A Guide to Catching Strong Dragon Pokémon Early in Pokemon Legends: ZA

The latest Pokémon game, Pokemon Legends: ZA, features a revamped battle system compared to previous games in the series, replacing slow turn-based battles with real-time battles. Having powerful Pokémon with impactful moves on your team is one of the best ways to quickly complete story battles and compete online in ZA Battle Club. Choosing powerful Pokémon is key.

If you’re new to this RPG series, dragon-type Pokémon are some of the strongest you’ll find. Many of them are colloquially referred to as pseudo-legendaries by players because their impressive stats are only surpassed by those of legendary Pokémon. As a result, their base forms – the first versions you can find that transform into extremely powerful evolutions – are generally hard to find, difficult to capture, and extremely slow to level up.

We’ll let you do the training for your party of six, but here’s a simple guide with locations and tips for finding and capturing powerful dragon types to add to your team in Pokemon Legends ZA.

Learn more: How to get Gengar in Pokemon Legends ZA: Evolving Haunter, Catching and more

Obtain Dratini by climbing the roofs of Green Sector 6

The first of the powerful types of dragons that we will help you find comes from the original Pokémon games (Gen 1). Dratini is the base form of Dragonite, a dragon-type and flying pseudo-legendary, and is the easiest to find on this list. To capture one, fast travel or find your way to Restaurant Le Nah in Green Sector 6. Once there, face the restaurant, turn right, and climb the ladder attached to the building next to it. Once on the roof of this building, you will have to turn left then roll onto the roof of the restaurant. This is where Dratini is waiting for you.

Now Dratini is nervous. He will run away as soon as he spots you, so you’ll need to be prepared. Save your game before approaching it and prepare a Pokémon that can either knock it out in one hit or stock up on Quick Balls and Dusk Balls. I had a lot of success with Dusk Balls in this game, so I recommend trying to catch Dratini at night.

Dratini evolves into Dragonair at level 30 and then Dragonite at level 55, gaining the flying type with its final evolution. With this dual type, Dragonite is strong against Dragon, Grass, Fighting, and Bug type Pokémon. However, its strength is not limited to type advantages; it also learns hard-hitting moves like Hurricane and Outrage that can get you out of trouble. It features wide coverage attacks, like Earthquake, in its move pool to damage multiple Pokémon in one go. You can also Mega Evolve Dragonite in Pokemon Legends: ZA, although its Mega Stone becomes available after completing Main Mission 32.

Note: You can also find Dratini or Dragonair on a rooftop in Blue Sector 9 and Dragonite in Wild Area 20 after completing the main storyline.

Capture Gible in Wild Area 8

If you already have a Flying-type Pokémon on your team and want to expand the type matchups you cover, capturing Gible and evolving it into its final evolution, Garchomp, is one of the best things you can do.

You can find Gible in one of the many holes in Wild Zone 8 – keep an eye out for her blue fin sticking out to show that she has laid eggs. Depending on your luck, you may find one right away, or it will take a few bench resets to spot one among the many Drilburs in this wild area. So, once you spot the blue fin, save your game and jump straight into battle.

Gible isn’t nervous and won’t run away, but Wild Zone 8 can quickly become a difficult fight fest to deal with. Bring a Pokémon that’s fast or can use moves that deal damage over a wide area – think a water-type Pokémon. Also bring Great Balls, Ultra Balls and Dusk Balls; these will be your best bet for capturing Gible, as he has a low capture rate like Dratini.

Gible will evolve into Gabite at level 24, then Gabite will evolve into Garchomp at level 48, so prepare for a long upgrade quest to get this best dragon. However, the effort is worth it, as adding the dragon and ground-type Garchomp to your team allows you to effectively use moves like Earthquake – even more so than Dragonite – dealing damage quickly over large areas, while defending against equally powerful attacks, thanks to its well-distributed stat total. You can also mega-evolve Garchomp early in the game because its mega stone – Garchompite – is easy to obtain. You can buy it for 70,000 Pokémon Dollars from the Stone Emporium after completing Main Mission 10.

Find Goomy in Green Sector 9 while it’s raining

Goomy is the third powerful dragon-type Pokémon you can find at the start of Pokemon Legends: ZA. To catch one, you’ll need to wait for rain in Lumiose City – it only appears in rainy weather.

