Pokémon GO players can get their first taste of Generation 8 action today, as Pokémon from the main series' latest entries, Sword and Shield, arrive in the app for the first time.
Usually, new generations are introduced on a yearly basis, with new 'mon starting to appear as summer comes to an end. This time, developer Niantic appears to have jumped ahead, offering up Galar region Pokémon in an entirely new time frame.
Two new Pokémon can be obtained today - both Galarian Meowth, who evolves into Sword and Shield's Perrserker, and Galarian Zigzagoon, which can eventually evolve into the new Pokémon, Obstagoon. You can see how Perrserker appears in your Pokédex thanks to the following image posted by Eurogamer.
As you can see, the Galar region Pokédex now sits just underneath Generation 5's Unova collection. Generations 6 and 7 - Kalos and Alola, respectively - are still nowhere to be seen and will no doubt arrive at a later date. Datamining actually suggests that Pokémon from these regions are all but ready to go in the app, so perhaps it's only a matter of time.
Galarian Meowth and Zigzagoon can be found inside 7km eggs, with the former also being available as a reward in the new Throwback Challenge Champion research.
Have you been playing Pokémon GO over these last few months? Will you be adding today's new monsters to your team? Tell us below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 21
The game will also display an entry for Obstagoon under Galar, as it too is a unique evolution not found from their original counterparts.
All ‘but’ ready to go? You sure that’s how to phrase that? Doesn’t that mean it will probably take a long time before they arrive?
But yeah, an extra bit of promotion for the expansion pass, no doubt.
@Friendly
"All but" is a phrase that roughly means "almost entirely".
Aside from that, the cat at the top looks like a Skyrim Pokemon.
Wow what a jump! Definitely a promotional stunt for the upcoming Sword & Shield expansion packs, and possibly an effective one too.
It's more than these two, I caught a Galarian Stunfisk today (in the UK)
Still waiting for them to connect it up with Pokemon Home. Got a few pokes I wanna transfer over to bulk my HomeDex up with. All in good time though.
I haven't played Sword & Shield so I didn't know that Meowth didn't evolve into Persian. That was a cool surprise when I did it in PoGo this afternoon as I somehow managed to avoid a potential spoiler ☺️
I haven't seen galarian Zigzagoon at all, have seen galarian stunfisk though.
Galarian Weezing hit Pokemon Go a while back didn't it? That would be the first Sword and Shield Pokemon?
@MJL yup there were Galarian Weezing in raids last week
Galarian Pokemon were introduced into the game with Galarian Weezing. I currently have one obtained in a raid. I named it Pip Pip.
I'll be keeping an eye out for any Pokemon from Galar when I'm out playing later.
You guys are mixing things up. We've had "Galarian" Pokémon through Galarian forms, like Weezing, and now Meowth, Stunfisk and Zigzagoon and Linoone (just like we had Alolan forms but no Alolan species, like Mimikyu or Rockruff yet). The difference is that for the first time we're skipping generations and getting entirely new Galarian SPECIES, which are Perrserker and Obstagoon. That had never happened before, usually later regions evolutions would be introduced with their regions (like half of Sinnoh Pokémon being previous generations evolutions)
Does Meltan not count as the first Gen 8 'mon?
@Clamango Meltan is in a weird place as it was introduced with Pokémon Go/Let's Go on Switch and is (currently) not part of the Galarian Pokédex (despite having a Gigantamax form in the gamecode).
So not really "late Gen 7" like Zeraora, but also not early Gen 8.
@Ogbert These don't get their own dex entry, however. Just lika Galarian Wheezing, that existed long before. Obstagoon and Perrserker are their own evolutions that jave their own Dex entry, thus skipping Gen 6 and 7 in the Pokémon Go dex
Sun and Moon are sad. Yeah we had the Alolan forms I suppose but no S/M specific Pokemon made it in. But here we get Perserker and Obstegon apparently.
15 raids! I manage about one a week so that ain’t happening.
Oh, cool, so Niantic plans to make all Pokémon up to Gen VIII available in the mobile game... That's really cool...
@Bensei Either way, they're still gen 8 Galarian Pokemon. They're just displaying them slightly weirdly.
@Heavyarms55
That would be because no Alolan Forms evolved into new creatures. If you'll notice, they're ONLY introducing Galarian Form variants of Gen 1-5 spp and their Gen 8 evolutions, if applicable. This is the same deal we got with Alolan forms when they launched between Gen III and IV's batch releases.
We'll likely get Gen VI Kalos Pokémon by the end of this year or early next year. Then later next year we'll get Gen VII Alola-specific Pokémon.
It's been about 2-3 major batches a year (either a new generation, or alternate forms of already-released gen from a more recent game like Sun/Moon or Sword/Shield).
@marandahir Fair enough I suppose.
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