Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are getting DLC
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are getting paid DLC and the first wave of the upcoming expansion is coming in fall of 2023. Called The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the new adventure is separated into two parts and will take players beyond the existing Paldea Region as well as let them encounter new Pokémon.
Part 1 of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is called The Teal Mask, and will arrive first, taking players on a school field trip to the land of Kitakami, a mountainous region with a village at the base. Part 2 is called The Indigo Disc and is slated to arrive sometime before the end of “winter 2023,” and see players visit their sister school, Blueberry Academy. Thought split into two parts, both stories will link up into one continuous narrative.
Announced during Pokémon Day 2023, the DLC will mark the continuation of two of the jankiest but also fastest-selling Pokémon games to date. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have already sold over 20 millions, placing them in the top 10 best-selling Switch games right behind Sword and Shield, which sold 25 million in their first three years.
In addition to taking players to new locations, The Hidden Treasure DLC will also feature new Legendaries and returning favorites. Ogerpon will be The Teal Mask’s Legendary, with new Pokémon Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti also appearing alongside the likes of Chingling, Shiftry, Milotic, Ninetales, Vikavolt. The Indigo Disc, meanwhile, will feature the Legendary Terapagos, alongside returning Pokémon Dewgong, Metagross, Alcremie, Espurr, Zebstrika, and Whimsiscott.
Elsewhere during the presentation, the Pokémon Company revealed that Pokémon Home will soon link Go and Scarlet/Violet together. This, combined with the DLC, will apparently introduce over 230 Pokémon to the games that weren’t previously available in them to catch or battle with.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have already received quite a few free updates aimed at addressing their unprecedented number of bugs and performance issues. While an initial post-launch patch divided fans on how much it actually fixed, another update in February tried to improve things by spawning fewer Pokémon in the open-world environment. One downside of the change was that Shiny Pokémon, the most sought-after rare creature variants in the game, were less likely to spawn as well.
Game Freak has been on a tear recently, shipping one Pokémon game after another between the Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl remakes in fall 2021 and the Pokémon Legends: Arceus spin-off, both of which preceded the current Gen 9 games by a a year or less. It’s unclear if the studio will keep that pace up, launching another game later in 2023, or if it will let Scarlet and Violet’s paid expansions fill that gap. Many fans have hoped to see Game Freak take some extra time between entries to improve the overall quality and experiment more with the underlying formula.
In the meantime, a new Tera Raid Battle goes live later today. Scarlet players will face the paradox Pokémon Walking Wake, while Violet players face the paradox Iron Leaves.
