What can you do as a free member?

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and unlock all our premium features and tools to enhance your gaming experience.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save articles to your watchlist and get notified when they're updated with new information.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save your favorite games for quick access later, synced across all your devices.

Member benefits illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you'll receive instant notifications when someone replies to your posts.

Comment rating feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can make use of convenient features in the comments section, such as rating and sorting comments.

Premium archive feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can access Premium articles that are exclusively available to members.

Site Interface

Guest
Free Member
Article Watchlist
Game Bookmarks
Cross-device Sync
Light/Dark Theme Toggle
User Profiles
Direct Feedback
Comment Rating

Game Tools

Guest
Free Member
Interactive Map Access
Interactive Map Pins
Interactive Map Comments
Interactive Map Pins Cross-Device
Check List
Event Choice Checker
Deck Builder Cross-Device
Message Board Notification
Message Board Cross-Device
Build Planner
Stat Calculator
Diagnostic Tool
Weapon/Armor Wishlist

Want more information?Learn more

Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Are Abilities in the Game?

Add to Watchlist

✬ Pokemon HOME Dex Completion Shiny Rewards:
Meloetta | Manaphy | Enamorus | Keldeo | Meltan
☆ Check out all PLA Pokemon Transferrable to BDSP!
★ Finish the story → Story Walkthrough
┣ Complete the Dex → Pokemon Locations / Trading Board
┗ Research Tasks → Best Tasks / Farm Research Points

Legends Arceus Are Abilities in the Game Banner .png
There are no Abilities in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, with only Regigigas as an exception. Read on to learn more about Abilities and other changes to the game's mechanics!

Are there Abilities in the Game?

Pokemon Do Not Have Abilities in this Game

From Generation III onward, all Pokemon have had passive Abilities which grant them special powers or status effects in battle. In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, however, Pokemon do not have Abilities, so in a way it can be said that the gap in strength among all Pokemon is smaller than it has ever been.

Only Regigigas Maintains Its Ability

Regigigas Slow to Start Ability
Regigigas proves to be the exception in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, as it is the only Pokemon to retain its Slow Start Ability from previous games. The text Regigigas is slow to get going! can be seen when it enters battle, which indicates that its Speed and Attack will be halved for 5 turns. This was likely done to balance its stats, which make it one of the strongest Pokemon in the game.

Regigigas - How to Get and Location, Evolution, and Research Tasks

Cherrim Can Still Transform into Its Sunshine Form

PLA Cherrim Sunshine Form

From Generation V onward, transforming Cherrim into its Sunshine Form was tied to its Flower Gift Ability. If the Ability was suppressed, it would revert back to its Overcast Form. In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Cherrim needs only the weather condition to be sunny in order to transform.

Cherrim - How to Get and Location, Evolution, and Research Tasks

Changes Due to Lack of Abilities

Moves are Easier to Hit

Levitate Ability.jpeg
In previous Pokemon games, there have been lots of different Abilities that decrease the effectiveness of Moves or completely negate them if they are of a certain Type. In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the lack of Abilities means that Moves are much easier to land with their full strength. Among past Abilities, the Levitate Ability rendered Ground-Type Moves useless, so in a sense, Ground-Type Moves are now especially powerful.

No Need to Account for Opponent's Ability

In previous Pokemon games, since there were many Pokemon with different Abilities (and even two of the same Pokemon having different Abilities), it was necessary to pay close attention in battle to what Ability the Pokemon had. Furthermore, when you wanted to catch a particular Pokemon, which Ability it possessed was an additional factor look out for in seeking the ideal Pokemon, but it can now be said that that is no longer necessary.

Pokemon Legends Arceus News

PLA - News and Game Info Banner.png

News and Game Info

Pokemon HOME News

All Latest News

All News Categories

All Other News

Game Features
All Gameplay Features and Everything We Know New Pokemon and Regional Variants
Starter Pokemon Game Genre
Battle System Connections to Sinnoh Remakes
Mega Evolutions National Dex
Exp. Share Gyms

Author

    Please participate in our site
    improvement survey
    12/2025
    Would you assist in
    improving Game8's site?
    ×
    This survey will take about 1 minute.
    Your answers will help us to improve our website.
    We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
    The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
    Begin Survey

    All rights reserved

    Guide Index