Zygarde is a Legendary Pokémon that appears throughout your adventure in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. He assists you with the growing Rogue Mega Evolution problem and has a critical role throughout the main plot. However, although he’s willing to help you, there are no opportunities to interact or attempt to catch Zygarde directly. You do have to wait for a particular moment and follow a few specific steps for this to happen. This page shares with you how to get Zygarde and add this Legendary Pokémon to your team in Legends: Z-A.
This contains spoilers to the main story in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. If you wish to remain spoiler-free, avoid reading anything below!
When Do You Get Zygarde?
Zygarde becomes a Pokémon you can catch when you reach the post-game of Legends: Z-A. You have to finish the main story and watch the credits roll. From this point, additional story quests become available for you to work through, such as the Infinite Z-A Royale, where you’ll have to battle against trainers to earn various rewards. However, that’s not the one you want to focus on if you want to catch Zygarde. But you need to complete at least the first round of the Infinite Royale to unlock this next section.
After the first round, you’ll receive a call to return to Hotel Z. There, L appears, revealing he’s regained a good amount of his memories, and he sets you out to embark on two additional quests: The One That Gives and The One That Takes main quests. These are tied to Xerneas and Yveltal, respectively. You’ll need to follow both of these quests to catch these Pokémon, adding them to your team.
Once you’ve caught them both, you receive no further main quests associated with them or L. To continue, make your way back to Hotel Z and interact with the entrance. Here, L stops you and invites you to battle against him. This starts Main Mission 42: To Keep The World in Balance, which will lead you to catching Zygarde.
He gives you time to prepare, and you’ll need to defeat him to continue to the next quest. Here’s the whole team you can expect to face off against when battling L.
After you defeat L, Zygarde appears, before promptly disappearing once again. L informs you that Zygarde likely wants you to follow and is leading you toward the destroyed tower at the center of town, in Wild Area 20.
You can find Zygarde directly under the destroyed tower.
When you approach Zygarde, you’ll have the option to battle or to prepare and battle it. You’ll want to prepare your team to face off against this Legendary Pokémon. It’s a Dragon and Ground-type, making it weak to Dragon, Ice, and Fairy-type moves. However, we recommend against using Electric, Fire, Poison, Steel, Rock, and Dragon-type Pokémon, as Zygarde routinely uses Ground and Dragon-type attacks during this encounter. By choosing to battle Zygarde, you’ll face off against it while it’s level 84. You’ll have to go through three phases.
The first phase is while Zygarde is in its 10% forme, and this will be the easiest portion of the fight. While in this forme, Zygarde regularly focuses on your partner Pokémon and uses its Thousand Arrows attack throughout the encounter. It won’t have high defense, meaning you shouldn’t have too much trouble during this portion, but it’s good practice for what’s going to happen next.
The second phase has Zygarde using its 50% forme, and it’ll have more powerful attacks against you and your Pokémon. It begins to use more attacks against your Pokémon, such as Crunch, Rock Slide, and Dragon Pulse. When it uses the Land Wraith move, it’ll be focusing on you, the player. You may want to recall your Pokémon when this happens, ensuring they don’t take too much damage, and rotate around the map to dodge the attack. You don’t need to look out for too much beyond the Land Rush ability as you slowly chip away at Zygarde’s health using Dragon, Ice, or Fairy-type attacks.
Finally, the last phase has you facing off against Zygarde in its 100% forme. It’ll be most powerful while it’s in this forme, and you’ll also have to dodge more attacks that may harm your character, forcing you to dodge more often, like the Rogue Mega Evolution battles. Unlike the previous transformations, this is where Zygarde almost solely focuses on your character with its attacks. It rarely attacks your Pokémon, but it’s durable enough to withstand their attacks, even if you only use Ice-type moves.
Zygarde uses an AoE land-based attack called Thousand Waves. If you have a Pokémon that can fly, it should be able to evade this attack, but you’ll need to dodge out of the way. You also need to beware of Core Enforcer, where Zygarde leaves the arena and blasts a massive beam in a zig-zag formation. You’ll have to stick to the border of the arena to avoid this attack, and it might be a good idea to recall your Pokémon to prevent it from taking damage. Finally, throughout the encounter, expect the ranged Thousand Arrow move to rain down on you from overhead, forcing you to rotate throughout the map consistently.
When you defeat Zygarde, L calls out to you that it’s time for you to use a Poké Ball to catch this Legendary Pokémon. You can use any Poké Ball to catch it, adding Zygarde to your team, and completing one of the final main missions in Legends: Z-A.
How to Change Zygarde’s Form in Legends: Z-A
Zygarde is a unique Pokémon in that it has several distinct forms, different from each other, and gradually more potent than its 10% form. Zygarde can shift from its 10% to 50% when you use the Zygarde Cube, which is what L gives you immediately after you catch Zygarde.
The Zygarde Cube is available in your Key Items, in your inventory. You need to have Zygarde on your team, and then use the cube on Zygarde. It’ll shift from its 10% to 50% forme, depending on which you want to use.
If you want Zygarde to reach its 100% form, this can only happen during battle. This occurs when it reaches half, or less than half, of its maximum health. It remains in its 100% forme until you recall it to its Poké Ball.