Pokemon Unite is here and includes the crazy mix of the Pocket Monsters from over the years and generations and the MOBA genre. This interesting combination works quite well, but some players wonder how to unlock Pokemon in Pokemon Unite for free.

The release of Pokemon Unite happened recently for Nintendo Switch, but it is not quite out yet for mobile devices at the time of writing this. With its full release after the beta that happened last month, players worldwide can start downloading and playing the new MOBA title on Switch.

As one of the few (but growing) MOBAs on Nintendo Switch, it is likely to become among the most popular with The Pokemon Company behind it. The unique blend of the popular competitive genre and the beloved Pokemon makes for a great combo.

More importantly, Pokemon Unite is perhaps the most welcoming MOBA title for brand new players who have never checked out the genre before. It does a great job of teaching you how to play a MOBA game with mechanics that are slightly more simple than other titles, like Arena of Valor and even Smite.

But what it does not do a great job of teaching you is how to unlock Pokemon in Pokemon Unite. You start with a couple of freebies that you can use, and that is it. Other than that, it makes it hard to figure out how to have more monsters to choose from in the game.

Some of the freebies you are given include starting Pokemon that you can select after the tutorial from a select group. But the problem with this is that you need five different Pokemon in regular unranked matches. Hence, the game rotates a selection of Pokemon that are temporarily free to everyone for cases like that.

But if you want to use a particular Pokemon permanently, you will need to figure out how to unlock it. This is also important for the ranked mode in Unite as that requires you to have at least five Pokemon in your collection permanently to be able to play and progress through it. Fortunately, that is where we come in with our how to unlock Pokemon for free guide.

At the time of writing this, only the launch Pokemon are available in the title, including 20 in total. Though there are already two more Pokemon announced for the upcoming release, 20 is it, even though we have more than 900 Pokemon to date throughout the eight generations.

The 20 Pokemon in the game are divided into five categories of fighters: the All-Rounders, Speedsters, Supporters, Defenders, and Attackers. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses, and you will want a mostly balanced mix of the five in each match you do.

You can find the full list of the 20 Pokemon in the game currently below, along with the class that they fall into.

Full List of the 20 Pokemon

Pikachu: Attacker

Charizard: All-Rounder

Snorlax: Defender

Crustle: Defender

Greninja: Attacker

Eldegoss: Supporter

Talonflame: Speedster

Lucario: All-Rounder

Venusaur: Attacker

Mr. Mime: Supporter

Slowbro: Defender

Absol: Speedster

Machamp: All-Rounder

Wigglytuff: Supporter

Alolan Ninetales: Attacker

Cramorant: Attacker

Gengar: Speedster

Garchomp: All-Rounder

Cinderace: Attacker

Zeraora: Speedster

Of this list of Pokemon, there is an interesting divide between them. It is clear that The Pokemon Company did try to balance everything out with the different typings and generations that each Pokemon comes from, but some interesting ones are missing.

For one, there is no generation two Pokemon in this bunch, which is quite bizarre. What makes it even more surprising is that the two DLC Pokemon have been announced, and there are no generation two Pokemon in that group yet.

To make matters worse, Slowbro is one of the only Defenders in the bunch, but no Slowking is offered, which would have at least given us a generation two addition. Also, there is only one mythical/legendary and Zeraora, who is limited, too, which feels strange.

But if you are interested in how to unlock Pokemon in Pokemon Unite, I’ve got you covered. In general, there are two main ways that you can unlock someone in the game. There is a free way of doing it, which is likely what you are here for, and a paid version is much quicker.

In general, many players will want to do this without spending any real-world money, preferably, but it is understandably much harder to do. The general way of unlocking a Pokemon has to do with the two types of currency you can use.

The first is the Aeos coin that you can earn frequently enough in the game. For most Pokemon, it will cost anywhere from 6000 Aeos coins to 10,000 for some of the more powerful and popular ones like Greninja and Garchomp.

It depends on the Pokemon you want, but you will need to get Aeos coins if you want to unlock them for free. Aeos coins are earned through winning matches and completing specific challenges. On the first day of launch, I was able to end the day with over 9000 coins, which was enough for all but the most popular Pokemon.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, what you can do is continue grinding matches (but you do not get many from these) or wait until the next day and complete those challenges for lots more coins. Alternatively, there is a handful of Pokemon available for free through other means.

