Prolific Pokemon Unite data miner ElChicoEevee uncovered a lot of unreleased content in the latest update, including the next two Pokemon - Espeon and Delphox - and files that indicated most, if not all of the wild Pokemon, would somehow become playable. Over the last week or so, the details of that development have slowly come into focus, thanks to the data mining community, and now we know with a reasonable amount of certainty that Unite is about to introduce a new game mode that will allow you to capture and control wild Pokemon, including Legendaries Zapdos, Articuno, and Regigigas.
Leaker @sobbleunitedtm has been uploading videos of all the playable Pokemon this week. Avalugg, Electrode, Articuno, Araquanid, Regigigas, Zapdos, Drednaw, Ludicolo, and Tauros have been shown off so far. These Pokemon do not have full kits, however. They have only two abilities and they can’t learn new ones as they level. They also don’t have any Unite moves. They do have scoring animations though, so expect to be able to play full matches with them just as you would with any regular Unite Licensed ‘mon.
The new game mode will utilize the Quick Match map Mer Stadium, though the wild Pokemon come from all the different maps. This map has fewer wild Pokemon than Remoat Stadium, so it’s not surprising that a lot are missing, like Bouffalant, Rotom, Vespiquen, Frosmoth, Ledian, and Venomoth—though that also means these Pokemon are still available for future versions of this mode.
The way the mode actually works is still unclear, but one theory is that you’ll become any wild Pokemon you manage to get the last hit on. If this is how it works, I couldn’t be more excited about it. A mode like this will effectively double the roster of playable Pokemon and make every match an unpredictable and chaotic free-for-all. Fights over objective Pokemon like Drednaw and Zapdos will have an even bigger impact than before as the winning team instantly adds the defeated Pokemon to their line up. With so many new Pokemon to play, it’s going to take a long time for this game mode to get stale, if ever.
Quick Matches have tried to fill the role of the casual game mode, but they’re just shorter matches on smaller maps. They still require teamwork and good game sense in order to be successful. People may take them less seriously, but that only makes them more frustrating to play. This new mode has all the makings of ARAM: a truly chaotic arcade mode where the fun isn’t winning but rather seeing all the unexpected things that can happen.
This is how Pokemon Unite should have always been. Unite departs from traditional MOBAs in a lot of ways, but the gameplay ultimately relies on the same skill sets that all MOBAs do, like positional awareness, character proficiency, and cooldown management. This game mode throws the MOBA conventions out the window in a way that feels true to Pokemon. Finally, you can catch ‘em all.
The more seriously you take Pokemon Unite, unfortunately, the more painful it becomes to play. The matchmaking system and Ranked Mode are not equipped to provide players with high-quality games, and it’s starting to seem unlikely that that will ever change. If there isn’t going to be anything here for us sweaty try-hards, then I’m happy to see Unite swing way in the opposite direction. This is the kind of wacky, stress-free game mode that will keep me logged in even when I’m too exhausted to deal with ranked games, and I can’t wait to try it.