Top 10 hardest captures in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

In the video, I'll be taking an in-depth look at the 10 most difficult captures in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. The top 10 is based on a number of 100% speedruns as well as keeping both casual playthroughs and speedruns in mind. Special shoutout to Weegloogi for helping me put together the list.
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#Speedrun #Top10

[@chaosnm-1987]

I swear this is the only game where Paralysing the opponents actually works

[@bobjoe3492]

Mystery Dungeons too

[@avenger4027]

The Pachirisu spam in the video is not a coincidence. It carries the entire game if you master it - that's how I did it for all the bosses mentioned in the video (through, the video doesn't mention that goddamn Gliscor). Ironically or not, the Pika Clone of the 4th Gen is indeed the strongest and best Assist in the game - Shieldon is also very good, but you get Pachirisu much, much earlier and, in my experience, Pachirisu has better chaining for stuns.

[@LadyBrightcynder]

I love how Lucario looks like the "old man yells at cloud" meme on the box art of this game.

[@libertydean388]

my first play through, rampardos fight in peril cliffs gave me more trouble than any of these. 10 damage attacks when you only have around 30 health is brutal, and if you dont risk circling during the !!! attack then you have to basically start all over again as the bar goes to 0

[@Dukstless]

Drapion's toxic cloud attack is also large enough that it's impossible to circle it without extended line, and from my experience it REALLY likes to spam it when it's on its last legs. Pachi has stun and Munchlax has extended line, but Starly doesn't seem to do much against it.

[@Crrool]

Yeah, really just another reason why that fight sucks. When I started to learn the speedrun I did die a few times to Drapion. Now with slighly beter stuns and knowing its moves it's become a bit easier, but still not the most fun boss for sure

[@chrisf.9595]

The only reason I always chose Starly is because its side quest to get it is by far the hardest and most annoying

[@chaosflash912]

So I know I'm a year late here, but I have your solution to that toxic cloud attack in Cranidos. Rock Poke Assist allows you to outrange the toxic cloud attack to get damage in relatively risk free against Drapion. I used that myself against Drapion and only took two hits against that attack, but was still able to beat it without much issue.

[@megapokekid1]

I think this is why the ship has Drowse in it. Their psychic assist is effective and can be done from a distance unlike Pacharichu. Sheildon also is effective as well.

[@Dukstless]

​@@megapokekid1 Pretty sure Shieldon isn't available until right after the mission.

[@TheHomieLew]

I remember having significantly more trouble with Toxicroak than I did Drapion as a kid, to to the point where I asked my brother to do it for me

[@SantiagoLeivaGuitar]

Just found your channel, loved the video! Brought me many memories. When I played the first time, it was on emulator using the touchpad from the notebook, Drapion took me days trying. Toxicroak and Rampardos were very hard too. I also remember the last room from the capture arena, no idea how I managed to finish it using the touchpad.

[@Crrool]

Playing this game on a touchpad like that sounds so brutally difficult. I've never played it on anything other than a DS or DS Lite, so I can only imagine the extra layer of difficulty it would give

[@ababyharpseal6534]

Ah yes, the game that scratched a million touchscreens. I have a vivid memory of frantically circling around the Rampardos boss, only to realize after finally beating it that I had annihilated my DS’s bottom screen by pressing down too hard. Still a fun series though!

[@Crrool]

I have an entirely seperate DS for pokemon ranger runs just for that reason 🙃

[@Excabulous]

A fun thing for the Heatean fight is that if you use a dark type Poke-Assist, you can draw a loop around the lava puddles that Heatran spawns to make them completely disappear for the rest of the fight

[@marcobelli6856]

Damn it makes it so easy I wish I knew

[@SilentDragonite149]

Shieldon was the assist I used to deal with Regigigas. It actually does cause the Shockwaves to stop appearing with each step.

[@chackbro1]

Oh wow, I've been playing the Ranger games throughout the year. By that I mean, I 100%ed 1 in January, I 100%ed 2 in February, and I've been spending the past 6 months on the Past Browser in 3. Anyways, it was nice to see that these games (especially 2) have some kinda speedrunning community. As for your list, I agree with it overall. I had the hardest time with both final bosses because they both can attack through Sheildon's tiring effect (which I used to cheese most of the game)

[@Crrool]

Good luck on completing Guardian Signs. The 100% speedrun luckily doesn't require the Past stuff, so it stays fairly manageable :)

[@chackbro1]

That's an absolutely great call for the speedrun since capturing Pokémon there requires luck and almost no skill (the amount of Pokémon with a 10% or less chance of joining you SUCKS)

[@WickedDreadroot]

i think swellow also appears on the union road from puel town to the ranger union and weavile appears in almia castle later in the game if you come back

[@sweetwolfsteve5583]

It does spawn in union road to not sure about the castle though

[@shrinkray]

i know i had a lot of trouble with drapion as a kid too. i also remember cresselia being annoying? but it's been a long time since i've played so i don't remember if it was really that bad or if i was just biased against her in the first place because of how she is in pmd...

