Pokémon Sword and Shield |OT| God Save The Vespiquen

[Hikari]

Got my 4th badge! I'm taking this slow cause I'm also playing Death stranding and I'm trying to balance my time between both. Good news is Intellion grew on me. I hated it so much during leak season but seeing the animations it uses and I've changed my mind. Sniper water finger is amazing! And wow I really do like how this game changes things up a bit kinda like red/blue where Viridian city was the last gym. The 4th city seems to be the last since the dragon guy said I need all badges to face him. Hammerlocke is my favourite town so far and is rather gorgeous.

So yeah I'm enjoying it while I can. Hopefully I can progress more. On a side note Bea is pretty awesome.

 

[n00bs7ay3r]

I tend to spend a lot of time in new areas, like the Routes. I was hanging around the Wild Area for a while when I first got there and while I checked out Motostoke but now I think I'm too high level for where I should be so I'm trying to get the right balance going.

The first Gym battle was way too easy. I had to consciously use lower level Pokemon and moves that wouldn't just one hit everything. I may have leveled up too high.

So yeah I'm catching a lot of Pokemon while also trying to level them all up to sorta match the area I'm in. My Scorbunny (evolved to Lvl 2) was at like level 20 a while ago and it was clearly too high for everything so I put it away and worked on the lower tier stuff I had.

I'm also itching to get a few Pokemon to Lvl 2 evolution to see what's next. As long as I fight Pokemon at a certain level I keep trying to get a lot of my collection at that level.

I already feel weird about having some Pokemon only at like level 8 while the rest are in the 15-19 range. My starter is now at Lvl 22 or something and the Pokemon on Route 5 are around 17-19.
So that's kinda where I wanna have all my Pokemon at.

Am I going about this wrong?

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Like I said I was a little less than 10 hours in when I got to the first gym. I also had a pretty easy time with that gym but that was partially due to the fact that the 3 team members that I had decided I would use for the run were all super effective against grass. Besides that I battled every trainer I came across and for a majority of the game I at least tried catching a Pokemon or two on each route. I ended the gym challenge with a Pokedex around 80. I never went out of my way to grind or anything and generally avoided wild encounters except to catch new mons.

Doing this I found I had some difficult battles. I never lost a match but I did have some close calls. I found I had to think about what moves to use and ended up using items in many battles (if I had self imposed a restriction on using items during battle I would have definitely lost some matches and maybe even had to grind a little bit). Playing like this left my Pokemon around the same level as their opponents for most the game and I found gave me a fairly balanced playthrough. Even now I am in the post game quest and my Pokemon are around the same level as those of the people I am battling (around lvl 60)

I think if you go out of your way to catch mons or grind in the wild area, your Pokemon will be overlevelled for the gyms and regular trainers.

 

[BanetteAndBaguette]

Wait, why is Scorbunny winning the poll? His final evolution is so ugly thankfully my Inteleon is always here to erase him from this world

 

[Mediking]

I just saw a Falinks use No Retreat.

Wow. That is a pretty looking move

 

[secretanchitman]

Beat the game around 21-22 hours. This included fighting all of the trainers in between towns and doing a bit of grinding early on.

I'm mixed about it. I mean, this is Pokemon so it's the usual song and dance and I wasn't bored completing it. On the other hand, I just have so many disappointments with it and I personally prefer the older games in the series (Blue, Silver and Alpha Sapphire come to mind).

I'd say the game is anywhere between 6.5-7/10 for me. This game does a few things right but is disappointing in many other ways (as others have stated in the thread and elsewhere).

 

[effingvic]

Four tries trying to get this Gmax Drednaw, no use. Keeps popping out :(

 

[MattAces]

anybody happen to have a high quality screenshot of sobble high fiving trainer in the beinning? need it desperately

 

[MegaRockEXE]

Just got to the part where you're told "let the adults handle this." Does Gamefreak not like adventure anymore or did they really forget how to design a dungeon? Or, is this the part where it's really obvious they ran out of time?

I think I just killed a shiny Cubchoo....but I have no way of telling. Is there two models of cubchoo? Like a really really blue one

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If you've seen it, it should be viewable in the Pokedex. Just press left or right to see any alternate forms for that Pokemon you've seen.

 

[KayMote]

Regarding post game after beating the champ:
Do you happen to run into things like the battle tower naturally or do I have to explicitly look out for it? So far my only clue is 'The forest again' (if someone gets the reference).

Also, I think there was an NPC somewhere that told me to return when I got Champ, but I can't remember who it was. Could someone help me out?

 

[Andri]

Regarding post game after beating the champ:
Do you happen to run into things like the battle tower naturally or do I have to explicitly look out for it? So far my only clue is 'The forest again' (if someone gets the reference).

Also, I think there was an NPC somewhere that told me to return when I got Champ, but I can't remember who it was. Could someone help me out?

