All posts tagged in Game Freak
Nov 26, 2019
The Wild Area and online options become accessible early on in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. If you don’t like spoiling new 8th generation Pokemon or like to catch as many Pokemon on your own before trading, I recommend getting all of your badges in the main game to fully enjoy everything the online multiplayer feature has to offer. You must have all 7 Gym Badges (last one is the Dragon Badge) in order to find Gigantamax Pokemon in the Wild Area. I go into more details and which select few Pokemon have Gigantamax forms here. See below for more information about playing with other players and ongoing official competitions by Nintendo for rewards and bragging rights!
Link Battles and Link Codes
Link Battles are between you and other players online. If you only want to play with your friends specifically, you can set up a Link Code. A Link Code is a 4-digit password that your friends will have to input in order to join. This is set up this way because everything you do is broadcast live via Stamps (more on that later). Link Battles allow you to choose Single Battle for one-on-one battling and Double Battle where two players can send out 2 Pokemon at one time. Finally, there’s Multi Battle which is similar to a Double Battle but four players are involved and get to control one Pokemon each.
Link Trades and Surprise Trades
Link Trades are the way to go if you have a certain Pokemon in mind that you want to trade with a friend. You can also connect with someone randomly online and both come to an agreement for a trade. If there’s a Pokemon you know you don’t need anymore, Surprise Trades can be really fun! Select the Pokemon that you want traded and go about your business in-game until your Y-Comm alerts you that they found you someone and the trade is complete. As adorable as Skwovet is (the pudgy-cheeked squirrel), you’ll probably come across it often in Surprise Trades as it is the new Ratata. Other times you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what players send out there!
The Victory Station
Go to your menu and click on VS (Victory Station) which displays stats such as whether Shield players or Sword players are winning in categories like “Hatched the most eggs” and “Cooked the most while camping” by comparing numbers with 100 players online. From there, you can select either Battle Stadium for various online competition options or Live Competition to host or participate in battles via LAN.
Battle Stadium
- Casual Battles: Anything goes in single and double battles and it’s all just for good fun or to just test your skills as a Trainer.
- Ranked Battles: Compete for the highest rank with other players around the world. You’ll be matched up with others in your tier so that the battles are fair. At the end of each season you’ll get in-game rewards based on your position in the Leaderboards.
- Online Competitions: These are limited live and official ongoing competitions. Check out the announcement here for details on the very first competition, Galar Beginnings. You’ll want to sign up now for the period between December 6th-8th, 2019. All players will receive a Participation Gift after completing at least one battle.
- Rental Teams: This new feature allows you to share your Battle Team for the public to use, or “borrow” someone else’s to play around with in battles.
Ranked Battles
Nintendo just announced that Ranked Battle Season 1 is now under way until the end of December 2019. During this time, the rules listed will remain the same with restrictions to Pokemon that you can use. Another season will be starting on January 1st, 2020. For this time around, you’ll be entering in Double Battles, using only 4 Pokemon from your team, and all of your Pokemon will be at Lv. 50. At the end of the season, if you’ve competed in at least one match, you can get the following rewards from the Mystery Gift menu.
- Master Ball Tier: 3 Gold Bottle Caps and 600 Battle Points.
- Ultra Ball Tier: 1 Gold Bottle Cap and 300 Battle Points.
- Great Ball Tier: 3 Bottle Caps, 1 Ability Capsule, 1 Jolly Mint, 1 Timid Mint, and 100 Battles Points.
- Poke Ball Tier & Beginner Tier: 1 Ability Capsule, 1 Jolly Mint, 1 Timid Mint, and 50 Battle Points.
Battle Points, or BP, can be spent by talking to an NPC in the Pokemon Center in Hammerlocke in exchange for special items.
