There’s a free Slowpoke for Japanese Pokemon Z-A players – if they impersonate it

Are you willing to embarrass yourself to get a Pokémon for Legends: Z-A? What if I said it was a special Slowpoke? According to a Japanese outlet, Game With, those wanting to get the pink critter will have to not only go to a Pokémon Center store, but also do their best Slowpoke impression to get it.

So, what’s so special about this Slowpoke? It comes in a fancy Poké Ball. Yes, not only is it a totally normal Slowpoke at level five, with Water Pulse, Safeguard, Meditate, and Growl. It’s a fairly standard Pokémon, and its stats are completely random, so nothing special there.

I think this is hilarious and fits with Slowpoke almost perfectly. The Pokémon isn’t just known for being totally unremarkable, but in early games was so useless in the wild that it was actively hunted for its tail, an item you’d carry with you.

Slowpoke Mystery Gift might be the best thing from Z-A

It’s also especially funny that Game With, a site that has built an impressive repository of guides around the game for Japanese players, has to write this guide where the answer is “Go pretend to be Slowpoke to a stranger.”

Pokémon can be so much fun, but it’s a shame that I found Z-A to be a total letdown. Something about how cheap it feels, despite coming from Game Freak and a multibillion-dollar franchise, really soured me on the whole thing.

All said, I have raised my own Slowpoke into a Slowbro, and utterly crushed the game with it. There’s something about Pokémon where, at some point, you pass a hump, and your Pokémon become these unstoppable killing machines. Slowbro was just happy to be there, in these legal animal fights.

As with anything to do with trading Pokémon in Z-A at the moment, it’s a hassle. This particular mystery gift isn’t available for previous games, obviously. There’s currently no way to trade it out to the most recent mainline games, Scarlett and Violet. Any Pokémon sent to Z-A cannot come back until a future update, either, even to the subscription storage service, Pokémon Home.

How to get Mystery Gift in Pokémon Z-A

Right now, for Western players, there’s a free Ralts in the Mystery Gift that doesn’t require you to do an impression. It also comes with Gardevoirnite to let you Mega Evolve it. To get it, follow these quick steps:

• Head to the Link Play menu
• To the side, there are different options. We want to choose Mystery Gift
• Choose obtain from the web and you’ll get your free Ralts, which is level 5

This is available until February 28, 2026.