Pokemon Sword and Shield Swaps Max Raid Battles, Adds Gigantamax Charizard, Duraludon, and More

Pokemon Sword and Shield players now have a better chance of finding and capturing Gigantamax Charizard, Duraludon, Garbodor, and Copperajah in raids. The Pokemon Company has started a new Max Raid Battle event, replacing Gigantamax versions of Gengar, Machamp, and Snorlax. The new Max Raid Event features increased appearances of the Gigantamax versions of Charizard, Duraludon, Garbador, and Copperajah appearing in Max Raid Battles in the game's Wild Area. All four Gigantamax Pokemon can be found in both versions of the game. However, 5-Star raids for Copperajah and Duraludon will exclusively appear in Pokemon Sword, while 5-Star raids of Garbodor and Charizard will appear exclusively in Pokemon Shield.

All four Gigantamax Pokemon come with their own exclusive G-Max moves, which deal tons of damage and have other effects. Duraludon's G-Max Depletion reduces the PP of the last move its target used. Copperajah's G-Max Steelsurge drops metal spikes around the field (which is useless in raids, but fantastic in multiplayer battles.) Garbodor's G-Max Malodor damages opponents and poisons them, while Charizard's G-Max Wildfire continues to deal damage to opponents for four turns. We've seen several of these Pokemon make an impact in competitive play, so be sure to grab one and see if you can build a team around them for use in the Battle Tower or online battles.

The new Max Raid event will go from today through April 27, 2020. Pokemon Sword and Shield also has a separate Raid Event that gives players a chance to encounter Pokemon like Ponyta and Sirfetch'd that they usually can't find in their games. Players will need to connect to the internet to activate the new Raid Event, and you'll need a full team of human players to battle any 5-Star Raids.