Rather than simply select Poké Ball from a menu during a battle, Pokémon Legends: Arceus lets you directly take aim and throw Poké Balls to catch 'em all. However, it's a little more complex than just using a finger like in Pokémon GO or a Joy-Con like Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.

Plenty of Switch games that involve aiming offer snazzy gyroscope / motion controls, and this game is no different. We've seen people online lamenting that gyro controls aren't available in this 3D adventure but you simply have to find the option in Settings and enable it...

How to turn on motion controls in Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Confusingly, the game doesn't make it particularly clear that it features gyro controls — and they're off by default, so if you're struggling with your Poké Ball aim it's well worth enabling the option to boost your accuracy.

It's pretty simple:

  1. When in the game press UP on the D-Pad to open up your satchel.
  2. Then use 'ZL' or 'ZR' to navigate to the Help tab on the far right. From there, scroll down to Settings.
  3. Halfway down the screen you can see Motion Sensitivity, which is set to 0 (off) by default. You can find a motion setting that suits you, with sensitivity options of 1 to 3. Experiment and find a sensitivity that suits you.

The motion controls work either with Joy-Con controllers (including in portable play or using the inbuilt gyro controls in Switch Lite) or the Pro Controller.

Now you can use motion controls for increased accuracy and make catching 'em all just a little bit easier.

This article is part of our Pokémon Legends: Arceus walkthrough and guide series. You can find every Pokémon in the game using our Complete Hisui Pokédex List And Pokémon Locations guide, or hunt for specific hard-to-catch Pokémon with our individual guides, including Every Alpha Pokémon (with Maps), Every Rare Space-Time Distortion Pokémon, Where To Find Every Unown, Where To Find The Other Starters, Where To Find The Sinnoh Starters, How To Catch Darkrai, How To Catch Shaymin, Where To Find Hisuian Zorua, Where To Find Hisuian Growlithe, Where To Find Hisuian Electrode, How To Get Sneasler, How To Get Wyrdeer, How To Get Alolan Vulpix, How To Get Kleavor, How To Catch Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus, How To Get Every Eeveelution, How To Catch The New 'Secret' Legendary, and (of course) How To Catch Arceus.

Elsewhere we've got starter guides with answers to simple questions like "How Do You Break Cracked Rocks?" and "How Long Is Pokémon Legends: Arceus?", plus tips on How To Swap Pokémon, How To Turn On Gyro Controls, or where to find specific items and make the most of your resources, including How To Increase Your Bag Size And Carry More Items and Where To Buy Every Evolution Item, Plus A Complete Price List. We also have our Ginkgo Guild Item List And Prices guide and cover How To Get Shiny Pokémon and how to access and complete various side quests and missions, such as The Sea Legend, the Eerie Apparitions In The Night Mission Guide - Maps With Every Wisp Location, and How To Defeat Volo, as well as a 'Snow-White Vulpix In The Snow' Map.

We also have a Ginkgo Guild Item List With Prices and explain How To Change Pokémon Forms, Every New Evolution Method, How To Unlock The Mystery Gift Function, in addition to a regularly updated Full List Of Mystery Gift Codes.

And finally, Where to Buy Pokémon Legends: Arceus on Nintendo Switch, if for some reason you haven't yet picked up the game!