Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info

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.

Badly Poisoned Icon#

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

Egg Pasture Icon#

An icon supposed to be used to represent an egg in the pasture/party menu of the game, but it goes unused due to no means of being able to breed Pokémon in the game.

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

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.

Unobtainable Shiny Pokémon#

Much like the other Legendary Pokémon in Hisui, Enamorus is set to never appear shiny when encountered, thus leaving its shiny form unobtainable in this game. Shiny Enamorus was later made available as a reward for completing the Hisui Pokédex in Pokémon HOME.

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.

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.

Cries#

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

Unused Present-Day Room#

To do: There might be more.

Watch on YouTube

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#

Pioneer Ribbon/Hisui Ribbon and Alpha Mark#

When taking your picture in Dagero's photo studio with a Pokémon, that Pokémon will get a Ribbon that's 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 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 Pokémon HOME. Due to the game not having a way to see marks, this is 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".

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 Koraidon 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.