Pokémon Legends: Z-A might be weeks away, but the Meowth might already be out of the proverbial bag judging from social media posts made near the start of the year. In March, a 4chan leaker posted a lengthy list of purported mega evolutions coming to the monster-collecting spin-off, complete with descriptions for each new version of the monster. Though The Pokémon Company has only officially unveiled three critters thus far, they’re all part of the leak list. What’s more, the real monsters match the exact interpretation posited by the leaker, down to the design and colorways.
Originally made in 4chan, an ephemeral forum that can no longer be linked, re-posts of the leaks survive on social media sites like Reddit and X. Pictures of the megas were apparently posted around the same time, but few reproductions have survived months later. Notably, the leaker posted specific descriptions of megas like Dragonite, Victrebeel, and Hawlucha that were all spot-on. For example, the leaker described Dragonite’s absurd winged head situation, Victrebeel’s weird new pouch deal, and Hawlucha’s black and gold wrestling mask nearly five months in advance. That specificity, which singles out a handful of creatures from a compendium of over 1,000 monsters, lends credence to the idea that the leak might be real.
We won’t republish the list in full here, since some of you might be hoping to keep the surprise intact for the release date. But we’ll share a few stand-out inclusions, alongside the descriptions shared by the leaker, courtesy of X account CENTRO Leaks. These include:
Mega Clefable: becomes Fairy/Flying. It has a pom-pom beret shape that starts pink and becomes white towards the top; the pom-pom is like a curly cue. It has enormous wings that stretch out behind it and to the sides, which are very simple, with a gradient from pink at the top to yellow-green at the bottom.
Mega Greninja: hangs upside down from a huge shuriken, its color becomes darker.
Mega Feraligatr: gains a giant red crocodile head extension at the base of its neck that can rise upright, then snap or swing downward to shield its actual head. It develops three red spikes on each arm and larger spikes along its back.
Mega Delphox: stands on her broom and hovers.
Mega Emboar: resembles an ancient Chinese soldier. The flames around its head are much larger and more elaborate, with a black ornamental decoration extending upward behind its head. It holds a spear entirely made of fire, pointed vertically.
Mega Chesnaught: wears a crown, gaining additionally some orange elements and shields.
Mega Chandelure: is a much fancier, two-tier chandelier. Instead of having two light holders coming out from the sides of the curly shapes, a single huge (tall) light comes out from the front of each of the 4–5 curly shapes on the top level of the chandelier. The bottom level has 8 spokes with smaller lights. The light at the top of its head has a decorative crown shape surrounding it.
Mega Zygarde: looks most like Zygarde Complete, but below the Zygarde Complete black armor surrounding the head and neck, it becomes unarmored, revealing a completely green body with white hexagon patterns. There are black and white hexagon plates on the knees.
With 26 apparent mega inclusions, it’s honestly more evolutions than I was expecting. We’ll soon know if the leaker was completely accurate when sharing these descriptions, but so far, it looks legit. Nearly every major Pokémon game in recent memory has leaked ahead of time, for one thing, and Game Freak itself has also been subject to a number of high-profile security breaches. The rest of the mega list is also a believable mix of desirable ‘mon, like fan favorite starters, alongside offbeat inclusions like Mega Fairlinks. (Congrats to whoever was holding out on a new version of Barbaracle.)
Maybe it’s a good time to boot up an older Pokémon game and try your luck at the in-game lotto? I also can’t wait to find out if Malamar might require some bizarre condition to trigger its mega, given that Malamar’s basic evolution asks players to hold their Switch upside down.