Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October

Thank you Gamefreak, I always have'd trouble finding the motivation to wash my teeth but now with new and innovative app featuring badly drawn pokemon I'll no longer have to spend hundreds of dollars on dentists

thank you:blobshrug:




Also, why is there a pikachu plush black as night in the background? (no, I don't really care about Pokemon Snap)
that was not GF ideia, I bet was Nintendo, Nintendo is the big guy in the Pokemon Company
 
Can anyone translate that, for those of us not fluent? Did they actually mention gen 9 or is it vague?
Google Translate says:

【Mid-career recruitment】
Due to the large number of participants, additional events will be held from June 25! Online individual interview & interview!
23 positions including programmer, graphic designer and planner.
We are looking for core members to create a new "Pokemon" series.

▼Click here for details
 
Allow me to complain right here:

Why does every NPC have to be Hop and comment on crits, supereffective and what not.

Look GameFreaks, I usually defend you, but. Please. Stop. This. >____<
they want the characters to comment on the battle more often so its more lively.

Unfortunately the only real mid-battle events where this works are SE hits, Crits, First Defeat, Last Pokemon and Dynamaxing. More unfortunately there's not al ot you ca nreally say about getting a super effective hit so...
 
Google Translate says:

【Mid-career recruitment】
Due to the large number of participants, additional events will be held from June 25! Online individual interview & interview!
23 positions including programmer, graphic designer and planner.
We are looking for core members to create a new "Pokemon" series.

▼Click here for details
Interesting, thanks.

Seems a bit early for Gen 9, still feels like we're not long into Gen 8. But then they've said in interviews about how they planned one generation while still midway through another so I guess it's the same schedule.

Regardless, I hope they pad Gen 8 out so they can spend a lot of time developing Gen 9. Might tempt me back...
 
Interesting, thanks.

Seems a bit early for Gen 9, still feels like we're not long into Gen 8. But then they've said in interviews about how they planned one generation while still midway through another so I guess it's the same schedule.

Regardless, I hope they pad Gen 8 out so they can spend a lot of time developing Gen 9. Might tempt me back...
Yeah this is fairly standard. Even if they padded out gen 8 for a while they would still already be working on gen 9
 
Does anyone have at least a preliminary list of what the Dojo Watt upgrades do? I thought I'd overgrinded by saving up ~900K Watts since release, so the prospect of needing to spend 3.3 Million is... not what I'd call a moodlifter.
 
Does anyone have at least a preliminary list of what the Dojo Watt upgrades do? I thought I'd overgrinded by saving up ~900K Watts since release, so the prospect of needing to spend 3.3 Million is... not what I'd call a moodlifter.
I've spent about a million watts so far. Here's what I remember:
  1. hair stylist at dojo (in room that heals mons, changes clothes)
  2. rotomi pc in dojo (not working)
  3. activate rotomi pc
  4. vending machine for soda, etc. (might need to do a couple of times to fill it will a few choices)
  5. another vending machine for EV items (HP UP, etc.) Have to do like 3 times to get all 6.
  6. ??? I forget if I'm missing something here ???
  7. Unlock battle against strong trainer. Won't spoil who it is, but it's repeatable.
  8. Haven't unlocked the last one yet; Honey says something about going on a walk with her. My guess is all you'll get is her rare league card, but I didn't want to spend my last 2 million watts on it until someone else confirms what it is. :P
 
I've spent about a million watts so far. Here's what I remember:
  1. hair stylist at dojo (room that heals mons, changes clothes
  2. rotomi pc in dojo (not working)
  3. activate rotomi pc
  4. vending machine for soda, etc. (might need to do a couple of times to fill it will a few choices)
  5. another vending machine for EV items (HP UP, etc.) Have to do like 3 times to get all 6.
  6. ??? I forget if I'm missing something here ???
  7. Unlock battle against strong trainer from dojo.
  8. Haven't unlocked the last one yet; Honey says something about going on a walk with her. My guess is all you'll get is her rare league card, but I didn't want to spend my last 2 million watts on it until someone else confirms what it is. :P
You get an upgraded league card with the Dojo logo or something to flex to those who don't buy the DLC after the EV drinks
 
Just ran into something kinda... bizarre? I'd almost completed my dex but the rest was either too much of a pain to track down or would use up a resource so I decided to import in the rest from Home. (for the record that's Ivysaur, Alakazam, Igglybuff, Politoed, Slowking, Porygon2, Porygon-Z, Zorua and Magearna).

