Pokemon Sword And Shield Crown Tundra DLC Introduces A Handy New Item

The Pokemon Company shared a lot new details about Pokemon Sword and Shield's upcoming Crown Tundra expansion during its latest video presentation, but some of the most interesting tidbits emerged after the broadcast ended. Immediately following the presentation, the games' official website revealed a new item being introduced in the DLC called the Ability Patch, and it sounds incredibly helpful, particularly for competitive players.

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 will be a very 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, as well, making the Ability Patch a very welcome new item.

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 the video presentation. The expansion launches later this week, on October 22, and in the run up to its release, The Pokemon Company is giving away eight Pikachu wearing different caps. Six are available right now, with more to be distributed as the month progresses. We recently learned more details on the new Dynamax Adventures feature, as well--namely that Legendary Pokemon you encounter through it will have a 100% catch rate if you can defeat them.

The Pokemon 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.