A non-exhaustive list in no particularly sane order of shit nobody told me in Pokemon Arceus that would have been really fucking cool to know.
1. Release your unwanted pokemon. Don’t sit on those 15 starlys that you caught for research. They give you items when you release them. Not quite as morbid sounding as the infamous “candies” from Pokemon Go, but I’m not going to ask where all this grit comes from.
2. Go collect those lost satchels. Not only are you recovering actual people’s items for you (thank you random internet strangers!) but that’s how you get merit points… something I wish that lady at the cart could have told me when I was trying to figure out wtf she was all about.
3. Pay attention to the shopkeepers’ side quests. That’s how their inventory gets better.
4. Remember to stay on top of the farmer and his crops. It is absolutely worth the trouble to get him to grow your materials for you.
5. Check the board in the professor’s office once in awhile. You get no indication there’s new quests there unless you are already in the building for some reason.
6. You can get eevee right at the beginning of the game if you go left out of the first base camp and hang out in that field. The moss stone to get a leafeon is in the south of the first area so you can get your first eevee evolution early on. I’ve seen a lot of people say the spawn rate here is bad but I see them all the time so YMMV.
7. You cannot swim. The game doesn’t try to stop you, but you will die and it will suck.
8. You take fall damage. But not as much as you think So yeet yourself off that cliff. Really, what could happen?
9. You aren’t getting out of crafting in this game. Sorry.
10. We finally have a game where status effect moves are worth having! When you’re trying to catch that alpha and it has a sliver of health and it still won’t get in the fucking pokeball… a solid paralyze or drowsy just might make the difference.
11. Oh, btw, if you’re brand new at this… don’t get too excited when you find that red eyed demon rapidash in the field off to the left of the first base camp. If you get too close he will murder you and he won’t even feel bad about it. That’s an alpha. They are bonkers strong. I don’t know why none of your new coworkers thought to mention that.
12. You have to turn in your research notes. This isn’t something that I missed doing but my husband was wandering around for a loooong time before he realized that’s why he wasn’t making any progress.
13. Some of the sidequests are really vague about what they want from you. Just google it. “I need a pokemon with three leaves on my head”. Bitch, I have so many pokemon with so many leaves, you are going to have to be more specific than that!
14. Check out your map. That’s where you can track your missions and requests. Took me forever to find it.
15. That deer is going to get you killed so so often. Controlling him is like drunk driving a pogo stick that has a turbo button where the dismount button should be.