Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to beat the Noble Pokémon (and catch your own)

Setting Pokémon Legends Arceus long before the main series games has a lot of implications for the game, and one of them is a completely new style of boss battle. With trainers that want to battle being few and far between, and without Gyms or an Elite Four, Arceus’ boss fights instead take the form of subduing Pokémon Nobles.

It should really go without saying, but there are huge spoilers for the boss battles in Pokémon Legends: Arceus ahead!

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What are the Pokémon Nobles?

The Pokémon Nobles you’ll battle are descended from the even more ancient followers of Arceus. If Arceus was a Christian God, then the original Nobles are the Disciples. The five Nobles that you battle in this game are their direct descendants.

How to battle the Pokémon Nobles

We won’t go into the plot-related reasoning, but when you battle these Nobles, you will have to do so in a way that’s completely new for the franchise. This breaks down into two phases that we’re going to call ‘the dodgeball bit’ and ‘the battle bit’. The battling is optional, but dodgeball is not.

The dodgeball bit

This is the main crux of the battle. As you play through Arceus, you will learn that dodging (the Y button) is your friend. It can be useful not only for dodging an incoming attack from an aggressive Pokémon that’s following you, but also for gaining a little extra height when scaling a cliff. Dodging is your friend.

This really comes to the fore in the boss fights; no matter which of the five Nobles you’re battling, this is always how battles start and end — and if you don’t want to do a Pokémon battle, this can easily be the entire boss fight.

Each fight involves you throwing an infinite supply of balms (balls of medicine) at the Noble. In return, they throw attacks at you — if you take enough hits, you will black out and lose, and nobody wants that. Fortunately, their attacks are heavily telegraphed and dodging gives you a brief window of invulnerability, so make sure that you’re dodging just before the attack would hit you, if you can’t simply run around it. Time it like you would a parry in other games and you’ll do just fine.

When you’re not dodging, you’re throwing. Hit the Noble enough times in a short enough window and you’ll get to go to an optional Pokémon battle bit, or skip that entirely and just keep throwing balms. Given the option, the Pokémon battle will help out massively, so take it if you get the chance.

The battle bit

If you hit the boss with enough balms quickly enough, you will get the option to throw a Pokémon instead of a balm, initiating a battle. Before you get too excited, this is not your opportunity catch them — these Pokémon cannot be caught. Instead, it’s your chance to give them a wallop.

During this section the Noble gets a new health bar — the standard one that you would get during a Pokémon battle. If you beat them here, you go back to throwing balms, but this time the balms are more effective, helping you take down the boss quicker. It wasn’t until the third boss that I actually found this necessary, as from then on they hit harder and faster, and the Pokémon battle is a nice reprieve from dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging…

Boss 1: Kleavor (Bug/Rock)

Kleavor is the Bug/Rock evolution of Scyther. Bus is weak against Fire, Flying and Rock; Rock is strong against all of these, but weak against against Fighting, Grass, Ground, Steel and Water.

You probably won’t have to rely on a Pokémon battle at this stage, but if you do, you will have easy access to Geodude, which will likely help. If you picked Oshawott or Rowlett as your starter, they will also be effective in battling Kleavor.

While you can’t catch this boss, if you want your own your very own Kleavor, you can evolve one by using a Black Augurite on a Scyther.

Boss 2: Hisuian Lilligant

Gen 5’s Lilligant is nothing new to Pokémon fans, but the Hisuan variant gives this Pokémon a more balletic style and the bonus of a Fighting type.

Again, you probably won’t need to use a Pokémon to battle, but if you choose to, Grass Pokémon are weak against Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice and Poison. Hisuian Lilligant’s bonus Fighting type means you want to focus on Fairy, Flying and Psychic.

You’ll have no shortage of Flying Pokémon by this stage, or depending on your team, a Pokémon with a Flying type move. Just pick your favourite and run with it!

Again, you can’t catch this Pokémon, but you’ll be pleased to know it still evolves from Petilil using a Sun Stone.

Boss 3: Hisuian Arcanine

The goodest boss, Hisuian Arcanine, is when you’re most likely need to Pokémon battle because it hits hard and fast. This is also where the difficulty goes up and you need to watch out for certain attacks.

During the Dodgeball phase, keep an eye on the arena around you because Arcanine’s area-of-effect attacks will hurt you. Arcanine also likes blocking off parts of the arena with walls of fire — you can dive (dodge) over these, which can be important for escaping an AOE attack.

In terms of weaknesses, this Fire/Rock type is hilariously weak to Water. For me, Samurrott was the way forward, but you will have recently unlocked Basculegion (the equivalent of the Surf ability), so you will have access to a whole tonne of water type Pokémon to catch. If you find yourself short, heading north from the Pincer-like horns on the southeast of the map will make you run into an Alpha Gyarados. That’ll put Arcanine back in its place!

As for catching this boss, it’s a simple case of using a Fire Stone on Growlithe and you’ll get yourself the rockiest boi.

Boss 4: Hisuian Electrode

By now you’ve probably got the gist of how these battles work. Electrode is quicker and stronger than the last boss, and now shoots tracking electric attacks at you, which means you need to run around a bit more than usual. However, when it uses something that looks like Self-Destruct, you get the easy option for a Pokémon battle. Take it.

As an Electric/Grass type, this Electrode is a little different to what you’re used to — the only other of this typing being Hisuian Voltorb and Mow Rotom. This pairing doesn’t share a weakness, so you’re looking at Ground, Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice or Poison. For me, a well-placed Fire attack was able to one-shot it.

Unlike previous games, where Voltorb evolved at Level 30, Hisuian Voltorb has a new affinity for the Leaf Stone to turn into Electrode.

Boss 5: Hisuian Avalugg

Far and away the most difficult boss fight, Avalugg puts you in the narrowest arena and sends attacks that require precise dodging. Once you get the knack of it, it’s not too bad — it’s mostly a question of timing with the incoming balls and knowing to only dodge left and right on the Icicle Spears it throws at you, because it affects the terrain under your feet.

You’ll want to engage it in Pokémon battle as soon as possible to ease the difficulty. Fortunately, Avalugg’s Ice/Rock typing is a doddle to beat, being extremely weak to both Fighting and Steel. By this point you’ll have access to whole bunch of these, so just pick your strongest Pokémon. You know what to do!

To get your own Hisuian Avalugg, it evolves from Bergmite at Level 37.

More Pokémon Legends: Arceus Guides from TheSixthAxis

• How long to beat Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
• How to craft and gather resources in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
• Strong & Agile – What are the new attack types in Pokémon Legends Arceus?
• How to complete the Pokédex in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/01/28/pokemon-legends-arceus-how-to-beat-the-noble-pokemon-and-catch-your-own/