Pokemon Sword & Shield's New Mythical Pokemon, Zarude, Officially Revealed

As teased, The Pokemon Company has revealed a new Mythical Pokemon for Sword and Shield as part of its recent Pokemon Day celebration. The new Pokemon is called Zarude, and it'll play a major role in the upcoming Pokemon movie, Coco, which premieres in Japan later this year.

Zarude is known as the Rogue Monkey Pokemon. It's a Dark/Grass-type with the Ability Leaf Guard, which prevents it from being inflicted by status conditions when the weather on the battlefield is sunny. According to the Pokemon website, Zarude is able to grow vines from its wrists, neck, and feet, and can use these to battle or treat wounds thanks to the vines' healing properties.

Few other details have been revealed about Zarude thus far, but the official Pokemon website confirms that you won't be able to obtain it in Sword and Shield through normal gameplay, which suggests it will be released as part of a special distribution or event. The Pokemon Company teases that "more information [is] coming soon."

In other Pokemon news, a few freebies are still available for Sword and Shield, including free Bottle Caps, which you can use to Hyper Train a Pokemon and raise one of its base stats. Time is running out to grab some of them, though, so you'll need to act fast if you haven't already claimed them.