Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces quite a few new ideas to the legendary series, but one of the game’s best features has to be the ability to ride several Pokémon that really change how you’ll navigate this surprisingly massive game.
Yes, you can ride Pokémon in Arceus, which is quite useful given that Arceus ditches the typically constrained paths seen in other Pokémon titles and replaces them with large zones that you will need to traverse multiple times in order to complete objectives and, yes, eventually catch them all. Being able to summon a mount and zip between those zones relatively quickly certainly makes the entire experience a little more enjoyable.
Before you start dreaming of hopping on the back of every Pokémon you see, though, here are a few things you need to know about how mounts work in Pokémon Legends: Arceus:
How to Ride Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
The bad news is that you can only ride a select number of Pokémon in Arceus. The good news is that each of the Pokemon you can ride in the game offers a unique mode of transportation that will help you navigate the Hisui region.
You won’t be able to start riding Pokémon in Arceus until you’ve completed the “The Frenzy of the Lord of the Woods” main story quest and unlocked the Celestica Flute. This item will allow you to summon rideable Pokémon by selecting your desired mount with the D-Pad and then hitting the “+” button.
All Arceus mounts are acquired through quests and aren’t treated as “normal” Pokémon (meaning they can’t be added to your roster and don’t count towards completing your Pokédex). Think of them as unique vehicle variants of existing Pokémon that are closer to tools than the proper wild Pokémon you’ll be catching throughout the game.
While it’s a little bit of a shame that you can’t ride some of the more unique (and larger) Pokémon that you’ll catch in Arceus, the fact that you acquire your mounts by completing the main quests means that you also don’t really need to go out of your way to find them and can focus your collection efforts elsewhere.
Which Pokémon Can you Ride in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
Here are the five rideable “mount” Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
- Wyrdeer
- Ursaluna
- Basulegion
- Braviary
- Sneasler
As noted above, each of those Pokémon offers a unique mode of transportation, which we will cover in greater detail below as we tell you how to actually acquire them.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to Unlock the Wyrdeer Mount
Wyrdeer is the first rideable Pokémon you’ll acquire in Arceus. While he’s a fairly standard ground mount, you’ll use him throughout the rest of your adventure and will certainly welcome his presence.
To Find Wyrdeer, you’ll first need to defeat the rampaging Kricketune in Deertrack Heights. Wyrdeer should appear shortly thereafter, and you’ll soon learn the flute song needed to summon him.
You can dash with Wyrdeer by hitting the “B” button, and you’ll be able to perform a surprisingly useful jump maneuver with him by hitting “Y.”
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to Unlock the Ursaluna Mount
Ursaluna is a ground-based mount that lacks Wyrdeer’s agility and speed but makes up for it with its ability to dig for treasure.
To unlock the Ursaluna mount, you’ll need to defeat Ursaluna in Ursa’s Ring in Crimson Mirelands as part of a quest. You’ll learn the song needed to summon them shortly thereafter.
That wave you see when you’re riding Ursaluna indicates how close you are to treasure and other important locations. The wave will turn red when you’re facing a piece of treasure or some other special objective. Simply hit “Y” at that time to ask Uraluna to dig at that spot and (hopefully) unearth your reward.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to Unlock the Basculegion Mount
Basculegion is a water-based mount whose abilities will certainly come in handy the moment you realize how much of the game you can effectively “skip” once you’re able to cross lakes.
To unlock Basculegion, you’ll need to catch a Dusclops for Iscan (who you can find at Aipom Hill in the Cobalt Coastlands area). After using Dusclops’ Shadow Ball attack to cook food for the Basculegion, you’ll be able to meet, feed, and finally summon this mount.
You can summon Basculegion near any body of water, but you’re also able to ride another mount into the water and automatically summon Basculegion once you hit it. Like Wyrdeer, Basculegion can dash with the “B” button and jump with “Y.”
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to Unlock the Sneasler Mount
Sneasler is a rather unique mount that will allow you to finally zip up climbable surfaces like mountains and trees with relative ease.
You can find the Sneasler mount by fighting Ingo in the Clamberclaw Cliffs. After the duel, you’ll learn how to summon a Sneasler mount to call your own.
You can summon Sneasler like any other mount, or you can approach a climbable surface while on foot or on another mount and hit the “A” button prompt once it appears. You can hop off of him by hitting the “B” button, and Sneasler can move between climbable surfaces with the “Y” button (when prompted to do so).
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – How to Unlock the Braviary Mount
Here is the big one. Unlocking Braviary means finally unlocking the ability to fly, which, as you probably guessed, happens to be the most useful traversal ability in the game.
Unlocking Braviary will take quite some time, though. You’ll first need to solve the Snowpoint Temple puzzles and then win your duel against Sabi. After that, you’ll actually need to battle and defeat Braviary before you’re able to summon it as a mount.
Braviary is a bit of a strange mount to control. The height you summon him at helps determine the distance you can cover with him, and its dive and dash abilities (“Y” and “B,” respectively) will cause you to slope downward. You’ll essentially need to learn to both glide and fly with him, though he’s obviously still the fastest mount in the game.