Refrain from using first person pronouns, please. This is a WMG page, not a forum.
Pre-Release Theories
- The Welsh Pembroke Corgi
- To be used, almost exclusively, by Socialites
- Confirmed. Yamper fits the description of a Corgi.
- A butler and maid
- Confirmed with Indeedee. Not quite in the way you expected though.
- Gargoyles
- A teapot
- It will be Water/Fire: Water by being a container and fire for heating it up.
- An evolution line with a Pokémon that starts as a teabag, evolves into a teacup, and then evolves again into a teapot.
- Half-confirmed, as it starts with a teacup in Sinistea, then Polteageist, a teapot.
- Confirmed with Polteageist. However, its typing is Ghost.
- Big Ben
- Chess pieces
- We already got Pawniard and Bisharp for that so it's unlikely.
- Still possible, as the chess puns aren't part of the Japanese names, so the chess theme is pretty much only for the localized versions.
- Half-confirmed, as Rookidee and its final evolution Corviknight are named after chess pieces as well. However, the line isn't fully named after chess pieces (there are no chess pieces called Squires to fit for Corvisquire), and it's only in the English version, so the same situation as Pawniard and Bisharp.
- We already got Pawniard and Bisharp for that so it's unlikely.
- The Nuckelavee
- And it'll either be Water/Fairy or Dark/Fairy.
- A griffon
- The Black Shuck
- The Cù-Sìth
- Lambton Worm
- The water starter evolves into the Loch Ness Monster
- Jossed. It evolves into a spy.
- Characters from Alice in Wonderland, like Alice, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, and/or the Jabberwocky.
- Their types would be pure Fairy, Normal/Fairy or Ghost/Fairy, Dark/Fairy, and Dragon/Fairy, respectively.
- Peter Pan
- Doctor Who
- Thomas & Friends (or at least a train Pokémon)
- Unlikely we'll have something based directly on Thomas or any of his colleagues/rivals, though Rolycoly has many traits of something that will evolve into a train-themed Pokémon, such as it traveling on wheels, being made of/powered by coal, and gaining Speed through steam.
- Jossed, it evolves into Carkol, a living mine cart, then Coalossal, a coal behemoth with the same bipedal build as Pokémon like Rhyperior and Aggron.
- Unlikely we'll have something based directly on Thomas or any of his colleagues/rivals, though Rolycoly has many traits of something that will evolve into a train-themed Pokémon, such as it traveling on wheels, being made of/powered by coal, and gaining Speed through steam.
- Jack the Ripper
- Spring-Heeled Jack
- Baryonyx
- Could perhaps be the region's fossil.
- A spellbook
- Anything created by J. R. R. Tolkien, whether it be Sauron, Gandalf, or a hobbit.
- The Mither-O'-The-Sea and her counterpart Teran.
- Messenger pigeons
- This would make more sense as regional variants of Pidove.
- Jossed on Pidove; although it made it in the game, it never got a regional variant.
- This would make more sense as regional variants of Pidove.
- Royal guards
- Caorthannach, the Mother of Demons
- A leprechaun
- The dullahan
- Well, we technically have that in Blacephalon...
- Mega Blacephalon?
- They're nixing Megas this time around, so not likely.
- Well, we technically have that in Blacephalon...
- Red squirrels (possibly the resident rodentlike Com Mon)
- Confirmed with Greedent.
- Or the newest Pika-clone
- Could evolve into a Steel-type.
- Ravens (after the famous London Ravenmaster)
- Confirmed with the reveal of Corviknight.
- A Lion and Unicorn based on the royal coat of arms.
- Sort of confirmed: the regional Ponyta variant looks like a unicorn, and the 24 hour live stream they used to announce it could be a nod to the fact that unicorns are, in the stories, difficult to find and fearful of humans.
- Confirmed with Galarian Rapidash, which looks like a unicorn you'd see in a fairy tale.
- Sort of confirmed: the regional Ponyta variant looks like a unicorn, and the 24 hour live stream they used to announce it could be a nod to the fact that unicorns are, in the stories, difficult to find and fearful of humans.
- A Gothic Horror character.
- Morpeko seems to be based around The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Steel-type sheep Pokemon (for the "steel wool" pun).
- There's a sheep Pokémon called Wooloo, but it's a Normal-type, so jossed unless it evolves into a Steel-Type.
- Fully jossed, as Wooloo's evolution is Dubwool, also a pure Normal-type.
- There's a sheep Pokémon called Wooloo, but it's a Normal-type, so jossed unless it evolves into a Steel-Type.
- Water/Steel swordfish/narwhal.
- Sherlock Holmes, and it will be Looker's local partner.
- Rival red and white dragons
- Shetland Pony
- Robin Hood
- Maybe based on the Disney version of him?
- Decidueye's already got that covered, so unlikely.
- A clockwork automaton
- Doesn't Magearna already count?
- Haunted armour
- Perhaps they have a signature Ability that allows it to equip any of the Honedge line as a weapon.
- An Electric-Steel Pachirisu evo. An Electric/Fighting Togedemaru evo with a berserk Dark-Type Mega Evolution. An Echidna pseudo-legend. A Flying-Type regional variant of Vulpix that evolves into a Steel/Fighting Type Ninetales.
- The lubber fiend, a large hairy creature who does housework in exchange for a saucer of milk and a place in front of the fire.
- A Harry Potter-type Pokémon that casts spells.
- A Petrifying Well, similar to Sandygast
- A dolphin.
- A bloodhound.
- A peacock.
- The Welsh Dragon
- A living rhubarb stalk, since rhubarb's first use was recorded in England.
- A Pokémon (possibly Poison/Steel) based on industrial/factory pollution (given that Steampunk/Industrialization might be a theme in some parts of the game)
- Confirmed with Galarian Weezing, whose hat-like protrusions also resemble factory smokestacks. However, it's Poison/Fairy.
- A Pokémon based on a train/locomotive would also fit in well with the industrial theme. It would make an excellent idea for a Fire/Steel type Pokémon.
- Or even base the generation's legendary trio on trains; a Steel/Fire steam engine, a Steel/Electric bullet train, and a Steel/Ghost ghost train.
- Not completely confirmed, but Rolycoly is headed in this direction, as it's a wheeled Pokémon made of coal. It's Rock-type, so whatever it evolves into, if any, will very likely also be Rock-type.
- Jossed, it evolves into the Rock/Fire Carkol and Coalossal. Carkol looks like a mine cart, but Coalossal looks nothing like its pre-evolved forms at all.
- A Pokémon based on mining canaries (maybe Flying/Steel —> Flying/Poison), canaries which miners sent into mines to see if the air was safe to breathe (if the canary died, don't go any further).
- Maybe from there it can evolve into a Poison/Ghost or Flying/Ghost?
- Or it could have an ability that changes its type when poisoned.
- Maybe from there it can evolve into a Poison/Ghost or Flying/Ghost?
- A Weever Fish
- A Sound/Fighting type Pokémon who looks like none other than Freddie Mercury, since the Freddie Mercopy thing is common in Japanese media.
- Jossed, no Sound type was made this gen.
- British Coppers
- Bagpipes
- A version exclusive Ground/Dark stoat and Ground/Fighting badger duo.
- A Dragoon Pokémon (based on Dragoons in RPGs) who has a jump attack.
- Phancero, aka Olden. The Pokémon Company is aware of Twitch Plays Pokémon, as for the series' 20th Anniversary, they had an anime stream called "Twitch Watches Pokémon", so they could reference it in some way.
- This is extremely unlikely due to the sketchy legal position of fan characters and their use in official media. Doing so could potentially weaken the legal claim Nintendo and Game Freak have on their IP.
- To reference Final Fantasy, a Pokémon that looks like Cloud, complete with a giant sword.
- Stephen Hawking
- The Cockatrice, also introducing petrification as a powerful move that deals Special Rock-type damage.
- A Pokémon based on an Adder snake.
- A Grass Snake (a snake species local in the UK) with the ability to feign fainting.
- A silkworm (and a straight-up one). We have Generation VIII Pokémon themed on cotton and another based on sheep. This would complete the trifecta of organic sources of fabric.
- A Bug-type Pokémon evolution line based on the peppered moth, with two variants or alternate evolutions in reference to the peppered moth's evolution in real life.
- Beefeaters
- The British Bigfoot or one of its similar derivatives (Shug-Monkey, Man-Monkey, Am Fear Liath Mor, etc.), found in a region resembling either Stonehenge or the Cannock Chase.
- Pokemon based on Grey Seals. Either a new evolution line, or a Galarian variats for Seel and Dewgong, that would be water/ground.
- Probably because they're supposed to be preview Pokémon for Generation 8, just like Munchlax, Mime Jr., Ho-Oh, and so on...
- And the region is supposed to be heavily themed on industrialization.
- They could be the next Zygarde, but with a different collection mechanic
- Or the next Cosmog —> Cosmoem —> Solgaleo/Lunala.
- General
- Grass/Fairy, Fire/Steel, and Water/Fighting
- Grass/Rock, Fire/Electric, and Water/Ghost
- Grass/Rock, Fire/Fairy, and Water/Fighting
- Grass/Electric, Fire/Ground, and Water/Flying
- All pure types throughout the line, just so they could demonstrate a buff given to just Pokémon with a single type.
- Confirmed that all three starters remain pure Grass, Fire and Water.
- Grass/Rock, Fire/Electric, and Water/Ice, where their secondary types can help make the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors go the other way. The secondary typings will be gained at the middle stage.
- Uh... that would leave Scorbunny's evolutions kind of screwed, since neither of its STAB types would be super-effective on Grookey's evolutions.
- Then maybe Grookey's final typing will be Grass/Ground instead? Ground will be x4 effective against Scorbunny, but at least the latter can hit back with Fire.
- Grookey
- A Donkey Kong look-a-like who uses bongos, as a reference to Donkey Konga.
- A Pure type football fan or Grass/Dark football hooligan with a vuvuzela and many sound-based moves/Soundproof as a hidden Ability.
- 100%, Grookey's final evolution will be music-themed. All of Grookey's names in other languages have to do with tempo, rhythm, and music (like the French "Ouistempo"). This could imply that the stick in Grookey's fur is a rhythm stick, and that in addition to "grass/green" and "monkey", the word "groove" (and maybe "key") is an inspiration for Grookey's English name.
- As the above mentions, some sort of drummer theme, based on Grookey tapping its stick on things in the trailer. Either a punk-rock drummer with a leafy mohawk, or a taiko drummer theme with its stomach being a giant drum.
- Will be based on Little John.
- Will be based on Sun Wukong.
- Will be based on plush animals in general, with the final form resembling a gigantic teddy bear/stuffed toy monkey.
- Nekomimi, but more primitive; it will be a primate with pronounced feline traits.
- Final evolution is a big, fat gorilla with man-boobs, somewhat fitting into the 'feminine'(?) of the trio.
- Rillaboom confirmed to have a musical motif as a gorilla that carries a wooden drum complete with drumsticks. Also is pure Grass.
- Scorbunny
- Will be a Fragile Speedster
- Will be secondary Fairy for its tricky outlook.
- Dark-type again, to symbolise dirty tactics.
- Soccer/football player who uses firey rocks as the soccer ball/football. Bonus points for the "Scor-" part to take from both "scorch" and "score."
- Secondary Ground-type or Electric-type to emphasize fast running.
- Will be based on the jackalope, because starting with Generation IV, there's always at least one fully evolved starter whose theme is based on a cultural element of somewhere else.
- If Scorbunny were to be part Electric, then the antlers will be formed from lightning.
- Fire/Poison - a bit dark, but a reference to myxomatosis, which has inflammation as a symptom OR the fatigue toxins that build up during exercise. The bandage on its nose could even be a hint towards something health and sickness related.
- There was a dumpster behind it when it was first revealed, and Pokémon associated with pollution, such as Grimer and Trubbish, are always Poison types, so you might be onto something.
- The June 5th direct showed Scorbunny at lv 15 knowing Double Kick. While that doesn't automatically confirm that it's a Fire/Fighting type, given that all the dual-type Fire starters did learn a few moves that weren't from either of their two typesnote , but it does mean it's a bit more likely that Scorbunny's final form will be another Fire/Fighting.
- Fire/Fighting is one of the four type combos that would let Scorbunny's evolution hit a Grass/Rock Grookey evolution super-effectively with its STAB (the other combos are Fire/Steel, Fire/Bug, and Fire/Ice... the latter two are not even remotely plausible).
- Cinderace confirmed to have a soccer/football motif. Also is a Fragile Speedster pure Fire type.
- Sobble
- Stays pure Water throughout the line, but will have a gimmick of changing its type within battle (such as by learning Camouflage or having Protean as its hidden ability).
- Water/Ghost to go with the invisibility, and to extend the theme into mourning.
- Water/Dragon with the personality of a Cowardly Lion.
- A Water/Ghost Phantom Thief lizard, whose design is based on Joker. The same concept could also be Water/Dark, since the dark type also encompasses trickery.
- Perhaps an art-loving one too, like Chameleon in Super Secret Secret Squirrel.
- Inteleon confirmed as a pure Water lizard with a spy motif. Its Hidden Ability is Sniper, however.
- Going off of one of the other WMGs above, Grookey seems to be based off music (for now, at least) and introduced hitting a rock with a stick, so English Rock music.
- Scorbunny is most clearly based off of European Football/Rugby players.
- Sobble is the most difficult one to pinpoint, but may be based off British Dramas, as its name includes the word sob (and the French and Japanese names translate into crying) and may evolve into a Pokémon that represents the tragedy and comedy masks associated with theater.
- So... basically a Shakespearean Pokémon.
- Partially confirmed. Grookey's final evolution is a drummer and Scorbunny's final evolution evokes Association Football, but Sobble's final evolution instead has a spy-theme reminiscent of James Bond.
- So... basically a Shakespearean Pokémon.
- Given that a stadium is prominently featured in the trailers and the starter reveals, and Scorbunny is almost definitely based on a footballer.
- Grookey could be based on a football supporter, with the stick tapping being part of a football chant.
- And if the other two starters are based on a footballer and a supporter, respectively, then Sobble could be based on non-participation and the public's fear of football riots.
- It even puts out the fire Scorbunny creates, subtly representing the cleanup of any damage done.
- Alternatively, the sobbing could be referring to how emotional people get over football, and will develop into an exaggerated form of manly tears upon evolution.
- Mimikyu (aesthetic only) — disguise will be based on Clefairy as it's the popular Pokémon of this region.
- A Mimikyu disguised as Eevee is probably more likely because of Let's Go.
- Salandit
- Jossed: though candidates proposed are both in the game, they still retain original forms.
- Renamed versions of No Guard and Wonder Guard will be used as their abilities.
- Jossed; Zacian has Intrepid Sword, which raises its Attack when it enters battle; Zamazenta has Dauntless Shield, which raises its Defense instead.
- Version-exclusive Pokémon will be split into heavily offence/defence oriented stat-spreads.
- Confirmed with the Crowned forms. Their base forms have the same base stats, but diverge when they're equipped with their Rusted items. Zacian becomes more offensively-oriented, while Zamazenta becomes more defensively-oriented.
- Two new legendary wolf Pokémon will represent the Sword and Shield logos. One is a blue wolf with high attack who raises the spirits and attack power of humans and Pokémon in times of need. One is a red wolf with high defense who raises the courage and defense power of humans and Pokémon in times of need. The blue sword wolf attacks those who try to attack the region and the red shield wolf defends against attacks from enemies.
- Confirmed! Zacian is the Sword legendary, while Zamazenta is the Shield legendary. Zamazenta, however, is blue, so jossed on the description part.
- Not necessarily jossed on the latter; it only looks fully blue when seen from above due to its large ponytail. When viewed from the front, Zamazenta has prominent red features.
- The wolves in the logos could represent different forms or evolutions of the same Pokemon, and the last Pokémon to receive two evolutions was a wolf-like Pokémon, which leads to:
- Partially confirmed. The Galarian forms of Meowth and Yamask get exclusive Galar evolutions, along with Linoone, Farfetch'd, Corsola, and Mr. Mime.
