What is Pokemon Legends Arceus?

Pokemon Legends Arceus is the latest release in the popular Pokemon franchise. It launched on the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022, and has been widely praised as an enjoyable Pokemon experience!

In this open-world adventure, you survey, catch, and research wild Pokemon throughout the Sinnoh region. There’s the main storyline as well as several side quests for you to complete on your journey.

Many aspects of the game will be familiar to the larger Pokemon community, but Arceus does a few things differently. This guide will help you get off to a fast start and clear up some of the more confusing parts of the game.

Here are 15 tips to help you become the very best in Pokemon Legend: Arceus!

Starter Doesn’t Really Matter

SPOILER ALERT!

Unlike most other Pokemon games, Arceus gives you a chance to catch all three starters through the game. While they do have a low spawn rate, you can reset the spawning roll by traveling to Jubilife Village then returning to the spawn location. Interestingly, Arceus features starter Pokemon across multiple games!

Here’s why you can catch each of the primary starters in Arceus:

• Rowlet – The three Arceus starters can be obtained by talking to Professor Laventon in his office in Jubilife Village after beating the main storyline. Alternatively, you can go to the space-time distortion in the Coronet Highlands after beating the game.
• Cyndaquil – Professor Laventon or a space-time distortion in the Crimson Mirelands after beating the game.
• Oshawott – Professor Laventon or a space-time distortion in the Alabaster Icelands after beating the game.
• Eevee – Obsidian Fieldlands in the Horseshoe Planes
• Pikachu – Obsidian Fieldlands in the Nature’s Pantry
• Turtwig – Travel to the Crimson Mirelands and head to Ursa’s Ring. East of here, you’ll find Drowning Meadow’s pond, where Turtwig can spawn.
• Chimchar – This is a night time spawner. Go to the Deertrack Path in the Obsidian Fieldlands.
• Piplup – Water boi can only be seen during midday. Travel to the pond at Islepy Shore in the Cobalt Coastlands.

All starters are pretty strong in Arceus so you can’t really go wrong with your first pick. It takes a good bit of work to catch ‘em all, but it’s possible to obtain 9 powerful starters!

Turn off Autosave

Autosave is enabled by default, but there are plenty of times when you will want to restart from a manual save point. This includes saves right before an alpha, saves before a shiny, or really saving before any event that there’s a decent amount of risk involved.

You can do this from the settings menu, just make sure to manually save regularly!

Utilize Fast Travel

Pokemon Legends Arceus has a beautiful world to explore, but sometimes you don’t feel like walking from point A to point B. Even with the mounts, it can take a while to maneuver around the terrain and avoid unwanted fights.

Luckily, Arceus has a fast travel feature to help you skip some of the manual movement! Open your map and select one of the blue wing icons to be teleported to that spot within minutes. Out in the wild, this primarily works for camps. When you’re in the village, you can use it to hop from one end of the town to the other!

Remember to Evolve

Most Pokemon games will automatically initiate an evolution sequence of your Pokemon once they hit a certain level. Arceus takes a different approach to this classic game mechanic.

In Pokemon Legends Arceus, you need to manually evolve your team! Once your Mon hits the needed level to evolve, you can go to the party screen and press ‘X’ to start the evolution process. You’ll see a cool animation and have the next stage of your Pokemon in a few seconds.

Check Your Action Order

Arceus adds a new game mechanic called ‘action order’. If you’ve ever played a turn-based RPG, such as one of the popular Final Fantasy games, you’ll be familiar with this feature. It effectively lists the order that characters will do a task in a battle.

By pressing the Y button, you can see which order the Pokemon will take their actions. This is especially helpful once you unlock the Agility Style of a move so you can see if you’ll get the benefit of attacking twice in a row. Conversely, you can check to see if Strong Style moves will allow the enemy to attack twice.

Swap Out Moves

This might be one of my favorite game mechanics in Pokemon Legends Arceus. Each Pokemon still only has access to 4 moves at a time, but players are able to easily swap out any move for a previously learned move when not in battle.

In the party screen, click on a Pokemon and select “Change Moves”. You’ll find a list of all the moves your Pokemon has learned, including details of the move like attack power and accuracy. This feature lets you change your moves based on the enemy Pokemon in your area, making you more effective in combat.

