ZA Ranked Season 5 Adding a new Mega Stone reward

Pokemon Legends: ZA adds Mega Sceptile to its growing Mega Evolution roster on January 7th. However, the path to Mega Evolve in this Generation 3 has a catch: it is tied to the next season Pokemon Legends: ZA Rating battles so getting them without DLC can be challenging in the early days – but far from impossible.

At launch, Game Freak's latest RPG featured over 70 mega evolutions, including several dozen new ones. While plenty of existing Megas were featured, not everyone's favorite Mega Evolution was available Pokemon Legends: ZA from day one. However, some have been added post-release, and even more have been confirmed to follow. Among them was the Mega form Sceptilewith Game Freak previously stating that the Mega Stone for this Gen 3 starter will be available in one of the upcoming Seasons of Ranked Battles. That season now has a date.

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Sceptilite is coming to Pokemon Legends: ZA in Ranked Battles Season 5

The fifth season of Ranked Battles has now been officially confirmed as next Wednesday, January 7th, starting at 10:00 PM PST / 1:00 PM EST. It will run for approximately three weeks and will end on January 28th at 5:59 PM PST / 8:59 PM EST. Sceptilite, the path to Mega Evolve Sceptile, debuts in Pokemon Legends: ZA during this three week period. The item will be obtainable as a special reward for reaching S rank, which is expected to be easy. However, not everyone will be able to get Mega Sceptile right away.

Pokemon Legends: ZA Ranked Battles Season 5 Data

Your trainer looks at the pokeball in Pokemon Legends ZA (2025)

Start: January 7, 2026, at 10:00 PM PST / 1:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM CET
End: January 28, 2026, at 5:59 PM PST / 8:59 PM EST / 11:58 PM CET

How to get Sceptile in Pokemon Legends: ZA

Sceptile was added to Pokemon Legends: ZA as part of the Mega Dimension DLC that launched on December 10th. Players who do not own the $29.99 add-on cannot encounter it in regular gameplay. Even DLC owners have to make some progress with Hyperspace Missions to do so. The DLC quest can be started at the top of Hotel Z, which the game prompts players to visit from update version 2.0.0 and above.

As with previous items in Pokemon franchise, Legends: ZA allows players to trade for DLC creatures without actually owning the DLCs they come from. So the Mega Sceptile may not be completely out of reach for those on a budget, but getting it will require some luck and determination in finding a player willing to trade the Sceptile. In that case, specialized online business communities are a great way to speed up your search. For example, the r/PokemonTrades subreddit has around 10,000 weekly visitors in early 2026, while Reddit's largest gaming community has over 224,000 and has been running dedicated trading “megathreads” since October.

Another catch to consider with Sceptile is the current requirement for his Mega Stone. Sceptilite will only be available during the upcoming Season of Ranked Battles, meaning it will be locked to a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. While those start at $3.99 per month for an individual subscription, things do add. Between NSO and the DLC requirement, getting Mega Sceptile without trading will cost between $93.97 and $103.97, depending on console of choice, like the Switch 2 version Pokemon Legends: ZA is more expensive.

Based on previous seasons, reaching S rank and getting Sceptilite in season 5 ranked battles shouldn't take more than a few minutes of online play. Season 5 also rotates back to the Mega Stones as promotion rewards: Greninjite, Delphoxite, Chesnaughtite, and Baxcalibrite. This is standard practice for Game Freak at this point, and Sceptilite is expected to return to it as well Pokemon Legends: ZA in the future. However, getting it will still require participation in ranked battles, which means paying an NSO subscription.