Sword and Shield can claim a free Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble with their Hidden Abilities through the Pokemon Home cloud service.
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Pokemon Sword / Shield: You Can Get Free Galar Starters Via Pokemon Home
Sword and Shield can claim a free Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble with their Hidden Abilities through the Pokemon Home cloud service.
By Kevin Knezevic on June 9, 2020 at 7:35AM PDT
A few more free Pokemon are up for grabs for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Players who transfer a monster from either title to Pokemon Home will be able to claim the three Galar starters: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. What makes these particular Pokemon special is that they each have their Hidden Abilities, which up until now have not been available in Sword and Shield.
Grookey's Hidden Ability is Grassy Surge, which sets up Grassy Terrain as soon as the Pokemon enters the field. Scorbunny's is Libero; this changes the Pokemon's type to match whatever move it is using. Finally, Sobble's Hidden Ability is Sniper, which increases the amount of damage critical hits inflict.
To claim these starters, you'll first need to transfer a Pokemon from Sword or Shield to Pokemon Home on Nintendo Switch. Once you've done that, log into the mobile version of Pokemon Home and do the following:
Select the Menu button at the bottom of the screen
Select Mystery Gift
Select Gift Box
Tap on each Pokemon in the Gift Box and select Receive
You don't need to have a Pokemon Home subscription in order to take advantage of this offer, but some of the service's features--such as the ability to trade Pokemon or view their base stats--are locked behind a premium plan, which costs $3 USD for one month, $5 USD for three months, and $16 USD for one year. You can learn more in our breakdown of Pokemon Home free and premium plan features.
These aren't the only free Pokemon available right now. Sword and Shield players can also claim a free Galarian Ponyta with its Hidden Ability until June 4. The Pokemon Company will be giving away a few more free monsters in the lead up to Isle of Armor's launch, including a Galarian Corsola and Galarian Meowth.
As for Isle of Armor, we recently learned the DLC expansion will release on June 17. The Pokemon Company shared a load of other new details about it, including new story tidbits, additional tutor moves, and more.