B2/W2 Changes

As with every game in the Pokémon series, Black 2 and White 2 improve on various aspects of their predecessor. This time around, with direct sequels rather than an updated rerelease, the secondary games of a generation have even more changes than usual, many of them more interesting than usual as well.

Since the story of Black 2 and White 2 is a sequel to the originals' story rather than a retelling, it wouldn't make sense to list "storyline changes" - although it's still based on the same fundamental Pokémon storyline and you could analyze the differences, I don't think it would be very productive because the differences would just amount to "everything that isn't in every Pokémon game". Instead, I will tackle aesthetic/interface changes, geographical changes, new gameplay features, and changes in the availability or capabilities of Pokémon.

Aesthetics and Interface

The little modifications to cosmetic or interface elements.

Delayed Title Screen Music

The music on the title screen now doesn't start until a second after the title screen appears, meaning if you're mashing the A button to start the game, you won't first hear the dramatic opening chords abruptly cut off. For someone like me who has an irrational thing against hearing music abruptly cut off in the middle, this is B2/W2's best new feature.

Interface Redesign

The HP bars, battle command interface, Pokémon party screen, etc. have all been given an aesthetic upgrade, looking all-around nicer than they did in the previous games.

Nicer Battle Backgrounds

Instead of the static circles the Pokémon would stand on in Black and White, Black 2 and White 2 spice the battle backgrounds up a little bit: grass battles have visible spikes of grass around the edges of the circle that sway a little in the wind, for instance.

Remixed Music

Most/all of the music from Black and White has been remixed for the later games, in addition to the ton of new music that plays in new locations. A lot of it sounds better than the original, but I must admit to having loved B/W's original Team Plasma battle theme way more than B2/W2's remix.

Free Space

The bag now has a special pocket called "Free Space". Nothing gets put in it normally, but you can choose to move any item from any bag to the Free Space. This allows you to put the items you actually use on a regular basis outside of battle (e.g. Repels) in a special easy-to-reach place where they aren't drowned in all the other endless items you never use.

Move Held Items

In Black and White, as in the previous games with hold items, selecting a Pokémon in your party and selecting "Item" would give you the options "Give" and "Take", the former allowing you to give the Pokémon an item from your bag to hold, and the latter placing the Pokémon's currently held item in your bag. B2/W2 add a "Move" option, which allows you to move a held item straight from one Pokémon in your party to another. This is extremely handy for rotating the Lucky Egg between your team members, as you won't have to go through your massive item bag at all.

Immediately Reuse Repels

In B2/W2, if you use any type of Repel that you have more than one of, the game will ask you if you want to use another when its effect runs out, eliminating the hassle of having to reopen your bag every time or have it registered.

Pokémon Menu Registerable

In B/W, while you could register an individual Pokémon's status screen to the Y button, you couldn't register the party menu itself. Now you can.

All Trainers Animated

All trainer sprites now have a short animation at the beginning of a battle, before they send out their first Pokémon.

Redesigned Elite Four Rooms

The Elite Four's rooms are a bit fancier-looking in B2/W2: Shauntal's room is very dark and ghostly, Grimsley has vicious-looking claws snap shut over the walkway when you've passed it, Caitlin's is glittery and she emerges out of the petals of a floating white rose, and Marshal's room is a huge wrestling cage. Iris, who replaces Alder as the Champion, has a giant dragon statue and a cool-looking planetarium behind her.

New Champion Battle Music

With Iris as the new League Champion, rather than recycling Alder's battle theme from B/W or remixing it, they made an entirely new battle theme for her.

No More Endless Healing

NPCs who heal your Pokémon (aside from Nurse Joys, for some reason) will now not offer to heal them if they are already all at full health, saving you some time especially when you accidentally press A again after they've healed you.

