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

Zetalz

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So supposedly the starter gmax moves are going to be stronger than normal max moves (to justify the significantly more situational effects I reckon) and I have a sneaking suspicion that they're going to use the same power scaling we had with Z-moves. Haven't done a deep analysis of the trailer (and don't really want to tbh) but eyeball calcing it looked like Cinderace's move did about the same damage a z-boosted pyro ball would've done.

0 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 127-150 (48.6 - 57.4%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO (190 power, max IVs)

Obviously it's not confirmed in the slightest, but I wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they did decide to reuse the z-move scaling since they just having it laying around. Overall these trailers were pretty meh and I really hope they actually show something more of substance before the first DLC drops.
 

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Gotta say I really like the presentation for Kubfu, clearly putting in effort to make you like him. Whether it'll pay off remains to be seen, but stuff like when he atatatas Mustard's hand was rly cute and well-animated

If you were underwhelmed by what was shown, I wouldn't worry too much since we still got a good 3 months to go. At the same time they've been working to avoid spoiling more than a certain amount so who knows
 
Gotta say I really like the presentation for Kubfu, clearly putting in effort to make you like him. Whether it'll pay off remains to be seen, but stuff like when he atatatas Mustard's hand was rly cute and well-animated

If you were underwhelmed by what was shown, I wouldn't worry too much since we still got a good 3 months to go. At the same time they've been working to avoid spoiling more than a certain amount so who knows
I don't see us getting any further information until June's not-e3 presentation...
 
Well that was short and sweet. A small pak at the new locations and a better look at urshifu and the gmax forms. I didnt realize Rillaboom was holding sticks with his hair.The music also reminds me of mystery dungeon a bit, which is never a bad thing. And....wait whats up with that biker gear? It looks almost like some fusion of a biker and scuba gear...will you be able to dive with your bike???

As for the max moves, im hoping we will be able to use more than just our partner pokemon, because id love to use grassy surge rillaboom or libero cinderace in vgc.

Customization is also always fun. Some people may not care but its a big deal for people to be as fun and creative with themselves as possible. Im definitely snagging that chairman suit myself...
 
To be fair, we got news on how Kubfu's form is determined, and on what the G-Max moves for the Galar starters do. We also know they have increased power relative to standard Dynamax moves, which I think is a first? It's not exactly earth-shattering, but it isn't nothing.
Which is actually something bothering me.

Two things specifically:
- Is Kubfu's form change permanent? What happens if someone decides for one, and later on you find out that the most competitive form is the other?
- With "partner pokemon", are they actually referring to your actual starter? What if you traded it away or freed it?

With all the massive amount of QoL they've done this gen to reduce the need to softreset / gen / edit Pokemon, it'd be pretty sad if they slipped on those two.
 
Which is actually something bothering me.

Two things specifically:
- Is Kubfu's form change permanent? What happens if someone decides for one, and later on you find out that the most competitive form is the other?
- With "partner pokemon", are they actually referring to your actual starter? What if you traded it away or freed it?

With all the massive amount of QoL they've done this gen to reduce the need to softreset / gen / edit Pokemon, it'd be pretty sad if they slipped on those two.
I feel confident the form change is permanent. It learns the style as Kubfu which determines the type of Urshifu it evolves into, makes sense to me. It does not look like a style change like Oriocrio's nectar, it seems way more like Lycanroc or Toxtricity.
 
- With "partner pokemon", are they actually referring to your actual starter? What if you traded it away or freed it?

With all the massive amount of QoL they've done this gen to reduce the need to softreset / gen / edit Pokemon, it'd be pretty sad if they slipped on those two.
Also coming back to the second part there, its just their catch all term for starter. They use like three different terms between the direct, the mini trailer and the website that all mean teh same thing.
It is fully possible it is JUST literally the ones you get at the start of the game, but I think it will in deed be any give nrillaboom, cinderace, or inteleon
 
Decided to watch the new trailers because why not? I feel that I somehow need more hype for the DLC even if I'm already dead set on getting it. I haven't played Sword for over two months already, it will be five when the Isle of Armor lauches in June, and I have several other things I want to get done in other Switch games before that!

First, the trailer from the Pokémon channel. New Gigantamax forms, I'll probably try to make my Cinderace Gigantamax as well as maybe a Rillaboom and Inteleon if it works for more Pokémon than just the one you picked as your original starter. Even if I'm not very fond of Gigantamax on the whole, it has started to grow on me because it seems like the DLC will partly fix one of my issues with it, so that's good. The new moves seem pretty cool too.

