Video Game Blog 024: The Pokémon Binge Part 3: Isle of Armor & Crown Tundra
Is bear. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
This part will focus on my playthrough of the Sword and Shield DLC: The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra. Previous Generations of Pokémon have had a third (and sometimes fourth) title that enhances the gameplay and adds in new elements. (This was notably skipped for X and Y, which never had a Z version.) Moving away from this, the developers have instead decided on releasing an Expansion Pass that adds new areas, new Pokémon, and new story to the base games.
I played the DLC on both Sword and Shield, for reasons I will get into in the Crown Tundra section. I didn’t really want to buy the Expansion Pass twice, but luckily I had accumulated some Nintendo Gold Points which helped offset the cost a bit. (Plus I didn’t have to shell out $60 for Shield, so still a net win for me.)
A new friend! (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
The DLC was introed into the game early on with a brief scene that occurs even without having purchased the Expansion Pass. While many recommend playing the DLC after the main game, the new areas can be accessed at any time. I played the Isle of Armor after getting my fourth badge and then had to come back after the main story to access the rest of the DLC’s content. While taking an extended break of a few days from the main story may detract from the experience for some people, I thought it was a nice interlude, and it earned me two powerful companions that stayed with me for the rest of the game… Urshifu and Galarian Slowbro.
Look at the tough little bear cub! (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
Much of the Isle of Armor story is focused on your character joining the Master Dojo and completing trials to earn the Legendary Pokémon Kubfu, a little bear cub with the potential to evolve into either a Fighting/Water Type or a Fighting/Dark Type depending on your choice of training tower. (Yep, he’s one of those rare Legendaries that are allowed to evolve.) It takes place on an island to the east of Galar that is based on the Isle of Man. Another feature of this area is that you can catch a regional form of Slowpoke and evolve him into a Slowbro. (You can get Slowking in the other DLC.)
Kubfu enjoys some delicious curry. Also pictured: my dojo uniform and hairdo. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
Interestingly, you have a different rival in this DLC dependent on if you’re playing Sword or Shield. The island is made up of a big Wild Area, more Raid dens, some caves, some woods, and a surrounding area of water, all of which can be explored. One of the controversies as Sword and Shield were being marketed was the fact that not all the existing Pokémon from previous Generations were included. The two DLC releases added many of these missing Pokémon, along with the new form for Slowbro and Slowking, and new Gigantamax forms.
The Isle of Armor is home to a really fun sidequest where you can hunt down 151 missing Alolan Digletts. All you can see of them are the three hairs on the top of their heads, so it can be a little difficult to spot them, but after some practice you get an eye for it. Collecting these get you the Alolan forms of other Pokémon that were all introduced in Generation 7. I didn’t care about the rewards… I’m in it for the hunt!
You’re telling me. Looks like a super villain hippo versus a big fluffy sheep. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
A significant addition that the Isle of Armor brings to the game is the addition of Max Soup. Prior to this, in order to get Pokémon who could turn into their Gigantamax forms, you had to find them in Max Raids. In this DLC they have added something called Max Mushrooms. They appear randomly on the island after battling in several Max Raids. (The amount of raids and appearance of the mushrooms all seem to be RNG to me, as I have not discerned a pattern. I just have to keep battling in them and wandering to the usual places the mushrooms spawn until I find some.) Giving three Max Mushrooms to the cook in the Master Dojo gives you a serving of Max Soup that can give (or take away) the ability of specific Pokémon to Gigantamax. (As mentioned in Part 1, certain Pokémon can change into new forms when Dynamaxing and learn a special exclusive ability.) All three starters for this Generation, all the starters for Generation 1, and many other new and old Pokémon have Gigantamax forms. There are 32 in all.
One of these was Melmetal, a Legendary Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Go. That one caused me a bit of confusion, as transferring my Melmetal from Let’s Go Eevee didn’t let him drink Max Soup. After researching I found that you needed to connect Pokémon Go to Pokémon Home and they gift you a Gigantamax-ready Melmetal. Kinda convoluted, but it did the trick. At least I wasn’t stuck unable to cross him off my list like I will forever be with Mega Diancie. Don’t even get me started on the unfairness of making a Mythical Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution only in one game where you can’t even attain the Pokémon anymore. UGH!
Anyway, I’m still working on my Gigantamax list. As you can imagine, with the randomness of the Max Mushroom spawns and the undetermined amount of Max Raid battles required to make more spawn, it will take awhile to make enough soup. Thankfully last time I played I did manage to find a Toxtricity that was already Gigantamax capable, so that saved me three shrooms right there! Hopefully I’ll find more like that.
Sir’fetched is guarding me. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
The Crown Tundra is the second DLC expansion included in the Pass. This is an area accessible by train to the south of the main Galar area and is based on Scotland. This area is comprised of a sleepy little village, a large Wild Area, some caves, and a massive Max Raid den. I did wait until post game to visit this area.
A jackalope Pokémon! (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
The main portion of this DLC involves an expedition to investigate and catch Legendary Pokémon. There are typically Legendaries you can only catch in the postgame, so it makes sense to have an expansion devoted to them. And now we come to the reason why I had to get the Expansion Pass for both games. Sure, you can only get one Urshifu form, but I didn’t really care about that. (I chose water in Sword and I was happy with that choice.) No, the reason was that they version-locked some Legendaries. See, in the course of the story you have two points where you have to choose between two Legendary Pokémon. Once you choose one, the other one is forever inaccessible in that playthrough. So in order to “catch ‘em all” I needed to play the expansions twice. I really didn’t want to move all my Pokémon off Sword and start from scratch, so this was the better option for me. I’m not happy about the developer’s decision to make the expansions version-specific, but I suppose I understand why they made that choice. (Money. Buying the Expansion Pass for both versions equals the price of a third version of the game. Bleh.)
