Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Also known as: Pokémon LEGENDS アルセウス (JP), Légendes Pokémon: Arceus (FR), Pokémon-Legenden: Arceus (DE), Leggende Pokémon: Arceus (IT), Pokémon LEGENDS 아르세우스 (KR), Leyendas Pokémon: Arceus (ES), 寶可夢傳說 阿爾宙斯 (CN) Developer: Game Freak Publishers: The Pokémon Company (JP), Nintendo (INT) Platform: Nintendo Switch Released internationally: January 28, 2022 This game has unused code. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

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To do: Shiny-locked and Alpha-locked Pokémon. Document the PC prototype build from the 2024 Game Freak leak.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus kicks off a new spinoff series by sending players back in time to the Hisui region (a.k.a. Sinnoh before it was called Sinnoh). It makes changes to nearly every mechanic or aspect of the Pokémon formula, creating a more open-ended experience than any prior game in the series.

Additionally, you can evolve Pokémon that previously only evolved through trading with a certain item, making it finally possible to complete the Pokédex by yourself! (If you have save files from the last two games, that is.)

It's also notable for being one of the few modern Pokémon games with voice acting (even if it's just grunts and yells from the player character).

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Prerelease Info

Unused Pokémon Data

Due to the game being compatible with other Pokémon HOME supported games, Pokémon in this gain retain all origin data, states, experience, marks, and ribbons, despite the game not using and/or displaying them.

Unused/"Future" Abilities

All the returning Pokémon in the game have their Abilities programmed in, despite them almost never coming into play due to the game not having abilities as a mechanic. Despite this Abilities not existing in this game, Pokémon are given Abilities internally, almost certainly for compatibility with Pokémon HOME, including giving Pokémon introduced in this game abilities. Interestingly, many of the abilities for new Pokémon and Hisuian forms were changed in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, usually the hidden abilities, with many of them possibly being due to being leftover copies of their original form abilities.

Pokémon	Ability 1	Ability 2	Hidden Ability	Ability 1 (Scarlet and Violet)	Ability 2 (as of Scarlet and Violet)	Hidden Ability (as of Scarlet and Violet)	Notes
Hisuian Growlithe	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Rock Head	Possibly a leftover from it's original form.
Hisuian Arcanine	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Rock Head
Hisuian Voltorb	Soundproof	Static	Aftermath	Soundproof	Static	Aftermath
Hisuian Electrode	Soundproof	Static	Aftermath	Soundproof	Static	Aftermath
Hisuian Typhlosion	Blaze		Flash Fire	Blaze		Frisk	Probably a leftover from it's original form.
Hisuian Qwilfish	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
Hisuian Sneasel	Inner Focus	Keen Eye	Poison Touch	Inner Focus	Keen Eye	Pickpocket	Notably, Hisuian Sneasel would retain it's normal form's hidden ability, while Sneasler will retain Poison Touch as it's hidden ability.
Dialga Origin forme	Pressure		Telepathy	Pressure		Telepathy
Palkia Origin forme	Pressure		Telepathy	Pressure		Telepathy
Hisuian Samurott	Torrent		Shell Armor	Torrent		Sharpness	Probably a leftover from it's original form.
Hisuian Lilligant	Chlorophyll	Hustle	Leaf Guard	Chlorophyll	Hustle	Leaf Guard
White Stripe Basculin	Rattled	Adaptability	Mold Breaker	Rattled	Adaptability	Mold Breaker
Hisuian Zorua	Illusion			Illusion
Hisuian Zoroark	Illusion			Illusion
Hisuian Braviary	Keen Eye	Sheer Force	Defiant	Keen Eye	Sheer Force	Tinted Lens	Probably a leftover from it's original form.
Hisuian Sliggoo	Sap Sipper	Overcoat	Gooey	Sap Sipper	Shell Armor	Gooey
Hisuian Goodra	Sap Sipper	Overcoat	Gooey	Sap Sipper	Shell Armor	Gooey
Hisuian Avalugg	Strong Jaw	Ice Body	Sturdy	Strong Jaw	Ice Body	Sturdy
Hisuian Decidueye	Overgrow		Long Reach	Overgrow		Scrappy	Probably a leftover from it's original form.
Wyrdeer	Intimidate	Frisk	Sap Sipper	Intimidate	Frisk	Sap Sipper
Kleavor	Swarm	Sheer Force	Steadfast	Swarm	Sheer Force	Sharpness	Scyther has the ability Steadfast, but not Sheer Force, possibly implying Kleavor could of have meant to retain the ability or that it was a leftover from Scyther.
Ursaluna	Guts	Bulletproof	Unnerve	Guts	Bulletproof	Unnerve
Basculegion	Rattled	Adaptability	Mold Breaker	Swift Swim	Adaptability	Mold Breaker
Sneasler	Pressure		Poison Touch	Pressure	Unburden	Poison Touch
Overqwil	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
Enamorus Incarnate form	Healer		Contrary	Cute Charm		Contrary
Enamorus Therian form	Overcoat			Overcoat

