Fans of the long-running franchise will travel to a brand-new region with new Pokémon to collect and adventures to have. Sword and Shield is the start of Generation 8, and with it comes a lot of changes to the popular Pokémon formula.

If you’re looking to download Sword and/or Shield as soon as possible, here’s everything you need to know.

WHAT TIME CAN YOU DOWNLOAD POKEMON SWORD AND SHIELD

Predicting when Nintendo Switch titles become available in the eShop is notoriously tricky.

According to the official Nintendo Support page, here’s when players can expect to download games from the eShop.

Certain games are available for pre-purchase on Nintendo eShop prior to their release date. When you pre-purchase a game, a non-playable version of the game will be pre-loaded to your system at the time of your order. You’ll be able to start playing it after downloading a small update, beginning at 12:00 a.m. EST on the game’s release date. (Please note that some third-party titles are not available until 12:00 p.m. PST on the game’s release date.)

If that’s true, Sword and Shield will be available on Friday, November 15 at 12 a.m. EST. However, some users claimed they are able to play at 11 p.m. the day before when the title is pre-loaded. Whatever the case may be, gamers will need to wait until late Thursday or overnight Friday to download the game.

There were also some users who claimed Link’s Awakening wasn’t available at midnight on release date, but we’ll continue to update this section as we learn more.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD POKEMON SWORD AND SHIELD

To download Pokémon Sword and Shield, prospective players must enter the Nintendo eShop with a strong internet connection. Usually new titles are featured on the front page, but buyers can manually search for the title as well.

The game is available to pre-download now, so you can purchase and get your Switch ready for the specified release time. The Pokémon Sword and Shield download size is approximately 10.3GB.

SHOULD YOU PURCHASE SWORD OR SHIELD?

With previous Pokémon games, each version comes with its own exclusives. For Gen 8, not only will each game have its own exclusive Pokémon, but certain Gym Leaders will be exclusive as well.

The confirmed exclusive Pokémon include:

Deino (Sword)Jangmo-o (Sword)Sirfetch’d (Sword)Larvitar (Shield)Goomy (Shield)Galarian Ponyta (Shield)

While the version exclusive gyms include:

Bea (Fighting) - SwordAllister (Ghost) - Shield

Which version are you planning to pick up? Let us know in the comments section.