2

Pokémon Sword and Shield gets expansion pass, two new areas, 200+ returning Pokémon and more

Advertisement

During this morning’s Pokémon Direct a couple of new things were revealed, one a remake of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and this – an expansion pass for Pokémon Sword and Shield.

This new expansion pass comes in two parts, one in June and one later in the year. Each part will open new areas of Galar with a new story, new Pokémon, new Pokémon forms and returning Pokémon – over 200 in fact.

Part one in June is called the Isle of Armour, the second part later in the year is The Crown Tundra.

The expansion pass will go on pre-sale today for $45.00AUD. You won’t need the DLC to gain access to these Pokémon, you can have them traded to your game – but to catch them in the wild you’ll need to have the expansion pass.

Here’s what’s coming in the expansion pass.

There’s two other part of the pack, one out during our Winter, and then later in the year in Summer. During the Direct it was confirmed this DLC would replace a ‘third’ game as would normally be released.

Available today

If you pre-order the Pokémon Sword and Shield expansion pass today you’ll get the following outfit and a Galarian Slowpoke, you’ll be able to evolve this Slowpoke into Slowking or Slowbro using different items from either The Isle of Armour or The Crown Tundra.

Advertisement

The Isle of Amour – June 2020

The new areas of the expansion pass both have brand new Pokémon, new Legendary Pokémon, old returning Pokémon that weren’t in the original game, new characters and new stories. Both of the new areas are like the Wild Area with an open camera and roaming Pokémon.

The Isle of Armour has the theme of ‘growth’, you will become the apprentice of Mustard – who is your new mentor. There you will meet a new rival, Klara, if you’re playing with Sword, Avery if you’re playing with Shield.

Kubfu and Urfishu are two new Pokémon, the latter with two different styles.

The Crown Tundra – Spring 2020

Advertisement

This new area focuses on exploration, and not as much was revealed about it just yet being further away.

Calyrex is the new legendary Pokémon in The Crown Tundra, there’s also a new co-op mode where you can find returning Legendary Pokémon, some of which have new forms.

A bunch of new Gigantamax forms for the Galar starters were also revealed, as well as new G-Max forms for Blastoise and Venusaur.

The release date for Pokémon Home was also announced during the Direct. It will be released next month in February.

You’ll want to check out the below trailer, and the Direct for everything else.

What's your reaction?
Awesome
45%
Oh wow!
7%
Great
7%
Fresh
14%
Hmm
7%
Disappointing!
17%
Grrrr
3%
About The Author
Daniel Vuckovic
The Owner and Creator of this fair website. I also do news, reviews, programming, art and social media here. It is named after me after all. Please understand.
2 Comments
  • Adam
    January 10, 2020 at 7:38 am

    Don’t meed to pre-order to get the Galarian Slowpoke

  • Silly G
    January 10, 2020 at 8:38 am

    This Direct alone has pretty much killed 20+ years of goodwill for the brand in one fell swoop. The only way they can redeem themselves is if they release a complete edition with the expansion content on the cartridge by year’s end, otherwise, this is probably the end of the road as far as I am concerned (and I am about as die-hard a fan as they come), and I have mixed feelings about it all. This is completely unprecedented for the franchise (Pokkén notwithstanding, and I skipped the DLC for that as I thought it was extremely scummy releasing a “Deluxe” version with grossly overpriced DLC on top of that). If this winds up being a bombastic success story for all involved, then I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the downward trajectory of the franchise will only continue to exploit customers even further. If this is the future, then I am content with being a relic.

    How is $45 even remotely reasonable when the base game can readily be picked up at retail for $15-$25 more? And they have the gall to expect those with both versions to cough up $90?! I don’t mind buying what is essentially the same game twice year in and year out (and sometimes in addition to that for siblings), but to add console-locked DLC on top of that is unforgivable. Plus, considering that I have both a regular Switch and a Switch Lite, I use both consoles to trade between them, and I was intent on playing through Sword so that I can battle in Max Raids with both consoles as I struggle with the assisting NPCs. Even if I were to hypothetically buy both DLC packs, I wouldn’t be able to simultaneously trade/battle on the Lite, which only adds further insult to injury. They very well could have just delayed the game for another year and included all of this content in the base build, but even with console game pricing and stupidly expensive DLC packs, Sword/Shield still manages to contain less content than the 3DS games.

    An expanded version would have been infinitely preferable to this console-locked garbage for $45. I don’t begrudge those who may want to pay less for an expansion rather than buying an additional version of what amounts to the same game (a la Crystal/Emerald/Platinum etc.), but there absolutely must be a retail release to complement it, otherwise this is not a future for the franchise that I can support in good conscience.

You must log in to post a comment