How to Get Giratina in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

If you’re out to catch them all in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you’ll eventually need to capture the legendary Giratina. Before you can do so, you’ll need to complete one of the later missions. Afterward, get ready for a sinister showdown.

*This guide contains spoilers for the endgame portion of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Direct spoilers will be hidden with spoiler text, but please read ahead at your own discretion.

Where to Find Giratina

After you battle Volo at the end of Mission #26: Seeking the Remaining Plates|| and encounter Giratina at the Temple of Sinnoh, the legendary Pokémon will disappear. You can’t catch it at that point, but you can later on.

First, you’ll need to head back to Jubilife Village, where you’ll immediately get sucked into a cutscene that begins Request #91: On the Trail of Giratina. The request description will mention that Giratina is somewhere in the Cobalt Coastlands.

The Ghost and Dragon-type pocket monster is lurking within Turnback Cave. This cavern is located in the northwest corner of the Cobalt Coastlands. You’ll need Sneasler’s help to climb the sheer rocky walls surrounding the entrance to Turnback Cave.

There’s no exploration to be had within Turnback Cave; it’s just a single room with Giratina inside. This will make finding the legendary Pokémon relatively simple once you’ve reached the entrance of the cave.

How to Catch Giratina

Giratina will be in its Origin Forme when you find them within Turnback Cave. This means that in addition to this Pokémon’s immense bulk granted by a high HP stat, it will also have high Attack and Special Attack. As such, be prepared for devastating blows.

Furthermore, Giratina will continuously spam Shadow Force, which is a Ghost-type move that deals physical damage. The base power of this move is 120 while Giratina is in Origin Forme (100 base power when Giratina is in Altered Forme). This move will also increase Giratina’s evasion, which will make it harder to hit.

Due to such powerful offense and defense, you’re unlikely to weaken and catch Giratina by using a single Pokémon (unless its level is much higher than 70). For this reason, you’ll want to bring defensively strong Pokémon and those that resist (or are immune) to Ghost-type moves. Bulky Steel-type or Normal-type Pokémon can be solid choices.

Be wary of sending out Psychic and Ghost-type Pokémon against Giratina, as they’ll take massive amounts of damage from Giratina’s Shadow Force.

Tips for Weakening Giratina

Due to Giratina’s high stats, you’re unlikely to knock it out by accident on the first attack—even with an untimely critical hit. As such, you’ll want to hit it hard with the first Pokémon you send out. Here are the types of moves that Giratina is weak against:

• Dragon
• Ghost
• Ice
• Dark
• Fairy

High base power moves from the above types should allow you to get Giratina’s HP into the yellow or red zone efficiently. Some great choices are Outrage (Dragon-type), Shadow Ball (Ghost-type), Ice Beam (Ice-type), Dark Pulse (Dark-type), and Moonblast (Fairy-type).

After you’ve dropped Giratina’s HP sufficiently, you’ll want to inflict it with a status condition to increase the capture rate of Poké Balls you’ll use on them. Which status condition you use doesn’t matter a great deal, as they all grant the same capture rate bonus.

However, it’s recommended to inflict Giratina with sleep or paralysis, as those don’t decrease the HP of the afflicted Pokémon. You don’t want to inflict a weakened Giratina with burn, freeze, or poison, as that can potentially knock it out, which would cause your capture attempt to fail.

What Type of Poké Ball You Should Catch Giratina With

Put simply, Ultra Balls are the best for catching Giratina. You cannot sneak up on this legendary Pokémon, so capturing during battle is your only option. Due to Ultra Balls having the highest capture success rate during battle, they’re the best choice.

However, if you’re the kind of trainer who likes to visually match Pokémon with the Poké Ball that contains them, you may want to use a type other than Ultra Balls. The type of Poké Ball that most resembles Giratina is the Gigaton Ball. Its capture rate isn’t as high as an Ultra Ball, but it’s pretty close. As such, a Gigaton Ball would be the best choice for catching Giratina if you care about aesthetics.

What the Griseous Orb Does

After you catch Giratina, you’ll also get the Griseous Orb. As the description of this item states, it’s used for changing Giratina’s form. Thankfully, this item can be used infinitely, which allows you to swap Giratina from Origin Forme to Altered Forme whenever you want.

To use the Griseous Orb, you’ll need to have Giratina in your party. Select the Griseous Orb and use it on Giratina from the party menu. Keep in mind that this can only be done while Giratina is in its Poké Ball.

The Difference Between Giratina’s Origin Forme and Altered Forme

When Giratina changes forms, its offensive and defensive stats will shift. In Origin Forme, at level 70, Giratina will have around 30 more points in their Attack and Special Attack stats (both will be approximately 240). Also in Origin Forme, at level 70, Giratina’s will have about 30 fewer points in its Defense and Special Defense stats (both will be approximately 200).

In Altered Forme, these stat boosts get inverted. At level 70, Giratina will have around 200 points in Attack and Special Attack while possessing close to 240 in Defense and Special Defense. Due to this, you’ll be able to swap Giratina to the form that best suits your team composition; if you need more offense, use Origin Forme, and if you need more defense, use Altered Forme.

Unlike the other stats, Giratina’s HP and Speed do not shift when this Pokémon changes forms.

Furthermore, the other most notable difference between forms is the base power of the move Shadow Force. In Origin Forme, this move will have 120 base power while in Altered Forme it will have 100 base power.