How to get Zygarde Cells and all forms in Pokémon Go

The Legendary Zygarde is made its debut to Pokémon Go during the Blaze New Trails event, and players were able to encounter one via Special Research story From A to Zygarde. But the grind doesn’t stop once you’ve done the Special Research and caught your Zygarde, with plenty more to come after.

It all comes down to this Legendary Pokémon from the Gen VI entry of this series has three different possible forms it can swap between with the help of Zygarde Cells. Zygarde has a 10 percent Forme, which resembles a dog and is the frailest of the three, though it has the highest Attack stat. The 50 percent Forme looks like a snake and gives up some of its Attack for more bulk. And finally, the Complete Forme has a massive health stat to make it even bulkier. When you catch Zygarde, it should be in its 10 percent Forme during the Special Research encounter, but you need Zygarde Cells to evolve it further.

How to get Zygarde Cells in Pokémon Go

Zygarde Cells are small collectible items that are used to change the Legendary Pokémon’s form. They can be found and added to your Zygarde Cube while using Pokémon Go’s new Routes feature. 

The Routes feature allows players to create or follow a route with plenty of added bonuses as incentives, including finding Zygarde Cells. For now, this is the only known method for obtaining Zygarde Cells in Pokémon Go.

Routes are exclusive to events. You can complete them anytime, so long as there are ones in your local area. When you’re ready to engage in a Route, open up your Pokémon Go application and click on the nearby Pokémon icon in the bottom right of your screen, where it shares any nearby Pokémon, Raids, Power Spots, and available Routes. Click on the Route option, and head to the closest Route in your local area. It’s possible to create a custom route, but it does need to be approved.

When starting a Route, you must keep your Pokémon Go application up as you walk around, drawing additional Pokémon to your location. The Zygarde Cells should appear at the end of the route, which means you do need to complete multiple routes to enough Zygarde Cells to evolve it eventually. Unfortunately, you can only collect three Zygarde Cells per day.

How to change Zygarde’s form in Pokémon Go

As previously mentioned, collecting Zygarde Cells in your Zygarde Cube is the key to changing its form. Niantic hasn’t dropped the specifics yet, but we at least know its form is dependent on how many Cells are collected.

In mainline games, players also have to search for Zygarde Cells before they’re able to switch its forms. You can then use the Reassembly Unit along with the contents within the Zygarde Cube to swap between its 10 percent and 50 percent Formes.

Zygarde will only transform into its Complete Forme amid battle if it has the Power Construct ability and its HP falls below half. Since there are no abilities in Pokémon Go, it’s unclear how we’ll be able to get Zygarde in its Complete Forme. Perhaps it’ll have to be released at a later time like how Shiny variants tend to work, or maybe it comes down to hitting a certain number of Zygarde Cells. Until we know for sure, we’ll just be collecting as many Cells as we can find while exploring Routes.