Pokémon Sword and Shield will have different gym leaders

If you want to battle the shy guy, then you’ll have to buy Pokémon Shield

A new trailer for Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Sword revealed a notable change for the franchise: Some of the newly announced gym leaders won’t come to both versions. The gym leaders you face will depend on whether you buy Sword or Shield. Allister the ghost type leader, will only be on Shield, and Bea, the fighting type leader, will only be on Sword.

We don’t know if there will be more version-exclusive gym leaders other than these two. According to the website, fan favorite Nessa and grass type leader Milo will be in both games.

The exclusives will give players another way to decide between which version to buy. Personally, I want to battle the creepy masked Allister and might buy Shield just to do that.

Pokémon Co./Game Freak

Gym Leader Allister

The building designs for each gym are similar, except for the color scheme and gym logo.

Here they are:

Pokémon Co./Game Freak

Allister’s gym is only Pokémon Shield

Pokémon Co./Game Freak

Bea’s gym is only in Pokémon Sword.

Version-exclusive gym leaders is one of many significant changes to the Pokémon games in the latest titles. Others announcements include that not every Pokémon will be in the new games and the new battle mechanic, Dynamax Battles.

Pokémon Sword and Shield will come to Nintendo Switch Nov. 15.

Source: Polygon