Pokémon Legends: Z-A: All Z-A Royale Promotion Matches

It's literally in the title — Z-A. So there's no way you won't be going from Zero to Hero in Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the Z-A Royale.

This guide covers every single promotion match you'll need to fight in order to reach Rank A, including the very final fight to determine who the best Trainer in Lumiose City is. We've got teams, type breakdowns, and recommendations for each match.

All Z-A Royale Promotion Matches & Pokémon Teams

No, you won't need to grind out all 26 levels of the Z-A Royale, but there are plenty of tough fights.

Lots of these are basically like Gym Leader replacements, so approach them with caution and with healthy teams. If you want to get the advantage before the fight, then use this guide to help you prepare.

We've broken down each trainer by team and any rewards they might give (not all of them do!). So let's get to it.

Rank Z - Zach

Zach is your first opponent in the Z-A Royale; he's been stuck at the bottom for a while, and you're his 100th match.

So, uh... good luck? We think? (You'll get this)

Zach's Team

This taxi driver doesn't stick to a particular type; they're all 'mons you can get very early on, all with very exploitable weaknesses

You can counter all of these with either Pokémon you caught in Wild Zone 1 or with your Starter — especially if you chose Chikorita or if your Totodile is level 10 and knows Bite.

Slowpoke can either be dealt with using your Kakuna, Spewpa, or their evolutions. Pidgey can be shocked into submission with Mareep. And Pikachu should be easy with a Bunnelby. Essentially, use Bug, Electric, and Ground-type moves.

Rank Y - Yvon

Yvon the office worker is an eager one, and she's ready to take you down fast. Well, not unless we can beat her first.

Yvon's Team

Like Zach, Yvon doesn't really have a specialty. Though this is the first time you'll probably fight a Trainer with Fairy-types. And there aren't tons of encounters for them.

So Yvon is a fashionable lady, it seems, with a penchant for pink. For the Fairy-types, bring a Honedge or a Beedrill for some Steel and Poison-type attacks.

Vivillon should be even easier to deal with — Rock-type with that Bunnelby from earlier, or take your pick from Flying, Fire, Electric, or Ice.

Rank X - Xavi

Standing in the way of your next promotion is a little kid, but Xavi is a bit of a step up from the past two trainers. A more than worthy X-rank, then. Still not good enough for us to take down.

Xavi's Team

Xavi uses four Pokémon as opposed to three, meaning you'll need a little more endurance. Fortunately, two of his 'mons share a weakness, and the other two have common weaknesses too.

Both Venipede and Roselia share a weakness to Fire, Flying, and Psychic-types, making this an easy round for Fletchinder or Pignite. If you have any Dark or Bug-type moves, those are good for Kadabra; Fighting-type is your best bet against Furfrou, though don't forget Ghost-types are immune!

Rank W - Rintaro

We're off to dinner for your next rank, and Rintaro the Waiter (hence the W) is a fun callback to a certain Gym Leader trio from Pokémon Black & White. Can you see it?

Rintaro's Team

We're back to three Pokémon here, each one with a different set of weaknesses. While your Starter will be able to deal with one of them, you'll need to be ready to counter each one.

Yep, everyone loves the elemental monkeys, right? Well, you'll want Fire or Flying for the sage, Grass or Electric for the pour, and Water, Ground, or Rock for the sear.

All three are weak to various different types — particularly Simisage, the first one — but as long as you're resistant to their movetypes, you'll be fine.

Rank V - Vinnie

Once you reach Rank W, thing will change — the fights will get tougher, and Mega Evolution comes into play. In fact, your Rank V fight — against an unranked opponent in Vinnie — will actually cause you to skip a large chunk of the Z-A Royale Rankings.

Now you have to win, right?

Vinnie's Team

Vinnie is the last trainer (until the end, at least) to not really specialise in a single type. But he makes up for it in a big jump in levels and his ace, a Mega Drampa.

Someone clearly doesn't give their Buneary enough love... Anyway, as you can see, there's a bit of a mix here, though Vinnie's team shares one weakness — Fighting-type. Hawlucha is great here, in that case, but so is Machoke or Pignite (or Emboar, if you have one)

For Mega Drampa, however, you probably want to use that Absol or your Starter's Mega Evolution simply to counter the sheer stat raise. If they're in their final evolution, that is. Feraligatr might even have a Dragon-type move at this point. Use it!

Other good types to bring are Fairy, Ground, Electric, and Rock.

Defeating Vinnie Reward

Once you defeat Vinnie, you'll get the Safeguard TM and you'll be propelled up to Rank F in the Z-A Royale.

Rank F - Canari

Streaming has really taken the Pokémon world by storm, hasn't it? First Iono, and now Canari, a gaming streamer with a short fuse.

You'll have to pass her quiz and go through a few hoops to reach her, but she's ready and waiting to take you down. If she can leave her PC for a few minutes...

Canari's Team

Canari specialises in, you guessed it, Electric-type Pokémon, though all of her partners have counters to common weaknesses. So be careful

Now, obviously you want some Ground-type moves to hand, though a couple of Canari's 'mons use grass as a counter. Not ideal! But it's something you'll have to deal with; it's probably better to stick some Ground TMs on your Team then send out your Diggersby or similar.

That being said, Excadrill is a great Pokémon to use It's part Steel-type, meaning it resists Grass and other counters Canari has loaded up.

Defeating Canari Reward

You'll jump up to Rank E in the Z-A Royale, and you'll also get Volt Switch, a physical Electric-type attack; helpful when there aren't tons of those!