Lastly, you will get a visual indicator of a ‘New Move’ when your Pokemon levels up, with this text written below your Pokemon. Make sure to regularly check your move list to see if you’ve gained access to stronger moves throughout the game.

Release Many Pokemon at Once

In Arceus, your Pokemon are stored in pastures. This mechanic is similar to the PC in classic Pokemon games.

Given the catch-happy nature of this game, you’ll end up with many duplicates of the same Pokemon. Clear out multiple Pokemon from your Pastures – “release them to the wild” – by using this handy loophole!

Fill up four boxes of Pokemon by storing 30 Pokemon in each pasture. When you return to the village, you’ll see the option to “Release Multiple” and can continue to select more than one Pokemon at a time to be released.

Harvest at the Farm

There’s an NPC in the village who helps you farm items within the first few hours of the game. You’ll find Colza hanging out by some rows of dirt in the village. Talk to him and you can plant various items for the NPCs to grow for you.

At first, you’ll only have access to very basic things. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock new things to plant.

Plants will grow based on the number of Pokemon caught in the wild. To reach full maturation, you’ll need to catch a different number of Pokemon based on what you want to harvest.

Trade in Merit Points

As you collect lost satchels in the Arceus world, you’ll gain merit points. These can be traded in at a small stand next to the training grounds.

You can exchange these points for evolutionary items. The items are a bit expensive so you will need to pick up as many satchels as possible to increase your bank of merit points.

Take Advantage of Distortion Zones

Distortion zones appear as sparkly bubbles of purple scattered around the map. In them, you’ll find high-level Pokemon to be caught.

When you first enter the zone, there’s a slight delay before the Pokemon begins to spawn. Hide in some of the tall grass then start launching Pokeballs at unsuspecting mons!

Additionally, you can release these Pokemon from your pasture later to increase your chances of getting grit items. These consumables increase the effort level of your Pokemon and are a nice way to make your team stronger.

Abuse Sticky Globs

I’m not sure if this was the intention, but Sticky Globs are pretty OP in Pokemon Legends Arceus. Stocky Globs can be used to more easily catch Alpha Pokemon. Try lobbing 3-4 at them to lower their guard. This will change the ‘red X’ over their head to the standard catch indicator, and you can then throw a Pokeball to secure the alpha.

This is more of a late-game strategy, though, since Sticky Globs are pricey. Take advantage of this game mechanic before the devs patch it out!

Back Attacks to Increase Catch Success

Some of these Pokemon will try to run as soon as you start a battle! However, if you are able to creep up on a Pokemon from behind and throw your Pokeball, you’ll at least have one attempt at catching the Pokemon before it tries to run away.

Set up Camp

When you unlock a new region, you’ll want to set up at least one camp ASAP. This is typically done by completing a quest, so be on the lookout for NPCs scattered around the area.

Here you can rest, which has two benefits: heal all your Pokemon and wake up at a specific time of day. The latter comes in handy when completing certain missions or catching Pokemon that only spawn at certain times.

Check the Bulletin Board

Galaxy Hall is the building that you’ll spend a good amount of time in while you’re visiting Jubilife Village. It’s located in the northern part of town and houses several key NPCs.

On the first floor, you can find a bulletin board in the Professor’s office on the first floor. Side quests will occasionally be posted here for you to add to your list of missions. Check it regularly to ensure you don’t miss out on nice bonuses.

One Last Bonus Tip!

You can catch Alpha Pokemon in Arceus. These are some of the strongest Pokemon in the game and will often take an entire team to chip away at their large health pool. Ideally, you can get their health bar down to red then start throwing Heavy or Leaden Balls at it for the catch. 

It often takes multiple throws, so make sure you have many of these balls available. Additionally, you’ll want a tanky Pokemon on your team and a Mon who can inflict a status effect to give you time for the catch.

Now that you’ve got 15 tips for Pokemon Legends Arceus, you can proceed to become the strongest trainer out there!

Do you have any other Pokemon Legends Arceus tips to share? Join the conversation in the comments section!