Pokemon Legends: Arceus is set in olden times in the Pokemon world at a time when it was rare to find harmony between people and Pokemon. Set in Hisui, modern-day Sinnoh, you will join the Galaxy Expedition Team (Galaxy Team for short) as a member of the Survey Corps stationed in Jubilife Village. You will be tasked to meet every species of Pokémon from the Hisui region to complete the region’s first-ever Pokédex.
In the game, there are certain Pokemon that the player cannot catch or are hard to catch in the wild. One of the methods to catch these Pokemon is through evolution. One of these Pokemon is Basculegion, and in this guide, you will learn how to evolve Basculin into a Basculegion!
Basculin into Basculegion
Basculegion is a Water and Ghost type Big Fish Pokemon that has a large and green body that looks like a fish, red spots and accents if it is a male Basculegion or pale blue spots and accents if it is a female Basculegion, a dark gray line on its spine, a pair of white fins, a dorsal fin with three spikes, a ventral fin with two spikes, a jagged mouth with sharp teeth, a pair of eyes that has a similar color to its spots and accents, and barbels on its face that looks like smoke.
According to its Pokedex entry in the game, Basculegion covers itself in the souls of Comrades that have died before accomplishing their goals of journeying upstream. Additionally, it is believed that no other species throughout all of the Hisui region’s rivers is Basculegion’s equal.
Basculegion actually cannot be found anywhere in the wild. The player will obtain a Basculegion early on in the game, but this Basculegion can only be used as a rideable Pokemon and cannot be used in battle.
The only way to catch a Basculegion is through evolution. To do that, the player must evolve a Basculin. First, the player should know where to find a Basculin.
Basculin
The player also can find a Basculin in the waters of the Cobalt Coastlands (in Tranquility Cove, north of Islespy Shore, and northeast of Firespit Island), the Coronet Highlands (in Fabled Spring), and the Alabaster Icelands (in Heart’s Crag, west of the Pearl Settlement, north of Icepeak Camp, and Lake Acuity) and they can be found in these locations at all times of the day and in every weather condition. Aside from that, Basculin can also be found in Massive Mass Outbreaks in the Cobalt Coastlands.
If you plan on distracting it with food before catching it, it is worth mentioning that Basculin’s preferred foods are Hearty Grains and Plump Beans.
Suppose you plan on battling a Basculin first before catching it. In that case, it is worth noting that Basculin is a Water type Pokemon which means it has a weakness to Electric-type and Grass-type moves (super effective) and resistance to Fire-type, Ice-type, Steel-type, and Water-type moves (not very effective).
Recoil Damage
Now that the player has caught a Basculin, all that is needed to evolve a Basculin into Basculegion is for the player’s Basculin to receive a total of at least 300 recoil damage.
The player can perform moves in a battle that will result in the player’s Basculin receiving recoil damage like Double Edge or Wave Crash. The recoil damage can be accumulated through battling different Pokemon, and it is not required that all 300 recoil damage be accumulated in just one battle.
However, it is important to mention that the player’s Basculin must not faint or be defeated when attempting to accumulate 300 recoil damage because, if that happens, the damage counter will be reset. So, it is important always to heal and replenish the HP of the player’s Basculin.
As previously mentioned, the player’s Basculin can perform Double Edge of Wave Crash in battle so that the player’s Basculin will receive recoil damage. The better move of the two, however, is Wave Crash, as Basculin will be able to learn it when Basculin reaches Level 34 and master it, meaning it can perform it in either Strong Style or Agile Style when it reaches Level 45 (compared to Double Edge which Basculin will learn when it reaches Level 43 and masters it when it reaches Level 54).
Wave Crash is a Water type physical move where the Pokemon using the move, will cover itself in water and slam into the opposing Pokemon with its whole body to deal damage. This move will also damage the user (recoil damage) and raise the user’s action speed.
