Pokémon Sword and Shield: How to Solve Regi Riddles, Find and Catch Shiny Regis

The Crown Tundra DLC has brought back the original “Regi” trio of Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. We’ve also got two brand new ones, Regieleki and Regidrago.

Not unlike their original introduction to the series in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (and later Pokémon Emerald, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire), there are puzzles to solve in order to access and catch each of the Regis.

When you start The Crown Tundra DLC, there are a few things you’ll have to do before you’re able to embark on a hunt for the Regis. First, you’ll need to defeat Peony after arriving in The Crown Tundra and attempt your first Max Lair.

After you’ve finished that up, you’ll need to head on to Freezington and go through the initial arrival moments and cut-scenes there. Once you’ve spoken to Peony in your new cabin home base, you’ll be able to embark on your Regi hunting adventure.

Registeel: Pokémon Location and Riddle Solution

The first of the Regis you’ll run into will be Registeel. The ruin is just past Freezington, and won’t be hard to find. The red marker on the above map indicates the location of Registeel.

Head south out of Freezington, and the ruin will be on your right just after you enter Giant’s Bed. Once you’re at the door, you’ll be greeted with a riddle.

“Let ring out the piercing note that will wake the giant of steel.”

All you need to do is whistle, which can be done by pressing the left thumbstick, and the door will open wide to provide you entry into the Registeel ruin.

Once inside, you’ll notice seven dots on the ground. Simply walk across each to light it up, in no particular order, and you’ll notice the large statue across the room light up.

Step in front of the statue and press A to interact with it, and you’ll trigger the encounter with Registeel. Go about catching it like you would any Pokémon, but you can look below for capture tips if you need to.

Should you accidentally make Registeel faint, you need only walk across the dots and light them up once more to set up the encounter again.

Regirock: Pokémon Location and Riddle Solution

The second of the Regis you’re likely to find the ruins for is Regirock. As marked on the above map, pass through Giant’s Bed and veer to the right to reach the location.

Just like the ruins for Registeel, once you’ve reached the door you’ll be greeted by a riddle to gain access to Regirock.

“Let the first Pokémon hold a never-changing stone.”

The next riddle mentions a “never-changing stone,” which players of Pokémon games may realize is the Everstone. This item is normally given to Pokémon to prevent them from evolving as they level up.

If you’ve played through most of the game, it’s likely you’ll already have an Everstone in your inventory. If you don’t, simply head to Turffield, the town that hosts the game’s first gym.

Once in Turffield, head right from the Pokémon Center and then north towards the stadium. When you get to a fork, head left towards a set of mossy stones. The Everstone is on the ground, simply tap A to pick it up.

Once you have the Everstone, give it to the lead Pokémon in your party to hold. Interact with the door again, and it’ll open wide to give you access to Regirock.

Once inside, again simply walk across the dots in any order to light them up and activate the statue. Head into battle, and catch yourself one Regirock.

Regice: Pokémon Location and Riddle Solution

The ruins that are home to Regice are likely the last you’ll find. From Freezington, head into Giant’s Bed and keep to the left as you head around and towards the entrance to Snowslide Slope.

Once you’re in Snowslide Slope, continue to keep to the left and follow the path north until you arrive at the ruins. When you get there, you’ll of course find a new riddle.

“Walk together with a living crystal of snow.”

This may be the most difficult to decipher, but it’s not a hard one to fulfill once you know what it means. The living crystal of snow that’s being mentioned is Cryogonal, a Pokémon from a previous generation that has returned in Crown Tundra.

If you’ve got one in Pokémon Home from a previous generation, all you’ll need to do is move it into your game. However, most players will likely need to catch one.

Fortunately, Cryogonal are very common and abundant in the snowy areas of Crown Tundra. You can look for them on the overworld near the train where you arrived, and even near the Regice ruins.

Once you have a Cryogonal, put it in the first slot of your party. While the riddle indicates it needs to be outside of its Poké Ball and walking with you, this wasn’t the case when I interacted with the door.