- Normal/Ice
- A Pokemon based on a husky
- Normal/Poison
- A result of a careless chef's disastrous cooking experiment.
- Or perhaps a plague rat.
- Normal/Bug
- Normal/Rock
- Normal/Ghost (bonus points if related to a pure Ghost)
- Normal/Steel (bonus points if related to a pure Steel)
- And that's ignoring the F-00 robot from Everlasting Memories
- Fire/Grass
- ...with Chlorophyll ability and high Sp.Atk
- Also with high Attack and knows Solar Blade.
- based on Guy Fawkes or an effigy
- ...with Chlorophyll ability and high Sp.Atk
- Fire/Ice - Confirmed with Galarian Darmanitan's Zen Mode.
- Fire/Fairy
- A furnace(?) Pokémon that lives in the cold region. Helps people and non-Ice-type Pokémon get warm.
- Electric/Fighting
- Electric/Poison - Confirmed with Toxel and Toxtricity.
- A jellyfish Pokémon that fits the Electric Jellyfish trope.
- Electric/Dark Confirmed with Morpeko, the Pika-clone of Galar
- Ice/Poison
- Ice/Bug - Confirmed with Snom and Frosmoth.
- Fighting/Ground
- Fighting/Fairy
- Poison/Psychic - Confirmed with Galarian Slowbro in the Isle of Armor expansion/Slowking in Crown Tundra
- Poison/Steel
- A Pokémon based on industrial/factory pollution (given that Steampunk/Industrialization might be a theme in some parts of the game)
- Poison/Fairy - Confirmed with Galarian Weezing
- Ground/Fairy
- Psychic/Bug - Confirmed with the Blipbug line.
- A Pokemon that's a (more literal) take on the term "Hive Mind"
- Bug/Dragon
- Yanmega under this region's gimmick.
- Bug/Dark
- Rock/Ghost
- Dark/Fairy - Confirmed by the Impidimp line.
- Used by Mega Evolutions Only - Jossed with the absence of Mega Evolution.
- Dragon/Fairy
- Used by Legendary Pokémon (etc.) Only
- Flying (pure) - Confirmed with Rookidee and Corvisquire.
- Sentient rotatory blades
- A bird, but vibrantly-colored (green or violet)
- Fire/Water
- Fire/Steel
- Ice/Dragon
- Fighting/Ghost
- Psychic/Ghost - Nothing in the base game, but Ghost Rider Calyrex from the Crown Tundra counts.
- Psychic/Dragon
- Ghost/Dragon - Confirmed with the Dreepy line.
- Dragon/Steel - Confirmed with Duraludon.
- Electric/Dragon - Confirmed with Dracozolt.
- Going with what appears obvious, they'll be partially based off the spear-shield paradox.
- Second, the canine motif may be a reference to the Greco-Roman story of the inescapable hound and the uncatchable fox.
- A bear-bird duo
- A psychotic squirrel - Skwovet and Greedent kinda fit this; they're crazy when it comes to berries but nothing else.
- Hell, maybe Grookey's final evolution may reference Donkey Kong or one of his companions, since Rare worked extensively on that franchise. ** Rillaboom somewhat resembles Donkey Kong, with its drum specialization perhaps being a reference to DK's Jungle Drums.
- The rest are jossed, however Carkol wouldnt look out of place in a rare title...
- To add to that, if so, there will either be two more or six more Ultra Beasts to increase the number of known species to either 13 or 17, which are the next two prime numbers.
- Jossed - There are no new Ultra Beasts, however [[Eternatus]] resembles one and there has been discussion on whether it really is one or not.
- Partially confirmed, since they both have alternate forms in which they do not have their respective sword and shield equipped.
- Also, certain Pokémon who evolve via learnt move could learn the required move before the method was introduced, not to mention things like type, stats, abilities, moves, etc. having been retconned in the past, so it's not like a justification is really needed anyway.
- Confirmed. Farfetch'd has received a new evoluition in the form of Sirfetch'd, and Galarian Linoone can evolve into Obstagoon. Yamask has also received a new evolution known as Runerigus, while Meowth gained a new evolution in Perrserker.
Pre-evolution only:
- Miltank and Tauros - in the Alola dex, the two were grouped together, and they are often seen as counterparts, so it would make sense that they would finally get a shared prevolution.
- Passimian and Oranguru - for the same reason as above, they share a Pokédex evolution family page, and they have enough similarities that they could be part of a branched evolution family.
- Jossed so far.
- Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour - In similar fashion to the Eeveelutions, an Elemental Monkey pre-evolution will be Normal-type and change its type upon evolving.
- If this happens, the pre-evolution will be based on the "do no evil" wise monkey, with its arms crossed, or the "smell no evil" monkey pinching its nose.
- Joseed so far.
- Sawk and Throh - they're Unova's version of the Hitmon family, and since they can't be hatched from each other’s eggs like Nidoran or Volbeat/Illumise, a prevolution could link them.
- Jossed so far.
- Skarmory - it was more or less introduced as a counterpart to Mantine, and it's more likely to get a Mega Evolution or regional variant than a regular evolution
- Jossed as far as Mega Evolution/Regional variant goes, but could appear in the Crown Tundra.
- Jynx - it seems like it was in part of a set with Magmar and Electabuzz; they received pre-evolutions together, and they have the Fire, Ice, Lightning thing going on.
- Confirmed way back in Pokémon Gold and Silver with Smoochum.
- Farfetch'd - If it's ever going to get an evolution, it has to be in the game where its leek can become a sword.
- Confirmed with the reveal of Sirfetch'd, though a part of its leek also becomes a shield.
- Delibird - The region is very icy, so there's potential for new ice types, its inspiration is relatively close to where Santa comes from, and Delibird could use an upgrade.
- Jossed.
Pre-Evolution and/or Evolution
- Lapras - In a region based on the country where Loch Ness is found, this could be its time to gain an evolutionary relative.
- Jossed; it received a Gigantamax form instead.
- Stantler - Similar reasons to Delibird, as Santa's reindeer, and Britain has a large red deer population, so if Deerling doesn't appear, Stantler could fill that role.
- Volbeat and Illumise - they're already related, so it would cement that to have a baby form, and their stats are low enough that they could benefit from an evolution.
- Minun and Plusle - it's unlikely that they'd ever give all of the Pikachu expies a prevolution or evolution, but these two would make the most sense to get at least a baby stage.
- Alternatively, instead of a pre-evolution, the incense will cause the affected Plusle to have a chance to produce a Minun egg and vice versa.
- More likely they'll receive an evolution. Plusle getting Electric/Fire (as a response of Scorbunny getting compared to Plusle), and Minun will get Electric/Ice.
- All jossed. While only Lapras made it to Galar (for now), it didn't gain any new pre/evolutions.
Alternate Evolutions:
- Torracat, Trumbeak, and Crabrawler - they will receive alternate evolutions that focuses on raising their speed (their original final evolution drops the base speed stat upon evolving).
- One of those is a starter, though...
- If Melmetal and Silvally are anything to go off of, TPC seems to be breaking a lot of Evolution rules from the past lately.
- One of those is a starter, though...
- Weepinbell - if the Gen II Beta is anything to go by, they've already considered it in the past, and Bellossom would get a counterpart.
- Adding onto this, it'll be Grass/Steel and its base stat total is like Victreebel's, but with (physical) Attack and Defense stats swapped.
- Aside from Farfetch'd as noted above, Jossed. The remaining new evolutions for old-gen Pokemon stem from their Galarian forms only, and are Linoone, Meowth, Corsola, Mr. Mime, and Yamask.
- Adding onto this, it'll be Grass/Steel and its base stat total is like Victreebel's, but with (physical) Attack and Defense stats swapped.
- With the inclusion of Armored Mewtwo in Pokémon Go (meaning it has a model and animations) it seems even more likely. However, this assumes Mewtwo will make it into the game.
- Grookey: Most likely an Ability about sound, rhythm, curiosity, or mischief
- Soundproof
- Competitive
- Frisk
- A new Ability that powers up sound moves
- Pickpocket
- Pickup
- Prankster
- Own Tempo
- Inner Focus
- Tangled Feet
- All Jossed, it gets Grassy Surge.
- Scorbunny: Most likely an Ability about speed, physical skill, or fighting spirit
- Limber
- Quick Feet
- Guts
- Hustle
- Infiltrator
- Mold Breaker
- Rivalry
- Technician
- Huge Power note
- Jossed, it gets Libero, a renamed Protean.
- Sobble: Most likely an Ability about disguises or timidity
- Color Change
- Protean note
- Disguise note
- Anticipation
- Rattled
- Shed Skin
- Hydration (just because no Water starter has had it yet)
- Wimp Out
- Run Away
- Jossed, it gets Sniper.
- Confirmed for Unova, as it has the highest amount of returning Pokemon out of any region.
- Confirmed, although it remains to be seen what variants will be available.
- Cramorant (a Flying/Water type) has been confirmed.
- Corviknight's two pre-evolutions are both pure Flying.
- Possible, as a few sets of Mythicals and Legendaries were found inside the data of Sword and Shield.
- Possibly confirmed with the Crown Tundra expansion; the trailer showcases many different legendaries being fought in Max Raid Battles.
- Confirmed: Max Adventures, a new feature in the Crown Tundra DLC, each have a dynamaxed legendary Pokémon at the end of them.
- Possibly confirmed with the Crown Tundra expansion; the trailer showcases many different legendaries being fought in Max Raid Battles.
- Jossed, Dynamaxing works the same for Wishiwashi as any other Pokémon.
- Confirmed with the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC packs.
- Unlikely, as it has been confirmed that Mega Evolution and Z-Moves are not returning. This by default extends to both Primal Reversion and Ultra Necrozma.
- Not necessarily — no Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves don't rule out Kyogre, Groudon, or Necrozma from being in the games. I don't believe you'd be able to store everything in Pokémon HOME if they weren't going to let you do anything with them. Which leads us to a compromise...
- So... something involving Gigantamax, then.
- Confirmed with the DLC packs. A free update will be included to allow people who didn't buy the packs the opportunity to transfer the added Pokémon to their games.
- Not necessarily — no Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves don't rule out Kyogre, Groudon, or Necrozma from being in the games. I don't believe you'd be able to store everything in Pokémon HOME if they weren't going to let you do anything with them. Which leads us to a compromise...
- Wooloo:
- Fur Coat
- Jossed, it gets Bulletproof.
- Fur Coat
- Gossifleur/Eldegoss:
- Chlorophyll
- Natural Cure
- Jossed, it gets Effect Spore.
- Drednaw:
- Intimidate
- Anger Point
- Rock Head
- Jossed, it gets Swift Swim.
- Corviknight:
- Battle Armor
- Jossed, it's Mirror Armor.
- Battle Armor
- Yamper:
- Static
- Pickup
- Jossed, it gets Rattled.
- Alcremie:
- Gooey
- Cute Charm
- Jossed, it gets Aroma Veil.
- Rolycoly:
- Flash Fire
- Confirmed!
- Weak Armor
- Flash Fire
- Duraludon:
- Bulletproof
- Clear Body
- Soundproof
- Jossed. It's a new ability called Stalwart, which ignores abilities and moves that attract moves.
- Obstagoon
- Intimidate
- Moxie
- Rivalry
- Tough Claws
- Jossed, it gets Defiant.
- Polteageist
- Steam Engine
- Shell Armor
- Liquid Ooze
- Shields Down
- Jossed, it gets Cursed Body.
- Cramorant
- Swift Swim
- Tangled Feet
- Big Pecks
- Jossed, Gulp Missile is the only available ability it can get.
- Sirfetch'd
- Justified
- Stance Change
- Long Reach
- Inner Focus
- Jossed, it gets Scrappy.
- Tyranitar
- Hydreigon
- Duraludon
- Confirmed
- Volcarona
- Pikachu
- Confirmed.
- Lapras
- Confirmed
- Zacian
- Jossed, it can't Dynamax at all.
- Zamazenta
- Jossed, it can't Dynamax at all.
- Melmetal
- Confirmed.
- An alternate evolution for Farfetch'd, this time defense-oriented.
- Dunsparce's evolution
- A Delibird evolution that, to contrast Sirfetch'd's heroic look, takes on the Dark-type and the look of a burglar. Its bag becomes a Thief Bag, its hat becomes a flatcap, it takes on a black-and-white striped scheme, and gains the ability Pickpocket.
- A Ghost-type evolution to contrast to the Fighting-type Sword exclusive Sirfetch'd and Bea, with Shield's Ghost-type exclusive Allister.
- Confirmed, as Allister has a Cursola, a Ghost-type evolution to Corsola.
- The Paladin archetype, having a sword and shield like Sirfetch'd, but having a bigger emphasis on its shield.
- Confirmed, until it reaches the third stage which is Corviknight (Flying/Steel).
- Partially confirmed. The Pidgey of the region does evolve into Corviknight but is pure Flying. Additionally, the first stage, Rookidee, is named after rooks.
- Confirmed. Eternatus is Poison/Dragon (but has nothing to do with smog).
- Probably also will be a alicorn with wings.
- Confirmed, but it's still just a unicorn.
- Probably also will be a alicorn with wings.
- Confirmed! Sword's entry reads, "Through its nose, it sucks in the emanations produced by people and Pokémon when they feel annoyed. It thrives off this negative energy."
- A few eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a symbol on the side of the gem in the first trailer. It looks like a very fast dog Pokémon with a lightning bolt shaped tail similar to Pikachu's. Body shape looks like a whippet or Greyhound. Either would be a fitting evolution for Yamper because these are extremely fast dog breeds associated with the UK, and Electric-Types are known for their speed. Yamper is noted to be very hyper and running around constantly, which further supports this. It would be strange if this turned out to be just a random symbol that just so happens to perfectly match an existing Pokémon, especially since a new squirrel Pokémon was unofficially revealed in a similar hidden way by being on a random crowd NPC's t-shirt in the background.
- It is Yamper's evolution, but it is not really a greyhound. It's more of a regular dog in build and doesn't particularly have a thin greyhound bodyshape. So both Jossed and Confirmed?
- Would give your choice much more viability in battle and possible more inclusion with the Dynamax lore.
- Jossed so far.
- Confirmed in the Isle of Armor expansion pack. Your starter can receive the Gigantamax factor by drinking Max Soup.
- Confirmed! There's items called the Rusted Sword and the Rusted Shield. Zacian is pure Fairy and Zamazenta is pure Fighting, but with the items equipped, they get an secondary Steel type.
- Arthur
- Gwen
- Morgan
- Lance
- Perci
- Wayne
- Penn or Penny
- All Jossed: the player characters are named Victor and Gloria.
- A Psychic type Gym Leader or E4 Member based on one of the Doctors from Doctor Who
- A Psychic or Dark type Gym Leader/E4 based on Harry Potter characters
- Jossed with Piers, as he's based on a 60s British rockstar.
- A Dragon or Steel type Gym Leader/E4 who is meant to be a King Arthur expy. To make it a double Shout-Out, they will be a blonde-haired teenage girl with her hair in a bun
- Jossed; there's no Steel Gym Leader and the Dragon Gym Leader is Raihan, a social media blogger.
- A character based on William Shakespeare (training Normal or Fairy types)
- Jossed.
- A Dave Lister lookalike.
- Jossed.
- An Edmund Blackadder lookalike.
- A character based on one of the children from Chronicles of Narnia who will probably have Pyroar as their Signature Mon
- A Sherlock Holmes trainer who specializes in Ghost or Dark types.
- Jossed; the Ghost Gym Leader is Allister and the Dark Gym Leader is Piers.
- An Alice Expy, very likely as Alice in Wonderland was very popular in Japan and held the basis for the Isekai Genre.
- Jossed.
- A Mr. Bean-type character who doesn't speak, but has expressions that speak louder than words. They use Normal-type Pokémon.