[@Crrool]

Cresselia is definitely not easy either. It's kinda in the same boat as Heatran except slightly less bad in my experience. Fairly safe to say it'd have been number 11 or 12

[@joseruborio]

Bellosom in Capture Arena is hard, as how it always shield itself with its leaves around and throw it all area then make a shield again before you could draw loops again. It's even insanely harder without Poké Assist.

[@Shaunanigans6060]

Rampardos gave me a bunch of trouble when i was a kid

[@Bongus_Bubogus]

Before I got gud and also replaced my missing stylus, I quit two times at Rampardos and then Drapion. Them Gligars were annoying.

[@4evertyranitar]

Old-ish video by now but when I was younger I had the most trouble with the 4 weaviles+drapion fight, as well as the main story drapion. This top 10 seems to take speedruns into consideration but otherwise I must say, to everyone, to please use Shieldon as partner if you're having trouble, he makes 99% of the captures a joke, including Regigigas. Pachirisu is amazing of course, I always picked it at the start but my problem is that the paralysis effect lasts a really short time. Honorable mention for hardest capture goes to Dialga for having an actual time limit, however the extra missions are almost impossible to access now, due to the discontinuation of the Nintendo ds wifi service

[@DM006]

Personally, I remember having a lot of difficulty against Drapion as a child. It was the only catch where my styler got broken a couple of times. All in all I always managed to capture the others in the first fight.

[@marcobelli6856]

Go to the capture arena if you played only the main story. They are the most difficult captures of the game

[@DM006]

@@marcobelli6856 I played. And as mentioned back in the day Drapion (on the Evil Team Ship) was the only one I had trouble with. The rest was tough, but I always managed the first capture (ditto Drapion in the arena).

[@socialmimikyu8064]

I really need to replay this game now that I’m older, hopefully better at video games and using stuff like assists, and maybe even capable of getting past those Rampardos?? (This series is so good.)

[@Crrool]

Highly recommend Pachirisu, makes the playthrough so much easier. The Rampardos is doable once you kinda know what moves to expect, but I definitely get them being hard at first.

[@socialmimikyu8064]

Thank you for the tip!! Think I’ll definitely be trying it now.

[@bdt2002gaming]

My list would actually be really similar to this, only with no Celebi or Swellow, and with Cresselia added in at some point. The leftover #10 slot would probably be Rampardos.

[@arnulforivas5007]

You can catch weavile in the alma castle in post game

[@paperbagboi3185]

It would be great if you could do a similar video for Pokémon ranger guardian signs (to me there wasn’t anything more difficult than trying to complete solo the final mission of the past temples, Arceus was a nightmare)

[@Crrool]

I've been considering doing so, but I've admittedly never done any of the past temples. In the speedrun they aren't required for 100% (since the game doesn't count them for that). I've also just not had any time to work on youtube content in a while, so it may be a bit before I get to something like that anyway

[@marcobelli6856]

Bro I never got past magnezone. Doing that missions solo is 10c times more difficult than finishing SOA blindfolded

[@kylejohnson3889]

Omg number 2 is giving me the jungle temple ptsd flashbacks of the original Pokémon ranger😱😱😱😱

[@groudonvert7286]

I would have added Rampardos, Cresselia and Gallade+Magmortar+Rhyperior fight to the list. Cresselia because of his balls that can't be deleted with a Dark Poke Assist (like Heatran's lava) and the other because it's a fight we have to do after Gallade and it's also a 3 Boss battle at once (the only one in the main story). Multiple enemies at once as a Boss is, in general, more difficult than one enemy (especially true in the Original Pokémon Ranger). Rampardos also hits really hard with his Rock attacks (about 20% of your health at that point of the game).

[@rainond.cooper2971]

I love the pokemon ranger games, but it is reaaaally annoying that the first game's partner is an electric type and some pokemon are just immune to it

[@thatoneguy5846]

Imagine if it still had the old capturing method from the first Ranger game. That would be hell.

