. It is one of a small number of cases in Pokémon games where a wild evolved Pokémon is available at a lower level than it evolves, and the only such case in generation one.

(The Elite Four Champion in the second generation Pokémon games, Gold, Silver, and Crystal, has two level 47 Dragonite and a level 50 Dragonite. This is very impressive in light of the fact that Dragonair evolves into Dragonite at level 55.)

Before continuing, note that I had no intention of raising a Dragonair I caught in the Safari Zone over the Dratini. While Dragonair has better stats than Dratini, Dratini was the better choice for my long-term project. Both Dratini and Dragonair are in the slow level-up group , meaning they are in the group of Pokémon that require the most experience to gain levels. I will submit for the record that I became acutely aware of this as I slowly raised my Dratini, which was way under-leveled compared to the rest of my team at the time of capture. This process would have been even worse if I was starting with a wild Dragonair. Thus, I had already decided to go with raising the Dratini for my battle against Victor.

However, I liked the idea of catching a level 15 Dragonair. Thanks to Pokémon Bank and Pokémon Home, I could transfer it to the modern Pokémon games on Switch and feel special having an evolutionary anomaly (I still need to transfer it…). I figured that not too many people go through the trouble of catching a Dragonair in the Safari Zone since, given the availability of Dratini, there is no reason to do so unless the player is determined to add a Dragonair to the Pokédex without raising a Dratini (that would only make sense if the player could trade for a Dragonite, however). In fact, without consulting a guide, it would be easy to go through the Safari Zone multiple times without knowing that there were level 15 Dragonairs swimming around.

Acquiring a unique version of one of my favorite Pokémon was like acquiring a neat collector’s item. Moreover, I know how to make use of a Dragonair in the modern Pokémon games, meaning I could find something productive to do with my curiosity.

There was only one problem with my ambition. The problem was actually catching a level 15 Dragonair.

Dragonair is only available through using a Super Rod in one area of water in one area of the Safari Zone. It only comes in the level 15 flavor and it only appears while fishing in the right place with the right rod at a rate of 10%. Thus, as a threshold barrier, every time I cast my Super Rod in the correct body of water, I had a 10% chance of engaging a Dragonair.

(I caught a few extra Dratini during my struggle since they appeared at a 20% clip in the same body of water.)

Now while I said that Dratini was not too difficult to catch, it was far from a sure thing. I missed more than I caught on the whole. Recall Dratini had a 6.64% chance of staying in a Safari Ball and a 12.5% chance at the end of each turn of running. Let us compare it to its evolution:

(Note: These stats are for Yellow. Moreover, they are stats for throwing Safari Balls while ignoring bait and rocks, which is the best strategy for both Dratini and Dragonair.)

You may wonder how big a difference this is in reality.

Spoiler: Very big difference.

My determination to catch a Dragonair kept me in Fuchsia City for a long stretch as I made repeated trips to the Safari Zone. I spent a few train rides indulging my interest in catching a Dragonair. Things were not going swimmingly (pun unintended).

Dragonair is a pain to catch because of a combination of factors. While its 10% encounter rate while fishing with a Super Rod is low, it is actually easier to encounter than many of the rare Pokémon that haunt tall grass, some of which have 1% encounter rates. In addition to the fact that 10% is not bad for a rare Pokémon by Safari Zone standards, the player can stand in one spot while fishing and thus not accrue steps toward the Safari Game’s step limit. Conversely, if you are walking around tall grass trying to trigger an encounter with a 1% or 5% chance of occurring, there is a decent chance your Safari Game will end on steps before finding the Pokémon. Similarly, as we will see, Dragonair’s run rate, while high, is not extreme by Safari Zone standards. Its catch rate of 3.76% is, however, absolutely atrocious. It is the combination of its uniquely bad catch rate with its high enough run rate that makes it easy to burn through Safari Balls without coming close to catching one. Below, I present every Pokémon with a catch rate of under 10% and a run rate of more than 20% (note that all of this information is for Pokémon Yellow only):

Dragonair has the lowest catch rate of any Safari Zone Pokémon in Yellow, but due to the fact that it is encountered through fishing and it has a lower run rate than all of the other Pokémon that met by dual criteria, I would not say that it is the hardest Pokémon to catch in the Safari Zone. Despite my spending a good amount of time in the Safari Zone while trying to catch Dragonair, sometimes wandering around the grass when I ran low on Safari Balls, the only other Pokémon I caught from the list in my Yellow run was Tauros. I recall having a few Chansey and Kangaskhan encounters and a combined five or six Pinsir, Scyther, and Tangela encounters, but I never came close to getting one of them to stay in a Safari Ball.

However, regardless of how you rank Yellow’s Safari Zone selection in terms of difficulty, catching Dragonair is a pain. Just trust me. I am speaking from experience.

Firstly, while I explained why encountering a Dragonair is not difficult – if you are patient with your Super Rod, you can guarantee using all 30 of your Safari Balls on Dragonair catch attempts – repeatedly going into the menu to select and use your Super Rod and then waiting for something to bite is time consuming. It is especially time consuming when you bear in mind that 90% of the bites will be something other than a Dragonair. Every non-Dragonair triggers a battle animation. There are also times when you do not get a bite, which triggers a message.