Geographical Changes

New Areas

Black 2 and White 2 add a host of wholly new places to the Unova map:

• Near the southwest corner of the map, three towns and their associated routes are located: Aspertia City, Floccesy Town and Virbank City, with Routes 19 and 20 between them as well as Floccesy Ranch, the Cave of Being, Virbank Complex, and Pokéstar Studios.
• The Castelia Sewers are explored during the storyline and have a changing water level depending on the seasons.
• Join Avenue is located at the north end of Route 4, just south of Nimbasa City.
• The Pokémon World Tournament (PWT) is located just south of Driftveil City and contains both special tournament-like battling facilities and several useful NPCs such as move tutors, the move deleter, and the move reminder.
• Relic Passage is a tunnel connecting the PWT, Relic Castle, and the Castelia Sewers.
• Clay Tunnel is a new cave tunnel, dug by Driftveil Gym Leader Clay, that connects Driftveil City to Twist Mountain and Mistralton Cave.
• Lentimas Town is a new volcanic settlement that you only reach by plane from Mistralton. Near it is a Strange House, an eerie haunted house with mysteriously moving furniture, and Reversal Mountain, through which a tunnel can take you to Undella Town.
• Humilau City is a beach town with the houses located on raised wooden walkways, northeast of Undella Town. It can be reached from Undella either through the Marine Tube, a glass undersea tunnel that allows you to watch Water Pokémon swim by as you walk through it, or through Seaside Cave and Route 21.
• In accordance with the new gym circuit, Route 22 connects Humilau to the Giant Chasm, and Route 23 in turn connects the Giant Chasm to the new Victory Road.

Different Unova Circuit

Perhaps the biggest bit of spice to B2/W2 differentiating them from B/W is that in addition to the wealth of new areas, the order in which even Unova's existing cities are traversed has been completely revamped. After starting off in Aspertia City where you get your first badge and making your way to Virbank for your second, you take a boat to Castelia City for the third, from which you proceed as in B/W to Nimbasa (fourth), Driftveil (fifth) and Mistralton (sixth), but from Mistralton you take a plane to the new Lentimas Town, proceed from there to Undella Town, then to Lacunosa Town, then Opelucid (where you get the seventh badge), then to Humilau for your final badge through Undella, and from there you take the all-new path to the new Victory Road through the Giant Chasm. Icirrus City, Nacrene City, Striaton City, Accumula Town and Nuvema Town are now postgame areas along with Black City/White Forest.

Gym Redesigns

In addition to the changed Gym order and the three new ones, the old Gyms are different with different puzzles and gimmicks:

• Burgh's Castelia City Gym now has an avant-garde art feel, with a plinky piano remix of the Gym music, everything white and bare except for hanging tendrils of silk that cluster here and there into white cocoons that suck you in and transport you around the gym through silk tunnels.
• Though Elesa of the Nimbasa City Gym was always touted as a fashion model, her Gym used to quite unrelatedly be a gaudy rollercoaster. This time, it's been made into a runway where models walk back and forth showing off the latest fashion to a captive audience of dozens with spotlights trained on them. The rollercoaster is still there, but is no longer the Gym.
• Clay's Driftveil City Gym is now a kind of dark 2D maze between platforms, with each platform lighting up as you reach it so that you can see which ways are available away from it but can't see where they lead.
• Skyla's Mistralton City Gym now has giant fans that blow harsh winds across the entire Gym every several seconds, thrusting you to the back unless you've taken cover in one of the safe places (marked with a green floor).
• Drayden's Opelucid City Gym ditched all of the dragon statues except two. One of them snakes upwards along the back wall and holds one trainer on the tip of its tail, two on its feet, two on its hands, and finally Drayden on its head. The other functions as an elevator, making you fight one trainer at each height before it will take you to the next level.

New Victory Road

B2/W2's Victory Road is an altogether different place from B/W's one: it's east of the Pokémon League rather than south, and consists of ruins reminiscent of Dragonspiral Tower as well as cave and outdoor areas. The old Victory Road isn't even on the map anymore.

N's Castle Buried

N's castle is again accessible in B2/W2, much as one might have expected it not to be. It's buried underground and is accessed from a deep part of the new Victory Road.

New Gameplay Features

Medals

Many games these days have "achievements", extra incentives to do particular things within the game that will be recognized and shown off to your friends if you do them. Pokémon gets in on the action here with the Medal Rally: early in the game you are invited to participate and given the Medal Box key item, and subsequently, whenever you have earned a medal, a man will stand near the counter in any Pokémon Center you visit to give you your new medals. The initial goal is to get fifty different medals, but there are hundreds available, awarded for goals ranging from capturing so and so many Pokémon or spending so much money in Pokémarts to reading signs and changing the channel on the television.

