How to Save in Pokémon Legends Z-A

There are a lot of things that Pokemon Legends Z-A does differently from previous Pokemon games. Aside from the new battle system, the singular setting of Lumiose City, and other fundamental changes in Legends Z-A, saving is different now, too.

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By Greysun Morales

Instead of giving players full control over management of their saves, Pokemon Legends Z-A primarily uses an auto save system. Follow this guide to learn how auto saving works in Pokemon Legends Z-A, how to manually save the game, and whether you can turn off auto save in Legends Z-A.

How Does Saving Work in Pokemon Legends Z-A?

In Pokemon Legends: Z-A, saving happens automatically after doing just about anything in the game. When you pick up an item, engage in a battle, progress a mission, catch a pokemon , or otherwise change the state of the world or your character and party, the game will automatically save.

When you flee a battle against a wild pokemon (or defeat it on accident), the game will save after the pokemon disappears. Because of this, it's not possible to re-load a save for a second chance at catching a regular pokemon.

However, if you leave a battle against a shiny pokemon without defeating or catching it, the shiny will not disappear from the world, not even if you leave the area.

Because shinies never despawn once encountered, and because the game auto-saves constantly – preserving the world state with the shiny in it – the auto save system essentially gives players infinite chances to catch shiny pokemon once it appears.

Can You Disable Auto Save in Pokemon Legends Z-A?

Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off the Pokemon Legends Z-A auto save feature. As such, players do not have full manual control over their saves – it is not possible to reload after failing to catch a pokemon, for example.

However, it is possible to manually save in Pokemon Legends Z-A, too, which gives players a bit more control.

How to Manual Save in Pokemon Legends Z-A

Though Pokemon Legends Z-A auto saves after doing almost anything in the game, there are some dead zones where the game won't save for an extended period of time. If you close the game without saving, you risk losing progress since the last autosave. That's where manual saves come in.

You will gain the ability to manually save after reaching Hotel Z and passing the time in your room for the first time.

To manually save in Pokemon Legends Z-A, open up the main menu with X, then press R (the shoulder button on the right side) with this menu open.

Confirm that you want to overwrite your current save file, wait for the save jingle to play, and you will be able to safely close the game. Later on, the game will resume from the exact position you saved at.

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