Game Freak and Nintendo revealed today that release date for the highly-anticipated second expansion for Pokemon Sword and Shield – the Crown Tundra.
Pokemon Sword and Shield: The Crown Tundra expansion will be released on October 22 for the Nintendo Switch. Additionally, Nintendo will be releasing an all-in-one packs of Pokemon Sword and Shield that includes the base game and both the expansions on a single game card, which will be released on November 6.
Here are more details of the expansion pass:
Expansion Pass Part 2: The Crown Tundra
The Crown Tundra is the second area you’ll be able to visit with your Expansion Pass. See for yourself this vast landscape, with its drifts of glittering snow! In this frigid area with jagged, snowy mountains, people have settled in a small, tight-knit community.
Early in your adventures here, a man named Peony will appoint you as the leader of his exploration team in the Crown Tundra. You’ll be tasked with investigating the reaches of this frozen land—including the depths of a Pokemon Den, something you’ve so far been able to glimpse only during Max Raid Battles!
What’s more, it seems many Legendary Pokemon make the Crown Tundra their home.
■ Explore Pokemon Dens in Dynamax Adventures!
In Dynamax Adventures, you’ll team up with three other Trainers to explore a Pokemon Den where Dynamax Pokemon are said to lurk!
Instead of your regular Pokemon team, you and your fellow Trainers will choose rental Pokemon to bring along into the depths of the den. If you encounter a wild Dynamax Pokemon during your exploration, you’ll need to work together with your three teammates in a Max Raid Battle! If you win the battle, you’ll have the chance to catch the Pokemon, and one Trainer on the team can swap the newly caught Pokemon in for the Pokemon they had before. But if you lose a battle, you’ll be ejected from the den!
Try swapping out your Pokémon as you explore so you’ll be prepared to face whatever comes next as you seek the Legendary Pokemon said to lurk in the depths. And if you want to delve even deeper into the den, Endless Dynamax Adventures may be the thing for you! Endless Dynamax Adventures let you keep on going until you lose a battle.
Give them a try if you want to test your mettle.
■ Legendary Pokemon from past games are back!
With The Crown Tundra, you’ll be able to encounter every Legendary Pokemon that’s appeared in the main series of Pokémon games! Find Legendary Pokemon during your travels in the Crown Tundra or while you’re on Dynamax Adventures, and you’ll have a chance to catch them! Some Legendary Pokemon appear only in Pokemon Sword with the Pokemon Sword Expansion Pass, while others appear only in Pokemon Shield with the Pokemon Shield Expansion Pass.
■ Get ready to take part in the Galarian Star Tournament!
Once you progress far enough in your adventure in The Crown Tundra, you’ll be able to participate in the Galarian Star Tournament, held in the city of Wyndon! This tournament is Leon’s brainchild, intended to fire up the spirits of the Galar region. Once you accept Leon’s invitation, you’ll be able to pick a partner from among the many Trainers you’ve met throughout your adventures in Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield—as well as the Expansion Pass—and team up for a Multi Battle tournament! Depending on who your partner and your opponents are, you may glimpse new sides of some familiar faces!
■ The Ability Patch: A new useful item for raising Pokemon
In The Crown Tundra, you may get new items called Ability Patches. They’re hard to come by but worth the effort. If you use one on a Pokemon, its Ability will change to its species’ Hidden Ability, if it has one! With an Ability Patch and a helping of Max Soup from the Isle of Armor, you can bring out the Hidden Ability of the first partner Pokemon you chose at the beginning of Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield and give it the capability to Gigantamax as well.
■ Newly Discovered Pokemon
Type: Steel
Height: 82’+
Weight: ????.? lbs.
Ability: Iron Fist—Hex-nut fists on telescoping arms
Melmetal can use its flexible and elastic liquid-metal body to land punches even when opponents keep their distance. What’s more, it can pack an even bigger punch by bringing the hex nuts in its arms together to make gigantic fists!
—Electric beams fired from a hex nut
Melmetal can generate electricity using the flow of liquid metal in its body. That electricity charges up particles that Melmetal then fires from the hole in the hex nut in its abdomen. The resulting electric beam is powerful enough to vaporize an entire hill.
Category: Hexpert Pokemon
Type: Poison / Psychic
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 175.3 lbs.
Ability: Curious Medicine—A brainy Shellder takes charge
A Shellder bite set off a reaction between the chemicals secreted by Galarian Slowpoke’s brain and the spices inside its body, causing Slowpoke to gain the Poison type as it evolved into Galarian Slowking. The Shellder’s intelligence also skyrocketed, giving the Shellder psychic powers that put other Psychic-type Pokemon to shame.
—A hexpert that communicates through strange incantations
Galarian Slowking have been observed uttering incantations in order to communicate with each other. They also appear to chant mysterious spells when using moves in battle. Exactly what these Slowking are saying has yet to be fully understood.
—Galarian Slowking’s signature move: Eerie Spell!
Eerie Spell is a Psychic-type special move in which the Pokemon attacks with tremendous psychic power. If hit, the opponent doesn’t only take damage—it also loses 3 PP from the move it last used.
—Curious Medicine
Galarian Slowking’s Ability, Curious Medicine, is a new Ability introduced with this expansion. When a Pokemon with this Ability enters the battlefield, allies’ stat changes are reset.
Check out the trailer below:
