Pokémon: The Isle of Armor is already proving to have more content than the follow up to the Nintendo 3DS Sun and Moon outings, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. For anyone who is on the fence about this definitive Pokémon DLC experience need to calm down, read my articles then buy the Expansion Pass (and Sword and Shield too, you have a lot of catching up to do!)
In our last Isle of Armor article, I covered the exploration and initial impressions of the Isle of Armor. Since then, I’ve taken on the three Isle of Armor trials and obtained the Secret Dojo Armor (I’ll leave that surprise ready for players to experience on their own).
The two major quality of life improvements to Pokémon Sword and Shield in part one of the expansion are the return of buddies and selective Gigantamaxing. If fans of the franchise can cast their minds back to the second generation remakes, HeartGold and SoulSilver, they will remember being able to have the first Pokémon in their party follow the player’s avatar. Well, the feature is finally back. Whilst this feature mostly plays on cosmetic purposes bar building friendship levels, this is a lovely bit of fan service.
Gigantamax raid grinding is something the majority of the fandom has come to accept as standard practice. What’s harder is trying to find a raid mon with 6IVs, hidden abilities of even less of a chance of finding a Shiny raid Pokémon. One of the Dojos missions is to find bunches of Gigantamax Mushrooms, these can be made into a soup in the Dojos kitchen to activate an eligible Pokémons Gigantamax form. This has just made the Galarian grind a whole lot easier.
Players are also able to trade with NPCs on the Island for regional forms, whilst other NPCs will offer gift Pokémon. I won’t ruin the surprise of which mons come with what form, but it’s there. What I will say is that all tradable Pokémon have a chance of being Shiny. Make sure you are all saving before those trades.
It’s worth noting that the Isle of Armor has its own weather system. As Austin John Plays points out in his Weather Changing Video, players need to take note that the date changing trick to change the weather is on the 15th of every month (It’s still the first of every month in the wild area of mainland Galar).
I’ve come to realise that the whole Isle of Armor is actually one big wild area, which is amazing and another clever move made by Gamefreak. I think we can safely get used to more open gameplay like this in the future.
So far, the in-game characters and narrative have been lovingly crafted. It’s not going to compete with the like of The Last of us 2 anytime soon, but the Dojo really does have that family vibe. Master Mustard and his wife Honey are welcoming and provide their Dojo members with everything they need. It seems to be that the Armor Dojo doubles up as an Orphanage?
Shields Armor antagonist, Avery, starts off as quite an irritating and spoilt individual. It was great at first to see a rival that just doesn’t like you for a change, but that formula quickly wore thin. Feeling that pity for such a pathetic rival was empowering, which lead to a great feeling of reward once I gave him a big slice of humble pie.
Now that the initial trials of the Dojo are completed, it’s an exciting notion to see what else the Isle of Armor has in store. Even after only a few hours in, Isle of Armor is packed with content and a lovely slew of surprises. I was quite happy with seeing these two again in particular:
