4 January 2026

Z-A Ranked Season 5 Adding New Mega Stone Reward

By newsgame

Pokemon Legends: Z-A is adding Mega Sceptile to its growing Mega Evolution roster on January 7. However, the way to Mega Evolve this Generation 3 mon comes with a catch: it’s tied to the next season of Pokemon Legends: Z-A Rank Battles, so obtaining it without DLC may be challenging—but far from impossible—in the early days.

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

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Proves How Popular Charizard Is With Fans

Pokemon Legends: Z-A is a Reminder Why Charizard is Always Getting All the Love

Charizard is one of the most beloved of Pokemon’s 1000+ creatures and a poll from Pokemon Legends: Z-A shows exactly why it gets so much attention.

Sceptilite Coming to Pokemon Legends: Z-A in Ranked Battles Season 5

The fifth season of Ranked Battles has now been formally confirmed as coming next Wednesday, January 7, beginning at 10pm PST / 1pm EST. It will run for approximately three weeks, concluding on January 28, at 5:59pm PST / 8:59pm EST. Sceptilite, a way to Mega Evolve Sceptile, is making its debut in Pokemon Legends: Z-A during this three-week period. The item will be obtainable as a special reward for reaching rank S, which is expected to be easy to do. However, not just everyone will be able to get Mega Sceptile immediately afterward.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Ranked Battles Season 5 Dates

Your trainer looking at a Pokeball in Pokemon Legends Z-A (2025)

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

How To Obtain Sceptile In Pokemon Legends: Z-A

Sceptile was added to Pokemon Legends: Z-A as part of the Mega Dimension DLC, which launched on December 10. Players who don’t own the $29.99 add-on cannot encounter it through regular play. Even DLC owners need to make some progress with the Hyperspace Missions to do so. The DLC quest can be started at the top of Hotel Z, which the game will urge players to visit from update version 2.0.0 and onward.

As with previous entries in the Pokemon franchise, Legends: Z-A allows players to trade for DLC creatures without actually owning the DLC they came from. Mega Sceptile may thus not be completely out of reach for people on a tight budget, but obtaining it will require some luck and dedication while looking for a player willing to trade a Sceptile. In that case, dedicated online trading communities are an excellent way to speed up one’s search. For instance, the r/PokemonTrades subreddit has approximately 10,000 weekly visitors as of early 2026, while the game’s largest Reddit community has over 224,000 of them, and has been running dedicated trade “megathreads” since October.

Another catch to consider with Sceptile is the current requirement for its Mega Stone. Sceptilite will only be available during the upcoming Ranked Battles season, meaning it will be locked behind a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. While those start at $3.99 per month for an individual subscription, things do add up. Between NSO and the DLC requirement, obtaining Mega Sceptile without trading will cost between $93.97 and $103.97, depending on one’s console of choice, as the Switch 2 version of Pokemon Legends: Z-A is more expensive.

Based on previous seasons, reaching Rank S and earning Sceptilite in Ranked Battles Season 5 should require no more than a few minutes of online play. Season 5 also rotates back prior Mega Stones as promotion rewards: Greninjite, Delphoxite, Chesnaughtite, and Baxcalibrite. This is standard practice for Game Freak at this point, with Sceptilite also being expected to return to Pokemon Legends: Z-A in the future. However, obtaining it will still require participating in Ranked Battles, meaning paying for an NSO subscription.