Pokemon Champions' Best Pokemon is Locked Behind a $70 Paywall

Pokemon Champions came out just a day ago, and while there are going to be many changes to its meta over the course of the next few months, the current favorites and best Pokemon have already been established. Mega Evolution is the only gimmick in the game at the moment, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that most of the best critters in the game are Mega Evolved forms. This is especially true considering that the format is relatively low power compared to typical VGC standards, as many items and Pokemon were cut in Pokemon Champions. However, the best Mega in the game is unfortunately locked behind a paywall.

This is not exactly new for Pokemon games. For example, a lot of the best Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet‘s competitive seasons were from past games or even DLCs, such as Calyrex Shadow Rider and Urshifu from Gen 8’s expansions. In a way, paywalling Pokemon for competitive use behind past games has silently been accepted as a practice, so it may not surprise you to know that the same goes now for Pokemon Champions. The problem is that this holds for Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which is a very different, not-for-everyone game in the series, and it’s about its exclusive Eternal Flower Floette and Mega Floette.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Biggest Loss is Pokemon Champions’ Biggest Gain

Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Pokemon Champions experiment with the battle formula differently, which bodes well for the latter’s upcoming release.

Pokemon Champions’ Best Mega Evolution is Already Clear, And You May Not Have It

Currently, there is no way to get Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Mega Floette or its base form in Pokemon Champions. This critter is not part of the recruit roster, and the only way to get it is to transfer one from Pokemon Legends: Z-A onto Pokemon Home, and then into Pokemon Champions. There are a few problems with this:

Pokemon Legends: Z-A costs $70, meaning that if you don’t already have it, you have to spend money to first buy the game, and then play through it.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s battle style is something not everyone was happy with on launch, and it became pretty divisive over time as more updates and seasons came out.
In order to get Eternal Flower Floette and its Mega form, you have to beat the entire campaign of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, then complete a few post-game missions, and then participate in the Infinite Z-A Royale until you get 20 Challenger’s Tickets. At that point, you can battle Taunie/Urbain again, and finally get Eternal Flower Floette and its Mega Stone. This can require anywhere from 35 to 60 hours, if not more, depending on the speed at which you complete everything.

GameRant Quiz

Easy (15s)Medium (10s)Hard (5s)Permadeath (5s)

This may seem like it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, as Mega Floette is strong, but not that overperforming. However, this is not exactly true. Pokemon Champions‘ Pokedex doesn’t include all new Mega Evolutions from Z-A, and those that are there didn’t truly get much out of their new abilities, as they are mostly mediocre or straight-up bad. For example, Mega Meowstic could have been a great Psychic Terrain setter with Psychic Surge, but it got Trace, making it a worse version of Mega Alakazam, which is already not great.

Why Mega Floette is OP in Pokemon Champions

Instead, Mega Floette is one of the few Megas that did receive a powerful ability. This is Fairy Aura, which has historically been the signature ability of Xerneas. For those who don’t know, Xerneas is one of the best Legendary Pokemon ever, and Fairy Aura plays a big role because it makes all Fairy-type moves deal 33% more damage. It can be a double-edged sword, as it applies to opposing Pokemon too, but most of the time it just boosts Mega Floette’s moves, making it deal incredible damage with its already high 155 base Special Attack.

So, in a low-power format where a lot of competitive items are missing in Pokemon Champions, and only one Mega Evolution instance is available per match, Mega Floette packs the best overall damage. It can one-shot a lot of meta threats, provided they are not especially bulky, and even Megas like Mega Froslass, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Golurk, and more, all get OHKOed by moves like Moonblast. Mega Floette’s signature move, Light of Ruin, can take out virtually any Pokemon in the game with its base power of 140. Yes, it comes with 90% accuracy and recoil damage as drawbacks, but the payoff can be incredible.

What follows is that Mega Floette is dominating the meta, even if it’s not seen often. Yet, it’s not commonly used precisely because it’s not easily accessible, and not everyone has had enough time to grind through Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s story to get it, and not everyone has bought the game in the first place. This makes Mega Floette a fantastic Pokemon, but one that you have to spend $70 and many hours of your time on.