The real fun began when I actually encountered a Dragonair. That is when I was able to experience the joy of chucking Safari Balls at the aquatic sea dragon, knowing that each one had a very high chance of failing (I am not sure that I knew the failure chance was 96.28%). I noted at the top that in most cases when your catch odds are absurdly low, the generation one Pokémon games will have you miss the Pokémon with the ball. I became very familiar with the animation and message as I missed Dragonair after Dragonair over and over again.

I caught the very first Dragonair that I did not miss with a Safari Ball.

How many Dragonairs mocked me and swam away before I caught one?

I kept an unofficial count of Dragonair failures over the 10-14 days I spent chipping away at the project, including a couple of entire 30-minute subway rides. I recall being of the view that I caught the 31st Dragonair I fished out of the Central Lake of the Safari Zone. While I did not keep track of how many Safari Balls I lost on the project, I will guess that the final number was in the 110-120 range. Most of the Dragonairs sat there taunting me while I missed with 3 or 4 balls. I recall at least one case where I was able to throw eight or nine before Dragonair swam away. But there were more than a few one-and-done and two-and-out cases to balance things out.

I got into a rhythm of not expecting much when I fished out a Dragonair. I would commence throwing Safari Balls and waiting for the Dragonair to flee so I could repeat the process. I held my breath on Dragonair 31 (or 33 or 35, I could have been wrong) when it went inside the ball. To be sure, I would not have been surprised if it broke out.

The ball shook once. Shook. Shook again.

I caught a Dragonair. The very first time the ball actually hit the Dragonair, it stayed in.

I took a picture of my screen at the moment of capture with my old BlackBerry Classic. Sadly, I lost those pictures on one occasion when I had to reset my phone, but you can see proof below that I am in possession of a level 15 Dragonair:

Consider the fact that this Dragonair is level 15 proof of my triumph. As I explained, because Dratini evolves at level 35, the only possible way to have a level 15 Dragonair in Pokémon Yellow (other than cheating) is to catch one in the Safari Zone.

I found one YouTube video wherein user Dragonite Trainer (fitting) catches a Dragonair in the Yellow Safari Zone. I suppose someone who goes by Dragonite Trainer would be one of the rare people interested in catching a Dragonair in the Safari Zone. Dragonite Trainer is using an emulator at 3x or 4x speed, which would certainly accelerate the process (I played at normal speed). One interesting point is that Dragonite Trainer used a rock to make Dragonair angry and thus easier to catch.

As I explained earlier, using rocks does increase the catch rate. In almost all cases, it is not the best statistical strategy because of the effect it has on the run rate. The best statistical play for Dragonair is to just chuck Safari Balls at it. However, while rocks are sub-optimal in a sense, they do represent a potentially high reward in any given encounter. Regardless of the strategy, the odds for catching Dragonair in any individual encounter are very low, so I suppose someone who feels lucky can make a case for the rock strategy.

What did I take away from the experience?

I knew going in that catching a Dragonair would be a pain, although I was not armed with the specific odds when I began my journey. While I do not recall what precisely I expected, I probably did not expect to miss 30 consecutive Dragonair, especially having come off catching a Tauros on my second or third attempt. I had slightly worse luck with Dragonair than even the terrible odds would have predicted.

When I realized that Dragonair was going to be more stubborn than I anticipated, I mixed up my Safari Zone sessions. For example, I might fish up three Dragonair and, after burning a good number of Safari Balls on those, wander around the Safari Zone a bit to see if I could catch any other rare Pokémon after having caught Tauros. As I noted, I had a particular interest in Chansey, but my small number of Chansey encounters were even less successful than my Dragonair failures.

Interestingly, I came to find the process somewhat relaxing. My expectations were low (I started to figure out Dragonair was even more luck-based than I thought going in), and I mixed up my Safari Zone adventures to keep things from becoming too repetitive. I felt a sense of accomplishment – albeit it was a testament to my willingness to grind through failed Dragonair encounters rather than any skill – when I finally caught my level 15 Dragonair. It is something of a trophy Pokémon and I can (and will) transport it to the new Pokémon games on Switch.

While my telling this story was inspired by my Midsummer Haze nightmare, catching a Dragonair was more enjoyable and rewarding than doing the same thing in a visual novel 43 times in a row. Besides the fact that wandering around the Safari Zone is not a bad way to pass the time when you are not hopelessly lost like I was in 1999 during my first Pokémon Red play-thru, the Dragonair safari was a quest that I took on my own initiative. Conversely, I needed to actually get through Midsummer Haze in order to publish a full and complete review of the visual novel, and there was no way other than through brute force. I think of the comparison as the difference between learning for pleasure (Dragonair) and doing homework ( Midsummer Haze ).

While writing this article, it occurred to me that it is odd that Dragonair was added to the Safari Zone in Pokémon Yellow.

Dratini was available in the Safari Zone in Pokémon Red and Blue as well as in the Celadon City Game Corner (as an expensive prize). Exempting the Game Corner option, Dratini was one of a few Pokémon only available in the wild of the Safari Zone. This made some sense in that Dratini was one of only three dragon Pokémon and thus special in that respect.

But what was the reason for adding Dratini’s evolution?

This I know not. There are many cases in the generation Pokémon game wherein it is only possible to catch a Pokémon’s pre-evolution and not in its final evolution. Dragonite is a relevant example here. Even in Yellow, it is not possible to catch Dragonite. The only way to obtain it without trading is to evolve a Dragonair at level 55 or higher. That Dragonite was still locked to evolution seems to remove any purpose for going out of one’s way to add Dragonair to the Pokémon Yellow Safari Zone.

