Pokémon Database - News & Updates
Welcome to The Pokémon Database! We believe in making Pokémon information as clear and easy to digest as possible.
On this page below you'll find the recent Pokémon news and updates to this site. Delve deeper using the menu above to find detailed Pokédex entries, attack stats, evolution chains and our thriving community of awesome Pokéfans who'll answer your questions. And much more besides!
New information on the Sword/Shield Expansion Pass will be announced on Tuesday, June 2nd!
World times: 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST / 3pm CEST / 10pm JST / 11pm AEST
Check back here afterward for a full round-up.
Galarian Forms with hidden abilities available via Mystery Gift
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 23 May, 2020
Four Galarian Forms from Pokémon Sword & Shield are available for players over the next four weeks! Galarian Mr. Mime, Ponyta, Corsola, and Meowth can be downloaded in-game using Mystery Gift > Get via Internet. A set of items can also be obtained each week.
The abilities and items are:
- May 22nd to 28th: Galarian Mr. Mime with the ability Ice Body, and the items Lure Ball, Moon Ball, Heavy Ball, Dream Ball.
- May 29th to June 4th: Galarian Ponyta with the ability Anticipation, and the items Level Ball, Fast Ball, Love Ball, Friend Ball, Beast Ball.
- June 5th to 11th: Galarian Corsola with the ability Cursed Body, and the items Sweet Apple, Tart Apple, Chipped Pot, Cracked Pot, Sachet, Whipped Dream.
- June 12th to 18th: Galarian Meowth with the ability Unnerve, and the items Exp. Candy L x100, Big Nuggets x50.
Be sure to get these gifts while you can!
Signature move for Zarude revealed
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 09 April, 2020
A new exclusive move for the mythical Pokémon, Zarude, has been revealed: Jungle Healing.
Zarude learns this Grass-type status move at level 90. It heals the HP of Zarude and its ally, as well as curing any status conditions.
Gigantamax starters revealed in new Sword/Shield Expansion Pass trailer
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 26 March, 2020
A new trailer has been released for the upcoming Pokémon Sword & Shield Expansion Pass. It reveals the designs for the Galar starters' Gigantamax forms and their exclusive G-Max moves:
- Gigantamax Rillaboom turns into a drummer with a full drum kit. Its G-Max move is G-Max Drum Solo.
- Gigantamax Cinderace sits atop a giant fireball. Its G-Max move is coincidentally named G-Max Fireball.
- Gigantamax Inteleon turns into a tall spiral shape. Its G-Max move is G-Max Hydrosnipe.
New trainer outfits and league cards will be available, and the trailer shows several interactions with Kubfu, the new Pokémon that will be your partner in the first part of the Expansion Pass, The Isle of Armor.
Pokémon of the Year results announced and Zarude revealed
General News — 27 February, 2020
The Pokémon Company has revealed the results of Google's Pokémon of the Year
vote that ran a few weeks ago. We'll get to that shortly but following the top 10 countdown they revealed a new Mythical Pokémon, Zarude.
Zarude is Dark/Grass type and has the ability Leaf Guard. It's known as the Rogue Monkey Pokémon
, is 1.8m tall and weighs 70kg. A video showing it in action has been released:
Now on to the Pokémon of the Year
results. The top 10 are revealed in this video from Pokémon Japan and are listed below.
Silhouette of new mythical Pokémon shown in CoroCoro
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 13 February, 2020
The latest issue of CoroCoro has leaked and it shows a silhouette of the new mythical Pokémon, which will be officially revealed on Pokémon Day
- February 27th.
Update 15/02: the official site has published a clear image of the Pokémon:
The Pokémon will appear in the new anime movie, Coco
, releasing July 10th in Japan. Interestingly, it has some similarities with a new character seen in the trailer for the film:
We'll bring you the official announcement as soon as it happens!
Pokémon Day celebrations revealed
General News — 05 February, 2020
The Pokémon Company today announced several celebrations that will be taking place on Pokémon Day
- February 27th. We reported on some of these last week but more details have now been released as well as new features!
First up is a Pokémon of the Year poll. This is in collaboration with Google - searching pokemon vote
brings up a banner with several categories, and a vote can be cast in each of the categories. It starts today and the categories are the different regions from the Pokémon games. The voting lasts until February 14th and the winner will be announced on the 27th.
They further confirmed the reveal of a new Mythical Pokémon on Pokémon Day, and also officially revealed Gigantamax Toxtricity in Pokémon Sword & Shield.
