Best Pokemon And Types For Defeating Each Rogue Mega Evolution In Pokemon Legends: Z-A

The main objective of Pokemon Legends: Z-A is to master Mega Evolution and become the greatest Mega Evolution trainer. Naturally, the best way to figure out if you’re the strongest Mega trainer out there is to pit your skills against strong Mega-Evolved pokemon. But these opponents are not your normal adversaries.

Rogue Mega Evolved pokemon are abnormally strong and chaotic pokemon Mega-Evolved against their will. These aggressive pokemon are just as likely to attack you as they are to attack your pokemon. Only with great skill and strategy will you be able to calm these overcome pokemon and bring peace back to Lumiose City.

How To Defeat Mega Absol

Your first rogue mega encounter will be against Absol after you reach Rank V. For this fight, you cannot bring your own pokemon and will instead be temporarily loaned Lucario. This means that your focus will be on learning the mechanics of rogue mega fights rather than any premade strategy.

The fight itself is blissfully simple. Just make sure you understand the following mechanics within the fight:

• You can grow your Mega Meter in the bottom right corner by hitting Absol and picking up shining Mega Power shards.
• Press the Right Joystick to Mega Evolve.
• Absol, like all Rogue Mega Pokemon, will greatly resist any moves not made while in Mega form (or used as a Plus Move).
• When Absol looks like it is targeting the player, prepare to press Y to dodge an incoming attack.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL ROGUE MEGA FIGHTS

If you are not Mega Evolving your pokemon, press + before using a move to make your moves Plus Moves. They will deal significantly more damage. Attempting these fights without a Mega-Evolved pokemon or without using Plus Moves will greatly hinder your attempts and greatly increase the time spent fighting.

The Secrets Of Mega Evolution: How To Defeat Camerupt, Slowbro, And Victreebel

A solid start to threats in the Rogue Mega Evolution saga, Camerupt is a simple fight that constantly keeps you on your toes. The greatest threat it poses is in Earth Power, which tracks the player and requires you to always be moving. Never stop to give more than one command.

As you progress, hitting Camerupt will sometimes trigger a Lava Plume-esque attack. This will litter explosive rocks around the battlefield. Avoid standing near them. When Camerupt goes into the center with purple energy later, he will detonate these stones, causing massive damage to anything nearby. This attack changes at half health to:

1. Create even more detonating rocks (two waves).
2. Cause the rocks to detonate even faster.

You can destroy Mega Camerupt’s rocks prematurely by striking them with a pokemon move. We recommend doing this with a ranged attack.

Mega Victreebel is a threat that can easily turn an advantageous strategy against it upside-down. Because of its unique Sludge Bomb (indicated by the purple charging attack), your chance of being afflicted with Poison is highly likely. This is because the ground becomes covered in pools of ooze. The number of ooze pools increases after reaching 50 percent health.

To succeed in this fight, we recommend following these tips:

• While the pools of ooze are on the ground, you will likely want to stay in mid-melee range with your pokemon and limit your movement.
• If Bullet Seed forces you to have to move while ooze is on the ground, you may want to recall your pokemon before running or consider dodge rolling forward or back.
• Keep in mind that you can use items once per turn during this fight. Use Antidotes or Lumiose Galettes as necessary.
• If you have a pokemon that does not Mega Evolve, consider giving it a Pecha Berry to hold.

Slowbro is a ranged-attacker, but its primary threat lies not only in the ranged nature of its attacks but the attacks’ variation in speeds.

• Water Pulse is wide but slow and lingers.
• Psybeam is fast and powerful with a small reaction window.
• Whirlpool is very slow but reaches a massive area, often followed by multiple waves (which increase at 50 percent health and below).

With many of the megas in this group, the best advice to give is to always be on the move. When Whirlpool comes out, even tanky pokemon should be brought back for ranged counter attacks to avoid being struck multiple times.

A Job For Team MZ: How To Defeat Beedrill, Banette, And Hawlucha

Mega Banette is the first truly tricky boss of the Rogue Megas. Its main gimmick is the ability to duplicate itself, creating multiple copies of Banette that can also attack and deal damage. Attacking these copies does not damage the real Banette.

