Pokemon UNITE is arguably the hottest release in the MOBA genre of 2021 released globally for mobile users in September 2021. The game has since so far accumulated over 10 million downloads across both platforms as well as a wide variety of skins and new pokemon. The challengers of Mer Stadium are again greeted by the developers in their latest dev notes dated October 20th. The patch notes mentioned a lot of upcoming balance changes for a lot of pokemon including but not limited to the likes of Lucario, Gengar, Venusaur, and Garchomp. 

Players can also expect to see a lot of new events and skins for pokemon coming with Halloween on the way. In Mer Stadium, the existing Battle Items are getting replaced by Halloween Pumpkins that can be thrown at opponent pokemons. New Hero Greedent, a new Melee Physical Defender type pokemon coming to Pokemon UNITE will be joining the game after the update on 20th October 2021. The new hero costs 8,000 Aeos Coins to get his UNITE License from the shop. We will discuss more with him and the upcoming balance changes in this article moving forward. 

New Pokemon – Greedent

The newest Pokemon coming to Pokemon UNITE is Greedent, the beloved Grass/Ghost-type starter from the 8th Generation of Pokemon. Greedent is coming to UNITE as a melee physical damage tank unit that fits into the Defender class perfectly. His skills revolve around a new mechanic called stashing “Berries”, where Greedent can eat berries to gain more HP while also stashing them under his tail which can be used at a later time and synchronize with his move sets. He deals more damage with his skills according to the number of berries he holds. 

He also can reset all of the cooldowns on his moves with his UNITE move “Berry Belly Flop” that states greedent eats a berry to recover HP while leaping to a target area where he throws more berries at them to deal damage. He also resets the cooldowns on all of his moves and can stash an unlimited number of berries for a short duration of time. His move sets and passives are as follows: –

Cheek Pouch (Passive) – When the Pokémon eats a Berry, it also recovers HP after receiving the original effects of the Berry. At the same time, it stealthily stashes another Berry in its tail. Being hit by a single attack or combination of attacks will cause a Berry to drop from the Pokémon’s tail.

Basic Attacks – Becomes a boosted attack with every third attack, dealing increased damage when it hits and causing one Berry to drop from the user’s tail

1st Move Set Chains

Tackle – Has the user leap to the designated area, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon in the area of effect and decreasing their movement speed for a short time. If this move is used while Covet is active, no area can be designated for the user to leap to. Instead, while the user is running, the damage is dealt in an area to opposing Pokémon in front of it. If the user has any Berries stashed in its tail at this time, it consumes all of them. The more Berries the user had stashed away, the more this move’s cooldown is reduced.

Bullet Seed (Can be chosen at Level 5) – Has the user spit Berry seeds in the designated direction, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon in the area of effect and decreasing their movement speed for a short time. The more Berries the user had stashed away, the more damage this move deals.

Belch (Can be chosen at Level 5) – Has the user spit Berry seeds in the designated direction, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon in the area of effect and decreasing their movement speed for a short time. The more Berries the user had stashed away, the more damage this move deals.

2nd Move Set Chains

Defense Curl – Grants the user a shield for a short time. In addition, a Berry will drop in front of the user.

Stuff Cheeks (Can be chosen at Level 7) – Has the user dropped several berries, which can be eaten to recover HP. Any HP recovered that exceeds the user’s max HP will be converted to a shield effect. If the user catches sight of a Berry while using this move, its movement speed is increased for a short time.

Covet (Can be chosen at Level 7) – Has the user run with all its might, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon it hits and throwing them. While running, the user drops Berries from their body. If the user eats a dropped Berry, its movement speed is increased for a short time. The more Berries the user eats, the more its movement speed is increased. In addition, Belch or Bullet Seed can also be used while the user is running.

Berry Belly Flop (UNITE MOVE) – Has the user eaten a Berry to recover HP and then leap to the designated area, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon in the area of effect and throwing them. The user then eats a special Berry, allowing it to stash an unlimited amount of Berries in its tail for a short time and resetting the cooldown of all its moves

We feel Greedent will be a great defender especially with his ability to self-sustain while laning and can take up quite some hits during defending those goalposts. He also has a good amount of mobility if players choose to go the Covet move route where he can increase his movement speed and disturb opponents from scoring by interrupting their goals. More testing needs to be done to define Greedent in any tier lists but the new Pokemon definitely feels unique and true to the game’s original way of planning. Greedent will be available to purchase and obtain using 8,000 Aeos Coins or 460 Aeos Gems.

Balance Changes (Nerfs/Buffs/Adjustments)

With this coming update on October 20th, lots of new balance changes were introduced. These balance changes are targeting some of the hottest pokemon currently in meta like Lucario, Venusaur, and Blastoise. Here are the balance changes in brief: –

Pikachu (BUFFED)

Thunder ? Damage dealt increased.

Volt Tackle ? Damage dealt increased.

Slowbro (BUFFED)

Amnesia ? Cooldown of move decreased from 13 seconds to 9 seconds, and HP Gained Increased.

Gengar (BUFFED)

Status ? After Level 5, when you deal with Special Damage, you will recover your health based on damage inflicted.

Blastoise (NERFED and BUFFED)

Hydro Pump ? Damage dealt decreased.

Water Spout ? Cooldown of move decreased from 9 seconds to 7.5 seconds.

Hydra Typhoon ? Damage dealt decreased.         

Venusaur (NERFED and BUFFED)

Giga Drain ? Damage reduction after using Giga drain reduced. The HP gain was also reduced.

Solar Beam ? Damage dealt increased.

Lucario (NERFED)

Attack ? Base Attack reduced from 440 to 429.

Steadfast ? Frequency at which it was activated reduced.

Aura Cannon ? Fixed a bug that made it deal more damage after using Power-Up Punch.

Garchomp (BUFFED)

Attack ? The Base Attack Speed increased.

Dragon Rush ? Damage dealt increased.

Cramorant (BUG FIX)

Dive ? Fixed a bug that caused a display issue.

Zeroara (BUG FIX)

Wild Charge+ ? Fixed a bug that caused more damage than expected when hitting multiple Pokémon.

Talonflame (BUG FIX)

Gale Wings – Fixed a bug that caused Gale Wings to not activate after KO.

OBJECTIVES and NPC UNITS

Zapdos (NERFED)

Energy Gained from defeating Zapdos reduced, from giving everyone on the team except the Pokemon who KO’ed Zapdos 20 to 15 now. The energy gained to the pokemon who KO’ed still remains 30.

Drednaw (Remoat Stadium Map) (NERFED)

The amount of Shield and Experience received after killing Drednaw is reduced. 

Rotom (Remoat Stadium Map) (BUFFED)

Defeating Rotom now gives increased HP, Movement Speed, and Attack. The Time goal duration from Rotom is also increased.

That is everything coming to Pokemon UNITE with its new update coming on October 20th, 2021. Play Pokemon UNITE on your PC using BlueStacks for a much better lag-free experience on a bigger screen using your keyboard and mouse.