- Jossed.
- A very hot-tempered Fire-type Gym Leader/E4 based on Gordon Ramsay.
- Jossed; the Fire Gym Leader is Kabu, a passionate immigrant from Hoenn.
- A Flying-type Gym Leader/E4 based on Mary Poppins.
- Jossed; none of the Gym Leaders use Flying-types.
- A 101 Dalmatians-themed character who uses dog-like Pokémon.
- A James Bond parody who appears alongside Looker.
- A Roald Dahl-based Gym Leader with Normal/Fairy-types and a That One Boss Dark-type.
- Percy Blakeney. Has at least a Roselia/Roserade.
- A comedy troupe inspired by Monty Python.
- Jossed.
- An H. G. Wells-style author whose gym is inspired by 19th century sci-fi novels. Probably uses a Elgyem or Beheeyem.
- An Expy of Hercule Poirot whom almost everyone mistakenly assumes to be from Kalos.
- Jossed.
- A grass type gym leader based on J. R. R. Tolkien, whose main Pokémon is Trevenant
- Jossed; the Grass Gym Leader is Milo and his signature Pokémon is Dynamax Eldegoss in his Gym Battle, and Gigantamax Flapple/Appletun normally.
- An Elite Five Group who are Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Slash Lookalikes. After all, who couldn't resist the idea of having Freddie, David, Mick, Paul, and Slash in the same game?
- Or maybe, have all of The Beatles Lookalikes appearing in addition to other British Rock Band lookalikes being included too.
- Continuing the theme of Doctor Who-related guesses, Looker will be revealed to have a similar backstory to The Doctor.
- Or Looker comes from the Galar region, and we'll finally know what his real name is.
- Perhaps Emma will don the Essentia identity again and become the hero of the London-based city in Galar, just as she was the hero of Kalos’ Paris-based city.
- If Emma was going to be a Gym Leader, she will be a Psychic-type specialist.
- Jossed.
- Jossed, no mention of Nanu is made; Piers is the Dark Gym Leader.
- John Cleese
- Actual professor Brian Cox
- Even more actual professor Stephen Hawking
- Tom Baker or any of his new-series successors
- And speaking of possible female professors, J.K. Rowling
- Professor Layton
- Wallace, complete with canine Pokémon companion
- All Jossed, the professor is an old lady resembling the queen.
- Possible? Hop (the rival) is the Champion's brother, and judging from the amount of sponsors on Champion Leon's cape and his popularity it's very likely his family would be well-adjusted.
- Jossed. None of the 3 rivals (Hop, Marnie, Bede) appear to be particularly wealthy.
- Gentlemen
- Ladies
- Officers
- Artists and Painters
- All confirmed, though the ladies are renamed Madames.
- The Pokémon Direct did acknowledge him via him revealing new details.
- Jossed.
So instead of having a dark secret to hide, Leon's character will be explored throughout the game: Why is he charismatic? How did he become undefeatable? What made him decide to even become a trainer in the first place?
Throughout the game, Leon will share his own stories to the player; for example, how he was inspired to be a good person by, say, a rescuer, especially a Pokémon Ranger. That said, he won't spout them out for no reason. Maybe they can be earned after doing his quests? Or maybe there will be a camping spot to meet up with him.
- Charizard will instead turn out to be a Ride Pokémon-like companion to Leon and his team will instead be based on what Starter you chose, which also explains why Hop chose the starter which is weak to yours, as it’s strong against his brother's starter.
- Same as the sub-point above, but rather Leon's Signature Mon will be the same as the player's starter and he'll bring it back out specifically because the player chose the same starter, and Hop choosing the weaker starter is him acknowledging being in his brother's shadow and wanting to overcome that perceived weakness.
- Jossed., however his team being based on your starter is partly confirmed; one of his Mons is interchangeable.
It is strange that Leon was revealed to be champion so early; however, the whole "Leon is evil" plot is almost too easy of a twist. The thread linked goes into detail on Leon's name being derived from dandelion and the symbolism of dandelions. Long story short, the dandelion has very positive connotations. As many writers use symbolic names to represent a character's personality or story arc, it's unlikely that a character with a name that has very positive connotations will turn evil (although tropes can always be subverted).
However, with him being revealed early, it seems like Leon will play a much larger role in the story than previous champions. This leads to a theory that instead of being evil, Leon might suffer some hardships (such as a loss of reputation or even a strained relationship with his brother) that he works through before the player actually faces him in a match. A champion going through a character arc in game would definitely be an exciting twist for the series.
- Jossed. The story plays up Leon's achievements and he maintains a healthy relationship with both Hop and the player, however he does suffer a confidence blow upon finally losing to someone after what's assumed to be more than 10 years. He copes with it by establishing the Battle Tower.
- Leon is:
- The king chess piece, because of his crown and status
- The king of diamonds, because of the crown and having a diamond pattern on his cape
- Hop is:
- A pawn, because of his hair
- As in, he is a pawn to Leon's plan?
- A bishop, because his hair resembles it closely, and also his name
- The jack of either clubs or spades, depending on how you interpret his hairstyle
- A pawn, because of his hair
- Sonia is:
- The Queen of Hearts, as she has heart-shaped hair decs
- Leon is a dandelion
- Hop is based on hops; his hair resembles the plant.
- Chairman Rose now adds to this theme naming.
- Nothing surprising here: human characters have had a plant-based naming theme since the start for the original Japanese games, and since Generation V for the English translations.
- Perhaps we will receive a second starter (from another region maybe even farther ahead) and this rival has a type advantage from that set.
- Confirmed, there are two more rivals: the "cold and calculated" Marnie and the "prideful" Bede. Everyone's still on the fence about their Pokémon, though.
- Bede specializes in Psychic (and later Fairy) Pokémon, while Marnie specializes in Dark Pokémon.
- Confirmed; the player character consistently shows emotions throughout the game, most notably before Max Rait Battles start.
- Milo: 2nd. His Eldegoss is at Level 19, which is within the level range typically used by whichever Gym Leader you face second in a region. The first Gym Leader usually has levels between 9 and 14, and except for the Striaton Trio, Grass has never been the type fought first.
- Nessa: 3rd. Every screenshot of her Drednaw is at Level 24, which means her battle has to come after Milo's. This is disregarding the playable demos at E3 and the 2019 World Championships, where everyone is at Level 50, which I'm guessing is because Corviknight is on your team, and it almost certainly evolves from something at a higher level.
- Jossed, Milo is first and Nessa is second. The levels just jump up really fast.
- Jossed. Milo is first, Nessa is second, and Kabu, the Fire Gym Leader, is third. This is also the first game to make clear an order in which they must be fought, instead of going from town to town and challenging whichever they find.
- Potentially Jossed: the version exclusivity of Gyms depends on which Gym is in the Major League in each version. Minor League Gyms are likely to still appear in the games, it's unsure whether they can actually be challenged.
- Jossed. Bea doesn't appear at all in Shield, but Gordie does appear in Melony's rare card.
- Jossed, as his rare card shows his face.
- Jossed and inverted.
- Technically jossed. They're following her brother, and her brother (Piers) isn't really leading them, more letting them do their own thing.
- In terms of importance, Ryuki seemed to have practically nothing outside of being a trainer you could fight in Gen 7, showing up randomly as a challenger for the champion title with little indication of his existance prior (and in USUM, a Gym Trainer in Malie's Kantonian Gym). It is also said he is from another region, so it is possible he was foreshadowing to Gen 8.
- Jossed. There is a Dragon-type trainer, named Raihan, who is the eighth leader.
- Jossed. No tennis player trainer classes are in Galar, and Alcremie is Mad Hatter Opal's ace.
This is the real reason for Bede's smug self-assuredness: he's not human, but a member of The Fair Folk working towards his own ends, and endlessly amused by how nobody's able to see through his oh-so-clever disguise.
- Chairman Rose is either in on the deception — aware of Bede's true nature as a pokemon, potentially even owning him (or planning to capture him if he steps too far out of line) — or just as in the dark as everyone else. If the latter, he believes that he's playing Bede as a pawn, only to get blindsided by the truth.
- Jossed.
- Does this mean that Galar also owned Unova/Orre/Alola at some point until they rebelled against them?
- Only Unova, because Arizona and Hawaii were part of Mexico and an independent country, respectively, until long after America became independent.
- A gym inside of a building that looks like Buckingham Palace
- A gym based on a football (the European kind) stadium, with the gym leader being either:
- A nigh unbeatable older gentleman with a Scottish accent (obviously written phonetically), playing mind games and pulling out a full restore at the last second.
- A referee who is blind to the fact that his gym trainers fully exploit The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard
- Confirmed, although it appears every Gym is based upon a football stadium, and the main field is the setting for the Gym Leader battle only. Before that, traditional Gym puzzles are still present.
- A gym based in a steam engine factory, with the gym leader being a guy in a bowler hat and a monocle
- Jossed.
- The entire elite four being one single family.
- Jossed, the Elite 4 got replaced by the Champion Cup.
- A Dark-type gym with a James Bond-esque Gym Leader.
- Jossed, the "gym" is in a park where the Gym Leader, Piers, holds his concerts.
- A ghost gym located next to an old graveyard
- Jossed, it's in Stow-on-Side, the desert town where it switches positions with the Fighting Gym depending on the version.
- A Fairy-Type Mad Hatter Gym Leader
- The Champion will be The Queen.
- And she will have a Corgi-inspired Pokémon in her lineup.
- She might not be "the Queen", but she could be an old royal figure inspired by the Queen. Bonus points if named "Liz", "Beth", "Eliza", "Ella", "Betty", etc. Or a different name like "Victoria" or "Alexandra".
- Jossed: The champion is a male named Leon who has the appearance of a king.
- A Freddie Mercury-inspired Gym Leader. Trainers based on the Beatles.
- Maybe his Pokémon would be weak to Electric-type as a reference to one of the lyrics in Bohemian Rhapsody: "Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me!"
- Or maybe he will be tied to Electric-types because of the song Flash, and his highly energetic songs in general, like Don't Stop Me Now, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, etc. etc.
- Not really a gym leader, but they could base the region professor on Brian May in a nod to his being an actual scientist.
- Jossed: the professor is an old lady resembling Queen Elizabeth.
- Alternatively, an Elton John-inspired Gym Leader.
- Maybe his Pokémon would be weak to Electric-type as a reference to one of the lyrics in Bohemian Rhapsody: "Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me!"
- A small side island based on Ireland, with a gym based on the Giant’s Causeway. The Gym Leader is a really tall guy named Finn.
- Jossed; the islands are part of the expansion pass; the Isle of Armor is based on the Isle of Man.
- A Fairy-type gym that looks like a large medieval castle with a young girl dressed as a princess as the Gym Leader, located in the highest tower, of course.
- Confirmed with the Fairy Gym's presence, Jossed with its appearance.
- The Champion and Elite 4 being based on the Spice Girls.
- The Elite Four are based on the Knights of the Round Table, with the Champion being a King Arthur expy.
- A Mary Poppins based Gym Leader who uses Fairy types.
- A Gym Leader based off of Gordon Ramsay who uses Fire-type Pokémon.
- A Male Fairy-type Gym Leader because it would be unexpected.
- Fairy-type predictions Jossed. The Fairy Gym is located in a dark forest and its Leader is an old lady, Opal. She passes her Gym Leader position to Bede in the story before she retires.
- Singer Gym Leader somewhat confirmed in the form of the Dark Gym Leader Piers.
- This could even tie in to the games' infamous restrictions on importing Pokémon that aren't in the Galar Pokédex — Galar could have instituted some limits on immigration, which would include barring many imported Pokémon.
- Jossed.
- Confirmed with the expansion pass Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra.
- Jossed: the stadium is just Galar's example of a Gym, however there is a larger stadium where a tournament to fight the Champion takes place.
- Confirmed: the Gyms look like stadiums.
- As a corollary to this, perhaps you'll be part of a "team" of your own (perhaps consisting of the rivals that end up with the starters you didn't pick), and you'll have your own Gym. The Gym would be a good method to introduce rematches with the gym leaders, as they challenge your gym in the same way you challenge theirs.
- Second corollary: there might also be a rival team that serves as the villain team for the generation. That, or the villain team is based on Football Hooligans that support the rival team, and will stoop to any means to ensure that they win.
- Confirmed as well: Team Yell are the supporters of Marnie, one of your rivals in the Gym challenge, and they resemble stereotypical hooligans.
- Perhaps a post-game like area for something akin to the Battle Frontier.
- Somewhat confirmed with the Isle of Armor, which is based on the Isle of Man.
- Assuming that this will bleed over from real life Britain, perhaps Galar is one of the few Pokémon regions to continue having a monarchy.
- Depending on your gender, you will befriend either the prince or princess, who will be both one of your rivals and (like Yancy/Curtis in Black 2 and White 2) will be something of a love interest.
- Or, in a plot twist... you, the player character, are actually the Prince/Princess!
- Alternatively, there will be a set of royal twins where the one who matched your gender becomes something of a possibly stuck-up rival where the opposite gender twin becomes your friend and love interest.
- Or if they want to be progressive, have the Prince be the rival and the Princess be the friend/love interest regardless of the player's gender; other games had strong subtext, so why not go along with it.
- The prince/princess could also be the Champion, once again gender-dependent.
- Depending on your gender, you will befriend either the prince or princess, who will be both one of your rivals and (like Yancy/Curtis in Black 2 and White 2) will be something of a love interest.
- There are descendants of the royal family, named Sordward and Shielbert. They're encountered in the post-game as the antagonists of the post-game story.
- Somewhat jossed; the gym challenges can't be redone once they're cleared and the Gym Leader is beaten. However, you can rechallenge the leaders in the post-game Champions Cup should you and them be pitted against one another.
- Unlikely: Pokémon Gold and Silver was the first and only game in the main series where the player could travel to another region, although there is a chance, due to Switch games’ high storage capacity and how small Galar looks at the moment.
- In addition, they appear to be a method of fast travel. There are railways present throughout Galar except the the northernmost and southernmost tips.
- Possibly subverted; Motostoke is a steampunk-based city, and the Rolycoly line is linked to steam power, but it doesn't look like Galar's trains run on steam as well.
- After the reveal of Gigantamax, it's safe to assume that Melmetal will make use of it.
- Most likely, it will be based on Jammie Dodgers, one of the most famous cookies from Britain.
- Or either scones or hot-cross buns with a Poké Ball design.
- An expy of Freddo might suffice, considering its informal history as a price benchmark.
- Maybe they'll be Wagon Wheels?
- "Iron Brew" (based on Irn Bru, a soft drink famous in Scotland)
- Jossed. Unless I forgot, Galar doesn't have a regional snack.
- Jossed, however the overground train serves the purpose of linking towns.
- The northern city will be based on London, Britain's capital since Roman times and home to its historical institutions of government (the Houses of Parliament) and commerce (the City). As depicted on the map, it appears to hold buildings resembling the Elizabeth Tower, Wembley Stadium and the London Eye, key London landmarks.
- The central city will be based on Manchester, which rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution on the back of the cotton trade and now is going through something of a rebirth, with the relocation of prominent broadcasters to MediaCity, the government placing importance on it as the centre of the 'Northern Powerhouse' and a growing reputation for dynamism propelling it towards second city status. The gears suggest an industrial theming, in common with Manchester's roots, and its position relative to pseudo-London fits with the idea of Galar paralleling Great Britain flipped upside-down.
- Confirmed with Wyndon being clearly based on London.
- If we are going by "the opposite gender player character is your sibling" theory, then your brother/sister will be brainwashed by the evil team's philosophy and go over to their side.
- In case of the "Galar has a royal family twin set" theory, the twin who is the same gender as you will be the one to go to the side of the evil team.
- If a standalone rival is made, then it will be your rival who does this, giving you a substantial reason to fight them beyond "they're a jerk."
