SPOILERS! Pokemon Sword and Shield Datamine Thread

[Merritt]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1193903820574580739

Beginning of game starters are shinylocked, so are legendaries (what a surprise!).

 

[CTNC]

So the Pokemon I made hate me because Frustration looks cooler than Return now hate me for no reason? Now I feel like a bad person.

Bubble feels like a good choice to cut. At first it had 20 Power then after buffing it, it outclassed Water Gun but sounded lamer. Glad Magnitude is gone too. That move is annoying in game when using and facing it. I actually looked forward to using Grass Whistle on early game Snover, so that's a bummer... I shouldn't feel too bad about Nightmare when I was probably the only one who cared about it. Easy to miss because it's in the middle of Z Moves, but Spotlight is out.

The lack of Hidden Power means Unown is history.

Don't worry, there's always Struggle! :P

 

[Rarycaris]

So many legends and mythicals are returning (most likely per event) ... and I was happy to have a meta without them.

They seem to have been quite careful to remove all of the really obnoxious ones not named Jirachi. No Tapus, no Zygarde, no Victini, no Manaphy. Celebi, Kyurem and Zeraora aren't gonna break the meta, the Musketeers are in a good spot balance-wise, and there's a decent chance Kyurem-B will go to ubers this gen.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Posted this in SWSH pre-release spoiler thread but here you go

Kanto - 61 (55 original, 6 regional variants) (+7)
Johto - 35 (27 original, 5 cross-gen evolutions, 2 cross-gen pre-evolutions, 1 regional variant) (+1)
Hoenn - 42 (39 original, 2 regional variants, 1 cross-gen pre-evolution)
Sinnoh - 38 (23 original, 10 cross-gen evolutions, 5 cross-gen pre-evolutions)
Unova - 92 (88 original, 4 regional variants) (+7)
Kalos - 32 (31 original, 1 cross-gen evolution)
Alola - 52 (all original) (+16)
Galar - 81 (76 original, 5 cross-gen evolutions)
Total - 433
This number doesn't correspond to the currently known 435, but hey mistakes were made clearly.

Kanto - 40% of Kanto mons
Johto - 35% of Johto mons
Hoenn - 31% of Hoenn mons
Sinnoh - 35% of Sinnoh mons
Unova - 59% of Unova mons
Kalos - 45% of Kalos mons
Alola - 59% of Alola mons

 

[Kami42]

They seem to have been quite careful to remove all of the really obnoxious ones not named Jirachi. No Tapus, no Zygarde, no Victini, no Manaphy. Celebi, Kyurem and Zeraora aren't gonna break the meta, the Musketeers are in a good spot balance-wise, and there's a decent chance Kyurem-B will go to ubers this gen.

Indeed, yeah. I mean, tbf., much worse mons could've made their return (looking at you, Lando!), so I'll wait and see
I'm just hoping we're getting new events to get them (or they are post-game), because I missed nearly all events during USUM ^^"

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

What special attacker in Gen 8 could even break a Toxapex/Ferrothorn core now that Hidden Power Fire is gone?

Hydreigon can blow Ferrothorn to bits with Fire Blast, and with Dynamax it can easily muscle through Toxapex with Max Darkness, which reduces its Special Defence on hit. Taunt variants also shut down both of them, if Ferrothorn runs Power Whip instead of Gyro Ball. It may even get Nasty Plot this gen.

Rotom-H has the STABs to hit both of them super effectively, though it has to run max SpA and an Expert Belt to be able to 2HKO Specially Defensive Toxapex without hazards.

Nasty Plot Togekiss can OHKO Ferrothorn with a +2 Fire Blast outside Rain and flinch Toxapex to death with Air Slash.

Taunt + Will-O-Wisp Gengar can smash Ferrothorn with Focus Blast and cripple Toxapex, while 3HKOing it with Hex. Like Hydreigon, it may also get Nasty Plot, in which case it can obliterate both with a Dynamax + Nasty Plot set.

Polteageist can wreck Toxapex with Stored Power after Shell Smash, and a +2 Dynamax Shadow Ball OHKOes Ferrothorn after some chip damage.

Not saying that stuff's going to be great (or even viable) but the FerroPex core isn't nearly as foolproof as people seem to be thinking.

