As promised, more information about Pokémon Sword & Shield has been announced in the E3 Nintendo Direct presentation and following Treehouse Live event. Most of it focused on the Water-type Gym Leader, Nessa, the explorable Wild Area and Max Raid battles.
UPD: New Pokémon Revealed in Demo
A new Dark/Fairy-type Pokémon, called Impidimp, has been revealed in the E3 demo, as well as a dog-like Electric Pokémon called Yamper. The new ability for Yamper is called Ball Fetch and a wild Yamper will hold the first Poké Ball that fails to catch it if it has no held item. Thank you to PokéBeach for the clear screenshots.
Nessa, Water-type Gym Leader
The Water-type Gym is led by Gym Leader Nessa in Galar. She has three Pokémon in her team, one of which is Dredgnaw.
Wild Area
The Wild Area will encompass several towns and can be traversed early on in the game. It features a wide variety of Pokémon species, weather patterns and locations. Players can whistle to get the attention of nearby Pokémon who will react in various ways. Some Pokémon will be so strong early on that you won’t have the option to throw a Poké Ball to capture them.
Lake Miloch is confirmed to be one of the areas in the zone.
Dynamax Raid Battles
- Dynamax raid bosses may have the ability to disable Pokémon Abilities, reset stat changes or attack multiple times in a row
- Wild Dynamax Pokémon will create a shield when their HP drops. It is represented by a red bar under their HP bar and can be chipped away by using attacks. At least one segment will be removed after every attack, even if it is not very effective
- If your Pokémon is defeated, you can cheer on your friends for the remainder of the battle
- After defeating a raid boss, players will have a chance to catch it
- Y-Comm will let players organize for raid battles and communicate with preset reactions called stamps
Pokémon Home Compatability
Unfortunately, it has been revealed that Pokémon not found in the Galar region (and not in its Pokédex) will not be able to be transferred to the game via Home, the successor to Pokémon Bank.
Poké Ball Plus Compatability
Sword & Shield will not be able to use the Poké Ball Plus device as a controller, but you’ll still be able to deposit a Pokémon from the games to take with you on the go! You’ll also receive Mew when you register the device with the game.
Let us know what you think about this new information in the comments! Or join in the discussion happening on our Discord server!
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