Wild Double Battles

The first new mechanic of note is the fact that now you can have double battles with Pokémon in the wild. Previously, this was possible in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl & Platinum when you were teamed up with another trainer in five seperate areas. In Pokémon Black & White however, this can be done at any point in specific patches of grass.

Dotted around the region of Unova, you'll find numerous patches of tall grass that are noticiably darker than the standard grass. As you enter it, there is a high chance of encountering two Pokémon simultaneously. These Pokémon run off of a different encounter list to the standard grass, usually a similar one to standard with higher levels and sometimes evolutions of the Pokémon there. However, when you battle them, as with past Double Battles, you can only try capturing when one of the Pokémon has been knocked out.

Shaking Areas

The next new aspect towards wild Pokémon is the introduction of areas in the game that hold special Pokémon that are unique and outside of the Pokémon typically in the route. These instances don't happen often, but when they do, you will always encounter a Pokémon within them. Repels will not prevent you from going into a Wild Battle on these tiles.

Unlike the wild Double Battles, the areas here are not limited solely to the grass as there are instances in each possible terrain of them appearing. In addition to that, in the non-Grass areas, you also have a chance of finding an item.

The areas are as follows;

• Grass - Grass gets larger and shakes violently
• Cave - Dirt gets thrown up as if being dug from beneath. Can produce both items and Pokémon
• Water - Head of Pokémon appears coming out of the water.
• Bridges - Shadow falls down on bridges. Can produce both items and Pokémon