- Jossed, none of the characters have made any betrayal attempts intentionally. Chairman Rose only wanted to start the Darkest Day with Eternatus to end an energy crisis that wouldn't happen for another 1000 years.
- Jossed, the trains are used to get from town to town, although they can be also used to go to the Isle of Armor and the Crowned Tundra.
- Jossed, the only snowy city in the game, Circhester, still has a fully accessible Poké Mart.
- Jossed, it's a standalone story.
- Gym 1 (Farming town)
- Grass seems like the obvious pick, given the leaf symbol shown on the gym in the trailer.
- Confirmed as the Grass-type Gym.
- Grass seems like the obvious pick, given the leaf symbol shown on the gym in the trailer.
- Gym 2 (Port town)
- Looks like an obvious Water gym.
- Confirmed as the Water-type Gym.
- Looks like an obvious Water gym.
- Gym 3 (Industrial city)
- Steel type seems like the best fit, though Electric or Fire could also work.
- Confirmed as Fire.
- Steel type seems like the best fit, though Electric or Fire could also work.
- Gym 4 (Mountain town)
- Definitely Ground or Rock, though Ground seems most likely.
- Either Fighting or Ghost, Jossed.
- Definitely Ground or Rock, though Ground seems most likely.
- Gym 5 (Mushroom forest town)
- Could be Poison, Fairy, Psychic, or Ghost.
- Confirmed as Fairy.
- Could be Poison, Fairy, Psychic, or Ghost.
- Gym 6 (Snow town)
- Ice seems like the obvious pick, but it could also be Dark given the dark coloration of the Gym.
- Confirmed as Ice, however, if you're playing Sword, it'll be Rock instead.
- Ice seems like the obvious pick, but it could also be Dark given the dark coloration of the Gym.
- Gym 7 (Dragon head city)
- A little harder to place, though Dragon probably fits the best.
- Confirmed as the Dragon gym, but it's actually the eighth gym. The seventh gym is in Spikemuth, where the gym battle takes place after running all the way to the other side of the town.
- A little harder to place, though Dragon probably fits the best.
- Gym 8 (Far northern London-analogue city)
- Could be anything, though Psychic or Steel (if Gym 3 isn't Steel) might fit.
- Or, if you and the rival have Gyms, this could be the first typeless gym since Blue in Gen 2.
- Or this is the Pokemon League/Elite Four location.
- Gym 0? (starting town)
- If the London gym is the Pokémon League and the starting town has a gym, I'm guessing Normal or Flying as a neutral type.
- Galar looks way smaller than any of the other regions, even taking into account the free roaming and the games no longer being bound by gridlike routes. There are three likely possibilities:
- This is not the complete map, and a more complete, more zoomed out one will show up later on as more information is released.
- The counterparts to Ireland and Northern Island are also playable, and they constitute a rather large postgame.
- The game is spent traveling back and forth between the realm shown on the map and another one, such as a Dark World or Ultra Space.
- 1 is partially confirmed; screenshots show a train station identifiable on the map, but those screenshots show an entire town whereas the map has the train station all by itself.
- Jossed. There's no such area to evolve Pikachu into Alolan Raichu.
The player tells a local about their encounter with Zacian and the local tells them the story of the two Legendaries: Zacian and Zamazenta have appeared several times in Galar’s history during times of national division, where they would fight each other in a symbolic match to determine what path the region would take; whoever’s armament breaks — Zacian’s sword or Zamazenta’s shield — determines who the winner is. The two of them draw their power from the feelings of the people, so they’re only as strong as the sum total of each person’s feelings on their stance (in this case, the restriction policy). The local prophesizes that the two will fight again.
Throughout their journey, the player proves themselves to the people of Galar and wins their support on repealing the policy while Leon drums up support for keeping it. At the climax of the game, the player battles Leon to determine the policy’s fate and ties with him, prompting the two Legendaries to appear and duke it out in one final battle, with Zacian representing the player’s stance of repealment and Zamazenta representing Leon’s stance of keeping the policy as-is. After much back-and-forth, Zacian manages to break Zamazenta’s shield, but the amount of hits it had to get in to do it have cracked its sword, rendering it useless. Both legendaries disappear, severely weakened without their armaments. At this point, a threat — Yveltal or Zygarde from Kalos — attacks Galar. Leon and the player are declared public enemies for their role in causing Galar to be without its greatest guardians. From there on, the player must work with Leon to hold off the Kalosian threat, with Leon coming to understand the player’s position. After barely managing to defeat it, both the player and Leon clear their names and agree to repeal the restriction policy. They battle again, and after the player beats Leon and becomes the new Champion, the credits roll, showing the two Legendaries watching over Galar while forging new armaments.
- This is a decent theory, but... it only really works for the Sword version. The version mascots are bound to be version-exclusive as always, so there has to be a scenario where the player is represented by Zamazenta instead.
- OP here. How about a scenario where someone’s trying to implement that policy (and would thus be represented by Zacian) while the player wants to keep it from being made official (and would thus be represented by Zamazenta)?
The Wild Area is presumably a large site of some kind of grand battle, making naturalized Dynamax sites a common sight, in comparison to the (presumably) man-made sites at the stadiums. Instead of rallying people as an army, you instead gather cheer energy towards one or two people. Bede will be the jerkish posh kid who's obviously skilled and takes down other trainers, but he isn't sportsmanlike, earning him scorn. On the other hand, Marnie is relatively unknown besides to Team Yell. It's possible that Oleana is trying to cause a grand clash of trainers in an attempt to focus cheer energy; she's still perfecting her research independently from Rose (who's probably unaware of what's happening). Bede will probably defeat Leon, making him The Unfought, whilst Marnie graciously takes her defeat with pride, giving you the boost.
There's something telling from the color of Rose, Marnie, and Sonia's eyes, or that Rose, Oleana, and Bede all have hexagons in their design somewhere, being their belt buckle (also their beard/moustache being a double hexagon), earrings, and watch, respectively. Though, their connection to each other was already stated. weirdly, there's also Meltan the Hexnut Pokémon, though their origin presumably predates modern Dynamax.
- Jossed. Zacian or Zamazenta (depending on the version) are caught in the post-game's climax, after Sordward/Shielbert attempt to force the other counterpart to Dynamax and it goes berserk, forcing you to battle it in order for it to come to its senses.
- Jossed.
- Jossed; no card is needed to use Wyndon's trains in most cases, although a specific card key is needed to access Roes Tower from there.
- Given that the character that basically screams "evil team leader" is named Chairman Rose...
- Confirmed in the finale, not so in the rest of the game.
- Rose's main Pokemon is a Copperajah, so jossed.
- While Rose is a man, his age is ambiguous.
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire ideas anyone? One of their headquarters will be in a Vice City of sorts.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
Unlike other champs, his mons will be seen throughout the story as foreshadowing to his fakery. They will be familiar (having identical movesets and levels to that of previous champions — as in he borrowed them from their original trainers), his roster will be quietly changed periodically (he bought more powerful Pokémon from rich friends), and he will have movesets that are not normally possible. To drive home this point further, you will constantly see him in battle, but only in controlled circumstances (inside Gyms) and have a convenient excuse as to why he isn't there to fight for real.
The evil team will exploit his charade and use blackmail to make him do as he wants, and his attempts to prove his lies will cause disaster that you have to stop. Hop will experience Broken Pedestal with regards to his brother, and serve as a contrast to him because he became the champion through honest means.
- All jossed. However, the only team member that Leon has shown on-screen before the champion battle is Charizard and he adds the starter that Hop and the player didn't pick into his team.
Specifically, they are his sponsors — the reason he wears so many logos is to promote their items — who've allowed him to get to where he is today, and they use his connection with them as blackmail so he'll do what they say when they say it. Leon hates it, but is/feels powerless to defy them.
- Jossed. Leon is a good champion all along; he just doesn't agree with Rose's plans.
They want as much money and publicity as possible and don't care how they get it, even if it means overworking or abusing Pokémon or their trainers. They work from the shadows and even hire stunt people and grunts to do their dirty work, anything that brings attention to what they want, when they want it.
- Jossed.
- Jossed; Magnolia doesn't play an active role in the storyline aside from introducing the player to the Dynamax phenomenon and giving her professor position to Sonia.
- It could be faithfulness TO EVIL (his master). Faithfulness is not always a good thing. They could easily both be evil. Though Leon might end up with a Heel–Face Door-Slam while Sonia gets a successful Heel–Face Turn, for example.
- Jossed, Sonia remains good throughout the entire game.
The Dynamax system will be run by The Cracker and their Hacker Collective team behind them and will have some sorts of collaborations with International Police, who bribed each other in favour of War for Fun and Profit. Assuming Police Brutality will be present, these Private Military Contractors will be responsible for the Dynamax systems, turning them into The Social Darwinist at worst.
- Jossed; Dynamaxing comes from Wishing Stars that fell from Eternatus' body
- Confirmed that he's a villain, but Rose hasn't been manipulating things: Rather, he's trying to recreate a doomsday scenario to harness more energy for Galar.
- Just a note: she's not actually named after oleander, but the genus Olea which includes olives (her Japanese name is Olive).
- Confirmed, she tries to stop you in Rose's place beforehand.
- Sinister look? Check. Hints of an ulterior agenda? Check.
- He's gonna be a Dirty Cop.
- Confirmed. Not a cop, though. He's Rose's adopted son.
- Confirmed, a lot of them do use the line. Their "leader", Piers, uses an Obstagoon.
- Bede is likely aware that the fix is in, though he may not realize just how much Rose intends to rig things in his favor. He may sincerely overestimate his own skill, believing he's better than he actually is — he may be good, but not necessarily good enough to beat someone like Leon in a fair fight. The protagonist also naturally threatens his ego by virtue of being able to beat him when they face off, much to his ire... though he may attempt to stave off a Villainous Breakdown by reminding himself that he's going to be the next Champion, while you should wind up fading into obscurity. You're just a speed bump, right...?
- Bede benefitting from Chairman Rose's plans to rig the League also parallels Team Yell's efforts to 'support' Marnie by sabotaging her competition. This may lead to them having a collective Heel Realization after the truth about the Chairman is inevitably exposed... or clinging to the self-justification that they were 'evening the odds' in her favor.
- I really like the idea of Rose being some sort of [[corruptcorporateexecutinve]] who will betray someone if in his head it's "best for buisness"
- Spear
- Gun
- Crown
- Confirmed, in a way—one of Sword and Shield's expansions is called The Crown Tundra.
- Throne
- Staff
- Armor
- Confirmed, in a way. One of Sword and Shield's expansions is called The Isle of Armor.
- Knight
- Bow & Arrow
- Dual Versions
- Trebuchet
- Axe
- Mirror
- Helm
- Spell
- A special kind of PokeBall that will power up the Pokémon caught in them up past their normal BST.
- A PokéBall needed to catch a new sub-species of Pokémon like the Ultra Beasts.
- Some kind of Fusion mechanic
- The ability to make and customize your own Poké Balls, kinda like Apricorns and Kurt in Pokémon Gold and Silver, but more in-depth.
- A Chekhov's Gun/Escort Mission like the GS Ball (or at least like in the anime).
- This symbol seems to be present in Gyms, so they could have a bigger role in the game.
- The ball will dramatically increase the attack or defending stats of the caught Pokémon, at the expense of the other stats, and can be switched at will.
- A new ball that allows two held items — one attack-oriented, and one for defence.
- Sort of confirmed? The Dynamax mechanic does seem to involve giant Poké Balls somehow.
- Confirmed for Dynamaxing making the Pokémon's Pokê Ball bigger before the Dynamax itself, but jossed on the item mechanic; Pokémon can still hold only one item, like always.
- Sort of confirmed? The Dynamax mechanic does seem to involve giant Poké Balls somehow.
- With the game having some royal-theming, this could be possible.
- Confirmed, through the Wild Areas.
- Jossed. However, you can rematch the Galar Gym Leaders and rivals in Wyndon Stadium.
- Jossed. There are no specific item restrictions to Dynamax.
- Jossed, no item needed.
- Jossed. The audience is there for show, but the Champion Cup and Gym Leader themes incorporate chanting when the opponent is down to their last Pokémon.
- Nihilego: Psycho Venom: Moves that inflict Poison also have a chance to inflict Confused in Single Battles, or give the inflicted enemy a chance to target allies in Doubles.
- Buzzwole: Energy Drink: Buzzwole’s Bug-type moves give him an increase in Attack and Defense.
- Pheromosa: Aphrodisiacs: Pheromosa inflicts Infatuation on the opposing Pokémon and forces the opponent to swap every time it comes into play.
- Xurkitree: Overcharged: Xurkitree starts the battle with maxed out Special Attack, but with each Special move used, it decreases until there are no changes to Sp Atk.
- Celesteela: Ready for Takeoff: Celesteela’s Flying-type moves damage adjacent opponents and also deal Fire-type damage.
- Kartana: Swordplay: Moves such as Psycho Cut, Cut, or Leaf Blade are increased in power.
- Guzzlord: Ravenous: All physical moves heal Guzzlord for half the damage dealt. An opponent’s held item will contribute to the healing and add another 25% damage to heal without side effects.
- Blacephalon: Pyrotechnics: All Fire-type moves decrease stats if they miss.
- Stakataka: Build Up: Every turn this Pokémon is out, increase in Defense and Special Defense. Every time this Pokémon is hit, decrease the Defense stat based on whether it is Physical or Special. Status moves do not affect this ability.
- Naganadel: Hive Queen: Bug-type and Poison-type moves add each other's damage and add a Stealth Rock-esque effect.
- Maybe it will expand on Oriocorio's gimmick of changing types based on giving the Pokémon flower nectar.
- If there are special Poké Balls involved, maybe the apricorns from Gold and Silver will make a return?
- Confirmed on one note - Apricorns return in the DLC.
- Jossed.
- Instead of Hidden Machines, Pokéride, secret techniques, etc. Pokémon that should have the ability to swim, carry you across water, fly, move boulders etc. will be able to use these abilities in the field as soon as you catch them.
- Maybe you'll still have to earn Gym Badges or meet some other requirement before you can use them, to prevent them from being used too early on.
- Jossed, no field moves are needed to fully navigate the region and there are no breakable or pushable boulders in sight, although Galar Taxi serves as the Fly substitute and the Rotom Bike is upgraded to travel on water during the story.
- Maybe you'll still have to earn Gym Badges or meet some other requirement before you can use them, to prevent them from being used too early on.
- Similar to the restrictions that applied to Sky Battles, Pokémon that wouldn't be able to manoeuvre in the open sea, or underwater, will either be unable to be used, or will suffer some other drawback to compensate.
- This has steadily increased in the past with certain moves, but moves in general could also have different effects based on environment, e.g. Using Earthquake in water could create a tidal wave, changing the type, power, accuracy, etc. of the move.
- Jossed, the environment doesn't affect Pokemon in any way apart from the move Nature Power turns into.
- This is based on a concept I've seen a lot lately in fanart, and it fits with the Sword and Shield motif. It could function like Mega Evolution, in that only a handful of Pokémon can activate it, or it could be common for new Pokémon, or Pokémon in the new regional dex.
- Partially confirmed. The main gimmick of this generation is Dynamax, which involves Pokemon becoming extremely large, having an HP increase, and having max-powered moves. Select Pokemon can undergo a special transformation known as Gigantamax.
- Calling Card: The user throws its trademark calling card at the opponent and swaps with another Pokémon in your party.
- Diving Jaws: A two-turn move, similar to moves like Phantom Force or Solar Beam. The user dives underwater, then strikes with a powerful bite the next turn. This move can be boosted by Strong Jaws.
- Leviathan/Gator Jaws: A Water-type Biting move, but without the two-turn charge.
- Confirmed not once, but TWICE, with the moves Jaw Lock (for Drednaw) and Fishious Rend (for Dracovish/Arctovish)
- Leviathan/Gator Jaws: A Water-type Biting move, but without the two-turn charge.