New outfits and League card designs, not sure if I'll use any of them. Though I like how you can give your character the appearance of in-game characters like Marnie or Rose. I also like character customization on the whole even if I didn't use it that much in Sword, maybe the DLC will change that.

The way they showcase Kubfu here seems to imply that you recieve it early and that you partly must use it in the DLC. Well, I don't mind. Maybe it is going to be the first member of my potential new team for the DLC, we'll see about that. I also like how it manages to be both cute and tough at the same time, an unexpected but surprisingly successful combination. Not sure which evolution I'll go with for it though, but that can wait for the moment, there will be time to make a decision later on.

As for the second trailer on the Nintendo channel, I like how they showed some environments from the DLC areas, and it seems like you recieve Kubfu quite early on. The way they worded it here makes it seem more optional than mandatory, so now I'm unsure about how it will be. Guess we'll have to see.

And the second part of the second trailer is just mostly the same as in the first trailer. Though it does mention that the new G-max moves ignores opposing abilities, that's sweet.
 
I'm starting to feel like this "ignores abilities" mechanic is a bit overused on high profile Pokemon. We've had four box legendaries/forms with Mold Breaker clone abilities, four more box legendaries/forms with moves with Mold Breaker as an effect, several moves and abilities which ignore specific abilities (particularly redirection), loads of abilities being buffed to ignore Intimidate, three abilities with a secondary effect of "ignores things which ignores abilities", and now three G-max moves with the effect of ignoring abilities.

Currently, literally half of the Pokemon which are Uber by tiering are capable of ignoring abilities, with half of those having an "ignore ignoring" mechanic. How long before we get a high-profile mon with an ability which ignores the ignoring of things which ignore abilities? This is getting a little silly now. It feels like the pre-gen 5 trend of "just give every legendary Pressure".
 
I'm starting to feel like this "ignores abilities" mechanic is a bit overused on high profile Pokemon. We've had four box legendaries/forms with Mold Breaker clone abilities, four more box legendaries/forms with moves with Mold Breaker as an effect, several moves and abilities which ignore specific abilities (particularly redirection), loads of abilities being buffed to ignore Intimidate, three abilities with a secondary effect of "ignores things which ignores abilities", and now three G-max moves with the effect of ignoring abilities.

Currently, literally half of the Pokemon which are Uber by tiering are capable of ignoring abilities, with half of those having an "ignore ignoring" mechanic. How long before we get a high-profile mon with an ability which ignores the ignoring of things which ignore abilities? This is getting a little silly now. It feels like the pre-gen 5 trend of "just give every legendary Pressure".
I understand the annoyance, but honestly I'll take this over something way more broken and difficult to balance (hello xerneas)
 
I understand the annoyance, but honestly I'll take this over something way more broken and difficult to balance (hello xerneas)
I feel like Xerneas gets the sensus of "broken" from the fact that over half of the box legendaries are weak to Fairy. Not to mention in VGC16, there was only one GS legendary that can hit Xerneas super effectively: Dialga, who did not resist fairy. I feel if they gave something like Zekrom Geomancy or some variation, it would not be nearly as centralizing due to more consistent Defensive and Offensive checks.
 
I feel like Xerneas gets the sensus of "broken" from the fact that over half of the box legendaries are weak to Fairy. Not to mention in VGC16, there was only one GS legendary that can hit Xerneas super effectively: Dialga, who did not resist fairy. I feel if they gave something like Zekrom Geomancy or some variation, it would not be nearly as centralizing due to more consistent Defensive and Offensive checks.
Xerneas has a deadly combination of high BST, the possibility to get +2 in all relevant stats in 1 turn, and a additional 30% bonus on its own stab (which happens to be one of the best offensive types in game), allowing him to actually run a mono-stab set as outside of 4x resist his stab is going to hit harder than anything else anyway.

They did give Reshiram and Zekrom Dragon Dance this gen, and Kyurem an actual phisical moveset, which istantly kicked em out of OU but I'm unsure how they fare on ubers level without factoring in Dynamax.
 
Xerneas has a deadly combination of high BST, the possibility to get +2 in all relevant stats in 1 turn, and a additional 30% bonus on its own stab (which happens to be one of the best offensive types in game), allowing him to actually run a mono-stab set as outside of 4x resist his stab is going to hit harder than anything else anyway.

They did give Reshiram and Zekrom Dragon Dance this gen, and Kyurem an actual phisical moveset, which istantly kicked em out of OU but I'm unsure how they fare on ubers level without factoring in Dynamax.
Yes, yes, I know. Zekrom is ranked A+ on current Ubers Viability rankings, while Reshiram and White Kyurem are A-, while Black Kyurem is B-.

