How to Evolve Voltorb in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

In past Pokémon games, all you needed to do to evolve Voltorb is level it up sufficiently. However, in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you’ll need to use a specific item to make your Hisuian Voltorb evolve.

What You Need to Evolve Voltorb

To make Hisuian Voltorb evolve into Hisuian Electrode, you’ll need to use a Leaf Stone on it. This is due to both Hisuian Voltorb and Hisuian Electrode being part Grass-type.

To do this, you’ll need to have a Leaf Stone in your inventory and a Voltorb in your party. When you select the Leaf Stone, you’ll be able to use it on your Voltorb, which will have a “Compatible” message next to it.

How to Get a Leaf Stone

There are multiple ways of getting Leaf Stones, however, the easiest is to buy one from Simona with Merit Points. Each Leaf Stone will cost you 1,000 Merit Points. To get Merit Points, you’ll have to return lost satchels. Each lost satchel that you return will give you somewhere between 50 to 100 Merit Points. When you have enough, head to Simona, who hangs out near the Training Grounds in Jubilife Village.

You can also potentially buy Leaf Stones from Ginter, who resides by the front door of Galaxy Hall in Jubilife Village. Ginter’s inventory will be random, so the odds of him having a Leaf Stone are low. When he does possess a Leaf Stone, he’ll have it listed as a “Leaf Imprint Rock” and will sell it to you for $5,000. To restock Ginter’s inventory, you’ll need to catch any 20 Pokémon and then return to him.

Another possible way to get a Leaf Stone is to explore space-time distortions. On occasion, you can find evolution items on the ground among the many Red, Green, and Blue Shards. Just keep in mind that the odds of this are relatively low, so you’ll need a lot of luck to find a Leaf Stone this way.

Reasons to Use Hisuian Electrode on Your Team

The main reason to use Hisuian Electrode is the same as for using regular Electrode in other Pokémon games: its excellent Speed stat. There are very few Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus that can out-speed an Electrode. Therefore, if you need to move first in battle, Electrode is one of the best choices.

Since the action order mechanic is an important new feature in this game, Electrode has a niche usage in that it can potentially hit foes more times in a row than other pocket monsters. However, for the most part, this is the only real way that Electrode can overpower opponents, as all of its stats except for its Speed are rather mediocre.

With low HP and Attack stats, and middling Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense stats, Electrode will have a hard time against many enemies. This means that you’ll often need to abuse the action order mechanic if you intend to win battles with Electrode.

Hisuian Electrode’s Typing

While gaining a new type is a novel feature, Grass-typing does not benefit Electrode. In fact, it weakens Electrode and results in many poor type matchups.

A regular electrode is pure Electric-type and therefore is only weak to Ground-type attacks. However, after gaining Grass-type, Hisuian Electrode is no longer weak to Ground-type attacks—instead being weak to Poison, Bug, Fire, and Ice-type moves.

These are three more total weaknesses that greatly increase Electrode’s vulnerability. What’s more, Electrode only gains one more type of resistance, which does not even come close to offsetting the increased vulnerability.

The Best Moves for Hisuian Electrode

Sadly, Electrode doesn’t get the best movepool either. Even its new signature move, Chloroblast, is rather lackluster. You’ll want to use moves in Agile Style as much as possible to decrease your opponent’s action order.

Electrode does not learn any moves that can directly increase its own action order besides Rest. As such, you’ll need to rely on its high base Speed stat and action order decreasing moves for action order abuse tactics.

With that said, Electrode does learn some decent STAB (same type attack bonus) moves that can let it potentially take down foes who it has a type advantage against. Here’s a list of the best moves Electrode can learn through leveling up:

• Thunder Wave at level 9 [Electric-type] (status move)
• Energy Ball at level 21 [Grass-type] (80 base power)
• Thunderbolt at level 29 [Electric-type] (80 base power)
• Thunder at level 37 [Electric-type] (100 base power)
• Chloroblast at level 47 [Grass-type] (120 base power)
• Self-Destruct at level 47 [Normal-type] (150 base power)

As for moves gained via the move tutor, here’s a breakdown of the best ones for Electrode:

• Rest [Psychic-type] (status move)
• Wild Charge [Electric-type] (85 base power)
• Giga Impact [Normal-type] (120 base power)
• Hyper Beam [Normal-type] (120 base power)

Tips for Making the Best Use of Hisuian Electrode

As mentioned before, the best way to use Electrode effectively is to utilize its Speed. Focus on using moves in Agile Style to decrease the opponent’s action order. This, combined with Electrode’s naturally high Speed stat, will let you move more often in battle.

Due to Electrode’s relative frailty, Rest is useful for keeping them in the fight longer. Thanks to the sleep status condition only partially preventing a Pokémon from moving in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Rest can be somewhat viable. Furthermore, Rest used in Agile Style will directly increase your action order.

Thunder Wave is probably Electrode’s best move, as it is guaranteed to paralyze an opponent if it hits (as long as the opponent isn’t immune to Electric-type moves). Paralyzing your foe is one of the most efficient methods of decreasing their action order. As such, Thunder Wave works great on an Electrode moveset.

A risky yet potentially powerful strategy is to use Rest in combination with Electrode’s moves that have recoil. Chloroblast, Wild Charge, and Self-Destruct will all hurt Electrode, though they can hurt opponents much more. After using one of these mighty moves, use Rest in Agile Style to recover a lot of Electrode’s HP while also increasing its action order so that you can move again sooner.

Although, if you use the above-mentioned risky tactics, you’ll want to give Electrode Attack effort values so that Wild Charge and Self-Destruct will hit harder. Just keep in mind that this will increase recoil damage as well, so giving Electrode HP effort values would also be helpful.