(Source: Smogon)

Leftover Pokémon slots

Every Pokémon that is not featured in the game has allocated slots that are never used. These also include learnsets that are seemingly copied from Pokémon Sword and Shield, though curiously Pokémon that weren't in those games also have learnsets featuring moves from said games.

Unobtainable Alpha Pokémon

Any Pokémon in Legends which is labeled as a static encounter (mainly Legendary Pokémon) or a gift in-game that is not coded to be an Alpha cannot spawn in as an Alpha, as well as Pokémon transferred in from other games. This means that all Legendary Pokémon cannot be obtained as an Alpha. Using hacking to artificially turn a Legendary into an Alpha reveals that they have no size data for their Alpha form and so have the same amount of size variance as a normal Pokémon.

Noble Pokémon

To do: Pictures. Find out if they have unused Shiny variants.

While these Pokémon are encountered in required boss fights throughout the story, they have functioning Pokémon data and can be added to the party with cheats or hacks.

Capturing the Noble Pokémon reveals that they have unique height and weight statistics that go completely unseen otherwise.

Pokémon	Height	Weight
Kleavor	5'11"ft / 1.80m	195.9lbs / 88.86kg
Hisuian Lilligant	3'7"ft / 1.10m	35.9lbs / 16.27kg
Hisuian Arcanine	6'3"ft / 1.90m	341.2lbs / 154.76kg
Hisuian Electrode	3'11"ft / 1.20m	146.6lbs / 66.50kg
Hisuian Avalugg	6'7"ft / 2.00m	1,111.6lbs / 504.21kg

Mega Pokémon

Slots exist for Mega Pokémon, despite being (mostly) stubbed out of Sword and Shield and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Why these are included is currently a mystery, but it's possible that they had initially planned to bring them back.

(Source: mattyoukhana)

Cries

This page or section needs more audio. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough audio. Please fix this.

(Source: mattyoukhana)

Unused Graphics

To do: There might be more.

Placeholder Type Graphic

To do: Replace this Twitter-compressed image with a proper rip, and which file(s) has this texture.

A checkermark with text saying "atr_rock_01" on the brown squares and "atr_grass_01" on the cyan squares. Likely a terrain floor collision test texture.

(Source: DeepGameResearch)

Badly Poisoned Icon

An icon indicating a badly poisoned Pokémon. Bad poison is not a mechanic in Legends: Arceus.

(Source: Bulbapedia)

Unused Present-Day Room

To do: There might be more.

The player's room in the present day. Only the floor and walls have collision, indicating that this is part of a deleted introductory cutscene before the player character is sent into the past.

Oddities

To do: Detail the unreleased Pioneer ribbon that gets attached to Pokémon who prepare for a photo at the gallery.