Y-Comm and Searching Stamps
Going to your Y-Comm and changing your Local Communication to Internet will allow you to see what everyone online is currently up to by displaying Stamps at all times on the bottom left of your screen. This includes Link Trades, Surprise Trades, Link Battles, and Max Raid Battles. In your Y-Comm menu, it is possible to filter your Stamps if you are looking for specific battles to join or only want to see the Stamps of your friends. I usually set mine to Max Raid Battles and pay attention to the specific red ones as they are the “incredibly/massively strong Pokemon” ones. If someone else found a rare Gigantamax Pokemon, you can join in with a total of 4 players. You’ll want to act fast as this can fill up quickly.
If you find your own Gigantamax Pokemon, I recommend Inviting Others as it’s a very tough battle to fight alone or the three other NPCs given at random can be pretty terrible. You’ll come across a few Magikarp that will often faint and then come back after a few turns at full health, only to faint again.
In every Max Raid Battle, any Pokemon can faint up to 4 times before you lose and get kicked out of the den. You also lose if you go over 10 total turns. Therefore, either set up a Link Code for your friends, or wait the full 3 minutes to give players the chance to join. It is possible to have a mixture of players and NPCs if you can’t fill out all four slots.
Playing with Others Keeps Things Interesting for a Long Time to Come
Even if you have finished the main game of Pokemon Sword and Shield, there are still competitions to enter for rewards and your Pokemon to show-off. If you want to fill out your Pokedex, you’ll need to spend some time in the Wild Area, and to trade for version exclusive Pokemon. Hosting or joining others in Max Raid Battles and Dynamaxing Pokemon is also another fun way to share in the experience and to get the most out of your game.
Of course to do all that you’ll need a Nintendo Switch Online account. You can find the pricing plans here, however, I recommend getting an Amazon Prime account now as you get Twitch Prime and 12 months of Nintendo Switch Online at no extra cost. Find out more about that amazing limited time offer here.
- Nov 21, 2019
I’ve been playing Pokemon Shield (for that Galarian Ponyta) since it released for the Nintendo Switch on November 15th, 2019 and loving it so much! There are new features that we’ve discussed here, including Cooking, Camping, Dynamaxing, Max Raids, along with 8th generation Pokemon for the Galar Region (94 new Pokemon).
Other new changes include: using your bike to get around (rather than Pokemon), no more HMs, Flying Taxi system early-on (fast-travel), a mix of random encounters and visible Pokemon on your map, being able to access your Pokemon Boxes anytime (not just at the Pokemon Centers), customizing your League I.D. card, finding Pokemon with better stats (yellow auras), spinning your joystick to strike a pose (and to evolve Milcery), and much more! What you may not know is how to obtain certain Pokemon and certain things about the Wild Area which you can read about below!
How to Get Mew
The Poke Ball Plus first released for Pokemon GO to help catch more Pokemon faster. When you take your Pokemon for a “stroll” and come across a Pokemon you can catch, the Poke Ball Plus will light up and vibrate in your hand. If you haven’t bought and used one already, you can do so for Pokemon Sword and Shield and receive Mew! Mew is inside all Poke Ball Plus toys and you can transfer it to either Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu or Sword/Shield only once. Just connect to the internet, connect your Poke Ball Plus to your Switch, and go to your Mystery Gift menu. There’s no other way to obtain a Mew in-game. Keep using your Poke Ball Plus because you can obtain free items every time such as Great Balls, Ultra Balls, and Stardust.
The Difference Between Dynamax and Gigantamax
These new phenomenon for Pokemon Sword and Shield may have you a bit confused early on. Dynamax Pokemon will appear in Gyms and in Max Raids which are basically just larger versions of Pokemon that have better stats and special moves. For the Gigantamax Pokemon, there are only a small number of Pokemon that not only become better and larger, but have a distinctive new look and can use G-Max moves. I’ve provided a list below, although there may be some version exclusives.
