Pokémon Sword and Shield are great games in our eyes – and in the eyes of many others – but there’s no hiding from the fact that the level of difficulty is, shall we say, a little on the accessible side. That’s great if you’re just looking to have a fun adventure, but for some people, a little strife can make things even sweeter.
So here are a few ways you can make the games harder for yourself through self-imposed rules, whether you’re a series veteran looking for greater oomph, you want to start a new playthrough after already becoming champion, or you’ve just heard whispers that it’s too easy and want something more engaging.
In ascending order of difficulty...
Ditch Your Starter
The simplest and most straightforward of all the possible ways to ramp up the challenge, you can just flat-out ditch your starter Pokémon. Grookey, Scorbunny, Sobble, whomever you choose, they’re designed to be powerful very early on in the game and be the backbone of your team from start to finish. They’re also really quick to climb the level ladder, and they also evolve fairly quickly all things considered. Dropping them off at the first possible opportunity definitely makes the earlier parts of the game tougher.
Doing this is as simple as the concept itself; all you need to do is catch a wild Pokémon on Route 1 after you've been to the Slumbering Weald and add it to your party. Then make a beeline for the Pokémon Center in Wedgehurst and drop your starter Pokémon in a Box to relax whilst you do all the hard stuff.
If you're worried you might be tempted to use it in the future, you could either release it to say goodbye to it (and temptation) for good, or trade it to a friend you can trust so you can use it again once your adventure is complete.
Try A Monotype Team
Dropping your starter off may be tough at first, but you'll soon adapt in time, so if you want to really test your wits you might want to consider using what's called a monotype team.
A monotype team is basically a team of any Pokémon that share a single type between them, much like most gym leaders do throughout the series. A team like this means you’ll not only have trouble with strong foes that are super effective against potentially your entire party, but you’ll also have to think much harder about what moves and Pokémon you choose in an effort to counter this as much as you possibly can.
Although not absolutely necessary, we recommend choosing what type your team will share before you start your adventure. You can either choose ahead of time or if you’re feeling especially daring you can let the magic of HTML choose for you by clicking on this link. If you do you'll also be shown a list of all the Pokémon available in Sword and Shield that you can pick from – aren't we lovely?
To start your team, you’ll likely have to ditch your starter Pokémon as well, unless you chose or were assigned Grass, Fire, or Water. You’ll have to take them through the Slumbering Weald no matter what, but as soon as you’re able to catch a Pokémon of your monotype team, you’ll have to drop your starter as soon as you can. This can be tricky with certain types, such as Fairy, as they won’t appear on Route 1 or Route 2, so you’ll have to push through until you get into the Wild Area and start your monotype team from there.
One last thing to mention, there are plenty of Pokémon that gain a type when they evolve, such as Rookidee gaining the Steel type when it ultimately evolves into Corviknight. Is it acceptable to have a Rookidee in a Steel monotype team for example? Well at the end of the day it’s your call, but in our personal view it’s perfectly acceptable as although it’s not Steel to begin with, its final form includes it, and that’s what you’ll be using for the majority of your adventure.
However, there are also Pokémon that actively lose a type when they evolve. For example, Onix is Rock and Ground-type, but upon evolving into Steelix it becomes Steel and Ground. For our money, the final evolution is the restriction you should place upon yourself, so whilst Onix would be fine in a Steel-type team (provided you intend to evolve it, which you should), Steelix would not be OK in a Rock-type team. However, these rules are 100% self-imposed, so if you want to bend our stipulations a little for any reason whatsoever, you’re perfectly free to do so. It’s your choice to do this after all.
Nuzlocke In Your Life
Now we’re in big trousers territory. You may well have heard of Nuzlocke at some point, and for good reason - it amps up the difficulty of the games so significantly that poor planning can even result in deleting your save file. Yikes.
The Nuzlocke challenge was created by Nick Franco and named after his webcomic series of the same name. The very basic principles of it are simple:
- If one of your Pokémon faints, you must release it.
- You may only catch the first Pokémon you find in each area, and nothing else.
