Look, we know, you just got the game, you don’t want to spend hours reading tutorials. So we won’t keep you long, but here’s a couple of tips to make life easy in a handful of key ways, and set yourself up for success in Pokémon Legends: Z-A!
Save like you’re quicksaving
The autosave feature cannot be turned off in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, much to the chagrin of shiny-hunters around the world. But fear not, because if you manually save often enough, you can actually get around this… Just bring up the in-game menu with X, and then tap the left bumper for a manual save.
You can save whenever you’re not in battle or motion. Want to attempt a jump off a roof? Save first. Want to catch that annoying Alpha Pokémon? Save first.
Catch Alpha Pokémon the easy way
Alpha Pokémon can be a bit of a pain to get to actually stay in the Poké Ball you throw at them, but what if there was a way to have a second, third or more bites of the apple? Well, did you realise there’s a very brief save window while the Pokémon is stunned?
The trick is to KO all non-Alphas in the area before you tackle the big bad. Then, as soon as you see the dancing stars above its head – the sign that you have reduced its HP to zero – quickly do a manual game save, and then throw a Poké Ball. If you see it pop out of the ball, immediately hit the Switch’s Home button, quit and reload your game. You’ll jump back in right where you left off with a stunned Pokémon waiting for a Poké Ball to bounce off its noggin once again.
Note: we haven’t tried this with shiny Pokémon. Also note: feel free to practise on less important mons so you can get your timing down.
Smash (and spend) those shards
Mega Shards are everywhere in this game, which is great because you’re going to need them! Mega Shards are eventually needed to trade for Mega Stones, with the initial shop’s worth having 3000(ish) Shards’ worth of inventory.
Unfortunately, you can only hold 999 at a time, so as soon as you unlock the shop, you should spend as much as you possible can and then check in your Satchel often to make sure you’re not maxing out.
Don’t worry about missing with your Poké Balls
You don’t have to fret if your aim is a little bit off with your Poké Balls. There’s actually a creeping ninja who follows you around picking up your dropped Poké Balls. You’ll then get to catch up with him at every Pokémon Centre.
He’s a lifesaver, especially when you accidentally lob your last Quick Ball at a Mega Shard because you clipped the wrong button. He doesn’t just pick up simple Poké Balls, but all varieties of Poké Ball (note: we haven’t tried this with a Master Ball).
The one exception is that if your Poké Ball connects and the Pokémon escapes, you don’t get it back, but don’t worry about the ones you simply chuck on the floor for no reason!
Make boss fights easy
There’s a lot of Rogue Megas you need to fight throughout the course of the game. These are very similar to the boss fights in Arceus in terms of gameplay, except this time you have Pokémon backing you up in Z-A’s take on real-time combat.
You can only really damage Rogue Megas when you have your Pokémon Mega evolved themselves, or are using their Plus Moves. This means your choice of Mega is crucial to your victory.
You know what else is crucial? Not dying! You need to dodge attacks like Patches O’Houlihan is throwing wrenches at you because if you black out (and the boss will actively try to target you), you lose.
But you also need to keep your Pokémon alive. If you see a flood of purple particle effects coming from the enemy, withdraw your Pokémon so it doesn’t take damage from the incoming hail mary. You can then watch your buddy’s Pokémon be needlessly KO’ed, safe in the knowledge you’re smarter than an AI.
And those are our five quick tips. Enjoy playing Pokémon Legends Z-A!
