Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first of its kind in the series. You’ll be able to see and interact with these creatures like never before in vast landscapes that beg to be explored. By taking the world of Pokémon and making it even more open than ever before, you’re faced with unique challenges never before seen in a Pokémon game. This Pokémon Legends: Arceus guide will go over strategies and changes from the normal formula of Pokémon to give you the best ways to conquer the many perils of the Hisui region so you can hit the ground running.
Pokémon Research in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
The ultimate goal of Pokémon Legends: Arceus is to fill out the Pokédex. This is no small feat, as you’ll need to collect the data of 240 Pokémon to fully complete it. Unlike in previous titles, however, simply catching the monsters will not be enough.
Each Pokémon has its own set of research goals to complete. These can be found on the second page of each Pokédex entry and completing them will give you points towards a completed entry. You’ll need to finish these goals up until a research level of 10 to get a complete entry for each of the Pokémon. While these lists may seem a bit daunting and specific at first, you’ll soon discover that many Pokémon share research goals.
Every Pokémon has multiple goalposts for captures, defeats, and forms. This means you can reliably fill out entries to nearly any Pokémon you find by simply catching and/or defeating monsters of the same species. Many Pokémon also have research goals for being caught while distracted, or being defeated by moves to types they are weak to. Every Pokémon also has research goals for catching an Alpha of their species, with some Pokémon having multiple of this goalpost.
Leveraging this knowledge will allow you to make the most of your time exploring the Hisui region, especially when you find big nests of Pokémon. However, resources are finite in Pokémon Legends: Arceus and you’ll want to always be packing a few key items while being on the lookout for others on your travels.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Staple Items
You’ll need more than just a full team of Pokémon to brave the Hisui region and being well-supplied will always pay off. Items you’ll always want are Revives and Smoke Bombs, especially early in the game and you should never be ashamed to simply buy these if you need them. This also goes for Heavy Balls and Feather Balls early game, before reaching the Cobalt Coastlands.
Everything else, from Poké Balls to Potions, should be crafted by you. This means you need to make sure to always have a surplus of:
– Apricorns
– Tumblestones (of all types)
– Iron Chunks
– Oran Berries
– Pep-Up Plants
– Vivichokes
Making sure you’re always collecting these items, along with as many other miscellaneous berries you can find will make the early and mid-game a breeze. Apricorns, tumblestones, iron chunks, pep-up plants and vivichokes are items that should never be ignored and collected in bulk for optimal exploration efficiency. You’re always able to craft and using a workbench gives you access to materials directly from your item bank, which is located in every camp in each region. It’s important to always make sure you’re ready to explore, because you don’t want to run out of supplies in the middle of a big game Pokémon hunt.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Exploration
Exploration is the name of the game in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Discovering new locations means finding new and exciting Pokémon, which makes filling out the map a very important affair. After getting the ability to ride Wyrdeer in the Obsidian Fieldlands, you’ll want to always be riding on it to fill as much of the map out as you can.
When you find new locations, their names will mark themselves on the map to make it easy to reference where certain Pokémon may be. You can also use your map stickers to give you a more precise reference point for your own points of interest. It’s important to check every nook and cranny of each area for Pokémon, treasures and resources. You’ll also want to find each side quest that sets up new bases in the area you’re exploring. While some places may seem a bit far off, you’ve actually got far more power with your trusty Wyrdeer mount than you may think.
With its incredible speed and ability to jump, it can be easy for Wyrdeer to scale up the right kinds of slippery walls. Skyrim or Fallout 3/New Vegas players will feel right at home surfing up the angles of cliff sides with the gravity-defying jumps of your speedy mount. While you gain the ability to scale walls and even fly much later in the game, Wyrdeer is able to angle itself and jump up to heights it may not have been intended for with a bit of creative thinking.
In the Obsidian Fieldlands, try using it near the outside the entrance of Oreburrow Tunnel to carefully follow the stream towards Obsidian Falls to find yourself an Alpha Magikarp hiding along the stream for an early game powerhouse.
Catching and Raising Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Pokémon Legends: Arceus offers one of the most in-depth experiences with the titular beasts. From catching them to raising them, it’s a whole different game in some aspects. One of the biggest changes comes to catching Pokémon.
In previous games, you would mostly capture Pokémon through turn-based battles. In this game, you are able to catch any Pokémon you see without entering any sort of battle by catching them by surprise. The best ways to do this is by using various forms of bait and your smoke bomb items.
