If there’s one thing that can be trusted upon when Nintendo releases a new game it’s that there will be plenty of Easter eggs for players to discover. It should be no surprise then that Pokémon Sword & Shield has only been out a couple of months and players have already found several Easter eggs hidden away by the developers. In time there will certainly be additional Easter eggs found by true fans of the series and observant players, but for now here are ten Eater eggs in Sword & Shield that casual players might have missed on their playthrough. A warning though, there are a few spoilers ahead.
10 Birthday Easter Egg
When playing Pokémon Sword & Shield the game may prompt the player to enter their birthday. This is something nearly every player probably assumed wasn't significant at the time. If the game is played on the date set for the player’s birthday the game celebrates the player's birthday.
This happens when the player enters a Pokémon Center to find a surprise waiting. Along with the party the player is given a birthday cake – more precisely a pokéball shaped birthday cake. A player who camps and prepares a meal on their birthday will also find a birthday candle sitting atop their curry.
9 The Twirl
Here is an Easter egg many players may have found on accident, but did not realize at the time there is more to this twirl than meets the eye. If the player spins the analog stick around (either clockwise or counter-clockwise) and makes their character run in circles for a couple of seconds the character will stop running and do a twirl followed by a pose. However, this seemingly superfluous twirl is the only way to evolve Milcery. The player can determine what their new Alcremie will look like by giving a certain type of sweet to Milcery and performing a specific twirl.
8 Octillery Firehouse
Here is an Easter egg that is a nod and a wink to observant Pokémon trainers. When running around Motostoke the player might come across a building that looks a lot like a firehouse with its two large garage doors. Above the doors is a symbol that true fans of the series will appreciate.
The symbol is Octillery wearing a fire fighter’s uniform, complete with helmet. Since Octillery shoots water (and ink) through its firehose-like nose (and learns many water moves) it is appropriate as well as amusing for it to be the mascot of a firehouse. Certainly more so than a Dalmatian at least.
7 Mystery Of The Stolen Berries
The Galar region is based on Britain, so how fitting is it that the developers put in a Sherlock Holmes style mystery for the player to solve. If the player enters a room on the second floor of the hotel in Motostoke they will stumble upon a man confronting a group of people about his missing berries; which he is convinced were eaten by someone in the room. The player must ask the suspects about the berries and find out who the guilty party is – this isn’t that complex of a mystery. After discovering who took the berries the player is rewarded.
6 Ghost Girl
One reoccurring Easter egg hidden away in several Pokémon games is the appearance of ghost girls. Many true fans of the series were wondering, pre-launch, if the game would have a ghost girl to encounter. To find the ghost girl in Sword & Shield they player must go to Hammerlocke and talk to a young girl named Paula. She will give the player a letter to deliver to a boy in Ballonlea. When the player finds the boy (named Frank) they discover he is an old man. Frank tells the player he remembers Paula from when they were both children. When the player returns to Paula she is gone, but she leaves something behind for the player.
5 Shiny Variants
Shiny pokémon have been a feature of Pokémon games since the second generation – Gold and Silver. Shinies are pokémon that are better than the usual specimen, but extremely rare to find. There are shinies in Sword & Shield, but observant (and very lucky) players might notice that instead of the stars that flash across the screen when finding a shiny, their new pokémon has diamonds (or squares). These are even rarer versions of shiny pokémon that have better stats than the regular shinies. Many players may play this game for years and never find one of these special shinies; in other words this is a very well-hidden Easter egg.
4 Joy-Con Color Matching
Players of Sword & Shield might have noticed a Nintendo Switch in the protagonist’s bedroom. What they might not have noticed is that the color of the joy-cons on your character’s Switch can be changed. To do this the player needs to have different color joy-cons to switch-out.
Whatever change the player makes in their joy-con’s color is reflected in the game. This doesn’t do anything else other than change the color (that we know about), but it is still a neat little extra from Nintendo that most companies wouldn’t even think to include. Even the rarer joy-cons like purple/yellow and Splatoon joy-cons are included.
3 Counterfeit Polteageist
One of the new pokémon for players to catch in Sword & Shield is Polteageist. This pokémon makes its home out of a tea pot. Apparently though there are an enormous number of counterfeit tea pots in the Galar region. If the player looks under their Polteageist’s tea pot they might see a small gray plaque along the inner rim. This plaque signifies that the player has a Polteageist that has been lucky enough to inhabit a genuine tea pot. The player only has about a 1% chance of finding a Sinistea/Polteageist in a genuine pot. The item needed to evolve these two variants of Sinistea/Polteageists is likewise different – Cracked Pot for the counterfeit, and Chipped Pot for the genuine tea pot.
2 Morimoto
Morimoto, like the ghost girls, is another reoccurring Easter egg in Pokémon games. Shigeki Morimoto has worked on every Pokémon game in one way or another. Starting with Pokémon Black and White, Morimoto has appeared in-game several times. In Sword & Shield Morimoto is a policeman. Before finishing the game he will tell you to seek him out when you have become the Pokémon Champion. When the player is ready to battle Morimoto he can be found in the hotel in Circhester. If the player is victorious they will receive a special gift from Morimoto – the Oval Charm.
1 Gym Leaders’ Jersey Numbers
Mildly observant players might have noticed that the gym leaders in the game have numbers on their “jerseys”. Like many players they might have assumed that these numbers were picked arbitrarily. Fans of the series immediately suspected these numbers had a deeper meaning though – and they were right. Hiragana, like kanji, is a method of expressing the Japanese language into writing. If the numbers on the gym leaders’ jerseys are translated using hiragana their true meaning becomes apparent. A few examples are: Milo the grass trainer’s number (831) is translated to “vegetable”, and the fairy trainer Opal’s number (910) translates to “cute”.