I will add that, in theory, there were some other somewhat rare water-bound Pokémon that could have been added to the Safari Zone. For example, Game Freak could have added Gyarados with a low catch rate (for those people who are too lazy to raise a Magikarp to level 20) or a Pokémon that would not otherwise appear until later in the game such as Seel. Why Dragonair?

In the end, I could not find an answer to my question. I suppose Game Freak just thought it would be fun to add the majestic Dragonair to the waters of the Safari Zone. But this leaves us with an additional question: Why is Dragonair at the seemingly impossibly low level 15? It is not as if this was necessary to balance the game. Dragonair itself is not particularly strong and at level 35 (its normal evolution level), it is still a very long 20 levels away from evolving into a Dragonite.

I have formulated a theory on the level 15 point.

According to Cave of the Dragonflies , a level 35 Dragonair would have had a 46.09% chance of running to go along with its Safari Zone-low 3.67% catch rate. It seems possible to me that Game Freak decided that a level 35 Dragonair, without additional intervention, would be too difficult to catch.

Of course, this is just a theory. Perhaps someone at Game Freak simply liked the idea of a level 15 Dragonair raising questions by merely existing.

If you have Pokémon Yellow, whether an original copy, the 3DS Virtual Console version, or a ROM, I am not sure that I can recommend taking time out of your life to catch a level 15 Dragonair, but if you are a Dragonair fan who enjoys repeatedly casting your Super Rod and seeing the message that your Safari Ball missed the Pokémon, there are worse ways to have fun.

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The Cave of Dragonflies

Where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons

R/B/Y Safari Zone Mechanics

A staple of the Pokémon series since the originals is the Safari Zone: a special place with Pokémon that aren't found anywhere else (and some that are) where instead of getting to use your own Pokémon to weaken and capture them, you must employ more old-fashioned methods while the Pokémon may run at any moment. While they haven't been in every game, they shake up the usual routine of catching Pokémon and have had various interesting mechanics through the generations - however, the very most interesting has to be the original.

How It Works

In every Safari Zone, the player is unable to use their own Pokémon at all. Instead, when you encounter a Pokémon you have four options: throwing one of the limited number of Safari Balls you have; an aggressive action used to make the Pokémon easier to catch; an enticing action used to make it less likely to run away; or running away from the battle yourself.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the aggressive action is called Rock , and the enticing action is called Bait . The basic idea is this: throwing a rock will double your chances of catching the Pokémon, but it will also make the Pokémon angry for 1-5 turns. Conversely, throwing bait will halve your chances of catching the Pokémon, but cause the Pokémon to be eating for 1-5 turns. While angry, a Pokémon is twice as likely to run on any given turn as if it were in its neutral state, while it is four times less likely to run while it is eating than in a neutral state.

However, there are several more interesting details and subtleties to how Safari Zone battles happen.

Throwing a Ball

Capturing in the Safari Zone follows the regular R/B/Y capture algorithm , though since neither the Pokémon's HP nor its status can be affected and the only balls available are Safari Balls (identical to Ultra Balls), a lot of things are abstracted out in the Safari Zone. Unfortunately, thanks to the game's flawed RNG , Safari Balls underperform against full-health Pokémon, making all capture chances in the Safari Zone lower than intended. The capture chance maxes out when the Pokémon has a catch rate of 150 or more, for which the chance will be about 27-30% depending on rounding errors; all other Pokémon are harder than that.

The catch rate C starts out being, as in regular captures, the intrinsic catch rate of the Pokémon species. However, unlike regular captures, your actions in the Safari Zone can directly modify C, as hinted above.

Throwing Rocks/Bait

Rocks and bait have two distinct effects. First, every time a rock is thrown, the catch rate C is doubled (though it is capped at 255, so if doubling would make the catch rate more than that, it is made 255 instead), and every time bait is thrown, C is halved and rounded down. This happens even if the Pokémon is already angry or eating, and it happens completely blindly - if the Pokémon has a catch rate of 235, and you throw a rock to give it a catch rate of 255, then throwing bait will take that catch rate down to 127, rather than "canceling out" to give it the same catch rate as before.

Since the capture chance maxes out when the catch rate is 150 as explained above, there is no point throwing rocks at any Pokémon with an intrinsic catch rate of 150 or more, or more than one rock at a Pokémon with a catch rate of 75 or more, or more than two rocks at one with a catch rate of 38 or more. As it happens that covers all Pokémon that can be found in the Safari Zone except for Chansey (catch rate 30) and Dragonair (catch rate 27 in Yellow), who would need three rocks to go over 150.

Secondly, while a battle in the Safari Zone is going on, the game also keeps track of two counters, the "angry counter" and the "eating counter", which stand for the number of angry or eating turns the Pokémon has left. They both start out at zero; however, when a rock or bait is thrown, a random number between 1 and 5 inclusive will be generated and added to the appropriate counter (i.e. the angry counter if it's a rock, or the eating counter if it's bait), while the other counter will be reset to zero regardless of its previous value. This means only one of the counters can be nonzero at any given time. Since the random number is added to whatever value the counter already has, throwing further rocks at a Pokémon that is already angry will prolong its angry state, and likewise with throwing bait at an eating Pokémon. The eating and angry counters are both capped at 255.