I feel in that case though, the problem lies in Fairy being too good of a type. It resists Dragon, Dark, and Fighting- strong offensive types while only weak to Poison and Steel, to mediocre attacking types. Maybe they should just nerf Fairy instead? Like giving it some new weaknesses/resistances?
 

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Wait is Calyrex the trio master of the doggos?
The dogs I think come from outside of Galar to begin with and probably centuries after Calyrex was ruling Galar so probably unrelated, though it's possible it called out to them when Darkest Day happened I guess.
We won't know until Crowned Tundra is released.

From first impressions it feels like Calyrex and the Twin Heroes are unrelated. Calyrex ruled ancient Galar, before any human kingdoms it seems, while the Twin Heroes happened in more recent history when there were at least a human civilization and they helped two human heroes stop the Darkest Day making those humans kings.

They could connect the two as R_N described, Calyrex's reign ended due to the first Darkest Day allowing the human kingdom to rise and replace it. Calyrex could very well have sent the humans the Two Heroes foreseeing this to save Galar.

Though would be interesting if they had Calyrex ruling Galar 20k years ago, when Eternatus first landed on the Pokemon World and it having to deal with the aftermath of that (possibly revealing another Darkest Day had happened but lost to history as no one was there to record it). Now they could still connect the Twin Heroes to the story, like they were servants of Calyrex.

Of course this is all speculation, until we have more news it's not worth much thought.

A new trailer for the expansion pass just dropped.
Pretty short. Rillaboom's g-move hit Shedinja and Inteleon's hit Gastrodon, maybe they ignore abilities.
Starters Gigantamax:
Their G-Moves ignore Abilities and have a higher base power than Max Moves (and G-Max Moves which used the same Power chart).
Alright I guess, though kind of wished they did more than just that. like Cinderace's should at least burn, Inteleon's could increase its Critical Hit Ratio, and Rillaboom, I don't know, decrease the target's Speed stat.
Surprise surprise, Cinderace has the best animation of the three. Intelleon was what you expected though sadly that also means it doesn't have the oomph that Cinderace's had. Rillaboom was disappointing as you would think it would rock out and send out a shockwave, but instead it just sends out a giant tree root to do damage.
Now what is making me worried is that they mentioned in the Isle of Armor video that only your Starters will get to Gigantamax. I hope this is just marketing keeping the focus on the new content and we can give other Pokemon their Gigantamax form. Come on GF, don't be like this, just let us choose whether we want our Pokemon to either Dynamax or Gigantamax (if they have the ability). Heck, also would be nice if you could have Pokemon who could Gigantamax also have the option to just Dynamax.

New Outfits & League Cards:
Is the female outfit where she had curly blonde hair and and red dress from somewhere? I looks kind of familiar but I can't place it.
And while the caution tape frame looks fun... is that all the new League Card stuff? That's not a lot and most of it look bland. Like you could do a lot more fun things with the frames at the very least.

The longer peek at Isle of Armor confirms this is the case.

0:08: Oh, hey, that's a new bike helmet! Are we going to be allowed to customize our biking outfit! Neat! And it looks like you have a trail effect too, is that part of the bike or also something you can customize?
0:13: OOH, the Isle of Armor map! Wow, for how small it is it does look like its packed with a lot of intriguing locations. A few caves, a whole batch of islands, and looks like there's only four buildings (dojo, towers, and the station) but that's alright as this is supposed to feel like a (mostly) untouched island.
0:41: REALLY GF with the copy & paste male students? Like are you trying to make this look cheap?
0:55: Looks like our first meeting with Kubfu doesn't start out on the best of terms.
1:15: Oh, really, evolving Kubfu is just based on what tower you decide to challenge? Why was I expecting anything more from GF...
 
The starter g-max moves are stronger than normal max moves? You're telling me you could have done that this whole time, and you just chose not to, huh Game Freak?
pumpkin-eye-twitch.gif


(to justify the significantly more situational effects I reckon)
Yes, because getting a Focus Energy instead of an attack boost on a physical attacker, Stealth Rocks instead of rain on something with Swift Swim, or a sea of fire instead of sun on something with Solar Power definitely isn't situational in the slightest.



On the plus side, I like the idea of the Isle of Armor challenges. Creating a satisfying difficulty curve is extremely difficult in games like Pokemon or Hollow Knight, because it's damn near impossible for the developers to know what the player's options and power level will be at any given point. By restricting the player to only using the Kubfu they just got, Game Freak has the power to be more deliberate with the challenges they put forth on the player. Fingers crossed they don't bungle it.
 
