Legendary beasts

File:3 beasts.jpg

Suicune, Entei, and Raikou

The legendary beasts is the collective term used to refer to the trio of Entei, Raikou, and Suicune. However, many still refer to them as legendary cats or legendary dogs, depending on if they personally see feline or canine features in the individual Pokémon. Due to this disagreement, some circles have taken to humorously calling them "legendary gerbils".

The beasts are available in several of the Pokémon games, as opposed to their other legendary trio counterparts. The three (reduced to just Raikou and Entei in Crystal) are available roaming the wilds of Johto in Generation II, and appear in Generation III in Pokémon Colosseum, where they are transformed into Shadow Pokémon by Cipher and owned by the admins Dakim, Venus, and Ein. They are also found in FireRed and LeafGreen, where one of the trio is roaming the Kanto region. The type of the one that happens to roam Kanto is the one that is super effective against the player's choice of a starter Pokémon. To be specific, Raikou appears to trainers who chose Squirtle, Entei to those who took Bulbasaur, and Suicune to those who chose to go with Charmander.

A direct counterpart to the Generation I trio, the beasts find their master in Ho-Oh, who revived them when Ecruteak City's Brass Tower burned. They are said to embody the three events that happened to the tower: the Template:T2 that struck the tower, the fire that burned in the tower, and the Template:T2 that put it out. It is speculated, however, that the three that Ho-Oh created are not the only members of their respective species. In Pokémon 4Ever, Professor Oak speaks about the Suicune in question as if the Pokémon was only part of a species. Pokédex entries also state that an Entei is born every time a volcano erupts. In Pokémon Ranger, an Entei statue was brought to life when the player completes all four challenges of the Jungle Relic, It was later captured by Gordor, along with the other two beasts, showing that Fiore might have its own trio of beasts. Like the Generation I trio, they also all share the ability Pressure.

Of the three beasts, Suicune finds the most independence, appearing as a version mascot on the box art of Pokémon Crystal, and taking an expanded role in that game. Suicune also appears in Pokémon 4Ever as a protagonist, while Entei was the first of the three to have a movie appearance, in Spell of the Unown. Raikou was delegated to a more minor role, appearing as the central character in The Legend of Thunder!, where Jimmy, not Ash, encountered it. However, Misty's Togepi and a Houndoom did see the silhouette of a Raikou in Houndoom's Special Delivery.

Similar movesets

Lv.	Raikou  Electric	Entei  Fire	Suicune  Water
Start	Bite
	Leer
8	ThunderShock	Ember	BubbleBeam
15	Roar		Rain Dance
22	Quick Attack	Fire Spin	Gust
29	Spark	Stomp	Aurora Beam
36	Reflect	Flamethrower	Mist
43	Crunch	Swagger	Mirror Coat
50	Thunder Fang	Fire Fang	Ice Fang
57	Discharge	Lava Plume	Tailwind
64	Extrasensory
71	Thunder*	Fire Blast	Hydro Pump
	Rain Dance*
78	Calm Mind
85*	Thunder	Eruption	Blizzard
Moves in bold are STAB. Moves in italics do no damage.

Trivia

• The legendary beasts are one of two trios that don't share the same weakness to a certain type.
• The legendary beasts are the only normal trio that is not available in Sinnoh during Pokémon Platinum through some method other than Pal Park, leading to speculation of alternative methods of obtaining them in Generation IV.
• A representation of the legendary beasts was used as the set symbol for the Neo Revelation card expansion.