Only problem is they, uh. Didn't register in my dex despite being in my boxes. Even though the dex data for things like Squirtle and Venusaur were registered despite of course me not actually catching them in SwSh before and just putting them in from Home.

Even weirder, I decided to use the first 5 of those Pokémon in battle to see if that would make a difference. And the Pokédex did register them... as 'Seen' specifically and not owned, despite me obviously being the one using them. Anyone else had this issue? This is kinda weird...
 
Just ran into something kinda... bizarre? I'd almost completed my dex but the rest was either too much of a pain to track down or would use up a resource so I decided to import in the rest from Home. (for the record that's Ivysaur, Alakazam, Igglybuff, Politoed, Slowking, Porygon2, Porygon-Z, Zorua and Magearna).

Only problem is they, uh. Didn't register in my dex despite being in my boxes. Even though the dex data for things like Squirtle and Venusaur were registered despite of course me not actually catching them in SwSh before and just putting them in from Home.

Even weirder, I decided to use the first 5 of those Pokémon in battle to see if that would make a difference. And the Pokédex did register them... as 'Seen' specifically and not owned, despite me obviously being the one using them. Anyone else had this issue? This is kinda weird...
Serebii mentioned it on Twitter. In the replies someone claims this works:


Haven't tested it myself.
 
After like 3 hours downloading stuff and transferring pokemon I found out that the whole auto leveling feature was just a rumor

welp

so much for exploring with a whole new team I guess


also TRs in golden pokeballs, the hell man?
 
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After like 3 hours downloading stuff and transferring pokemon I found out that the whole auto leveling feature was just a rumor

welp

so much for exploring with a whole new team I guess
Those nintendo reps really needed better notes but at the same time maybe dont claim yeah it'll scale to level 100

also TRs in golden pokeballs, the hell man?
I think this makes some sense. They share the same pocket and everything, they're notable and they want to draw attention to new moves so they put them in the TM yellow ball.
 

Pikachu315111

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Just wanted to quickly comment on the Direct, while I downloaded Isle of Armor I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet (my workplace set it up so I could work from home, plus there's a few other things going on that takes up a lot of me free time recently). So onto the Direct and these are going to be quick:

Black Plush Pikachu: Just something in the background of Ishihara's office I noticed. It got me curious and I looked it up and found it had some interesting trivia you all may find fun to also know. The plush was part of a collection of merch for Mewtwo Strikes Back-Evolution that was known as the "THUNDERBOLT PROJECT". The Pokemon Company teamed up with a Japanese imprint company called Fragment Design (sometimes shortened to "FRGMT") and made all this neat looking black merch for the movie. However that black Pikachu plush has an interesting story behind it: it was never for sale. It was a special plush made only for the staff involved with the THUNDERBOLT PROJECT. Now a few have since appeared on online auctions, but still a bit of interesting Pokemon history especially if you wondered what that black Pikachu plush was about. :blobthumbsup:

Pokemon Smile: Huh, so instead of Sleep news we get yet another "life helper" app, though this one marketed toward young kids. Since I'm not a young kid I don't think there's much for me to say except it looks cute and probably would get kids to brush their teeth (at least until they get all the Pokemon hats). Though not sure if the kids parents would be too keen on their young child having their several hundred dollar mobile phone a few centimeters near a likely wet sink. Also, Pokemon Company, if you want to sell this idea to parents maybe show parents having a bit more conflict with getting their kids to brush, liked throughout the video it looks like the parents and kids looked perfectly fine except for maybe one in the middle of the ad.
Anyway... not a good start. Most people watching this would be older players and, sure, while some may have kids, for a general audience you want something more for all ages. This is something you can drop like in the middle to fill out the time, not something to show first when you should be "hooking" people in.

Pokemon Cafe Mix: If this is a cafe only Pokemon attend how do you make money? Not that important? Well honestly that's all I really got to say about it. Looks cute, probably would have been a stronger opener than Pokemon Smile, but still not for me.

NEW POKEMON SNAP: YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED THE DIRECT WITH THIS! I saw we have a thread for discussion on this alone so I'll post more of my thoughts there later, but I will say this has my interest! From what they showed it looks great, the environments are coloreful and bold, the Pokemon are showing a lot of personality, it's more than Gen I Pokemon, and already looks like they've improved the camera with it marking the Pokemon. :bloblul:

Pokemon GO: Neat they're adding Megas, with it being in Pokemon GO it'll at least keep the concept alive there. At first I thought they were adding Max Raid battles when they showed the purple orbs but guess that would be a bit redundant.