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You run into it naturally.
They singpost you first to thw forest for the postgame quest, and then mention the tower.
You can just go to the tower first anyway though.

 

[Sterok]

Well, thanks to the traders here I completed my Dex. I've done it before in XY, but this time I had to manage without trading with myself. So that's nice. Still need some stuff like HA Sableye, HA Corsola, and non-English Ditto, but I can get those later. Now what to do with this foreign HA Snom I got on Surprise Trade.

 

[Turbowaffles]

Just got the 7th badge. What's the best way to farm exp to level up quickly? I know the prevailing technique right now is getting the candies from the raid battles, but I'm only at the 7th gym, so...

 

[Silent]

I have a question. My Switch has two accounts on it. I've been playing Sword on my account. I tried to start a file with my brother's account in another language in hopes of getting a foreign Ditto. But I can't go online without linking to a Nintendo Account. Am I supposed to make a new Nintendo Account to link this profile to it? Does it not automatically have Nintendo Online?

 

[Col.Asher]

This is the first time I benched my starter. The grooky line is disappointing, especially coming of of decidueye

 

[Mediking]

Circhester is amazing!!!

But how does some of the NPC trainers have better clothes and hair than the player? Lol

 

[Deleted member 40179]

I have a question. My Switch has two accounts on it. I've been playing Sword on my account. I tried to start a file with my brother's account in another language in hopes of getting a foreign Ditto. But I can't go online without linking to a Nintendo Account. Am I supposed to make a new Nintendo Account to link this profile to it? Does it not automatically have Nintendo Online?

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Dang, I wanted to try this but you've pretty much answered my question. Apparently Online only works for one user profile unless you upgrade to the family plan. Does it let you link the same Nintendo account to another Switch user profile?

 

[Sou Da]

This is the first time I benched my starter. The grooky line is disappointing, especially coming of of decidueye

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How? It and Scorbunny turn into exactly what you would expect them to.

 

[Silent]

Dang, I wanted to try this but you've pretty much answered my question. Apparently Online only works for one user profile unless you upgrade to the family plan. Does it let you link the same Nintendo account to another Switch user profile?

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Unfortunately, I couldn't. I had to make a dummy Nintendo Account, link it to the Switch user profile, and then sign up for the 7-day Nintendo Online trial. Hopefully there is an easier way.

 

[PancakeFlip]

Sadly most people who play online are 30 something year olds who watch YouTube videos and craft impossibly difficult teams to beat by your average Pokemon players.

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OK so is online NOTHING but try hards? I expected a bit of variety in lower ranks and even random play.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

OK so is online NOTHING but try hards? I expected a bit of variety in lower ranks and even random play.

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I'm positive there's a lot of kids and people just looking to have fun, but every single battle I've personally been in has been a fight for my life lol! There's millions of people playing though so there's bound to be a lot who aren't so hardcore into it.

 

[Deleted member 19742]

also surprise trade is the most depressing/best thing about online. for everyone out there who sends out a wooloo when i am trading a good pokemon, screw you.

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It's infinite Rookidee for me. None of them even have their HA...

Just got to the part where you're told "let the adults handle this." Does Gamefreak not like adventure anymore or did they really forget how to design a dungeon? Or, is this the part where it's really obvious they ran out of time?

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Between the non-existent town for the seventh gym, the barren eighth gym, and the complete lack of a Victory Road or equivalent, I'm pretty sure they were out of time. But they certainly could have been a bit lazy as well.

 

[Sander VF]

It's infinite Rookidee for me. None of them even have their HA...

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Got a Dreepy two times in a row and a Charmander too!

 

[Protoman200X]

kinda feel like i maybe should've went with shield instead of sword. for one: go into icy environment with all ice pokemon in sword - gym leader is rock type pokemon trainer - wtf. second: love ghost pokemon and shield has ghost gym leader, although i do think bea is awesome. dont really like the fact that gym leaders were different in versions - they should just stick to pokemon differing, not leaders. also surprise trade is the most depressing/best thing about online. for everyone out there who sends out a wooloo when i am trading a good pokemon, screw you.

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If it makes you feel any better, my sister has been sending out every Ponyta she has captured with the Surprise Trade feature, and been naming them accordingly (Wynstar, Glitter, etc.)

She just wants the person on the receding end to get a pretty pony, & maybe make their day a bit better.

 

[Astral]

I really enjoyed the trek from Motostoke to Turffield. Lots of trainers and Pokémon to catch. I love how wide route 4 was. I hope the game keeps this up.

is there some kind of secret item in Turffield btw? Some little girl npc seemed to be hinting at it.

 

[Silent]

I really enjoyed the trek from Motostoke to Turffield. Lots of trainers and Pokémon to catch. I love how wide route 4 was. I hope the game keeps this up.

is there some kind of secret item in Turffield btw? Some little girl npc seemed to be hinting at it.

