With Pokemon ZA moving in the way of a third person RPG, with a designed city around it, players can explore a well built world. As you begin to explore, you’ll find unique obstacles to climb, and off the beaten path ways around the map. One of the features that will make exploring a bit more interesting are map obstacles. There’s a few out there, and perhaps the most common one you will find is the rocks around the map. These things can be smashed leading to new ways to map around. Here’s how to smash rocks in Pokemon ZA.

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Here’s how to break rocks in Pokemon ZA and explore some of the cut off landmarks on the map. Image via Gamer Guides / Nintendo.

How to break rocks¶

For the most part, the rock breaking will require different moves to destroy them. Pretty much any Fighter or Steel Pokémon can break rocks very easily. These Pokémon have access to moves like:

• Rock Smash
• Iron Tail
• Brick Beak
• Rollout

Simply lock onto the rock using ZL , and then use the move against the rock to destroy it. In terms of early game suggestions, you can get the following Pokemon to assist you with breaking rocks:

• Heracross
• Bunnelby

You can get Heracross from a Mission 5 where you trade a Pikachu for a Heracross. Meanwhile, Bunnelbys are fairly common. You can catch them in Wild Zone 1 and Wild Zone 5, which are early game Wild Zones. Both of these Pokémon can use Rock Smash, making them very good Pokemon to get your hands on for early game rock smashing. Other more mid game Pokémon like Machoke can also do it. Some Pokemon like Tepig, which is a starter fire type Pokémon can use Rollout too, which also smashes rocks.

Now, in terms of the rewards, you can get XP for smashing the rocks for the Pokemon who does it. It’s only 40 here and there, but it can add up over time. In addition, smashing these rocks tend to lead to explorable areas with rewards hidden around the map. You’ll often need new exploring abilities like gliding to reach some of the rewards in these areas. So, it’s worth going to these areas and checking them out. Other times they lead to an easy to find item, like a move. Again, they are worth grabbing.

Feel free to check out our Pokemon ZA Interactive if you’re curious here to find rocks to break and explore parts of the map.