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

When I was watching the new trailer again, I noticed Gastrodon was using Earth Power. At least, that is what I believe.
I wonder what this would mean if it really was Earth Power. GF could be breaking their tradition of avoiding tutors (aside from Draco Meteor and the Hyper Beam variants) in the first games of a new generation. While unlikely, it would be a welcoming change and make Galar's possible equivalent of Battle Tree/Tower more challenging due to Pkm having a better moveset.
Or it could mean that Gastrodon will learn Earth Power through level-up!
 
Eject Pack and Steel Beam have no interaction, right? ;)

I'm glad they didn't get Dynamax get trivialised by Fake Out. Making them blanket immune to flinching also offers counterplay against Serene Grace shenanigans, though we can safely assume that the two most egregious abusers will get culled anyway.
 
While I don't go heavily into competitve proper, I do have a tendancy to spend a lot of time in the various battle facilities (usually at fairly low streaks. I teambuild for style first), and doubles sets especially can carry over from competitive. So I am glad that the new trailer touches, however tangentially, the one aspect that might get me to buy this game despite the [REDACTED]

Reflecting stat drops does seem like pretty standard progression, given the emphasis on them rather than the other status moves that have traditionally held the spotlight. Personally, I think it would be much more interesting if it also reflected stat boosts, but that's unlikely to affect its primary use.

I never really liked this kind of mutual disadvantage deal. Actual usefulness aside, it holds little value for me in singles and less than that in doubles without a negative-ability partner

On flinch immunity: obvious patch is obvious

On protect chip: Similar to above. Do we know whether the secondary effects still trigger on protect?

On single-target moves: Nothing really new we haven't seen in Z-moves. Ironically, when the mechanic was first revealed, I would have guessed that a noticable draw would be spread versions of e.g. stone edge.

I almost feel that this isn't necessary. From my perspective, Trick Room is already something you build teams around, and thus doesn't need support as much as other field effects. In other words, where's my magic room-focused item? :P

I have ideas, but they're not good ones. I am seriously hoping the Symbiosis (do we have either of the two?) double-item jank returns now that we have an easier activation. I am hoping for the return of the Mythical Heart Swap users (or the introduction of a new one) so you could take in an ally's debuffs and swap out. The real strats I leave to the others.

Also, sticky web is going to be hilarious

As for Steel Beam, my personal five-second name is 'ferrostorm.'
 

MattL

I have discovered a truly remarkable CT which this box is t-
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From the website:


If this Obstagoon has 0 HP IVs and EVs: then Obstagoon has base 102 HP

If this Obstagoon has 31 HP IVs and 0 HP EVs: then Obstagoon has base 87 HP

This screenshot was taken from the part where they were talking about being able to use rentals. We don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that the game will provide a few rentals for players. If this is the case, the rental Pokemon might have some EVs (?). It's impossible to know at this point. Under the assumption that this Obstagoon has 0 HP EVs, then its base HP is between 87 and 102 (Linoone's is 78, for reference), but the whole point I'm trying to get across is that it's not impossible that this Obstagoon has some HP EVs, which would make the numbers a little lower if that were the case.

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Now I'm going to estimate Breaking Swipe's power based on this screenshot from the Japanese version:



EDIT: it turns out that despite all the work I did, it seems Breaking Swipe's power is inconclusive due to all of the unknowns. There are things to learn though, so I put it in a spoiler tag here:

Here is the Japanese news:


Begin at 0:52 in the video. Here, Duraludon hits Kommo-O with a super-effective Draco Meteor, and you can hear the familiar "super-effective" sound when Kommo-O is hit. Immediately after, Flygon hits Haxorus and Conkeldurr with Breaking Swipe. Notice that it does not make the same "super-effective" sound (side note: interestingly, in the Japanese version, they made the sound more of a quiet thud compared to when Flygon uses Breaking Strike in the English version).

