So, I was playing Pokémon Gold on the Virtual Console. It was like my sixth or seventh playthrough of Gold/Silver/Crystal - even so, something that I never did was to try catching the roaming legendaries, Raikou, Entei and Suicune.

I was having a blast playing through the game, I had just beaten the E4 and got my S.S. Aqua ticket from Professor Elm. Before going to Kanto, however, I decided to try to catch the "legendary dogs" - at least one - possibly adding it to my party to be my faithful companion as we explored the new region.

I decided that Raikou would be the best, as it would fit best on my team. So I went hunting for it. I had already the luck of having found Entei and Suicune while travelling through Johto. But I wanted Raikou. So I took my level 39 Xatu, some Repels and went in and out of routes trying to find the big electric gerbil. And I was VERY lucky to actually find it in about 30 minutes!

So, now I had the three legendary beasts on my Dex. I equipped my Xatu with a Quick Claw and started looking for Raikou again to try to Night Shade him into red HP. I know that the most efficient way to catch these Pokémon is to have a specialized team with a sleep-inducing move, Mean Look and False Swipe. But I was OK in doing it the slow-way. I had no condition to create a specialized team yet and I wanted to use the legendary beast on my party for the rest of the game.

After some encounters, I managed to put it to red HP. Now, I just needed to throw the best "not Master Ball" ball possible, one each time I found it, and hope for it to work. I searched for a catching-chance calculator on the internet and found that the best ball possible was indeed the Ultra Ball (no need for Kurt Balls), and with red-HP, the chance was a bit higher than 2%.