I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that nothing of note happened during the Pokemon Day livestream, and I would caution you not to make comments like that to Unite players, because we’re going through a lot right now. Our beloved sword dog Zacian joined the Unite roster and immediately started making mincemeat of the competition. I used to worry about things like Solar Beam and Heavy Slam, but all of that seems pretty inconsequential when you’ve got a nine foot super wolf running full speed at you swinging a sword. It’s safe to say that in just one day Zacian has flipped the entire meta on its head.This isn’t the first time new Pokemon have joined Unite in an overpowered state. Urshifu had a pretty particular build when it launched, as did Tyranitar, Glaceon, Dragonite, and Tsareena. All of those Pokemon eventually got rebalanced, but there is only one Pokemon that ever launched so busted that the developers had to initiate an emergency next-day nerf: Sylveon. Every OP Pokemon now gets compared to Sylveon, whose Hyper Voice build could shred any Pokemon in seconds, but after nearly two years Sylveon is still considered the benchmark for broken Pokemon.Zacian is, without exaggeration, at least twice as busted as Sylveon. . Zacian can . If Zacian comes for you, . It’s got the momentum of a Speedster, the burst damage of an All-Rounder, and the shortest cooldowns this side of Delphox. Nothing can stop Zacian, and if it comes for you it’s better to just stand there and die, lest you drag the monster towards the rest of your team and💙 get them all killed too.Part of the problem is that Zacian is actually bugged. Its Sacred Sword move, which has Zacian draw a circle around itself with the tip of its sword then unleash a slashing attack that deals massive damage, is meant to allow follow up attacks to partially ignore the enemies’ defense stat, but they seem to be ignoring it completely, dealing 100 percent true damage. This move can chunk nearly two-thirds of most Pokemon’s health bar, and if it follows up with a booster attack or another move, like Play Rough, it’s pretty much always GG for its victim. Even without that bug though, Zacian is just absurಌdly powerful.
It’s starting to get hard to give the Unite developers the benefit of the doubt. In the past I’ve argued that it’s better 🌄to release broken Pokemon than underpowered ones because it makes new releases more exciting, but that was back when Uni﷽te Licenses c🤡ould be purchased with coins. Since last September, new Pokemon have been gem-only for a week, making OP releases decidedly pay-to-win. Zacian is an anniversary Pokemon, and as such can be earned for free, but the specifics actually make it a worse situation than the standard one-week gem-only rule.
To earn Zacian for ꦆfree, you have to complete daily challenges and progress through a board game-style mini-game called Adventure in Zacian’s Weald. If you log-in every day, complete all the challenges, and get lucky on your dice rolls, you can earn Zacian in about 17 days. You only have 27 days to participate, so you’ll need to be fairly consistent if you wantও to get Zacian for free. The challenges are simple tasks like playing matches or using a specific Pokemon, so while it is a significant commitment, it’s doable.
If you want to skip all of that a🌼nd get your hands on Zacian while it’s in a broken state, hit the ladder and farm some easy ranks, you can - you just have to pay. You’re allowed to spend gems to skip challenges and procure more dice rolls, so if you want to get the Zacian license right away without any grinding, you’ll need to spend about 1,200 gems. That’s around $20 for a single Unite License, which typically costs 575 gems, or a little over $8.
You don’t have to pay for Zacian, but there’s clearly a strong incentive to. This Pokemon will get nerfed - maybe even by the time you’re reading this - but there’s a small window where you have the ability to get a lot of value out of the Pokemon and score some easy wins, as long as you’re willing to pay for it. Pokemon Unite has been gradually sl❀iding towards pay-to-win over the last two years, and I’m always disappointed when things like this make it clear that money is more important than the integrity of the game. If the developers do🐓n’t bring Zacian in line with the other Pokemon as soon as possible, it will be hard not to think it's because it stands to make more money by keeping it broken.