It seems that Breaking Swipe isn't super-effective against either Haxorus or Conkeldurr because of this. If it were super-effective against one and not the other, it still should make the super-effective noise. I am also almost certain that neither Haxorus nor Conkeldurr resist Breaking Strike. Especially with the English trailer, that doesn't sound like the characteristic thud of a resisted hit. Plus, if it were resisted, then Breaking Swipe's power would be completely obscene, as I am about to demonstrate. Therefore, I am almost certain Breaking Swipe is neutral against both Haxorus and Conkeldurr, making it either Normal, Steel, Ghost, Poison, Fighting, or Ground. In the remainder of this post, I will be assuming Breaking Swipe is neutral against both of them for the reasons I just explained.

Here is how much damage it does (screenshots from the Japanese trailer):



I'm not going to bother with pixel measurements, but just eyeballing it, it seems like the Conkeldurr took about 25% and the Haxorus took about 55%. I think we can all agree these numbers are accurate to within a couple percent.

I'm pretty sure Breaking Swipe crit the Haxorus. Conkeldurr is more bulky than Haxorus, but not that much. It's pretty obviously a Physical move, so for example, if a Flygon uses Sunsteel Strike against Haxorus, it does 27.8% - 33.1%, and it does 21.6% - 26.1% to Conkeldurr. These calcs are all done with Level 50, 0 EVs, and 31 IVs in every stat. Of course Breaking Swipe would do more to Haxorus, but 55% vs 25% is way too much variation. If the same Sunsteel Strike calc is done but it crits, then it would do 41.7% to 49.6%, which is much more accurate to what we see in the screenshot.

Also, if an attack hits multiple targets, it does 75% of the power as the original attack does. I did take this into account during the calcs. Again, these calcs assume 31 IVs and 0 EVs in everything and neutral natures for all Pokemon, and is Level 50 like shown in the video. It matters if Breaking Swipe is a Ground-type move or not because Flygon would get STAB (Breaking Swipe doesn't sound like it would be a Ground-type move, but Smart Strike doesn't sound like a Steel-type move so might as well account for that possibility).

If Breaking Swipe is not Ground-type move: then it has at least ~140 power (lmao). A non-STAB, 140 power, neutral move in doubles that crits a haxorus does 51.6% on a max roll. This move seems like the Physical equivalent of Snarl, which has 55 power. I'm not saying Breaking Swipe also must have 55 power, but >140 is outrageous and definitely wrong.

If Breaking Swipe is a Ground-type move: then it has at least ~95 power. This is also clearly wrong, as this would still make Breaking Swipe way better than Earthquake.

Therefore, the assumptions of all neutral natures, 31 IVs and 0 EVs in everything is wrong. They're fighting in the Battle Stadium - maybe these are rental teams? I would guess that Pokemon would provide some rental teams for players so they could jump in right away without having to find a rental team. Because these are meant to be used in competitive battles, I would also guess that the rental Pokemon have competitive items and are possibly EV-trained. Also, as I mentioned in this post, they have messed with the Pokemon in news reveals to make them appear stronger than they are. Then again, the Lycanroc-dusk was in a wild battle and these appear to be rental teams, but hey, you never know.

If the Flygon has 252 Attack EVs and an Adamant nature: then Breaking Swipe would have at least ~70 power if it was Ground-type and over 100 power if it wasn't. So, maybe it's a Ground-type move with 70 power?

The issue is that you can modify it in any way to make the move have any power you want. If you gave the Flygon a Choice Band and you gave Haxorus and Conkeldurr 0 IVs and minus Defense natures (which again, is not out of the question given what they did in the post I linked above), then you could say that Breaking Swipe's power is anything you want. The Conkeldurr and the Haxorus are on a rental team too presumably, so they wouldn't have this, but I'm not sure if we can necessarily rule out them messing with the Conkeldurr and Haxorus just for the purposes of the trailer.

