Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the latest installment into the franchise and has brought a Breath of the Wild-esque open-world environment and exploration to Pokemon. Besides that, there are other important changes made to the Pokemon series, such as the addition of missions and "requests."
One of the early Pokemon Legends: Arceus requests titled "The Mysterious Will o' the Wisp," is a side quest where players are helping a girl named Paira who is freaked out by what she saw while walking in the woods at night. According to her, she saw a ball of fire floating in the air and thinks it might be some sort of ghost. But unfortunately, people do not believe her story, especially her little brother.
Unbeknownst to her, this is only a Chimchar, but this still offers players an excellent chance to capture one of the many beloved starter Pokemon in the game. So for fans wanting to help this poor woman prove to her brother and the rest of the town that she isn't crazy, here is how to complete Request 20 in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
Updated on June 14, 2022, by Kirkland Fortner: Once the player has located "the mysterious Will-o-wisp", it's time to capture it. And, while attacking it to weaken it will assist in the capture, the player runs the risk of knocking the creature out and having to start over. A good way to avoid this is to inflict the Pokemon with a status condition that makes it easier to capture. So, we're adding a section to this guide to assist in that approach.
The Mysterious Will o' the Wisp Request Guide
The Chimchar can be found in the Obsidian Fieldlands at night. Gamers can either catch other Pokemon to pass the time until that happens or sleep in one of the tents in the campground to skip to nighttime. The closest campground to Chimchar is the Heights Camp, which is towards the center of the Fieldlands.
Once at the Heights Camp at night, gamers will need to traverse across the mountains behind the camp by using a mount like Wyrdeer to jump over the incline. After passing a couple of different Pokemon along the way, trainers should notice a small tree alone on a small hill that can be investigated. After investigating the tree, players will initiate a battle with the Chimchar.
Chimchar Fight
Chimchar is a fire-type Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus and in this battle, it will be at level 12. It is weak to Ground, Rock, and Water-type Pokemon while being more effective against Bug, Steel, Grass, Ice, and Fairy-type Pokemon.
Chimchar knows this level's moves such as Swift, Tackle, and Ember. The important thing is to bring a good Pokemon that can counter these moves while not being too strong and beating Chimchar quickly. Once it is at a low enough health, throw the Poke Ball until it is caught.
Inflicting Status Conditions
All Status Conditions increase the chances of a wild Pokemon being caught, regardless of its current HP. However, not all of them are the most useful for catching purposes.
The best Status Conditions to inflict when trying to catch a Pokemon are Paralysis and Drowsy. These 2 share the same effect, they both cause the inflicted to occasionally miss a turn. This is good for 2 main reasons.
- It increases survivability on the user's end. If the wild Pokemon in question is genuinely strong, having it lose a few turns means it'll have a harder time getting KO's.
- It also increases survivability on the *wild* Pokemon's end if they have a recoil move. Recoil moves damage the user when selected, so the fewer chances the wild Pokemon gets to use them, the better, as it'll take longer for it to KO itself.
Drowsy in particular is fantastic when the current Weather is Snow, as it'll have a higher chance of making the opponent lose their turn.
The least helpful Status Conditions for catching are Poisoned, Frostbite, Burn, and Confusion. All of these statuses share the same big problem: residual damage. While they do offer the increased catching odds from the other Status Conditions, they need to be used with caution as the damage from them will KO the wild Pokemon if not used carefully. They aren't useless, they just need to be handled with care.
Of all of these statuses, Frostbite is the most difficult to use, as it doesn't have an equivalent to moves like Will-O-Wisp, Poison Gas, or Confuse Ray (a move that just gives the target a Status Condition and does nothing else). The best way to use Frostbite is to learn a very weak move that has a chance of inflicting it (like Powder Snow), and use it in the Snow Weather specifically, as the move will have higher odds of Frostbite being given to the target.
It should be noted that certain types are immune to specific Status Conditions no matter what. Fire-types cannot get a Burn, Ice-types cannot get Frostbite, Poison-types and Steel-types cannot be Poisoned and Grass-types are immune to Sleep Powder (a common Drowsy inducing move). For this guide specifically, Burn should not be considered for Chimchar, as it is a Fire-type, so it's impossible to Burn it.
Regardless of the method used to capture the Pokemon, once it's done simply return to Paira at Jubilife Village and show her the Chimchar to ease her mind and finish the quest. The additional reward for completing this request is two pieces of Exp. Candy S.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available on Switch.