All posts tagged in Pokemon Sword and Shield
Jan 18, 2020
I have never been a big fan of.doll houses but this adorable Pokemon Doll House Furniture collection could change my mind!
There is something so satisfying and appealing about a tiny world at your fingertips. Thats why I enjoyed playing Animal Crossing New Leaf so much as the Nintendo 3Ds gives the impression of holding a small world in the palm of your hand.
The Tiny Pokemon Doll House Collection brings that feeling into reality with a wide variety of super cute little Pokemon themed pieces of doll house equipment just like Polly Pockets… but bigger. For some extra eye candy check out the uber adorable collection below!
Pokemon Doll House Availability
The Pokemon Doll House Collection is (who would have guessed) only available in Japan but luckily since they are listed on Amazon JP, these items ship worldwide!
Tiny Garden Pals
If you enjoy tiny things you might enjoy this super adorable Animal Crossing themed Tiny Garden Kit! You can check it out right here.
- Jan 15, 2020
Pokémon: Twilight Wings is a new animated web series. The anime series is based on Pokémon Sword and Shield and is set in the Galar region.
The online-exclusive series was announced back in December 2019. Its announcement came shortly after The Pokémon Company announced new content in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Pokémon: Twilight Wings is airing on YouTube and consists of seven episodes. The series will feature familiar faces from the Galar region, such as Leon and Chairman Rose. The series’ is animated by Studio Colorido, who are notorious for anime films such as Penguin Highway.
A press release for the web series gives the following insight:
Galar is a region where Pokémon battles have developed into a cultural sensation. Over the span of seven episodes, “Pokémon: Twilight Wings” will show in detail the dreams of Galar’s residents, the realities they face, the challenges they must overcome and the conflicts they must resolve. In addition to these new stories, fans can expect to see a variety of Pokémon originally discovered in the Galar region appearing in the capsule series.
Each episode will be approximately 5 minutes long. The first episode entitled ‘Letter’ was released today, Wednesday, 15th January. The first episode takes place in a hospital, and features a boy named ‘John’. John is a big fan of Pokémon and Galar region’s champion Leon and wishes for nothing more than to see him in a stadium match. When Chairman Rose visits the hospital, will he be able to make John’s wishes come true?
The first episode can be viewed below:
The next episode in the series will release in early February. You can watch episode 2 on the official Pokémon YouTube channel.
- Jan 9, 2020
Todays Nintendo Direct was packed and Pokemon Home was one of the major announcements to be made. The Cloud Based Storage service lets you transfer Pokemon between many different Pokemon games!
Caught your favorite Pokemon in Pokemon Go but would like to have it in Pokemon Shield and Sword? That is now possible thanks to Pokemon Home! The service is essentially an upgraded and evolved form of Pokemon Bank and the app will be available on smartphones ( iOS and Android ) as well as on Nintendo Switch.
How much will Pokemon Home cost?
It won’t be a free service and if Pokemon Bank is any indication it could possibly offer a subscription of $4.99/year. Neither GameFreak nor Nintendo have made any announcements about the pricing model yet.
What games does Pokemon Home support?
Pokemon Home will be compatible between many of the most recent Pokemon games released. You will be able to manage and transfer your Pokemon between Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokemon Go, Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee, Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu, and Pokemon Bank.
When is Pokemon Home releasing?
There is no exact release date other than February, 2020. So there is only very little wait until we can share and trade our most beloved Pokemon!
More Pokemon News!
For more Pokemon related news, check out the brand new Pokemon movie – the power of us!
You can watch todays Pokemon Direct below!
- 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 18, 2019
Ever traveled or wanted to during the winter holidays? It can be tough choosing a location when you have to consider your stay, your mode of transportation, and daily meals. Then there are some of us that have spent all our money on the many Switch games that have released these past couple months and can’t afford to take a trip anywhere right now.
What I can do is help you imagine a perfect winter getaway packed full of fun activities in virtual worlds. From playing hockey with Rhynocs to shopping in a bustling city with people and their pocket monsters, I’ve made a quiz to determine what best suits your personality! Now we just need a way to beam ourselves in those videogame locations…
- Nov 2, 2019
An exciting new trailer for the upcoming Pokémon anime series has recently been released.
The trailer focuses on the series’s first episode, which is titled ‘The Birth of Pikachu’.
As the title suggests, the episode appears to explore how Pikachu met Ash, or to at least give an insight into the life of the mouse-like creature before meeting Ash.
The episode, which is flashback-like in style, features a lonely young Pichu. Given the episode’s title, we can only assume this is the Pikachu we all know and love.
The first episode is set in the Kanto region. It has already been confirmed, however, that the series will take place across all regions, including Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Galar region.
According to Serebeii.net, the first episode will air on November 15th. This coincides with the release date of Pokémon Sword and Shield.
[source: serebeii.net ]
- Oct 31, 2019
Are there any 3DS game franchises that you’d like to see come to the Switch?
As a result of the popularity of the Nintendo Switch Lite, it appears that more of our favorite games from the 3DS might be making their way to the Nintendo Switch. The Pokemon franchise has already made the jump, and soon we will get to see exactly how fabulous of a transition it really is.
Link’s Awakening for the Switch was very well received, and many were overjoyed to see Link in this new adorable light. The 3DS has just so many wonderful titles, this is truly great news. All thanks to the Nintendo Switch Lite already selling almost 2 million copies worldwide.
Soon the Switch will have the next installment in what is basically my favorite Nintendo franchise, Animal Crossing. I can only imagine what other wonderful 3DS games might be making their way to the best family console on the market.
Another great crossover to keep an eye on is the release of Professor Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – Deluxe Edition, which will be available on Nintendo Switch on November 11th through the official Nintendo website.
- 1
- 2
