Pokemon Legends: ZA's competitive multiplayer scene is facing a problem with players who don't seem to be competitive at all and who seem to be AFK throughout the entire fight. There is no single, definitive explanation as to why some people do things the way they do. Pokemon Legends: ZA Players are refusing to move in 4-player ranked matches, with the most likely motivator being the Mega Stones provided as a reward.
It was released for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 on October 26, Pokemon Legends: ZA's opening week sales exceeded 5.8 million copies, with Circana's Mat Piscatella declaring it the best-selling physical game of 2025 so far. Upon release, it received a very mixed response from the fanbase, with a player rating of 50 on OpenCritic. However, these big sales figures probably indicate that many players are still solving their monster fights on OpenCritic. Pokemon Legends: ZA.
New Pokemon Legendary: ZA Update Fixes Megastone Bug
Pokemon Legends: ZA has received a new update that fixes problematic bugs affecting Greninja and Delphox's Mega Stones, and new rewards are available.
Many Pokémon Legends: ZA's Ranked Match players don't actually play
However, recent reports suggest that the movement of participating players appears to be growing. Pokemon Legends: ZA's multiplayer matches and you can either stand completely still and attack or do nothing. This phenomenon has puzzled some competitive players who have encountered opponents who appear to refuse to attack anyone. Others have noticed static players who only attack when people get too close, meaning they probably set their controller to attack automatically and then backed out of the game. Fans aren't sure why this happens, but the most likely explanation is this: Pokemon Legends: ZAHere are the rewards for participating in ranked battles and how to obtain them.
After entering Season 3 on November 27th, Pokemon Legends: ZARanked battle rewards include Safari Balls, Seeds of Mastery, Bottle Caps, and Nuggets, but the reward for reaching the top ranks in each of the first three seasons was originally a Megastone to evolve one of the Kalos region starters, and the current top reward is Chesnotite. Many fans have expressed their displeasure with Game Freak interfering with Mega Stones for popular Pokemon behind the ranked battle system, and the wave of AFK players in multiplayer matches may be the main reason for this occurrence.
The ranked battle system has been criticized for a number of reasons, including poor connectivity and lag issues, which could explain why so many players seem unmoving. However, another possibility is that players are taking advantage of the rules of ranked battles to easily rank up. Some say that since winning isn't the only way to earn points, it's easy to reach higher ranks, even for players who place fourth every time. The match lasts only 3 minutes and the ranked battle rewards are as follows: Pokemon Legends: ZA Since they'll be easier to obtain starting in Season 2, simply showing up can become a new, boring strategy for players to use to earn rewards.
Some players are calling on the development team to take action to punish players who abuse the system, as they feel it is ruining the online experience for those who really want to feel the rush of competition. New rules for online play were added before the start of Season 3, but these are aimed at players who mess with the online battle system by manipulating the results of matches using multiple Nintendo accounts, Switch or Switch 2 consoles, or save data sets. It's not yet clear what Nintendo will do with AFK-rated players before Season 4 begins, but considering the start date is just over a week after the Mega Dimension DLC's scheduled release date, players may be more invested in the single-player aspect of the game once it's released.
- released
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October 16, 2025
- ESRB
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Anyone over 10 years old / fantasy violence, in-game purchases
