First, the premise
Like Legends: Arceus before it, Pokémon Legends: Z-A does not include Abilities in its battle system. So strictly speaking, "the abilities these six starter Megas have in Z-A" is not a coherent phrase. The abilities were revealed alongside the battle-focused title Pokémon Champions, and that is the only place they actually take effect.
The premise matters because it fixes the venue. Every judgement below about strength is a competitive-battle judgement, and has nothing to do with how much fun you are having in Lumiose City.
The six arrive in two waves. The Kalos starters — Chesnaught, Delphox and Greninja — appeared with the base game. Meganium and Feraligatr from Johto and Emboar from Unova came with the December add-on.
1. The Kalos three: two of them got their own old abilities back
Chesnaught — Bulletproof
Bulletproof makes the holder immune to ball and bomb moves. The problem is that Bulletproof is already the Chesnaught line's Hidden Ability. Mega Evolution has given it nothing new; it has simply promoted something it had to spend its Hidden Ability slot on into the default.
Some of what it blocks is genuinely common: Focus Blast, Aura Sphere, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Sludge Bomb, Weather Ball. But the coverage that actually kills Chesnaught — Grass/Fighting is pressed at once by Flying, Fire, Psychic, Ice and Fairy — is untouched by Bulletproof.
It reads better as design than as function: Chesnaught is built on a knight motif, so an ability about deflecting ranged fire is coherent. Coherent is not the same as useful.
Greninja — Protean
Same situation as Chesnaught: Protean is Greninja's own Hidden Ability. Its type changes to match the move it is about to use, and the change persists until it leaves the field.
Worse, the ability was already cut down in Scarlet and Violet, where it now triggers only once per battle. So Mega Greninja has not just received an old ability; it has received a nerfed old ability. The mechanic plus its high Speed served it well before Scarlet and Violet, and that version is not coming back.
Delphox — Levitate
The only one of the three that changed anything. Delphox normally has Blaze with Magician as its Hidden Ability; here it gets Levitate. Levitate is itself an old ability, but at least it was not scraped off Delphox's own sheet.
The good news: immunity to Ground, and with it immunity to Toxic Spikes, Spikes and abilities like Arena Trap. For a Fire type, removing the Ground weakness is a real gain.
The bad news: it can no longer benefit from Psychic Terrain. For a Fire/Psychic, that is not a small loss.
One in, one out. Mega Delphox occupies roughly the position it did before: neither here nor there then, neither here nor there now.
2. The two from Johto: this time it is genuinely new
Meganium — Mega Sol
A brand-new ability that has never existed before. The holder uses its moves as though harsh sunlight were in effect.
Note the wording. It does not change the weather on the field; it only resolves its own moves as if the sun were out. So even if the opponent sets rain, Mega Meganium is still in sunshine: Weather Ball, Solar Beam and Synthesis all get their bonuses directly, without occupying the weather slot and without any risk of being overwritten.
Its stat spread and typing still cap what it can do, but the jump from "nobody uses this" to "worth discussing" is larger than anything the Kalos three got put together.
Feraligatr — Dragonize
Also newly written. Normal-type moves become Dragon-type and gain a 1.2x power boost. This is the first Dragon-type entry in the "-ate" family that already includes Pixilate, Refrigerate, Aerilate and Normalize.
Discount the effect somewhat in practice. Dragon has limited penetration in a Fairy-heavy environment, its coverage is narrow, and it does nothing at all into Fairies. Feraligatr's own Water options are not generous either — Wave Crash is about the extent of it.
Add it all up, though, and the account balances: a decent Water/Dragon resistance profile, respectable physical Attack, and the only Dragonize in the game. Mega Feraligatr stands on its own feet. It is no longer the starter with no memorable trait.
3. Emboar — Mold Breaker, a good ability it cannot use
Mold Breaker lets the holder ignore some of the target's abilities when attacking. It is a perfectly respectable ability; Turboblaze and Teravolt on the Unova box legendaries work on the same idea.
