How to get Lugia & Ho-Oh in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Lugia and Ho-Oh profileILCA / The Pokemon Company

In the Sinnoh remakes, players can catch the Johto Legendary Tower duo using a secret feature. Here is how to get Lugia & Ho-Oh in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl.

In Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, the remakes don’t just end with Sinnoh. New features allow players to find hidden Legendaries from previous Generations as well.

Fans of Johto are in luck as popular Gen II Legendaries Lugia and Ho-Oh can both be found in the Gen IV reimaginings in a secret location.

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Contents:

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Ho-Oh and Lugia cinematic battleILCA / The Pokemon Company
The Johto Legendaries can be found in BDSP.

Where to find Lugia & Ho-Oh in Pokemon BDSP

Players have to first complete the story before catching Lugia and Ho-Oh. The Gen II mascots can be found using a post-game mode.

Before trainers go searching for the Tower Duo, they need to obtain the National Dex and complete a couple of steps to unlock the encounter.

  1. First, defeat Sinnoh Champion Cynthia to finish the main story. After this, you then need to complete your Sinnoh Dex by seeing all 150 Pokemon.
  2. Professor Rowan in Sandgem Town will give you the National Pokedex after verifying that you have seen all 150 ‘mon.
  3. Now that you’ve unlocked the extended Dex, Ramanas Park will now be available. To get there, head south of Sandgem Town until you reach the sandy shore. Use Surf HM to hop in the water and then head east along Route 219. Pass through Route 220 and 221 until you eventually reach the park.
  4. Lugia and Ho-Oh can be found inside the park in the Rainbow Room and the Squall Room.
  5. In order to battle the Legendaries, you will first need to purchase the Rainbow Slate and Squall Slate from the lobby’s store. Before you can do that, however, you must unlock a handful of other Slates in a specific order.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Lugia and Ho-Oh can be found in Ramanas Park.ILCA / The Pokemon Company
Lugia and Ho-Oh are in Ramanas Park.

How to catch Lugia in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

Note that Lugia is Shining Pearl exclusive so if you have Brilliant Diamond, you’ll need to trade to get it.

To get the ‘mon, players will need to unlock eight slates before the Squall Slate.

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  1. After entering Ramanas Park, go to the lobby to speak to the receptionist to access the special store. You first will need to buy the Discovery Slate three times to catch Regice, Regirock, and Registeel.
  2. You will need a special currency called Mysterious Shards to buy the key items. To get them, go to the Grand Underground by using the Explorer Kit.
  3. Once in the caverns, use your pickaxe to start digging up the walls. Mystery Shards are dug up at random.
  4. If you don’t find them right away, enter Hideaways and exit to respawn the walls that you can dig into. Repeat this method until you get either 1 Mystery Shard (L) or 3 Mystery Shards.
  5. Once you have found the Shards, head back to the park and buy the Discovery Slate three times. After catching the Regi trio, more Slates will now become available for purchase.
  6. After this, Brilliant Diamond players need to buy the Johto Slate three times to catch Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. For Shining Pearl, it’s the Kanto Slate for the bird trio Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
  7. The next one that will unlock is the Soul Slate that belongs to Latios and Latias. After catching the Hoenn duo, the rest are now unlocked.
  8. You will now finally be able to buy the Squall Slate. After purchasing it, head to the Squall Room and slide the item into the pedestal to make Lugia spawn. You can now battle the Psychic bird and catch it.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Lugia battle spawnILCA / The Pokemon Company
The popular Legendary Psychic-type is spawned with the Squall Slate.

How to catch Ho-Oh in Ramanas Park

Now that you have caught Lugia in the Squall Room, it’s time to catch its counterpart, Ho-Oh.

Note that Ho-Oh is Brilliant Diamond exclusive so if you have Shining Pearl, you’ll need to trade to get it.

  1. You unlock Ho-Oh by purchasing the Rainbow Slate.
  2. Once again, you are going to need either 1 Mystery Shard (L) or 3 Mystery Shards.
  3. Use the Explorer Kit to travel to the Grand Underground.
  4. After getting enough Shards, travel back to the lobby and talk to the receptionist to purchase the Slate.
  5. Head over to the Rainbow Room and insert it into the pedestal to spawn Ho-Oh.
  6. The Legendary Fire-type Bird will automatically attack you, and now you are able to catch it.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Legendary Ho-Oh Battle spawnILCA / The Pokemon Company
Players can battle Ho-Oh in the Rainbow Room.

Ramanas Park Slate unlock order

Below is a visual guide of which slates you will need to buy and in what order to unlock Lugia and Ho-Oh.

  1. Discovery SlateRegice
  2. Discovery SlateRegirock
  3. Discovery SlateRegisteel
  4. Johto SlateSuicune (Brilliant Diamond) / Kanto SlateArticuno (Shining Pearl)
  5. Johto SlateRaikou (Brilliant Diamond) / Kanto SlateZapdos  (Shining Pearl)
  6. Johto SlateEntei (Brilliant Diamond) / Kanto SlateMoltres (Shining Pearl)
  7. Soul SlateLatios
  8. Soul SlateLatias
  9. Squall  Slate Lugia
  10. Rainbow SlateHo-Oh

And that is how you find and catch both Lugia and Ho-Oh in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. It can be a bit of a chore having to dig up so many Shards, but no team would be complete without the epic Tower Duo.

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With Lugia and Ho-Oh now in your Party, make sure to check out more of our BDSP guides and walkthroughs:

How to get Shaymin | How to get Jirachi | How to get Mew | Version exclusives | All Legendary Pokemon | How to get the Poketch | Best starter to pick | All Styles | How to beat all Gym Leaders | How to walk with your Pokemon