Pokemon Legends: Arceus Makes Cherrim Catchable, But Adds New Game-Breaking Bug

The most recent update for Pokemon Legends: Arceus provides a much-needed fix for one of the game's worst bugs, but accidentally adds a new one. Yesterday, Pokemon Legends: Arceus released a new patch that provided fixes to several small but notable bugs, such as a glitch allowing players to catch duplicate versions of Pokemon. Another notable bug fixed by the patch involved the Pokemon Cherrim, which involved the Pokemon becoming uncatchable when it switched forms during battle. Cherrim generally starts battles in its Overcast form in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but will switch to its Sunny Form if the weather was sunny. In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, this form switch would come with a small increase in attack power, making the Pokemon a little more potent in battle. 

It's unclear how the bug worked, but the popular speculation is that Cherrim's Sunny Form accidentally had its catch rate set to 0%. Whatever the reason, Cherrim quickly became a frustrating part of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, in part because the Pokemon was relatively difficult to find and because it was the center of a research request that involved completing its Pokedex entry (which was much easier to do if you could....actually catch it.) The Pokemon Company did acknowledge the bug's existence last week after the game's release, and it patched the bug with yesterday's update. 

Unfortunately, the game also accidentally added a new bug. Players are reporting that the game will become "soft-locked" if players catch the Legendary Pokemon Cresselia without speaking to the NPC Melli first. If players catch Cresselia without speaking to Melli, the game won't allow you to complete "The Plate of Moonview Arena" mission that eventually unlocks an encounter with Giratina and several other Legendary Pokemon.  Without catching Giratina, players won't be able to access the Arceus encounter that serves as the game's conclusion. 

Because of the new Cresselia bug, we can likely expect a new patch to be released in the very near future. It's rather unfortunate that Game Freak somehow accidentally added a new bug to Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and it's possible that we'll find out about some more unexpected issues in the near future. 

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available for the Nintendo Switch now.