If you have caught a low-level Basculin and it does not know or has not mastered the Wave Crash attack yet, the player can level up the Basculin by battling against Fire-type, Ground-type, and Rock-type Pokemon, which are weak against Water-type moves. The kind of Fire-type, Ground-type, and Rock-type Pokemon to battle against depends on the level of the player’s Basculin, but it is worth mentioning that there are a lot of Fire-type Pokemon in the Cobalt Coastlands, specifically in Firespit Island in the northeastern end of the map (and a few in Veilstone Cape near the middle of the map) that the player can encounter. The Pokemon are the following: Hisuian Growlithe, Vulpix, Ninetails, Magby, Magmar, and Magmortar.
Once the player’s Basculin has learned and/or mastered the Wave Crash move, it is now time to use it against Pokemon to accumulate at least 300 recoil damage. The player can perform the Wave Crash move, which is a Water-type move, against Fire type, Ground type, and Rock-type Pokemon as, again, Water-type moves are super effective against these types of Pokemon. The player can also battle the Pokemon mentioned above to fulfill this requirement.
Another thing worth noting is that the player can also use the Wave Crash attack in either Strong Style or Agile Style, which can incur more recoil damage than the regular Wave Crash attack.
Suppose the player’s Basculin runs out of PP for the Wave Crash attack. In that case, the player can just use a Hopo Berry, Leppa Berry, Max Elixir, and Max Ether on the Pokemon to restore its PP using items, or the player can rest in any of the Base Camps, which will restore the player’s Pokemon’s HP and PP.
Alternatively, there is a trick to restore a Pokemon’s PP without using items or resting in the Base Camp. To do that, this is what the player must do:
- Press the up-directional button to open the player’s Satchel.
- Next, select the Pokemon with the move that has used up all of its PP, then select ‘Change moves’ on the prompt.
- After that, move the selection from the ‘moves to add to the Pokemon’s current move that has run out of PP, then press the Y button to reorder the moves.
- Next, select the move that has run out of PP, exchange it for any move from the Pokemon’s unequipped moves, press the X button to confirm the change, then confirm the change again on the prompt. After that, you will see that the move that is now in the previous move’s slot now has no PP.
- Then, select the Pokemon again and select ‘Change moves’ again on the prompt.
- Next, select the move that was previously out of PP from the Pokemon’s unequipped moves, and exchange it for any move from the Pokemon’s current moves except for the move on the slot that has no PP (the slot where the move was originally on), press the X button to confirm the change, then confirm the change again on the prompt.
Upon returning to the game, you will see that the move that previously had no PP now has PP and is on a different move slot. It is like sacrificing a move slot to fill up a move’s PP. If that is still confusing for you, we can use Basculin’s Wave Crash attack as an example.
If Basculin’s Wave Crash has run out of PP, simply exchange it for a different move from Basculin’s unequipped moves, like Bite. Then, if you check Basculin’s moves, you will see that Bite has no PP. After that, exchange the Wave Crash attack from Basculin’s unequipped moves with any of the moves on Basculin’s moveset except for Bite, which has no PP, like Crunch, for example.
Then, if you check Basculin’s moves again, you will see that the Wave Crash attack now has PP. Once the move has run out of PP again, the player can repeat this method by exchanging the move out of the Pokemon’s moveset again, then exchanging it back but in a different move slot.
Obviously, the player can only use this method three times, as Pokemon only has four move slots before all the move slots have run out of PP. Once that happens, the player has no choice but to use the PP recovery items mentioned above or rest in any of the Base Camps.
Finally, Basculegion!
After catching a Basculin and accumulating at least 300 recoil damage, the player can now evolve a Basculin into a Basculegion!
To do that, this is what the player must do:
- If it is not already there, put the player’s Basculin in the Player’s party by talking to the Galaxy Member near the tent on any of the Base Camps and selecting “I want to see my Pokemon” on the prompt or heading to the Pastures in the eastern part of Jubilife Village.
- Then, return to the game and press the up-directional button to open the player’s Satchel.
- Select the player’s Basculin, which has a glowing Poke Ball beside its name, indicating that the Pokemon is ready to evolve. Select Evolve on the prompt, confirm on the next prompt to evolve Basculin, then, just like that, Basculin will evolve into a Basculegion!
Now that the player has a Basculegion, the player can now try to use the Basculegion to complete other requests, complete missions, or complete Arceus’ task for the player, which is to catch ‘em all!
