Like in every Pokemon game, money is essential in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Players will need it to purchase battle items, Poke Balls, and more. However, since Pokemon Legends: Arceus redoes the traditional gameplay of Pokemon, money can be a bit tricky to farm. Anyone who's familiar with Pokemon knows that money is rewarded for defeating other trainers or gym leaders in a Pokemon battle. However, the Hisui region seems to have an aversion to Pokemon and battling. The trainers that players do end up battling don't give money as a reward either. This begs the question: How do trainers go about getting more money?
Since the people of Hisui fear Pokemon, not many NPCs have Pokemon at their side. Those that do will instead use the Pokemon to help with chores around Jubilife Village. This completely eliminates the original way of getting money in the previous mainline Pokemon games. Luckily, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has two different ways for Survey Corps members to get money: Selling items and catching Pokemon.
Catching Pokemon
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Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the first game where the Pokemon motto "gotta catch 'em all" has story and gameplay importance. The overarching goal of Pokemon Legends: Arceus is to complete the Pokedex and eventually meet Arceus. Catching Pokemon just happens to be the quickest way to get money in Hisui.
When players step into one of Hisui's five regions, they automatically start "survey work." Each Pokemon they catch in the wild gets recorded for Professor Laventon. If they want to return to Jubilife Village, they'll need to speak to Professor Laventon, who will tally up survey results. This is calculated by the following:
- Total Pokemon caught
- 10 or more Pokemon in one report
- Different Pokemon species caught
- Pokemon caught in space-time distortions
- Number of Alpha Pokemon caught
- Pokemon caught using a back strike
As most players would expect, the more Pokemon caught, the more variety, and the more back strike techniques used, the higher the payoff. An excellent way to earn even more money is by catching Alpha Pokemon. These Pokemon are much harder to catch, making them worth a bit more than catching a regular-sized Pokemon.
Another thing to remember is that the player's Rank influences the reward money. Trainers will start out at "No-Star" and will need to work their way up to the Ten Star Rank throughout their playthrough. Once players are ready to advance in rank, Professor Laventon will urge them to visit Cyllene to get their next promotion.
While Pokemon Battles with NPCs don't reward money, some will drop items that can be sold for a good price, or used in crafting. For example, fighting and defeating the three bandits - Charm, Clover, and Coin - in the postgame results in them dropping items like Stardust.
Crafting Pokeshi Dolls
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Near the beginning of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, players will unlock the Request: Please! Make me a Pokeshi Doll! by speaking to the Crafting Store's owner. He will give the players the Crafting Recipe for the Pokeshi Doll and send them out into the wild to get three pieces of wood. Once players do this, they'll receive a Pokeshi Doll from him as a reward. This item serves no battle purpose, but it sells for 1,000 at the local stores.
The Pokeshi Doll recipe requires the following materials:
- Wood (x3)
Star Piece and Comet Shard
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Crafting is a new gameplay mechanic in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It's useful in that it saves players from rushing to the store and buying Poke Balls by giving the players the option to create them at the cost of certain materials.
Something that becomes available after completing Please! Make me a Pokeshi Doll! is the option to buy recipes at the Crafting Store. One recipe that is important to grab is the Star Piece Crafting Recipe. The recipe is quite expensive (10,000), but it'll be worth the investment. Buying this allows players to use Colored Shards and Stardust to create Star Pieces, which sell for 5,000 at the store.
Players can get Stardust by having their Pokemon mine sparklingcrystals and stones around Hisui. Colored Shards and Stardust can be found in the space-time distortions that occasionally crop up in the overworld.
Space-time distortions are dangerous - especially for beginner trainers - so make sure to use the Ride Wyrdeer when entering one. When a space-time distortion appears, strong Pokemon will spawn and attack the player the minute they see them. However, these dimensions are also home to evolution items and expensive items that are impossible to find in the wild.
The Star Piece recipe requires the following:
- Stardust (x1)
- Red Shard (x3)
- Blue Shard (x3)
- Green Shard (x3)
While it may be tempting to sell the bags of Stardust, holding onto them for crafting will be worth the wait.
Finally, there are Comet Shards, which sell for an impressive 15,000 at the store. These look the same as Star Pieces but are blue. Comet Shards will occasionally spawn in space-time distortions, but they're incredibly rare. However, players can receive a total of six Comet Shards by battling Adaman and Irida in the postgame for the Requests The Diamond/Pearl Clan's Treasure.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now on Nintendo Switch.