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Yes, there is, just pay close attention to her riddle.

 

[carlosrox]

Beat the game around 21-22 hours.

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Jesus did you run straight through the whole game? I'm at 20 hours and I'm only on Route 5.

 

[Ohnooni]

Got a Dreepy two times in a row and a Charmander too!

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Ha, got a surprise trade dreepy an hour after getting one from you! :D
Best surprise trade for me was a feebas that evolved into milotic right away, that was a nice surprise!

 

[Benzychenz]

Wow, lost to the champion. That's a first in a long time.

Gonna screw around in the wild area for a bit and do some raids, his team was all 5+ levels above mine.

Is there a fast way to see what raids are up or do you have to run to all the pillars of light and click on them?

 

[Biggad]

Is there an npc in sword that wants to trade his corsola with you? They did that a lot in past games with the version exclusive pokemon

 

[Wurst]

Does Dreepy evolve by leveling?
Mines 48 now and still nothing.

 

[storaføtter]

Does Dreepy evolve by leveling?
Mines 48 now and still nothing.

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Yeah he evolves very late. Hang on there. Check Serebii pokedex for such info. Only obscure evolving is Farfetched and getting Alcreamie.

 

[hat_hair]

Does Dreepy evolve by leveling?
Mines 48 now and still nothing.

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Level 50

 

[Gans]

Mandatory post for hidden

Will invite people for faster raids because Y-comm is quite disappointing, whoever is on UK time feel free to add me on 2450-7974-3607 since I'm spamming wishings on Max and HA dens.

 

[Razmos]

If it makes you feel any better, my sister has been sending out every Ponyta she has captured with the Surprise Trade feature, and been naming them accordingly (Wynstar, Glitter, etc.)

She just wants the person on the receding end to get a pretty pony, & maybe make their day a bit better.

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I really enjoyed sending a bunch of level 1 Falinks out through surprise trade, I bet a lot of people were really surprised to get one, especially one person who sent me a level 4 Caterpie from route 1 that I can only assume had just started the game

 

[Slushimi]

Holy shit I got a shiny dreepy from wonder trade

 

[Phellps]

Yeah he evolves very late. Hang on there. Check Serebii pokedex for such info. Only obscure evolving is Farfetched and getting Alcreamie.

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And Yamask, the truly obscure method.
I will never not be astounded by this.

I really enjoyed sending a bunch of level 1 Falinks out through surprise trade, I bet a lot of people were really surprised to get one, especially one person who sent me a level 4 Caterpie from route 1 that I can only assume had just started the game

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I love doing this. I sent out a bunch of level 1 Dreepy a few days ago, hopefully they went to people who didn't have it yet or were just starting their journey

 

[Danielsan]

And Yamask, the truly obscure method.
I will never not be astounded by this.


I love doing this. I sent out a bunch of level 1 Dreepy a few days ago, hopefully they went to people who didn't have it yet or were just starting their journey

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Same, I'm surprise trading a ton of my breeding rejects. Level 1 mons with 4 or 5 perfect IVs for everyone.

 

[Zombegoast]

Yeah he evolves very late. Hang on there. Check Serebii pokedex for such info. Only obscure evolving is Farfetched and getting Alcreamie.

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Alcreamie make sense.

Have you ever stir whipp cream before?

 

[Deleted member 29682]

What are the odds for getting a hidden ability from a raid Pokemon (at a den where it's possible)?

 

[Orbit]

If it makes you feel any better, my sister has been sending out every Ponyta she has captured with the Surprise Trade feature, and been naming them accordingly (Wynstar, Glitter, etc.)

She just wants the person on the receding end to get a pretty pony, & maybe make their day a bit better.

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your sister is a champ, considering us sword owners don't have ponyta in our games.

 

[Orbit]

It's infinite Rookidee for me. None of them even have their HA...

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good lord...i hate/love surprise trade so much.

 

[Deleted member 25140]

Holy shit I got a shiny dreepy from wonder trade

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Not trying to shit on it but tbh it's probably hacked

 

[Slushimi]

Not trying to shit on it but tbh it's probably hacked

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Most likely, but fuck it dude it's mine now lol

 

[Durden]

So basically if I'm understanding right the steps you should shoot for making the best teams are...

-Find/breed Pokemon with "amazing stats"! judgement

-EV Train those Pokémon

-Anything below great shouldn't be fucked with and maybe even anything below amazing? Which I guess means my starter is screwed because they're "ok" :(

So if I have one Pokémon with the amazing stats label and I breed it with amazing stats ditto, will the egg Pokémon have amazing? If the ditto is amazing can it potentially bring up stats from great to amazing?