The starter g-max moves are stronger than normal max moves? You're telling me you could have done that this whole time, and you just chose not to, huh Game Freak?
View attachment 231493


Yes, because getting a Focus Energy instead of an attack boost on a physical attacker, Stealth Rocks instead of rain on something with Swift Swim, or a sea of fire instead of sun on something with Solar Power definitely isn't situational in the slightest.



On the plus side, I like the idea of the Isle of Armor challenges. Creating a satisfying difficulty curve is extremely difficult in games like Pokemon or Hollow Knight, because it's damn near impossible for the developers to know what the player's options and power level will be at any given point. By restricting the player to only using the Kubfu they just got, Game Freak has the power to be more deliberate with the challenges they put forth on the player. Fingers crossed they don't bungle it.
I am guessing Kubfu will be completely mediocre and, because they don't want people to get frustrated because you have one (1) pokemon forced deployed in every battle, where in you also have no clue what stuff you will have access to like tms and such, they will keep it fairly even keeled with a slant towards fairly easy.
 
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I am guessing Kubfu will be completely mediocre and, because they don't want people to get frustrated because you have one (1) pokemon forced deployed in every battle, where in you also have no clue what stuff you will have access to like tms and such, they will keep it fairly even keeled with a slant towards fairly easy.
Even if it is easy, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I guess what I'm hoping for is a more puzzle-oriented experience, kind of like what I've heard Pokestar Studios is like. Have an opponent that will beat you if you don't use Bulk Up, or one that will stall you out if you don't Taunt away its recovery. Maybe you need to bait the opponent into using a status move so you can nail it with a Focus Punch, or intentionally use weak attacks until your health is low enough for Reversal to nad a KO, lest your opponent's own Reversal becomes too strong to handle. What matters is that Game Freak designs each battle with a particular solution or solutions in mind and requires the player to find those solutions by evaluating their limited options, even if the solutions aren't actually all that hard to find.
 
The starter g-max moves are stronger than normal max moves? You're telling me you could have done that this whole time, and you just chose not to, huh Game Freak?
Yeah, they did that it was called z moves last gen and everyone cried how broken they were.

Yes, because getting a Focus Energy instead of an attack boost on a physical attacker, Stealth Rocks instead of rain on something with Swift Swim, or a sea of fire instead of sun on something with Solar Power definitely isn't situational in the slightest.
VGC, remember? Both paetners get that crit boost, and sometimes that physical attack boost isnt going to do anything for a togekiss or a milotic.
Gmax Zard is also one of the strongest mons in the format last season because sea of fire does so much damage over a long time period (4 turns is a LOT). Even dreadnaw has an excuse, not wanting ro conflate weathers on a sand team or the like.
 
Yeah, they did that it was called z moves last gen and everyone cried how broken they were.
And yet Z moves remain legal in Gen 7 formats, while Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are banned in many Gen 8 formats.

Even dreadnaw has an excuse, not wanting ro conflate weathers on a sand team or the like.
I refuse to accept any excuse for specifically Drednaw. They could have easily had the Stealth Rocks be set up with a Rock-type g-max move, and Giga Drednaw would have been able to freely use its Rock STAB in the rain. But I'm not caught up on VGC, so in the pursuit of fairness, let's see what Pikanalytics has to say.

Looks like sand teams are actually pretty popular. Excadrill is everywhere, ranked third with 33.44% usage, and is paired with Tyranitar 29.673% of the time. Tyranitar is sitting pretty in eighth place with 17.30% usage, and is paired with Excadrill a whopping 56.895% of the time. How about Drednaw? Hmm, rank 186 with 0.03% usage, lower than some NFEs like Dottler and Brionne. And its partners? Dracovish, Sableye, Dusclops, Sylveon, Dhelmise, Pelipper, Ferrothorn, Toxtricity, Seismitoad, and Morpeko. A whole lot of rain, but nary a grain of sand in sight.
 
Looks like sand teams are actually pretty popular. Excadrill is everywhere, ranked third with 33.44% usage, and is paired with Tyranitar 29.673% of the time. Tyranitar is sitting pretty in eighth place with 17.30% usage, and is paired with Excadrill a whopping 56.895% of the time. How about Drednaw? Hmm, rank 186 with 0.03% usage, lower than some NFEs like Dottler and Brionne. And its partners? Dracovish, Sableye, Dusclops, Sylveon, Dhelmise, Pelipper, Ferrothorn, Toxtricity, Seismitoad, and Morpeko. A whole lot of rain, but nary a grain of sand in sight.
Those numbers are misleading.
Neither rain nor sand is popular. Tyranitar is used because it's Tyranitar and can abuse weakness policy while Dynamaxed (Albeith Rhyperior does that better).

