Pokemon Legends: ZAs competitive multiplayer scene runs into a problem with players not seeming very competitive at all, seemingly going AFK for lengths spanning entire battles. There is no clear explanation as to why some Pokemon Legends: ZA players refuse to move during four-player ranked matches, but the Mega Stones offered as rewards are the most likely motive.
Launched on October 26 for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Pokemon Legends: ZAOpening week sales topped 5.8 million copies sold, and Circana's Mat Piscatella declared it the best-selling physical game of 2025 so far. Upon release, it received a very mixed reception from the fanbase, with the player rating on OpenCritic split down the middle at 50, but the large sales figures indicate that there are probably still many gamers getting their monster fighting fix from Pokemon Legends: ZA.
New Pokemon Legends: ZA Update Fixes Mega Stone Bug
Pokemon Legends: ZA just received a new update that fixes an issue affecting Mega Stones for Greninja and Delphox, and new rewards are available.
Many Pokemon Legends: ZA's ranked match players don't actually play
However, recent reports indicate what appears to be a growing movement of players entering Pokemon Legends: ZAs multiplayer matches and either attack while standing still or do nothing at all. This phenomenon has baffled some competitive players who have encountered opponents who seemingly refuse to attack anyone. Others have found static players who only attack when a person gets too close, meaning they may have set their controllers to auto-attack and then stepped away from the game. Fans are unsure why this is happening, but the most likely explanation could be Pokemon Legends: ZAs rewards for participating in ranked battles and how to get them.
After entering Season 3 on November 27, Pokemon Legends: ZAThe ranked battle rewards include Safari Balls, Seeds of Mastery, Bottle Caps, and Nuggets, but the prize for reaching the upper ranks in each of the first three seasons has been a Mega Stone to evolve one of the original Kalos region starters, with Chesnaughtite being the current top reward. Many fans have expressed displeasure with Game Freak for withholding Mega Stones for such popular Pokemon behind the ranked battle system, and the wave of AFK players in multiplayer matches may be the primary reason behind these events.
The ranked battle system has been criticized for a number of reasons, including poor connections and lag issues, which may explain why so many players seem unmoved. But another possibility is that players take advantage of the ranked battles rules to effortlessly rank up, with some saying that it's easy to reach higher ranks even for players who come in fourth place every time, since winning isn't the only way players earn points. Matches only last three minutes and with ranked Battle Rewards included Pokemon Legends: ZA Easier to come by starting with Season 2, just showing up can be a new, if boring, strategy players use to earn rewards.
Some players are calling for the development team to take action to punish players who might be exploiting the system, as they feel they are ruining the online experience for those who actually want to feel the stress of competition. New rules for online play were added before the start of Season 3, but they target players who mess with the online battle system by using multiple Nintendo Accounts, Switch or Switch 2 consoles, or sets of save data to manipulate match results. It's not yet clear if Nintendo will take any action against AFK-rated players before Season 4 rolls around, but considering the launch date is just over a week after the planned release date for the Mega Dimension DLC, players may be more invested in the single-player aspects of the game once it rolls around.
- Released
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16 October 2025
- ESRB
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All 10+ / Fantasy violence, in-game purchase
