After months of teasers and trailers, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has finally released, bringing a new, open experience to the long-running and incredibly successful franchise. With Pokemon Legends: Arceus comes tons of never-before seen Pokemon, places, and features to explore, leaving players with a lot of content to enjoy.

Though evolution through online trade is possible in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, players have figured out a way to trigger trade evolutions without relying on other gamers at all. Trade evolutions can be triggered alone by using an in-game item, which could be very useful for gamers who prefer to play offline.

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The fact that it is finally possible for players to ignore trade evolution restrictions is a big deal, as many have wanted to see changes in this area for some time now. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is full of new features, but perhaps none of them are quite as exciting as this trade evolution discovery.

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The key to acquiring the item in question is to amass Merit Points in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The item, called a Linking Cord, costs 1,000 MP to purchase. To acquire the Linking Cord, players need to head to Jubilee Village. When they arrive, they need to find the Outpost Trader, and upon speaking with the Outpost Trader, the player will be offered items to purchase - with one of them being the incredibly useful Linking Cord.

Another key change to trade evolutions deals with evolutions such as Scizor or Steelix. In the past, Pokemon like Scizor or Steelix required a trade while holding a specific item, further complicating the process of trade evolution. However, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, these previously held items now function the same as evolution stones, instantly evolving the Pokemon who receives the item. This is another huge change to a longstanding, limiting feature, and will allow players to create much more diverse team compositions.

Evolution requirements have plagued Pokemon since the franchise began, and trade evolutions are the most limiting for playthroughs. Fan-favorite Pokemon such as Gengar, Alakazam, Golem, and Machamp have all been locked behind trade evolution requirements, leaving them unobtainable for offline players or solo playthroughs. However, with the Linking Cord added into the game as well as changing trade items to function as evolution stones, Game Freak has solved the problem of trade evolutions, allowing players to create many more unique teams. The new fear among players is that Game Freak will axe the new feature in future games, but hopefully the positive response by players will ensure that the mechanic stays around permanently.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is now available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

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