[@christopherfu2169]

Personal pick would have been rampardos. His third attack last way to long, forcing you to circle him while the rocks fall, which deal probably close to a quarter of your heath in damage. Luckily you can trivialize the fight by abusing 2 mawile to stun rampardos out of his attacks, but before I realized this, he definitely was a roadblock for me. Also, kudos to heartland for being the only fight in the game that made me use dark poke power.

[@alandraky3897]

I had issuis whith raparados rock fall

[@kylejohnson3889]

For me it’s the damn chingling to get S cuz of that annoying hop

[@TheAnonimoshadow]

Do one for vanilla ranger too please!

[@TheBestNoobLord]

I could barely beat the first ghastly in the beginning. I’m screwed, aren’t I

[@rez1nc]

I hated that rampardos fight

[@BLACK-jx5yq]

Pokémon ranger guardian signs is good tier

[@flamirasplitz4239]

First time I played this game, it crashed just before the fight against Darkrai.

[@Crrool]

That hurts. Especially with how far away the last save before Darkrai is

[@flamirasplitz4239]

@@Crrool It was. I was like " oh my god some much suspense... Oh wait no the game crashed"

[@SuperUnknownPerson]

It’s crazy that gs is the easiest in the trilogy

[@sweetwolfsteve5583]

1:22 swellow spawns on union road to 4:01 weavile spawns in almai castle post game Im sorry but who says charizard like that its char-izard not chairazard

[@joshuathaggard5534]

As much I love the ranger games the hardest catch for me was in the first ranger was the salamance in the temple in summerland

[@bend7726]

Or that steelix in the ice cave as well.

[@marcobelli6856]

@@bend7726entei or Rayquaza without gengar

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

The one game where Regigigas is actually scary

[@bobjoe3492]

Regigigas deserves this kinda power in the main game

[@milkman5910]

Reggie Gigas the easiest one if you steel type against him

[@chrisvoyager]

Hi there, I recommend for future videos writing a script, as it was sometimes hard to understand you when you correct yourself every sentence. It goes a long way!

[@Mr.Giratina1964]

A Pokemon That Is Difficult To Capture That Is Not In The List Spiritomb.Seriously,This Guy Gave Me So Much Trouble.Way More Than Either Drapion Or Rampardos

[@Crrool]

I never really struggled with Spiritomb, though I can certainly see why. I always manage to basically keep spiritomb stunlocked with pachirisu. Once it's unable to move around it becomes a pretty easy fight in my experience

[@Mr.Giratina1964]

@@Crrool I Had Kricketot As My Partner At The Time,And My Only Assists Were 3 PIKACHU.And Since Kricketot Didn't Do Much Good Against Spiritomb,I Had To Use My Capture Styler Only.And It Gave Me So Much Trouble Because Those Purple Flames Keep Following You,And The Odd Keystones DO DAMAGE.

[@Crrool]

@@Mr.Giratina1964 Yeah, I can imagine the fight being difficult at that point

[@bigfan10-gaming79]

@@Mr.Giratina1964 The Will-O-Wisps track your Stylus the moment it goes down, so the trick is to Start circling in the corner

[@Mr.Giratina1964]

@@bigfan10-gaming79 Yeah I Know.I've Already Beaten The Game Though.

[@paperbagboi3185]

Funny enough Draipon and Rampdos weren’t that difficult for me, Heatran on the other hand… I died to him 2 times one as a normal boss and the other one in the capture arena, I purposely had my styler health drop to red only so I could S rank him

[@Crrool]

I never tried getting s-rank on everything. It just seemed like such a hard challenge, even after having 100%'ed the game several times

[@paperbagboi3185]

@@Crrool Yeah, is a trial to S rank every Pokémon, one has to be carful with the partner pokemon, Celebi and the bosses that appear only once and on the capture arena (because they are much more difficult than their normal boss battles) Maybe S capturing Pokémon is not necessary to 100% the game, but all the S rank looks pretty on the browser

[@marcobelli6856]

@@paperbagboi3185I did all S ranks on Guardian signs but don’t have the willpower to do it in Shadows of Almia

[@bobdingle23]

Regiguygus

[@Ryan-zu1mr]

Just stun every boss with shieldon and all of them become easy

[@Veritas466]

Pachirisu as your starting partner, with the most broken assist type in the game, makes the entire thing a cakewalk.

[@jaguwa4816]

I'm sorry but whoever was playing the game in this video was doing a terrible job, it was hard to watch.