Breaking down the new Pokemon Scarlet & Violet patch notes

There’s still more work to be done

A few weeks ago, The Pokemon Company teased a new patch for Scarlet & Violet, which was slated for “the end of February.” Well now that date has come and gone, and the full patch notes are now live on Nintendo’s official site. Let’s run through a few of the alterations to the previous patch notes.

Performance is still rough, but you can buy the DLC now

One obvious addition to the patch notes in this final pass is the existence of DLC. While that was kept under lock and key before the Pokemon Day presentation, the cat is out of the bag now, and we know that there are two DLC expansions (parts 1 and 2) slated for release in the fall and winter of 2023.

To that end, the patch added the ability to buy them in-game, and unlock specific bonuses immediately.

The Battle Stadium is open for business

The “Paldea Prologue” competition is underway, as we move further into 2023 and eventually end up at the 2023 Pokemon World Championship in Japan. This addition is only going to impact a small percentage of the fanbase, but it’s worth mentioning nontheless.

“Trainers can now enjoy Online Competitions and Friendly Competitions in the Battle Stadium, and entries are now open for an official Online Competition: Paldea Prologue.”

Pokemon Go connectivity is a go

In another surprise announcement, Pokemon Go support is live now in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.

This support goes both ways, as you can get Vivillon variants in the core games, and a Roaming Form Gimmighoul in Go. Home support is still thankfully slated for “early 2023,” and there are no delays to worry about as of this week.

The full February 27, 2023 Version 1.2.0 patch notes (link) [Note: Everything in the “newly added features” heading was added recently]

Thank you for playing the Pokémon series.

On Monday, February 27, we released the version 1.2.0 update for the Nintendo Switch exclusive software titles Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

With this update, we have added new features, new functionality for Pokémon Boxes, and fixes for bugs that affected game progress, among other updates. We will continue to take your feedback very seriously and take measures to improve your gameplay experience.

Newly Added Features

• The Nintendo eShop page for The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC for the Pokémon Scarlet game or the Pokémon Violet game can now be accessed via the main menu. For more details on The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC, please visit The Pokémon Company.
• Trainers can now enjoy Online Competitions and Friendly Competitions in the Battle Stadium, and entries are now open for an official Online Competition: Paldea Prologue.
• Players can now connect their games to Pokémon GO.

Feature Adjustments

• Additional functionality has been added for Pokémon Boxes:
  • From a Pokémon’s summary, players can now change Pokémon’s nicknames, markings, held items, and mark- or Ribbon-related titles, as well as reorder moves, have Pokémon remember or forget moves, and use TMs.
  • Players can also now swap out held items by pressing the Y Button when in the Held Items view.
  • Players are now able to select All Boxes while moving Pokémon or items in the Party and Boxes view and Held Items view.
  • When in the Battle Team view, Pokémon in your Boxes that are assigned to a Battle Team will now have their icons displayed in a darker hue if those Pokémon are members of the Battle Team that is currently being displayed.
• The News screen will be displayed when you connect to the internet from the main menu, just as it is when connecting to the internet from the Poké Portal.

Bug Fixes

Tera Raid Battles

• A bug could prevent an opposing Tera Pokémon’s HP gauge from visually reflecting damage dealt by certain moves (such as Play Rough) or damage dealt at the same time that certain status conditions are applied, causing the Tera Pokémon’s HP gauge to fluctuate in an unusual manner. This has been fixed.
• A bug that caused all Pokémon on your side to faint at once despite their HP gauges indicating that they still have HP could occur in black crystal Tera Raid Battles against Pokémon with the Mightiest Mark. This has been fixed.
• A bug that temporarily prevented a player from entering any input into the game could occur if a Tera Pokémon took certain actions while the player was choosing the target of their move. This has been fixed.
• Errors could occur when someone connecting to a Tera Raid Battle saw a different Pokémon displayed on their screen than what the host saw. This has been fixed.
• A bug could occur that caused players joining a Tera Raid Battle from the Tera Raid Battles search screen to be brought to a Tera Raid Battle against a Pokémon different from the one they saw displayed. This has been fixed.
• A bug that caused Tera Raid Battle crystals to stop appearing for a set amount of time could occur under certain circumstances. This has been fixed.

Battles

• • Type matchups against Pokémon that have fainted will no longer appear when selecting a move or target during Double Battles.
  • We have fixed a bug in which a Zoroark that had Terastallized and was disguised as another Pokémon via its Illusion Ability could have been identified as a Zoroark by using the Check Target option.
  • We have fixed a bug in which the type matchups of moves targeting a Zoroark that had Terastallized and was disguised as another Pokémon via its Illusion Ability would display based on the type of the Pokémon that Zoroark was disguised as, rather than Zoroark’s Tera Type.
  • We have fixed a bug in which the stats of a Dondozo with a Tatsugiri in its mouth increased when Dondozo used Order Up when the move should have been negated (for example, by an opponent using Protect).
  • We have fixed a bug in which the effects of Destiny Bond failed to activate if a Pokémon Terastallized the turn after using Destiny Bond and then fainted.

allizes after using Destiny Bond and then faints, the effects of Destiny Bond will fail to activate. This is a bug and will be fixed.

Other

• We have addressed an issue that made the game prone to forcibly closing at certain locations. As a result of this fix, there may be fewer Pokémon and people displayed in certain towns or in the wild.
• We have fixed a bug in which a Pokémon that is not a part of the Paldea Pokédex was displayed as being registered to the Paldea Pokédex after being obtained through a Link Trade.
• Certain actions prevented the main character’s expressions from changing until the game was closed and reopened. This has been fixed.
• A bug occurred for some players after Ranked Battles Season 1, wherein visiting the Ranked Battles screen immediately after the season’s results had been calculated caused an error right after these players received their rewards. Following this error, players were unable to participate in any further Ranked Battles. This has been fixed.
• We have fixed a bug in which a player may not have received the Master Rank Ribbon if they had registered several Battle Teams but had not used the Battle Team in the first slot when winning Ranked Battles in the Master Ball Tier.
• We have fixed a bug in which a Pokémon you caught may not have listened to your commands in accordance with what is written in the profile app (“Pokémon caught at Lv. XX or below will listen to your commands”) if that Pokémon was Link Traded back to you from another player.
• We have fixed a bug in which new information may not have been added to your Pokédex after you received a Shiny Pokémon or a Pokémon caught by a Trainer who plays in a different language via Surprise Trade if you already had that species registered to your Pokédex.
• Objects such as Poké Balls could have been displayed in certain areas unintentionally. This has been fixed.
• Passersby are no longer displayed during certain battles that take place in towns during the main story.
• A number of other bug fixes have been implemented.