Also one of my Legendaries only has "great stats". Kind of a bummer

 

[Ocean]

Not trying to shit on it but tbh it's probably hacked

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So hacking in "perfect" Pokemons seems to be fairly common. I checked eBay and there's a bunch of dudes selling perfect-IV Shiny Pokemon of all types for very little money.

Do these things have any adverse in-game issues later on? Are they banned from online, or from transferring over to other games? Or is it just one of those "you're only cheating yourself" kind of things

 

[Andri]

So basically if I'm understanding right the steps you should shoot for making the best teams are...

-Find/breed Pokemon with "amazing stats"! judgement

-EV Train those Pokémon

-Anything below great shouldn't be fucked with and maybe even anything below amazing? Which I guess means my starter is screwed because they're "ok" :(

So if I have one Pokémon with the amazing stats label and I breed it with amazing stats ditto, will the egg Pokémon have amazing? If the ditto is amazing can it potentially bring up stats from great to amazing?

Also one of my Legendaries only has "great stats". Kind of a bummer

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You can use Bottle caps at the battle tower to instantly set stats of any pokemon that is lvl 100 to "amazing".

For the breeding, Babys normally inherit 3 random stats from their parents, the others are rolled like with a catch.
If you give one parent a Destiny Knot, the baby inherits 5 stats.
Basically you breed a pair, check if the baby has better stats.
If yes, replace the parent with worse stat with the baby and breed again.
Repeat incest till you have perfect stats.

Basically, for Making "best" teams, everything besides Gigamax and Hidden Ability can be "salvaged" with postgame mechanics.

For Starter and Legendaries there is no Hidden ability or Gigamax available, so breeding/resetting them is not needed at all.
Just get them to lvl 100, Max IV with a bottle cap, possible give a nature mint and ev train then you are good.

 

[RingoGaSuki]

So hacking in "perfect" Pokemons seems to be fairly common. I checked eBay and there's a bunch of dudes selling perfect-IV Shiny Pokemon of all types for very little money.

Do these things have any adverse in-game issues later on? Are they banned from online, or from transferring over to other games? Or is it just one of those "you're only cheating yourself" kind of things

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Hacking in perfect ones is extremely easy in SwSh. There are codes where all you have to do is hold R when the mon is generated (ingame) and it can have 6IVs and/or be shiny, no need for PKHex. AFAIK it's not triggering anything on Nintendo's servers either, so not like you'll get banned unless you do something stupid (eg. you try to actually hack in online play with others or give all of your Pokes 999 HP and 999 in all stats).

I spent a bunch of time getting my first shinies legitly (Zigzagoon and Sneasel) and have no qualms about using codes to get other shinies I want. I've realised that now my fun comes much more from raising them, not mindlessly hatching/slaughtering until the one I'm after pops up. I'll save the time hunting, and spend hours raising them.

No they aren't banned online, and as long as they are caught in a legit way and meet all legitimacy parameters (location caught, level caught at, known moves etc.) then it's fine.

 

[Durden]

You can use Bottle caps at the battle tower to instantly set stats of any pokemon that is lvl 100 to "amazing".

For the breeding, Babys normally inherit 3 random stats from their parents, the others are rolled like with a catch.
If you give one parent a Destiny Knot, the baby inherits 5 stats.
Basically you breed a pair, check if the baby has better stats.
If yes, replace the parent with worse stat with the baby and breed again.
Repeat incest till you have perfect stats.

Basically, for Making "best" teams, everything besides Gigamax and Hidden Ability can be "salvaged" with postgame mechanics.

For Starter and Legendaries there is no Hidden ability or Gigamax available, so breeding/resetting them is not needed at all.
Just get them to lvl 100, Max IV with a bottle cap, possible give a nature mint and ev train then you are good.

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Oh shitttt, that's awesome! So I can make even my starter a beast. Fuck yes! Thanks for the info, I think I'm finally understand the calculations and insanely rampant incest that is late-game Pokemon.

Few more clarifications...so it sounds like pretty much the optimal breeding setup is a perfect Ditto holding a destiny knot, if I'm understanding correctly? That way five of it's perfect stats will always be passed to the baby Pokémon?

 

[Rand a. Thor]

World War 3 will happen if Sinnoh R is trash

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Ignoring the hyperbole, yeah the Sinnoh remakes are gonna be a mess to discuss, way worse then ORAS.

how many of us were saying "they can't mess up" prior to Sword and Shield's reveal?

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I'm still dumbfounded that people correcting me about Wyndon being a basic city with the surrounding buildings just being window dressing turned out to be factual.

Eh, It's not a bug. When you see it from that angle it looks like a caterpillar, but once you realized it's 6 individuals it doesn't make sense for it to be a Bug Type.

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It could be argued that they are based on the Soldier Ants.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

I never played ORAS, how did the routes end up compared to their originals in RSE?