The Pokemon World Championship is happening right now, making it the perfect time for Nintendo and Game Freak to drop some new Pokemon Sword and Shield information, including a new trailer.
The new details revolve around the game being updated and a multi-level combat system that will have some new attacks and abilities as well as some new items.
New abilities include Galarian Weezing's Neutralizing Gas, which, as its name suggests, will neutralize the abilities of all Pokémon on the battlefield (including your teammate, as shown in the trailer with the Poor Saint's failure to levitate). We don't know what will happen if two Galarian Weezings go head to head and we're even less sure what we want to know.
In a similar vein, Corviknight is shown to have hidden abilities called Mirror Armor, which will allow him to deflect any stat-reducing effects on his opponents.
Hidden abilities, this has been confirmed on the blog, are a little more special than the standard abilities, as they will only be on Pokémon that have been caught in Max Raids (so the Corviknight you catch from a normal encounter doesn't have the Mirrored Armor ability).
These maximum raids, by the way, you will be able to face other kind of special Pokémon: one that is capable of Gigantamaxing. If you're really lucky, you can go to the Max Raid fight and walk away with Pokemon that can Gigantamax и has hidden abilities, but this will be very rare and you will have to take part in many raids.
The first new held item is revealed in the maintenance trailer, which will slow down a Pokémon's speed by keeping it in the focus of the room. The other is an extractable pack that will toggle holding a Pokémon out of combat if its stats drop, allowing you to swap it out for another one from your team.
New moves are always exciting and the trailer reveals one called Breaking Swipe, an attack capable of hitting two Pokémon at once and reducing their attacks.
Max Moves
The biggest (and we mean literally) detail from the trailer is the relatively new Dynamaxing mechanic.
You can Spectrum any Galar area Pokemon for as long as you have a Spectrum group (this is different from the aforementioned Gigantamaxing which only some Pokemon species can do) and on those you make big' will never feel uncomfortable flinching effects . Even better, their powerful Max moves will have secondary effects that can see your team gain an advantage in combat. Max Geyser, for example, water-type is the maximum move that will bring rain to the battlefield, strengthening water-type movement and weakening fire-type movement, which can really give you an advantage.
Finally, little details about the Battle of the Stadium online have been confirmed. Players with a Nintendo online subscription will be able to connect over the internet and participate in single or double battles. These fights can be ranked or casual, with former participation facing coaches in similar ranks to try and score points to move up, while the latter is, well, just for fun.
Pokémon Sword and Shield will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch on November 15th. If you're attending Gamescom 2019 this month, you can get your hands on a Nintendo game at the booth in the showroom.
- Everything You Need to Know About Pokemon Sword and Shield