In an upcoming Sword and Shield event, trainers will be able to find 22 unique Gigantamax Pokémon via Max Raid Battles. Pokémon Home revealed the upcoming event in a recent news post.
The nearly month-long event will begin on June 2 at 13:00 UTC (9:00 a.m. ET). Interestingly, this beginning time will coincide with the release of more information about the upcoming Isle of Armor DLC. Trainers can participate in this huge Gigantamax Pokémon event through June 29 at 23:59 UTC (or 7:59 p.m. ET).
In typical Pokémon fashion, most of the Gigantamax creatures will only be available in either Sword or Shield. As a result, players will need to trade to get all 22 Pokémon on a single copy of either game. Notably, only seven existing Gigantamax Pokémon will not appear in the upcoming Max Raid Battles. These include Pikachu, Meowth, Eevee, Melmetal, Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon.
During the June event, trainers can get Gigantamax Snorlax in both Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. In addition, Gigantamax Toxtricity will be available in both games, although its Amped Form will appear in Sword, while its Low Key Form will appear in Shield.
The following Gigantamax Pokémon will only appear in Sword: Gengar, Kingler, Lapras, Garbodor, Corviknight, Appletun, Centiskorch, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, and Duraludon. Meanwhile, this group will only appear in Shield: Charizard, Butterfree, Machamp, Orbeetle, Drednaw, Coalossal, Flapple, Sandaconda, Hatterene, and Copperajah.
Serebii Update: The next Pokémon Sword & Shield Max Raid Battle event has been confirmed. 22 different Gigantamax Pokémon will be available! Full details @ https://t.co/gDbXkHSvkT pic.twitter.com/cZY5CDCoSV
— Serebii.net (@SerebiiNet) June 1, 2020
How to take advantage of this event
Competitive players will undoubtedly want to look for new Gigantamax Pokémon to add to their teams during this event. Fortunately, every single one of these is legal under the current VGC ruleset.
Some of the best picks from this pool of Gigantamax Pokémon for VGC include Lapras and Charizard, among others. Lapras’ G-Max Resonance can deal massive Ice-type damage while also setting up an Aurora Veil. Notably, this Aurora Veil effect does not need hail to stay active. Charizard’s G-Max Wildfire can deal powerful Fire-type damage, and it also does chip damage to opponents for four turns. By the end of the fourth turn, afflicted Pokémon will have lost two-thirds of their HP through chip damage alone.
