Get ready for an adventure that pushed the boundaries of the Pokémon world, introducing a captivating array of New Pokémon, Alolan Forms & Ultra Beasts that dramatically expanded the Alola Pokédex. When Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon arrived, they didn't just offer a rehash of the original Alolan journey; they plunged players into an even deeper, more complex narrative, reshaping our understanding of this vibrant region and the mysterious entities that inhabit it.
This guide will navigate you through every crucial detail of these extraordinary additions, from the expanded Alolan roster and fresh regional variants to the enigmatic, extradimensional creatures known as Ultra Beasts. Prepare to uncover their origins, understand their unique powers, and learn where to encounter them in your own quest to become the Alola Champion.
At a Glance: What You'll Discover About Alola's Unique Inhabitants
- Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon isn't just a re-release; it features an entirely new storyline centered on Necrozma and Ultra Beasts, an expanded Alola Pokédex of over 400 Pokémon, and fresh areas to explore.
- Ultra Beasts (UBs) are 11 extradimensional Pokémon from Ultra Space, characterized by erratic base stats (often prime numbers), the unique "Beast Boost" ability, and a distinct sound frequency in their cries.
- Catching UBs requires special "Beast Balls," developed by the Aether Foundation, which are highly effective against them but largely ineffective against other Pokémon.
- New UBs in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon include Poipole, Naganadel, Stakataka, and Blacephalon, adding to the seven introduced in Sun & Moon.
- Thematic but distinct: Pokémon like Cosmog, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma are closely related to Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space, but are not considered Ultra Beasts in the core games.
- Expanded Gameplay: Enjoy new features like Mantine Surf, an improved Rotom Dex with useful perks, and the Alola Photo Club to immortalize your adventures.
Alola's Grand Expansion: More Than Just New Faces
The moment you stepped back into the Alola region with Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, it was clear this wasn't just a familiar island paradise. Game Freak delivered an experience brimming with surprises, anchored by an enriched narrative that placed the mysterious Necrozma and the Ultra Beasts front and center. The Alola Pokédex itself swelled to over 400 Pokémon, meaning more species to discover, battle, and befriend across its four main islands.
Beyond the expanded roster, the games introduced exciting new areas, inviting you to carve waves at a surfer beach or immerse yourself in the charming chaos of a Pikachu valley. The beloved Island Challenge returned, but with refreshed trials – including a brand-new one led by Mina, ensuring even seasoned trainers found fresh challenges. Even your trusted companion, the Rotom Dex, received a significant upgrade. It now offers invaluable features like faster egg hatching, increased EXP gain, and the ability to use Z-Moves multiple times per battle, fundamentally changing the flow of combat and progression. For exploration and fun, "Mantine Surf" offered a thrilling new way to travel between islands and doubled as an engaging mini-game, while the "Alola Photo Club" let you capture and share personalized snapshots with your favorite Pokémon. It was an overhaul that deepened the sense of discovery and connection with the region.
The Enigma of Ultra Beasts: Creatures from Beyond
Imagine a world where the fabric of reality is thin, and through shimmering tears, strange and powerful entities emerge. That's the core concept behind Ultra Beasts (UBs). These aren't your typical Pokémon; they are a group of 11 extradimensional beings, originating from a realm known as Ultra Space. Their appearances in Alola are always unexpected, signaled by the dramatic opening of Ultra Wormholes, making their arrival a source of both wonder and alarm.
Their Peculiar Power: Beast Boost
Ultra Beasts possess a unique physiology that draws them to individuals brimming with Z-Power energy. They absorb this vital aura, which grants them their signature Ability: Beast Boost. This isn't just any power-up; it's a specialized boost that significantly raises their highest stat upon knocking out an opponent, making them incredibly dangerous in succession battles. Interestingly, unlike most Pokémon, no Ultra Beasts have Hidden Abilities, further cementing their distinct nature.
Another hallmark of UBs lies in their base stats. They are notoriously erratic and unbalanced, often featuring prime numbers, which leads to wildly varied performance across different stats. In the wild, you might even notice a red aura surrounding them, indicating a temporary boost to one of their stats, making their capture even more challenging. Adding to their mystique, all Ultra Beasts, along with several thematically related Pokémon (Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma), share a unique, consistent sound frequency in their cries, typically lasting around 1.25 seconds. It's a subtle clue to their shared, otherworldly origins.
