Pokemon Legends: Z-A Tips: 16 Things You Need To Know Before You Play

Are you looking for Pokemon Legends: Z-A tips? Well, you’ve come to the right place. As a new trainer who’s just arrived at Lumiose City, you’ve got your work cut out for you, especially with constant bouts against Z-A Royale participants and the looming threat of Rogue Mega Evolutions. Fortunately, our guide has all the info to help you start your journey on the right foot.

GAMING NEWS Pokemon Legends: Z-A beginners guide – 16 tips you need to know before you play

Our guide is filled to the brim with tips regarding general mechanics, as well as those related to combat and exploration. We begin, naturally, with the core gameplay functions that you should familiarize yourself with for the first few hours. We then delve deeper into other facets that you’re bound to encounter as you progress further into the campaign.

As with other games in the Pokemon series, you get to choose from three starter Pokemon when you begin Z-A’s campaign. You have the following options for this particular title:

• Chikorita: Grass
• Totodile: Water
• Tepig: Fire

Given that this creature is considered your partner, you’re very likely to use them often in battle, so much so that they’re likely to be one of the strongest members of your team later on. Moreover, there are other creatures that you can catch in just a few hours, which should greatly impact your team composition. These picks include the Gen 1 Pokemon–i.e. Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander.

One of the most important Pokemon Legends: Z-A tip to remember is that Lumiose City has a strict day-night cycle that affects the available activities and even Pokemon spawns. Here’s what you need to know:

• The vast majority of Pokemon in Lumiose City ought to be around regardless of the time of day. There are, however, a couple of exceptions:
  • Diurnal Pokemon only appear during the day.
  • Nocturnal Pokemon only appear at night. They may also spawn in underground areas or interiors which you get to visit during the campaign.
• Battle Zones where you fight other trainers are only available at night. (We discuss this gameplay mechanic in detail a bit later in our guide.)
• As dawn breaks, the Battle Zone will shut down. Any fight that you’re actively participating in will end abruptly.
• Pokemon that you’ve damaged in any area will be restored to full health the moment a day-to-night or night-to-day transition occurs.
• Pokemon tend to respawn after a day-night cycle transition, too.
• You can manually advance the time of day by resting on a bench.

Many locations in Lumiose City are fully explorable. To speed things up, we advise you to tag all kinds of fast travel points, including:

• Pokemon Centers – You can heal all your Pokemon and buy Poke Balls in these locations.
• Cafes and restaurants – You can purchase drinks and food from these establishments.
• Special locations, buildings, and landmarks – These are uniquely named locations with various functions, some of which are related to the story.
• Wild Zones – These areas are populated by all sorts of Pokemon that you can catch.

Note that you can traverse streets, alleyways, rooftops, sewers, and other areas while free-roaming or advancing through the campaign. Many of these spots also have wild Pokemon roaming about.

As with previous titles, you do need to remember how Pokemon types and elemental abilities match up against your opponents. For instance, Fire is super effective against Grass, Ice, Insect, and Steel, but it’s next to useless against Water and Dragon types.

Assuming you brought a Pokemon out, you can hold the ZL button to target an enemy. The available attacks have symbols telling you which moves ought to be used against your foe:

• Double circle – Super effective
• Single circle – Normal damage
• Triangle – Not effective
• X mark – No effect / negated damage
• Blank / no symbol – Buffs and support abilities that affect your Pokemon

Another key Pokemon Legends: Z-A tip to keep in mind is that battles are in real-time. This means your active Pokemon follows you as you move around the battlefield. There are some caveats to take note of:

• Always have a Pokemon out with you at all times. If you’re all by your lonesome, aggressive Pokemon will immediately target your character. If you take too many hits, you’ll black out and wake up at the last Pokemon Center that you visited.
• If you think you’re about to get hit by an attack, press the Y button to roll.
• Moving around allows your Pokemon to reposition as they follow you. This is useful in case an enemy is about to unleash a frontal attack and you need to get behind them.
• Some abilities have a linear effect–i.e. a projectile that flies in a straightforward line. You can avoid these if your Pokemon is standing on lower or higher ground. Other abilities might have an area-of-effect (AoE) or a downward cast–i.e. projectiles fall directly above you–making them harder to avoid.
• A few abilities cause your Pokemon to move automatically–i.e. Lunge, Drill Horn, Megahorn, and Fly, to name a few. These help you evade attacks that are being cast at that moment.
• You can precast defensive spells like Safeguard, Protect, Light Screen, and others before your opponent’s first move to mitigate incoming damage.
• After defeating a trainer’s Pokemon, you’re not limited to just dawdling around. You can swap to a different member of your team before the trainer brings out their next combatant.