But, if they didn't, the last thing to check without being too unreasonable is that the Flygon has a Choice Band. If this is the case, then Breaking Swipe has 70 or 75 power if it's not a Ground-type move, and 45 or 50 power if it is a Ground-type move. Maybe it does have 55 power and it is a Ground-type move and the Conkeldurr has some HP investment, but at this point you're going down an assumption rabbit hole. I was calculating all of this as I was typing so I think I'm going to stop here as I do not want to go down said rabbit hole.
 
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I have to admit. I was not expecting a trailer like this that exclusively talked about the competitive aspect of SwSh. It's oddly refreshing and I hope we see more trailers like this down the line.
This is because it was revealed during the opening ceremony at Worlds.

Just wait for Zacian and Zamamamamamenta to have clones of Pressure and Snow Cloak
The way I remember the spelling is just recalling that they're based off of "cyan" and "magenta".
 
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The math and theorymonning is entertaining and definitely the most fun part about waiting for a new gen. I only wish the developers could care even a quarter of much as the fans.
There is so much wrong with this image that I would trust a blind bat with layout design than the people working in a multibillionaire industry.

When I thought of Pokemon battles as a kid, I totally imagined Pokemon all scaled to the size of a prepubescent child sitting completely still even though they're only 2 tiles away from eachother. The trainer is so stupidly close to the Pokemon that I seriously can't imagine that literally any AoE move will be also hurting the trainer himself. The Pokemon are too comically close together and this would all look INFINITELY better by literally just moving the opposing Pokemon + trainer a full tile back and slightly changing the camera angle. They've done this before under worse hardware so there isn't any excuse.

This would be hilarious if this wasn't a franchise I cared about. I can't believe that there aren't people at GameFreak that double check the freaking battle layout and making sure a 6"7 Dragon isn't the height of a literal child.
 
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This would be hilarious if this wasn't a franchise I cared about. I can't believe that there aren't people at GameFreak that double check the freaking battle layout and making sure a 6"7 Dragon isn't the height of a literal child.
It kind of boggles me the fact that Let's Go had very realistic pokemon sizes in battle (both singles and doubles) but they ditched that again for SwSh :\
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
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Well, now I feel stupid for not realising that.

Zazellow incoming?
Or "Zallow". But yes most likely the third legendary of Galar will likely have a predominantly yellow color scheme and have "yellow" incorporated into its name, based on the names of Zacian and Zamazenta and their color schemes. This time they're incorporating the three subtractive colors of light it would seem.

Anyway, other thoughts (late):

Eject Pack sounds like an interesting tool to use. It would make some interesting uses like with specially oriented dragons such as Goodra and Hydreigon coming in, nuking something, then switch out, then come back in and nuke again. It's likely a consumable item so it won't be super overpowered, but it'll make for an interesting tool to use competitively.

Room Service would maybe be useful for certain TR beneficial mons to become even faster in TR, I could see it being decently useful on TR dedicated teams and nothing more.

Mirror Armor sounds like a decent tool for Corviknight which would allow it to punish Intimidate users like Krookodile and Gyarados (don't think Landorus-T is gonna be in Sword/Shield, good riddance anyway), and perhaps other situational uses. It's a rather situational ability but it'll have some uses I guess.

Neutralizing Gas is...a passable ability. I think it will be cool in doubles for certain uses, but we'll have to see how Gen 8 competitive shapes up to see just HOW useful it is. I doubt it'll be all that useful in Singles matches unfortunately.

Dynamax is looking to be hella cool as a mechanic overall. While losing Megas and Z-Moves might be sucky on paper, I think Dynamax/Gigantamax is looking to take the concepts of Megas/Z-moves and really refining them. I'm loving the concepts of Z-moves being incorporated into Dynamax-powered Max Attacks, and this is going to be basically what Z-moves did but even better, with all kinds of side effects being introduced. They haven't talked about which specific mons can Gigantamax in the newest set of news, but that's looking to be great too.