While you may be tempted to completely ignore the copies, we recommend doing the opposite. If you have a strong Dark or Ghost type, you can one-shot some of the copies to avoid two major things:

1. Becoming overwhelmed with too many threats on one field.
2. Being struck by the multiple Banettes at the end of the copy cycle.

Two more concerns are Confuse Ray and the Ghost-type weakness. While Confuse Ray in itself is a risk in a Rogue Mega Battle due to lack of control, Ghost-type weaknesses go two ways. Ensuring your own Ghost-type pokemon does not get hit during this exchange is top-priority.

While we do mean to take out some of the copies, remember that the copies are not your first priority. Only attack them when they are presenting a problem and otherwise focus on the real Banette, who is distinguished by not having its own small healthbar above its head.

Mega Beedrill may not be hard, but it is certifiably annoying. Throughout its fight, it will endlessly spawn small kakunas. The trick here is to continue moving to avoid the kakunas while you attack Beedrill. When Beedrill is too far, you can take out any Kakunas nearby.

Do not ignore the kakunas indefinitely, as they are a constant threat to your speed thanks to endless String Shot, threaten the Poison condition with Poison Sting, and are always in the way of a lock-on.

Beedrill’s attacks themselves are rather lackluster. Many of them are close-combat moves that are easily tanked by a good Fire-type or Rock-type pokemon. However, do keep an eye on its Pin Missile attack, which will fire multiple times and track the player, requiring dodge-roll spam.

As expected, Hawlucha is a very melee-focused attacker. It’s extremely intimidating with its persistence in chasing down the player constantly for a melee attack. These attacks are easily avoided by running, but a good player should always be on the lookout to dodge and avoid a quick Air Slash (Hawlucha’s only ranged attack).

Hawlucha’s main claim to fame in these battles is the introduction of interrupt-attacks. These attacks are orange-coloured attacks that gather energy. Hitting a foe during these moves will stop the move from happening.

If you fail to stop Hawlucha’s interrupt-attack, he will perform a Flying Press attack that damages the entire arena and inflicts massive damage.

A Request From The Rust Syndicate: How To Defeat Ampharos, Barbaracle, And Mawile

This cutie-patootie packs a wallop with Dragon Pulse and Breaking Swipe. Dragon-types hoping to get the advantage on Ampharos will find themselves in real danger. Ground-types are certainly the best counter against Ampharos (especially those with a stat-boosting move to counter Breaking Swipe’s debuff).

For the special Rogue Mega Moves, Ampharos is especially threatening with its Thunder:

• When charging with purple light, Ampharos will unleash bolts of lightning from above in quick succession that also linger somewhat and move around as sparks on the ground.
• During the attack, a dome of lightning will also manifest around Ampharos, dealing several tics of damage to foes within it.
• After reaching 50 percent health or lower, Thunder will also leave areas of static electricity on the field for a moderate time.

To avoid taking unnecessary damage while conserving a Mega-Evolved pokemon’s time, we recommend recalling your pokemon during this attack. Run around to avoid the lightning. Then, throw your pokemon back into the fray once the main portion of the attack has ended.

Barbaracle is one of the few pokemon on this list to have a 4x weakness to any type. In this case, Barabaracle is 4x weak to Grass, making a solid Grass-type pokemon highly ideal to counter it.

Rock Slide is a constant threat during this fight due to its off-screen animation start. Always keep your eye on Barbaracle’s attack animations as well as the helpful index of recent attacks that play out on the top right corner of the screen.

As a physical attacker with Power-Up Punch, it is also very easy for Barbaracle to snowball his power into absolutely obliterating his opponents. This is compounded as a pokemon with an interrupt-attack in Close-Combat, which can one-shot a player. In this fight, aggression is highly recommended if you want to survive.

This highly defensive pokemon essentially begs a player to come in well-prepared with a good counter. With nine resists and two immunities, as well as increased stats beyond normal megas, Ground and Fire types with either multiple Plus Moves or a mega evolution must be used.

