If you or someone you know has been mauled by the fiery Pyroar in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, sympathy (or at least shared outrage) is warranted. Anyone who’s braved Wild Zone 17 — a late-game section in Lumiose City — will tell you the recommended level ~44 vastly undersells how brutal the zone can be. One misstep and the place can quickly turn into chaos.
Wild Zone 17 covers a broad area split between dusty ground and interconnected rooftops. Typical spawns include Diggersby, Klefki, Lampent, Chespin, Gible, and the rare Skarmory — but Pyroar dominate the scene. The real problem isn’t only their power; it’s how they appear in swarms. Pyroar often chain Earth Power attacks that strike from a distance (even from rooftops) and feature a dramatic ground-crack animation that makes getting cornered feel inevitable.
Bringing a Water-type helps, but elemental advantage won’t always save you from multiple Pyroar focusing a single player. You can be over-leveled and still get overwhelmed. Trying to flee to the rooftops is no guarantee of safety — Pyroar clips show them cutting players down before they reach the stairs. Frequently the only outcome is a frantic retreat with a red-tinted screen, the result of back-to-back Earth Powers. Some players have compared the experience to a Dark Souls–style punishment, and the outrage is real.
“I will never…. NEVER step foot in this wild zone ever again,” reads one exasperated Reddit thread.
Another thread bluntly calls the area “awful,” while a plaintive tweet pleads for the zone to be nerfed.
Part of the problem is design: many players keep revisiting Zone 17 because it’s one of the few places Skarmory appears, and Skarmory has a notoriously poor catch rate. That low probability drags players back in, whether they’re finishing the Pokédex, shiny hunting, or collecting starters — often at great personal regret.
“You haven’t experienced true terror until you try catching a Skarmory in Wild Zone 17,” one fan quips.
How it feels when i enter Wild Zone 17 — Reddit, r/PokemonZA
To make things worse, Zone 17 can spawn an alpha Pyroar: a dominant male that immediately roars and is typically flanked by multiple female Pyroar, effectively creating a reinforced patrol. There are tactics to reduce risk — sneaking through tall grass or visiting at night when many Pokémon are asleep — but one wrong move can still set off a cascade of attacks. Several guides even list Wild Zone 17 among the most challenging sections of the game. Video Games Chronicle’s guide highlights how unforgiving the zone can be.
Even leaving the area can feel absurd: Pyroar often mass at the gate and assault players as they try to exit, as if daring them to return. Clips of that behavior are part of why the zone has earned such a reputation.
We can’t erase the trauma Wild Zone 17 has caused, but the community has turned shared misery into humor — memes and jokes now punctuate the conversation as a small consolation to those who survived the ordeal.
the pyroar in wild zone 17 when you’re on the outside — @sserahwi
just saw a clip from wild zone 17 that literally looked like this — @moonrefazer
Source: Polygon