- Mischievous Mayhem: A status move that scrambles the base stats of the opposing Pokémon. For example, if a Pokémon uses this move on a Guzzlord, its HP could swap with its Physical Defense.
- Petrification: A move that deals Special Rock-type damage.
- Adding onto that, it'll be acheived through Eye Beams.
- Electric Field: A status move that paralyzes non-raised Pokémon when they switch in, and can be absorbed by Electric-types.
- Scorching Strike: A move unique to the final evolution of Scorbunny. Involves it creating a ball of flame and kicking it at the opponent. Has a chance to miss, but also an increased chance to burn.
- Confirmed with Pyro Ball, although it doesn't have increased burn chance.
- Vanish: The user temporarily has its evasion maxed until it attacks the next turn.
- One that raises just the user's accuracy, and another variant by 2 stages.
- A move that works like Swagger, but decreases stats instead of increasing, but still confuses the opponent.
- An attack that decreases an opponent's stats, but raises the user's.
- Heroic Dive: A move that goes on stand-by throughout the entire battle. Should one of your Pokémon be targeted with a move that will absolutely KO them, the user will instead jump in the way and take the blow for them.
- Lava Trap: An entry hazard that burns the next Pokemon to switch in.
- Rehydration: The user nourishes itself or its ally with water, healing them.
- Confirmed with the move Life Dew, a Water-type healing move that heals all allies.
- Ivy Field: A Leech Seed-esque attack that instead increases in power if the opponent is poisoned.
- An attack that deals more damage when the user is hit with a super-effective move. Stacks with x4 effectiveness plus.
- Vicious Grind: The user grabs the opponent and grinds their body along the ground, dealing damage for 3 turns. During this attack, the base Accuracy of the opponent's attacks is drastically decreased, and if the user is hit while performing this attack, they will take increased damage.
- A form of Shield Bash where the user weaponizes its armor. Its defense stat will be used in calculating its offense.
- Confirmed with Body Press, a Fighting-type move that takes Defense instead of Attack in damage calculation.
- Salty Cloak: An Ice-Type move that deals recoil damage per turn in exchange for increased Base Power to Ice-Type attacks.
- Ow the Edge, but renamed as an official move for Obstagoon.
- Jossed, its signature move is Obstruct, which acts as a King's Shield, but lowers Defense instead of Attack when contact would be made.
- Psy-Horn: Galarian Pontya's Signature Move which is a Psychic-type version of Smellingsalt and Wakeup Slap, this time dedicated to the poison-status.
- Jossed, the Galarian Ponyta line doesn't have any signature moves.
- Disease: The opponent suffers a random stat decrease whenever this Pokémon is sent out.
- Even Temperature: The Pokémon cannot be burned or frozen, and has increased defense against Fire- and Ice-type moves.
- Incantations: All Special Moves' base power is increased by 1.2x.
- Knapsack: The Pokémon can hold multiple items at once.
- Sharp Nose: The Pokémon tracks down the opponent with its scent, detecting any Ghost-types it faces.
- Silent Guard: This Pokémon cannot flinch or be swapped out by the opponent's moves.
- Soil Body: Rock-type moves heal the Pokémon instead of damaging it.
- Asteroid Veil: A variant that raises the Pokémon's Defence instead.
- Stationary: This Pokémon is not affected by grab moves and lifting moves.
- One that removes Spikes, Stealth Rock, etc the moment the Pokémon is switched in.
- How about Dramatic Entrance?
- Combo Attack: Boosts the power of multi-strike moves.
- Heat Up: Boosts speed when hit by a Fire-type move.
- Combo Breaker: 2-5 hit moves will only hit Pokémon with this ability twice. Double hit moves only hit once.
- Soporific: Poison attacks cause Sleep instead of Poison condition.
- Hallucinogenic: Poison attacks cause Confusion instead of Poison condition.
- Sand Shield: Boosts defense in a Sandstorm.
- Reciprocity: If a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a healing/curing move, the same effect is applied to the Pokémon who used it.
- Deadly Aim: All shooting moves (i.e. Searing Shot, Bullet Seed, Rock Blast, etc.) have an increased chance to land a critical hit.
- Parachute: Increases speed during Strong Winds and Sandstorm instead of taking periodic damage.
- Strong Legs: Boosts power of kicking moves.
- Berserker: Increases damage of all moves at low health.
- This would need a different name, as it sounds too similar to Berserk.
- Careful Aim: Reduces priority of moves to boost their accuracy.
- Adrenaline: Boosts attack every turn.
- Several exclusive to bulky ice-types to compensate their poor defensive typing.
- Hard Ice: The Ice-typing now has the resistances of a Steel-type
- Melted Veil: The Ice-typing now has the resistances of a Water-type
- Enchanted Crystal: The Ice-typing now has the resistances of a Fairy-type
- One that freezes the Pokémon that used a super-effective move on the user.
- One that turns incoming moves that are regularly-effective to x0.5 effective.
- A differently-named Filter/Solid Rock.
- One that give the user immunity to the first super-effective move it's about to be attacked with.
- Ignorant: The user's moves are not affected by the target's hold items. Excluded are Orbs on the Spacetime Trio, Plates on Arceus, Memories on Silvally, Drives on Genesect, the Primal Reversion Orbs, Mega Stones, or Z-Crystals.
- Preparation: Charge moves (Solar Beam, Skull Bash, etc.) no longer have a charge turn.
- Envious: The Pokémon copies any stat increases by opposing Pokémon.
- Last-Ditch Effort: When HP reaches 0, the Pokémon randomly uses one of its moves before fainting.
- Second Wind: When HP reaches 50%, the Pokémon's Speed increases.
- Poison version of Water Absorb (G-Weezing's signature ability).
- G-Weezing's signature ability is Neutralising Gas, though the Posion-type version of Water Absorb could still appear on another Pokémon.
- Proxy: Self-targeting status moves can be used on allies.
- Drummer: Contact moves deal sound-based damage to adjacent Pokémon.
- Bad Influence: Allies' Normal-type moves are changed to Dark-type.
- Standoff: Every turn nobody uses an attacking move, this Pokémon's Attack increases. Attack stat resets once somebody attacks.
- Potentially overpowered if the opponent is Asleep, Frozen, or otherwise unable to attack while combined with passive damage, such as Toxic or Leech Seed. Or not. Depends on whom it's given to.
- Deadlock: Moves done to the user by an opposing Pokémon with Deadlock deal no damage and have no effect. A Pokémon with Deadlock can still affect an ally with Deadlock. Deadlock does not work if at least one Pokémon in play has Shadow Tag, Arena Trap, or Magnet Pull; if moves that prevent switching or escape have been used, such as Block or Wrap; or if all remaining Pokémon in play have Deadlock.
- Cold Soothe: Heals status conditions in hail (making it essentially an Ice-type version of Hydration).
- Beam Breaker: Gives full immunity to all "beam" moves (Ice Beam, Solar Beam, Psybeam, Bubble Beam, Hyper Beam, Aurora Beam, Signal Beam, Charge Beam, and Moongeist Beam).
- At Ease: The Pokémon's Special Attack goes up by one stage each time it knocks out an opposing Pokémon through direct damage. Also replaces Moxie on Litleo and Pyroar.
- Downgrade: When a battle begins or this Pokémon is sent out, the Pokémon directly opposite from this one will have either its Defense or Special Defense lowered, whichever stat is lower.
- Frost Force: Ice-type moves are boosted by 30% when in Hail. Hail does not damage this Pokémon if it normally would.
- Z-Mega Stones - Allows Mega Evolutions to use Z-Moves, which can have a Z-Crystal assigned to one stone (I.E. assigning a Fightinum-Z to a Lucarionite). Sounds unlikely due to balance reasons, but it might be possible.
- If they were to be added, the game could also allow upgrading normal Mega Stones to Z-Mega Stones. The naming convention would be "[Mega Stone] Z" (I.E. Lucarionite Z).
- One way of balancing this out is if a Mega-Evolved Pokémon uses a Z-Move, it will be forcibly reverted back to its normal form, regardless if the Z-Move succeeds or fails.
- Jossed. Neither Z-moves nor Mega Evolution will be in the game.
- New Plates (see below).
- An item to be hold for single-typed Pokémon, raising the powers of their non-STAB moves.
Since the Switch can scan and read amiibo, it's possible that Pokémon Sword and Shield will also be compatible with them. Maybe it'll come with a set of cards (as a crossover with the TCG) or you can even scan amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. series to get special Pokémon.
For example, the game will not end even after you win the final tournament or complete the Pokedex; you are free to roam Galar, continue catching Pokémon, and continue battling Mooks.
- You mean like every other main line Pokémon game?
- Potentially new trainers will randomly spawn throughout the region, rather than predetermined opponents you can rebattle.
- Jossed (for now). There is no way to get to Kalos.
- Jossed.
- New Types:
- Sound Type - it already has a group of moves under its classification, and so many Pokémon have it as a common theme, so it seems like the most natural type to be introduced.
- Cosmic Type - There are so many moves that are classified as Psychic-type that can easily be associated with space and the cosmos. Examples being Hyperspace Hole, Photon Geyser, and Moonlight.
- Flux Type - Combining a few different concepts here, a type that represents flow or change could apply to space, time, fluid forms, metal, magnetism, radiation, etc. Examples of Pokémon could be Eevee, Ditto, Mew, Castform, the Porygon line (unstable/adaptable genetics/structure), Celebi, Dialga (time), various Pokémon in the amorphous egg group, etc. Also moves that change type, effect, abilities etc. E.G. camouflage, nature power, transform, etc.
- Balance changes:
- Ice needs some resistances, but past that, it should at least do neutral damage to Water.
- The following resistances should be: Flying-type (Because this is SE against Flying already) and Fairy-type (because Fairies were warded off with "cold" steel. We already have the Steel-type resisting it, so why not add Ice as well?)
- Also, the removal of the Fighting-type weakness, as ice being frail and fragile is just a common misconception.
- Arthropods typically don't do well in the cold, so if not outright weak to Ice like Grass types, Ice could resist Bug.
- Ice-types will at least be resistant to Ground and Flying-types. This guess was to make Ice-type resistant to both Landorus-T's STAB to nerf its power, but whether this change would work depends on how bad Landorus-T is overpowered/over-centralized in the metagame, and whether those resistances would actually help.
- If the concept of Pokémon weapons/armor is introduced, types with only a few weaknesses may gain another weakness for the purposes of balance. For instance, the Water type may gain an additional weakness to Poison.
- Fire should be weak to Flying, because Flying has many wind-based moves and wind can cause fires to go out.
- Or spread. Also, a lot of Flying moves involve attacking with wings, beaks, feathers, etc.
- Electric will resist Water and maybe Ice to add more counters to the many prominent and powerful Water Pokémon.
- Ice needs some resistances, but past that, it should at least do neutral damage to Water.
- All jossed. There are no new types and no changes to strengths and weaknesses.
- Thoroughly jossed.
- Or the Pokémon league as a whole will work as a tournament, and if you fail at any point along the way, you have to restart from the first gym and work your way back up the ladder.
- Semi-Jossed: Gym Challengers only have to face eight gyms in a set order, with no penalty for failure other than having to challenge again that specific gym (as it happens with Hop in Circhester). Those who complete the challenge face each other in a tournament bracket in Wyndon, and the winner enters another bracket with the Gym Leaders to see who will get to face the Champion.
- Jossed. They are indeed gyms.
- Jossed, the 3D graphics remain the only graphical option.
- Confirmed for the Wild Area and the DLC locations.
- Alternatively, they are little more then aesthetic changes like Spikey Eared Pichu or Ash's Pikachu and its variants.
- Dialga and Palkia might be potentially given "armoured forms" — if not in Sword and Shield (assuming this "Rumor" is true), at least in the inevitable DPP remakes.
- Turns out that Armored Evolution is sort of a thing with regards to Zacian and Zamazenta. They become their Crowned Formes and gain the Steel-type when holding the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield respectively.
- In general, Pokémon and Human Characters unlock areas filled with species from the generation the ambiio is in.
- Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Squirtle, and Ivysaur: Unlocks an area filled with Kanto Pokémon, especially the starters.
- Pichu: Johto Pokémon
- Lucario: Sinnoh Pokémon
- Greninja: Unlocks an area filled with Kalos Pokémon, especially the starters.
- Inceneroar: Alolan Pokémon; also filled with Alolan variants as well as starters. You can also evolve your Pokémon there into regional variants.
- As for characters from other franchises, you can battle trainers who are loosely based on them.
- (Male) Pokémon Trainer will let you battle Red.
- Somewhat confirmed. Zacian and Zamazenta become their Crowned Formes when holding the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield respectively, gaining the Steel-type.
- Old moves with updated type effectiveness:
- Light-based Psychic moves will be super-effective against Dark-types.
- Acid-based Poison moves will be super-effective against Steel-types.
- Scald and Steam Eruption will be super-effective against Ice-types.
- Diamond Storm will be super-effective against Steel-types, since diamond is much harder than steel.
- Sky Uppercut will be super-effective against Flying-types.
- New moves with different type effectiveness:
- Ground Surge: An Electric-type attack that can hit Ground-types for neutral damage.
- A literally-groundbreaking Rock-type move that's super-effective against Ground-types.
- An attack that uses black flames and can burn Fire-types.
- Corrosive Toxic: A stronger version of Toxic that can poison any type, even Steel and Poison types themselves (without the need for the Corrosion ability). In this case, the Corrosion Ability would be altered so that it would make all Poison-type moves deal at least neutral damage to Poison and Steel types (so as not to make this ability redundant).
- An attack that involves weaponizing "nuclear winter" and can freeze Ice-types.
- An attack that can paralyze Electric-types.
- All Jossed.
- Wishiwashi will receive Aqua Jet to provide it with more options to compensate for its very low Speed.
- Jossed.
- Aurorus will receive Aurora Veil because, well, it just makes sense. That, and it goes very well with Snow Warning. Aurorus will also receive Power Gem so it can have a strong special Rock-type move, considering it has crystals on its sides.
- Mudsdale will receive Slack Off to make better use of Stamina.
- Jossed.
- Alolan Exeggutor will receive Autotomize and/or Dragon Dance to help it outrun certain threats.
- Jossed for both.
- Cryogonal will receive Wide Guard to help better deal with moves like Heat Wave and Earthquake.
- Araquanid will receive Aqua Jet as well to put it on better footing with Azumarill.
- Jossed.
- Volbeat will receive Spotlight to give it a few more niche uses for very crafty players.
- Crabominable will learn Ice Shard and Mach Punch to compensate for its very low Speed.
- Generally, Pokémon who gain the Dragon typing upon Mega-Evolution may learn Draco Meteor via Move Tutor if they hold the appropriate Mega Stone.
- Lotad line will learn Water Pledge and Grass Pledge, while Volcanion will learn Fire Pledge and Water Pledge. In other words, dual-type Pokémon; whose typing are two of the three: Grass, Fire, and/or Water; will learn both of the respective elemental pledges.
- Alternatively, they will learn a new move that has the combined effects of the pledges of the two types they possess.
- Jossed, the Pledge moves remain starter- and Silvally-locked.
- Alternatively, they will learn a new move that has the combined effects of the pledges of the two types they possess.
- A new strong special Rock-type move will be given to the Omanyte, Lileep, Nosepass, Archen, and/or Amaura lines, Magcargo, Lunatone, Minior, and/or Nihilego for better STAB use of their Special Attack stats. This move could also be given to other related Pokémon that it may fit thematically with or could use better move variety, like the Numel, Magnemite, Trapinch, Piplup, Klink, and/or Sandygast lines and/or Cobalion.
- Jossed. No special Rock-type moves were introduced.
- Un-jossed with the addition of Meteor Beam in the Isle of Armor DLC, which is a 2-turn move that raises the user's Special Attack on the charge-up turn.
- Jossed. No special Rock-type moves were introduced.
- Pikachu will receive Detect — or maybe just a special promotional Pikachu that wears a detective hat.
- Jossed.