The Pokémon's Turn

You always get the first turn in the Safari Zone, but on the Pokémon's turn, two things happen.

First, the game will check if either of the angry and eating counters is nonzero. If so, then a message saying "Wild [Pokémon] is angry!" or "Wild [Pokémon] is eating!" as appropriate is shown and the counter is decreased by one. If the angry counter is decreased to zero this way, the Pokémon's catch rate will also be reset to its initial catch rate , regardless of how it has been modified in the battle before this point; note that this last bit does not happen when a Pokémon stops eating, nor when the angry counter is reset to zero because you threw a bait.

After this, the game will perform a calculation to determine whether the Pokémon will run away on this turn. The run chance depends only on which state the Pokémon is in - angry, eating or neutral - but not on how many times you've thrown rocks/bait in any way: a Pokémon that you've thrown five rocks at followed by one bait will be exactly as happy to stick around as one that you threw a bait at on the first turn. Note that the Pokémon's actual current state does not necessarily correspond to the state indicated by the message that was just shown, since the message indicates only that the counter in question was nonzero before it was subtracted from. This also means that if you throw a rock or bait and the random number generated is 1, you will see an angry/eating message, but the Pokémon will in fact be back in its neutral state before even the run check is performed.

The run calculation itself goes as follows:

• Make a variable X equal to the low byte (i.e. the remainder if you divide by 256) of the Pokémon's Speed ( not the base Speed of the species, but the individual's actual Speed).
• If the outcome is greater than 255 (i.e. if the Pokémon's Speed was 128 or more), the Pokémon automatically runs. Skip the rest of the procedure.
• If the Pokémon is angry, double X again (if it becomes greater than 255, make it 255 instead).
• If the Pokémon is eating, divide X by four.
• Generate a random number R between 0 and 255 inclusive.
• If R is less than X, the Pokémon runs away.

All in all, this means that so long as (the low byte of) the Pokémon's Speed is less than 128 (which it always will be in the actual game - the highest Speed any Pokémon actually found in the Safari Zone can have is 75), the chance that it will run is 2*Speed/256 if it's in a neutral state, min(255, 4*Speed)/256 if it's angry, or int(Speed/2)/256 if it's eating.

Crucially, since this is the actual individual Speed and not the base Speed of the species, lower-leveled individuals are less likely to run . While Scyther at level 25 or 28 have around or above a 50% chance of running every turn in a neutral state, for instance, Yellow's level 15 Scyther are considerably easier to catch, with only a 32% chance of running in a neutral state at the most. Thus, perhaps the best piece of strategic advice for the Safari Zone is to go for the lowest-leveled possible version of your desired Pokémon, given the lower-leveled version isn't unacceptably rare.

So, well, how should one go about trying to achieve success in the Safari Zone, other than trying to catch lower-leveled Pokémon? Four basic kinds of strategies come to mind:

• Balls only. This is the simplest way to go about the Safari Zone - just madly lob balls at everything you want to catch and pray that they don't run before you catch them.
• Rocks, then balls. Throw some sensible number of rocks, then lob balls and hope you catch it before it either runs or calms down and resets the catch rate. If you see it's not angry anymore, start again from scratch with the rocks.
• Bait, then balls. Throw some bait to put the Pokémon in the eating state and make it stick around, then throw balls and hope the reduced catch rate doesn't come back to bite you. Unlike with rocks, where once the Pokémon stops being angry you're back at square one, it's not quite as obvious here that you should throw more bait once the Pokémon stops eating - each bait you throw lowers the catch rate more, after all.
• Rocks to increase catch rate, then bait to get it to stay, then balls. Throw a rock or two (or three) and then immediately throw bait. Provided your first rock doesn't generate one as the number of angry turns (in which case the Pokémon will calm down immediately and reset the catch rate), you'll manage to increase the Pokémon's catch rate before the bait gets thrown, meaning you end up with a catch rate of the same, double or quadruple the original (depending on the number of rocks), but a 4x reduced chance of running and assurance that the catch rate won't reset when it returns to the neutral state.

There are other possible strategies, but they appear obviously flawed - if you were to throw bait and then a rock, for instance, you'd end up with a normal catch rate but a higher running chance after wasting two turns, which can't possibly be helpful. These are the main ones that at a glance appear to hold some kind of promise.

You may think, as I did when I was initially working this out, that the fourth strategy has the most potential. However, as it turns out, the R/B/Y Safari Zone is broken: the balls-only strategy nearly always wins by a considerable margin, at least in terms of your overall chance of catching the Pokémon per encounter. Wasting your time on bait and rocks is only worth it in a couple of very exceptional cases.

Wait, What?

Good question. If you don't care about getting an intuitive grasp on why this is true, feel free to skip to the Safari Zone calculator.

Here's the thing. The entire Safari Zone experience basically simplifies to a game where you and the Pokémon alternate turns, with each of you having a given chance of "winning" on each of your turns (you win if you catch the Pokémon, while the Pokémon wins if it runs). When you throw bait or a rock, however, you do that instead of throwing a ball on that turn, while the Pokémon will continue to have a chance of running on every single one of its turns; essentially, you are forgoing one of your turns (attempts to "win") in exchange for a later advantage.

What is that later advantage, then, and is it worth losing that turn? Well, in the case of a rock, you double your chances of winning (catching the Pokémon) for up to four subsequent turns - but you also double the Pokémon's chances of winning (running away), and because you used up your turn throwing the rock, it's the Pokémon that has the next move.