Finally, as a side note, it seems likely Duraludon has a decent chance of being the newest pseudo-legendary/600 club member, considering they showed it off facing both a Kommo-o and a Tyranitar in the newest trailer (precedent being Kommo-o in SM/USUM trailers always battling Garchomp/Salamence). If so, I will LOVE Duraludon even more, and I think it has a fabulous typing for a Dragon and will be a very interesting Pokemon to use (though I wonder if it has any coverage to deal with the Steel, like Earth Power or something, I worry about its lack of coverage). The fact that it seems to be based off of Mecha Godzilla just makes it a really cool Pokemon overall. If that battle is anything, maybe Drednaw is the other possibility for the pseudo (or both of them, but very slim chance of that occurring).

And I like that they seem to be trying to ease people into competitive a bit more with the Rentals overall I guess.

Just a storm of basic thoughts from the latest news.
 
Finally, as a side note, it seems likely Duraludon has a decent chance of being the newest pseudo-legendary/600 club member, considering they showed it off facing both a Kommo-o and a Tyranitar in the newest trailer (precedent being Kommo-o in SM/USUM trailers always battling Garchomp/Salamence). If so, I will LOVE Duraludon even more, and I think it has a fabulous typing for a Dragon and will be a very interesting Pokemon to use (though I wonder if it has any coverage to deal with the Steel, like Earth Power or something, I worry about its lack of coverage). The fact that it seems to be based off of Mecha Godzilla just makes it a really cool Pokemon overall. If that battle is anything, maybe Drednaw is the other possibility for the pseudo (or both of them, but very slim chance of that occurring).
Not to mention, it's shown moving before Kommo-o, which means it has a very decent chance to have above average speed, which is good since it means it doesn't die to Diggersby on the spot.

On the other hand, they've also shown Dinamax-Milotic moving before Froslass, so maybe they're manipulating stats a bit just to show off the new mechanics. Fingers crossed...
 
The math and theorymonning is entertaining and definitely the most fun part about waiting for a new gen. I only wish the developers could care even a quarter of much as the fans.

There is so much wrong with this image that I would trust a blind bat with layout design than the people working in a multibillionaire industry.

When I thought of Pokemon battles as a kid, I totally imagined Pokemon all scaled to the size of a prepubescent child sitting completely still even though they're only 2 tiles away from eachother. The trainer is so stupidly close to the Pokemon that I seriously can't imagine that literally any AoE move will be also hurting the trainer himself. The Pokemon are too comically close together and this would all look INFINITELY better by literally just moving the opposing Pokemon + trainer a full tile back and slightly changing the camera angle. They've done this before under worse hardware so there isn't any excuse.

This would be hilarious if this wasn't a franchise I cared about. I can't believe that there aren't people at GameFreak that double check the freaking battle layout and making sure a 6"7 Dragon isn't the height of a literal child.
Starting to think this might just be a liiiitle nitpicky? You'd need to behind a full blast zone safe bunker to even begin thinking about not getting hit by earthquale, surf, lava plume, and what have you. Think its better just to turn your brain off for all of those.

As for the spacing, the trainers always been that close, even in the gbc games and wii games. The scale also changes depending on a pokemons size in battle, but the trainer is far enough away that the haxorus and the child SEEM to be the same height, but if they were next to each other there would be a clear discrepancy, even with hax a bit hunched over.

 
Yesterday's trailer revealed both more & less than I was expecting. I was expecting a new mon/form and not much more; cool that they showed off new competitive features, but still would have liked to see a new mon. Or at least legendary typings? We still don't know those! (Not sure how reliably one can guess from the new cards shown -- seems like most guesses are steel/something, which we didn't need the cards to guess...).

One thing I'm hoping the battle stadium brings back is the special seasons like Battle Spot has had. Those were the formats I played most and had the most fun with this gen (mostly because some of those seasons let me use all those legendaries and mythicals I rng'd!), so I'd definitely like to see its return.