Although a nice addition, the implementation of the Medal Rally is a little lacking. Because you receive the medals in batches and the guy only tells you the name of the medals as he gives them to you, you generally have little idea what each medal is actually for until you actually go into the medal box and check. It just doesn't give the same sense of accomplishment as finishing a battle and then immediately having a little window pop up on your screen telling you it was your thousandth battle or whatever. Hopefully if the medal system gets brought back in future games, it will be more refined.

Habitat List

The Pokédex now has an extra feature besides the regular Unova and National modes: the Habitat List, which shows you Pokémon by area. Each time you enter a location, an entry will appear for it in the Habitat List, which will show you any Pokémon you have seen that live in that area and mark them as caught if you have caught them. Each location's entry on the main list has a green tab for grass/cave encounters, a light blue one for fishing encounters, and a dark blue one for surfing encounters (though obviously, locations with no ground encounters or no water will be missing the relevant tabs); when you've seen all the Pokémon found in a tab, the tab will have a grayed-out Pokéball on it, and when you've caught them all, it will become a full-color one. A few NPCs throughout the game ask you to show them a complete Habitat List for the area they are in (it is enough to see all the Pokémon there for them, not catch them), but even aside from those explicit in-game incentives, the mere existence of the Habitat List provides a lot of extra motivation to bother with catching Pokémon.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't give you any rewards whatsoever for completing the Habitat List, as I found out the hard way after I'd spent weeks hunting down every Pokémon you can find in the wild in Unova - neither professor Juniper nor her father notice, and there isn't even a medal. It seems like a strange oversight - the Habitat List certainly looks like it wants you to complete it, but then it seems strange that you don't get even a little nod for doing so, especially when the game rewards you pretty richly for seeing or capturing all the Pokémon in the Unova/National Pokédex.

Pokéstar Studios

Pokémon Musicals are still in the game, but B2/W2 also add another Pokémon minigame in Pokéstar Studios. It basically revolves around you being given a script with instructions on what to do and then having to battle in accordance with the script - for instance, taking out the opponents in one hit, or with super-effective moves. Initially you will be given rental Pokémon to fight with, but after you've successfully made a movie with the rentals, you can reshoot another version with your own Pokémon, where you can even go for creating alternate endings (each movie has a "good" ending, where you follow the script; a "bad" ending, where you fail to; and a "strange" ending, where you manage to take some kind of third option like beating an opponent you were only supposed to survive for so-and-so many turns against). After you've filmed the movie, on a silly-looking green-screen set with motion-capture-suited actors, you can watch the movie in the theater, where the actors are replaced with alien spaceships or whatever, and the movie will even have a box-office gross depending on your performance during filming.

Filmmaking is actually a pretty fun minigame, and more so than contests were in my opinion. Because your goals are different from movie to movie, there's more variety, and the generally humourous nature of the whole thing makes it endearingly ridiculous.

Join Avenue

This is a new area just south of Nimbasa City. When you get there for the first time, you will be made owner of the avenue, and subsequently it becomes sort of a shop management minigame. NPCs will pass by through the avenue (if you communicate with other players in any form, from Wi-Fi trading to the C-Gear's pass-by feature, their avatars may appear as well), and if you talk to them, you can either offer to let them open their own business on your avenue or guide them to an existing business depending on a vague hint about what they want. Customers being satisfied with the service of a business gives that business and your avenue as a whole points, which accumulate to be levels and ranks, and as businesses level up, they will provide better services.

There is enough room on the avenue to have one of each type of business, but there is a twist: several of the businesses will offer different services based on which game the clerk comes from (not the game you're playing, mind, but the game the person you interacted with was playing - the NPCs who may also appear in the avenue are each designated as coming from either Black, Black 2, White or White 2 depending on the character). Thus, you may need multiple instances of a particular type of business if you need version-exclusive services. Additionally, each type of service can usually only be bought once per day from each business.