G-max Charizard is actually pretty solid as far as I know, as VGC tends to run a bulkyer meta, and the chip damage from its Gmax move actually helps more than setting sun. G-max Hatterene is okay for Trick Room teams. G-max Lapras obviously has a niche as screen setter, though it requires committing the Dynamax to a pokemon that's nearly useless outside of it.
But that's the only G-max forms I can think having actually had usage.

Do note that G-max Machamp, Gengar, Copperjah and Duralodon only became legal recently so their usage might or might not increase.
 
And yet Z moves remain legal in Gen 7 formats, while Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are banned in many Gen 8 formats.


I refuse to accept any excuse for specifically Drednaw. They could have easily had the Stealth Rocks be set up with a Rock-type g-max move, and Giga Drednaw would have been able to freely use its Rock STAB in the rain. But I'm not caught up on VGC, so in the pursuit of fairness, let's see what Pikanalytics has to say.

Looks like sand teams are actually pretty popular. Excadrill is everywhere, ranked third with 33.44% usage, and is paired with Tyranitar 29.673% of the time. Tyranitar is sitting pretty in eighth place with 17.30% usage, and is paired with Excadrill a whopping 56.895% of the time. How about Drednaw? Hmm, rank 186 with 0.03% usage, lower than some NFEs like Dottler and Brionne. And its partners? Dracovish, Sableye, Dusclops, Sylveon, Dhelmise, Pelipper, Ferrothorn, Toxtricity, Seismitoad, and Morpeko. A whole lot of rain, but nary a grain of sand in sight.
I have seen some Gigantamax Drednaw rain teams on the OU ladder back then trying to take advantage of setting Stealth Rock for free with an high powered rain boosted nukes. It may not be objectively better but it is definitely viable, and this is one of the weaker Gigantamax effects. In general, Gigantamax being weaker is a myth perpetuated by people who are not familiar with the mechanic and it's especially obvious when Charizard is brought up, everyone familiar with doubles knows Gigantamax Charizard is an absolute menace (to the point it is often being cited right now in the Smogon Doubles Dynamax suspect as a pro-ban argument).

Despite that, I think Cinderace is probably going to be one of the weakest Gigantamax overall, because Max Flare is indeed much better in this case and Libero means it is more convenient to attack Flash Fire users with Max Knuckle or Max Darkness. Rillaboom will be about a 50/50 split after Tapus are reintroduced most likely, because resetting Terrains is always useful, but so is being able to OHKO a Dynamax Rhyperior through Solid Rock (yes, it can't do this in Grassy Terrain already) and doing more damage overall. Inteleon will probably almost always run Gigantamax because it is mostly used as a counter to Gastrodon teams to begin with.
 
I'd also point how the weather-setting of Max-Moves specifically isn't as gamebreaking as people make it.

It definitely is useful, but has 3 significant downsides that make it very unreliable:
1) It generally only comes in effect the next turn (outside of niche situations where you're using it to just deny opponent weather or neuter an attack)
2) It can be dealt with if the opponent also has Dynamaxed recently or has a actual weather setter (Tyranitar is not uncommon, and both A-ninetales and kanto one are niche but used)
3) It requires you to both Dynamax and want to actually use that attack (sometimes not possible at all, see Gastrodon existing)

Overally, the weather setting is actually one of the most sacrificable effect of a Max Move assuming the Giga effect is worth it.
 
Ended up making a rough 'complete' map for size comparison using the map we saw in the trailer. It seems the Isle of Armour is slightly smaller than the Wild Area, though of course the Isle's focus is more on training and additional stuff like move tutors and clothes and items so I could see Tundra - whose focus is exploration - being much bigger.

Also worth noting is that unlike the Wild Area, the Isle has locations you can actually go inside which could potentially be pretty large. Right away I can see a cave at the top of the map; a forest-esque thing to the right; and of course a few dojos. We've also seen from trailers that there's different caves and such that run under the Isle you can go through.

Edit: It's also ALSO worth noting that rather than looking at the direct size of the isle, we should instead be looking at the circumference of the darker water as that's the actual extent of the Isle. That along with all the little islands dotted along it could arguably make it even bigger than the Wild Area, though ymmv.

 
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