Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Beginner's Tips

gamespot.com:

Pokemon Legends: Arceus shares a lot in common with a traditional Pokemon RPG, serving as a reimagining of many of the classic series' core mechanics. But it's also a radical departure in some ways, so even old Pokemon masters may find their skills don't immediately translate to this new format. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a prequel to the rest of the series built around exploring vast open spaces and capturing monsters by the boatload as you fill out the Sinnoh region's first Pokedex. Here are a few things to know before starting your adventure.

Unlike a traditional Pokemon game in which battling is your main or only path to leveling up your creatures, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is generous with experience and grants it for all sorts of things. The six Pokemon in your party will get passive experience from catching wild Pokemon even without battling, and from farming crafting materials. Simply exploring the world, catching Pokemon, and smacking trees to grab Apricorns will get you lots of experience without ever battling a single pocket monster.

Rather than evolve when hitting a certain level milestone, your Pokemon will wait for you to initiate the evolution once they're ready. A small indicator will pop up when they hit the requisite experience level, but then you'll need to go into the party menu and select «Evolve.» This will start the evolution. Your evolved Pokemon will have higher base stats so it will hit harder and defend better, and using it will help you fill out the Pokedex entry for that next stage of the evolution.

The Poke Balls in Pokemon Legends: Arceus are somewhat different, in part because the context of catching Pokemon is so different. There are no Quick Balls, for example, because those are reliant on