- Pikachu (free gift for playing Let’s Go Pikachu)
- Eevee (free gift for playing Let’s Go Eevee)
- Meowth (limited-time Mystery Gift)
- Charizard
- Butterfree
- Machamp
- Gengar
- Kingler
- Lapras
- Garbodor
- Corviknight
- Orbeetle
- Drednaw
- Coalossal
- Flapple/Appletun
- Sandaconda
- Centiskorch
- Hatterene
- Grimmsnarl
- Alcremie
- Copperajah
- Duraludon
If you’ve read this article here, then you know there is currently an event where certain Gigantamax Pokemon are more likely to appear. When you see a glowing red light from Max Raid dens that shoot upward, there’s a Pokemon in there. When you check to see which one it is, there’s only a silhouette and type. If you’re good at recognizing silhouettes, you’ll notice a slight variation in the Gigantamax ones. They are harder/rarer to find and they will sometimes avoid capture. Therefore, make sure to bring Ultra Balls with you and that you are at a high enough level to fight a 5-star battle. To literally speed everything along, make sure to speak to the NPCs in the Wild Area that will trade Watts for bike upgrades.
If you’re not sure if you have a Pokemon that can Gigantamax, you’ll see in your Pokemon’s summary that there’s a large pink/red X in front of their name. Also, don’t forget to claim your free Mystery Gift Meowth as you only have until early January 2020!
There are Rarer Shiny Pokemon to Catch
Catching Shiny Pokemon are hard enough as it is because there’s only a 1 in 4,096 chance you’ll find them with a different color. Now, if you’re a Shiny collector, you’ll have to spend even more time in the grass fighting the same Pokemon as there are even rarer Shinies to find! What you need to look out for if you’re not sure about the color difference is to look for shiny flying squares coming from the Pokemon once you’ve entered a battle with it. This is opposed to the usual yellow stars. See below for an image of an adorably Shiny black sheep Wooloo.
How to Cook Curry and Joining Other Players
If you go into your Y-Comm and switch your Local Communication for Internet, you’ll be able to see players from all over the world in the Wild Area. Talk to them to get either free items that you can sell or ingredients to cook with at your camp. You’ll need to shake some Berry trees to add to your dishes and the rarer the berry, the better the dish.
It’s hard to know exactly what makes a higher ranking dish since there is no recipe book, but if you play the cooking mini-game well (sparkles above pot, throw heart in when you hit the light-green circle), choose several Berries in keeping with the flavor of your ingredient choice, and also increase the amount of Berries used, you should be able to at least get a ranking high enough to fully heal all of your Pokemon. Here’s a list of flavor types:
- Spicy: Tanga, Cheri, Tamato
- Dry: Leppa, Chesto, Passho, Chilan, Kebia
- Sweet: Salac, Pecha
- Bitter: Coba, Rawst, Aguav
- Sour: Salac, Aspear, Wiki, Iapapa, Colbur
- Neutral: Sitrus, Lum, Hondew
When you’re online, you might see another player’s tent, If you enter it, you’ll get the chance to cook together which is really helpful if you’re trying to make better curry. Don’t forget to play with your Pokemon before leaving your tent as they will gain a lot more EXP this way. When you “unlock” more curries, you can go and talk to the Camping King before entering Motostoke and he will give your more toys to play with your Pokemon.
Let me know if I’ve missed anything and how you’re enjoying the game!
- Nov 15, 2019
Pokemon Sword and Shield is finally here for the Nintendo Switch as of November 15th, 2019! For those of you that will only be choosing one of those games and aren’t quite sure yet which one to go for, I’ve made a list of exclusives to help! There will be different things in either Sword or Shield which are as follows: Gym Leaders, Exclusive Pokemon, Legendary Pokemon, and Gigantamax Pokemon with a higher rate of appearance in Max Raid Battles.
Gym Leaders
You probably already knew that you’d have some Pokemon to choose from if you’re only purchasing one of the two games. However, did you know that you also have two exclusive Gym Leaders to choose from in each game? Consider which type of Pokemon you would rather battle against!
