Pokemon Sword and Shield Direct May Have Proven an Old Leak to Be Accurate

A two-week-old leak may be more accurate than we thought after details in it matched today’s Direct.

Today’s Pokemon Nintendo Direct gave us tons of official new details about Pokemon Sword and Shield, including 7 new Pokemon and a release date, but it possibly also seems to have shown an alleged leak with even more information from two weeks ago to potentially be accurate.

A thread posted on 4Chan on May 23 claimed to list loads of extra details not yet revealed about the next Pokemon games, but fake leaks are posted to anonymous forums all the time so there wasn’t much reason to believe it was real. But now many of the details officially revealed in today’s Direct match-up with some of what was claimed in that two-week-old leak, lending some weight to the rest of what was described.

The leak details that matched the official reveal were your rival’s name, Hop, as well as the researcher Sonia being the granddaughter of Sword and Shield’s professor – Leon is also named though not described. The new Dynamaxing mechanic was also detailed accurately and the newly shown sheep Pokemon Wooloo was named, while both legendaries were accurately described but not named. Finally, the Wild Area was addressed by name, along with its open world nature and weather system, and the four-person Dynamax raids within it.

That’s a whole lot of specific names and information to get right by accident, but it’s always safe to remain skeptical with leaks like this regardless. Still, if you would prefer to stay spoiler-free then turn back now!

Here are the bigger unrevealed details that this alleged leak claims are true:

• Sword and Shield’s enemy team will be called Team Yell.
• There will be an “evil” legendary Pokemon named Eternatus.
• In addition to Dynamaxing, there will also be the similar Gigantimaxing, which changes a Pokemon’s appearance in addition to growing its size. Three examples given are Meowth looking like “long cat,” Lapras getting “layers like musical bars to its shell and musical notes,” and Pikachu looking like “retro fat Pikachu.”
• “Regional evolutions” will be a thing, with Farfetch’d turning into Sirfetch’d, and Meowth looking like “a ball of spiky grey fur.” It’s unclear if this literally means evolutions or if it actually refers to regional variants like Alola.
• Chipmunk Pokemon potentially named “Skwovet and Greedunt” will hide in berry trees, attacking players if they shake them too many times, which will cause you to lose half the berries that fell.
• To challenge a gym leader, you need to get an endorsement (not explained), which will then let you take on a gym challenge that needs to be completed before fighting them.
• Three gym challenges are described, including one where you have to herd Wooloo while avoiding a new Electric corgi Pokemon called Pamper, one where you navigate a maze with water blocking your path, and one where you have to catch Pokemon and “get 5 points” while in a team battle with another trainer who is also trying to catch them at the same time.
• While in the Wild Area, you will “randomly see nearby players and interact with them to get their league cards and items.”
• Camping will be a mechanic, and is where you will play with Pokemon. It will also let you make curry to raise stats and use toys to raise friendship.
• Grookey’s final evolution is a giant gorilla that uses a wood drum to attack.
• Sobble’s evolutions are called Sizzile and then Intelleon, and will have a spy-theme to them.
• “Scorbunny will have fighting moves, but is pure fighter.” (There could be a typo in here, it reads as if it meant to say “but is pure fire” or “but isn’t pure fighter.”) Its second evolution is called Raboot, and its final evolution looks like a humanoid fighter.
• A blue seagull Pokemon was described that will get either a “barracuda or a Pikachu” in its mouth when it dives, which it then throws at the enemy.

Again, it’s important to note that this is still all rumor and nothing in the above list is even close to guaranteed to be accurate, so take it all with a grain of salt. It could be that someone was able to see the info that would be revealed in the Direct and simply made up extra details beyond that to mess with people, or that they or misreporting or misremembering details even if they do have inside information.