The available kinds of businesses are the following:

Antique Shop

Sells unknown treasures that, when you buy them, will be appraised and turn out to be a randomized item. The "chunks" can turn out to be a Hard Stone, Poké/Great/Ultra Ball, Shard or (Big) Nugget; the "stones" can be a Hard Stone, Float Stone, Everstone or a version-exclusive (Water, Thunder, Moon, Dusk or Dawn Stone if the clerk is from Black/Black 2, or Fire, Leaf, Sun, Shiny Stone or Odd Keystone if the clerk is from White/White 2); the "rocks" can be a Hard Stone, Float Stone, Everstone, Rare Bone or a version-exclusive (Helix Fossil, Old Amber, Root Fossil, Armor Fossil or Rock Gem for B/B2, Dome Fossil, Claw Fossil, Skull Fossil, Cover Fossil or Plume Fossil for W/W2); and the "boxes" can be a Hard Stone, Heart Scale, Tiny/Big Mushroom, (Big) Pearl, Sacred Ash, or a version-exclusive (King's Rock, Deepseatooth or Deepseascale for Black, Up-Grade, Dragon Scale or Metal Coat for White, Protector, Magmarizer or Reaper Cloth for Black 2, or Dubious Disc, Electirizer or Prism Scale for White 2). Most of the time, you'll only get a Hard Stone or Everstone, so don't get your hopes up too much.

Beauty Salon

Offers grooming treatments. The cheaper ones only raise your Pokémon's happiness, but the more expensive ones also lower their effort value in a specific stat, to the point where the highest-level ones allow you to remove all effort points in the designated stat in one fell swoop. The higher-level ones are version-exclusive, but blessingly not to the point of excluding certain stats altogether in a version - all clerks can lower any stat by 50 points once their shops reach level 7 (though they get them in a different order depending on whether their game is B/B2 or W/W2), and while clerks from Black/Black 2 can only lower your HP, Attack and Defense EVs straight to zero, they can still also lower Special Attack, Special Defense by 100 points a go, with White/White 2 clerks the other way around.

Café

Sells meals for your Pokémon, which can have a variety of effects, either raising your Pokémon's level, happiness or effort points in a given stat. Clerks from B/B2 get the basic effort-raising ones (which give 20 points for their respective stat) in the opposite order from W/W2 clerks, with the former prioritizing HP and the physical stats and the latter Speed and the special stats - however, this is reversed for the actually version-exclusive 48-point boosters, with B/B2 clerks getting the ones for Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense and W/W2 ones getting HP, Attack and Defense. The other meals are the same regardless of where the clerk comes from.

Dojo

Offers training for your Pokémon, boosting levels or effort points. The top-level EV training facilities here give 64 points in their respective stats, but of course those are version-exclusive, and the next level below is 32 points, worse than the Café's top offerings. Clerks from Black will offer a maximum of 8 points for Attack, 24 points for Special Attack, 32 points for Defense and HP and 64 points to Speed and Special Defense; clerks from White give at most 8 points for Defense, 24 to Special Attack, 32 to Special Defense and 64 to Attack and Speed; clerks from Black 2 give 24 points tops for Speed and Special Defense, 32 points for Defense and Special Attack, and 64 points to HP and Attack; and clerks from White 2 give at most 24 to Attack and HP, 32 to Speed and Special Defense and 64 to Defense and Special Attack.

Florist

Sells Berries and Mulch, naturally with most of them version-exclusive depending on where the clerk came from.

Market

Sells regular trainer items, often in batches. The most interesting ones are PP Ups and Max Revives, which are otherwise unbuyable and blessingly not version-exclusive.

Nursery

Only available after you have beaten the Elite Four and your Join Avenue has reached rank 15 - before that point, nobody will offer to create Nursery in your avenue. The Nursery's services are effectively free steps for egg-hatching - its top service, "Warm lv. 5", will hatch nearly any egg instantly. The Nursery is the same regardless of what game the clerk hails from.

Raffle Shop

A randomized raffle, similar to the ID-number-based lotteries of the previous games, except that while trading with many people improved your chances then, leveling up the Raffle Shop helps you get rarer prizes here instead. The possible prizes are a Master Ball, Rare Candy, PP Max, PP Up, Max Revive, Max Elixir, Max Ether, Ultra Ball, Full Heal or Berry Juice.