Zeraora Max Raids & Shiny Zeraora Event: Hmm, very interesting. Sort of reminds me of the Festival Plaza's Global Missions. Hopefully a million shouldn't be too hard with everyone coming back for the Expnasion, hopefully. Like I'm likely going to miss out on that Shiny Magearna from HOME, but a Shiny Zeroara would be nice compensation.

Next Direct: REALLY? You're going to host another Direct just a week later? Why? It would have to be a big announcement if it needs its own Direct and they maybe don't want to distract too much from the Expansion.


Well, lots of Johto 'mons plush toys and Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee games behind the man might indicate Let's Go Johto is gonna happen.
Yeah, I noticed the line of Gen 2 Pokemon behind him. I initially pushed it aside as I was more interested in the black Pikachu plush, but now that you mentioned it a Let's Go Johto probably would be a big enough announcement for its own Direct. Curious what the Pokemon would be or if they're going to try something completely different. I think the latter is more likely, like I suppose they could do Togepi and Marill but I don't think any Gen II Pokemon quite fit the roll that Pikachu and Eevee did. Heck, maybe blow us away by making it two new Pokemon, they could combine it with Celebi's lore of it grabbing an Egg from the future and dropping if off into the past (cause Celebi apparently never heard of the grandfather paradox).

I, for one, cannot wait to start speedrunning Pokémon Smile.
Don't go too fast or you'll make you gums bleed. :psynervous:

Which absolute brain trust genius decided that the day the DLC comes out, the day most of us will be wanting to actually explore and play the DLC, is also the day we have to suddenly spam raid Zeraora
Guessing because that's when they know a lot of players would be back playing the game so might as well take advantage of that. The Expansion isn't going away and (since I heard you complete it in 2 hours...) it's also something to do after you're done or want to take a break from the Expansion.

Thank you Gamefreak, I always have'd trouble finding the motivation to wash my teeth but now with new and innovative app featuring badly drawn pokemon I'll no longer have to spend hundreds of dollars on dentists

thank you:blobshrug:

Also, why is there a pikachu plush black as night in the background? (no, I don't really care about Pokemon Snap)
*Points to my comments on the Direct* Got you covered before even reading your post. :blobthumbsup:

Additionally, with its only weakness being ground, I foresee a lot of people getting team wiped by Earthquake spam.
What about something like Excadrill or Mudsdale with Drill Run?

inb4 they plan on giving away a shiny Zeraora regardless and the 1,000,000 victories target was just to get people to play.
Probably not a Shiny Zeraora but maybe a normal one (or they give us another Shiny Electric-type).

Eh , didnt they do something similar in USUM, when one of the challenges ended up having an unreasonable requirement so they lowered it?
Nah, the missions were just failures. Though tbf that was kind of their fault for releasing these missions weeks after people played the game so everyone was done catching & scanning.

That's pretty big news and makes me think that Cosmog, Cosmoem, & Type Null might be in Tundra's dens
If so I might be able to get that Shiny Magearna yet! :bloblul:

Been leading with my Indeedee. I'm dumb
Happens to the best of us. Or you go through a tough battle with a Legendary only to then discover you forgot to lead with your Synchronizer.

Kubfu isn't on that list, so it might have been some sort of hack.
Wouldn't surprise me. Did I ever tell anyone the time I saw an Eternamax Eternatus raid? It was locked of course. I also saw a Blastoise one.

Though maybe Kubfu may appear in Tundra as a Den Raid... pretty please GF? At the very least put in Cosmog & Type: Null for HOME dex completion (or better yet, if you just put in their evolution automatically fill out the pre-evolution pages)...
 
Me being me, I downloaded everything, gotten to the Isle, went through the mandatory stuff, and then started wandering around not paying any attention to any kind of plot, just wanted to get my feet wet (figuratively and literally) in the area and see the gameplay improvements.

Some spoiler tags (though, having done literally nothing, I guess they're not necessary) to give my first impressions some coherence:

I am a renowned idiot, so I adhered to a very stupid plan: breed something that I had not used in advance, EV it up, and level it to anything between 16 and 30. The result was that I hopped onto the Corviknight taxi with a phenomenal team comprised of... level 28 Raboot, Level 29 Thwakey (however that is spelled), level 25ish Wartortle (Sobble replacement, I'm never going to use it, Inteleon is the worst Pokemon ever in my opinion), and a level 14 Silicobra.