Simply having it in the first slot of my party, even though it wasn’t walking with me, triggered and opened up the ruins.

Once inside, light up the floor just like the previous ruins. Start the encounter, and catch yourself a Regice, the third and final member of the original Regi trio.

Regidrago and Regieleki: Pokémon Location and Riddle Solution

You’ll want to go about catching Registeel, Regirock, and Regice before you worry about Regidrago and Regieleki. You’ll understand why in just a moment.

In order to find the ruins for Regidrago and Regieleki, which are the same location, you’ll have to make your way through Giant’s Bed until you reach Giant’s Foot to the far east of that area. From Giant’s Foot, enter the Roaring-Sea Caves and follow the path until you come out into the Frigid Sea.

Head to the right to find a path into Three-Point Pass, where you’ll see the ruins for Regidrago and Regieleki. You can see this location marked on the map above where the red cursor is pointing.

“When gather the three giants, the door of destiny shall be opened.”

Now you might realize why you need to catch Registeel, Regirock, and Regice first. You’ll need all three of them in your party in order to interact with an open this door.

It’s important to note that you need to catch Registeel, Regirock, and Regice in your game and have those captures in your party. If you acquire them via trade or Pokémon Home, putting them in your party won’t work.

Once you’re inside, you’ll again notice a pattern of dots on the floor. This time the dots are a little trickier, as the way you light them up will correspond to whether you end up encountering Regidrago or Regieleki.

You’ll need to decide whether you want Regidrago or Regieleki before you proceed. If you need some advice on which one to pick, skip down a few sections for help choosing one of them.

Once you’ve triggered an encounter with either Regidrago or Regieleki, you will be able to try again if you make them faint. However, your choice will be set in stone after that encounter.

Once you’ve encountered one, you can’t light up different dots to encounter the other option. You’ll need to trigger the same encounter.

Regidrago: Dots Floor Pattern Solution

If you’ve decided you want Regidrago, you’re going to need to follow the above pattern and light up those dots to set up the encounter.

Once the dots are illuminated, the room will change and the statue will be ready. Interact with it, and enter the encounter to get your opportunity to catch Regidrago.

Regieleki: Dots Floor Pattern Solution

If you’ve decided you want Regieleki, you’re going to need to follow the above pattern and light up those dots to set up the encounter.

Once the dots are illuminated, the room will change and the statue will be ready. Interact with it, and enter the encounter to get your opportunity to catch Regieleki.

Should you choose Regidrago or Regieleki?

Once you’re inside the ruin, you’ll have to decide if you want Regidrago or Regieleki. The game will only let you encounter one of them, and after you choose the floor tiles will be locked.

Even if you fail the first encounter by fainting Regidrago or Regieleki, you’ll only be able to light up the pattern for your initial choice in a subsequent encounter.

Deciding whether to choose Regidrago or Regieleki is, first and foremost, just a question of preference. If you’re simply enjoying the game, choose the one you like and think is coolest.

Regidrago vs. Regieleki: Pokémon Stats and Weaknesses

As far as their stats go, Regidrago and Regieleki have the same base stats for Attack, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense. The primary stat difference is between HP or Speed.

Regieleki has a superior base stat for Speed of 200, but only an 80 in HP. By contrast, Regidrago has the opposite with a base stat of 200 in HP and only an 80 in Speed.

Both Regidrago and Regieleki are single-type Pokémon. Regidrago, being only Dragon Type, comes with three weaknesses in Ice, Dragon, and Fairy. Regieleki, being only Electric Type, is only weak to Ground Type moves.

Regieleki can also learn Magnet Rise, an especially useful move that makes the user immune to Ground Type moves for five turns. This means Regieleki can, during the duration of that move, exist without a single type weakness.

Regieleki’s Ability is Transistor, which powers up Electric Type moves. Regidrago’s is Dragon’s Maw, which in turn powers up Dragon Type moves.

