New Pokemon Sword and Shield video details new items, moves, and abilities!

Be on your toes, trainers, because these are some game changers!


The Pokemon Twitter account has dropped a new Galar Research Update, this time detailing some new battle mechanics within Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield!

First up is Galarian Weezing‘s new ability: Neutralizing Gas. This ability renders the abilities of all other Pokemon on the battlefied useless. For example, Rotom’s Levitate ability no longer in effect means the Pokemon is vulvernable to super effective ground attacks like Earthquake.

Some new hold items were also detailed, like the Room Service item which lowers the holding Pokemon’s speed when the move Trick Room is used. This will prove useful in strategy by giving typically faster Pokemon a potential advantage in a Trick Room environment (which allows slower Pokemon to move first). When a move is used that lowers one of your Pokemon’s stats, the new Eject Pack item will force the Pokemon whose stats were lowered to switch out, making the stat drop moot.

A new move was also detailed, called Breaking Swipe. Being used by a Flygon in the video, this move hits all opposing Pokemon and lowers their Attack stat. Dynamaxing Pokemon have also been confirmed to have Max Moves which can also cause special battle effects, like shrugging off a flinch, creating weather, or providing a clutch stat boost. Hidden Abilities also make a return, and notably, Corviknight’s Mirror Armor ability, which reflects all stat drops to the opponent.

This update also informed us that the Battle Stadium is where you will be challenging other trainers, and that via Max Raid Battles, you will have the chance to catch Pokemon with certain Hidden Abilities, or the ability to take advantage of Gigantimaxing. A press release released alongside the video explains that catching a Pokémon with hidden abilities is rare, catching one who can Gigantimax is even less common, and catching a Pokemon who can do both is the new holy grail.

Outside of catching new Pokemon in raids, players will be able to challenge one another to Single or Double Battles via the Battle Stadium, in both ranked and unranked matches. Two modes of online competitions will also exist to encourage online play. Official Competitions run by the Pokemon company come with their own preset rules, while Friendly Competitions are hosted by trainers and be customized to their liking. Players will also have the ability to “rent” their Pokémon teams out to friends with the new Rent Team mechanic.

Trainers, get ready for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield launching this November 15 on Nintendo Switch.