 

[Siggu]

Hydreigon can blow Ferrothorn to bits with Fire Blast, and with Dynamax it can easily muscle through Toxapex with Max Darkness, which reduces its Special Defence on hit. Taunt variants also shut down both of them, if Ferrothorn runs Power Whip instead of Gyro Ball. It may even get Nasty Plot this gen.

Rotom-H has the STABs to hit both of them super effectively, though it has to run max SpA and an Expert Belt to be able to 2HKO Specially Defensive Toxapex without hazards.

Nasty Plot Togekiss can OHKO Ferrothorn with a +2 Fire Blast outside Rain and flinch Toxapex to death with Air Slash.

Taunt + Will-O-Wisp Gengar can smash Ferrothorn with Focus Blast and cripple Toxapex, while 3HKOing it with Scald.

Polteageist can wreck Toxapex with Stored Power after Shell Smash, and a Dynamax Shadow Ball hits Ferrothorn very hard too.

Not saying that stuff's going to be great (or even viable) but the FerroPex core isn't nearly as foolproof as people seem to be thinking.

And if anything fails, there's the banhammer.

But that's another story. We have yet to see whole movepools.

 

[Count Bleck]

The lack of Hidden Power means Unown is history.

...huh. Wonder what that means for Sinnoh. Probably nothing, since they can just put it back when they do the remakes. Still, moves can be added or removed from game to game now...interesting...

 

[Yung Dramps]

Y'know, aside from a handful of actually important stuff I'm glad they're removing some attacks. Most of the ones on that list are early-game trash that can be replaced by other options. Down with movepool bloat!

 

[Sirya]

They seem to have been quite careful to remove all of the really obnoxious ones not named Jirachi. No Tapus, no Zygarde, no Victini, no Manaphy. Celebi, Kyurem and Zeraora aren't gonna break the meta, the Musketeers are in a good spot balance-wise, and there's a decent chance Kyurem-B will go to ubers this gen.

No HEATRAN.

No LANDO.

 

[LandoLando]

This number doesn't correspond to the currently known 435, but hey mistakes were made clearly.

well, it has been speculated that this means there are 2 new mythicals, but we don't know for sure...

 

[Cresselia92]

The lack of Hidden Power means Unown is history.

Or maybe… *gasp* Unown could get actual movepools now!

 

[Mega-Pokebattlerz]

Alolan Raichu looks hype. Max Lightning means it can set its own E-Terrain (who needs Koko anyway?), It can set rain Max Downpour to power up Surf and give Thunder perfect accuracy, Pursuit is gone, and its movepool might get even better with the addition of new TMs and TRs. I'm probably going to use it when SWSH come out.

Heliolisk looks fire too for all the reasons mentioned above (minus Pursuit since it's not Dark weak), plus with Dry Skin it can heal itself in the rain, but I'd rather use Raichu since it's faster and has Nasty Plot. There's also Lanturn and Rotom-W, plus every Water-type that gets Thunder... damn, even with the lack of Swift Swim users, rain is looking pretty nice this gen.

 

[OPStellar]

I would argue that aside Hidden Power, none of those moves were ever used for coverage... or used at all.
Pursuit Return and SkyDrop are the only moves that saw real competitive usage outside of fringe cases or meme sets.

And the removal of Hidden Power, on top of further breaking the need to softreset/breed, removes a very very obscure and unintuitive mechanic from the game, plus allows to actually expand special movepools in the future without having to think of the "omnipresent" 60 BP attack.

They cut Sky Drop?!?! But that was Vikavolt's only way of carrying me around!

 

[willempju]

Seeing Return and Frustration are gone, are we sure that happiness as a mechanic is returning?

 

[Kami42]

Alolan Raichu looks hype. Max Lightning means it can set its own E-Terrain (who needs Koko anyway?), It can set rain Max Downpour to power up Surf and give Thunder perfect accuracy, Pursuit is gone, and its movepool might get even better with the addition of new TMs and TRs. I'm probably going to use it when SWSH come out.

Heliolisk looks fire too for all the reasons mentioned above (minus Pursuit since it's not Dark weak), plus with Dry Skin it can heal itself in the rain, but I'd rather use Raichu since it's faster and has Nasty Plot. There's also Lanturn and Rotom-W, plus every Water-type that gets Thunder... damn, even with the lack of Swift Swim users, rain is looking pretty nice this gen.