The weather doesn’t have a set pattern in this game, so sitting on a bench to change the time of day is how you’ll start to rain. Once it rains, Goomy is easy to find but a little difficult to capture.

Goomy appears in Green Sector 9. The easiest way to get there is to quickly travel to the Vernal Pokemon Center. Once there, enter the alley just before the neighboring hair salon and follow the path until you see an arched walkway. The walkway is in front of a battlefield and rocks may block your path. Once you pass it, take a quick look down at the bridge below and you’ll see a Goomy waiting for you. This area is also a fixed spawn location for Eevee, if you try to get every evolution of Eevee in your game.

Now, Goomy evolves into Sliggoo at level 40. However, to evolve Sliggoo into Goodra, you will need to first train it to level 50, then wait for rain in Lumiose City once again. You will only be able to evolve Sliggoo in rainy weather – try to time the level to 50 or above while it’s raining.

Unlike Dragonite and Garchomp, Goodra is a pure Dragon type and has no Mega Evolution, but its extremely high Special Defense stat makes it a great Pokémon to have. Additionally, if you have the Mega Dimension DLC, you can also find Hisuian Goodra in five-star hyperspace zones. It is similar to a traditional Goodra in many ways, but has an additional steel type, which gives it an advantage in certain battles.

Learn more: How to Redeem All Pokémon Legends: ZA Mystery Gift Code and Reward

More Pseudo-Legendary Dragon Types in Pokemon Legends: ZA

In addition to Dratini, Gible and Goomy, Pokemon Legends: ZA introduces two other pseudo-legendary dragon-type Pokémon: Bagon and Frigibax. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get them early and for these you need to purchase and complete the Mega Dimension DLC storyline.

But if you want to add them to your party, Bagon can be found in Wild Area 18, which unlocks after completing Main Mission 30. You can also catch an Alpha Salamence (Bagon’s final form) right in front of where Bagon appears, a small test that allows you to start using Salamence right away.

For Frigibax, you’ll need to collect 25,000 hyperspace investigation points, activate a special scan by speaking to Philippe in the Rust Syndicate office building, then hope to launch a five-star hyperspace zone that spawns Frigibax. This five-star zone will also likely have its entire evolutionary lineage, so you’ll be able to capture Arctibax and Baxcalibur as well.

Salamence and Baxcalibur can also mega-evolve. To obtain a Salamencite, collect 360 Mega Fragments and head to Quasartico Inc. headquarters to exchange it. And Baxcalibrite was first offered as a reward for reaching S Rank in Pokemon ZA Ranked Battles Season 4. However, at the time of writing, Ranked Battles Season 6 also offers it as a reward for reaching Rank V.

Other pseudo-legendaries in Pokemon Legends: ZA

Before I leave you, if you’ve had enough of dragon-type Pokémon but still have a spot in your party, there are two other pseudo-legendaries worth catching in Pokemon Legends: ZA; Larvitar and Beldum.

Larvitar can be caught early in the game, but this requires precise movement control. I recommend waiting until you have started main mission 16 and unlocked Roto Glide to catch Larvitar. As for Beldum, you will have to wait for main mission 35.

For Larvitar, head to the point marked in the screenshot below; it is located in Green sector 2. Once there, climb the nearest ladder, turn left and walk along the roof. Once you’re at the end with the boxes, use Roto Glide to cross the gap and you’ll find Larvitar waiting to be captured.

Capturing Beldum is much simpler, but you’ll need to complete more than half of the main storyline before you get a chance to capture one. Beldum always appears on floor B1F of Lysandre Laboratories. After unlocking the location, head to the room shown in the screenshot to find one. Beldum tends to breed in pairs.

Sometimes you will also find a Metang in the same Lysandre Labs basement. This one i is even harder to capture, so make sure you have Dusk Balls on hand and a Pokémon that can affect status conditions like sleep or paralysis. You should also try to perform a manual save right after eliminating Beldum or Metang in combat so that you can perform a soft reset and have another chance to capture him.

You are now ready to strengthen your team in Pokemon Legends: ZA with powerful dragon types and other pseudo-legendaries available. So go out there and capture these Pokémon to tackle all-new battle mechanics and new players online.