When you finish the tutorial, you can select one free Pokemon from a small group, including Pikachu, Charizard, and others. Some Pokemon are unlocked via raising your Trainer level, including Slowbro at level two and Venusaur at level five, which are both relatively easy to reach.

And then there are limited-time challenges that will allow you to unlock a Pokemon, like the log-in event where you get Alolan Ninetales on the second day, Cinderace on the eighth day, and Greninja on day 14. There is also a special beginner’s challenge right now where on the seventh day, you can unlock Crustle if you do all of the missions.

But other than those mentioned above, you will have to purchase the Pokemon that you cannot unlock through those means. You can do that with the Aeos coins or use the paid currency to purchase a Pokemon for a few real-world dollars.

However, one Pokemon cannot be unlocked currently through either of those methods, and that is Zeraora. So far, the only mythical in the game is free to unlock and can be done so by simply checking your in-game messages when you first play.

If you play the game right now through Aug. 31, you will be able to unlock Zeraora for free. Notably, the game’s mobile versions come out in September, which is after this, but we have heard that this Zeraora event will likely happen there, too.

After this period ends, it is uncertain what will happen with Zeraora, but we would not be surprised if he becomes a paid-only character as it would be wild not to allow future players to unlock him at all. That would especially be crazy since he is one of the best Pokemon in the game currently.

Once you have finally gone about unlocking the various Pokemon that you want to use in Pokemon Unite, you are then finally able to start customizing them to your liking. There are held items that you can equip for the Pokemon that will boost their attack, HP, and so on, and you can have multiples held at once.

You can even upgrade these held items to make their abilities even better in matches, which will grant some minor stat boosts in battle that could make the difference in the end. There are also cosmetic items that you can use to customize your Pokemon.

These are special skins for the Pokemon. It looks like everyone in the game is unique to that Pokemon for now. There are swimming outfits, pirate ones, aviation, and more. How you go about unlocking these different outfit sets for the Pokemon will depend on which one.

Some are available through the paid battle pass that is only available for a particular season and requires real-world money. Others are available through direct purchase, while others will require you to rely on some RNG to get them possibly.

However, a select few are free through challenges that you can do or log into the game for enough days. We imagine that there will be even more skins on the way in the future for each Pokemon and perhaps some event-exclusive ones that will only be here for a limited time.

This brings us to the future. At this time, we know that there are three post-launch DLC Pokemon that are coming to the game very soon. However, at the time of writing this, only two of the three have been revealed. Hopefully, there are many more Pokemon beyond just them.

The first two DLC Pokemon will be Blastoise, who will finally complete the trio of Kanto starters (quartet if you include Pikachu) and Gardevoir from generation three. Blastoise is interestingly enough to be a Defender, which sounds pretty fitting given the tough shell the Water Pokemon has.

On the other hand, Gardevoir will be an Attacker, which is weird, but we will have to wait and see how this one will work in action. But since those are the only two confirmed Pokemon, we would like to give some additions that we would like to see briefly.

Thus far, Pokemon Unite has cemented itself as having a roster of Pokemon that includes both the expected favorites and some real shockers like Crustle and Cramorant, both of which would not have been first on our list. I think that this is a trend that we will continue seeing moving forward.

When it comes to Pokemon, I want to see it in the game. I think it has to start with a generation two Pokemon. There are five that immediately come to mind as likely picks: Xatu, Sudowoodo, Houndoom, Ampharos, and Marill.

I think all of these are great representations for the generation and could each fill one of the underused roles. Xatu could be a Supporter, Houndoom could be a Speedster or All-Rounder, Sudowoodo could be a fascinating Defender or Supporter, and Marill could be an Attacker or Supporter.

Beyond that, I think that some other underused categories of Pokemon, like the lack of legendaries. We need more of these as soon as possible. The same goes for starters. Strangely, generation one is the only (almost) complete starter generation in the game, with Greninja and Cinderace being the only other ones.

We need Eevee since they are now basically a starter, the rest of gen six’s trio, and the same for gen eight. If not, it would also be good to get one starter from every other generation then. I hope that the new Pokemon can frequently release for Unite to represent a decent portion of the full Pokédex.