Pokémon World Tournament

In this new area south of Driftveil, you can participate in a selection of tournaments, including tournaments featuring Gym leaders and Champions from previous generations, and tournaments specializing in particular types. These are Battle Tower-style battles, in that you gain Battle Points for them but no experience, with your Pokémon automatically changed to particular levels while you battle. The prizes you can buy for your Battle Points include evolution stones, Rare Candies and the standard battle/training items.

Memory Link

As sequels to Black and White, B2/W2 tie in with their predecessors' storyline. They can stand on their own, but if you have one of the previous games, you can use two DS systems and the Memory Link option to download information from your save on B/W and be able to witness some extra scenes in B2/W2, usually following up on things that happened in the previous installments. Some dialogue will be changed to use your B/W player character's name instead of a generic reference to a trainer; your Pokédex certificates and Battle Subway trophies if you have any will appear in your B/W character's room in Nuvema Town; you'll be able to get musical props and Dream World items you had in the old games again; and you will be able to battle Bianca and Cheren in the postgame with teams corresponding to the starter they picked in your old game.

In addition to that, however, using the Memory Link also allows you to capture N's Pokémon. Many people noticed that N in Black and White always used Pokémon found near where he was battling you and never the same ones, indicating that he didn't properly capture any Pokémon, only befriend them and then let them go. B2/W2 confirms this interpretation, both in one of the Memory Link flashbacks (which shows N releasing his Pokémon) and by having the individual Pokémon he used appear in the wild on their respective routes like regular Pokémon. When you encounter one of these Pokémon, the game will give you a message hinting it's not a normal wild Pokémon, and they will sparkle as if they were shiny. They all have IVs of 30 in all their stats, making them quite powerful if you capture them.

Key System

In B2/W2, some in-game events can unlock special "keys", which you can use to activate things in your game, but can also be shared with another player through infrared communication to give them access to the feature as well. This is especially useful as the keys tend to be version-exclusive: by trading keys with someone who has the opposite game, you can unlock features that you couldn't otherwise.

The most noteworthy keys are Easy Mode and Challenge Mode. White 2 players will receive the Easy Mode key when they beat the Elite Four, which makes the game easier with lower Pokémon levels and so on, whereas Black 2 players receive the more difficult Challenge Mode. Again, however, the point is for these to be shared with other players, who do not need to have beaten the Elite Four to be able to receive the keys and can be playing the opposite version. Once a difficulty mode is obtained, it can be turned on or off at any time on the title menu.

There are also version-exclusive keys for unlocking Regice and Registeel once Regirock has been caught.

Hidden Grottos

In various locations in the game, there are now hidden passages you can find as a subtly shadowed area between two trees. If you enter them, you will find a clearing, which may contain a Pokémon with a hidden ability, an item, or a hidden item. What's more is that these Pokémon and items regenerate: every time you take 256 steps in the game, there is a 5% chance for each Hidden Grotto to regenerate, and once one regenerates, it has a 20% chance of containing a Pokémon and a 40% chance each of a visible or hidden item.

Funfest Missions

Whereas in Black and White the Entralink was useless unless you had a friend to play with over local wireless, the B2/W2 Entralink's Funfest Missions can be undertaken on your own or with any number of friends (well, up to 100). You still have to have the wireless on even when you know there's nobody else around, but it's pretty fun playing them alone. Generally they revolve around finding a certain number of something within a time limit of a few minutes; while you receive the mission by warping to the Entralink in the middle of the region, during the mission you're taken back to the normal world and gameplay proceeds as it normally would, wild Pokémon encounters and all, except for including whatever it is the mission has you looking for in random places (unless you're supposed to look for something that's normally obtainable at random anyway, e.g. Pokémon in rustling grass). After the mission is over, you end up in the place where you were when you finished the mission and keep any items, Pokémon, etc. that you obtained during the mission.

