The canon of the Pokémon world has always been quite a mystifying thing, hasn’t it? After all, this is a plane of existence in which it’s totally fine for parents to send their preteen children on adventures across the region, with nothing but a mutated weird-o-lizard with a flaming tail for company. None of the rules we thought we knew apply here.
Even with the bar set that high from the top, the series has gotten steadily stranger since. Here are some curious details about Pokémon canon that only came to light with Pokémon Sword & Shield.
10 Pokémon Evolution Is An Even More Complicated Process Than We Thought
With all the professors, scientists, and enthusiastic students we see studying every aspect of Pokémon in the series, you might think that we’re close to knowing everything there is to know about these critters. The fact is, though, we’re just getting started.
As more and more Pokémon are added to the roster, new methods of evolution and such are being discovered (that is, thought up by a bored Game Freak employee). We know all about Eevee’s many evolutionary possibilities, but Sword and Shield introduced curious curveballs like Farfetch’d evolving in to Sirfetch’d after scoring three critical hits in one battle. How many more methods will they come up with?
9 Dynamaxing Is A Thing Now
Of course, it wouldn’t be a new Pokémon generation without an outlandish new mechanic or twelve. With Sword and Shield, we were introduced to the divisive Dynamax mechanic, whereby a Pokémon of the player’s choosing (any of them at any time) can expend energy to become a gigantic, powered-up version of themselves for three turns.
It’s a very short-lived transformation, but it can easily win a battle and is fantastic both offensively and defensively. Outside of its gameplay applications, though, the sight of a sixty-foot-tall Caterpie is something that’s going to stick with you.
8 Gigantamaxing Is Also A Thing
So, you thought the Dynamax mechanic was absurd? Well, you were totally right, because it kind of is (to look at, at the very least). Game Freak isn’t nearly done yet, though, so buckle up for Gigantamaxing.
While any Pokémon can Dynamax at any time in battle (in areas that allow it, of course), only select Pokémon can Gigantamax. Certain members of certain species, such as Snorlax, Butterfree and Charizard (the latter as modeled by Champion Leon) can do this, gaining access to a powerful exclusive move in the process. We don’t know whether we’ll see either mechanic again or if they’ll go the way of Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves seem to have, but they’re interesting new canon concepts either way.
7 Rotom Can Interact With Even More Kinds Of Tech Than We Realized
As returning franchise fans will know, Rotom, the tricky little Electric/Ghost Pokémon, can inhabit various different devices to change its form. Entering a refrigerator, for instance, changes it to Frost Rotom (Electric/Ice), while inhabiting a lawnmower makes it the Grass/Electric Pokémon Mow Rotom.
More recently, Rotom has demonstrated an ability to possess various other appliances. It’s now our Pokédex buddy too, and Sword & Shield have also introduced its most ambitious form yet: the Rotom Bike. Who the heck knew Rotom could do this? What’s next for the plucky little ghost?
6 Fossils Can Be Mixed And Matched To Create… Well, Hideous Abominations
Sword and Shield added the most Fossil Pokémon of any generation to date. While this is totally admirable, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves and point out that they all have faces that even Frankenstein’s Monster’s mother would struggle to love.
The Galar gimmick is that there are four different fossils in the region (Fossilized Drake, Dino, Fish and Bird), which are revived in pairs to create one odd, spliced-together Pokémon. Dracozolt, Arctozolt, Dracovish and Arctovish boast some of the most outlandish designs in Pokémon history, that’s for sure.
5 The Nintendo Switch Consoles Of The Pokémon World Are Spookily Similar To Ours
As a general rule, the Pokémon franchise isn’t super serious about being realistic. Those sort of things go out the window when you’re creating 2ft tall slugs that are hotter than the surface of the Sun, after all. Even so, the Nintendo Switch consoles used by Galar gamers look very, very familiar.
It’s a bit of a running joke that, in the protagonist’s house at the beginning of a Pokémon adventure, you’ll find a little Poké-version of whichever Nintendo console is appropriate to the era. For Sword & Shield, of course, that’s the Nintendo Switch. Sure enough, there’s one in your house, and you’ll notice that the Joy-Cons attached to it match those attached to the one you’re currently playing on! We don’t know what kind of witchcraft allows Switches to identify the color of Joy-Con attached to them, but it’s replicated here and it’s beautiful.
4 Pokémon Trainers Fight As Teams, Monster Hunter-Style
If you’re a fan of the Monster Hunter franchise, you’ll know that the action revolves around teams of Hunters cooperating to down a huge creature through strategy, coordination, and the swinging of absurdly huge swords at gigantic, scaly hindquarters. As such, it’s not exactly a series you’d tend to associate with Pokémon.
However, Sword and Shield’s Max Raid Battles are a very similar (very streamlined) concept. They see four Trainers (CPUs are available if fellow players aren’t, though they can’t really be relied upon) battling together against a single wild Pokémon, which will remain Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed throughout the showdown. Gradually depleting their HP takes quite a bit of strategy in higher-ranked battles, and it’s interesting to see Pokémon Trainers co-operating in such a way.
3 Technical Records Are (Generally) More Valuable Versions Of Technical Machines
Speaking of Max Raid Battles, players get some nice loot for taking part. Some of the most important are Technical Records, which are just like Technical Machines but single-use (like the TMs of yore). You can also buy TRs from the various merchants around the Wild Area, but you’ll get a good variety of them simply by winning Max Raids (whether you capture the target at the end or not).
To encourage players to take part in these co-op battles, TRs tend to offer the most powerful moves. The super-valuable likes of Ice Beam, Earthquake, and Thunderbolt are no longer TMs, meaning that competitive players intend on raising a variety of teams will need to collect those valuable TRs whenever they get a chance.
2 Wild Pokémon Can Be Super, Super (Super) Aggressive
Here’s something else interesting. Through the course of most of the main series games, we’ve understood how wild Pokémon encounters work: they live in the long grass, just minding their business, not messing with you or anyone else… unless you hop into that grass and blunder right into them like a half-awake parent happening onto their kids’ LEGOs in the middle of the night (barefoot, naturally).
Exceptions to this rule of thumb are caves or bodies of water, where wild Pokémon will interrupt you about four times a second (unless you coat yourself in so much Repel the cloud is visible from the International Space Station). Sword and Shield’s roaming critters, now visible in the overworld, will actively come barrelling straight towards you (depending on species). Early in the game, high level wild critters are especially intimidating.
1 Gym Leaders Choosing Their Successors
Opal of the Ballonlea Gym is a unique case among the series’ Gym Leaders. She had held the post for a long time when the player first meets her, and the challenge that awaits within her Gym consists of a sort of examination/audition to find a successor.
Bede later takes her place as leader of the Fairy-type Gym, seemingly for no better reason than because Opal was enamored by his pink outfit. All the same, though, this is an interesting insight into the process that the mainline series hasn’t really provided before.