- Pokemon Sword: Bea the Fighter Gym Leader and Gordie the Rock Gym Leader
- Pokemon Shield: Alister the Ghost Gym Leader and Melony the Ice Gym Leader
Exclusive Pokemon
Probably one of the toughest decisions is to decide between the two Galarian exclusives of first generation Pokemon; Galarian Ponyta (Shield) and Sirfetch’d (Sword). However, there are also many other Pokemon to consider that can only be found in one or the other!
- Pokémon Sword:
- Deino (Dark/Dragon)
- Hydreigon (Dark/Dragon)
- Jangmo-o (Dragon)
- Kommo-o (Dragon/Fighting)
- Hakamo-o (Dragon/Fighting)
- Farfetch’d (Normal/Flying)
- Sirfetch’d (Fighting)
- Zweilous (Dark/Dragon)
- Gothita (Psychic)
- Gothorita (Psychic)
- Gothitelle (Psychic)
- Turtonator (Fire/Dragon)
- Seedot (Grass)
- Nuzleaf (Grass/Dark)
- Shiftry (Grass/Dark)
- Mawile (Steel/Fairy)
- Solrock (Rock/Psychic)
- Basculin (Water)
- Darumaka (Ice)
- Darmanitan (Ice)
- Scraggy (Dark/Fighting)
- Scrafty (Dark/Fighting)
- Rufflet (Normal/Flying)
- Braviary (Normal/Flying)
- Swirlix (Fairy)
- Slurpuff (Fairy)
- Passimian (Fighting)
- Coalossal (Rock/Fire)
- Flapple (Grass/Dragon)
- Stonjourner (Rock)
- Indeedee, Male (Psychic/Normal)
- Pokemon Shield:
- Goomy (Dragon)
- Sliggo (Dragon)
- Goodra (Dragon)
- Larvitar (Rock/Ground)
- Pupitar (Rock/Ground)
- Tyranitar (Rock/Ground)
- Galarian Ponyta (Psychic)
- Solosis (Psychic)
- Duosion (Psychic)
- Reuniclus (Psychic)
- Drampa (Normal/Dragon)
- Vullaby (Dark/Flying)
- Mandibuzz (Dark/Flying)
- Gengar (Ghost/Poison)
- Lapras (Water/Ice)
- Cursola (Ghost)
- Lotad (Water/Grass)
- Lombre (Water/Grass)
- Ludicolo (Water/Grass)
- Sableye (Dark/Ghost)
- Lunatone (Rock/Psychic)
- Croagunk (Poison/Fight)
- Toxicroak (Poisin/Fight)
- Basculin, Blue-stripe form (Water)
- Spritzee (Fairy)
- Aromatisse (Fairy)
- Oranguru (Normal/Psychic)
- Appletun (Grass/Dragon)
- Eiscue (Ice)
- Indeedee, Female (Psychic/Normal)
Legendary Pokemon
There are always two different Legendary Pokemon to choose from in every Pokemon title and this one is no different. Zacian is a fairy-type and Zamazenta is a fighting-type!
- Pokemon Sword: Zacian
- Pokemon Shield: Zamazenta
Max Raid Battles
According to Pokemon’s official website, from Friday, November 15th, 2019, until early January 2020, players will be more likely to encounter Gigantamax Butterfree in Max Raid Battles. Below are the confirmed Pokemon that are more likely to appear for both games during that same time period.
- Pokemon Sword: Gigantamax Drednaw
- Pokemon Shield: Gigantamax Corviknight
If you aren’t even sure about purchasing Pokemon Sword and Shield at all today, take another look at everything we know and have covered on these titles here!
- Oct 9, 2019
Not long after the most surprising announcement of an evolution for Farfetch’d, Sirfetch’d, as the upcoming Pokemon Sword exclusive on the Nintendo Switch, we get another first generation Pokemon with a new look! Now in the Galar region, you can look forward to finding Ponyta’s new Physic-type form which includes a long fluffy pastel-colored tail and mane, as well as a horn on the forehead! This unicorn-like beauty however will be a Pokemon Shield exclusive.
