For 30 years Psyduck has carried a permanent headache without ever getting the Psychic typing to match. If a new leak is right, Pokémon Winds & Waves will finally change that.
The leaker Centro Leaks reports that Psyduck is getting a new regional form typed Ice/Psychic. The claim also says this version would sit in a three-stage evolution line, so after three decades the confused duck would gain a third and final form.
The middle stage is where it gets strange. From the sound of it, this Psyduck wouldn’t first become a new version of Golduck. It would evolve into an entirely new Pokémon instead.
The leak is unverified
Centro Leaks hasn’t been able to verify this one, so it’s a rumor for now, and there’s no official confirmation. Still, many of the Winds & Waves leaks so far have proven accurate, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if this one did too.
Some kind of regional variant is all but guaranteed. They’ve been part of the series since 2016, when Pokémon Sun & Moon launched on the Nintendo 3DS, and Winds & Waves takes place in a new tropical open-world region.
A long time coming for Psyduck
Leaving Psyduck out of the Psychic type is one of the oddest decisions the series has ever made. According to official lore, the duck has latent psychic powers. The reason it isn’t a Psychic type, apparently, is that it can’t control them. Poor little guy.
Fans have picked up on it. “If true this will satisfy the ‘Psyduck should have been psychic’ crowd,” one fan wrote in a post on X. “I’ll just be happy that Game Freak hasn’t given up on regional forms. I didn’t really care for the convergent Pokémon.”
Why Kanto Pokémon keep getting new looks
The roster now tops 1,000 Pokémon, and plenty of players will still insist until they’re blue in the face that the designs peaked with the first generation. A Kanto favorite taking center stage in a 2026 round of rumors makes sense.
Regional forms let the series play to that nostalgia without growing the pile of monsters. Sandslash, Raichu and even Zapdos have all received new forms or evolutions, and those forms tend to bring a new type with them. Alolan Raichu, for example, is Psychic/Electric.
It’s a sensible approach. A new Psyduck line freshens up an old design, and given how full the Pokédex already is, a smaller batch of brand-new monsters wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Other Pokémon in the rumor mill
Psyduck isn’t the only Pokémon being talked about. Fans have guessed that Drowzee might receive a new regional variant, and some hope to see the first new Eevee evolution in 13 years.
Rumors also point to new evolutions or forms for Arcanine, Shellos, Houndour, Onix and Lapras.
When news could arrive
Pokémon Winds & Waves won’t release on Nintendo Switch until late 2027, but a recent countdown to November 30 hints that something could appear before that.
What the Pokémon Company is counting down to remains unclear. It might turn out to be unrelated to Winds & Waves, so keep expectations modest.
If the countdown is for Winds & Waves, watch for an Ice/Psychic duck that has finally got its own head under control.