Though Mawile itself is very simple and tanky, the most important things to note about this fight are:

1. Its special move makes it leave the arena and fire projectiles. Avoid these by recalling your pokemon for the attack duration and roll through the attack on the far side of the arena.
2. Play Rough will make Mawile disappear momentarily. Immediately dodge to avoid being punched.
3. When you reduce Mawile past half health, the special move gains additional purple orbs that slowly track the player. Just continue doing the normal counter to her special attack while refusing to stand still. Dodge as necessary.

An Invitation From The SBC: How To Defeat Altaria, Froslass, And Venusaur

Altaria really enjoys spamming Dragon Pulse, always made from the ground. This is how you can separate it from Moonblast, as the latter move will always be made from the air.

Its charge attack is not the most difficult we’ve had to contend with thus far, creating only a simple tornado whirlwind at first that moves slowly and then two more that are much faster and track the player. Just recall your pokemon for this attack and run around to dodge the tornadoes.

During the upgraded form, even more tornadoes appear than before. The need to recall pokemon and sprint around is even higher, but it remains the same in premise.

Froslass is the first time we are getting to see a proper boss fight with four full moves to contend with:

1. Phantom Force: Dangerous due to its teleporting nature; always move.
2. Will-O-Wisp: Cuts a pokemon’s attack while also inflicting burn.
3. Shadow Ball: Could cut a pokemon’s Special Defense and is super-effective against Ghost-types.
4. Icy Wind: May slow a pokemon’s Speed.

Because of these moves, we highly recommend avoiding bringing a Ghost-type to counter Froslass as it is too much of a risk.

During her fight, you also need to keep track of her charge attacks:

1. Above half health, this attack only rains down several ice pillars. Keep running while attacking Froslass.
2. Below half-health, ice pillars will fall even faster from the sky. You need to run behind one of them during her next charge attack to avoid being blasted by the Blizzard that Froslass generates.

While Froslass may have had a full set of moves, Venusaur does not and compensates for it by having multiple charge move attacks.

• The first charging move will spawn seeds that grow thorny bushes wherever they land.
• The second charging move will absorb any remaining vines and convert them into HP.
• Finally, the third charging attack will be a powerful solar beam.

While the vines might seem to be a large issue, your partner (Taunie or Urbain) usually clears at least one set of them in the main story. The HP regain is also very minimal, especially if you have a Fire-type pokemon like Charizard. It’s better to simply continue hitting Venusaur and remaining wary of Solar Beam.

If you are playing against Rogue Mega Venusaur in the post-game, we do recommend that you clear at least one set of the vines yourself, if not two, before continuing to attack Venusaur.

Because abilities are removed from this game, the original Thick Fat ability that protected Venusaur from Fire and Ice should now be null & void.

A Summons From Vinnie: How To Defeat Dragonite, Starmie, And Tyranitar

Dragonite may not have a full set of four moves, but its charging move is so deadly that four moves might have been too much. Air Slash is its main damage dealer, with Dragonite sometimes disappearing to make some distance before using it. Outrage is also present, dangerous for its multiple stacks of damage and avoided by using ranged attacks.

For the charging move, Dragonite will rain down lightning as a giant tornado forms and slowly tracks the player. Call back your pokemon and run around until this attack is over.

Once you reach below half-health, the real danger comes as Dragonite forms the tornado. While normally you would call back, you should press-on as Dragonite will follow this attack closely with an Interrupt Move: Hyper Beam. Attack furiously to avoid Dragonite obliterating the arena.

This silly bean might seem more like a joke than a threat, but that doesn’t mean you should let down your guard. After all, Starmie re-introduces bosses with more than two moves. In fact, Starmie has six moves (hardly fair)!

• Aqua Jet
• Surf
• Power Gem
• Zen Headbutt
• Water Pulse
• Psychic

Starmie loves to run around, and as a speedy attacker, it is relentless. Having a beefy and speedy counter is highly recommended for this fight.

For its charge attack, Starmie is thankfully very simple with a normal Take Down. This evolves later into a series of strong Hydro Pumps that can be easily dodged so long as you keep moving and remember to use the dodge button.

Tyranitar might have the greatest number of weaknesses on the list of Rogue Mega Evolutions, but it is no pushover. With one of the highest stat totals as a pseudo-legendary and the highest base Attack stat, Tyranitar can easily knock out pokemon that might otherwise have an advantage.

