Pokemon Unite's New Map Changes Everything About the Game

Pokemon Unite's new map is more than a new aesthetic – it fundamentally changes how games will play out. Yesterday, Pokemon Unite released a major update that swapped out the default Remoat Stadium map with the Theia Sky Ruins. While the basic layout of the map remains unchanged, with a top lane, a bottom lane, and a central "Jungle" area for players to battle for control of, the new map has several new features and changes that should make Pokemon Unite battles much less predictable. 

The biggest change to the Theia Sky Ruins is the replacement of Zapdos with Rayquaza. Defeating Zapdos almost always resulted in victory in Remoat Stadium, as the team who defeated Zapdos would temporarily remove the defenses of the opposing team's goals. Defeating Rayquaza gives out a different effect – it provides players with a strong score shield and increases their goal-scoring speed. While this is still a pretty significant buff, it won't allow teams to score instantaneously, which means that teams will need to be more strategic entering the final minute of play. 

Drednaw has also been replaced by the Legendary Pokemon Regirock, Registeel, and Regice. Defeating each of these three Pokemon have a different effect instead of granting one team a shield and providing them with some valuable XP. Registeel increases a team's Attack and Special Attack, Regice increases a team's HP recovery time, and Regirock increases a team's Defense and Special Defense. These buffs are all temporary and aren't as overwhelming as Dreadnaw's must-have XP and Shield rewards. Regieleki has also replaced Rotom, but Regieleki's role in Pokemon Unite battles is identical to Rotom's role in Remoat Stadium. 

The other major change is to the placement and role of the buffed Pokemon in the central area. Accelgor and Escavalier have replaced Ludicolo and Bouffalant and are now closer to the middle of the map as opposed to close to the team's middle goal. The buffs have also been replaced – the red buff now makes attacks stronger and decreases enemy movement speed, while the blue buff reduces the cooldown of a Pokemon's moves. Both these buffs are much more useful during Pokemon Unite matches and should make chasing down the buffs much valuable for both teams. While junglers could reliably get both buffs without too many issues in Remoat Stadium, they'll likely have to fight opposing teams in Theia Sky Ruins. 

The new Pokemon Unite map should force players to try a ton of new strategies. Theia Sky Ruins is available to all players in Pokemon Unite in Ranked and Standard battles.