Blastoise Now Available in Pokemon Unite

Blastoise is now available to all players in Pokemon Unite. The long-awaited Pokemon was added to the popular MOBA-style game as part of an update earlier today. While Blastoise was in the Pokemon Unite beta, and appears in in-game tutorials, the game surprisingly held out on releasing the Pokemon for over a month. The Pokemon is classified as a Defender-role Pokemon with a Ranged attack style. Players can purchase the Pokemon for either 8,000 Aeos Coins or 460 Gems. A "Fashionable Style" Holowear for the Pokemon is also available now. Blastoise is the third post-launch Pokemon available in the game, following the release of Gardevoir and Blissey last month.

Blastoise's build seems to be built around lowering movement speeds of opponent. Its boosted basic attack slightly decreases movement speed for a short period of time, as does Blastoise's special attacks Water Gun and Water Spout. Meanwhile, its Skull Bash and Surf attacks both stun an opponent for a few moments, leaving them unable to attack. Blastoise's Hydro Pump attack has a push mechanic, as does Blastoise's Unite Move Hydro Typhoon.

While Blastoise's moves all have lengthy cooldown timers, using Rapid Spin will reset the cool down on Water Spout and Hydro Pump, allowing players to chain them together. Additionally, Blastoise's boosted base attack also reduces its cooldown by about a second. Players should be able to use these cooldown manipulations to chain some devastating combos, which makes up for Blastoise's overall lack of firepower.

Pokemon Unite has already announced its next wave of new Pokemon, with Mamoswine and Sylveon coming to the game in future updates. Tencent has released one new Pokemon every two or so weeks, a rate that seems unsustainable in the long run, but is appreciated by fans who are digging the continuous feed of new content. Pokemon Unite will also launch a mobile version of the game later this month, with crossplay and linked accounts available. Notably, any player that logs into the mobile version of Pokemon Unite will receive a free Pikachu Unite License.

Pokemon Unite is available to download on the Nintendo Switch now. The mobile version will be released on September 22nd.