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Pokemon Sword and Shield is releasing this week for the Nintendo Switch on 15 November. It's not a long wait but there have been quite a few impatient fans and people who worked on the game to leak a lot of information about the upcoming game.
Pokemon Sword and Shield is the 8th Generation of Pokemon Games and the first new-generation game for the Nintendo Switch. There are new features such as Gigantamax, which allows your Pokemon to grow huge in size for a boosted up power level.
While the games are Nintendo's most ambitious Pokemon title yet, with a huge graphic upgrade and a much bigger game world, it has not come without controversy. Game Freak announced in E3 2019 earlier this year that not all Pokemon from previous generations will return, crushing those who have had a living Dex for years or decades. This was famously dubbed by fans as "Dexit".
Spoilers ahead! Here is a full list of all the leaks of Pokemon and features that have been released (and yes, they are legitimate and confirmed by multiple sources. Nintendo has also threatened to sue the leakers).
#1. Starter Evolutions
When Pokemon Sword and Shield was first announced, we knew about the starters Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the evolutions of the three starters. Here they are.
Grookey evolves into Thwackey which then evolves into Rillaboom, a very slick design for the grass starter. All these Pokemon are Pure Grass Types.
The next is Sobble. Sobble evolves into a reptile-like Pokemon called Drizzile and then a humanoid-repitilian figure called Intelleon. We aren't sure of Drizzile's and Intelleon's Type.
Finally, Scorbunny evolves into Raboot and it's final evolution is called Cinderace. Cinderace is also a really slick design, just like Rillaboom. Scorbunny and its evolutions will be Pure Fire Type (thankfully not another Fire/Fighting combo).
#2. 117 New Pokemon (including Galarian Forms) - a total of 400 in the games
The above chart was leaked from ResetEra as part of a huge dump of information provided. We already knew about Galarian Form Pokemon such as Wheezing, Zigzagoon, Meowth, Ponyta, and others. There are also several new Pokemon being added to the list, bringing the total number of Pokemon that exist to over 900.
In addition, there are a few more Pokemon from previous generations returning to Pokemon Sword and Shield. Combined with the above chart, there will be a total of 400 Pokemon you can catch across Sword and Shield. Some of them will be version exclusives.
So unfortunately, if you had some favorites (mine were Luxray, Dragonite and Metagross), many of these will not return to the game. Though we are still unclear if this will be how it is or if Game Freak will patch them into the game at a later stage.
#3. Legendaries
An interesting takeaway from this list is the legendary Pokemon Zacian and Zamazenta. It appears that the versions where they wield a "Sword" and a "Shield" is a form they take and not how they originally are. This is much like previous iterations of legendary Pokemon such as Giratina, Thundurus and Groudon/Kyogre in the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire remakes.
Pokemon Sword's Zacians base form is a Fairy Type and Pokemon Shield's Zamazentas base form is a Fighting Type. When they go into their Sword and Shield forms, they will retain these Types and become Steel Types.
There is also another legendary called "Eternatus", which is the very last Pokemon in the game and seems to be the final boss. It's a strange anomaly of a Pokemon much like Deoxys in Hoenn and Necrozma in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Eternatus also has two different forms.
There haven't been any new gameplay leaks yet, only the leaks for all the Pokemon that will be in the game. We have seen a lot of new gameplay mechanics in E3 2019 such as riding your bike on water, competing against Gigantamax wild Pokemon online and huge wild areas. Pokemon Sword and Shield will release this week worldwide on 15 November.
