Pokémon Sword and Shield Overview

CAUTION: Spoilers Are Ahead

The newest Generation 8 games are out! Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield have come and players are hyped up about it! Let’s take a look a few new noteworthy features from the games!

The Story Plot (SPOILERS ARE RAMPANT)

Continue Scrolling Until Next Headline for More, Non-Spoiling Information.

In the beginning of the game, we see Chairman Rose talking to an entire stadium of wild fans. He talks about what Pokémon are, what the Galar region is, and what a Pokémon trainer is. He then goes on to explain how the Gym system works and introduces the Champion, Leon.

The game then shows you in your house. Your rival comes in and talks about how Leon is coming into town. Your rival’s name is Hop, who is Leon’s little brother.

After a few cut scenes, you gain the ability to choose your starter. Your choices are Grookey (the grass type monkey), Scorbunny (the fire type bunny), and Sobble (the water type salamander-tadpole-thing). Keep in mind that the starters are shiny locked, but you can breed them for shiny offspring.

Once you’ve obtained your starter, Leon goes on to explain that in order to participate in the Gym battles, you need an endorsement. Luckily for you, he gives you and Hop an endorsement to participate. Then your journey begins. You start battling the gym leaders and traveling across the Galar region.

You start by going to Hammerlock city, where you go to officially sign up as a Challenger Trainer. While you’re there, you encounter Team Yell. This is a group of over dedicated fans, loyal to Marnie, another Challenger Trainer competing for glory. Team Yell will periodically pop up and challenge you to battle. Contrary to the hints of several trailers, these grunts are not the main baddies.

There are some significant things that happen during the story line. Thanks to Sonia, Prof. Magnolia’s granddaughter, you slowly start to learn the history behind the Galar region and discover the secrets behind the legendary Pokémon, Zacian and Zamazenta. You also meet Chairman Rose, his assistant Oleana, and the Challenger Trainer he endorsed, named Bede. He gets disqualified, however, due to mistreating a local landmark.

Chairman Rose is the president of the leading energy company in Galar. He provides most of the energy for Galar and is looking for new, innovative ways to create clean energy. Rose is interested in Dynamaxing, studying it to gain more knowledge about it. He believes he can use it for his own advantage.

Once you beat the 8 gyms, you travel towards the Finals to battle for the Champion’s Cup. Players battle in an elimination like system in order to challenge Leon for the Champion of Galar title. However, your battle with Leon is interrupted. You then go off in search of him.

You find him talking to Chairman Rose. Leon is trying to talk him out of reviving Eternatus, the Legendary Pokémon that created the “Darkest Day”. Rose claims that once he revives Eternatus (and brings back the Darkest Day), he will be able to reap limitless energy to provide for Galar. When Leon goes to challenge Eternatus, he backs down. You, Hop, Zamazenta, and Zacian team up to take Eternatus. After beating Eternatus, you are able to catch him. Then your battle with Leon continues, and you beat the game.

Galarian Forms

Like Sun and Moon, there are Pokémon that have regional forms. These are called Galarian Pokémon. They look different than there original forms, have different types, have different move pools and have different stats. Click Here if you want to know more.

Max Raid Battles

When we saw the release of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, there were many features implemented in the game based of the one and only popular Pokémon Go mobile game. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, we see that this happens again. The new feature in here are Max Raid Battles.

Battling these Humongous Pokémon

In order to battle in a Max Raid Battle, you must first unlock the Wild Area. Within the Wild Area, there are circular, stone, well-like pits, called Dens, that glow red. There are four differing dens.

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The first picture is a normal den. There are two different varieties of this den. There is a glowing red den, and a dull grey den. The glowing red den gives you 50 Watts. The plain grey one is an empty den.

The second type of den is a Max Raid Battle Den. When you interact with it, you will receive 300 Watts and will be shown a silhouette of the Pokémon that you will be battling. This Pokémon is in it’s Dynamax form. There is also a chance that it could be a Gigantamax Pokémon.

The last type is a purple Max Raid Battle den. You will also get 300 Watts when you interact with the den. The only difference with this Raid Battle is the Pokémon in the battle will have extremely good stats once you catch it.

Once you beat the Pokémon in battle, you will have the option to catch it. You can opt to not catch it and choosing this option will not change or hinder anything. After you make your choice, you will be shown your rewards. The rewards depend on the difficulty (1 star being the easiest, 5 stars being the hardest). You have a chance to get some EXP. Candies, treasures, and TRs.

Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing your Pokémon

One of the coolest new features about the game is Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing. There are some key things to note with these features. Confusion has been spread wide about the ability on how to do this. Hopefully, this will clear up some of the confusion.

Dynamaxing

Any Pokémon can Dynamax. You first unlock the ability to Dynamax when you travel to the Wild Area. Dynamaxing your Pokémon raises stats, doubles your HP, and gives you Max Moves. These moves are similar to Z-Moves and the moves’s power/affects depend on the original move’s power and type. All Max Moves have an accuracy of 101, PP of 10 (or of the original move), and all are Physical Type Attacks.

Gigantamaxing

Gigantamaxing is similar to Dynamaxing, except stat changes are different, the Pokémon change their appearance, and they have exclusive moves. Here is a list of the Pokémon that can Gigantamax (no images are here, so there are no major spoilers):

Other Notable Features

The features I have mentioned are the main, major ones that everyone was super excited about. However, like any new game, there are always new and improved features. Here are a look at some.

Two Different Types of Encounters

In Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, we saw the introduction of Overworld spawns. This mechanic was designed to make it a little more like “real-life” encounter scenarios. It has returned with the original random encounter mechanic.

There is a major difference with these two encounters. Two pools exist of spawns that govern the Overworld Spawns, and the Random Encounter Spawns. So it wouldn’t hurt to try both methods.

AND ONE IMPORTANT NEW FEATURE: Shiny sprites for Pokémon are no longer shown in Overworld spawns like it was in PLGP/E. You MUST encounter the Pokémon to see whether it is shiny.

Brilliant Pokémon

Brilliant Pokémon are Pokémon surrounded by a yellow aura. They are garunteed to have 2+ perfect IVs and have a chance of knowing an Egg Move. The only way to get a Brilliant Pokémon is to have successfully KOed or caught a Pokémon of the species you want.

Egg Moves in the Day Care

A new feature is transferring Egg Moves between parent Pokémon using the Day Care. The Pokémon need to be the same species. Simply take the Pokémon that has the Egg Move, and the Pokémon you want to have the Egg Move. Leave them in the Day Care for awhile, then come back. Once you retrieve the Pokémon, both will have the Egg Move. Just make sure that the Pokémon that you want to have the move has an empty move slot (knowing only 1-3 moves).

Poké Jobs

Poké Jobs are related to Poké Pelago and provide a way to passively collect jobs that can boost experience points. This is done at the Rotomi PC in any Pokémon Center. Each Poké Job has certain restrictions and requests (such as Pokémon that focus on certain stats and a certain number of Pokémon that can go on each trip). When you send a Pokémon on a job, you have the ability to set how long for. This determines the amount of rewards you can get.

There are two different kinds of jobs. First, there are experience based jobs. These have a specific star rating and have a limit to the amount of Pokémon that can be sent at once, ranging from 4 to 30 Pokémon. The higher the star rating, the better the rewards. In addition to that, each task asks for Pokémon of a specific type. If you send Pokémon of that type, you will get a higher experience reward, approximately 20% more than a Pokémon not suited to the job. The more Pokémon you send, the better the chance of getting better rewards as well.

For more extensive information on this topic, head to Serebii to find all the information.

Fossils

In all previous Pokémon games, if you obtained a fossil, you could take it to a specific place to revive it and obtain a Pokémon. In this game, it works differently. You need to have two fossils in order to obtain a fossil Pokémon. There are two different tops, and two different bottoms. Depending on the combination, depends on the Pokémon you revive. There are four different results:

1. Dracozolt: Combine the Fossilized Bird and the Fossilized Drake
2. Arctozolt: Combine the Fossilized Bird and the Fossilized Dino
3. Dracovish: Combine the Fossilized Fish and the Fossilized Drake
4. Arctovish: Combine the Fossilized Fish and the Fossilized Dino

The scientist that carries out the fusing of these fossils is located at Route 6.

Final Words

Pokémon Sword and Shield are games that will be treasured for years to come. They are really excellent successor games for the Switch. These games hold many fun and exciting adventures. While this article reveals some major aspects of the game, we will be coming out with more articles soon that cover many more features. Until next time!

Thanks to Serebii for pics and info!