The first battle starts and... Venipede? WOW! One of my favourite lines back, this is amazing. What? Level... 58? Are we sure? And the level scaling? Ah, ok... I won by the teeth thanks to Raboot's Libero mind games. Then I realize every Wild mon is level 60. So... no level scaling? A big whiff in my opinion. You can still put together your dream team for IoA pretty quickly thanks to EXP candies, but it doesn't look like the semi-clean slate I expected. My guess is that level scaling applies if you're still behind in the games (like, you literally restart and according to the number of badges, it must be scaled, since you can access the area).

Big no-no both for now and the future.

Jumping the bridge a little bridge, Zeraora is a purring clawing little bastard but it is definitely far, far more doable than Mewtwo. The trick to get to the million is probably to ground and pound 3 and 4 stars - for 3 stars a level 100 with type advantage is enough, you just need to be online to register the fight I guess?

5 stars can get tricky, though. The first one I faced, I was paired with two eternatus and a Kyurem-W. I felt pretty confident until Zeraora started spamming Max Drake and Outrage. It can have a variety of very good moves (Hone Claws, Thunder Punch, Plasma Fists, Blaze Kick, Outrage, Close Combat) and due to its movepool Tyranitar+Excadrill can be risky.

I found bulky Grounds that are undeterred by coverage moves (Sandaconda, Seismitoad) to be one of the two best options. The other best option that I found is, ironically, using your own Zeraora if you have it: powerful, it can absorb a couple of hits (especially if you host and Dynamax) and even heal when it dishes out Electric attacks.

Definitely far more feasible than Mewtwo: not as versatile, set up moves are not as devastating (no calm mind to turn it into a special tank), and it tends to become very frail (once my team killed it through barriers) as the battle goes on: once the first slew of barriers is down it will start taking significant damage from every decent hit, especially if it used Close Combat and didn't clear debuffs.

If everyone commits to 10ish a day I am convinced this is doable. And the shiny version looks sick.

The worldbuilding looks, from what I have explored of it, somewhat better than the original wild area. Some vertical space in caves, twists and turns, and loads of useful items to collect (respawning TRs, Apricorn from trees), better NPCs to talk to (some will show Pokemon, other collect stuff, etc...). From what I have seen it is an improvement, albeit not a monumental one, and I think that it is far more due to the Pokemon themselves than the worldbuilding, which gets me to my next point.

Yes! I don't even know who's actually come back and how many of them (I am spoiler free on that front and I only went through the southernmost part of the map, namely the somewhat closed-in bay, station "beach" and sea), but seeing more diverse mons together with the ones we already had felt fantastic.

Loudred and Poliwrath messing with Grapploct in caves, Tentacool and a humongous Wailord in the sea... Mienshao trying to kick you, Skarmory gliding, not to mention one of the memes of the future (Sharpedo running after you). Oh, and one of my favorites, Rockruff, barking to get my attention. If only the selection would have been at least this large from the beginning... Overworld mon new variety really makes the environment looks way livelier, even though I am worried that it runs the risk of becoming stale quickly. Let's see in the next few days.
Not going to talk or evaluate what have been reported by others about story, Slowbro, Kubfoo, move tutors, new movepools, items... I went in blind for once and I will savor it.

All in all, for the time being mixed reactions: better worldbuilding, a big whiff on level scaling, not enough graphic improvements, and the best trait is the readded mons, which is both obvious and counter-intuitive.

To put it briefly, Pokemon has not an outstanding worldbuilding, characterization, graphics or writing. What differentiate Pokemon and makes it unique are... well, the Pokemon. The more there are, the better. More is more, plain and simple.

IoA seems to somewhat get closer to the game we should have had at launch as a minimum step forward, let's see what the rest of the DLC holds before giving it my final thoughts.
 
For Zeraora raids, I think the likes of Golurk and Lightning Rod Alolan Marowak might be ideal choices. Both have a high attacking stat, and are immune to Electric (in Alolan Marowak's case, only if Zeraora decides to not use its stat reset trick) and one of its coverage moves (Close Combat), which I don't think anyone else can compare.

Accidental team-killing should not be a problem, as High Horsepower TRs for Golurk were being given out like candy for the first Gigantamax Toxtricity event. Marowak needs to resort to Stomping Tantrum for team-safe Ground STAB, but it can work as well.
 

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