Archival

Up until Polished Crystal removed the system where roamers wouldn't enter the player's last location, roamer hunting had to be significantly methodical.

tweaked from vanilla strategies such as Chamale's, Ritchie's (2020) and Ritchie & Hangar's (2022)

Route 46-based

May require Surf

graph TD
  lead[Lead with the Xatu]
  -->base[Save inside the Gate between R46 and R29]
  -->sr[Soft-reset]
  -->dex1{"Where's your target?"}
  dex1--"R29/45"-->r46[Go to R46]-->dex1a{Hit?}
  dex1a--"Yes"-->Hit
  dex1a--"No"-->fly
  dex1--"R30/46"-->r29[Go to R29]-->dex1b{Hit?}--"Yes"-->Hit
  dex1--"Otherwise"-->block
  dex1b--"No"-->block
  block[Go to R46]
  -->fly[Fly to Mahogany]
  -->dex46{"Where's your target?"}
  dex46--"Have flown to Mahogany three times but still miss"-->sr
  dex46--"Must refresh the route blocking"-->inout
  dex46--"R29/36/39"-->inout
  dex46--"R37/38/43/44"-->r42
  dex46--"R42/45"-->r44
  inout[Enter and exit the Pokémon Center]-->dex46
  r42[Bike to R42]
  -->dex42{"Hit?"}
  dex42--"R43/44"-->r44
  dex42--"R37/38"-->maho[Bike back to Mahogany]
  r44[Bike to R44]
  -->dex44{"Hit?"}
  dex44--R43-->r42
  dex44--"R37/38/42/45"-->maho
  maho-->dex46
  dex42--"Yes"-->Hit
  dex44--"Yes"-->Hit
  dex46--"Otherwise"-->fly2[Fly to Mahogany again]-->dex46
  subgraph Hit[Hit!]
    catch[Spend a Super Repel and catch it]
  end

Violet City-based

graph TD
  lead[Lead with the Xatu]
  -->violet[Enter the Violet City Pokémon Center]
  -->outside[Exit the Pokémon Center]
  -->dex1{"Where's your target?"}
  dex1--"R29/31/32/35"-->r31[Bike to R31]
    -->dex31{Hit?}--"Yes"-->Hit
    dex31--"R29"-->r30[Bike to R30]
    -->dex2{Hit?}--"Yes"-->Hit
  dex1--"R30/32/34/36/38/42"-->r36[Bike to R36]
    -->dex36{Hit?}--"Yes"-->Hit
    dex36--"R38/42"-->r37[Bike to R37]-->dex2
  dex1--"R33"-->r32[Bike to R32]-->dex2
  dex1--"Otherwise"-->fly[Use Teleport]-->dex1
  dex2--"No"-->fly2[Use Teleport]-->violet
  dex31--"No"-->fly2
  dex36--"No"-->fly2
  subgraph Hit[Hit!]
    catch[Spend a Super Repel and catch it]
  end