And we still have at least one new Swift Swim user this gen c:

I'm also hyped about the fact that A-Ninetails and Sandslash return - go for it, Hail Teams! °3°9

 

[DHR-107]

Alolan Raichu looks hype. Max Lightning means it can set its own E-Terrain (who needs Koko anyway?), It can set rain Max Downpour to power up Surf and give Thunder perfect accuracy, Pursuit is gone, and its movepool might get even better with the addition of new TMs and TRs. I'm probably going to use it when SWSH come out.

Heliolisk looks fire too for all the reasons mentioned above (minus Pursuit since it's not Dark weak), plus with Dry Skin it can heal itself in the rain, but I'd rather use Raichu since it's faster and has Nasty Plot. There's also Lanturn and Rotom-W, plus every Water-type that gets Thunder... damn, even with the lack of Swift Swim users, rain is looking pretty nice this gen.

I would hold off on making up theoretical sets for Alolan mons yet. They don't have updated mini sprites in the image, which is a bit interesting. The Galarian Pokemon all have updated Minisprites. This could just be a case of them grabbing the "Raichu" container and dropping everything in, even if it might not actually make it into the game. The "old" minisprites is giving me vibes.

 

[Pyritie]

Seeing Return and Frustration are gone, are we sure that happiness as a mechanic is returning?

A bunch of returning pokemon evolve through happiness, so

 

[OPStellar]

In my inexperienced, unprofessional opinion, they're going to bring in Event Pokémon that are not obtainable, but they will be downloaded as additional packages. They already have it planned, so they included the sprites anyway.

 

[Worldie]

I would hold off on making up theoretical sets for Alolan mons yet. They don't have updated mini sprites in the image, which is a bit interesting. The Galarian Pokemon all have updated Minisprites. This could just be a case of them grabbing the "Raichu" container and dropping everything in, even if it might not actually make it into the game. The "old" minisprites is giving me vibes.

I would disagree.

Let's Go also had arbitrarly some pokemon with upgraded sprites and some still using old ones, with different dimensions (also completely arbitrary), and hell it looked bad, but it was a thing.

 

[Yung Dramps]

A bunch of returning pokemon evolve through happiness, so

To be fair, they have retconned evolution methods in the past. Milotic had to have its evolution method changed when Contests were scrapped, for instance. That said, I doubt happiness as a mechanic is going anywhere

 

[Rarycaris]

This could just be a case of them grabbing the "Raichu" container and dropping everything in, even if it might not actually make it into the game. The "old" minisprites is giving me vibes.

I thought that too. I mean, they added all the Ash Cap Pikachus. Why?

Same applies to Kyurem and Necrozma forms, though that would defy half the point of those two existing.

In my inexperienced, unprofessional opinion, they're going to bring in Event Pokémon that are not obtainable, but they will be downloaded as additional packages. They already have it planned, so they included the sprites anyway.

I expect these come after Eternatus in the dex for that exact reason. Expect we'll be allowed to transfer them still though.

 

[Dunfan]

In my inexperienced, unprofessional opinion, they're going to bring in Event Pokémon that are not obtainable, but they will be downloaded as additional packages. They already have it planned, so they included the sprites anyway.

Would make sense, honestly.
Every year a Jirachi is distributed for the Tanabata, and conveniently, Jirachi is (sort of) in the Galar dex. As we say, "Coincidence? I think not!".

 

[metal box]

Really glad to see some legends returning, I was worried that Ubers was gonna just be Zacian/Zamazenta/Eternatus and then whatever 3 much weaker pokemon support or counter those the best. Having Necrozma-DM looks especially nice for beating Eternatus, here's hoping it still keeps its crazy movepool. RIP no Groudon to tear through all these steels though- Dugtrio seems like the best bet for punishing them, other than that idk. Excadrill maybe?

 

[Siggu]

To be fair, they have retconned evolution methods in the past. Milotic had to have its evolution method changed when Contests were scrapped, for instance. That said, I doubt happiness as a mechanic is going anywhere

Milotic's evolution method wasn't changed. It got an alternate evolution method, but the Beauty method still works.