Pokémon Arceus Beginner’s Guide: Tips to Get Started
Pokémon Legends Arceus just launched to rave reviews, so here’s our beginner’s guide that will help you get started on the right foot. Arceus is very unique, so both newcomers and existing fans should read on for tips about managing your Pokémon, Items, and Research. We’ll reveal elusive tricks like how to swap targets in the wild, mass release Pokémon, or find a shiny more easily.
Pokémon Management: Encounters, Upgrades and Storage
In the wild, your cursor will get locked onto a single Pokémon if two or more are too close together. While aiming, you can toggle between the Pokémon by hitting “A”. While battling multiple wild Pokémon, you can also hit ZL to change which one you are attacking.
Pokémon will not lose you in the grass after they’re alerted by you. Some of their attacks even follow you, and multiple Pokémon can gang up on you. They are territorial, so only putting some distance between you will make them calm down.
Hitting an Alpha Pokémon in the back with your own Pokémon will “catch it unawares”. This keeps the alpha stunned for two turns so that you can get some quick free hits in.
After your Pokémon have learned four moves, the game will only alert you if they learn a new one. It will not ask you to erase an old one. You must remember to do this manually, by selecting the Pokémon and choosing “Change Moves”.
Similarly, the game doesn’t automatically evolve Pokémon. So, you will have to trigger this manually, too. But that can be useful when completing research.
Captured Pokémon are automatically sent to Pastures. If you’re turning in a request that asks for a specific Pokémon, you typically don’t need the Pokémon in your party. The Pasture menu will come up and you can simply select it without going to the pastures beforehand.
If your pastures are feeling too cluttered, keep in mind that you’ll need to fill up at least four pastures before you can release multiple Pokémon at once.
Item Management: Charms, Space, and Farming
In the northwest corner of Jubilife Village, between the Training Grounds and Galaxy Hall, you’ll find Lucille. She sells charms which will improve your adventures, offering various stat improvements. For example, the Survival charm may keep you from fainting.
The wild is surprisingly dangerous. On the go, you can pick up collectible items while riding on a Pokémon. You can’t collect from rocks or trees, since they require a Pokémon interaction.
Early on, you can speak with a guard just inside the front entrance to Galaxy Hall. This guard, named “Bagin” of all things, will charge you to increase the size of your satchel so that you can carry more items.
This is highly important, because even though items stack, your satchel will fill up very quickly. Especially once you keep charms and a variety of Pokéballs on hand. But every time Bagin gives you another slot, the price will increase too.
After catching only eight Pokémon, you can begin using the farm in Jubilife village. This will allow you to collect valuable items more quickly like Medicinal Leeks, which are often harder to come by. You will need to catch more Pokémon, reaching milestones to unlock each additional crop.
Research Management
Complete the research for each evolution stage before letting your Pokémon evolve. Otherwise, you will need to encounter earlier evolutions in the wild or capture the basic Pokémon again.
You do not have to complete every research task to complete the Pokédex page for a Pokémon. Instead, you only need to reach level ten for each Pokémon. So, you can choose which tasks to complete.
Each box that is highlighted green counts as a completed step. Tasks with a red icon are worth two levels for each step that’s highlighted green. Oh, and remember that your research isn’t rewarded until you hand in your research to Professor Laventon.
Completing all of the research for a Pokémon should also make it more likely for you to find a shiny one in the wild. This makes shiny Pokémon more likely in Pokémon Arceus.
Resets: Autosave, Rifts, and Starters
The game is automatically set to autosave. But you can turn off autosave if you want to reset at will. This allows you to pull a classic reset, saving and restarting for multiple tries against challenging Pokémon or fights.
Objective markers often suck you into a cutscene once you’re close enough, instead of letting you trigger the scene yourself. Save beforehand, just in case the next fight or encounter is too tough.
If you discover a rift, you cannot save and reset. Take risks in order to make the most of the rift, because the rift will simply disappear if you try to reset.
If you want your starter to be either male or female, you can reset the game to change its nature. The gender is only permanent after you select which one you want, so you have plenty of time for a manual save beforehand.
Final Thoughts
Pokémon Arceus is a tremendous game with only a few flaws. It’s a terrific promise for the future of the franchise, and an overdue change of pace.
But the first hour or so is one drawn out tutorial, since so much has changed. The tips in our beginner’s guide should help you adapt to Pokémon Arceus’ new mechanics, take advantage of them, and move the story along sooner than later.
You can also read our detailed beginner’s guide for the Balloon Race request in Pokemon Arceus, which unlocks early on near the Fieldlands Camp, after you begin riding Wyrdeer.
