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• Battling and Capturing Alpha Pokemon

• Alpha Advantages

• All Known Alpha Pokemon Locations

• Do Alpha Pokemon Respawn?

You'll know them by their glowing red eyes. You'll see them from afar thanks to their uptick in size. You linger too close, they see you, and surprise; either you've blacked out or you've sent a poor Pokemon to their doom with your sweet trainer's lies.

The purpose of this guide is not to inundate you with bad rhymes, though if that should occur along the way, you're welcome, and we're sorry. The real reason you're here is to find out what to do about these frightening Alpha Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, ancient Hisui's colossal curb-stompers. Many have fallen to their might, but you want to be different. You want to harness their power for your own.

Or you just want a little payback after that incident with a raging Bibarel. Whatever the case may be, here's where to find every Alpha — and how to beat them.

Battling and Capturing Alpha Pokemon

Despite their blatant strength, Alpha Pokemon aren't Noble Pokemon — they're not battled with balms and jumps and dodges. Players encounter Alpha Pokemon on the field, and these encounters largely follow the same format as an ordinary creature. One of the few major differences is the fact that Alpha Pokemon never flee; their disposition is always going to be some degree of aggressive.

Before you even begin to think about fighting an Alpha Pokemon, tap ZL to check its level. From the earliest hours of your Pokemon Legends: Arceus adventure, you will be coming upon Alphas that are dozens of levels higher than your team. Challenging such fierce foes will almost invariably result in your defeat.

Tips for Catching Alphas

If you're planning on catching an Alpha, and you totally should for reasons we'll soon get into, carefully consider your gear. It's unwise to fight Alphas when your goal is to catch them instead. Even if your team has comparable or higher stats, why risk things going awry? There are a few basic staples you should bring along with you whenever possible.

Since Alpha Pokemon share their Pokedex page with regular members of their species, the only reason to fight them (rather than catching them) is for the sweet amount of experience points your party will surely enjoy. Just bear in mind, experience points are fairly easy to accrue in Legends: Arceus; also, if you end up overwhelmed and most of your party's knocked out by battle's end, it largely goes to waste.

A popular method of ensuring success in catching is to toss a Heavy Ball and immediately reset if the Alpha pops out of it. The way that save data works in this installment, the unaware Alpha Pokemon will be right in front of you all over again upon loading. (As an aside, you can do this with shiny Pokemon as well. We may or may not have nuked a shiny Zubat once without saving first, to our sincere despair.)

Alpha Advantages

Touring Hisui with a Parasect the size of a tree is fun in its own right, but there are other reasons to catch these monstrosities whenever you can.

Effort Values

Alpha Pokemon have access to a wider range of Effort Level goodness upon catching. Not to be confused with Effort Values from other games in the series — though not far off, being Legends: Arceus' own spin on the idea — Effort Levels dictate the stat increases a Pokemon gains upon leveling up. Pokemon still retain their base stats, so it's unwise to try to use this system to turn a Snorlax into a special sweeper or what-have-you, but pumping up Effort Levels for specific stats will ensure your pals excel at their naturally gifted roles.

You can increase a Pokemon's Effort Levels through Grit items. These include Grit Sand, Grit Gravel, Grit Pebbles, and Grit Rocks. But since Alpha Pokemon are packing nice Effort Level boosts by default, they've got a nice advantage over their peers.

Tutor Moves

Zisu, who lingers over at the arena in Jubilife Village, can teach your Pokemon certain moves for a price. Money can be scarce in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, especially during the early- and mid-game hours. Wouldn't it be nicer to catch an Alpha Pokemon, seeing as there is a chance they will already know one of Zisu's tutor moves?

Legends: Arceus has a somewhat diminished total move pool compared to the more "generation-defining" titles like Sword & Shield. There's still some decent variety, but the cut is noticeable enough to make Zisu's services a must-have… unless you've gotten your gloves on some prime Alphas, that is.

All Known Alpha Pokemon Locations

The following tables contain information on every Alpha Pokemon we've found throughout Hisui, separated by region and listed per regional location. We'll update this if more are found, though if you happen to be reading this a couple of months or more past Arceus: Legends' launch date, odds are golden this has everything.

Obsidian Fieldlands Alpha Pokemon

Crimson Mirelands Alpha Pokemon

Cobalt Coastlands Alpha Pokemon

Coronet Highlands Alpha Pokemon

Alabaster Icelands Alpha Pokemon

Do Alpha Pokemon Respawn?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is yes, but it'll take a while.

Alpha Pokemon tend to spawn at a slower rate than the rest of Hisui's inhabitants. This makes a measure of sense, since in other franchises we'd probably be calling them "mark hunts" "or regional sub-bosses" or, you know, whatever. They're the resident big bads of any given area, Noble Pokemon notwithstanding.

So, if you've missed your shot at catching one just swing on by again at a later time and see if they've returned. Alpha Pokemon aren't always around to begin with, which means you may need to familiarize yourself with the routes to their exact locations and check in periodically while you're off fulfilling Research Tasks and Requests nearby. Just keep checking, and soon enough you'll find your red-eyed monster.

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