Pokémon Diablo and Santo

**Pokémon Diablo** (Japanese: **ポケットモンスターディアブロ** *Pocket Monsters Diablo*) and **Pokémon Santo** (Japanese: **ポケットモンスター聖なる** *Pocket Monsters Santo*) are the primary paired versions of Generation IX and are set in the Azorado region. Both versions of the game were released on the Nintendo Switch.

Following it's release, the Pokémon Diablo and Santo Expansion Pass was announced, which will add three new stories in three new locations to the game.

## Features

### Azorado Medallion

The Azorado Medallion is an socketed medallion that the player is granted upon beginning the Apex Circuit. There are 18 sockets, that each hold a Medallion Shard representing each Type. The player begins with the Normal Shard. The rest are collected by completing the Apex Circuit and the Azorado League. The Azorado Championship allows the player to perform Infusions during battle, depending on what Shards they currently hold.

### Infusions

Infusions are an in-battle mechanic designed to play with the expectations of battles. One per battle, the player can infuse any of a Pokémon's moves and change it to a different type. Moves can only be changed to Types that the player has Shards of. The infusion is persistent throughout the battle, even after a revive.

### Apex Circuit

The Apex Circuit is a series of twelve tournaments that the player must win to claim the right to participate in the Azorado League. Each tournament is themed with a unique Type, similar to traditional Gyms or Island Trials. Each tournament is hosted in it's own spectator-filled arena, and makes use of both single and double battles. Tournament battles happen successively, and players cannot leave until they win all battles or lose. However, they do receive a time out between each battle where they can use a limited amount of recovery items. The amount of battles can range from two to five, ramping up the challenge later on. The final battle is always with the Apex, who are masters of the championship's type.

#### Cheating

To play up the babyface and heel nature of wrestling, some trainers will cheat during tournament battles, giving themselves advantages such as using an item and attacking in one turn, or switching held items during battle. The most prominent form of cheating is passing berries that cancel out super-effective moves, due the tournament's favouring the challenger's use of any Pokémon type. To balance this, the cheater's Pokémon will become cocky and suffer a sharp reduction in accuracy, defense and special defense each time. However, cheater's do not make up the majority of tournament trainers, and are generally rare. The player can also find a few cheating trainers in the field, although this is very rare. The player is able to cheat themselves during the Apex Master Series, and suffers the same penalties.

### Apex Master Series

The Apex Master Series is an post-game tournament mode taking place in the Apex Capital, in which the player competes in tournaments with no Type restrictions. The player can choose to compete in tournaments of 8 trainers, 16 trainers or 32 trainers. Opponents can range from basic trainers from across Azorado, to legendary trainers from different regions. Although there is some degree of randomisation, the player will always face a new legendary trainer in every final, until all legendary trainers have been fought. Larger tournaments can also result in legendary trainers appearing in earlier stages, although this only happens if the player has faced them before in the final.

#### Apex Online Series

The Apex Online Series is the the first fully online multiplayer tournament in the game series, allowing friends to create online tournaments to compete in. Hosts can decide on several rules, such as the amount of players involved, either 4, 8, 16 or 32, the amount of Pokémon each player has and whether the battle is single or double. Upon drawing initial random opponents, every player has a day to link up with their opponent and battle. If the battle doesn't occur in time, both players are eliminated and the other side of the round is taken as the next round battle. These tournaments are purely about friendly competition, and have no in-game benefits aside from a tournament history page on their player profile.

### Pokémon

*Main article: :Category:Generation IX Pokémon*
The Azorado Pokédex features several new Pokémon.

#### Azoradan Forms

*Main article: Azoradan Forms*
Much like in Azorado, some Pokémon in Azorado have adapted differently to Azorado's geography, taking on different forms.