The "Why" Behind Their Appearance
Their unpredictable nature isn't just for show. Ultra Beasts are combative by nature, likely a response to the unfamiliarity and potential threat of our dimension. Their sudden arrivals through Ultra Wormholes indicate a fragile connection between their world and ours, often triggered by significant energy fluctuations or perhaps even powerful emotions. The story of Alola, particularly in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, delves deep into the consequences of these breaches, forcing humanity and Pokémon alike to confront these powerful interlopers.
Catching the Uncatchable: The Beast Ball Advantage
Given their extradimensional origins, Ultra Beasts are notoriously difficult to capture with standard Poké Balls. These conventional devices have a mere ~0.1× catch rate modifier against UBs, making attempts feel almost futile. Recognizing this unique challenge, Faba of the Aether Foundation spearheaded the development of a specialized tool: the Beast Ball. This ingenious device boasts an impressive 5× catch rate modifier specifically for Ultra Beasts, dramatically increasing your chances. However, there's a trade-off: Beast Balls are equally ineffective against other Pokémon, also possessing a ~0.1× modifier, making them highly specialized tools for a very specific job.
Meet the Ultra Beasts: A Roster of the Strange and Powerful
The Ultra Beasts present a rogue's gallery of bizarre and fascinating designs, each with its own unique characteristics and lore. Their forms were intentionally crafted by Ken Sugimori, under Shigeru Ohmori's guidance, to incorporate contradictory elements that set them apart from traditional Pokémon designs.
Original Seven from Sun & Moon
These were the first Ultra Beasts to cross into the Alola region, leaving a lasting impact on its history and ecology.
- Nihilego (UB-01 Symbiont): This rock/poison type resembles a jellyfish, but its beauty hides a sinister nature. Nihilego is parasitic, injecting a neurotoxin into its host that awakens and boosts their capabilities, often leading to extreme excitement, enhanced aggression, and a complete lack of inhibition. Its influence can be devastating, as Lusamine's story tragically demonstrates.
- Buzzwole (UB-02 Absorption): A towering bug/fighting type, Buzzwole is a creature of raw, concentrated power. It absorbs energy from its surroundings, causing its steel-hard muscles to swell, granting it immense Attack and Defense. It famously strikes various poses, as if flexing for an invisible audience, adding a touch of vanity to its brute strength.
- Pheromosa (UB-02 Beauty): The graceful counterpart to Buzzwole, this bug/fighting type is blindingly fast, capable of exceeding 120 mph instantly. Pheromosa's elegance is a weapon in itself; it possesses beauty and releases powerful pheromones that can disorient opponents and remove their will to fight, making it incredibly challenging to face.
- Xurkitree (UB-03 Lighting): This electric type appears to be composed entirely of electrical wiring. Xurkitree can generate immense amounts of electricity, up to a million volts, and absorbs ground electricity when its own power runs low. Its movements are described as resembling a living power grid, making it a terrifying force of nature.
- Celesteela (UB-04 Blaster): A steel/flying type that evokes both botanical and mechanical imagery. Celesteela stores flammable gas within its long, arm-like appendages, using it for propulsion to fly, even into space. It's also described as plant-like, capable of absorbing nutrients from the soil, making it a truly unique fusion of concepts.
- Kartana (UB-04 Blade): This grass/steel type is remarkably thin and razor-sharp, with edges described as being like blades. Kartana can cut opponents with a single strike and evades attacks by dancing with surprising agility. Despite its offensive prowess, it's highly vulnerable to fire and moisture, a stark contrast to its cutting power.
- Guzzlord (UB-05 Glutton): A dark/dragon type, Guzzlord is pure, unadulterated appetite. It possesses a limitless hunger, devouring both organic and inorganic matter with its two massive tongues. Bizarrely, it's theorized to convert all food into energy, leaving no waste behind – a creature that exists solely to consume.
New Arrivals in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon
With the intensified Ultra Wormhole activity in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, new Ultra Beasts made their debut, adding more layers to the mystery.
- Poipole: This poison type is unique among UBs as it's the only one that can evolve. In its own world, it's chosen as a first partner Pokémon. Poipole cackles playfully while spraying poison from the needles on its head, an oddly endearing yet dangerous creature.
