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Beware This Nasty Pokemon Sword And Shield Surprise

Usually, the worst thing to come out of a Surprise Trade in Pokemon Sword and Shield is a Pokemon you don't want. (Seriously guys, stop sending over level three Chewtles.) Now, however, players are getting a nasty surprise via Surprise Trades: a bug that crashes the game and ruins online connectivity.

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Some players are reporting that Surprise Trades are now causing their games to crash. As a result, they lose both the Pokemon they put up for trade (bye, bye Chewtle) and the one they were going to receive. What's worse is that players are then having issues with online connectivity following these botched trades. That, in case you didn't know, is not the way these trades are meant to work.

Surprise Trades are usually a good way to fill out your PokeDex — one of the main goals of the games. In the past, the community has even come together in order to make Surprise Trades less of a surprise by dedicating codes to sought-after Pokemon.

But this may issue may not be on Game Freak. This game-crashing bug might unfortunately be a product of the community, according to a rumor.

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Are hackers behind this game-crashing bug?

Modders and whitehat Pokemon hackers are warning players not to trade until Game Freak releases a patch. According to them, this catastrophic error might be caused by someone's purposefully malicious actions rather than just a random bug. The idea is that someone out there (maybe a member of Team Rocket) created Pokemon that trigger this issue, unleashing them on unsuspecting victims via Surprise Trade.

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Right now, it is estimated that less than 100 people have been affected by this bug, but that number could grow if trainers decide that there's no harm in Surprise Trading or if these hackers create more evil monsters.

People in the community have said they've reported the issue to Game Freak, so hopefully this issue will be resolved officially. Until then, one savvy whitehat hacker has given this advice to those affected: "[B]uy a [Pokemon] HOME subscription, transfer all [your] Pokemon out through home, restart the save file, beat the game and then transfer it all back."

Waiting for an official patch sounds like the best option. Until then, stay safe out there, Pokemon trainers!

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