How to Get Gallade in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Throughout the Pokémon franchise, gender differences affect the Ralts evolutionary line in a unique way. To get Gallade, which is one of Ralts’ final forms, you’ll need a specific gender of Ralts and a special item.

Which Gender You Need to Get Gallade

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, like in previous Pokémon games, you’ll only be able to get Gallade if you have a male Kirlia—which can only evolve from a male Ralts. This is due to Gallade being a male-only species.

However, the other potential final form of this family—Gardevoir—is not a female-only species. Both male and female Kirlia can evolve into Gardevoir when they reach level 30. This has resulted in some confusion among players.

In the past, since level-up evolutions happened immediately, you could potentially screw up your chances of getting a Gallade. Back then, you would have needed to evolve your male Kirlia before letting it reach level 30 (which is when it evolves). Otherwise, you would have ended up with a Gardevoir.

Due to level-up evolutions happening on command instead of automatically in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, there is much less to worry about in this regard. You can’t accidentally get any Pokémon unless you actively make the wrong decision. Regardless, remember to save early and save often!

What Item You Need to Get Gallade

To evolve your male Kirlia into a Gallade, you’ll need a Dawn Stone. First, get a Dawn Stone in your inventory and a male Kirlia in your party. When you have both, select the Dawn Stone and use it on your male Kirlia.

How to Get a Dawn Stone

The easiest way to get a Dawn Stone is to buy one from Simona in Jubilife Village. This merchant, who resides by the Training Grounds, will sell you Dawn Stones for 1,200 Merit Points each. To get Merit Points, you need to find and return lost satchels. For every lost satchel that you return, you’ll get somewhere between 50 to 100 Merit Points.

Another merchant you can buy Dawn Stones from is Ginter, who likes to hang out near the front of Galaxy Hall in Jubilife Village. Although, due to his inventory being random, you’re not guaranteed to find a Dawn Stone on him. However, when he does have one, he’ll have it listed as an “Eyelike Rock” and will charge you $5,000 for one. If you need to refresh Ginter’s inventory, you’ll need to leave town, catch any 20 Pokémon, and then return to him.

You can also complete Request #82: “Traces of a Lost Village” to get one Dawn Stone as a reward. You’ll only be able to start this request after unlocking Braviary as a mount in the Alabaster Icelands. To begin this request, you’ll have to speak with Mani, who can be found on the basement floor of Galaxy Hall. However, this request will involve quite a bit of running around, so it’s not the most efficient method of getting a Dawn Stone, despite not being difficult to complete.

Furthermore, you can potentially find Dawn Stones in space-time distortions. On occasion, they’ll appear on the ground among the many Red, Green, and Blue Shards. Though, keep in mind that they are quite rare, so this method is not the ideal way to get Dawn Stones.

Where to Find a Wild Gallade

Besides evolving a male Kirlia, you can also acquire a Gallade by catching the Alpha one in Snowpoint Temple.

Reasons to Use Gallade on Your Team

Gallade’s typing and stats make it pretty unique. Being part Fighting-type and part Psychic-type allows it to have mostly neutral type matchups. Interestingly, it inherits some characteristics from both of its types that grant it novel usage.

On top of that, Gallade has a great movepool. It can learn damage-dealing moves from 12 different types. This means that it has plenty of coverage to be a versatile offensive unit.

Gallade’s Stats

This Pokémon’s highest stat is its Attack, which is typical of many Fighting-type pocket monsters. However, its Special Defense is almost as high, which is a trait seen among many Psychic-types. These two aspects combine to give Gallade great offensive power while letting it tank a few special attacks for defensive usability.

Gallade’s next highest stat is its Speed, which, while sufficient to out-speed a decent number of foes, is rather average.

Following this are Gallade’s HP, Defense, and Special Attack stats, which are all relatively low. For this reason, you should keep Gallade away from more physically powerful opponents. Furthermore, don’t bother giving Gallade any special attacks, as it won’t ever be able to hit very hard with them.

Breakdown of Gallade’s Type Matchups

Combining Fighting-type and Psychic-type on one Pokémon results in a decent balance. These types complement each other and result in only three weaknesses. Although, it also results in only two resistances (and no immunities).

Gallade is weak to Flying, Ghost, and Fairy-type attacks. However, thanks to Gallade’s excellent Special Defense stat, it should be able to deal with most Ghost and Fairy-type moves (which are most often special attacks).

Contrarily, you’ll always need to worry about Flying-type moves, as they are almost always physical attacks—to which Gallade is very vulnerable.

The Best Moves for Gallade in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

By leveling up, you can teach Gallade four usable physical attacks: Slash (learned when it evolves), Psycho Cut (learned at level 18), Leaf Blade (learned at level 43), and Close Combat (learned at level 52). Pretty much all of these can be great choices, which means Gallade won’t need much help from the move tutor to get a viable moveset.

Furthermore, Gallade can also level up to learn some decent status moves, like Hypnosis (learned at level 18), Calm Mind (learned at level 25), and Sword Dance (learned at level 30). Out of these three, Calm Mind is arguably the best. This is due to Calm Mind buffing both the user’s offensive and defensive stats, whereas Sword Dance only buffs the offensive stats. While Sword Dance does increase your action order slightly more, it’s not enough to outweigh the usefulness of the defensive buff given by Calm Mind.

In regards to moves Gallade can learn from the move tutor, here are the best ones:

• Fire Punch [Fire-type] (75 base power)
• Thunder Punch [Electric-type] (75 base power)
• Ice Punch [Ice-type] (75 base power)
• Drain Punch [Fighting-type] (75 base power)
• Poison Jab [Poison-type] (80 base power)
• Zen Headbutt [Psychic-type] (80 base power)
• X-Scissor [Bug-type] (80 base power)
• Stone Edge [Rock-type] (100 base power)
• Giga Impact [Normal-type] (120 base power)

Tips for Giving Gallade the Best Moveset

It’s ideal to teach Gallade one status move and three damage-dealing moves. The best status move for you will most likely be Calm Mind, although Sword Dance is also quite usable. It’s worth noting that Gallade can also learn Bulk Up via the move tutor, although it’s identical in function to Calm Mind in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

In terms of damage-dealing moves, you’ll want to give Gallade some great STAB (same type attack bonus) moves. For Psychic-type moves, choose either Psycho Cut or Zen Headbutt. Psycho Cut has a higher chance to land a critical hit while Zen Headbutt can cause a foe to flinch.

As for Fighting-type moves, you’ll want to use either Close Combat or Drain Punch. Close Combat hits much harder and can potentially let Gallade one-shot opponents, which can be safer in many cases. However, if you want Gallade to have HP recovery, give it Drain Punch instead.

For Gallade’s last move slot, you should select a move that will let you counter Flying-types, as they are the biggest threat for a Gallade. As such, Stone Edge, Thunder Punch, or Ice Punch can all be viable. However, don’t forget that Gallade is unlikely to out-speed most Flying-types due to their high overall Speed stats.