While developingPokemon SwordandShield, Game Freak decided toremove the National Dexfrom both games and all futurePokemontitles. The result was over 500 Pokemon getting cut fromSwordandShield, which obviously lead to some backlash from fans.
Now, however, Nintendo plans to release a free update sometime in the future that will reintroduce Pokemon that didn’t make it into the vanilla versions ofSwordandShield. It will also allow players to import their old Pokemon into either of the games throughPokemon Home, which releases later this month.
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Even though the update has yet to go live, somePokemon SwordandShieldplayers are reporting that they’re receiving Pokemon that are currently unavailable in the games viaSurprise Trades. A Reddit user who has since deleted their account made a post recently that expressed their befuddlement at receiving a Litten from a Surprise Trade. Litten, of course, is a fire starter fromPokemon’s seventh generation. Like every other starter whose name isn’t Charmander, Litten was cut from the vanilla version ofSwordandShield.
According to one of the commenters on the post, these cut Pokemon come from hackers who fix Raid Battles to feature unavailable Pokemon. The hackers then catch the Pokemon, breed them, and place them inside the Surprise Trade system, where they get sent out to an unsuspecting trainer. And because fixedRaid Battlesare apart of the process that creates these Pokemon, it’s also possible for unsuspecting trainers to find themselves in a hacked Raid Battle. Some of these battles even feature legendary Pokemon currently unavailable in the game.
While these trades and raids have been happening since the start of February, Nintendo hasn’t addressed the situation. There’s no real way to tell the difference between a straight-up hacked Pokemon and an unavailable one received through the Suprirse Trade system. It’s possible then that trainers currently holding onto one of these Pokemon don’t need to worry about any repercussions Nintendo might implement. However, the reception date of said Pokemon will give away whether or not it was naturally obtained when theupdate that officially brings it into the game releases. With that in mind, these Pokemon will never be allowed in competitive play, so there’s little point in holding onto them when the official update comes around, save for the sake of doing so.
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