Pokémon Sword And Shield Won’t Actually Feature Armored Evolutions

Every generation of Pokémon games is subject to gossip and leaks before the debut of their latest installment, and this year’s Pokémon Sword and Shield are no different. Soon after the games were announced last February, Internet message boards exploded with all sorts of “big reveals,” from new starter evolutions to multiple gameplay regions, but over time, they’ve all been debunked. With only a few months remaining until Sword and Shield’s release, we can now add another highly debated rumor to that list of fakes.

According to the popular Pokémon website Serebii, citing the upcoming issue of CoroCoro, the supposed armored evolutions of fan-favorite Pokémon won’t actually be in the game. The closest fans will get is an armored version of Mewtwo, who will appear in the next animated Pokémon feature Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution – a CGI remake of the first Pokémon movie.

Sources cited an anonymous 4Chan user– who correctly predicted the names of the three new starter Pokémon– with spreading the rumor of potential armored evolutions. Their post claimed that Pokémon like Mewtwo, Flygon, Charizard and Zeraora would receive psychical upgrades similar to a knight’s suit of armor. Considering the series’ newest region, Galar, would be based on Great Britain, many fans took this information as fact.

Nintendo is usually very particular when it comes to rolling out information about its new games, even though they often move at a Slowpoke’s pace. The good news is that gaming company confirmed that new details and footage of the latest Pokémon titles will be unveiled at its E3 presentation this summer. Not only will that likely put the rest the armored evolution idea once and for all, but it should give us our first real look at the game’s actual mechanics in its stead. Then, it’ll only be a few short months before Pokémon Sword and Shield releases exclusively on the Nintendo Switch later this year.