As a reminder, you can’t mega evolve in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Terastallizing is the new hotness

Mega evolving has been dead for quite some time. Long live mega evolving. I hope you like terastallizing in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet!

But seriously though, “gimmick mechanics” being removed generationally is not a new thing (Z Moves for one), and mega evolutions have been missing since Sword and Shield. Now it’s time to embrace terastallizing: which promises more tactical nuance (on paper), as well as type changes, and all sorts of twists and turns.

Here’s a quick overview on terastallizing, straight from the developers:

“All Pokemon in Paldea can Terastallize to gain special power. First, each Pokemon has a Tera Type. A Pokémon’s Tera Type is inactive until the Pokemon Terastallizes, at which time the Pokémon’s type will change to its Tera Type. For example, some Eevee will have a Normal Tera Type, but some other Eevee have a Flying Tera Type. There are 18 types, meaning there are countless combinations of Pokemon and Tera Types. Terastallizing a Pokemon allows you to enhance your battle strategies by increasing the power of any moves that have the same type as your Pokemon’s Tera Type or by changing your Pokemon’s weaknesses. When to activate this special transformation and the combination of Pokemon and Tera Types you choose to use are all up to you.”

How this mechanic will go down in the annals of Pokemon history has yet to be determined, but it’ll likely throw a wrench into competitive play, and drastically change how effective some Pokemon are now: and their effectiveness in the future when transferred to following generations that possibly don’t have terastallizing in them.