- Minior will receive Endure to last longer in Core Forme; and Air Slash, Aeroblast, and/or Hurricane to have a strong Flying-type attack from the special side.
- Alternatively, Suicune will get Aeroblast to tie into its wind motif in a way that links it to Lugia, parallel to Entei receiving Sacred Fire in Gen VI. It's a pity that Raikou gets left out again, but there aren't any suitable signature moves for it to borrow anyway.
- Hydreigon will receive Nasty Plot and/or Dragon Dance to give it some extra power, and Sludge Bomb and/or Iron Head to give it more reliable coverage for Fairy-types.
- Nasty Plot and Dragon Dance confirmed; Sludge Bomb and Iron Head jossed.
- Forretress will receive U-Turn to give it a physical pivot move with Bug STAB.
- Beartic will receive Ice Shard, Close Combat, Earthquake, and/or Waterfall to provide it with STAB priority and better coverage.
- Jossed.
- Wailord will receive Wish or Recover so that it can better put its massive hit point count to good use.
- Jossed.
- Aerodactyl will receive Brave Bird and Head Smash for powerful STAB and to make better use of its Rock Head ability.
- Pidgeot will receive Boomburst and Focus Blast for stronger normal STAB and coverage for Rock.
- Archeops will receive Brave Bird for stronger Flying STAB.
- Avalugg will receive Trick Room to take advantage of its very low Speed.
- Jossed.
- Scrafty will receive Bullet Punch as a way to fight back against Fairy-types, especially with Attack boosts from Moxie.
- Jossed.
- Maybe for selected Pokémon, something akin to an ability would activate for specific encounters, temporarily boosting an appropriate stat or set of stats like attack, speed, or accuracy for the predator, and attack/defence, speed, or evasion for the prey; if not causing it to freeze for a turn as in the ability Truant.
- Or in the case of the predator, attacking multiple times as in the ability Parental Bond, or the move Beat Up.
- Jossed; predation remains a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
- Or in the case of the predator, attacking multiple times as in the ability Parental Bond, or the move Beat Up.
- Jossed.
- Adding onto this, there will be new kinds of Poké Balls that allows the player to use more than one to catch all wild Pokémon at once.
- These Poké Balls will be themed after grapes.
- Perhaps it will come in the form of a key item you acquire at some point. The snag machines in Colosseum and XD made targeting in a double battle possible. While it's doubtful that the machine will be featured here, perhaps that part of its functionality could be developed independently, or taken from it for more legitimate use.
- Jossed; once a gym challenge is cleared, it can't be attempted again.
- As an extension of this, Pokémon will have hidden characteristics, separate to their abilities, that will give them advantages/disadvantages in different scenarios: Pokémon that have other means to navigate (e.g. Zubat) will not suffer an accuracy loss in darkness; non-aquatic Pokémon will lose health over time underwater etc. Promoting the use of certain Pokémon in different situations.
- The gym leaders' Pokémon will be able to fully exploit the mechanics of their gyms.
- There are unique battle mechanics, confirmed! Kabu has you and another trainer team up to catch a wild Pokémon, although the trainer will attack you as well; Opal gives you questions that raise stats on correct answers or lower stats on wrong answers.
- Could this mean Shellder will finally be used as part of Slowpoke's evolution methods?
- This particular Slowpoke notion is jossed, as Galarian Slowpoke will still require items to evolve.
- Confirmed for location-based evolutions, as they require stones now.
- Jossed. Pokémon following you does not return as a mechanic until the Isle of Armor; even then, it's only cosmetic.
- Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves aren't coming back. It's Gen 1 Pandering outside of possible Let's Go Compatibility.
- Dynamaxing doesn't impose an item restriction, but it only lasts for 3 turns or until the user switches out before the 3 turns are up.
- Jossed. The 2nd Pokemon remains out as a Dynamax Pokémon is behind the trainer.
- Confirmed; any new Pokémon additions come as free updates, although access to the areas where they can be actually caught still have to be paid for.
- Confirmed.
- The moss rock will either be in the fairy looking forest or the foggy looking forest seen in prerelease shots.
- Icy rock
- It will obviously be in the snowy area, but as a specific guess, it will be somewhere in an open wild area without any trees.
- It will, alternatively, be positioned at the top of the highest mountain yet, to coincide Crabrawler's evolution location with Eevee's (to Glaceon).
- The magnetic area will be artificially generated within the dragon-headed castle.
- Location-based evolutions are removed! Instead, you have to use stones (Leaf and Ice Stone for Leafeon and Glaceon, and Thunder Stone for Vikavolt.)
- In a Camomon battle, for example, a Pokémon with the moves (in order) Return, Drain Punch, Thunder Wave and Toxic would become a Normal/Fighting type (the first two moves in the movesets are Normal and Fighting, respectively.
- A Pokémon with the regular abilities Poison Point and Magic Guard would be Poison/Psychic type in the " abilities = types" levels (assuming that Poison Point was a Poison type ability and Magic Guard was a Psychic type ability).
- Jossed. The only new battle mode is Max Raid battles, and it's co-op multiplayer only. Triple, rotation and inverse battles do not return.
- Overgrow: Grass
- Blaze: Fire
- Torrent: Water
- Swarm: Bug
- Poison Point: Poison
- Sand Stream: Rock
- Arena Trap: Ground
- Snow Warning: Ice
- Intimidate: Dark
- Cursed Body: Ghost
- Cute Charm: Fairy
- Arielate: Flying
- Galvanize: Electric
- Magnet Pull: Steel
- Fur Coat: Normal
- Magic Guard: Psychic
- Power Construct: Dragon
- Iron Fist: Fighting
- What would be the purpose of them having types?
- See above.
- Jossed, no ability/type assignments have been done at all.
- What would be the purpose of them having types?
- Sun Plate: Grass + Fire
- Steam Plate: Fire + Water
- Swamp Plate: Water + Grass
- Slush Plate: Water + Ice
- Crust Plate: Rock + Ground
- Mineral Plate: Rock + Steel
- Volcano Plate: Ground + Fire
- Tundra Plate: Ice + Grass
- Shadow Plate: Dark + Ghost
- Hydroelectric Plate: Water + Electric
- Mushroom Plate: Grass + Poison
- Buzz Plate: Bug + Flying
- Magical Plate: Fairy + Psychic
- Firefighter Plate: Fire + Fighting
- Mud Plate: Water + Ground
- Phoenix Plate: Fire + Flying
- Shell Plate: Bug + Rock
- Mythical Plate: Dragon + Fairy
- Bullet Plate: Fighting + Steel
- Coldfire Plate: Ice + Fire
- Mercury Plate: Poison + Steel
- Gas Plate: Ghost + Poison
- Hellfire Plate: Dark + Fire
- Comet Plate: Steel + Psychic
- Ore Plate: Ground + Steel
- Lava Plate: Rock + Fire
- Magnet Plate: Electric + Steel
- Brutal Plate: Dark + Fighting
- Wit Plate: Psychic + Fighting
- Continent Plate: Grass + Ground
- Chrysalis Plate: Bug + Ice
- Cotton Plate: Fairy + Grass
- Firefighter Plate: Fire + Fighting
- Avalanche Plate: Ice + Ground
- Snowstorm Plate: Ice + Flying
- Scissor Plate: Bug + Steel
- T-rex Plate: Dragon + Rock
- Molten Plate: Fire + Steel
- Planet Plate: Rock + Psychic
- Firefly Plate: Fire + Bug
- Dragonfly Plate: Dragon + Bug
- Jossed; the only obtainable plate is the Pixie Plate.
- Jossed; how well a curry turns out depends on how well the flames were fanned and how the curry was stirred
- Wailord
- Regenerator would allow Wailord to consistently heal it's massive HP and play hit and ran tactics more effectively.
- Hydration could instantly heal off massive damage in a turn and would allow wailord too better perform it's role as a wall.
- Rain Dish can consistently heal small patches of wailord's HP and make it harder for opposing Pokémon to take it out.
- Jossed; it kept all 3 of Water Veil, Oblivious, and Pressure.
- Lopunny
- Huge Power would give regular lopunny a much needed power boost while still following the theme of only Pokémon with rabbit aesthetics and weak attack stats having the ability.
- Volcarona
- Drought would allow Volcarona to unleash more powerful Fire attacks, instant Solar Beams, give more support too it's allies, and would be a nice reference to the Pokédex's claims of Volcarona being able to alter the environment with it's fiery powers.
- Solar Power would boost it's special attack immensely and make it even more of an invaluable partner of Drought/Sunny Day users.
- Jossed; Volcarona kept Flame Body and Swarm.
- Meganium
- Grassy Surge could either replace Leaf Guard as its new hidden ability, or take up regular ability slot 2. Setting up grassy terrain on the go and have it regain health every turn help it stand out among bulky grass-types, especially when it had been previously outclassed by even unevolved Pokémon via Eviolite. It also complements its lore, given its breath can revive dead grass and plants.
- It's used as the Battle Tower theme, so he actually was telling the truth.
- Jossed.
Of course, I'm not talking about some Dark Fic esque nonsense, but more of the Nightmare Fuel other Pokemon games have already done in the past, but darker: Stakes being higher, more creepy Pokédex entries, some Backstory Horror here and there, the Big Bad turning out to be utterly unredeemable, the third Legendary being one of the Elder Gods in everything but name, etc...
- Jossed. Eternatus, said third Legendary, is pretty nightmare-inducing and has a rather bleak backstory, but the games aren't particularly dark than those before. There aren't even any outright evil human characters.
- Semi-confirmed; the Wild Area has Pokémon wandering around outside of tall grass, but they have to be caught the old-fashioned way.
- Jossed for the base game, no such in-game trade exists. At most, you can trade in Galarian Meowth and Yamask for their original counterparts.
- Confirmed for the DLC, a NPC named Regina can trade you an Alolan Exeggutor or an Alolan Marowak for their original counterparts (found in the Isle of Armor) and those trades can be done an unlimited amount of times.
- Unrelated to the Alolan forms but she can trade the regular forms of Galarian Pokémon for their regular forms too (example : Galarian Weezing for Kantonian Weezing).
Jossed
- Doubtful. While it is indeed a sword, its final evolution is still Aegislash, which also adds a shield to it. As such, not having a mon with a shield directly available without needing to resort to trading in the version of the game literally titled Shield would be rather silly, all things considered.
- This is all assuming that the Honedge line is even in Galar's regional dex. This is looking a bit like how people assumed Solrock and Lunatone were going to be in Sun and Moon when it turned out that they weren't.
- The Honedge line is confirmed to be in the games.
- Alternate theory: Honedge will be exclusive to Sword, but there will be a second line of shield Pokémon, whose final stage involves a sword, that will be exclusive to Shield.
- Jossed. It's available in both games.
- Jossed. The Honedge line appears in full.
- Sword and Shield's equivalent of the Guardian Deities could be based off of the Knights of the Round Table.
- Alternatively, they'll be based on Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin. The Arthur-expy would be a cutesy Event Pokémon that evolves into a powerful king when brought to a lake, paralleling Arthur's journey to receive Excalibur.
- And there'll be a Water/Fairy mythical representing the Lady of the Lake.
- Jossed. No such Pokemon appear.
- Jossed, the mascot legendaries are Zacian and Zamazenta.
- ...And it's Jossed. If a Generation VIII Pokémon showed up in that movie, someone would have spotted it by now, and word would have spread.
- Jossed, they are the legendaries, called Zacian and Zamazenta.
- Alternateively, both legends will be wolf-themed because they'd be based on Skoll and Hati, wolves from Norse mythology who chase the sun and moon in hopes of devouring them.
- Building on the original WMG, the form for Sword will be a Glass Cannon while the one for Shield will be a Stone Wall. If a Third Version is released, its version of the Legendary will be a Mighty Glacier.
- Building on both of the above, the legendaries are the two wolves on the logo, one red and one blue. Perhaps the third wolf will be yellow/green and the third game will be called "Pokémon Crest".
- Jossed. There are two separate wolf legendaries, not one with two forms.
- Jossed with a vengeance.
- Considering the industrial nature of the region, a Poison-type could be another alternative, and any of the above three types could be a foil to Sylveon.
- Jossed.
- Extending this further, they could be made dual-typed (similar to Mega Evolutions).
- Vaporeon: Dragon or Flying — It's already got some serpentine traits, so it would be easy to exaggerate that. Alternatively, it could be made to appear more avian, with the fins becoming feathers.
- Jolteon: Steel — Its fur is described as needle-like, and it could be given the ability Iron Barbs.
- Flareon: Ground — Fire and Ground types are both associated with lava.
- Basically a cheaper Groudon/Primal Groudon, and a Mega Evolution would help make Flareon a viable option.
- Espeon: Ghost — Espeon is a Nekomata, which is a type of Youkai.
- Umbreon: Fighting — Dark type is basically fighting dirty.
- Leafeon: Poison — Leafeon purifies the air around it, so the other extreme is releasing toxins.
- Alternatively, another Grass/Poison to do both.
- Glaceon: Rock — Ice and Rocks can both be crystalline.
- Sylveon: Bug — Sylveon is already somewhat buglike, what with the feelers and unusual eyes, and modern depictions of fairies often have insect-like wings.
- Alternatively, a Bug/Fairy that could give Totem Ribombee a run for their money. A Mega Sylveon could also bring Alien Invasion to mind.
- Jossed. All Eeveelutions appear as they do in previous games.
- Jossed. Corviknight is the regional bird of the region and part of a new evolutionary line. Its pre-evolutions are Rookidee and Corvisquire, pure Flying-types.
- Or they will be exclusive to Gen 1 and 2. They will be called Galaran Regional Pokémon.
- Or any Pokémon native to Kalos.
- Given Galarian Zigzagoon is a thing, jossed.
- If nothing else, there will be a lake area full of catchable Lapras.
- But it will be hidden in an area with a single Lapras-like Pokémon resembling a fake monster made of hose pipes and other man-made items.
- If it counts for anything, the playable demonstration at E3 shows there's an area with the name of Lake Miloch. If this Pokémon exists, it'll be there.
- Jossed. The third legendary, Eternatus, is nothing like the Loch Ness Monster. There are no new legendaries beyond Zacian, Zamazenta, and Eternatus.
- Alternatively, Shieldon and Cranidos will return with new forms, along with foreshadowing the revisit of the Sinnoh region.
- Jossed.
- The reaction to the Pokémon we didn't end up getting was very positive. We might get some of them re-done and finally added to the Pokémon world.
- If Gorochu is included, 4-stage evolution lines will finally be introduced.
- Very unlikely on both fronts, considering Masuda in an interview said that Pokémon that are scrapped after a point are unlikely to get reused.
- ...making it the perfect time to shock the audience with something unexpected.
- That is, if Game Freak are even aware of the beta being leaked.
- Jossed.
- This time representing the four constituent parts of the region.
- Bonus points if it's a trio, with the legendary representing Northern Ireland either being an event exclusive, or a secret member which unlocks a separate island to explore.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Zacian is pure Fairy and Zamazenta is pure Fighting, but will gain the Steel type while they're holding their signature Rusted items.
- To represent the idea of reintroducing wolves into Britain and a certain visiting werewolf (unless they've decided 3 forms is enough).
- Jossed. Lycanroc doesn't even appear in the base game, and its appearance in the teaser for the DLC shows its regular form.
- Hopefully this is the case, as Game Freak has shown interest in continuing to dive deeper into Mega Evolution.
- If there's given strong popularity of Eeveelutions, they might finally receive Mega Evolutions (except Eevee, who already had its own Z-Move). See above.
- Jossed. Mega Evolution will not even return. At all.
- Like Mega Evolution, Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Please explain what a pair of wolves bearing a sword and shield have to do with Hindu mythology...
- Clearly Jossed.
- Though it's jossed, Cufant and Copperajah are based on Indian elephants, so there's something going on there.
- Jossed. It starts as Rookidee (rook and chickadee) and then Corvisquire (crow), which aren't messenger birds.