Aww look at him on his horsey. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
Anyway, enough complaining. I didn’t pay full price anyway and it gave me more playtime, so it all worked out. The story is that soon after stepping off the train you meet a very energetic and loud guy who has serious Daughter Issues. The poor guy just wants to spend quality time with his daughter, who would prefer to go on Dynamax Adventures. (More on that later.) He creates a series of Legendary Expeditions that your character gets roped into leading. The first and main one involves reviving the village’s protector, Calyrex.
This is a nice story about a forgotten and depowered deity and the importance of tradition and generational stories in our culture. You have to go through a series of quests to attract and capture Calyrex’s steed, which can be either ghost-type or ice-type depending on where you plant the carrot. (This was one of the choices I mentioned before.)
Creepy. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
The other expeditions involve disturbing bird Pokémon and seeking out golems. The Regi family of Pokémon make their reappearance here, and you can catch not only the original three (Regirock, Regice, and Registeel) but one of two brand new additions: Regidrago and Regieleki. As typical with this family, there are little puzzles to solve in order to encounter them, but they’re pretty easy.
Kids today, always on their electronic devices that are possessed by electricity-based Pokémon. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
I really liked the bird Pokémon quest. At a massive tree you disturb three Legendary Pokémon that turn out to be new Galarian forms of the trio of birds from the very first game. After disturbing them, they run off to different places— one stays in the Crown Tundra, one goes to the Isle of Armor, and the third runs around the Wild Area in the base game. To complete this quest you have to hunt them down and catch them.
So freaking cool. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
It was nice seeing these classic Legendaries get new variations, and the designs for all three are really cool. (Zapdos is a roadrunner!) They all seemed pretty resistant to Quick Balls, and so they were a little tough to catch. (Thankfully, if you accidentally knock them out, you get to try again.)
Legendary huntin’. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
Another big feature of this expansion is the Dynamax Adventures. These are relatively difficult from I’ve experienced, however I’ve only tried them a few times so far. You go through a series of raid battles, at the end of which is a Legendary Pokémon. After the other quests in this DLC are done, you have the opportunity to catch Ultra Beasts that were introduced in Sun/Moon. I will need to go through this stuff at some point because I’m missing an Ultra Beast from the previous Generation. The difficulty in the Dynamax Adventures is that you can’t heal in between (unless you choose the right path with a healer) and the NPCs are not the best at battling. After four knock outs, the Adventure is over. You do get the chance to swap out your Pokémon for one you just caught, but that can be risky as well, depending on what battle you face next. So, yeah, as of yet I’ve not completed any of these, but I’ll have to try again. (Maybe I can rope my brothers into helping me? Hmmm…)
Another sidequest in the Crown Tundra is kicked off by Professor Sonia from the main game. She shows you some Pokémon tracks (or droppings?) and asks you to gather evidence of three Legendary Pokémon for her. When you find enough tracks to get to 100% of the evidence, she can pinpoint the location of the Pokémon so you can catch it. These turn out to be the Legendary Swords of Justice from Generation 5. I had a lot of fun with this quest. It was a lot like the Diglett one, but you got to catch rare creatures at the end of it.
Gigantamax Melmetal is awesome. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
As of the time of writing this, I haven’t completed everything I want to on Sword and the DLCs. Now that I’m back to work and working on getting back into updating content more regularly, the time just isn’t there. And with the upcoming release of Pokémon Scarlet, my free time will be taken up with playing that for the foreseeable future. Still, there is more content for me to get through in Pokémon Sword and I’m looking forward to visiting Galar again here and there to whittle away at it. I still have a lot of Max Mushroom hunting to do. (I have 16 more Gigantamax Pokémon to cross off my list, and unless I get lucky and catch one, each one will require three mushrooms.) I still have to complete the Ultra Beast episode of Crown Tundra and get Blacephalon. (He was an Ultra Beast exclusive to Ultra Sun and I had Ultra Moon. I may be obsessive but no way was I buying and playing through Ultra Sun for a Pokémon I could just get in a later game.) I have not tried the Rotom Rally (the bike race I mentioned in previous posts) and the elimination tournament. I haven’t found all the missing Digletts yet, but I’m pretty close on that. And finally, I have to collect a lot more Watts to finish upgrading the Master Dojo so that I can battle Honey. Also, as I was researching for this post I learned that after catching the Swords of Justice, it’s possible to catch their fourth member Keldeo, so it’s off to the Crown Tundra again for me! (I already have him, but you don’t often get the chance to attain a Mythical Pokémon outside a Mystery Gift or rare event.)
I had a lot of fun training up my little bear cub in the Isle of Armor and Legendary hunting in the Crown Tundra. These DLC added a lot of extra playtime to an already massive game. The amount of content they packed into these games and the additional content and Pokémon available in the two DLC packs is pretty impressive. Generally once I finish a Pokémon game my enthusiasm to continue playing it wanes (I never did finish the post game episode in X and Y because it got tedious) but the amount of things to do and uncover in Pokémon Sword drives me to extend my playtime beyond what I normally engage in. I’m hoping that Scarlet and Violet are the same and offer extensive expansions to prolong the enjoyment of the base games.
Hehe. Even kids don’t trust Ball Guy. (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
And that’s Part 3! Thank you all for indulging me as I gushed about Pokémon Sword, Shield, Isle of Armor, and Crown Tundra. We will now take a brief break and in a bit I will return with Part 4, my spoiler-light review of the new game, Pokémon Scarlet!
That’s a wrap! (Credit: Nintendo and Game Freak)
