New ‘Pokemon Sword & Shield’ Details, Images Revealed at E3!

I’m here at E3 in Los Angeles where Nintendo is revealing new Pokemon Sword & Shield information!

In the morning a Nintendo Direct stream revealed only minor information:

• The Poke Ball Plus can be used to store your Pokemon from Sword & Shield. Unlike in Let’s Go, Pikachu & Eevee, the Poke Ball Plus cannot be used as a controller in Sword & Shield.
• Nessa is the game’s Water-type Gym Leader. She uses a Dynamax Drednaw. (Note that the Sword & Shield leaks mentioned Nessa, further proving their reliability.)

Immediately following the Nintendo Direct was a Nintendo Treehouse presentation featuring a demo of the games:

• Grookey has a move named Branch Poke.
• There’s a Lake Miloch, Rolling Hills, and a Lake Axewell they showed in the wild area.
• Pokemon like Vanillite will appear when it’s hailing.
• A Trainer who enters a battle during a thunderstorm will find the power of their Water- and Electric-type moves increased.
• The wild area has Pokemon that can be much stronger than yours, like a Level 26 Machoke when you’d have a Level 12 Scorbunny at that point in the game.
• There’s new items named Pungent Root and Pack of Potatoes.
• Icons will appear on the left side of the screen that show what other players are doing or what they want — this is called the Y-Comm. For example, you can use the icons to indicate you want to battle, trade, or get players to join you in a Max Raid Battle. It works via local wireless or the Internet.
• Red light beams in the sky will indicate where there’s a wild Dynamax Pokemon in the wild area.
• For Max Raid Battles, you can only choose one Pokemon from your box or party and can’t change it. You have to cooperate with other players to determine your roles and how each player will defeat the Dynamax Pokemon. For example one player may attack, one may set up a Protect, one may heal, etc. Only one player can Dynamax their Pokemon per battle, and who can do it changes each turn. Each Max Raid Battle has a limit of 10 turns.
• In battle, a wild Dynamax Pokemon might use multiple moves in one turn, neutralize the challenging Pokemon’s Abilities, or even remove all stat changes that have been put in place. Wild Dynamax Pokemon can also create mysterious barriers that prevent almost all damage. To properly damage a Pokemon behind one of these barriers, Trainers will need to break it down by repeatedly attacking it. When a player’s Pokemon is knocked out in a Max Raid Battle, they can still assist other Trainers by cheering them on. If a Trainer emerges victorious from a Max Raid Battle, not only will all participating Trainers have an opportunity to catch the defeated Dynamax Pokemon, they can also be rewarded with many useful items.
• Goodra, Arcanine, Onix, and Hydreigon are being shown as Dynamax Pokemon on the E3 floor, so they’ll either be available in the wild or at least be used by Trainers in the game.
• Pokemon HOME will only transfer Pokemon to Sword & Shield if they appear in the Galax Pokedex.