At the moment,Pokemonfans everywhere are preoccupied with today’s announcement regarding the release dates for the next majorPokemongames: theDiamondandPearlremakesand the open-worldPokemon Legends: Arceus. And this news risks overshadowing some new updates coming toPokemon Home, the service which acts as a cloud storage system for the Pokemon that players catch.
The features themselves are relatively minor, with the real draw of the update being that they will come with a couple of special and free Pokemon for players to add to their collection. Specifically, Bulbasaur and Squirtle, the Grass and Water starter Pokemon from the originalPokemon RedandBluegames.
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The two will be added as Mystery Gifts and can be received either through the mobile version ofPokemon Homeor throughPokemon SwordandShield. Since they’re starter Pokemon and usually can’t be caught in the wild, these two are very rare to get a hold of in most of the games. It’s not as much of a problem nowadays, though, as they can be found in the wild in the twoPokemon: Let’s Gogames andPokemon GO.
However, what makes these particular Bulbasaur and Squirtle stand out is that they will come with the Gigantamax factor, meaning they can naturally enter theirunique Gigantamax formsonce they’ve evolved into Venusaur and Blastoise respectively. It is possible to obtain them with the Gigantamax factor inSwordandShieldthrough the Isle of Armor DLC, but players can only be gifted with one of them.
The only other alternative is to catch a Bulbasaur or Squirtle in another game, transfer it toPokemonSwordandShield, and then feed it Max Soup, which unlocks the Gigantamax form. So, while it was never impossible, these Mystery Gifts skip all the rigmarole and let players focus on leveling them up to their final evolutions.
In case anyone is wondering why the Fire starter, Charmander, isn’t included with this, that’s because aCharmanderwith the Gigantamax factor can already be acquired inSwordandShield. After defeating the champion, Leon, and visiting his house, players will find a Charmander there as a gift, which can then Gigantamax once it’s evolved into Charizard, just like Leon’s own Charizard.
For those wondering what the newHomefeatures actually are, the first is a Catch Calendar. This will allow users to keep track of when they caught their Pokemon and can be used to set up anniversaries, meaning fans can celebrate the day when they first encountered their favorite Pokemon, for example.
The second is simply an updated Pokedex, which will let users examine Pokemon registered to it from different angles. An exact date for when the features and the Pokemon will be added hasn’t been given, but they’re slated to arrive in June.
Pokemon Homeis available now on Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.
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