I wouldn't mind if they picked up the pace a little bit with reveals. I know the last two gens lots of people complained about getting too many of the pokemon spoiled before launch, but I'd long given up on the idea of encountering a new pokemon that I'd never seen in game. :P I like planning tentative teams ahead of time so with only 17 new lines revealed so far it's been slow going envisioning what the final team might look like. At very least throw me a new ghost or two! :)
 
Starting to think this might just be a liiiitle nitpicky? You'd need to behind a full blast zone safe bunker to even begin thinking about not getting hit by earthquale, surf, lava plume, and what have you. Think its better just to turn your brain off for all of those.

As for the spacing, the trainers always been that close, even in the gbc games and wii games. The scale also changes depending on a pokemons size in battle, but the trainer is far enough away that the haxorus and the child SEEM to be the same height, but if they were next to each other there would be a clear discrepancy, even with hax a bit hunched over.

The Pokemon in the console games are both much better scaled and much better-spaced in-distance from the trainer. I would definitely say that camera angles do a lot of magic but the characters are decently far enough horizontally (and somewhat vertically) to believe that at the LEAST they would be able to not get hit directly by a missed Zap Cannon or could move away from battle ala Brawl Pokemon Trainer. Gen 7's camera angle hides the trainer and the distance was much greater which made it look worse compared to gen 6, but still not terrible. Also I can understand why they would do a more rough job with it given how it was their first time on a much more limited system.

I'm not saying these games need to be Colosseum level to be enjoyed (That's the level that we SHOULD want/receive, but modern gaming has been less about producing quality games and more for just sticking with formula to pander to demographics for ages now.) but they should AT LEAST be an improvement from XY. Instead, the Pokemon look like plastic toys that just move SLIGHTLY once per turn.

This game is looking more and more like it's catered EXCLUSIVELY for kids and not for both kids and adults. The story will be the same mediocrity that won't try anything new (unlike BW) and now the gameplay itself looks really formulaic and uninteresting. (I won't say the graphics look MvCI levels of bad, but it's still ridiculously unappealing) Sadly though, most hardcore Nintendo fans will eat up any game from their company no matter how mediocre it is so I doubt they'll get punished for this.
 
I'm waiting for Zawarudo personally. After Gladion and Z move poses I've concluded the series needs more JoJo references.
Dialga is The World , Celebi is King Crimson, Machamp is Star Platinum (could be The World, too tbh but minus time manipulation), Escavalier is Silver Chariot, Blaziken is Magician's Red, and Hoopa-Unbound is Cream.

On topic, though, I hope the ranking system is as engaging as it's making itself out to be. I never truly cared about the Gen 6-7 ladder system, and I'm banking on this new one to give me a reason to ladder.
 

earl

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The Pokemon in the console games are both much better scaled and much better-spaced in-distance from the trainer. I would definitely say that camera angles do a lot of magic but the characters are decently far enough horizontally (and somewhat vertically) to believe that at the LEAST they would be able to not get hit directly by a missed Zap Cannon or could move away from battle ala Brawl Pokemon Trainer. Gen 7's camera angle hides the trainer and the distance was much greater which made it look worse compared to gen 6, but still not terrible. Also I can understand why they would do a more rough job with it given how it was their first time on a much more limited system.

I'm not saying these games need to be Colosseum level to be enjoyed (That's the level that we SHOULD want/receive, but modern gaming has been less about producing quality games and more for just sticking with formula to pander to demographics for ages now.) but they should AT LEAST be an improvement from XY. Instead, the Pokemon look like plastic toys that just move SLIGHTLY once per turn.

This game is looking more and more like it's catered EXCLUSIVELY for kids and not for both kids and adults. The story will be the same mediocrity that won't try anything new (unlike BW) and now the gameplay itself looks really formulaic and uninteresting. (I won't say the graphics look MvCI levels of bad, but it's still ridiculously unappealing) Sadly though, most hardcore Nintendo fans will eat up any game from their company no matter how mediocre it is so I doubt they'll get punished for this.
Dude you’re nitpicking if you believe that being 5 feet away from a Pokémon battle is any better than being 3 feet away. Also what are you taking about with gen 6 trainer distance being better than gen 7? Gen 6 didn’t have visible trainers. Like there’s criticisms to be had with the game but the distance of a trainer from a battles is a hilariously insignificant negative.