You can hopefully see how that's not really a recipe for success. However, it's not quite as bleak as it appears, thanks to the one place where the simplification breaks down: you have a limited number of Safari Balls. A rock, by doubling both yours and the Pokémon's chances of winning each turn, will shorten the average duration of the battle. Thus, if you have sufficiently few balls and the Pokémon has a sufficiently low catch rate and Speed, to the point that in an average battle against it you'd run out of balls before either catching it or it running, throwing a rock and shortening the battle so your balls will last can actually be worth it, even at the aforementioned cost. For instance, if you only have one Safari Ball left, then you can either throw that one ball with a regular catch rate or throw some rocks first, which will make your single ball much more likely to be effective once you do throw it; you'll only get one attempt to catch it either way. The risks will still outweigh the benefits if the Pokémon is pretty speedy, since then it will be likely to run before you can actually throw the ball at all, but for a sufficiently slow target (for a single Safari Ball, the highest Speed where a rock will be worth it is 25 or so), rocks can be a good idea when you don't have a lot of Safari Balls left.

Throwing multiple rocks can also help, at least in theory, since more rocks will continue to double your chances of catching the Pokémon without raising the running chance further. Primarily, in many of those situations where a lack of Safari Balls means one rock is a good idea, two (or possibly three) rocks improve your chances even further, though the range of situations where this works is even narrower than for one rock. Technically multiple rocks can also help in general for Pokémon with very low Speeds and low catch rates - however, that's low Speeds as in single digits, and no Pokémon that fit the bill are actually found in the Safari Zone, making that point kind of moot. Otherwise, if you have plenty of balls to spare, the free angry turns they usually get to run away before you even start trying to catch them just result in a disadvantage you can't make up for.

What about bait? Bait is immediately somewhat more promising than rocks, since it halves your chance of "winning" but quarters the Pokémon's. However, bait also differs from rocks in that the catch rate doesn't go back to normal after the Pokémon stops eating, and just like rocks shorten the duration of the battle, bait prolongs the battle - it makes both parties less likely to win on subsequent turns. And the longer the battle goes on, the more the up-to-four turns (remember, the counter is decreased before the run check) that the Pokémon is actually less likely to run diminish in significance compared to all the turns after the Pokémon stops eating, when it will still have a lowered catch rate but a regular chance of running. That's besides the fact that again you must forgo a turn to throw the bait in the first place. In fact, as it turns out this makes bait wholly useless: there is not even in theory a Speed/catch rate combination for which bait will do you any good.

Where does this leave that especially promising-looking "rocks, then bait" strategy? Ultimately, it's stuck in the same rut rocks are: it's normally only useful for Pokémon with such ludicrously low Speed that they don't actually exist in the Safari Zone, and unfortunately, while rocks at least have a niche when you're running low on balls, you're always going to be better off just throwing however many rocks you're going to throw and then throwing your ball than throwing the rocks and then wasting your time on bait if you only have a couple of balls left. This strategy requires wasting several turns without throwing any balls, during some of which the Pokémon will have an increased chance of running, and to make matters worse, if the number of angry turns generated is one, you're going to lose even the rock's advantage and end up with the bait's lowered catch rate after all that preparation. It just kills it.

So, again, in nearly every case the best strategy is to just throw balls and hope you get lucky. That is, however, assuming that what you want to maximize is your chance of success per encounter: since rocks shorten the battle and make for fewer Safari Balls required, rocks may actually save you time and money.

The Safari Zone calculator below includes a variety of strategies, despite their mostly limited usefulness; play around with it if you think you might go with a different one.

Safari Zone Calculator

Use this tool to calculate your chances of capturing a given Pokémon.

As it is, it only includes Pokémon that are actually found in the Safari Zone in either Red, Blue, Yellow, or the Japanese-exclusive Blue version. If there is demand for adding other Pokémon just for the hell of it, I can do that too, but in the meantime, I feel this makes more sense.

In addition to your chances of capturing the Pokémon with any or all of the provided strategies, the calculator will also provide you with the basic capture rate and run chance per turn. When you select a Pokémon and game, additionally, it will give you the locations, levels and rarities at which the Pokémon is found in the Safari Zone in that game, so that you can perhaps attempt to find your Pokémon at a lower level or in an area where it's more common.

The base percentages the calculator gives may not match exactly up with those given by my R/B/Y catch rate calculator , since this calculator makes the simplifying assumption that the Pokémon's HP and Speed are equal to the average HP/Speed a wild Pokémon of the given species/level would have, while the catch rate calculator does the entire calculation for each possible HP IV and takes the average of the actual outcomes. I chose not to do the more accurate calculation here because this calculation is both already relatively slow and involves two different stats - trying every possibility would mean doing that whole relatively slow calculation up to 256 times, which just seems like way more trouble than it's worth.

Pokémon: Chansey Cubone Doduo Dragonair Dratini Exeggcute Goldeen Kangaskhan Krabby Lickitung Magikarp Marowak Nidoran (f) Nidoran (m) Nidorina Nidorino Paras Parasect Pinsir Poliwag Psyduck Rhyhorn Scyther Slowpoke Tangela Tauros Venomoth Venonat

Game: Red Blue/JP Green JP Blue Yellow

Safari Balls remaining:

Strategy: Show all Balls only One rock Two rocks Three rocks Bait repeatedly One bait Two bait Three bait Rock, then bait Two rocks, then bait Three rocks, then bait

Page last modified August 9 2021 at 02:53 UTC

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Dragon Pokémon

Has a 33% chance of curing any major status ailment after each turn.

