My Big Fat Zarude Hunt Disaster
Alright, so Zarude. The cool monkey Pokémon everyone wanted a while back. Regular form was rare enough, but that Dada form with the scarf? Forget about it! Super limited event thing. Totally missed that train years ago. Figured I’d never get it legit. Big sigh.
Then rumours started popping up online. Folks whispering about methods. Real ones, not shady hacking crap. Sounded almost too good. “Go catch one yourself!” I was like, “Yeah right.” But curiosity got the better of me. Needed to see if this was actually possible for a regular player. Dusted off my old Sword game, wiped the save file clean. Felt weird starting fresh.
First things first: Getting to the point where I could actually do this hunt. That meant blasting through the main story. I just powered through, skipped most trainers, rushed the gyms, one after another. Focused only on getting that Legendary Doggo and unlocking the post-game Crown Tundra stuff. Days of grinding, man! My thumbs were sore.
Finally hit that point! Crown Tundra access? Check. Max Lair? Let’s go! Grabbed some random Pokémon online – didn’t care who, honestly. Just needed bodies for rental. Spammed those Dynamax Adventures like my life depended on it. Seriously, hours upon hours running through caves, catching random Legendaries I didn’t even need. Kept saving the game like a madman each time I entered the lair. You know how it is.
This is the dumb luck part everyone mentions. You gotta get Suicune as your first guaranteed Legendary encounter after beating Peony. Okay, fine. Restarted the stupid Dynamax Adventure selection screen maybe a hundred times? Lost count. My eyes were glazing over. Finally – the blue doggo symbol appeared! Victory! Selected Suicune’s path immediately.
Cleared Suicune? Good stuff. Now the real test begins. You immediately hop back into Dynamax Adventures. No more guaranteed anything. Pure RNG hell. You’re hunting for specific Pokémon as potential targets:
- Solgaleo
- Latios
- Zygarde
Gotta find one of these three guys again. And you gotta actually catch them. My palms were sweaty. Felt impossible. Weeks went by. Caught Solgaleo a few times. Latios maybe twice. Then? The beast. Big scary Zygarde himself. Nearly wiped out my whole team. Barely caught him. Heart was pounding!
Okay, supposedly… after catching one of those specific three… Zarude’s path has a tiny, tiny chance to unlock. Like, needle-in-a-haystack tiny. Back to resetting the adventure menu. Day after day. Nothing. Felt completely pointless. Ready to throw my Switch.
Then… one random Tuesday evening… while half-watching some trash TV… Boom. There it was. The little Zarude head symbol in the Dynamax Adventures selection menu. Couldn’t believe my eyes! Nearly dropped my controller! Selected that path SO FAST. Screwed up the first run – Zygarde appeared again and wrecked me. Panicked! Loaded my save, dove back in immediately. Second try? Fought Zarude regular form, caught it first ball! Sweet relief!
But Dada? The whole point? That’s the weird glitchy part. You gotta save AFTER catching regular Zarude. Then you force close the WHOLE game. Not sleep mode, close it completely. Relaunch Pokémon Sword. Jump BACK into Dynamax Adventures via the Crown Tundra station. Here’s the wild part:
- If your path is still showing the Zarude icon? Perfect. Run it again.
- The Pokémon at the end? Should be Dada form! With that sweet red scarf!
Could. Not. Believe. It. It worked! Ran the path again, heart in my throat. There it was! Different entry animation, scarf and all! Tossed a Master Ball – not taking chances! Gotcha! Two Zarudes, regular and Dada, legit, from one save file. Months of work paid off. Still feels unreal. Patience and stubbornness win again!
