Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@BlackTalon2 Find a raid in your world, join it and click invite others. While the game is searching for other players, press the home button and go to the settings. From there, set the date forward one day and return to the game. Quit the raid, the game then resets your Dens and it’ll keep the rarity of the den you did the trick at. Preferably do this offline so you don’t risk people joining in on your lobby.

This trick actually makes it fun to grind stuff in the Wild Area

@Manah What if you battle a wild Pokemon with Pokemon that are a variety of levels, though? Which Pokemon level "counts" when you try to catch the wild Pokemon?

@Ralizah I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's the one that's active when you throw the ball.

@Manah Interesting. I'll boost one of my Pokemon up a few levels and keep it in my party for the inevitable encounter with another higher-level mon like that Eldegoss I failed to catch after 25 attempts (ugh).

@Manah that somewhat makes sense based on my experience. After around the fifth badge wild Pokémon were both kicking my ass and very difficult to catch (we're talking 15+ ultra balls here). Now after 8 badges, where I'm relatively overlevelled, everything's a breeze.

@Buizel
For me it was when I first started using great balls. It's a really strange restriction, considering that the Wild Area is already level gated through the badges. There's really no need to keep us from catching regular route mons 1-2 levels higher, especially when most players don't even notice it's a restriction and just assume the catch rate in general is messed up.

Apparently raid pokemon scale to the player's level, a friend with just one badge joined my in a 5 star raid earlier and their caught Centiscorch is level 23 while mine is 60.

Anyone willing to trade me a Corsola with the hidden ability Cursed Body? I completed the Pokédex so I can offer nearly anything.

@Eel Will the Pokedex track the shiny form of Pokemon you run into but don't capture? I was always under the impression it only logged the shiny forms you have owned.

I've been mostly shiny hunting in my game. I have 1 badge and don't plan to progress until I have most of my party shiny. I have a shiny Rookidee, Gossifleur, Scorbunny, and Dreepy at the moment. I'm hunting Hatenna and then I'll go for Sobble.

It did in gen 6 at least.

I know because I once KOd a shiny there.

20+ hours in, just got the eighth gym badge. I'm still having a great time. A shame Team Yell is just a bunch of losers, they aren't as menacing as, say, Team Rocket.

What are you favorites among the new pokémons so far? Corviknight is amazing, IMO. Also really like the Impidimp evolution line.

I like the arrokuda and toxel families, and dracovish won me over once I started using it... As creepy as the concept behind it is...

I didn’t like that coalossal dropped the wheels.

Are shiny Pokémon easily distinguishable? I thought I saw a shiny right away but it just turned about to be a Pokémon that gives watts (lol).

@rallydefault you can only see if its shiny during battle, it will have a special sparkly animation upon entering the battle, and it will be a different color than usual.

In Let's Go you could actually see shinies in the map.

@Eel
Ah, thanks!

I'm in the mines looking for the fire gym leader right now. Might sound pathetic, but this is the furthest I've gotten in a Pokémon game since the originals lol

Hey guys! I need the following 9 pokemon to complete my pokedex:
stonejourner, mawile, passimian, zacian, slurpuff, sir fetched, escalavier ,accelgor , and flapple.
I have pokemon shield and can offer exclusives from my game if needed. Thank you!

Brand new to the series, so please excuse my ignorance. Sword is the first game I've bought in the series. My question is about catching Pokemon in the wild area. Do you need to wear them down before you can catch them via fighting? I ask because before I got into the wild area, I caught any i wanted without fighting. Once i got to the wild area, I didn't catch 1. Granted, I've only tried about 4 Pokemon though.

@NintendoByNature Yes, you need to bring down their HP as low as possible, status effects like Paralysis help, too (ones that take down HP like Poison and Burned I don't recommend as they'll knock the Pokemon out and I don't know if they effect the catch rate anyway).

@NintendoByNature : Each ball also has variable catch rates and conditions so you should use the best ball for the job.

The default balls are the Poké Ball (1x), Great Ball (1.5x), Ultra Ball (2x), and Master Ball (though you're likely to get one of these in the entire game unless you win the Loto, probably, but Master Balls have a 100% catch rate).

Each Pokémon also has unique catch rates, so certain types of Pokémon, especially Legendaries, are far harder to catch than the norm, meanwhile, other Pokémon, like Caterpie, can be caught with a Poké Ball without needing to whittle down its health.

Quick Balls (5x) are pretty excellent if you don't want to battle, however you must use it on your first turn in battle, otherwise it will have the same catch rate as a regular Poké Ball in subsequent turns. Dusk and Net Balls are also very handy.

For every 10 balls (any ball) you buy from a Pokémon Centre, you will receive a Premier Ball as a bonus. They have the same catch rate as a regular Poké Ball, but each ball also has its own animation when a Pokémon is brought into battle, so it's nice to have some variance there. So be sure to also buy in multiples of 10 (e.g. 10, 20, 30) to get the most bang for your buck.

Also be aware that some Pokémon may use moves such as Roar, Whirlwind, Self-destruct, Explosion, Memento etc. that will end the battle, so you will want to catch them as quickly as possible. Wimpod and Goliscopod (sp?) also have a unique ability where they will eject themselves from battle if their health is at 50% or less, so perhaps you may wish to consider catching these with Quick Balls while they are at full health. There are also self-harming moves and abilities that can cause an attacking Pokémon's health to drop, which is something to keep an eye out for as well.

@Harmonie @Silly_G thank you both for the detailed response. This really helps alot. I'm having a ton of fun so far. Ill be asking alot of "basic" questions over the next few weeks so please Bare with me.

Aw yeah, I finally caught an "authentic" Sinistea.

Now I'm contemplating the idea of continuing the catching chain until I find a shiny. (Assuming that still works!)