Black Tower and White Treehollow

In Black City (Black 2) or White Forest (White 2), there is now a new kind of battle facility, Black Tower (B2) or White Treehollow (W2). They are somewhat reminiscent of Pokémon Colosseum and XD's Mt. Battle, in that you do gain experience for the battles you conduct there and it is split into ten areas with rising levels, where you can start your challenge at any one of those you've reached so far. However, here each area is a kind of a randomized maze, where you must first find and defeat a "gate trainer", which will open the gate to a room containing a "boss trainer". Each area also contains a Doctor trainer who will heal your Pokémon once after you beat him, but otherwise you can't heal in between trainers in a given area. Yet other trainers will tell you information about the gate trainer, boss trainer or doctor when you beat them. Initially it seems extremely easy, but it quickly gets harder as the areas get bigger and even start to consist of multiple floors. The levels in the facilities range from 55 to 82, and since you gain experience, that makes this a nice place to train Pokémon at high levels.

After beating Area 5, you will get a key (see Key System above) which, when transferred to the opposite-color version, will change their Black City/White Forest to the other one, including its corresponding Black Tower/White Treehollow.

More Useful Xtransceiver

The Xtransceiver in Black and White wasn't very useful, only nominally serving as the medium for some storyline conversations and allowing for video chats over local wireless or Wi-Fi. In B2/W2, the Xtransceiver also features a couple of minigames and functions somewhat like HG/SS's phone feature - the only characters whose numbers you get are storyline-relevant ones rather than random trainers, but you will be able to call them on your own time and quickly get various information. For instance, Cheren will tell you about the weaknesses and resistances of the Pokémon at the front of your party, and Bianca will tell you how happy it is.

Pokémon/Move/Item Changes

As always, there are some alterations in the availability and attributes of Pokémon, moves and items.

Non-Unova Pokémon

Unlike Black and White, which tried to resurrect that Red/Blue feeling where every monster was new and didn't make old Pokémon available until the postgame, Black 2 and White 2 have Pokémon from all generations available from the beginning. The Unova Pokédex has been neatly expanded to 300 different Pokémon species, nearly doubling its original length.

Different Early Pokémon Availability

Very noticeably, unlike the previous third versions which have only minorly changed the Pokémon selection and mostly at the later stages of the game, B2/W2 start in a whole different place and thus includes completely different early-game Pokémon than their predecessors. Sure, there are Patrat, Purrloin and Pidove - but also Dunsparce, Psyduck, Azurill, Riolu and Mareep. Virbank Complex adds Magnemite, Elekid/Magby, Koffing and Growlithe/Vulpix. This makes a lot of difference, since for a regular player who collects most of their team near the beginning of the game, it means going through the game with a truly fresh party of Pokémon.

Different Legendaries

While B2/W2 keep Cobalion, Virizion and Terrakion - though they appear in different places in the game now and Cobalion is seen in the overworld several times before you battle it à la Suicune in Crystal - and Kyurem is naturally still in there, every other obtainable legendary is different from the previous games: you get the opposite version-exclusive dragon (Zekrom in Black 2 and Reshiram in White 2), Latios (Black 2) or Latias (White 2), Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, Regirock, Regice and Registeel (though Regice and Registeel require version-exclusive keys, with Regice's key in White 2 and Registeel's in Black 2), Regigigas once you've caught all of them, Cresselia on Marvelous Bridge if you have the Lunar Wing from the Strange House, and Heatran in Reversal Mountain.

Kyurem Forms

As seen on the game boxes, Kyurem has new forms: it becomes Black Kyurem, has the Teravolt ability and learns Freeze Shock when it's fused with Zekrom, and White Kyurem with Turboblaze and Ice Burn when it's fused with Reshiram. As part of the storyline, Ghetsis uses the DNA Splicers to merge N's legendary dragon with Kyurem and uses the resulting fusion to battle you; however, during that battle you cannot capture it. Once you've finished the main storyline, however, you can capture N's dragon and Kyurem separately and use the DNA Splicers on your own to fuse them into your game's special form.

Black and White Kyurem have a base stat total of 700, making them the second most powerful Pokémon in existence after Arceus, and logically enough, they modify Kyurem's balanced stats in the direction the other dragon specializes in - Black Kyurem is more physical-based and White Kyurem more special-based.