Hidden Ability

Increases Defense to 1.5× with a major status ailment .

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Wild held items.

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Flavor Text

It is called the “Mirage Pokémon” because so few have seen it. Its shed skin has been found.

This Pokémon is full of life energy. It continually sheds its skin and grows steadily larger.

Dratini continually molts and sloughs off its old skin. It does so because the life energy within its body steadily builds to reach uncontrollable levels.

It grows by molting repeatedly. Boots made from the tanned cast-off skin are a super luxury item.

After a 10-hour struggle, a fisherman was able to pull one up and confirm its existence.

It’s still weak, so it lurks on the floor of bodies of water, eating whatever food sinks down and living a quiet life.

It sheds its skin—almost on a daily basis—and grows larger. Its skin is soft just after it’s been shed.

5'10.9" 1.8 m

7.3 lb 3.3 kg

• Safari Zone, Area 1, east
• Safari Zone, Area 2, north
• Safari Zone, Area 3, west
• Safari Zone, middle

• Dragon's Den

• Mt. Coronet, 4F

• Dragonspiral Tower, outside

• Floccesy Town

Dragon moves get STAB, and have their type highlighted in green.

Physical moves better suit Dratini's higher Attack, and have their class highlighted in green.

External Links

• Serebii.net

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Dratini (Pokémon)

Dratini ( Japanese : ミニリュウ Miniryu ) is a Dragon-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I .

It evolves into Dragonair starting at level 30, which evolves into Dragonite starting at level 55.

• 1.1 Evolution
• 2.1 NPC appearances
• 2.2 Pokédex entries
• 2.3.1 In side games
• 2.3.2 In events
• 2.4 Held items
• 2.5.1 Base stats
• 2.5.2 Pokéathlon stats
• 2.6 Type effectiveness
• 2.7.1 By leveling up
• 2.7.2 By TM
• 2.7.3 By breeding
• 2.7.4 TCG-only moves
• 2.8 Side game data
• 2.9 Evolution data
• 2.10 Sprites
• 3.1.1 Clair's Dratini
• 3.1.2 Other
• 3.2 Minor appearances
• 3.3 Pokédex entries
• 4.1 Pokémon Adventures
• 4.2 Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition ~ Ranse's Color Picture Scroll ~
• 4.3 Pokémon Pocket Monsters
• 4.4 Pokémon Zensho
• 5 In the TCG
• 6 In the TFG
• 7.1.1 Name origin
• 8 In other languages
• 9 Related articles
• 10 References
• 11 External links

Dratini is a reptilian Pokémon with a blue serpentine body and a white underside. It has white, three-pronged fins on the sides of its head and a white bump on its forehead, which is its horn growing. Above its round, white snout are oval, purple eyes.

Dratini's life energy is constantly building so it is always growing, and can reach lengths of over six feet (2 meters). As it grows, it sheds its skin regularly; it hides behind a rapid waterfall during the process to protect itself, since the new skin is soft in texture. The shed skin can be tanned and used to create luxury boots. Dratini has been referred as the "Mirage Pokémon", because its existence was originally thought to be nothing more than a myth. Dratini was first discovered by a fisherman who spent 10 hours attempting to capture it. A small colony has also been found underwater, further confirming its existence. Dratini live near or in bodies of water with a rapid flow, such as the pools at the bottom of waterfalls. It lives a quiet life underwater, eating any food that sinks down to the bottom.

As mentioned in Pokémon Sleep , Dratini's sleeping habits used to be a mystery due to how rare it was. [1] However in recent years, Dratini's sleep styles have been discovered and well documented. This is due to trainers who have obtained Dratini and observed its sleeping habits. The four different sleep styles discovered are called Coiled Sleep , Wriggly Sleep , Uncoiled Sleep , and Atop-Belly Sleep .

In Generation II , Dratini and its evolved forms were the only known Pokémon capable of learning the move Outrage , but other Pokémon could still inherit it via breeding .

Dratini evolves into Dragonair , which evolves into Dragonite .

(For specifics on this Pokémon's evolution in the games, refer to Game data→Evolution data .)

NPC appearances

• Pokémon: Magikarp Jump : A Dratini may appear as part of the "You're No Magikarp!" event , being accidentally hooked up while fishing (instead of a Magikarp ).

Pokédex entries

Game locations, in side games.

Pokémon caught in Generation I must be traded to a Generation II game in order for a held item to appear.

Pokéathlon stats

Type effectiveness, by leveling up.

• Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Dratini
• Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Dratini
• Click on the generation numbers at the top to see level-up moves from other generations
• Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution or an alternate form of Dratini
• Click on the generation numbers at the top to see TM moves from other generations

By breeding

• Moves marked with an asterisk (*) must be chain bred onto Dratini
• Click on the generation numbers at the top to see Egg moves from other generations

TCG -only moves

Side game data.

In Pokémon GO , Dratini could be obtained by completing 1/6 of the time-limited Special Research , Jump-Start Research .

