Some Pokemon Legends: Z-A Players Are Beating the Whole…

Pokemon Legends: Z-A's introduction of Plus Moves is a new concept that is confusing a lot of players, many of whom have been venting their frustrations. While the gameplay style of Pokemon Legends: Z-A is similar to Pokemon Legends: Arceus in a lot of ways, the newer game's addition of Plus Moves provides a reliable, if not a bit confusing, way for Pokemon moves to hit harder.

mega evolved heracross using plus moves in pokemon legends za

Pokemon Legends: Z-A's first-week sales numbers, as shared by The Pokemon Company, show that more than 5.8 million copies were sold during its first week of availability. That's still a fair bit behind Pokemon Legends: Arceus' opening-week numbers, which reportedly hit 6.5 million, but the new game still outpaced Pokemon X and Y, the pair of games it serves as a sequel to, by about 1.8 million copies over the same duration.

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By Stan Hogeweg

Pokemon Legends: Z-A's Plus Moves Are Confusing Players

Even with that massive player community, not everyone has figured out how to use Pokemon Legends: Z-A's Plus Moves when not Mega Evolved, powered-up versions of regular moves that can deal out extra damage, cause bigger areas of effect, or increase the duration of status effects. A growing series of posts on platforms like Twitter and Reddit have been appearing over the last week from players who were unaware that in order to unleash the power of the appropriately named Plus Moves, they first had to push the plus button on their Switch or Switch 2 controllers while targeting enemy Pokemon. Despite the game including pop-up instructions that instruct players how to use Plus Moves, many who were eager to dive into battle seem to have missed these steps, with some reporting that they had already made it to the post-game before they realized their foible.

For those who may still be in the dark, Plus Moves can be learned either by leveling up or from using Seeds of Mastery at the Justice Dojo, and they are denoted by a small, stylized plus logo next to the name of a Pokemon move on the status screen. Plus Moves are used automatically by Mega Evolved Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, but non-Mega Evolved Pokemon can still take advantage of them with a simple press of the plus button, though doing so will consume about a quarter of the Mega Power meter.

Pokemon Legends Z-A Plus Moves tutorial screen Cropped

Missing out on the power of Plus Moves doesn't seem to have been completely detrimental to players, many of whom seem amused at their own folly while still having been able to complete the game without ever using one. There have been some complaints, however, as a few players have reported they purposefully overleveled their Pokemon because they felt too weak in certain battles. Additionally, some players who made it through the game without discovering how to use Plus Moves have blamed it on an overabundance of beginner tips and tricks in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, claiming that they must have missed the information while rapidly clicking through a bloated amount of tutorials.

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