Welcome to the main story walkthrough for Pokémon Legends: Arceus! The latest Pokémon game has hit the Nintendo Switch and it’s not quite what you’re used to in the mainline Pokémon games.
Arceus shakes up the formula a bit by reworking how you progress through the game. Arceus is more mission structured than in previous games. Instead of travelling from one city to another taking down gym leaders, you’re going to be helping out a village with some issues they’re having with Pokémon in the new region of Hisui.
The village is going to act as your base of operations. Everything you do will start here. You’ll even have your own house here. There will be an organization that you will be helping through out the game based in this village. They’ll be the ones sending you out on missions. When we talk about missions, that means there are story and side missions to complete. Side missions in Arceus are called Requests. You can talk to NPCs across the various areas to get these Requests. These are usually pretty small tasks that need to completed. They are not big expanding side stories or anything you may be used to from other RPGs.
There are a lot of these Requests to complete and none of them are missable, time sensitive or anything stressful like that. You can complete them at your leisure.
The travel has been cut down here as well. In Arceus, you will not be travelling the many routes that usually make up a map in a Pokémon game. Instead, you’ll be fast travelling to several big open areas where you can complete missions and complete your Pokédex.
Speaking of your Pokédex, completing this will be different in Arceus as well. Yes, you’re going to need to find and catch Pokémon in order to fill it, but there is new difference here.
Each Pokémon page in your Pokédex will have several research tasks. You’re going to need to complete all of these research tasks in order to fully complete your Pokédex. These can range from a lot of different things, but you’ll need to catch several of each species, battle several of each species, use certain attacks and see certain attacks used on specific Pokémon types etc.
Arceus also adds some dialogue options. Now, this isn’t Mass Effect or something along those lines, but they are present here.
You don’t have to worry about splitting paths or missing story content when it comes to the dialogue options. There are no right or wrong choices. Every choice will lead you to the same result.
Page 1
- In An Unfamiliar Land
- The Galaxy Team’s Entry Trial
- The Basics of Crafting
- Getting to Work on Research Tasks
- A Request From Mai
- Summoned by Commander Kamado
- The Frenzy of the Lord of the Woods
- Arezu’s Perdicament
- A New Mission
- The Lordless Island
- Scaling Perilous Heights
- The Slumbering Lord of the Tundra
- Disaster Looming
- The Trial of Lake Verity
- The Trial of Lake Acuity
- The Trial of Lake Valor
- Atop Mount Coronent
- The Counterpart
- A New Day Dawns
- The Researcher of Myths
- The Plate of Prelude Beach
- The Plates of the Lakes
- The Plate of Firespit Island
- The Plate of Moonview Island
- The Plate of Snowpoint Temple
- Seeking The Remaining Plates
In An Unfamiliar Land
Arceus Intro
When you first boot up the game, you’ll be picking your appearance and choosing your name. There are more appearance customization options later in the game, but you’re just choosing a general template for now.
After making your decisions, you’ll wake up on the aptly named Prelude Beach and Professor Laventon will be speaking to you with three Pokémon.
Answer his questions and then the Pokémon with him will run away. Laventon will chase after them after asking you to help him track them down. You’ll now have full control to run after the Pokémon and the professor.
Soon after leaving the beach, you’ll come across and pickup the Arc Phone after interacting with it.
Catch up to Laventon and you’ll go through the tutorial on how to catch Pokémon. You’ll now be tasked with catch the three Pokémon for Laventon.
Catch all three and follow Laventon to Jubilife Village.
Follow Laventon down the main road of Jubilife Village. He will ask you to meet him at the village canteen called The Wallflower. Follow the marker to the Wallflower where you’ll initially be denied entry.
Here, you’ll be introduced to Rei or Akari and Cyllene.
You’ll be treated to another cutscene where you have a meal with Akari/Rei and Laventon. You’ll be given a little more background on what Professor Laventon is up to working with Pokémon.
After the cutscene ends, it’ll be night time. The objective marker will point you toward your quarters. You can interact with the items in your room right now, but there’s not a whole lot we can do here at the moment.
So go to sleep to end the day and complete the first mission of the game.