Wooloo's description states it avoids conflict and follows the crowd, and Zacian and Zamazenta's intro video show them in some form of conflict. Maybe as part of its development, it loses its sheepish qualities and chooses a stance on conflict (attack or defence). Their wool is used to make garments, which the wolves' fur resemble, and Zacian at least has a flowing part of its mane in the same place as Wooloo's locks. It would also aptly represent the concept of a wolf in sheep's clothing.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- The third will be Yellow, and then there's also a fourth legend named after the color blacK. You know, CMYK (okay, K actually stands for Key, but most people usually don't see the word Key as a color).
- Jossed. There is no yellow legendary and black legendary to accompany Zacian & Zamazenta; rather, we have only Eternatus.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. It's a generic Scientist.
- Jossed, its speed stat is 74.
- From what was shown with the new Wild Areas, there is a varity of Pokémon that appear in them. Ranging from Gyarados, Avalugg, Snover, Butterfree, and Snover to name a couple. It could be possible that this region will once again have multiple Pokédexes as well as a Potential Pokédex to at least the 500's to 600's to allow players to have a massive amount of variety and choice.
- Jossed. The main Galarian Pokedex reaches 400.
- Among the Grass-types, the Chikorita and Rowlet lines will be retained.
- Among the Fire-type, the Tepig line will join the Charmander line in the Galar Dex.
- Alternatively, the Torchic line will be the second fire-type starter instead, given Blaziken's popularity.
- Among the Water-types, the Mudkip and Froakie lines will be retained.
- Gen 4 starters will be completely excluded, if only to be reserved for the Sinnoh remakes.
- Jossed. The Charmander line is the only one that appears in the base Galarian Pokedex. It does have the rest of the Kanto starters and the Alola starters in the game.
- Jossed. There are no three-stage Ice-type Pokemon introduced in Generation VIII.
- However, there is a new line that utilizes the Ice Stone, but it is a two-stage line: Galarian Darumaka. Half-confirmed on it needing the Ice Stone and being a Fragile Speedster, Jossed on it being three-stage.
- If only for Let’s Go compatibility. Though doing this might infuriate fans who are sick of Gen 1 at this point on top of the other Dex controversies.
- Jossed. Only a third of Gen 1 Pokemon are available.
- Jossed. Just over 300 Pokemon from older generations return, capping off the Galar Pokedex at 400 total. Previous generation mythicals as well as the other two Gen I and all three Gen VII starter lines exist in the game files but as of writing are currently unavailable legitimately.
- Un-jossed for the DLC, which combined add over two hundred more old generation Pokémon.
- Confirmed—the Ultra Beasys return in the Crown Tundra DLC.
- I'm not the one who put up this WMG, but I'd like to make a follow-up: Evolving Rolycoly will involve use of the Galar train network.
- Jossed. Rolycoly evolves into a minecart, then a coal colossus resembling Rhyperior.
- Likewise, Gigantamax forms will be re-used the next time the respective Pokeémon has access to Mega Evolution.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Eternatus doesn't resemble a feline at all.
- Jossed. Its name is Boltund.
- Jossed for the case of Rhydon — Rhyperior was present in the demonstration for the Room Service hold item.
- This is jossed even beforehand - Masuda confirmed in an earlier interview that for a Pokémon that have made an appearance, their entire evolutionary line will be in the game as well.
- Jossed, he's a character of his own (and the Champion's sibling).
- One rival is the champion's younger brother, but he was described as "one of your rivals," implying there may be at least one more.
- Jossed. There are two other rivals, but neither have any familial relation to the player character.
- Jossed. It is indeed the Grass-type Gym.
- Also in a twist, the supportive one turns out to be a villain team grunt, either a grunt of a local villain team or a International Police officer, while the jerk rival might be a Gladion/Guzma/Plumeria-style Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Jossed, there will be three rivals: Hop, a friendly boy; Marnie, a cold and calculated girl who is affiliated with Team Yell, them literally being her fan club; Bede, a prideful boy with further motives.
- Hawthorn(e)
- Linden
- Maple
- Larch
- Hazel
- Holly
- Ashe
- Poplar
- Jossed, her name is Magnolia.
- Alternatively there will be three admins with each one named after a chess piece. A Mad Scientist or otherwise cerebral figure named Bishop, The Brute named Rook who will stand in defense of his Pawns when things go south, and then there's Knight, who'll be the most commonly seen of the admins and potentially be a Noble Demon outright pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
- If so, their grunts and admins will be using Pawniards and Bisharps against you.
- The one in Sword will be industrialists looking to "destroy" the past in the name of progress, and the one in Shield will be traditionalists trying to "protect" the old ways at the expense of progress.
- There will also be two professors (based on Game Xplain's analysis of the trailer). The professor in the city will be associated with the modern team, and the professor in the more isolated lab will be with the traditionalists. It might even be that the professors are the team leaders, and you will work with the opposing team's professor based on what version you play.
- The teams will be Steel and Grass based.
- The main villain of one version could be male, while the main villain of the other version would be female.
- So, an Evil Counterpart to Wikstrom's Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe?
- Jossed.
- This and all other villain team WMGs are Jossed. The villain team looks like (and, in a sense, are) hooligans.
- Even that's Jossed. There is no villain team at all.
- Moriarty
- Voldemort
- A Doctor Who villain
- A James Bond villain
- Oswald Mosley
- Jack the Ripper
- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
- Morgan(a) Le Fay (bonus points if they use some more obscure variant of her name)
- Nimue/Vivienne
- Mordred
- Compeyson
- Vortigern (could instead be a Greater-Scope Villain and/or Predecessor Villain to the Big Bad in the present)
- King Henry VIII
- Or in a twist, a Corrupt Corporate Executive based on the negative opinions of Winston Churchill (or other British leaders of different eras), to reflect a Capitalism Is Bad perspective. Sounds like a James Bond villain could do.
- Or, in a Take That, Critics!, the villains are a group of thinly-veiled Straw Fans raging at Pokémon they never used not being in Galar and saying they need to destroy things, much like how people are doing things like making false rape allegations against Masuda and sending death threats.
- Game Freak would have to CRUNCH, and not just CRUNCH, but CRUNCH, to make villains based on the 'Dexit' angry crowd.
- We do get a team of hardcore fans in the form of Team Yell, but they're Loony Fans of Marnie.
- Jossed.
- Imagine the Admins and the Grunts reacting to discovering that they've been misusing Pokémon, on the behalf of a free Pokémon.
- Also, after the predictable Tragic Villain treatment Necrozma got, it would be thought-provoking to have a borderline psychopathic villainous Pokémon as the Big Bad who is solely responsible for its own villainy (a la Darkrai from the Mystery Dungeon spin-offsnote ).
- Of course, it'll turn out that they are a Tragic Villain and that their human disguise is modeled off the human that kicked off their Start of Darkness as a reminder of what they must do.
- The human and the Mascot Legend, instead of mutual antagonism, had a pseudo-trainer-and-Pokémon relationship until other, far less noble individuals caused an incident that led to the tragic demise of the human. Basically, the inverse of AZ and Floette.
- Alternatively, the opposing version Mascot Legend attacked the human out of pure envy.
- Jossed. The Big Bad doesn't have a team, and it's not a Mascot.
Given UK-based Galar will have Dirty Cops and Police Brutality issues, this would take account with Old-Fashioned Copper as grunts. The Police Brutality issues would give Grand Theft Auto a run for their money, with the new Big Bad being a police chief.
- Looker will be The Dragon or The Evil Genius who could be on the run from the Galar community, and the police in real-life UK is famous for being crooked. Looker might be The Mole, Anti-Villain, or something like Even Evil Has Standards, but whatever the case, he cannot stand the corruption of the International Police anymore.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Most previous legendaries aren't even in the Pokédex.
- Un-jossed as previous legendaries will be returning for raid battles in the second DLC, The Crown Tundra.
- Jossed. It's individual pieces.
- Jossed. Gym Leaders return.
- Jossed — The walking and running animations are instead used for wild Pokémon wandering around the wild areas as well as your Pokémon interacting within Pokémon Camp.
- No longer Joseed as of the Expansion Pass: Walking Pokemon are a thing in the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra after certain points of those quests, though this does not carry over to mainland Galar.
- Vaporeon: Bouncy Bubble
- Flareon: Sizzly Slide
- Jolteon: Buzzy Buzz
- Umbreon: Baddy Bad
- Espeon: Glitzy Glow
- Leafeon: Sappy Seed
- Glaceon: Freezy Frost
- Sylveon: Sparkly Swirl
- Jossed, the moves are gone from the game.
Confirmed
- So it's going to evolve into either Ringo Starr or Phil Collins.
- Alternatively, David Bowie.
- Or Alex Turner, of the Arctic Monkeys.
- Or Russel Hobbs, of Gorillaz.
- Confirmed. Grookey's final evolution, Rillaboom, carries drumsticks and has a section of atree stump that resembles a drum.
- A Dragon-type would thematically fit as a rival to Zacian and Zamazenta, making the two into dragon-slaying knights.
- Confirmed. Eternatus is Poison/Dragon.
- Confirmed. Zamazenta has an alternate form in which its shield is not equipped.
- Confirmed. Gen VIII's pseudo is Dragapult, with Duraludon being a single staged Pokemon.
- It could be Regigigas's antithesis, and the people locked it away and removed all records of its existence to prevent it being uncovered again and causing another Dark Age.
- Bonus points if it takes inspiration from Deltarune.
- Jossed in the original game, but gone past confirmed for the DLC as artwork for The Crown Tundra shows two more Regis. And one is based on the Dark Age, though it's the dragon-type Regidrago.
- OP of the original here. Confirmed! Dynamax as a whole is a byproduct of Eternatus' energy.
- Confirmed in the Japanese trailer in 5 Sept 2019 during the segment showcasing Pokémon Camp.
Mixed
- Snubbull & Granbull - Being based on bulldogs, it would be pretty fitting for these to get the regional variant.
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Herdier and Stoutland - For similar reasons, being based on Yorkshire terriers.
- Jossed. They returned in the Isle of Armor, but as their regular variants.
- Ralts Line - if not the entire line, at least Gallade having a knight theme, being a Fighting/Steel or Psychic/Steel.
- Unlikely due to the line having access to Mega Evolution in both final forms.
- Jossed.
- Mareep Line - Maybe an Electric/Steel variant for the "steel wool" pun.
- Unlikely for the same reason as the Ralts line.
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Lapras - Because we need a Loch Ness Monster. Maybe it'll be Water/Dragon or Water/Fairy instead of Water/Ice.
- Jossed. It is getting a Gigantamax form, though.
- Sunflora - It will be Grass/Fire and be based on the fire flower.
- Jossed. It doesn't appear in the games.
- Misdreavus and Mismagius - partially based on a banshee and a witch. They could be Fairy, Fairy/Ghost, or Fairy/Dark types.
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Shaymin - Assuming we're getting regional variants of Mythical Pokémon, a Galaran (Galarian? Galarite?) Shaymin would be perfect because Shaymin is inspired by hedgehogs, which the UK have plenty of. Perhaps this one would be Ground-type instead of Grass-type considering hedgehogs are creatures that like to burrow.
- So... what would the Sky Forme be?
- Shaymin Sky Forme has two possible main inspirations: the terrier dog and the reindeer. Going off this, perhaps its type would be one of the following: Ground/Flying for the terrier, and Ground/Ice for the reindeer.
- Perhaps also Togedemaru?
- Partly jossed. Togedemaru appears in the games without Shaymin.
- So... what would the Sky Forme be?
- Psyduck and Golduck - they will be Water/Psychic types.
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Trapinch line - they will start as Bug/Ground, then become Bug/Dragon.
- Regular Flygon appears in the game's trailer. So this one's looking to be Jossed.
- Dragonite/Dratini line - it's the original Dragon Pokémon, its name is a reference to knights — it could be a literal dragon-knight (Dragon/Steel) or full Western Dragon (Fire/Dragon).
- Jossed. They will not receive regional forms.
- Haxorus - will be Dragon/Steel.
- Jossed.
- Machop Line - perhaps gaining Rock or even Steel typing. Also the only trade evolution line from Generation 1 that hasn't received a Mega Evolution or regional variant.
- Jossed.
- A set of starters that haven't gained Mega Evolution — perhaps the Gen 2 starters, as they're the only ones that are completely monotype throughout the line.
- Jossed. The only Starter line besides the newly introduced ones is Charmander and its evolutions.
- While this is still Jossed, the Bulbasaur and Squirtle lines were later added in the Isle of Armor DLC, alongside the Gen 7 starters. The Gen 3 starters will reappear in Crown Tundra
- Jossed. The only Starter line besides the newly introduced ones is Charmander and its evolutions.
- The Fennekin line, becoming archers as opposed to sorcerers, perhaps now Fire/Grass?
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Scyther and Scizor - Bug/Dragon (or Dragon/Flying) and Dragon/Steel. Scyther's always looked like a dragon, and Wikstrom had a Scizor, so it could work as a knight Pokémon
- Jossed.
- Yanmega - Yanma could evolve into an actual Dragon-fly (Dragon/Bug)
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Durant - Bug/Ground. To better stand up against Heatmor, they sacrifice their armor to boost their abilities to use and master additional Ground-type moves.
- Jossed. While Durant is in the games, it didn't receive a regional form.
- Girafarig - Normal/Dark or Dark/Psychic because of the common "add on the dark type" so many Alolan forms have
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Lanturn (and possibly Chinchou) - Dark/Electric type that grew feet and now lives on land, Synchronize is new Hidden Ability
- Jossed.
- Houndoom - Normal/Fire or pure Fire, became more domesticated
- Jossed. Neither Houndour or Houndoom are in the games.
- Noctowl - Ground/Flying, based on burrowing owls
- Jossed.
- Forretress - Steel/Fire, lives in volcanoes
- Jossed. It doesn't appear in the games, nor does Pineco.
- Phanpy line - Pure Grass types that live in a more forested environment
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Eevee: Due to the reveal of Galarian Linoone getting an evolution. This could perhaps put an interesting spin on the ever loved tradition of Eevee getting a new evolution or 2 every even numbered generation since Gen 2. Perhaps this version of Eevee will still be a normal type but will have the ability to evolve into two or three different forms that a normal Eevee cannot.
- Jossed. Neither Eevee nor any of its evolutions get new forms.
- Alternativly like Pikachu and Cubone, Eevee will remain normal but Galar's climate effects Eevee's evolutions. I.E Instead of Espeon it would evolve to a different Pokemon during the day at max happiness.
- Jossed.
- Furret - Ice or Ice/Normal. Based on a stoat.
- Jossed. It doesn't appear in the games, nor does Sentret.
- Masquerain: Retains Bug/Water from Surskit.
- Jossed. It and Surskit don't appear in the games.
- Cherrim: Grass/Fire to utilize Flower Gift better. Also more physically-inclined to correctly utilize Flower Gift's boosts.
- Jossed.
- Ponyta and Rapidash - Perhaps make them fairy types to give the latter more of a unicorn mystic feel to it. This mostly stems from the 24 hour nature live stream where sounds of hoofs are galloping through the forest. And around 20:00 Ponyta's cry would sound out. The curiosity here is to why a Fire type pokemon such as Ponyta which are typically found in open fields and volcanos (And in one case a burnt down mansion) would be residing in a highly forested and magical esc area? Perhaps a variant that had adapted there.
- Confirmed. Ponyta is Psychic type, and Rapidash is Psychic/Fairy. Both of them also very clearly resemble unicorns, especially Rapidash with its long horn and appearance of a majestic creature.
- Litleo & Pyroar -
- To compliment Ponyta's unicorn asthetic by representing the Lion on the royal coat of arms.
- Jossed. They don't appear in the games.
- Final answer: Out of this list, the only Pokemon with Galarian forms are Ponyta and Rapidash. (Though Eevee and Lapras do have Gigantamax forms.)
