New evidence has emerged debunking previous rumors that armored evolutions would replace Mega Evolutions in Pokémon Sword & Shield.
We’re all getting pretty desperate for details on the upcoming 8th-gen release of Pokémon. We’ve got the starters, and the setting, but that’s pretty much it in terms of confirmed info from Game Freak.
Without hard facts to support us, rumors are filling the void. One of the biggest ones is that armored evolutions will replace Mega Evolutions as the next big thing in Pokémon, with armored forms of Mewtwo, Charizard, and other notable Pokémon standbys.
Adding credibility to the rumor was the source, which purported to be from the same leaker who correctly gave us the name Sword & Shield, the setting of Galar as a stand-in for Great Britain, and the three starters, Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. If they were right before, maybe they’d be right again.
Now we’re getting some hard facts that armored Pokémon will not be in Sword & Shield.
Serebii.net, your one-stop-shop for all things Pokémon, recently updated with news from the Japanese magazine CoroCoro. New details for Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution have emerged that reveal the CGI remake of the first Pokémon movie will indeed feature an armored Mewtwo, but that it will be exclusive to the movie.
"[CoroCoro] states outright that this appearance of Mewtwo is exclusive to the movie,” writes Serebii, “although it will of course appear in merchandise and other promotional elements for the movie."
To be clear, the word “exclusive” here means that there won’t be any armored Mewtwos found anywhere else, and that includes Pokémon Sword & Shield.
However, this does explain why a Pokémon GO data miner was able to find references to Armored Mewtwo in the most recent update. Apparently there will be a tie-in with Evolution in the game.
There’s always the chance that CoroCoro is wrong and that Sword & Shield will have armored evolutions, but if it’s made it into a Japanese magazine you can basically take it as gospel.