Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

What are people's opinions on these games now that all the dust has long settled from the controversies? Worth getting or no? I haven't bought into Gen 8 yet but there's never been a Poke Gen I've hated, ever.

@Maximumbeans Legends is next year, the remakes are coming is a few months, I would wait.

@Snatcher Strong point - I think you're right. Cheers.

@Maximumbeans
I think they're fun to play through, but I wouldn't get into them now in terms of competitive with the other games so close on the horizon.

Haven't played Pokemon since Emerald and decided to give Sword a real shot, so far it's very addictive and relaxing. Good break from Dread.

Wondering if people would recommend the expansion pass if I enjoy the game — is there a lot of worthwhile content? I already saw that over 200 new Pokemon are added. Also, in order to collect as many Pokemon as I can should I invest into one of the Let's Go games or should I just wait for the remakes coming soon and Arceus??

Keep in mind I'm less interested in Let's Go's type of gameplay as opposed to traditional Pokemon, so I'm really, REALLY unsure if I should spend money on the game. It's still full price in Australia, I believe.

Hey can anyone trade a different language ditto, I have multiple different Pokemon to discuss trading

Cleared all 8 gyms yesterday, took me close to about 30 hours but it never felt that long. This game is so enjoyable and addictive, those 30 hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Looking at it as a whole though, I think the gym journey in Shield (I can’t speak for Sword, which I understand has two different gyms?) is a fun, but pretty uneven experience, overall.

First, the gym challenges. Some are really fun and imaginative. Some less so, but have either a thematic or narrative purpose for the story of the gym leader/the gym/location whatever but some just felt like they had no clue what to do, so they didn’t try at all. As a result, I actually forgot about most of the gym challenges pretty much as soon as I did them. There are only really a couple which really stand out, but some I’d have a hard time telling you what I even had to do, despite only doing them over the last couple of days.

In terms of the gyms themselves, I only lost to one leader, the Ghost boy but beat him on the second try, after doing the only real serious grinding I had to do during the whole journey (I say that as a good thing, not a negative). There were a few occasions where I had to rebuild my team, but I never had to grind in the same way again. I also came pretty close to going down to Piers, too.

I did blow out a couple of early gyms due to type advantages (I went for the grass starter and it is kind of remarkable as to the amount of gyms that gives you a big advantage. Especially as Leon gave me this item that boosted grass moves really early in the game), but for one reason or another I rarely seemed to have any serious type advantage or disadvantage during a lot of the gyms. Maybe one Pokemon with one move, but I’d often have to let that Pokemon go down to avoid a momentum swing in the opposite direction, then it was just a neutral battle which usually led to pretty close battles where I’d just about come out on top by the end. This is why the final gym leader was so disappointing to me, I again had no real type advantage or disadvantage, but even under neutral territory, I ended up beating him pretty easily. Oh and the Dynamax closers for each of the battles are just awesome. Maybe it’s just a cheap novelty, but I found it such an epic way to close out each gym.

Some people say these games are too easy, but the difficulty felt just right to me, overall. But I would say a lot of the gym battles were fairly forgettable, overall, much like the challenges were too. Again, if you were to ask me the team comps of some of the leaders or individual Pokemon that seemed like mountains to overcome, I think I’d have a hard time telling you despite doing it over the last few days. They were close battles, but I cleared them and it usually didn’t seem long until I was in front of another leader again and the last one is forgotten.

I will say I remember the gyms in the older games being much, much, harder with more complex puzzles to solve and more iconic teams for the leaders, but I wonder if I went back if that is really true or if whether it was just because I was playing these games from when I was like 6 years old.

Hey everyone,
Fizza here, I need your help. I've been steadily filling in my BDSP National Dex over the last few days and it's made me realized that I never actually finished my dexes in SwSh so I was hoping to come here and get your help. Could someone with Sword trade me a Zacian, Glastrier and Regieleki? If you would like to have Zamazenta, Spectrier and Regidrago for your dex, I would be more than glad to on the condition that you trade them back immediately afterwards (I really prefer Zamazenta and Regidrago to their counterparts you see). I'm going to check my own game to see if there's any more that I've missed and if so, I'll add them here as well. Thanks for reading and please reply asap if possible!

Could anyone please help me finish my Pokedex's for Sword & both DLC's, all I need is some of the trade evos and version exclusives. Just @ me and I will give you a list.

@Kermit1 When you say Sword, do you mean you have Sword and are looking for Shield exclusives or the other way around? If you need Shield exclusives, I can get you get you sorted by tomorrow (I actually need Regieleki and Glastrier to complete my Crown Tundra Dex myself).

If you can give me a day to sort out the exclusives once I get the list, I'd be more than glad to help out!

Also, small tip, in the Wild Areas, a lot of trade evos can be found chilling in the wild depending on the weather (like Gengar, Rhyperior, Milotic, etc.) so I'd advise taking a trip round the areas to see if the ones you need are there in advance!

@Fizza (btw first about the trade evos for sword, I got all need from those places)

Okay I'll give you the list once I've double checked it!

and tomorrow will work for me if it will work for you.

@Kermit1 Great! Quick question: what timezone do you operate in? I'm in Ireland and I know you're in Canada so we may be few hours apart, therefore I'll adjust the time we get this done accordingly!

@Fizza Okay, heres my time zone (if this helps) Atlantic Daylight Saving Time

So I was looking through my boxes and I'm missing my Spectrier... I have him, I just I have no clue where he went.

@Kermit1 Makes sense I suppose: they are a ghost.

I had something like that happen to me as well with a Larvesta: I had it registered in my dex but couldn't find it at all in my boxes. It was annoying since I still needed to evolve it for dex completion as well.

If you can't find it in your box, maybe you sent it on a PokeJob? Go to your PC and click the Jobs box to check.

@Kermit1 Perhaps it's serving as a ride for a certain Pokémon with a big head.

@Fizza @Eel I think I gave it to my cousin if I remember now... Welp I guess I'm Spectrier-less

@Kermit1

@Fizza no horses sadly

@Fizza Here's the list

Corsola
Cursola
Vullaby
Mandibuzz
Drampa
Turtonator
Eiscue
Arctovish
Silvally

DLC 1
Psyduck
Wigglytuff
Shinx
Emogla (he's way too hard for me to get)
Scizor
Heracross
Azumarill
Skrelp

DLC 2
Smoochum
Magby
Nidorina
Nidoqueen
The whole Ninoran line
Kabuto
Kabutops
Crobat
Archeops
Walrein
Lileep
Relicanth
Glastrier