Pokémon Legends: Z-A Essential Tips For Pets Gameplay And QoL Improvements

As one of the world's most recognizable IPs, Pokémon has become a mature and diverse media franchise encompassing video games, animated series and films, a trading card game, and other related media.

While all Pokémon video games may differ in story and other elements, their core gameplay revolves around capturing, training, and battling other players' Pokémon. This is also true for the newly released Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

However, even if you're a longtime Pokémon fan, while you should quickly master the main gameplay, this new game has its own unique details that require careful attention to avoid mistakes and ensure a smoother experience.

To this end, we've outlined several important tips to help you quickly adapt to the gameplay of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and unlock more content and your favorite pets.

Overview Of This Guide

It's important to note that the tips we'll cover here focus on two areas: obtaining and training Pokémon Legends: Z-A Poké, and specific quality-of-life improvements.

The quantity and quality of your pets determine your character's overall strength. Remembering all these QoL tips can significantly improve your gameplay efficiency, especially since all QoL changes are closely tied to some of the game's new mechanics.

About Getting Pokémon

These adorable pets, each with their own unique stats, will be your best companions and battle supporters as you embark on your adventures in Lumiose City.

Therefore, learning how to obtain and upgrade them is one of your most important tasks upon entering the game.

In general, obtaining Pokémon can be summarized as defeating wild Pokémon and then catching them by throwing a Pokéball within a specified timeframe. However, mastering the following tips will make this process even more effective.

Interact With Benches To Refresh Pokémon

In the game, you can explore wild zones and special spawn points to find and capture Pokémon, but sometimes you might find yourself catching all the nearby pets or not spawning the pet you're looking for.

Exploring new zones is great if you have plenty of time, but there's a hidden gem in Legends Z-A: Sitting on a nearby bench will spawn Pokémon nearby!

In fact, interacting with the bench directly updates the time, accelerating the day-night cycle, but this also causes pets to respawn. Furthermore, some Pokémon only appear during the day or night, so bench spawning can also help you find specific Pokémon.

Prioritize Alpha Pokémon

As the rarest type of pet in the game, Alpha Pokémon not only possess larger sizes and attractive appearances, but more importantly, they also possess greater combat power, making them the perfect companions as you explore Kalos region.

In Lumiose City, you can use bench spawning to increase your chances of encountering these rare pets. In wild zones, as you progress through the main campaign, you'll notice that certain areas on the mini-map turn green, increasing your chances of finding Alpha Pokémon.

Use Your Training Items Wisely

After obtaining pets, you can use training items to level them up or improve their stats. These items include the following:

EXP Candies: Increases experience points or levels up a Pokémon.

• EXP Candy XS
• EXP Candy S
• EXP Candy M
• EXP Candy L
• EXP Candy XL
• Rare Candy

Vitamins: Improves a Pokémon's stats.

• HP Up
• Protein
• Iron
• Calcium
• Zinc
• Carbos

Feathers: Increases a Pokémon's stats.

• Clever Feather
• Genius Feather
• Health Feather
• Muscle Feather
• Resist Feather
• Swift Feather

Special Held Items: Increases a Pokémon's stats by reducing its speed.

• Power Anklet
• Power Band
• Power Belt
• Power Bracer
• Power Lens
• Power Weight

Bottle Caps: Can be given as gifts to Pokémon.

• Regular Bottle Cap
• Gold Bottle Cap

Although you'll start earning quite a few of these items early in the game by completing quests, it's best not to use them immediately. Instead, plan your Pokémon training based on the battles you'll face and other upgrade needs.

For example, if a quest has a level requirement, you can use your accumulated EXP Candy to level it up immediately. If a Pokémon with a certain stat is more advantageous in a particular battle, you can instantly upgrade or change your pet's stat.

Easily Get Pets Through Trading

In addition to catching Pokémon yourself and obtaining your initial Pokémon, you can also obtain the following Pokémon through NPC trading:

• Heracross
• Riolu
• Galarian Slowpoke
• Alolan Raichu

While these pets aren't as powerful as rare Alpha Pokémon, they can still be helpful if you build your Pokémon team appropriately, especially speeding up your early exploration.

QoL Tips To Keep In Mind

The following sections are actually about the game as a whole. Remember that they can improve your efficiency and experience in many ways.

Utilize Auto Heal

Now in Pokémon Legends: ZA, if your pets are injured during battle, you can simply press Auto Heal button to heal them, eliminating the need to constantly switch between multiple menus like in older Pokémon games.

However, please note that this feature will default to using low-value items in your inventory for healing, which may result in the consumption of drinks that could be used to complete side quests.

To address this, you can earn more drinks or preemptively complete active side quests.

Introduction Of Auto-Pickup

In older Pokémon Legends games, when loot became available after a battle or quest, you had to press A button to pick it up. However, Legends ZA has improved this so that rewards are automatically picked up by simply running around.

While items contained in Pokéballs are not affected by this mechanic, these rare rewards are also less likely to appear. In short, you should now be acclimating to a more relaxed Pokémon battling experience!

Above are some essential tips for current PLZA gameplay. We hope you'll soon become a true Pokémon training and battling master in this game!

The tips are merely meant to help you catch Pokémon efficiently and avoid mistakes. However, rarer Pokémon have lower spawn rates and overall capture success rates.

So, if you're looking to recruit specific Pokémon, buying cheap Pokémon Legends ZA Pokémon on IGGM will be faster! Other items that enhance Pokémon are also for sale!