The Galaxy Team’s Entry Trial
I Choo-Choo Choose You
When you wake up the next day, Akari/Rei will be at your door. It’s time to take part in the Galaxy Entry Trial. Follow the objective marker to meet up with Cyllene at the Galaxy Team HQ.
Cyllene will speak to you and give you your first task. You’ll need to go to Obsidian Fieldlands and capture a Bidoof, Starly, and a Shinx. Cyllene will also give you a Survey Corps Satchel.
Before heading out though, it’s time to make a choice.
Professor Laventon will show up and offer you the chance to pick your starting Pokémon. The choices will be between the three Pokémon you captured on Prelude Beach. You will choose between Cyndaquill, Rowlet, and Oshawott.
After you make your choice, Laventon will also give you 20 Poké Balls.
Obsidian Fieldlands
You are now free to head over to Obsidian Fieldlands. Follow the objective marker and make your way out of town.
When you reach the gate, you’ll be introduced to Volo. He’ll challenge you to your first battle here in the Hisui region.
- Volo
- Togepi Lv. 5
Make quick work of Volo and he’ll give you five Potions.
You’re also free to leave to the Obsidian Fieldlands now that the battle is over. Speak with the guard at the gate and choose your destination on the map.
This first trial is very simple and acts as a tutorial on encountering wild Pokémon. Follow the objective marker and your first encounter will be against Bidoof. All you have to do here is throw a Poké Ball at it and you’ll catch it no problem.
Your second encounter will be against Starly. For this one, you’ll need to crouch and slowly move toward it hidden through the tall grass. When you get close, hit it with a Poké Ball to catch it.
Your last encounter will be against Shinx and this one will introduce you to your first battle against a wild Pokémon in the Hisui region. Send out your Pokémon and weaken the Shinx. Throw a Poké Ball at it during the battle to capture it.
When you’re all done catching those, you’ll be back at the camp speaking to Professor Laventon and Akari/Rei.
Time for a Change
After the short cutscene in Obsidian Fieldlands, you’ll be returned to Jubilife Village. Follow the objective marker back to the Galaxy Team HQ.
Enter the HQ and speak to Cyllene in her office.
She’ll congratulate you and allow you to keep the Survey Corps Satchel. She will also give you a Survey Corps Uniform and a pair of Survey Corps Sandals.
Return to the room you slept in and change your clothes to the Survey Corps gear you just received. You can change clothes by interacting with the mirror in your room.
After changing, you’ll be automatically transported back to the Galaxy Team HQ where you will be speaking to Akari/Rei. Cyllene will also speak with you. She will allow you to continue using the room you slept and changed in. That room is your base of operations for lack of a better term moving forward in the game.
After that, it’ll be time to meet with the commander of Galaxy Team. Head upstairs to the third floor to meet Commander Kamado in his office.
Speak with Kamado in a brief cutscene and the second mission of the game will be completed.
The Basics of Crafting
The third mission of the game will automatically begin. You’ll be in Cyllene’s office yet again.
Cyllene will explain the ranking system to you here.
You will begin with no rank at all. You can increase your rank by adding to your Pokédex. The more Pokémon you see and catch, the higher your rank will be.
After that explanation, Cyllene will then give you the recipe to craft Poké Balls and 3,000 dollars.
- Poké Ball Recipe
- 1 Apricorn
- 1 Tumblestone
After the conversation, you can now go to the Craftworks. Follow the objective marker to the location. When you exit the HQ, you’ll be approached by Anthe outside. She will give you an Everyday Kimono and a pair of Everyday Trousers. You can visit her to buy more clothes.
Head over to the craftworks to speak with Akari/Rei. They will provide you with the necessary materials to craft a Poké Ball.
Go to the workbench and select the Poké Ball to craft it. This screen will give you a breakdown of all the materials that are needed to craft an item as well as how much of the materials you have on you as well as in your storage. You’ll be able to craft 20 Poké Balls here.
Craft the Poké Balls.
And with that, the third mission is completed.
This is the most complete guide i’ve come across for Pokemon Legends Arceus. Definitely adding this as a bookmark, very nice walkthrough.