New Adventures Await Pokémon Sword and Shield Players in Expansion Pass in 2020

The journey through Galar continues to the sandy beaches and snowy tundras in new Pokémon DLC announced for Pokémon Sword and Shield on January 9 in a Pokémon Direct. A whole slew of new information was released today about upcoming paid DLC for Pokémon, something never tried for the mainline Pokémon games before. The Expansion Pass comes in two parts, The Isle of Armor, which releases in June 2020, and The Crown Tundra, which comes out sometime in the fall.

The first of the packs is the Isle of Armor, which will transport players to a tropical-like area to train in a dojo headed up by a brand new character, Mustard. As you play through the pack, Mustard gives you the brand new Pokémon Kubfu, which can evolve into different forms based on a certain factor not announced. The new island will also include apricorns – which return to the series from generation II – and more new items, including bike decals, hair, and clothing, with outfits based on fan-favorite character Marnie!

In terms of Pokémon, the Regi’s seem to be returning with new forms, as do the rest of the Kanto starters, getting their own gigatamax forms. Grookey, Sobble, and Scorbunny’s final evolutions will also be getting gigatamax forms, but only the partner that you choose at the start of the game – apparently.

In the second expansion pass pack which releases in Fall 2020, The Crown Tundra, you’ll be sent on a mission by someone – who wasn’t announced – to log uncharted areas and discover new Pokémon. One of these Pokémon will be the new legendary Pokémon Calyrex, a psychic/grass Pokémon who lives in the snowy biome.

The expansion will also come with a new multiplayer raid mode where you go cave diving for legendary Pokémon from older generations and new, as of yet unannounced, Pokémon, who can now dynamax. Also teased were new forms of the Kanto bird trio.

Both new areas are set up like the wild area of Galar, with dens and a movable camera. Over the two packs, more than 200 Pokémon get to come to Galar, returning from previous games, bringing the total Pokémon available in the game to over 600 or 2/3rds of the total number of Pokémon. These Pokémon will also be patched into the base games in free updates, so even if you don’t have either of the expansion passes, you can still bring in your old partner Pokémon through Link Trades and Pokémon Home. I know my 17-year-old Pokémon from Hoenn would love the Isle of Armor.

Also announced was the Galarian Slowpoke line, which appears in Pokémon Sword and Shield from today via an update to the base game. The Pokémon Direct confirmed that a Galarian form of Slowbro and Slowking will be available to evolve into, but only with special items from The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra respectively.

Watch the full direct below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5afasEAiN0

You can pre-order the expansion pass today from the Nintendo eShop for US$29.99 for each version (one pass gets you both DLC). If you pre-order from the eShop, you’ll get a special Pikachu outfit and Eevee outfit. Finally, Pokémon Home was discussed to be released in February 2020, but with more information to come at a later time.

Source: Pokémon Direct

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.