- Naganadel: The evolution of Poipole, Naganadel is a poison/dragon type that stores hundreds of liters of poisonous liquid within its body. It can fire a glowing, venomous, and adhesive liquid from its abdomen, making it a formidable opponent with potent offensive capabilities.
- Stakataka: This rock/steel type is an Ultra Beast of immense physical presence. It appears from Ultra Wormholes, resembling a moving stone wall constructed from many stacked life-forms. Its segmented body and multiple eyes give it an alien, imposing appearance.
- Blacephalon: A fire/ghost type, Blacephalon is a truly unsettling Ultra Beast. It slithers towards people, only to explode its head without warning, using the element of surprise to rob its victims of their vitality. This chilling method makes it one of the more psychologically disturbing UBs.
Tracing Their Origins: A Story of Research and Discovery
The concept of Ultra Beasts wasn't born overnight. Shigeru Ohmori first conceived the idea, with Ken Sugimori advising designers to deliberately incorporate contradictory elements – concepts typically avoided for new Pokémon – to ensure the UBs were distinct and clearly otherworldly. This intentional design choice is why they stand out so dramatically from the established Pokémon roster.
Historically, the first recorded sightings of these "dangerous creatures" in Alola occurred a decade before the events of Sun and Moon. These early encounters led the International Police, including familiar faces like Looker and Nanu, to form a task force aimed at eradicicating them. They even resorted to using "Fallers"—individuals who had accidentally passed through an Ultra Wormhole—as bait, highlighting the desperate measures taken to understand and control these unknown threats.
It wasn't until Mohn of the Aether Foundation began his groundbreaking research that humanity started to truly grasp the nature of Ultra Wormholes, Ultra Space, and the Ultra Beasts themselves. Mohn even hypothesized that Cosmog, a Pokémon capable of creating wormholes under extreme stress, might itself be an Ultra Beast. After Mohn mysteriously vanished into a wormhole, his wife, Lusamine, continued his research, albeit with a far more obsessive and ultimately destructive fervor that shaped the core narrative of the Alola games.
Ultra Beasts in Your Adventures: Where to Find Them
Ultra Beasts are interwoven into the storylines of Pokémon Sun & Moon and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, and even make a significant appearance in later games.
In Pokémon Sun & Moon
Your initial encounter with an Ultra Beast is startling. Nihilego first makes its appearance at the enigmatic Aether Paradise. The story then escalates dramatically as Lusamine, obsessed with Ultra Beasts and using Nebby (Cosmog) to open Ultra Wormholes across Alola, inadvertently unleashes Nihilego, Buzzwole (in Sun), and Pheromosa (in Moon) into the region.
After the main story concludes, a dedicated post-game quest awaits. You join the International Police's UB Task Force, working alongside Looker and Anabel to track down and capture the remaining Ultra Beasts across Alola's various islands. This arc provides a structured way to complete your UB collection.
In Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon
The role of Ultra Beasts is far more prominent here. You're introduced to Poipole through the mysterious Ultra Recon Squad. Nihilego once again makes its presence known at Aether Paradise, but the true catalyst for widespread UB appearances is the corrupted Dusk Mane or Dawn Wings Necrozma. This powerful Pokémon opens multiple Ultra Wormholes, unleashing a torrent of Ultra Beasts across Alola, including the new Blacephalon (in Ultra Sun) and Stakataka (in Ultra Moon), alongside Buzzwole/Pheromosa, Guzzlord, and Xurkitree.
The post-game in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon offers an exhilarating way to hunt down UBs. Through the "Ultra Warp Ride" mini-game, you can soar through Ultra Wormholes to various Ultra Space locations. White Ultra Wormholes, in particular, lead to areas where you can encounter the first seven Ultra Beasts. Poipole is obtainable as a gift from the Ultra Recon Squad, and you'll be tasked with catching two specific Blacephalon or Stakataka as part of a final quest. For more details on this generation's unique mechanics and new creatures, check out our guide on All about Pokemon Generation 7.