Genie Therian Formes

While Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus are not actually obtainable in the game, they do each have a new form, dubbed the Therian Forme. Tornadus becomes birdlike, loses Attack and Special Attack but gains defenses and Speed as well as the Regenerator ability; Thundurus becomes a flying reptile, loses Attack and Speed to boost Special Attack and gains the Volt Absorb ability; and Landorus becomes a feline creature, sacrifices Special Attack and Speed for Attack, and gains the Intimidate ability.

Keldeo Form

Keldeo has a new aesthetic form, Resolute Form, which it transforms into when it knows the move Secret Sword in these games. It does not modify stats or affect its moves. If it forgets Secret Sword, it transforms back into its regular form.

Changes in Level-Up Moves

A whole bunch of Pokémon get new level-up moves in B2/W2 - too many to list here - though interestingly, the only fifth-generation Pokémon among them is Beartic (which now gets Aqua Jet from the Move Reminder).

New Move Tutors

B2/W2 have four move tutors in addition to the standard Pledge/elemental hyper beam/Draco Meteor ones. They will teach various Pokémon moves in exchange for Shards.

• The first move tutor is located in Driftveil, on the ground floor of the first hotel west of the Pokémon Center, wants Red Shards, and teaches Covet, Bug Bite, Drill Run, Bounce, Signal Beam, Iron Head, Super Fang, Uproar, Seed Bomb, Dual Chop, Low Kick, Gunk Shot, Fire Punch, Thunderpunch and Ice Punch.
• The second move tutor is in Lentimas Town, again in the building just west of the Pokémon Center. He wants Blue Shards and teaches Last Resort, Iron Defense, Magnet Rise, Magic Coat, Block, Hyper Voice, Electroweb, Icy Wind, Iron Tail, Aqua Tail, Earth Power, Zen Headbutt, Foul Play, Superpower, Gravity, Dragon Pulse and Dark Pulse.
• The third move tutor is in Humilau City, in the first house you see when you cross the pier leading into the town proper from where the Pokémon Center and the Marine Tube are. For Yellow Shards, he'll teach your Pokémon Bind, Snore, Heal Bell, Knock Off, Synthesis, Roost, Sky Attack, Role Play, Heat Wave, Giga Drain, Drain Punch, Pain Split and Tailwind.
• The fourth move tutor is in Nacrene City, yet again in the first house west of the Pokémon Center. He accepts Green Shards in exchange for teaching Worry Seed, Gastro Acid, Helping Hand, After You, Magic Room, Wonder Room, Spite, Recycle, Trick, Stealth Rock, Outrage, Endeavor, Sleep Talk, Skill Swap and Snatch.

Guaranteed Nature Passing

When breeding Pokémon, a parent holding an Everstone will now be guaranteed to pass on its nature to the offspring, compared to the previous 50% chance. (If both parents are holding Everstones, it will be a 50% chance of each parent's nature.)

Ability Passing

In Black and White, mothers with a Dream World ability had a 60% chance of passing on the Dream World ability property to their offspring. B2/W2 take this a step further: not only do mothers with Dream World abilities still have a 60% chance of passing that to their offspring, but mothers with a regular ability in a species that has two possible abilities will have 80% of their offspring get the same ability. Similar to Dream World ability inheritance, it's not the ability itself that is inherited per se, but the internal index of the ability; in practice, this means that just as Vital Spirit Lillipup evolve into Intimidate Herdier, breeding a female Intimidate Herdier will have an 80% chance of getting you a Vital Spirit Lillipup, and breeding a female Flygon who was once a Trapinch with Hyper Cutter will have an 80% chance of netting another Hyper Cutter Trapinch, even though all Flygon have Levitate (the species essentially has the Levitate ability twice). Neither kind of ability passing works if either parent is a Ditto, however - in that case, the offspring will always have a regular ability, with a 50% chance of each if the species has two much as when breeding in previous games.

Mulch Maniac

In addition to the item maniacs from Black and White, B2/W2 have one in Mistralton who will buy Mulch from you. This comes in handy since Hidden Grottos will often give you Mulch as an item when they don't contain a Pokémon.

Page last modified November 6 2016 at 06:02 UTC

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