Pokémon Legends: Z-A has finally arrived to return Pokémon fans to the Kalos region of Gen 6 for the first time in 12 years.
The second installment in the Legends franchise, Z-A shares some similarities with its predecessor, Arceus, but there’s still new mechanics that even the most dedicated Pokémon fan will have to learn. This includes real-time battle mechanics and the Wild Zones where wild Pokémon live in harmony with the city. (And get caught and beaten up by the local trainer community.)
So look below to find our Pokémon Legends: Z-A tips to help you become a Pokémon Master! Don’t forget to check out our Pokémon Legends: Z-A walkthrough either!
Retrieve your lost Poké Balls from the man at the Pokémon Centers
Seeing a Pokémon escape a Poké Ball is a sad moment, because, not only do you have to toss out another, but you’ve just lost some cash. Not all Poké Balls grow on trees after all. There’s an extra way to lose Poké Balls in the Legends series though. Since you can throw them before even starting an encounter, it’s possible to completely miss your targeted Pokémon if your aim isn’t true. It’s a sad moment to watch the Poké Ball go wide or fall short.
Good news though! In Z-A, lost Poké Balls don’t vanish into the void! For, who is that on the horizon? (And by horizon I mean standing outside every Pokémon Center). Why, it’s the true hero of Lumiose City! The guy who returns your lost Poké Balls. This nameless absolute legend travels the streets and Wild Zones, collecting any Poké Balls you’ve thrown awry, just to return them to you. For. Free.
Eurogamer salutes you Poké Ball collecting man.
Pokémon outside of Wild Zones can be caught!
Lumiose City is teeming with Pokémon and they’re not all confined to the Wild Zones. You’ll find Pidgeys hopping about the rooftops, the odd Trubbish hanging out by a bin and might even spot a Pansage sitting in a treetop. At first you might think these Pokémon are simply set dressing, but they can be caught! In fact, some of these Pokémon might not even appear in a Wild Zone… So toss your Poké Balls! Just keep in mind that they can still flee or engage you in battle.
The only Pokémon you can’t catch are those belonging to other trainers. (Sadly, you don’t have a Snag Machine in Legends: Z-A.) A little red ‘X’ will appear over any off-limits Pokémon when you’re aiming a Poké Ball at it.
TMs can be used as many times as you like
In many of the past mainline Pokémon games, including the recent Scarlet and Violet, TMs can only be used once. Thankfully, you can use each TM as many times as you like in Legends: Z-A. This is perfect for experimenting with a Pokémon’s moveset or quickly removing an obstacle if you don’t want to switch out a party member. It also removes any worry of using an important TM on the wrong Pokémon!
Don’t forget to check-out our guide on finding all the TMs too.
Visit every Pokémon Center early on!
Lumiose is a big city and, while exploring it is fun, there will be times you’ll just want to get to a certain location quickly. You could take a taxi, but thankfully there’s a free option available!
Nearly every important location – be it a Wild Zone, Pokémon Center or just a simple café – acts as a fast travel spot. Though it’s important to note that you need to have visited this location at least once to unlock its fast travel capabilities. This is why it’s a really good idea to visit every single Pokémon Center early on in your playthrough.
Since each Pokémon Center has quite a central location in its chosen district, you’ll be able to zap across Lumiose City no problem. (And it will be quite annoying when you realise you’ve forgotten to unlock one. Trust me.) You’ll also hopefully unlock some other useful fast travel spots during your travels.
Get to know the timing of your Pokémon’s moves
One of the best things you can do to get better at Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘s new battle system is master the art of timing. For one, there’s a roughly 1-2 second-long pause after you send a Pokémon out into battle, which can be decisive at higher-level bouts where enemies can knock you out with a single blow.
But beyond that, the time it takes for your Pokémon to actually launch their moves is important, too. Some, such as Quick Attack or Aqua Jet, happen very quickly. Others, such as Flash Cannon, take a moment to actually charge up and reach the opponent. So before big battles, or after you add a new Pokémon to your team (or move to your Pokémon!) it’s worth just taking a mo to fire off a few moves at some stray wild Pokémon first. That way you won’t do what we did, and fire up a big ol’ Flash Cannon for the first time in a major battle only to get wiped out before it can even land.
Spend your Mega Evolution Shards regularly – and your Colorful Screws!
If you’re anything like us, you’re a typical video game resource hoarder who likes to store up dozens and dozens of unused Potions and Pokéballs just in case. Well, don’t do that with Mega Shards, the new resource you gather here in Pokémon Legends: Z-A from smashing those clumps of pink crystal dotted around Lumiose City.
That’s because there’s a limit of 999 that you can carry. Which sounds like a lot! Actually, once you get a couple upgrades to how many you receive – by spending Colorful Screws on Canari Charms – you’ll find yourself hitting that limit quite often. With Mega Stones costing up to 360 Shards, that can be a real pain. Basically, just buy up the stones you fancy as they become available – the shards respawn indefinitely, and if you smash away at them just as you work your way around the city naturally, you’ll be stocking back up your hoard in no time.
Do Side Mission objectives as you find them
Side Missions in Pokémon Legends: Z-A are typically short and quite simple, but also typically have pretty great rewards. At the very least you’ll get a bit of money, a couple of rare, very rare, or entirely unique, battle-handy items such as an Assault Vest, and a funny anecdote to share about the latest weird NPC you met along the way.
At the upper end of the possibilities though are rare Pokémon you otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain, or at least not until much later in the game. We got a Chespin very early on from one, for instance, which let us play out a rare two-starter run of the game for a change. And quests involving blocked lifts in particular typically lead you to rooftops with rare Pokémon and items. They’re worth the detour!
Check Eurogamer’s Side Mission list if you want to know where to start!
Change your movesets often
Related to testing your movesets, it’s worth regularly changing them too, since you can do so for free at any time outside of battle. This is particularly worthwhile before any encounters where you know the general typing of your opponent – Rogue Mega Evolution battles especially, but also the gym-like bouts for ranking up where you can tell certain foes are users of a certain type.
The same obviously goes for switching up your team, too, given the permanent availability of your Pokémon storage boxes. We tended to have about 8-10 usable Pokémon on rotation and adapt our team on the fly, and likewise their moves as well. Pokémon with a wide variety of moves of different types – Heracross, Ampharos and Gengar were great for us – are also super handy here, becoming permanent, high-level members of your team thanks to their flexibility.
Move your Pokémon out of your opponent’s range during battles
A fun battle trick we learned on the fly: moves have range, and some Pokémon learn almost exclusively melee-range attacks. Machamp is one example, for instance – we successfully navigated a tricky high-level battle against one by simply running around.
That’s because during battles, your Pokémon will actually follow you quite closely – aside from when they’re using moves themselves – and so you can essentially ‘kite’ enemies that need to get close in order to do damage while your own moves recharge. Just don’t stray too far from battles (which you can now manually run away from, in the Battle Zones! Great for regrouping or trying to complete certain objectives…) and especially from wild Alpha Pokémon. You don’t have to get far at all before their health fully resets, as we learned the hard way more than once.
Hope these tips give you a strong start in Pokémon Legends: Z-A!
First Appeared on
Source link