Throwing berries or other forms of bait such as Salt Cakes near a Pokémon will attract it to the location of the lure. When you see the creature coming, you can throw a smoke bomb from a concealed location to bridge the gap between you and the Pokémon to more easily approach while not breaking stealth.
This is also useful against targets that are close, as throwing a smoke bomb right next to the Pokémon will allow you to get right next to it without any hassle. After getting in close, using Heavy Balls or the upgraded Leaden Balls is a breeze and can net you some seriously easy captures.
Pokémon also don’t grow the same way as they have in previous games. While they will still gain experience, level up and gain boosts to their stats, you’re also able to use grit items to boost individual stats. Grit sand, grit pebbles and other items like will significantly boost the stat growth of your Pokémon to deal with the tough challenges ahead. Thankfully, you’ll always be able to edit their move lists any time you’re not in battle to prepare yourself for tough foes such as Alpha Pokémon.
Alpha Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
An Alpha Pokémon is a new kind of extra-strong Pokémon you can find out in the wild. They are hulking versions of the familiar beasts with glowing red eyes and an aggressive demeanor. They are usually the strongest versions of their respective species, which means they should always be high-priority on your catch list.
Alpha Pokémon may be big, but they can be lured like any other Pokémon. Due to their aggressive demeanor, however, if they break free from your Pokéball they will run a short distance before looking for you. This means you have an extra shot immediately after a failed capture attempt before the Pokémon will begin to attack you, so make sure you have another ball at the ready while it struggles from the first one. If you’re quick enough and in the right position, you’ll be able to hit it in the back right after it flees the capture attempt.
Alpha Pokémon are also excellent ways to get big experience for every Pokémon on your team. Defeating an alpha yields tons of experience points compared to normal Pokémon and an alpha will almost always drop XP candies, giving an extra boost to teammates who need it. Since each preset alpha respawns every fifteen minutes, it’s easy to hit each one you know in a single area, rest your team up, then repeat the cycle again for more.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Town and Player Upgrades
Your Pokémon aren’t the only things that grow in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Through various tasks and tutors, you’re able to expand your town and even get some handy upgrades to your player character.
The first hub you’ll want to upgrade is your town farm. Located across the bridge from the Training Arena, the farm is an incredibly useful tool that can help you progress in a big way. With it, you’ll be able to create tons of extra resources such as berries, apricorns, vegetables and even mints to change the nature of your Pokémon. This farm also comes with a series of upgrade quests to expand its usefulness.
Anvin runs a small shop next to the crafting table in Jubilife Village. Be sure to visit him often for crafting recipes to expand what you can make out in the field. You’re also able to visit Bagin in the Galaxy HQ building, who can upgrade your inventory space for a growing fee. Finally, the general store, clothing merchant and hair stylist can all be upgraded through side quests to keep up with you on your adventure. While the clothing and hairstyles are purely cosmetic, upgrading the general store can be a lifesaver when you may be running low on certain items and are unable to craft them.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ New Battle System
While battles are still turn-based, they have a new tactical spin in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Combat turns are given on an initiative system based around the speed of the Pokémon in battle and the style of moves used. Strong style moves deal big damage with higher accuracy while Agile Style moves deliver weaker hits with sometimes reduced accuracy.
The bigger impact these moves cause may not be as apparent. Agile style moves will push you up on the turn priority list, while strong style moves will push you down. This gives the game an added layer of tug-of-war to the turn-based system, allowing you to leverage your moves into combos and setups in the right circumstance. A Pokémon who can take advantage of this system in a big way is Hisuian Decidueye.
The new fighting/grass type bird has a move that can take full advantage of the new system in Triple Arrows. The signature move of this bird is 50 power and 100 accuracy at base, with the added effect of dropping the defense of an opponent on hit while buffing its own critical hit rating. With the new battle system, you can use this move in an agile style against an enemy to do a small amount of damage, triggering the additional effects. This will make your next move completely devastating, and if you used your agile style, you could skip right over your opponents next turn to finish them.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a Pokémon game like none other. The Hisuian region is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced in a Pokémon game before this one. While its wide open spaces are full of mysteries and danger, with this guide you should have no problem making it out in one piece. Now get out and explore.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is available now on Nintendo Switch.
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