You can freely change the moves of your Pokemon via the “Boxes” menu:

• Abilities have a type/element and internal cooldown time. Offensive abilities also have a power indicator that denotes their damage.
• Ideally, you should have two or more offensive moves due to cooldowns. Otherwise, you’d end up waiting for several seconds to elapse just to use the same attack over and over.
• Buffs and defensive moves can be precast before initiating a battle. Trainers tend to do this to negate your hardest-hitting strike early on, so you might as well follow suit.
• You can view the available Technical Machines or TMs by pressing the ZR button.

Catching creatures in Pokemon Legends: Z-A is relatively straightforward, but there are some caveats:

• You can press the left thumbstick to sneak around an area. Then, when a Pokemon is close enough, hold the ZL button and press the ZR button to throw a Poke Ball. You may also use the d-pad to select from different options.
• Most Wild Pokemon won’t be caught on the first try. If this occurs, you need to defeat them in battle. Depleting your target’s HP causes them to get incapacitated, making them more susceptible to being captured. If you decide not to capture them, though, they’ll despawn.
• Don’t worry if you’re unable to catch your target after a couple of tries. They’ll respawn after a day-night cycle transition.

Furthermore, you can purchase all sorts of Poke Balls from stores, and some are even handed out for free. These tend to have different functions when catching critters all over Lumiose City.

Pokemon Centers:

• Poke Ball – Low-level Pokemon.
• Great Ball – Low-to-mid-level Pokemon.
• Ultra Ball – Mid-to-high-level Pokemon.
• Premier Ball – Buy 10x of the same type of any Poke Ball.
• Master Ball – Guarantees a 100% capture rate.

Poke Ball Boutiques:

• Heal Ball – Restores HP and eliminates status conditions of a creature that you catch.
• Net Ball – More effective at catching Water and Bug types.
• Nest Ball – More effective at catching low-level variants in relation to your own level.
• Dive Ball – More effective at catching Pokemon in bodies of water.
• Dusk Ball – More effective at catching Pokemon when it’s nighttime.
• Timer Ball – More effective at catching a target that has taken many actions during the bout.
• Quick Ball – More effective at catching Pokemon if used before they spot you.
• Repeat Ball – More effective at catching Pokemon of a species that you’ve already caught before.
• Luxury Ball – Makes wild Pokemon friendlier after being caught.

The Battle Zone is a major component of the gameplay loop and, as such, we ought to discuss various Pokemon Legends: Z-A tips related to the activity:

• A huge segment of the campaign is devoted to gaining event tickets so you can fight your next opponent in the Z-A Royale. These Z-A tickets come from victories against generic/no-name trainers in the Battle Zone.
• As mentioned earlier, the Battle Zone only appears when it’s nighttime in Lumiose City. A new location/sector of the city is also chosen at random each evening. Because of this, you’re more likely to spend your evenings duking it out with foes in the Battle Zone, as opposed to exploring Wild Zones or doing side quests.
• You can pick up items and Prize Money (which appear as coins) while roaming around a Battle Zone.
• There are also various Bonus Cards that grant extra points and prize money if you successfully complete the requirements. Examples include defeating an opponent in a single blow, landing a number of hits using a particular element, or beating trainers that are at a higher rank.
• You can have up to three Bonus Cards at any given time. You may also replace a Bonus Card that you don’t need with something else that might be more doable.

Moreover, it’s imperative that you do your best when sneaking up behind opposing trainers. This is done by pressing the left thumbstick to crouch and walking slowly to an NPC while their back is turned:

• If a trainer is facing you, an indicator at the top of the screen shows if you’re close to being detected.
• Obstacles, tall grass, and even ledges with a height difference help block line of sight.
• You can stay hidden and have your Pokemon approach an enemy creature. If they manage to land a surprise hit, you’ll have an advantage.
• A good idea is to cast your strongest ability as your first hit. Since you have an advantage, you can recast this ability without waiting for its cooldown.

