How to Beat Arceus

Arceus is more than the game's namesake, he's also your final challenge before completing the post-game story, and the title's most difficult boss. Before you can battle Arceus you need to complete your Pokédex (more info on that can be found in our Walkthrough). Then head to the Temple of Sinnoh and play your flute to enter the battle.

Battling Arceus

Throughout the fight Arceus switches between Blue form and Red form, changing its transition move as it does.

Blue Form

Red Form

Arceus Move Set

Arceus begins the fight in Blue form.

• The fight often begins with a teleport explosion. Listen for the "pew" sound effect, and a bit of gray fuzzing on your screen.
• You need to react immediately to dodge the explosion after Arceus teleports.
• Timing is key here, you're unlikely to outrange the explosion so you might as well stay fairly close to the boss to toss a few Balms after.

• An orb coalesces above Arceus.
• This orb releases a barrage of projectiles every couple seconds.
• Dodge as the projectiles start arcing towards you.
• There are 6 waves. You can throw a couple Balms after the 6th.

• When Arceus releases a shockwave you need to avoid two separate attacks.
• The boss releases a shockwave and calls a meteor down on your location.
• Depending on your distance from the boss, you can dodge both of these with a single roll.
• There's a fairly long delay between shockwaves, giving you time to throw a Balm before the next.
• Arceus uses 6 Shockwave/meteor combos.

As the fight continues, Arceus uses one of two transition moves depending on his color. When he reaches low health, he sometimes added another variant of his teleport move. Arceus disappears into darkness and causes cracks to appear in reality, listen for the sharp sound of breaking glass and use that to time your dodge to avoid damage when the boss reappears. This move is rare enough that you may not see it during your attempts.

Blue Transition

• Arceus generates 4 purple orbs and begins channeling a massive explosion!
• You need to throw balms to break the orbs before the channel completes.
• During the channel, Arceus periodically releases shockwaves that you need to dodge.
• Remember to hold ZR to throw further.

Red Transition

• Arceus teleports away from your location and fills the room with a giant red explosion.
• Look for the safe space circle near Arceus itself, run to it, and begin throwing Balms.
• If you don't make it to the safe space in time, you can dodge roll to iframe the explosion!
• After the transition, Arceus swaps back to blue form.

At low health, he does a "blue" version of this attack. Instead of a single Arceus with a safe space, he summons multiple clones. You need to throw Balms at the real one to end the phase. Look at the models, the real Arceus has its head bent! This move is rare enough that you may not see it during your attempts.

Battling Arceus

After the transition, Arceus is stunned. Now it's time to send one of your Pokémon to battle! Arceus has a unique style of fighting, where it can change its type. This gives it new weaknesses and resistances as the fight progresses. Its signature move Judgment changes along with Arceus, so it always tries to swap to a type that is super effective against your current Pokémon. You can take advantage of this and force Arceus into an unfavorable matchup!

• Dialga is an excellent choice here. When in Neutral form, Arceus likes using Calm Mind (making it tanky), and Hyper Beam (which Dialga can tank with ease).
• Throughout the battle, Arceus adjusts its element to try to take advantage of your Pokémon's weaknesses. For example against Dialga taking on a Ground type. You can either swap Pokémon, or ensure you have high enough Sp. Def to tank Judgment.
• This adds new weaknesses and resistances. For example, regular Arceus is weak to Fighting moves. But Ground Arceus is weak to Water, Grass, and Ice! Pick your moves accordingly, such as swapping to Ice Beam on Dialga!
• Gardevoir is another good go-to, it can use Aura Sphere on Neutral Arceus and can get enough Sp. Def to tank Steel Judgment before retaliating with Aura Sphere which remains super effective.
• Remember to use items like Max Potion and Max Revive to keep Dialga (and the rest of your team) in top fighting form.
• After Arceus is defeated, throw Balms and chip away at its health bar. After the stun, it typically changes colors and uses another transition.

After the battle, you capture Arceus (at least in Story mode). Congratulations, you've completed the postgame story! You can re-challenge the boss later for fun and a few rewards.