Rank E - Ivor

You've already met Ivor before, but this time you'll be taking him on in the ring. Well, his Pokémon at least. This over-eager fighter has few surprises, except that all of his team hits pretty hard.

You can't challenge Ivor initially because his sister has gone missing, and she's the one that keeps tabs on his Z-A Royale matches. He can't be trusted with tech, apparently.

Ivor's Team

It's a quartet of Fighting-types, meaning you should try and avoid using Steel or Normal types here. You'll be in trouble if you do. That Mega Falinks in particular packs a punch.

Flying-type is obviously the number one choice here, and our Hawlucha got us through a bunch of these battles. Medicham poses a counter to that, of course, so a Lampent may be a good choice for some Ghost-type attacks.

Mega Falinks is pretty powerful, so if you have a good Flying-type Mega to counter with, bring it out. Florges with its Fairy-type and some Plus Moves ready is also a good shout.

Defeating Ivor Rewards

One jump up to Rank D is yours, plus a TM for Bulk Up.

Rank D - Corbeau

The head of the Rust Syndicate isn't as mean as he appears to be, and he takes a keen interest in you as you help pay off your rival's debt.

Being head of an entire group means that Corbeau is pretty tough to boot.

Corbeau's Team

Most of Corbeau's Pokémon are Poison-type, with one notable anomaly — sure, you're trying to be Gary or Giovanni, we get it.

As such, Fairy-type isn't very good here. But you have a lot of options, thankfully.

One of these isn't like the others... so let's deal with Gyarados first. Electric-type will deal with that very quickly. But what about the rest?

Psychic-type is the big one, so hopefully you have some strong Psychic-type moves on you — we had a Chandelure with Psychic, so add in that Mega Evolution and Fire-type attacks against Roserade and Scolipede, sadly, Corbeau went down pretty fast.

Defeating Corbeau Rewards

You're close to the top! Now you're at Rank C, but you'll also get the Gunk Shot TM from the boss. Nice!

Rank C - Jacinthe

Jacinthe is an odd one. She's head of the SBC and obsessed with getting you to fight her. She won't run her tournament without your participation. So you'll have to relent eventually.

You'll have to fight a handful of previous Z-A Royale challengers to get to her, but once you're at the top, you'll have a lot of fluffy foes to deal with.

Jacinthe's Team

You've got a team of five (mostly) Fairy-types to deal with, along with another new Mega Evolution with a lot of health.

Fairy has a number of resistances, so this is the time to exploit those secondary types instead.

Poison-type is only useful against two of her team, so you have a lot more options to consider. In fact, all but one of Jacinthe's team is weak to Steel-type; Aegislash is good, but better yet is a Lucario or a Excadrill that can Mega Evolve.

Mawile can be dealt with using Fire or Ground-type attacks, but the rest are straightforward if you have easy access to Steel. Otherwise, Water

Defeating Jacinthe Rewards

Only one rank to go! At Rank B is yours, and so is the TM for Play Rough, a great Fairy-type physical move.

Rank B - Grisham

The elusive Grisham has been right under your nose this whole time, as you and Emma discover for your final ranking match.

Yep, Café Nouveau is run by former members of Team Flare, and Grisham is one of the best. Expect sparks, and embers, to fire...

Grisham's Team

Except Grisham doesn't stick to Fire-types at all. His ace and one other 'mon rely on fire-y moves, but there's a variety of Dark-types in there too. That's a true evil team for you.

Oh, and we're up to six Pokémon now. That escalated fast.

That's quite a varied team, but there's a relatively common weakness you can exploit: four of Grisham's team are weak to Fairy, so bring your Mega Clefable or a Florges or even your Meganium and hammer the team out/

Another common weakness is: Fighting-type. Three of Grisham's team are weak to this, but many of his 'mons also have Ground-type counters. For Mega Charizard, if you picked Totodile or Chikorita, then Mega Evolve and fix that problem fast.

Defeating Grisham Rewards

You'll finally be at the top of the ranks! And with that A Rank, you'll also get the excellent Flare Blitz TM.

Rank A - Urbain / Taunie

So, you're already Rank A. What's left? Other than to save Lumiose City? Well, to be the best Mega Evolution Trainer there is.

Naturally, Urbain or Taunie is your opponent here. Time to prove your best friend why you should be at the very top.

Urbain / Taunie's Team

Your rival's team will depend on who you picked as your starter — as in, they'll actually use both the starters you rejected but their ace will be the one that has the type advantage over you.

That means:

• If you chose Chikorita, your rival will have a Mega Emboar last
• If you picked Tepig, then your rival will bring out Mega Feraligatr last
• For Totodile, your rival will be ready with Mega Meganium

So, as you'd expect, this is the more varied team in the main story. Still not too bad, of course!

As you can see, most of Urbain / Taunie's team are single-type, meaning this is largely a case of exploiting easy weaknesses. The tricky part comes with the Mega Evolution.

There aren't many common weaknesses here — Ground-type will deal with Manectric, Avalugg and Emboar. Dark and Fairy are great for Meowstic and that potential Mega Feraligatr. A Fire-type is a good choice for Meganium, and Poison even better if there's a Mega Meganium in there.

Basically, you want to have a good balance of types covered. You shouldn't be running 'mons with only two types of attack, and any status effects or AOE attacks will be extremely useful here.

Good luck!

Now you're at the top of the Royale, what awaits? Well, plenty of Side Quests, ;mons, and more, and you can find many of these in our Pokémon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough hub.