While releasing captured Pokémon is rare throughout most of the main series games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes a different approach. Similar to Pokémon GO, players need to catch lots and lots of Pokémon (including multiples of the same species) to make progress in the game and free up space for more catches in their storage pasture. Much like the extremely limited — though expandable — space in their satchels, players start with what a pretty limited number of boxes, which fill up quick and can be hard to navigate when they get crowded.
This is where releasing Pokémon comes into play. Legends encourages players to set excess Pokémon free and incentivizes letting the shrinking monsters go with useful rewards. This makes releasing Pokémon both necessary and rewarding for trainers exploring the Hisui region.
To release Pokémon, trainers will need to go to either the pasture in Jubilife Village or speak to the Galaxy Team member at any of the camps. From there, players can choose to release them. While doing so is tedious early on, as each Pokémon needs to be selected and released individually (which involves a couple of menus and confirmations), after filling up four boxes, the process gets significantly easier.
After catching enough Pokémon, though, the game introduces an option to release more than one at the same time. All players need to do is press the X button and select as many Pokémon as they want. A single confirmation screen appears after asking to release, and the Pokémon are sent back into the wild, freeing up space in the boxes for players to catch more for their research.
While freeing up space can be useful for organization, that’s not the primary reason to let some Pokémon go. Pokémon Legends: Arceus encourages players to give up their Pokémon to power up those they keep. Depending on the type of Pokémon players release, they will receive Grit Dust, Grit Gravel or a Grit Pebble. These items can be used to raise another Pokémon’s Effort Levels, which increases their stats and makes them even stronger.
All in all, releasing Pokémon in the new game is just as much a part of the experience as catching or training. With space and power at a premium in Hisui, players would do well to catch extra Pokémon to fill their Pokédex, raise their Galaxy Expedition Team rank and power up their favorite creatures all at the same time.
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