A change brought about by the life energy of the forests
Galarian Ponyta have been found in a certain forest of the Galar region since ancient times. It is said that they were exposed to the overflowing life energy of the forest over many generations, and this is why their appearance became unique in this region.
CATEGORY: Unique Horn Pokémon
TYPE: Psychic
HEIGHT: 2’7″
WEIGHT: 52.9 lbs.
ABILITY: Run Away / Pastel VeilBehold its glistening mane
Galarian Ponyta can absorb the life energy of the surrounding atmosphere and store it in its mane. It seems that Ponyta’s mane will become more colorful, and even emit a sparkling glow, if there is a lot of energy around.
Galarian Ponyta has the Ability Pastel Veil
Galarian Ponyta’s Ability, Pastel Veil, is a new Ability introduced in these titles. This Ability prevents the Pokémon and its allies from becoming poisoned! It can even cure the poisoned status condition of its allies when this Pokémon enters the battlefield!
To see the full list of Pokemon announced for Pokemon Sword and Shield, you can check out the official website here. The decision to pick either Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield (or both) will be a tough one, which version are you thinking of getting?
- Sep 5, 2019
During Nintendo’s Direct last night we finally got the official title for Town; Little Town Hero! This strategic RPG is created by none other than GAME FREAK, the geniuses behind the classic Pokemon games. With a new trailer we got to see a lot more of the battle system, the townsfolk that will be aiding you, as well as some of the single boss monsters you’ll be facing off against. Little Town Hero will be releasing digitally on the Nintendo Switch on October 17th, 2019 for $24.99 US. You can pre-order it now right here!
About Little Town Hero
The story is set in an isolated village on the edge of the world. The only gate leading outside is heavily guarded by a castle, and the villagers are not allowed to leave. Most of the villagers don’t give it a thought, and happily go on with their everyday lives. However, the protagonist is a little different from the others – he wants to see the world outside. One day, a “Monster” appears in the village, shocking everyone because until then, no one knew such creatures existed. The protagonist is able to fight it using a mysterious Red stone he found in the coalmines. In the course of his defense of the village, he gradually unravels secrets of how the stones and the monsters came to be…
Catch the Live Stream
GAME FREAK’s 30th Anniversary Celebration Stream will go live on Oct 16 (JST), 2019! In this special stream Junichi Masuda; one of the founding members and composers of GAME FREAK, will give us the history of the company, reveal information about their game development system, and give us the latest information on Little Town Hero along with another title. You can watch the live stream on GAME FREAK’s official channels on Twitter Periscope and YouTube Live. You can also check out their official website here.
- Jun 28, 2019
Developed by the makers of the most epic Pokemon titles!
Town is a super cute looking RPG game being made by the creators of the best Pokemon games, Game Freak. Game Freak is not only responsible for making the best classic Pokemon games, like Red and Blue, but also the soon-to-be-released Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. They created many games outside the Pokemon franchise however, like HarmoKnight and Drill Dozer. Now, they are working very hard on creating Town, an action RPG that takes place only in a single town.
Town was revealed last year in September’s Nintendo Direct. We got to see a reveal trailer which showed just enough information to get everyone excited, but not quite enough to satiate our curiosity. It is shown that you will get to play as a cute hero who must save his village from an invasion of monsters.
The action in the game is experienced through turn-based battle. You will also be able to summon the help of other villages during battle to aid in defeating the larger enemies. Town is still a working title, and is set to be released sometime this year. Recently, an image was leaked on Reddit that gives us a closer look at what the battle sequences might actually look like.
Reveal Trailer
For more Game Freak action, check out our coverage of the new Pokemon games coming soon by clicking here. To learn more about the creators of the game, check out Game Freaks official website by clicking here.
