Eight tips for starting Pokémon Legends: Z-A
How to make the most of your first few hours in Lumiose City
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the second in the "Legends" series games, which started with the ... very mildly open world Arceus.
For my old job, I wrote that Arceus felt like an interesting and imperfect start to the Legends franchise, but one I was eager to see expand in the future. Z-A is actually another experiment, confining the more action-based combat to a single city: Lumiose. The result this time is a more action-packed Pokémon game that focuses more on real-time battling than exploration.
With its experimental nature in mind, it's time to dive into the opening hours of Legends: Z-A. Below, you'll find eight tips to help you make the most of your first few hours in Lumiose City.
Mentally prepare yourself for the tutorial slog fest
Pokemon Legends: Z-A is a Pokémon game, so naturally it has an excruciatingly long exposition and tutorial period. But for some reason, Z-A just feels extra front-loaded on the tutorial stuff. And if you've ever fought a single battle with The Pokémens before, you will be getting a LOT of basics re-explained to you.
It can be a little excruciating, and with zero (yes, that is correct, not a typo) voice acting, the opening is a real slog. The good news is that the combat in this game rules, so when you finally do get to battle, you'll get a nice taste of how fun the game can be.
But you need to mentally prepare yourself for the fact that the first couple hours are agonizing.
You have way more agency when engaging a fight
The main premise of the game is battling trainers at night in the streets to earn tickets that allow you to raise your rank from Z to A (hey, it's the title of the game!). So naturally, you'll be battling a lot every single night.
The great news here is that you have a lot of different strategies in Pokémon Legends: Z-A that you can use to your advantage, one being stealth. By sneaking up on a trainer and attacking their sidekick Pokémon before they can see you, you'll get a free hit on them, which is huge for both winning the battle and preserving your lead Pokémon's health.
Maybe more important is the fact that, uh, you can see your opponent's main Mon before the battle begins. This means you shouldn't run into situations where your Totodile gets jumped by a surprise grass Pokémon and takes a big hit. If you see a Bellsprout, swap your gator buddy out for a Fire Pokémon before the fight even starts to get cooking.
Changing out your Pokémon (in and out of combat) is very fast
But what if you're not paying attention and find yourself in a bad matchup, or the trainer's second Pokémon isn't a great choice for your current buddy? Well you can swap almost instantly to a new Pokémon without much trouble. All you have to do is move the D-Pad and summon a new guy.
This means that you can stay really limber in a battle, and can even throw one Pokémon out to drop a status effect or deal a big hit, and then throw another one out to finish the job.
And if you discover that you actually don't have any good Pokémon with you right now for an upcoming battle, you can access the Box with all of your Pokémon in it by simply opening the menu.
Both this tip section and the previous one go together, but the goal here is to make sure you understand that there is a ton of freedom to the battle system in this game, and you should experiment with it!
Try to catch all of the Pokémon in a Wild Area – if you can find them – and increase your research level
Early on in the game you'll meet the Pokémon researcher, who will give you TMs if you increase your research level. There are tasks to do that, but the main way – especially early on – is filling out your Pokédex by catching new Mons.
Unfortunately, all Lumiose Pokémon are locked to Wild Zones, meaning they don't just roam the streets freely. Instead you'll have to enter what are essentially parks to catch the game's large assortment of critters. While restrictive, the great thing about these Wild Zones is that they tell you how many different Poké types there are to discover inside.
If you make an effort to catch a bunch of Pokémon early on, clearing out the wild zones and fighting as you go, you'll not only over-level your opponents pretty quickly, but you'll also gain access to more powerful moves through the research system.
Vertical exploration is (almost) as important
Lumiose is not very big at all, which is mildly concerning because it is kinda the entire map of the game. But, the game does feature a lot of vertical exploration as well.
Ladders and elevators will take you to the rooftops, which you can use to get around water and stuff. But you can also climb from the rooftop ledges onto the roof itself. Here you'll find a variety of things, like special items or even flying Pokémon that you might not encounter on the ground.
Early on, I found a Pidgey, which I much prefer to the stupid sparrow Pokémon the game forces you to catch early on (because I'm old!). I even found an Abra once on a rooftop, and it teleported away from me instantly. Just like my childhood!
If you are allowed to get on a roof, you should try and get on that roof, man.
There are starters everywhere, if you know where to look
At the start of Z-A, you'll pick from Totodile, Tepig, and Chikorita. We all know Totodile is the objectively correct and cutest choice – I mean, they call him the Big Jaw Pokémon. Come on – so once you pick them up and discard the other two like the garbage they are, you can go on your merry way.
But whichever starter you pick at the beginning – even if you pick one of the wrong ones – you'll be able to find more starters from other Pokémon generations relatively early on. Some of these starters will come from side quests, and you'll get to choose a Kanto (the OGs) starter to go along with your Totodile Z-A starter.
Basically, if you poké around in the first five to eight hours of the game, you can have an entire party of starter Pokémon.
If this is your first Pokémon game, or you're a more irregular player, starters are really strong because they have great stats and powerful evolutions. Unless you're really crafting a hardcore gamer team, it's pretty likely that you'll finish Z-A with your initial starter and your chosen Kanto starter in your final squad!
Keep a balanced team and glance at a type chart
Type matching is super important in Z-A – it's a weird Pokémon game, but it's still a Pokémon game. So I highly recommend you keep a chart somewhat handy if you haven't been playing these games for, like, 25 years like I have. (I still mess up stuff like Steel and Fairy, because I'm old and those didn't exist when my mind first locked this information in). However, Z-A does display little icons on your ability moves during combat that will tell you if your attack will be Super or Not Very Effective.
With all that in mind, it's important to at least keep a balanced team of Pokémon at your side at all times. Even if you don't know the type chart by heart, you can save yourself a lot of headache by diversifying your party – as in, try not to have another hard-hitting Water Pokémon when you already have a Water starter in your party.
This includes your Pokémon's moves, which you should try to diversify as well. Sticking with the same example, Totodile is just a Water Pokémon, but he also learns some Dark moves like Bite. Feraligatr, his fully evolved form, can learn a bunch of Dragon and Ice moves as well, and even some Ground attacks.
Having a wide range of Pokémon and moves will keep the game easy, as you'll be able to decimate enemy health bars in seconds by correctly matching their type. But even more importantly, it'll help your best Pokémon not get iced out by enemy Mons that are immune to their best move types.