For Mega Emboar it is most likely a downgrade.
The reason is opportunity cost. Emboar's selling points are few and specific: Fire/Fighting gives it good coverage, its movepool is deep, it has heavy attacks like Flare Blitz and Head Smash, and paired with its pre-Mega Hidden Ability Reckless — which boosts recoil moves — it hits genuinely hard. Reckless adds damage unconditionally. Mold Breaker only pays out under conditions. For an attacker that is spending the Mega slot and locked into its item, how many turns per battle actually feature an opposing ability standing in its way?
Trading a reliable damage boost for an occasional bypass is difficult arithmetic to make work.
On top of that, Emboar looks bulky but has 65 in both defences and unremarkable Speed. It is a fragile attacker. What it needs is damage, not universality.
4. Pulling back
More than thirty Mega Evolutions now have abilities announced for Pokémon Champions. Read down the list and it is clear the developers are not stingy about coining new entries: Piercing Drill for Mega Excadrill, Eelevate for Mega Eelektross, Fire Mane for Mega Pyroar are all written for one Pokémon each.
There is also plenty of reuse: Mega Froslass takes Snow Warning, Mega Clefable takes Magic Bounce, Mega Starmie takes Huge Power. The most instructive comparison is Mega Dragonite, which takes Multiscale — Dragonite's own Hidden Ability, exactly the situation Chesnaught and Greninja are in. So this is not a vendetta against Kalos. It is an allocation pattern that runs through the whole list.
It is still a little ironic for the Kalos starters. Z-A is set in Lumiose, Mega Evolution is Kalos's signature mechanic, and XY was supposed to be their showcase in the first place — except the original Kanto Pokémon took the Mega dividend then, and now, back on home ground, what the three of them get is recycled material.
Conclusion
The gap between these six is not in base stats or typing. It is in design investment. Writing a genuinely new ability for a Pokémon means rethinking what it is, what it is good at and where it belongs in a battle. Reusing its own Hidden Ability means that step was skipped.
Mega Sol and Dragonize each carry a clear intention: one defines Meganium as the Grass type that brings its own sunlight, the other defines Feraligatr as the first Dragonize physical attacker. Behind Bulletproof and Protean there is no intention at all. They move something that already existed from one slot to another.
Sources and notes
The six starter Mega abilities, following official announcements: Mega Chesnaught — Bulletproof; Mega Delphox — Levitate; Mega Greninja — Protean; Mega Meganium — Mega Sol; Mega Feraligatr — Dragonize; Mega Emboar — Mold Breaker. Mega Sol and Dragonize are new abilities.
The key premise: Pokémon Legends: Z-A, like Legends: Arceus, does not include Abilities in its battle system. These abilities were announced for, and take effect in, the battle title Pokémon Champions. The source material this article draws on treated them as changes inside Z-A itself; that has been corrected here.
Pre-Mega abilities for reference: Chesnaught (Overgrow / Hidden: Bulletproof), Delphox (Blaze / Hidden: Magician), Greninja (Torrent / Hidden: Protean), Meganium (Overgrow / Hidden: Leaf Guard), Feraligatr (Torrent / Hidden: Sheer Force), Emboar (Blaze / Hidden: Reckless). Protean was changed in Scarlet and Violet to trigger only once per battle.
The other Mega abilities cited for comparison (Mega Excadrill's Piercing Drill, Mega Eelektross's Eelevate, Mega Pyroar's Fire Mane, Mega Froslass's Snow Warning, Mega Clefable's Magic Bounce, Mega Starmie's Huge Power, Mega Dragonite's Multiscale) come from the same announced Pokémon Champions list.
Judgements about strength are the author's mechanical analysis rather than tested data; conclusions may shift once the competitive environment settles.
Image credit
Images are official artwork and game screenshots from the Pokémon series. Copyright belongs to The Pokémon Company / Nintendo / Creatures / GAME FREAK; they appear here for commentary only.
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