Again, it all comes down to preference. There are pros and cons to each choice, but you won’t be able to catch both in the same game.

How to get both Pokémon without deleting your save file or trading

If you’re willing to put in some extra time, there actually is a way to get both without having to erase your original save file. On Nintendo Switch, you can create a new profile for the console and open the game with that secondary profile instead of your primary one.

This will allow you to go through the game completely fresh, and you can choose the other Regi at that point in The Crown Tundra. In order to get it back to your original save file, you’ll need to use Pokémon Home.

Launch Pokémon Home under your original profile, but once in you can choose to check save data from a different profile. Simply load that secondary data, move Regidrago or Regieleki into Pokémon Home, and then check with your original data to move it into your primary game.

This same method can be used to acquire multiples of any other legendary in Pokémon Sword and Shield, assuming you’re willing to go through the game again to capture them.

Tips on catching Registeel, Regirock, Regice, Regidrago, and Regieleki

With four potential encounters, you’re unlikely to want to use your Master Ball on any of the Regis. Honestly, you should save that for Calyrex, which is likely one of the most difficult Pokémon to capture in some time.

Ideally, you want a Pokémon with False Swipe and a move that’ll put your opponent to sleep. The perfect choice for this is Gallade, which can learn False Swipe and Hypnosis.

A high level Gallade is a great acquisition for catching any Pokémon, so training one and giving it those moves will pay off many times over. Polygon has a great guide on catching a Gallade and getting it ready to be your catching machine.

Once you’re in the encounter, use False Swipe to whittle the Regi’s health down to 1 HP and use Hypnosis to keep putting it to sleep. You’ll probably want to have some Revives and Potions in case Gallade faints during the battle.

Once your opponent is in prime position to be caught, asleep with 1 HP, there are two ideal Poké Balls for catching them. The obvious choice is an Ultra Ball, which you’ll probably want an abundance of as it can take quite a few attempts.

The best case scenario, aside from using a Master Ball, is to come into the battle with lots of Timer Balls. This unique Poké Ball makes it easier to catch Pokémon based on how many turns have passed in the encounter.

The longer the battle goes on, the easier the Pokémon becomes to catch. Just in the process of getting them down to 1 HP and asleep, enough time had passed for me that a single Timer Ball was enough.

You probably want to bring more, though. Timer Balls can be purchased in Hammerlocke, and I’d suggest grabbing at least 10, if not more.

How to Shiny Hunt Registeel, Regirock, Regice, Regidrago, and Regieleki

Because of the way encounters with each of the Regis are triggered, they’re actually prime targets for Shiny Hunting. Thanks to reliable Twitter user @mattyoukhana_, we know all five of the Regis are not Shiny Locked.

Once you’re inside a ruin and trigger the encounter, making the Pokémon faint won’t actually mean you can’t encounter it again. You’ll be given the chance to try again just by lighting up the floor as you did previously. This means you can continue to encounter it over and over again.

That makes a huge difference for Shiny Hunting because the total number you’ve battled of a particular Pokémon increases your chances of encountering their shiny form.

Serebii.net shows the exact difference your total encounters will make, and you can keep improving your chances up to 500 total encounters.

You’ll also want to go into these battles with the Shiny Charm if you’re serious about Shiny Hunting. You’ll need to complete the Galar Pokédex and visit the Game Freak Game Director in Circhester to snag that.

Shiny Hunting can be a grueling process, and even after you optimize your chances with the Shiny Charm and 500 total encounters, you’ll still only have a 3% chance (1 in 512) of encountering a shiny Regirock, Regice, Regidrago, or Regieleki.

There’s a chance you’ll encounter one just in the process of working towards that scenario, but there’s also a chance you could go through over a thousand encounters and never see one.

That’s what makes shinies so rare and desired, though. It’s hard work, but it’s an amazing feeling when it does finally pay off.