- Maybe also a third fossil, a Hylaeosaurus, as the Aerodactyl equivalent?
- Jossed. Fossils return, with a new fusion gimmick, but don't resemble any real-world animals in their entirety. However, the existing fossil Pokémon are based on the early mixed-up skeletons that were once displayed at the Crystal Palace, so this part is confirmed. They do not evolve into anything though.
Post-Release Theories
- What if instead of missing it's midsection, Dracozolt actually has the arms and head of a juvinile but the tail and legs of an adult?
- Each iteration of the fossils' offspring will be slightly less horrific and more normal, similar to the process of actual evolution, until the four combinations have completely adapted to their mismatched bodies. Dracozolt's front and back bodies will fuse together properly, giving the appearance of a two-toned Velociraptor. Dracovish will grow an actual, quadripedal body from its tail, along with lungs, evolving into something similar to a Brachiosaurus; alternatively, it could develop the ability to make water bubbles like Araquanid, and plop them on its head to breathe. Arctovish will get its head on straight and turn into something that takes attributes from both a plesiosaur and a Megalodon, though nowhere near as extreme as Cara Liss's creation, and Arctozolt will sprout heavy, insulating feathers like a hoodie that will protect it from the cold its lower body produces; the lower body will also grow smaller in proportion to the head.
- Jossed—none of them are able to breed, even with Ditto.
- A future game will introduce the Draco and Arcto heads and the Zolt and Vish bodies, with four new hybrids being spawned from them, however, if two of them with the corresponding front and back halves are traded, like Dracovish with the new hybrid with the Draco head and the Vish body, both will evolve into their proper forms (with whoever has the head).
- All the previous Fossil Pokemon had always been conspicuously part Rock-type: it's because by being Rock-types their DNA preserved better to remain viable. This is what happens when non-Rock-type Pokemon are tried to be revived: they don't revive as well with their DNA degraded, which is why they had to be patched together instead of just restoring one incomplete fossil by itself.
- More likely than not, it'll be an apex-predator fossil Pokemon that was fond of biting its prey in half...
Clownfish are an example of a real life creature that works this way. The largest member of a school is the leader and is also always female. The second-largest is her second in command, always male, and functions as her mate. The rest are always, depending on who you ask, sexually immature males or completely sexless. If the female dies, then the male becomes the new female and the largest sexless individual becomes male, which might potentially also be true of Falinks.
All three of these dragons are also ludicrously powerful; Eternatus in its base/natural form is 10 BST above your standard box legendarynote . Necrozma's true form of Ultra Necrozma, the one it had before being crippled, is only surpassed by the Primal and Mega forms of certain legendaries, and Eternamax Eternatus. And if Black/White Kyurem is any indication, the original dragon would probably be something like 740 BST(stronger than Arceus), maybe even higher. At least two of them have some space-time bending powers too; Necrozma is obvious, and Eternatus is said to warp space-time through Dyanamax. This probably explains why legendaries who should be one of a kind can show up in Dynamax Adventures; the power of Eternatus warping space-time lets you encounter versions from another universe, much like hope the wormholes in Gen 6 and 7 allow you to. While the Tao Trio lack any space-time warping feats, it could just be because at most you get 2/3rds of the actual original dragon so that might've been lost by no longer being whole.
All these three Pokemon come from the same planet, and for whatever reason all three ended up on some version of the Earth. More concering is the fact that they would seem normal on whatever planet they come from.
Why didn't Zygarde return 3000 years ago to stop Eternatus again? Because it's the same timeframe as the war AZ was part of. As such, Zygarde was distracted dealing with its native region of Kalos, which led to Zacian and Zamazenta having to step in. By the time Eternatus revives in the modern day it's such a brief event that by the time Zygarde could reach Galar the player and the mascot legendaries would've taken care of the problem. The two dragons being rivals would also be fitting given the countries their regions are based off are historically major rivals. Also, if Kalos and Galar are close enough to France and England, they'd be neighboring regions so Zygarde would be the closest dragon to confront Eternatus 20,000 years ago.
Sebastian could still be considered a minor when his father was given his sentence (although it was not stated what that sentence was in-game), so he could have been put into an orphanage. However, laws in the Ace Attorney universe are likely a bit different, so perhaps Sebastian ran off to Galar, ended up in an orphanage, got a Pokemon, and, with his earnings from Pokemon battles, changed his name, got a new jacket, dyed his hair, and regressed back into being a jerk.
More specifically, Allister has a lot of body dissociation. Specifically, Allister wears to mask as to be able to tolerate watching replays of Gym Battles, and doesn't like to talk much due to vocal dysphoria. Luckily for Allister, everyone seems to think it's just to give off a mysterious impression.
- Adding onto this guess, it happened when he was younger and saw his previous life as a girl.
- Bede has a Mawile, which is half-Steel type, which also gives him an advantage over a possible Dynamax Fairy Pokemon.
- He's canonically stated to hail from Hoenn and uses Fire types.
- Maybe he's a good friend to her family.
That said, if he's a successful Nuzlocker, that means that he's freed from the challenge, hence why he still has his Charizard in the post-game.
- It could just be a question of averting invasive species. We know in Alola, Yungoos were never native to the region to begin with, and ended up radically altering the Rattata population, so I'd think Rose doesn't want to risk anything fucking up Galar's ecosystem.
- Moltres
- Dark/Flying: It's predominantly black and visually similar to Yveltal.
- Confirmed.
- Dark/Fire: It's flames are still quite predominant, which might hint to the Fire Typing being retained rather than Flying.
- Dark/Flying: It's predominantly black and visually similar to Yveltal.
- Zapdos
- Fighting/Flying: It's much beefier than the normal Zapdos, and during the direct the sound of punching can be heard when its concept art is shown.
- Confirmed.
- Ground/Flying: Visually it looks like a roadrunner, which might imply a Ground type.
- Fighting/Flying: It's much beefier than the normal Zapdos, and during the direct the sound of punching can be heard when its concept art is shown.
- Articuno
- Psychic/Flying or Ghost/Flying: It's appearance could point towards either, and either typing would complete a trio of effective types with Dark and Fighting if the other two are those types (more likley Psychic, since Ghost isn't super effective against Fighting).
- Psychic/Flying is confirmed.
- Psychic/Ice
- Psychic/Flying or Ghost/Flying: It's appearance could point towards either, and either typing would complete a trio of effective types with Dark and Fighting if the other two are those types (more likley Psychic, since Ghost isn't super effective against Fighting).
- Confirmed, though both also have different signature abilities and signature moves in addition to different stats.
- Jossed, Slowbro is Poison/Psychic.
- Jossed—Peony specializes in Steel types.
- Jossed; she uses regular Dynamax Slowbro, and the Wurmple family doesn't appear at all in the Isle of Armor.
- Jossed. Both appear, the player just chooses which one they want, with the other one gotten through the Dynamax Adventures in the Crown Tundra.
- Confirmed: a special bundle of Sword and Shield packed in with the expansion pass will release in November 2020.
- Jossed. Both sets of DLC have No Antagonist, excluding the rivalry with Klara/Avery or Calyrex's steed briefly going amok.
- Confirmed, although his Pokémon are at the level 73-75 range.
- Ketchup is just his nickname. His real name is Tom Ato.
- Jossed. The Max Lair contains a couple scientists and some scientific equipment to study the happenings down there, but that's all. Previous generations' fossil Pokémon can be found in the wild in the Crown Tundra.
- G-Max move from Gigantimax Venusaur will create a swamp that slows the target's side of the field for four turns. (Water + Grass pledges)
- G-Max move from Gigantimax Blastoise will create a rainbow that doubles the probability of secondary effects taking place on its side of the field, also lasting four turns. (Fire + Water pledges)
- Jossed, but you can get all of the Alolan forms, and non-Galarian forms, either as gifts or through trading with NPCs.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed. His Ace is Copperajah, the same as his older brother, Rose.
- Jossed.
Recently, Dataminers have found among the code added in preparation for the Crown Tundra that the Pokedex will reach 898, Two codenames have been found Before Calyrex while another two unidentified slots are also present, possibly for Regileki and Regidrago, the two Code names are stated to be Hakuba and Kokuba which translated to White Horse and Black Horse respectively, with Calyrex being established as the crown, it would of course stand in for both the King and Queen, if these Pokemon are indeed horses, they could possibly be based on the knight playing piece which protect the King/Queen pieces, much like knights are generally depicted to do.
- Half-confirmed. While Glastrier and Spectrier are legendary horses, they aren't based on the knight chess piece; instead they both serve as Calyrex's loyal steeds.
- Jossed. A majority of the Legendaries aren't registered in any of the Galar Pokédexes.
- Jossed—the tournament is just your standard double-battles tournament.
- Jossed. The Crown Tundra is available when you first arrive at Wedgehurst.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed; its base stat total in its base form is 500, which consists of 100 HP and 80 everywhere else. Ice Rider and Shadow Rider Calyrex both have a stat total of 680 each, keeping the 100 HP but more varied elsewhere.
- Jossed. Datamine confirms there are no new Regis besides the two revealed.
But when Eternatus came knocking, Calyrex used all his might wielding his sword and shield...and lost. His hounds, scarred from battles past and present, took up their king's weapons and reached their Crowned forms for the first time. This second wind allowed them to finish the job their king started.
However, the cost was grave. Calyrex was too wounded to continue ruling and had to enter his long slumber. His steed went wild without a master over the long-term separation. Meanwhile, knowing that Eternatus will threaten Galar once more, Calyrex left Zacian and Zamazenta with his weapons, giving one last order to defend Galar with them before sleeping.
- Bede taking over the Ballonlea gym from Opal and becoming a Fairy specialist rather than psychic.
- Marnie taking over the Spikemuth gym from Piers
- Sonia taking on Magnolia's position as the region's Pokemon Professor.
- It's mentioned that Leon took over several of Chairman Rose's projects after the latter's arrest.
- And of course, the main character becoming Champion and ending Leon's streak.
- All jossed. The January 2020 Direct confirmed that Sword and Shield will be getting DLC instead of new versions.
- A lot of Unovan legendaries are present in the game files - seven. While Alola having six can be understood as Sun/Moon were the most recent games, it's still a lot more than Kanto (two), Johto and Hoenn (one each) or Sinnoh and Kalos (none at all), considering as well that Black and White predate the 3DS era.
- A man in the central Pokemon Centre in Wyndon states that he'd like to invite the best trainers from Galar back to his region. What region isn't stated, but another NPC in the building namedrops Unova.
- Half confirmed as there will be no expanded version, but jossed as well owing to the announcement of the two DLC packs.
- Currently there are 435 Pokemon with an additional 200+ returning and 6 entirely new Pokemon coming in the first season's expansion pass, which would raise the number to a hefty 641 Pokemon at the least with only at least mere 255 left unspokemon for. With additional features like Apricorn balls, Move tutors and perhaps loads more coming in the expansion GF may see the possibility of reimplementing Megas (and by extension Primal Reversion) and Z Moves in future. Adding to this, it was recently discovered by a dataminer that Jynx has an unused cry that has the same reverb Mega Evolution applies to a cry, meaning that at least one point in time, Jynx was considered for a Mega Evolution.
So speculation: What if Eternatus arrived at Galar because it was running away from Necrozma, or rather, based on the time frame, The Blinding One itself? The Blinding One was a benevolent light deity, while Eternatus is a malevolent dark abomination, so perhaps due to that basic difference, the two got into a scuffle where The Blinding One won, forcing Eternatus to flee before it got wiped, and unluckily for Galar, it landed there, tried to recover, but got sealed until present day.
- Not necessarily true: Leon gifts you a Charmander that can Gigantamax upon becoming a Charizard.
- Confirmed in the Isle of Armor DLC, though it only applies to your starters, for now.
- Fully confirmed: Max Soup can give the Gigantamax factor to any Pokémon whose species has a Gigantamax form. The reverse is also possible, removing the Gigantamax factor and letting these Pokémon Dynamax normally.
So, either via DLC, Updated Re-release or future games, we'll see more pokemons having the same pattern: Crystalline bodies, names containing some word meaning "death", and abilities that, whether cosmetically in-game or actual game mechanic, alter other pokemons.
- Addendum: Seemingly arbitrarily, Jirachi was not hit by Dexit despite most other Mythical Pokémon getting the axe and, while not available yet, is buried in the game's code. Bizarre coincidence, or hidden link?
- Not only does it mirror how New York used to be a British colony, but it would also explain why there are so many Gen 5 Pokémon in Galar.
- Valentine's Day/February: Gigantamax Alcremie, Gigantamax Lapras, Togekiss (The first of the three is a giant wedding cake, the second sings beautiful songs, and the third is only seen when there's peace.)
- March: Gigantamax Toxtricity, Gigantamax Flapple/tun, any green Shiny, Shiny Gigantamax Corviknight (March is generally seen as when spring starts. Grass types are sometime associated with spring weather. In addition, the green Shinies could be used for St. Patrick's day. G-max Wind Rage, Corviknight's G-max move, could be seen as the "March winds" part of the old adage, "March winds and April showers bring May flowers.)
- April/Easter: Togepi, Gigantamax Butterfree, Gigantamax Orbeetle, Water-type Pokémon (Togepi is egg-like in shape, and ladybeetles and butterflies are sometimes associated with Easter in media. Similarly to the above, the "April showers" part could be represented as the Rain weather condition, which is something that Max Geyser can definitely do.)
- May: Gigantamax Centiskorch, (Shiny?) Cherrim, Gigantamax Flapple/tun (The weather tends to begin heating up for real around May, which is something Gigantamax Centiskorch is known for. Cherrim would provide the "May flowers" part of the old adage, as well as Flapple/tun, due to being Grass type.)
- June: Gigantamax Melmetal, Gigantamax Charizard, Gigantamax Kingler, Gigantamax Coalossal (June and July are when most Legendary/Mythical code events are held, so a code for Gigantamax Melmetal would likely be distributed around this time. Charizard and Coalossal would represent how June is represented as the start of summer, and Kingler could represent how people like to go play in the water around this time.)
- July: Gigantamax Machamp, Gigantamax Grimmsnarl, Gigantamax Duraludon (A sort of "dump month" for those that don't really fit in.)
- August: Gigantamax Copperajah, Gigantamax Garbodor
- September: Shiny Orbeetle (Kids go back to school around this time.)
- October: Gigantamax Gengar, Gigantamax Grimmsnarl, Gigantamax Hatterene (These Pokémon are based on ghosts, ogres and witches respectively, which are all commonly seen around Halloween.)
- November: Gigantamax Appletun, Gigantamax Alcremie, Gigantamax Covrviknight (Thanksgiving pie, Thanksgiving cake, and Thanksgiving turkey.)
- December: The Delibird event held in 2019, but with an increased chance of being Shiny.
- An Unown can be attached to a Pokémon to change its HP type.
- Alternately, Hidden Power's type could be controlled by giving the Pokémon a Hold Item that boosts the power of that type, such as Silk Scarf for Normal, Twisted Spoon for Psychic, and Fairy Plate for Fairy.
- More variant will be added such as a physical version, one that is average power etc.
- An item that, when held by a single-typed Pokémon, will give it a secondary type based in its HP.
- HP type formula will be revised to include Fairy.
- A corollary is that Hidden Power will always become Max Strike when the user is Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed, regardless of what type it would actually be. An exception is if the Pokémon has a Normal-type G-Max Move, such as Gigantamax Snorlax, upon which it will become that G-Max Move instead.
- It would be a sensible idea, considering that the online servers are very unlikely to last forever. The new areas are also a perfect opportunity to introduce more raid NPCs.
- Kinda-sorta? Dynamax Adventures from the Crown Tundra DLC involve you and your three buddies, be they online players or AI, picking from a pre-set pool of Pokémon before heading into the cave. So at least AI helpers there have some chance to be some level of useful.
- Even if they are weakened, that does raise the question as to why their IVs drop as well. It seems unlikely that crossing the ocean would manipulate someone’s genetics, hopefully.