Some Pokémon Legends: Arceus players will unlock special content at launch, as a Mythical Pokémon Shaymin encounter and trainer cosmetics based on Pikachu and Eevee will be available for accounts with Pokémon Sword and Shield and Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee saves. The Pokémon series has embraced save data bonuses in its Nintendo Switch games, as a Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee save was required to get Gigamantax Pikachu and Eevee in Sword and Shield. 

These franchise bonuses will also be present in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Shared alongside the new Pokémon Legends: Arceus information, it was also revealed that Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee save data will allow players to unlock Mew, while Pokémon Sword and Shield data will grant Jirachi. It wouldn’t be surprising if The Pokémon Company added a similar unlock bonus for Pokémon Legends: Arceus save data to the remakes after the new game launches in 2022.

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The Pokémon Company has now unveiled Pokémon Legends:Arceus’s own save data bonuses. Players with a Pokémon Sword and Shield save will be able to encounter Mythical Pokémon Shaymin (Land Forme), but it will only be accessible after beating the game’s main quest. They will also receive a Shaymin Kimono Set for their trainer to wear, which can be acquired as soon as they join the Galaxy Expedition Team.

Players who have save data from Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee will be able to claim a Pikachu Mask and an Eevee Mask for their character to wear. This can also be acquired as soon as they join the Galaxy Expedition Team. These accessories will join Pokémon Legends: Arceus’s Baneful Fox Mask, an early-adopter bonus based on Hisuian Zoroark’s appearance.

It’s likely that players interested in Pokémon Legends: Arceus are already established fans of the Pokémon series, so there’s a good chance many customers who buy the game will already have save data from one of the Pokémon games attached to their Nintendo Switch accounts. For those that don’t own the games, it’s still easy to acquire save data so long as one knows another player who owns a physical copy of the applicable games. In past instances, players only needs to reach as far as the first manual save point in a given game in order for the save data to be valid for promotional unlockables. This means Shaymin and the fancy Pokémon masks should be easy for all players to acquire, especially considering the popularity of Pokémon games on Nintendo Switch.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus will be available for Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.

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About The Author


Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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