Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask Expansion Arrives Next Month [IGN]

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s first major expansion, The Teal Mask, launches on September 13, 2023.

Announced during the August Pokémon Presents event, new gameplay for The Teal Mask showed the protagonist interacting with two new characters (Carmine and Kieran) and also a handful of new pocket monsters from the expansion. The trailer flashed through a ton of story beats before teasing a spooky old folk tale quest that had notes of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

This folk tale will be at the centre of the new DLC, telling the story of Pokémon who saved the land from an evil ogre. Players can visit the Festival of Masks to celebrate the myth, but will seemingly become very familiar with the ancient beasties as the story unfolds.

Ogre Oustin’ is another new feature coming in The Teal Mask, as this new minigame allows players to compete for high scores and unlock upgrades for their journey. A selfie-stick will also be made available in the DLC, meaning players can reach new angles for the perfect snap.

The Pokémon Company also shared more on The Indigio Disk, the Scarlet and Violet expansion coming later this year. It showed Blueberry Academy director Cyrano welcoming the player to the newly built school that lies mostly under water.

Different biomes will be available within the school though, offering players new areas to explore and Pokémon to meet. The academy also runs the BB League which has its own Elite Four (Lacey, Crispin, Amarys, and Drayton) for the player to take on.

The Teal Mask, which will be available as part of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion alongside winter’s The Indigo Disk, was announced at the February Pokémon Presents.

The Pokémon Company released a trailer for the two expansions in its June Nintendo Direct, revealing new areas, characters, and pocket monsters coming to the games.

The base Scarlet and Violet games were released to middling reviews due to their extensive bugs and other performance issues. These included a broken PvE experience in the endgame, a rigged Battle Stadium, duplication glitches, a bizarre method of running at double speed, and more.

The Pokémon Company has since released several patches for the games though, leaving players hopeful that The Teal Mask will launch without similar issues.

Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Expansion Pass was relatively well received, with IGN saying its first drop, The Isle of Armor, was entertaining but a little bit shallow. The second drop improved things, however, as we said The Crown Tundra was “another fun DLC that offers more cool Pokémon to catch, an awesome new game mode in Dynamax Adventures, and a surprising amount of discovery and secrets.”

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Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.