Evolution data

In the anime

Major appearances

• Clair's Dratini

Dratini made its physical English dub debut in Beauty is Skin Deep , under the ownership of Clair . Team Rocket wanted to steal it from her, but failed. It evolved into a Dragonair at the end of the episode.

Dratini debuted in the banned episode EP035 , under the protection of the warden of the Safari Zone . By the end of the episode, it turned out that the Dratini the warden met 30 years earlier had evolved into a Dragonair, and was now raising its own child Dratini.

In Showdown at the Gates of Warp! , due to Dialga and Palkia 's influence, Ash's Dragonite devolved into a Dragonair and then into a Dratini. It was later reverted in the same episode.

Minor appearances

A Dratini appeared in one of Team Rocket 's fantasies in Ditto's Mysterious Mansion .

A Dratini appeared in Snorlax Snowman .

A Performer 's Dratini appeared in a video in Performing with Fiery Charm! .

In Alola to New Adventure! , a Trainer 's Dratini was on the Melemele Island beach.

A Dratini appeared in Pikachu's Exciting Adventure! .

A Trainer's Dratini appeared in League Offenders and Defenders! .

In Battling on the Wing! , a Trainer's Dratini watched the battles during the Manalo Conference .

In A Test in Paradise! , Goh and Ash witnessed a Dratini on Dragonite Island shedding its own skin before it started swimming in some water.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Dratini debuted in Drat That Dratini! in Viridian Forest . It had been attacking Yellow but was calmed by Red . It later appeared again in a flashback of Yellow's in Bang the Drum, Slowbro .

Lance 's Dragonite was once a Dratini, as shown in a flashback in The Legend . It was also revealed to be a Pokémon harmed by human industrialization. This motivated Lance to formulate his plot to destroy humanity many years later.

Clair 's Dragonair was once a Dratini, as shown in a flashback in The Last Battle II .

In The Last Battle XIII , a Dratini was sent to participate in the fight in Ilex Forest .

In The Final Battle IV , a Dratini helped Emerald with his disabilities.

Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition ~ Ranse's Color Picture Scroll ~

A Dratini appeared in The Black Scroll: Nobunaga's Ambition , under the ownership of Ranmaru .

Pokémon Pocket Monsters

A Dratini appeared in Lance's Dragonite 's fantasy in The Final Battle!! when it was telling a false story about how it met Lance.

A Dratini appeared in Good-Bye, Pikachu?! , where it took a liking to Pikachu . When Giovanni showed up with Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan , Pikachu decided to protect it. Dratini then evolved into a Dragonair when it noticed that Pikachu got injured by Giovanni's Jolteon and Electabuzz . It evolved again into Dragonite when Clefairy pulled its tail.

Pokémon Zensho

In PZ06 , Satoshi found a Dratini while fishing in the Safari Zone . Soon afterwards, he traded it to a Fisherman in exchange for several Water-type Pokémon and the Safari Zone Warden 's missing dentures .

One Dratini figure has been released:

• Next Quest : Dratini
• In early English-language promotional material for Pokémon Red and Blue , Dratini was referred to as "Dragoon". Although this word can mean a European military unit that is transported on horseback but fights on foot, the name was probably selected as a combination of dragon and lagoon .
• In Generation I and Generation II , Dratini and Dragonair can learn Hyper Beam via leveling up, but not via TM . This was fixed in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire .
• Dratini and its evolved forms share their category with Horsea , its evolved forms, Salamence , and Kalosian Goodra . They are all known as the Dragon Pokémon.
• Dratini was the inspiration for the naming of Hedruris dratini , a species of parasitic nematode . [2] [3]

Dratini appears to be based on sea serpents or ryu , traditional Japanese dragons or Chinese dragons who bring good luck. Its constant growth is similar to that of snakes, who grow as long as they live. Additionally, its reclusive nature, aquatic habitat, and the fact that, for a long time, it was considered a myth are reminiscent of the Loch Ness Monster .

Name origin

Dratini may be a combination of dragon and teeny , tiny , or mini .

Miniryu may be a combination of miniature and 竜 ryū (dragon).

In other languages

Related articles.

• Lance's Dratini
• Dragonite (UNITE)
• ↑ Sleep Style Dex
• ↑ A new species of Hedruris (Nematoda: Hedruridae) from freshwater turtles, its life cycle and biogeographic distribution of the genus
• ↑ Tweet from @JHelminthology

External links

• Generation I Pokémon
• Dragon-type Pokémon
• Single-type Pokémon
• Pokémon with a gender ratio of one male to one female
• Pokémon in the Slow experience group
• Blue-colored Pokémon
• Body style 02 Pokémon
• Water 1 group Pokémon
• Dragon group Pokémon
• Pokémon that are part of a three-stage evolutionary line
• Pokémon in the Kanto Pokédex
• Pokémon in the Johto Pokédex
• Pokémon in the Kalos Pokédex
• Pokémon in the Alola Pokédex
• Pokémon in the Galar Pokédex
• Pokémon in the Paldea Pokédex
• Pokémon with wild held items
• Pokémon with a base stat total of 300
• Pokémon whose Special stat became both Special Attack and Special Defense
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Safari Pearl

Location & Hours

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660 W Pullman Rd

Moscow, ID 83843

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About the business.