The balance to Tyranitar’s strength is that it is a very straightforward fight. No fancy tricks. It has three moves that repeat themselves three times each in a pattern (so long as he isn’t Flinched):

1. Crunch
2. Rock Slide
3. Sand Tomb

His charge attack is just Stone Edge, but he repeats it around himself multiple times. Just keep moving and stay out of melee range. When it upgrades at half health, that Stone Edge becomes walls that go to the far arena edges, so sprint clockwise or counterclockwise until the move is over.

Beware of Sand Tomb, especially after half health. This zoning technique very quickly chips away at your pokemon’s health regardless of any Ground-type resistances.

How To Defeat All Final Battle Rogue Megas

During the final encounters of the main storyline, you will be put in back-to-back fights against Rogue Mega evolutions on your way to Zygarde. Each of these fights are difficult alone, but you’ll thankfully be accompanied by fellow trainers in this order:

• Lida and Naveen
• Ivor and Gwynn
• Canari
• Lebanne
• Corbeau
• Grisham and Griselle

Do not worry so much about healing your pokemon during this run. Your fellow NPCs will heal them for you after each battle.

The first fight will happen before you begin your official run to Zygarde. It’s meant to be a surprise battle, giving you no time to choose your starting pokemon. Thankfully, Lida’s Starmie is a huge help here, and you can use your fellow trainers as a distraction to safely switch to a Psychic-type pokemon.

If you have to choose a greater threat, Mega Gengar is the greater threat to Starmie (the more important of your partners). Focus on it to avoid having Gengar defeat Lida’s partner prematurely.

Of all the fights against any of the Rogue Mega Pokemon, this one has to be the hardest. Kangaskhan has the largest stat bonus of any mega evolution, and Garchomp is a beast even on the worst of days. Furthermore, Pidgeot can destroy every member of Ivor’s team, while half of Gwynn’s team cannot touch Kangaskhan.

For this fight, we highly recommend having an Ice-type pokemon to make the most of your type advantage.

• Aurorus is an excellent choice here, so long as you avoid Kangaskhan and its Fighting-type moves.
• You can even try Mega Froslass to deal damage while being immune to Kangaskhan’s attacks.
• Alpha Avalugg’s bulk can help absorb some of the raw damage output by these ferocious megas.

While these two have no overlapping weaknesses, you do this fight with Canari, the Electric-type user. To help her, we recommend bringing a pokemon that can deal with Steelix while her Mega Eelektross juggles Mega Blastoise.

Try to separate these two megas as best you can. The greatest threat here is being struck by both of them at once and Mega Steelix being close enough to one-shot Canari’s pokemon. By splitting them up effectively, you can make this fight far easier.

Like the last battle, these pokemon have no overlapping weaknesses. However, Lebanne is a Dragon-type user, meaning that she can deal with Salamence while you take out Aggron. You can repeat the strategy before with Blastoise and Steelix by pulling Aggron away from Salamence.

Because Lebanne’s Dragon types are also weak to Salamence, you will likely clear Aggron’s defenses before she finishes with Salamence. Therefore, return to help Lebanne clean up Salamence once Aggron is put to pasture.

Gallade is the real threat in this fight due to Scolipede’s weakness to Psychic. Like the fights before, splitting up these pokemon might be in your favour if you have a pokemon that can counter Gallade. However, this changes somewhat if you have a Ghost-type pokemon.

With a Ghost-type, you can render Corbeau completely irrelevant during this fight and juggle them both. Pokemon that would do this effectively are:

• Mega Froslass
• Aegislash
• Mega Chandelure
• Alpha Trevenant

Both Mega Pyroar and Mega Charizard are a real help in this fight — especially against Metagross. While you may have a pokemon that can counter, the real concern in this fight is Alakazam. Its ranged attacks are a constant hindrance during the fight, and Grisham and Griselle’s AI will often prioritize fighting the pokemon closest to them.

To make this fight easier, focus on defeating Mega Alakazam quickly so you can get back to helping with Metagross and Aerodactyl. If needed, make sure you switch out your pokemon before rejoining the battle.