Also I will now CAPITALIZE all IMPORTANT words to show how FURIOUS I am
 
Dude you’re nitpicking if you believe that being 5 feet away from a Pokémon battle is any better than being 3 feet away. Also what are you taking about with gen 6 trainer distance being better than gen 7? Gen 6 didn’t have visible trainers. Like there’s criticisms to be had with the game but the distance of a trainer from a battles is a hilariously insignificant negative.

Also I will now CAPITALIZE all IMPORTANT words to show how FURIOUS I am
so less than half the distance compared to previous Pokemon games isn't remotely noticeable. (way more than 3 ft vs 5 ft but I'm assuming you're being hyperbolic lol) any physical contact sport would laugh at you for that statement but this is Pokemon so instead I'll say play a card game with anyone where all your cards and/or pieces are too close together and they will hate you. maybe Pokemon shouldn't have made their excuse that they were ditching Pokemon for the graphics and I wouldn't be so nitpicky??? hmmm.
 
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earl

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so less than half the distance compared to previous Pokemon games isn't remotely noticeable. (way more than 3 ft vs 5 ft but I'm assuming you're being hyperbolic lol) any physical contact sport would laugh at you for that statement but this is Pokemon so instead I'll say play a card game with anyone where all your cards and/or pieces are too close together and they will hate you. maybe Pokemon shouldn't have made their excuse that they were ditching Pokemon for the graphics and I wouldn't be so nitpicky??? hmmm.

also what is emphasis. like yeah I could bold it but I cba to do it in mobile and you'd just say the same thing anyways.
We’re talking about a game with attacks that shatter the earth, flood the arena, and super-heat the air. Being anywhere remotely near a battle like this is unrealistic- almost like what these games are.

And your comparisons aren’t comparable- whereas cards being too close together presents a noticeable disadvantage for the opponent (overlapping cards, etc) both sides having semi-close (it’s one screenshot and I can’t say I’ve noticed being any closer than gen 7 but w/e) trainers doesn’t alter anything. Also still no idea what you meant about the gen 6 vs gen 7 trainer distance.
 
We’re talking about a game with attacks that shatter the earth, flood the arena, and super-heat the air. Being anywhere remotely near a battle like this is unrealistic- almost like what these games are.

And your comparisons aren’t comparable- whereas cards being too close together presents a noticeable disadvantage for the opponent (overlapping cards, etc) both sides having semi-close (it’s one screenshot and I can’t say I’ve noticed being any closer than gen 7 but w/e) trainers doesn’t alter anything. Also still no idea what you meant about the gen 6 vs gen 7 trainer distance.
It doesn't need to be realistic. It needs to look cool and able to leave parts of your brain to the imagination. The trainer was just far enough from the Pokemon to where at many angles you couldn't see them. A kid playing Colosseum could reasonably imagine the trainer leaping just out of the battle zone or whatnot because you never saw it besides the waiting screen. In Gen 7 and now this they literally just randomly go offscreen because Nintendo couldn't bother with decent camera angles.

I could excuse it with the 3DS because of hardware limitations, but just go back to gen 6 (which didn't have trainers standing, the entire point) and not have the trainers at all. Seriously, the trainer makes the fact that Pokemon aren't scaled infinitely worse and because GameFreak is being insanely lazy it hurts the atmosphere. Pokemon said this version was axing our favorite Pokemon was for making the Pokemon we do have more lifelike. But instead, I'll get the opposite. Imagine training all the way to level 55 to get this big and gigantic Tyranitar only for it to be the same height as pre-teen Timmy lol.
 
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