We are your source on the Palouse for comics, non-electronic games, costumes, and theatrical make-up. We carry a full line of new comics, graphic novels, back issues, and collecting supplies. We also have a great selection of board games, card games, and Warhammer. Feel free to try a game or join an event in our store game room. We also stock costumes and have a complete selection of Ben Nye theatrical make-up all year. …

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Overall rating

Great service, helpful employees, and a cute dog. They have everything a nerd would ever need.

I was visiting from out of town and we stopped by here three time while we were here for a week. First to see what they had. This is a considerably larger store than the one we have in our town. They had basically everything a nerd could want. DND books and minis, magic cards, Pokémon, half of the store was cosplay stuff, mangas, war hammer, and other rpg and tabletop games. They had a reasonably sized play area that we could see. We intended on coming to the Friday night Magic events that they host but sadly we're unable to make it. The store was clean and the people were friendly and helpful. One of the cool features that they have is a tablet in store that you can search for cards through. You can also get the app and leisurely search at home and they will have the cards ready for pick up.

Eh. Some costumes and lingerie. This store can't seem to decide if it's selling comics and memorabilia or lingerie and adult toys. Fairly large location though and the stock rotates often so this may be the right store for you. You will not have an issue parking because the lot has about twenty spaces. Downtown Moscow also has street parking so hooray! The staff is generally friendly and knowledgeable. As in any store that all depends on the day and who helps you. Prices are fair on most items. As far as the adult items they do mark things up but being in Moscow you don't really have a lot of items for some of their merchandise. Amazon is bigger now so hopefully management will tweak prices accordingly to keep it competitive. If you're grabbing a few extra accessories for a costume or Halloween party this is your local spot. Read Bri T. and Kevin C's review for more comic and costume section details!

I do not understand the negative reviews of this store. The employees were quick to help anytime I had any questions and even told us about the free module Saturdays. The unique thing about this store is that it is not a toxic atmosphere like you may experience at the downtown Pullman gaming store. It has gaming of all types such as cards, board games, and table top rpg's. There is also costuming which I think fits quite well with the rest of the store as many gamers enjoy cosplay and the like. It was clean, the employees were respectful and were quick to remove negative customers who were rude, inappropriate and disruptive. I cannot praise this store enough. Most certainly the best gaming store around.

Wide selection of games from children to adult. Lots of Warhammer and D&D merchandise. Not a large selection of comics in store but I believe they will order whatever you want. Costumes/cosplay stuff rotates throughout the year, and the hidden adult-toy area has an okay selection. But I will definitely recommend this store for board games and Warhammer!!

I really like the selection of games here. We got The Battle of Hogwarts here and play it weekly. Have the expansion pack, too. Also enjoy the Fantastic Beasts Perilous Pursuits and Pandemic. The folks there have always been helpful and knowledgeable

I went here today because the costume portion of the store was recommended to me by a good friend. I was also told there is a sex-toy shop in the back room that I should check out. First off, as I was looking through the costumes, I was consistently followed by an employee as if I was going to steal something. They have just one dressing room, and the employee stands outside the dressing room the entire time, making you feel uncomfortable and rushed. Second, after showing an older female employee my ID to enter the sex shop, she ordered a younger male employee to be in there while I was. He followed me around the entire time I was in the sex shop, and it was very uncomfortable. I do not appreciate the lack of privacy that was given while looking at such a....personal election of items. If a female is going into the sex shop, they should have a female employee in there - and perhaps one that doesn't follow you around everywhere. I absolutely will not be back.

I was really disappointed in this store. I came in looking for comic book recommendations and was pretty much ignored. When I finally was able to get some help, it seemed as if I was inconveniencing the store. The store layout is weird and the selection is very limited. I felt kinda awkward the whole time I was in the store. The stores prices are rather high and they don't do any sales or promotions either. So I would recommend going to someone else in town or just shopping online. I won't go back.

For a comic shop, it has a really minuscule selection of comics. There are a couple shelves against the side of the wall, but the amount of current comics is almost non-existent. Then there's a couple tables with older selections of comics, which I appreciated. Please correct me if I am wrong, but if you want to get a subscription box, it's pretty pricey. I asked the cashier at the time and she told me that you pay for your box, then you also pay per series you want to subscribe to, then, of course, you pay for your comic as well. There are no other benefits other than that you are guaranteed a copy of whatever you're subscribed to. It was being justified that it's due to the fluctuation of college students coming in and out, so you also have to pay to cancel your box as well. Aside from the comics, there were also TCG -- mainly Magic, figurines, board games, and costumes. It seemed like this store tried too hard to do everything that it doesn't have much of anything. Despite the lack of items, my visit was still pretty pleasant as the cashier was friendly and helpful. If I'm ever out in this area again, it's hard to say if I'll go out of my way to revisit.

I got in the store knowing exactly what I wanted so when I was asked if I needed help I said no. It was not long before it was clear that I was being followed. (Creeper) peeking trough shelves and around cournors, it was weird , strange and totally creepy. After ten minutes of feeling very uncomfortable I left. An hour later I went back to talk to the owners. They made it clear it was all my fault for not realizing it was costumer service to be stalked. (They clearly did not care) After I ordered the stuff I wanted online I went to yelp and found out this offensive stalking like behavior happens a lot. (another situation) I was carded three times in one week by the same (carnie) dude to get in the back room. Theres no way he did not remember. He as well watched us like a hawk. Never going back, when every thing is available online cheaper.~~~~~~~~~Thanks for reading

7 other reviews that are not currently recommended

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