It’s here! Today, The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Unite, Pokémon’s take on the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre, will be coming to Nintendo Switch in July 2021 and on mobile devices in September 2021!

What is Pokémon Unite? It is a game where, as a team of 5, you will be defeating wild Pokémon in the areana, building up Aeos Energy. Once you have accumulated enough Aeos Energy, your aim is then to deposit this into one of the opponent’s goal zones, scoring points for your team. Whoever wins the most points wins the match! Simple, right? However, it won’t be that easy, as Pokémon Unite boasts a fair few mechanics! See below for more information.

Roles

You can all go on the offensive, but this means you’ll be leaving your zones wide open. Alternatively you can all defend your zones, but then who is scoring? This is why Pokémon Unite has 5 different ‘Roles‘ for players to fulfill, so you can create a balance in your team and be able to both score points and prevent points being scored against you! These 5 Roles are:

Attacker: Pokémon that have low Endurance and excel at dealing heavy ranged damage to opponents.
Speedster: Pokémon that have high Mobility and Offense and excel at making quick attacks and scoring points.
All-Rounder: Pokémon that have balanced Offense and Endurance and are highly tenacious fighters.
Defender: Pokémon that have high Endurance and excel at protecting allies and hindering opponents.
Supporter: Pokémon that provide team support by inflicting status conditions on opponents and by healing allies.

Typical Pokémon in each Role include:

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This is then bolstered even further by Items, Abilities and Unite Moves.

Items

You can get the most out of your Pokémon by giving them up to three items to hold. There are over 15 types of held items, so find a combination that best complements your Pokémon’s moves. Trainers can support their Pokémon during a battle by using battle items.

Abilities

Just like the mainline games themselves, each Pokémon will have its own Ability, bolstering its utility even further and helping it to excel in its Role even more.

Unite Moves

The “ultimate” of the game, Unite Moves are an extremely powerful move which Pokémon will learn last, and rightfully so. These can range from powerful attacks such as Greninja’s Water Burst Shuriken to solid Crowd Control such as Slowbro’s Slowbeam.

Suddenly, the game becomes pretty in-depth! Use all of these factors to overcome your opponents and win! Keep battling to earn in-game rewards that will unlock more Pokémon, as well as outfits for your Trainer and Holowear for your Pokémon. Alternatively you can purchase Aeos Coins with real-life money to unlock these rewards.

With a roster that’s expanding by the second, make sure to follow the official Pokémon Unite Twitter Account @PokemonUnite to keep up to date on news about this game whilst awaiting its release.

Still unsure? How about checking the trailer and seeing it in action:

So who will you choose to play as and what role will you go with? Will you be on the all-out offensive with Pikachu, defend with Snorlax or cause mayhem for your opponents with Talonflame? Find out more info on the official Pokémon Unite website and more importantly, let us know in the comment thread too!

Edited by bobandbill and Zach.