Pokémon Legends: Z-A season 13 bans all legendaries starting June 25

Pokémon Legends: Z-A season 13 kicks off at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 25, and runs through 10 p.m. EDT on July 15. After the chaos of season 12, Game Freak is pulling the reins back hard.

Season 12, which launched June 4, dropped almost every restriction on eligible Pokémon — anything in the Lumiose or Hyperspace Pokédex was fair game in ranked battles. In theory that sounded wild and fun; in practice, Xerneas bulldozed the meta so thoroughly that a large chunk of the player base simply stopped queuing. Mewtwo, Yveltal, Kyogre, and Groudon piled on too, and the ranked ladder turned into a legendary free-for-all that most players didn't want to engage with. Season 13 swings the pendulum the other way: every legendary and mythical Pokémon is banned outright. The full ban list covers 25 Pokémon — Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Diancie, Mewtwo, Heatran, Volcanion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Hoopa, Marshadow, Meltan, Melmetal, Darkrai, Latias, Latios, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Magearna, and Zeraora.

That's a return to how Z-A has handled most of its ranked seasons, where specific Pokémon get flagged and removed to keep the competitive pool manageable. The season 12 experiment was a deliberate departure from that formula, and the community's reaction on Reddit made it pretty clear the no-restrictions format wasn't a hit. Players can earn mega stones by participating in season 13 ranked battles — the full rewards breakdown is on the official Pokémon website.