It has been almost exactly three months since Pokémon Scarlet and Violet released globally and a number of bugs and other performance issues will finally be addressed in the game’s next patch, which is rolling out at the end of February.
No date was specifically given, but Nintendo has confirmed a major update is dropping for the Gen IX titles, keeping to the promise made by the publisher and The Pokémon Company that major issues with the games would be addressed with post-launch patches.
The update itself is titled version 1.2.0 and will be a sizable patch that not only provides fixes to some serious problems that the game was ridiculed for featuring at launch but will also add functionality to certain areas of gameplay too—though nothing too wild. It will likely release around the Feb. 27 Pokémon Day festivities, which will is expected to include the announcement of DLC for SV.
For new or adjusted features, Boxes are being reworked to include the ability to do things like remember a Pokémon’s moves and use TMs within the box itself. Several other smaller changes revolving around Held Items and the Battle Team view are also being made.
The bug fixes section extends to lengthy updates being made to Tera Raid Battles, normal battles, and almost every other aspect of the game.
Most players will be happy to hear that bugs regarding HP bars, accidental fainting, lag disabling inputs, and more are all being addressed for Tera Raids. Connection problems and other issues revolving around entering a raid or raids not appearing will also be fixed.
Related: A new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game might be on the menu for Pokémon Day, according to a leak
The changes for general battles are much more specific and mostly pertain to specific Pokémon like Zoroark or Dodonzo that have interactions only applicable to their moves or abilities. Destiny Bond is also being altered slightly so if a Pokémon Terastallizes after using it and then faints will not meet the move’s activation requirements.
The most detailed portion of the patch does focus on general gameplay areas and will work to improve the performance of the games in multiple aspects, though the methods being taken to do so might not sound great at first. Here is a list of the biggest changes being made in this section:
- We will address an issue that can cause the game to forcibly close at certain locations. As a result of this fix, there may be a reduction of Pokémon and people displayed in certain towns or in the wild.
- Objects such as Poké Balls may be displayed in certain locations of the field unintentionally. This will be fixed.
- Passersby will no longer be displayed during certain battles that take place in towns during the main story.
While this doesn’t directly inform players how performance will be impacted, it does seem like many visual and general bugs are being addressed. Not all of the smaller adjustments are listed either, which means some other areas are likely to be altered to make things run better that won’t directly cause any noticeable change in gameplay layout.
Nintendo and TPC have also included a note that “further features and bug fixes not listed in these patch notes” are in the works. This line likely means this is just the first of several sizable patches that will continuously work to improve the performance of Scarlet and Violet while also addressing bugs that pop up in the interim.
There is also a chance some small, and yet-to-be-announced content will also be slipped into this patch as part of Pokémon Day. It has happened in the past, namely, with Galarian Slowpoke and a small event being patched in months ahead of Sword and Shield’s first DLC launching—this does not guarantee that it will happen this time.
We will get the full specifics of what this patch changes and how it impacts performance in both games once it goes live later this month and players can dive into the files while testing things out in real-time. You can read the full patch notes here.
