Pokémon Masters is turning one year-old! To celebrate the game’s anniversary, the official Pokémon Masters YouTube channel has shared a nearly nine minute video detailing events and updates coming to the game in the next few weeks. The anniversary update will be dropping on Thursday, August 27th, for all users, and with it comes new features, new Sync Pairs, and a new name! Once the game is updated on a user’s device, it will be renamed to “Pokémon Masters EX.”
Become the very best
The first new feature arriving with the anniversary update is the Champion Stadium. In this mode, players assemble 15 Sync Pairs to fight in five consecutive 3-on-3 battles versus a Pokémon region’s Elite Four, culminating in a battle against that region’s Champion. Once a single pair has participated in a battle, it cannot join any of the remaining battles in the set. Champion Stadium will feature a normal mode and a hard mode. In hard mode, the Pokémon types and weaknesses of the Elite Four and Champion will change weekly, allowing players to challenge them over again to get more items needed to increase the potential of Sync Pairs.
Starting the same day as the update, the Champion Stadium’s debut lineup will be Kanto themed. Players will fight Kanto’s Elite Four as they climb the ranks for a chance to take on Blue, who you may know from your childhood as Professor Oak’s grandson named “Buttz.” More regions will be added to the Champion Stadium in the future!
You Poké-lift, bro?
The anniversary update also brings with it new six-star EX Sync Pairs! Players can train up some five-star Sync Pairs to six-stars by meeting certain conditions and using new items acquired in the Champion Stadium. Six-star Sync Pairs can wear different colored outfits in battle and have the strength of their Sync Move increased. Six-star Sync Pairs can switch back-and-forth between their new and old outfits while maintaining their newfound strength. The first six-star Sync Pair is Sygna Suit Red and Charizard, with Red’s new outfit matching his Mega-evolved Charizard X. At the time of the update, only a limited number of Sync Pairs can be upgraded to six-stars. New six-star-capable Sync Pairs will be added soon, and current five-star Sync Pairs will be updated to support being trained up to six-stars in the future.
Events galore
On top of the new features and Sync Pairs, events leading up to and past the one-year anniversary celebration have been detailed and dated. Players won’t have to wait to get in on the action either, since the first events have already begun! Below is a list of the events along with their dates:
- The new Legendary Event “New World Dilemma” featuring Cyrus & Palkia, as well as the Poké Fair Scout Event featuring Cynthia and Kommo-o began on August 16th!
- Starting on Wednesday, August 19th, Latios will be entering the Legendary Arena!
- On Thursday, August 27th, the Training with Legends solo-event will begin, allowing players to battle powerful Sync Pairs all on their own.
- Beginning on Wednesday, September 2nd, the Grass, Fire, and Water-type Egg Event will arrive! This event will allow players to get eggs that hatch into Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, and add them all to their team. These Eggs differ a bit from the ones players received at the start of their journey, in that they can have different move sets!
- Finally, on Wednesday, September 9th, the Family Ties Event will arrive! The event won’t be based on the hit ‘80s sitcom starring Michael J. Fox (I checked) and will instead feature Lillie, Gladion, and their mom Lusamine from the Alola Region! This new story event will focus on the trio entering a family Pokémon tournament together, but having trouble syncing with each other. Yeah, lifelong strained relationships culminating in their mom being possessed by a monster from another dimension could definitely lead to a bit of syncing dysfunction… Just saying.
Presents and future updates
In celebration of the anniversary, all players who log into the game from August 27th to September 13th will receive a gift of 3,000 gems! Also, more Sygna suits and seasonal outfits were announced to be in the works, and were promised to start releasing at a faster pace. The next new seasonal outfits are set to arrive in time for Halloween, but their designs weren’t shown just yet.
Whew, that’s a whole lot of Pokémon Masters news! If you’d like to watch the entire presentation, you can check it out below. Pokemon Masters is available now on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
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Written by Marcus Ramirez
A writer and dreamer who loves all things tropical, bright, colorful, and shiny. Marcus is obsessed with Kingdom Hearts and patiently awaits its triumphant return to Nintendo hardware. He has a (totally real) court order that requires him to always have a 3DS or Switch on his person when leaving the house for more than a few hours.