Pioneer Ribbon/Hisui Ribbon and Alpha Mark

When taking your picture in Dagero's photo studio with a Pokémon, that Pokémon gets a Ribbon, called the "Pioneer Ribbon" in the files. However, due to the game not having a way to see Ribbons, it is not possible to see this in the game or in any other Generation VIII game such as Sword and Shield or Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, although this will count for the 10 kinds of ribbons you need for the Ribbon Syndicate in the latter games. This would later become visible in "Scarlet and Violet" and be renamed to the "Hisui Ribbon", with the title of "Of the distant past".

Furthermore, any Alpha Pokémon caught will always come with the "Alpha Mark", which is also not present in any other Generation VIII game, but is seen in Pokemon HOME. Due to the game also not having a way to see marks, this is also not visible either. This mark would later become visible in Scarlet and Violet, with the title of "The Former Alpha", and will also make those Pokémon eligible for the "Jumbo Mark".

(Source: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Ribbons_in_the_games#Footprint_Ribbon Bulbapedia)

(Source: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mark#Trivia Bulbapedia)

Internal Pokémon IDs

Each Pokémon has an internal ID number seen in various files related to Game Freak-developed Pokémon games for the 3DS and Switch.

Wyrdeer, Kleavor, Sneasler, Enamorus, Overqwil, Basculegion, and Ursaluna occupy IDs 1001-1007. In Sword and Shield, the highest Pokémon ID number is 990, which belongs to Regidrago. IDs 991-1000 are unoccupied; in Pokémon HOME, these Pokémon are numbered 899 through 905, while Wo-Chien through Koraidom fill numbers 1001-1007.

Mountain Gale

Mountain Gale (the signature move of Hisuian Avalugg) is coded to have a chance of flinching the opponent, although flinching is not used in Legends Arceus. This appears to have been future-proofing, as in Scarlet and Violet Mountain Gale has a 30% chance to cause the opposing Pokémon to flinch.

Revisional Differences

To do: See if details about the fixes in v1.0.1 can be documented.

v1.0.1

A small patch released January 26, 2022. Contains unspecified improvements.

v1.0.2

Released February 9, 2022.

• Fixed a bug that caused Cherrim to be uncatchable when changing into its Sunshine Form during battle.
• Fixed issues relating to being able to catch the same Pokémon twice and main missions not triggering progression in certain cases.
• Localization and script changes.
• Introduced a sequence break that allows one to encounter and catch Cresselia before talking to Melli, rendering the mission "The Plate of Moonview Arena" unable to be completed.

v1.1.0 ("Daybreak")

Released February 27, 2022, and introduced the following:

• More requests/missions are added to the postgame, relating to a new phenomenon of heavily-increased rates of mass outbreaks.
• Adds the Eternal Battle Reverie, a mode where you can test your mettle against incredibly powerful Pokémon in battle.
• New battle scenarios added to the Training Grounds, including allowing you to battle the wardens you meet along your journey.
• After completing certain missions, the Photography Studio will now allow you to invite related characters to the Studio to take photographs with them.
• Ginter from the Ginkgo Guild will now give you the option of three items to potentially buy from him, instead of just one.
• A higher-difficulty balloon-popping challenge was added to the Coronet Highlands.
• A new "Special Berry Harvest" can now be selected at the farm, to grow berries that were originally not obtainable through farming.
• A bug was fixed where under certain conditions the weather could become stuck in one state.
• The bug preventing the mission "The Plate of Moonview Arena" from being able to be completed has been fixed. If you already caught Cresselia before talking to Melli, you can now progress by obtaining the quest from Melli and talking to him a second time, which will complete the quest.

v1.1.1

Released March 17, 2022.

• Fixed a bug where under certain conditions the Shiny Charm would be unobtainable even if the requirements were met. As part of the fix, players who encountered this issue and meet the requirements can obtain the Shiny Charm by speaking to Professor Laventon inside Galaxy Hall.