Outside of a select few quests and missions, your prize money–i.e. gold/cash–only comes from Battle Zones. That’s why it’s imperative that you maximize your earnings each attempt:

• You can participate in Battle Zone activities even if your points for Z-A Royale tickets have been maxed out. Think of these as cash-farming runs.
• Collect the coins that you see and complete the tasks from Bonus Cards.
• Defeat as many trainers as possible before dawn. Note that the number of trainers that you beat grant multiplier bonuses.

Halfway through the campaign, you’ll face tougher variants of Pokemon known as Rogue Mega Evolutions. These are, essentially, protracted boss fights against monstrous foes.

• While certain Pokemon retain their element/type when they undergo a Mega Evolution, others change completely. This means their strengths and weaknesses become different, too.
• When a Mega Evolution boss starts flashing, it means that they’ll unleash their ultimate ability. These are usually AoE attacks that can deal a ton of damage to your own Pokemon. As such, it’s advisable to withdraw them back into their Poke Ball to avoid the devastating hit. This is done by pressing down on the D-pad.
• You receive Mega Evolution stones from these boss fights, as well as from a couple of stores in Lumiose City. In turn, these allow you to activate your own Pokemon Mega Evolutions.

Speaking of other Pokemon variants, Lumiose City has a bunch of critters for you to find:

• Shiny Pokemon – These are rarer variants with a different color palette. One of them, a Shiny Mareep, even comes from Side Mission 17, which becomes available just a few hours into the campaign.
• Alpha Pokemon – These are highly aggressive and larger variants, which ought to be great additions to your squad.

When roaming around Lumiose City, you’re bound to stumble upon curious-looking objects and obstacles. Your Pokemon can actually interact with these by casting certain elemental abilities. Here are some examples:

• Large boulders can be crushed with Rock and Fighting-type moves.
• Purple goo and sludge can be cleaned away with Water moves.
• Thorny vines can be burned away with Fire moves. You can also cast Fire abilities on frozen ice objects to create platforms.
• Ice, meanwhile, can be used on a few fountains to gain entry to the sewers.

Speaking of using Pokemon abilities on objects, you definitely need to smash any Mega Crystals that you see. These pink crystalline nodes appear in clusters all throughout the city. Any type of attack can destroy them, which then nets you Mega Shards.

Mega Shards are a resource used to purchase additional Mega Evolution stones from the Quasartico, Inc. building. Even better, the crystal nodes respawn after a few minutes pass in-game, allowing you to amass as much of the resource as you need.

A good Pokemon Legends: Z-A tip to bear in mind is that Lumiose City has even more goodies for you to acquire. So, keep your eyes peeled for glowing items, especially those on rooftops and scaffolding:

• Red items – These are usually different types of Poke Balls, consumables, or upgrades.
• Purple items – These are Colorful Screws. You can exchange these at the Racine Construction building in the southeastern part of the map. Doing so nets you Canari Plushies that grant permanent buffs while they’re in your inventory.
• Gold items – These are Technical Machines (TMs) that allow your Pokemon to learn new moves.

And, of course, while trekking around the city, you’re bound to meet countless NPCs. Some need your aid, while others offer goodies given your exploits:

• NPCs with a golden dialogue box often hand out free items, including Poke Balls, consumables, prize money, and, in some cases, TMs.
• Don’t fret if you threw a bunch of Poke Balls without hitting anything. If you chat with NPCs with blue jackets–i.e. the ones near Pokemon Centers–they’ll return your lost Poke Balls.
• You should definitely tackle side quests as they become available. Some have awesome rewards, including specific Pokemon and a few cosmetics.

Pokemon games are often about making memories throughout your journey, and what better way to do this than using the Photo Mode function. This is done by pressing the “-” (i.e. select) button. You can then check other functions, such as:

• Y button – Change from first-person POV to a free cam that lets you see your character.
• X button – Select from various poses and facial expressions.
• ZL and ZR – Switch to other music themes, which also trigger Pokemon animations.
• Left and right on the D-pad – Choose from different kinds of filters.

You might want to show your sense of fashion, too. There are boutiques in the northern, southern, and southwestern parts of the city. These have several shops that sell outfits and cosmetic frills. You may even change your hairstyle and hair color via salons.

That does it for our Pokemon Legends: Z-A beginners guide. We hope these tips help you as you venture forth in Lumiose City and beyond.