Pokemon Sword & Shield Swords of Justice: how to catch Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo by finding footprints
The new The Crown Tundra expansion DLC for Pokemon Sword & Shield has arrived, and a key part of this DLC is hunting down a range of legendary Pokemon - including the Swords of Justice, aka Terrakion, Virizion, Cobalion and Keldeo.
This trio first appeared in Pokemon Black & White, and are also sometimes referred to as the Legendary Musketeers by fans. The Sword of Justice moniker is the true one, however - and three of the four members of the Swords of Justice are back as part of a quest in The Crown Tundra DLC. The Mythical member of the group, Keldeo, can be spawned at the end of the quest as an extra reward.
In Sword & Shield the legendary three - Terrakion, Virizion and Cobalion - are hiding throughout The Crown Tundra. However, you'll need to track them. This is a bit of a pain, but nowhere near as bad as finding the Alolan Diglett back on the Isle of Armor.
How to find the Swords of Justice in Pokemon Sword & Shield: Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo
Here's the bad news: picking up the three Swords of Justice legendary Pokemon is a little more complicated than most of the other legendaries. It's easier but more fiddly than working through Dynamax Adventure Dens for classic legendaries, and sadly isn't as simple as the process of catching the new Galarian forms of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.
The good news is that it isnt' as bad, like we said, as that awful Diglett-hunting task back on the Isle of Armor. But it is a little similar.
Once you've beaten the main game and the post-game in Pokemon Sword & Shield, Sofia will introduce you to some strange looking footprints in The Crown Tundra. These footprints each corralate to one of these three Sword of Justice Pokemon. The footprints are scattered around certain areas of the map. If you find 50 sets of footprints for one of the three, that Pokemon will then appear.
The footprints of Coablion, Terrakion and Virizion are actually semi-random, meaning we can't exactly tell you the footprint locations in a list format - but we can tell you in which locations the footprints of each of the three appear. Each has a handful of areas where its footprints can appear - and so if you hunt around those parts of The Wild Tundra, you'll be able to fairly quickly rack up footprints.
- Cobalion Footprints: find these in the Frigid Sea and Roaring Sea Caves areas
- Terrakion Footprints: found around Ballimere Lake and in the Lakeside Caves
- Virizion Footprints: scattered around the Giant's Bed area of The Crown Tundra
As previously mentioned, once you collect 50 footprints of each that Pokemon will appear to you and be able to be caught. Like any legendary, expect it to be a challenging catch - and you might be tempted to use some of your Master Balls.
How to get Keldeo in Sword & Shield
Once you have all three of the Sword of Justice Legendary Pokemon (Cobalion, Terrakion & Virizion), you can then catch the final member of the Swords of Justice: Keldeo.
Keldeo is a mythical Pokemon that has typically only been available through distribution events - but here, it's a final reward for catching the rest of this unique group.
Once you've caught Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion via tracking their footprints, head back to Ballimere Lake. Here there's a small island which has an empty pot on it. Make a curry using this pot with the other three legendary Swords of Justice in your party - this will make Keldeo appear for you to catch.