Happy Pokémon Day everyone! It’s Pokémon’s 30th Anniversary, and as a part of the activities we received tons of new info about Pokémon Champions from the Pokémon Presents along with Pokémon Champion’s newly openned website. Pokémon Champions is Pokémon’s new PvP Battling game that will be available later this year on the Nintendo Switch lineup of systems along with smart mobile devices. With that out of the way, let’s see everything this game has to offer:
Release Window
While we don’t have a specific release date yet, the Pokémon Presents trailer did give us a release window. It will be releasing on April this year on the Nintendo Switch platforms. But for those of us eager to have it on mobile, we have to wait a bit longer as it will be released later in the year.
Battle Modes And Battle Formats
Battle Modes
There will be 3 battle modes:
- Ranked: Battles you can participate in to increase your ranking each season and win prizes such as VP.
- Casual: Stress-free Non-ranked battles to practice, try new strategies or just de-stress as these battles will not affect your ranking.
- Private: Private lobbies where you can set your own ruleset to play with friends, families, or people you know.
Ranked battles will follow seasonal rotations and your ranking will be tallied at the end of each season. You will receive in-game prizes based on your performance. These battles will also follow regulations, much like how the official championships follow regulations. These will determine which Pokémon you can use and certain parameters each season. Official VGC tournaments will also be played in Pokémon Champions going forward.
Battle Formats
Something perhaps not many people were expecting, but the game will launch with both Single and Double Battle formats. This might be surprising as so far we had only seen footage of Double Battles.
How to Recruit and Train Pokémon
As many have already gleaned from previous trailers, a special resource called VP need to be used to to recruit and train your Pokémon. Though we have more concrete information now.
For starters, VP will be gained from Ranked Battles and other methods. You can recruit Pokémon temporarily or permanently depending on the VP you spend. The roster of Pokémon you can choose from resets every 22 hours unless you spend more VP.
However, VP is not the only way to recruit Pokémon as you can use Tickets and Coupons. Not only that, you can bring Pokémon from other games to Pokémon Champions via Pokémon HOME.
Tickets and VPs must also be used to change your Pokémon’s stats and teach it new moves via training.
Pokémon HOME Support
As stated prior, you can you’re partners from other games such GO in Pokémon Champions via Pokémon HOME as visitors. However, the actual rules are rather specific so I’ll outline them as follows taken directly from the official Pokémon Champions website:
- Only Pokémon that appear in Pokémon Champions will be able to visit from Pokémon HOME. (Which is to say the Pokémon needs to be available in Champions for it to be usable)
- Pokémon obtained in Pokémon Champions cannot be sent to Pokémon HOME.
- Pokémon can only be sent to a game through Pokémon HOME if they appear in that game. (Same as the first rule)
- If Pokémon brought over as visitors know moves that cannot be used in Pokémon Champions, you’ll need to change those moves via training.
- Training underwent in Pokémon Champions won’t carry over to Pokémon HOME, but if the same Pokémon visit Pokémon Champions again, any training they received will be saved.
- If a visiting Pokémon leaves Pokémon Champions and then returns in a different form, the results of any training that Pokémon had undergone in Pokémon Champions will be lost.
Mega Pokémon Giveaways
It’s already confirmed that Mega Pokémon will be available from the start in Champions To celebrate the launch of the game, you can a Dragonite by downloading the game early with its Mega evolution also being available. Not only that, if you bring Chesnaught, Delphox, Greninja, and Eternal Flower Floette you befriended during Pokémon Legends: Z-A to the game via Pokémon Home you will receive their respective Mega Stones.
Other Information
The opening cinematic for Pokémon Champions has been released online and personally I quite like it. Other than that, we have name drops of certain characters who will help us in the game such as: Tatora, Kitt, Cordy, Caraway, and Kajima. We also now know we can play music from not only Champions but also other other Pokémon games while battling in Pokémon Champions!
