Pokemon Legends: Arceus duplication glitch discovered

Steven Rondina Published 08/02/2022

Duplication glitches and cloning bugs are back in vogue in the Pokemon franchise, and a new one has been discovered in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were a buggy mess upon release and remain troublesome to this day in some regards. Their biggest issue was a duplication glitch that allowed players to clone Pokemon and items freely using exploits in the game’s menus. It seems as though these are issues Pokemon trainers can’t escape.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus has a duplication bug of its own that was recently highlighted by YouTuber PhillyBeatzU. It’s not nearly as broken or exploitable as was the case in its fellow Sinnoh-based Switch games, but it does offer players the ability to build up an assortment of tradeable shinies or grind through some of the tougher Pokedex entries.

How to use Pokemon Legends: Arceus duplication glitch

The Pokemon Legends: Arceus duplication glitch uses enclosed areas to exploit the game’s respawning system. It’s worth noting that players can’t clone Pokemon that are already in their box with this duplication glitch. They also can’t freely clone any Pokemon they want as of yet.

The first Pokemon Legends: Arceus duplication glitch only applies to Pokemon that attack out of farmable resources. This includes Pokemon jumping out of ore, falling out of trees, or breaking out of boxes. It can also be used to obtain rare drops from these resources such as evolution stones.

Here’s the method for doing it:

Disable auto-save. This method will not work with auto-save enabled.
Attack the resource that you would like to copy. See if it has the desired item or Pokemon is a part of it.
If it is, quickly run to an area of the map that requires the A button to enter such as the lake caves or Wayward Cave in Coronet Highlands.
Wait in this area for 30 minutes, not including any Pokemon battles or interactions with NPCs.
Revisit the resource that had the desired item or Pokemon. Break it again and it should have the same contents and the same Pokemon encounter.

This method exploits the respawn system for Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Encounters and drops from resources are effectively pre-loaded as soon as the player exits Jubilife Village, and they can respawn with duplicate yields if the player waits in a cave or house long enough.

Each area in Pokemon Legends: Arceus has one of these areas that “requires the A button to enter” if players have advanced far enough in the story. Such areas include houses in the Diamond and Pearl Settlements, the caves of Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, the Wayward Cave in the Coronet Highlands, and the temple in the Alabaster Icelands. It does not include areas that are enclosed but don’t require any activation to walk into, such as the Alabaster Icelands’ underground caves or the Hidden Quarry in the Coronet Highlands.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus cloning bug has many uses

The Pokemon Legends: Arceus cloning bug can be used to duplicate shiny Pokemon, but its number of uses doesn’t end there.

Players can use this method to duplicate encounters with hard-to-find Pokemon that jump out of farmable resources such as Bonsly and Cherubi, or alphas that don’t appear in the overworld. It can also be used to get rare drops from farmable resources such as evolutionary stones from leaf piles, or ore veins and Nuggets from chests.

Odds are that this bug will be patched out in the first big update for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, so interested players ought to make the most of it while they can.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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