New mythical Pokémon to be revealed on Pokémon Day 2020
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 31 January, 2020
The Japanese Pokémon website has announced various events will be taking place on February 27th, 2020 - aka Pokémon Day
:
- A special Max Raid Battle will be held in Pokémon Sword & Shield.
- In-game events are planned for Pokémon GO.
- There will be a new announcement for the mobile game Pokémon Masters.
- A new mythical Pokémon will be revealed for Pokémon Sword & Shield, which will also appear in the next Pokémon movie
Coco
. It's unknown whether it will require the upcoming Expansion Pass for SWSH.
Pokémon Day is celebrated on the anniversary of the original release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan - February 27th. This year Pokémon will be 24 years old!
Pokémon HOME to launch in February
General News — 28 January, 2020
The Pokémon Company has announced that Pokémon HOME, the replacement for Pokémon Bank, will be released next month. The app will be available for Nintendo Switch as well as smartphone and comes with several features for transferring and trading Pokémon.
- There are two plans - Basic, which is free; and Premium, which costs $3/month or $16/year. With the basic plan up to 30 Pokémon can be stored in HOME at a time, while with Premium up to 6,000 Pokémon can be stored.
- Using the Switch version, players can transfer Pokémon between HOME and Sword/Shield.
- Pokémon can also be transferred to and from Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, however once a Pokémon has been transferred to another game (e.g. Sword/Shield) it cannot be transferred back to LGPE.
- Pokémon can be transferred from Pokémon Bank. Players on the Basic plan will have access for the first month, but after that it's limited to Premium plan users only.
- Pokémon can be transferred from Pokémon GO, though note this is a one-way transfer.
- Pokémon can be traded using the mobile app, either with friends, using the GTS for specific requests or Wonder Box for random trades.
- Pokémon HOME features a National Pokédex - any Pokémon transferred to HOME will be registered in the dex, including Mega Evolutions of Gigantamax forms. Pokémon can be searched for by ability and moves.
- Players on the Premium plan have access to a Judge function, which appraises the stats of a Pokémon.
- Points are accumulated for each Pokémon deposited in HOME. These can be converted into Battle Points for use in Sword/Shield or future games.
Pokémon Direct announces Pokémon Sword & Shield Expansion Pass
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 09 January, 2020
The Pokémon Direct has just finished airing, which announced paid DLC for Pokémon Sword & Shield. There are two new adventures titled The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, to be released in June and in the autumn respectively.
But first up was a port of the GBA/DS games Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team. The new version, for Nintendo Switch, is titled Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX. It will be released March 6th, 2020 however there will be a demo available today!
Next up was the big news: an Expansion Pass for Pokémon Sword and Shield. It will be paid DLC and includes two new adventures plus over 200 additional Pokémon not available in Sword/Shield. New Pokémon include Galarian Slowpoke/Slowbro/Slowking; new forms for Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres; new Regi Pokémon; Gigantamax forms of Venusaur, Blastoise, Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon; and new legendary Pokémon.
A new update for Sword/Shield has just gone live which allows Galarian Slowpoke to be encountered right now! It will require the expansion pack to evolve, however, updates to Sword/Shield will allow trading of any of the new Pokémon without the Expansion Pass.
Pokémon Direct to air on 9th January
General News — 07 January, 2020
A new Pokémon Direct has been announced for this Thursday, January 9th at 2:30pm UTC. It will last around 20 minutes, making it one of the longest Pokémon Directs there has been.
No specifics were given on the content but The Pokémon Company asked everyone to tune in for some exciting updates coming to the world of Pokémon this year!
We'll bring you the updates as soon as they happen.
Times around the world:
- 6:30am PT (USA)
- 9:30am ET (USA)
- 2:30pm GMT (UK)
- 3:30pm CEST (Europe)
- 11:30pm JST (Japan)
- 1:30am AEDT (Australia)
Pokémon Sword and Shield released!
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 15 November, 2019
Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield for Nintendo Switch have now been released worldwide! As the first games of a new generation they feature new Pokémon and lots to explore. Of course I've been busy cataloging everything with the games, from Pokémon stats and learnsets to locations and items.
Our Sword/Shield section is a work in progress but I'll keep adding details as I find them. Here are some quick links to useful pages:
Japanese trailer officially reveals Mr. Rime and Runerigus
Pokémon Sword & Shield — 11 November, 2019
A new trailer for Sword & Shield has been released in Japan (no English equivalent just yet). This trailer shows two new Pokémon, which we know to be Mr. Rime, a Galarian evolution of Mr. Mime; and Runerigus, a Galarian evolution of Yamask.