Beyond Alola: Pokémon Sword & Shield (Crown Tundra DLC)
Even if you missed them in Alola, many Ultra Beasts made a return in the Crown Tundra DLC for Pokémon Sword & Shield. Most Ultra Beasts (with the exception of Poipole and Naganadel) can be found at the end of Dynamax Adventures in the Max Lair. Here, Solgaleo or Lunala can open an Ultra Wormhole, summoning a random Ultra Beast for you to battle and catch. Only one of each species can be caught per game file. Poipole, however, can be obtained as a gift after you successfully catch five different Ultra Beasts in Dynamax Adventures.
Not Quite Ultra Beasts: The Case of Cosmog, Solgaleo, Lunala & Necrozma
While they share a deep thematic connection to Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space, and even emit the same unique cry frequency, it's crucial to understand that Pokémon like Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma are generally not considered Ultra Beasts in the core series games.
The Thematic Connection, The Core Difference
These legendary Pokémon are intrinsically linked to the Ultra Wormhole phenomenon and the very fabric of Ultra Space. Cosmog can create wormholes, Solgaleo and Lunala are central to interdimensional travel, and Necrozma is the very "blinding one" that seeks to absorb light from other dimensions, including Ultra Space. Their narratives are woven tightly with that of the Ultra Beasts.
However, in terms of in-game mechanics and classification, they diverge significantly. They do not display "???" before being caught, a characteristic unique to UBs. Crucially, Beast Balls, so effective against actual Ultra Beasts, are not effective against them. Furthermore, none of these Pokémon possess the "Beast Boost" ability, which is the defining mechanical trait of an Ultra Beast. While other media, like the Pokémon Trading Card Game or Pokémon GO (where Necrozma raids might use Beast Balls), might occasionally classify Necrozma as an "Ultra Beast," the core series games maintain a distinct separation.
Understanding Their Quirks: Unique Characteristics of Ultra Beasts
Beyond their extradimensional origins and unique abilities, Ultra Beasts possess a suite of characteristics that set them apart from other Pokémon, blurring the lines between legendary status and a class entirely their own.
Breeding & Gender
All Ultra Beasts share a common biological trait: their gender is unknown, and they belong to the No Eggs Discovered Egg Group. This means, like many Legendary Pokémon, they cannot breed, making them truly unique finds rather than creatures that can be mass-produced.
Stats & Abilities
As mentioned, their base stats are often composed of prime numbers, resulting in highly specialized stat distributions. Most Ultra Beasts, with the notable exception of Naganadel, share a base stat total of 570, putting them in a similar power tier to many legendary Pokémon. Their level-up moves (in Generation VII, outside of level 1) also frequently involve prime numbers, adding another layer to their mathematical oddities.
In-Game Treatment
Encounters with Ultra Beasts are always special. They feature scripted events with unique battle music, elevating the tension and significance of facing these powerful beings. Upon capture, the Rotom Pokédex provides special, distinct pages for Ultra Beasts, further emphasizing their unique status.
Similarities to other Unique Pokémon
Interestingly, Ultra Beasts share several characteristics with Legendary Pokémon. They are treated similarly in GTS filters, often coded as "sublegendary," and are even referred to as "legendary" by characters like Peony in later games. Some competitions, like the "Mythical Melee," have allowed their participation.
Furthermore, there's a strong thematic and mechanical parallel between Ultra Beasts and the Paradox Pokémon introduced in later generations. Both groups play a significant role in their respective main stories, are gender unknown, belong to the No Eggs Discovered Egg Group, are linked to mascot Legendaries (Necrozma/Koraidon/Miraidon), feature number-themed stats or learn levels, and possess an ability that boosts a proficient stat (Beast Boost/Protosynthesis/Quark Drive). Even the initial uncertainty by in-game characters about whether they are truly "Pokémon" is a shared narrative element. These similarities highlight a recurring design philosophy for truly foreign or anomalous creatures in the Pokémon universe.
Embarking on Your Alolan Journey
The introduction of New Pokémon, Alolan Forms & Ultra Beasts didn't just expand the Alola Pokédex; it enriched the entire Pokémon experience, particularly in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. From the familiar charm of Alolan regional variants to the awe-inspiring power of the extradimensional Ultra Beasts, the region became a tapestry of diverse and fascinating creatures. Whether you're a seasoned trainer revisiting the islands or a newcomer eager to explore its depths, understanding these unique inhabitants is key to mastering Alola's challenges. Grab your Beast Balls, ready your Z-Moves, and prepare to confront the extraordinary—your journey through Ultra Space and beyond awaits!