Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a whole new kind of Pokémon game, and with that newness comes a ton of unexpected and touching details. But perhaps there are some that you haven’t noticed yet — from the useful tips, to the adorable things your Pokémon do when you’re not looking. We’ve found at least 30 of them, and maybe you have too!
There will be (light) spoilers in here, but nothing that spoils the game’s main plot. Just be aware that this article will talk about Pokémon, sidequests, and references to previous games!
Useful Tips
Releasing your Pokémon gives you bonus items
You have loads of space in the pasture, which is the old-timey equivalent of the PC Box, but you don’t actually want to fill it — you’ll benefit far more if you release your Pokémon from time to time. After filling up four boxes, you’ll get the ability to release multiple Pokémon at once.
We recommend keeping at least one of each type, because they might be needed in quests, but releasing the rest of them will net you a ton of Grit Dust, Pebbles, Rocks, and so on — which are used to raise the Effort Values of your Pokémon. This can make them faster, tougher, and all-round better in fights, so it’s well worth doing.
You can turn on gyro controls
This one is hidden away in a menu, but if you don’t love the aiming controls in the game, try turning on the gyro controls to get a more precise Poké Ball throw!
You can break those massive cracked rocks with any Pokémon
Yeah… we didn’t know this one until quite far into the game. Check out our guide for the info!
The red arrows in the Pokédex mean bonus research levels
Fill up a Pokémon’s Pokédex entry faster by only doing the quests that have red arrows on the left — that means you get extra research points from that particular task!
You can name and evolve your Pokémon any time
You don’t have to go to some guy in the middle of nowhere to rename your Pokémon, and you don’t have to wait until the end of a battle to evolve your team. Just navigate over to the Pokémon you want to name or evolve, and press A to open up the menu. It’s so simple, we don’t know why it wasn’t always this way…
You can run away from any battle by just… leaving
No more mashing B to escape: You can just literally walk away. When you see the on-screen pop-up that says “you strayed too far from the battle”, you’ll be free to just keep on going.
Even if one of your Pokémon just fainted, you can press B to exit the menu, and the entire battle — although the wild Pokémon might still try to attack you.
Be careful, though: If you’re searching for Pokémon that appear in shaking trees or rocks, then you need to be close by in order to begin the battle. If you are too far away, like on top of a hill, the battle will automatically end immediately, which is EXTRA devastating if you just saw a Cherrim for the first time…
Press + during a battle to check out status effects
Finally, you can actually find out whether or not your Pokémon is poisoned, sleepy, confused, or even if they’ve just got some debuffs on them by checking the status effect menu. During battle, press the + button to open up this menu, and read what each status effect does, and how long it will last.
You can pick up items on Wyrdeer (or any other mount)
You don’t need to traipse around the wilderness, foraging for stuff to make more potions — just hop on board a Wyrdeer and you’ll be ridin’ in style, as well as being able to pick up items that you pass by. You’ll have to hop off if you want to throw anything, or if you want to break rocks, but plants and the like can be picked up without you dismounting at all.
Read on to the next page to find out about some neat details that you might not have spotted…