Pokemon Sword And Shield: Crown Tundra Introduces A Very Helpful New Item – GameSpot

We learned a bunch of new details about Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s upcoming expansion, The Crown Tundra, during The Pokemon Company’s latest livestream this week, but some of the most interesting tidbits emerged after the stream ended. On the games’ official website, the company detailed a new item being introduced in the DLC called the Ability Patch, and it sounds like an Arceus-send.

The Ability Patch is similar to the existing Ability Capsule in that it lets you change one of your Pokemon’s Abilities, but this particular item works a little differently. Whereas the Ability Capsule only let you change between a Pokemon’s two standard Abilities, the Ability Patch will change it to its Hidden Ability (if its species has one).

This is a handy option to have, as Hidden Abilities are normally rare in Pokemon games; the only way to get a Pokemon with a Hidden Ability in Sword or Shield (outside of trading with another player or transferring them from previous titles) is to catch them in Max Raid battles. Many of these Hidden Abilities are quite useful in competitive battles, making the Ability Patch a very welcome addition.

The Pokemon Company hasn’t detailed how you’ll be able to get Ability Patches in Crown Tundra, only noting that the items are “hard to come by but worth the effort,” so it appears players will need to work to get their hands on one. You can read more about the item on the official Pokemon website.

We learned a lot of other details about the Crown Tundra DLC during this week’s livestream. The expansion launches on October 22, and in the run up to its release, The Pokemon Company is giving away a handful of Pikachu wearing different caps. The company also confirmed that Pokemon Go compatibility is being added to Pokemon Home before the end of the year. You’ll get two special presents for transferring a monster from Go to Home. First, you’ll receive the Mystery Box in Go, which summons the Mythical Pokemon Meltan in the wild. On top of that, you’ll receive a Gigantamax Melmetal via Mystery Gift in Pokemon Home.