People have evolved upon the ideas of Nuzlocke over time and there are naturally going to be a few questions with rules as simple as these; “what about the Slumbering Weald?”, “does it have to be the first overworld Pokémon I see or the first rustle of a grassy patch?”, “can I keep my starter Pokémon?”, “where are the toilets?”, and so on.
So we’ve compiled our own list of Nuzlocke rules specifically for the 8th generation, including some optional ones if you fancy a bit more pep.
Mandatory Nuzlocke Rules
These must be followed throughout your entire playthrough.
- You may choose your starter Pokémon gifted to you by Leon.
- You may only capture the first Pokémon you battle in each area. This can either be an overworld Pokémon, a random encounter from entering a grassy patch, a Pokémon you reel in from a fishing spot, a Pokémon that falls out of a Berry Tree to attack you, or a Max Raid Battle (you may not leave the Den if you do not want that Pokémon, and you must use NPCs rather than other players over the internet or via local wireless). If you fail to capture this Pokémon for whatever reason, be it because it fainted or ran away, you may not catch another from that area. This rule comes into effect only once you receive the Poké Balls you get from talking to your mum after visiting the Slumbering Weald for the first time. Each area within the Wild Area is considered a separate location, so you may catch a total of 17 Pokémon in the Wild Area, one for each location contained within it.
- You may not trade or interact with other users via local wireless or over the internet. This includes the Surprise Trade option and Max Raid Battles. Pokémon that require evolution through trading such as Gengar are exempt from this, provided they are traded back immediately.
- You may trade Pokémon with in-game NPCs, as long as the Pokémon they request has been caught in accordance with the restrictions listed in rule 2. You may also accept Pokémon given to you by in-game NPCs without trading, such as Toxel.
- You may not use Mystery Gift or event Pokémon, such as Gigantamax Meowth.
- You must nickname every Pokémon you capture, including your starter. This will make you appreciate them and bond with them more than you would otherwise.
- If one of your Pokémon faints, you must transfer it to a Box immediately and release it. This means you may not use any items that revive the Pokémon either, it is considered permanently fainted and must be released, no exceptions. You may however heal your Pokémon using items such as Potions and Antidotes.
- You may store additional Pokémon you have caught in Boxes to be used if you wish to switch out any member of your party (or one of your party faints) provided they are caught in accordance with the restrictions listed in rule 2.
- You must have the Autosave feature active at all times, and you may not reload a previous save at any time. Each action in-game is considered permanent and must be treated as such.
- Should all of your party Pokémon faint, resulting in a white-out, it is considered a game over and you must start your entire adventure over from the beginning, even if you have reserve Pokémon in Boxes.
Optional Nuzlocke Rules
Feel free to mix and match as many of these as you wish, or ignore them entirely.
- You may not use in-game healing items to heal your Pokémon. This includes status-healing items such as Antidote.
- You may not purchase additional Poké Balls of any kind, you may only use those you find on the ground.
- You may not use held items with your Pokémon.
- You may not use the Pokémon Link Box to access your Boxes outside of a Pokémon Center.
- You may not use any items at all besides Poké Balls and mandatory Key Items.
- You may not use the Pokémon Camp feature to heal your Pokémon with curries.
- You may not use the Pokémon Camp feature at all.
- You may not use starter Pokémon, and they must be released as soon as you have a Pokémon to replace them.
- You may not use the Box system to hold reserve Pokémon.
- You may not run from any battle.
- You must use the ‘Set’ style of battle rather than the default ‘Switch’. This can be found in the Options menu.
- You may not use the Move Tutor.
- You may not use the Flying Taxis.
- You may not Dynamax your Pokémon.
We told you it was big trousers time, didn’t we? Nuzlocke is undoubtedly not for everyone, but if you’ve been looking to get some more challenge in your Pokémon games, you’ll certainly find it with this!
Comments 43
Every gen, my first play thru always has the rule set of only using new pokes, no previous gen pokes. And I try not to look up moves they get or evolutions, so I can try to figure out their roles / builds on my own.
Sad how we have to do this for the slightest challenge. exp share needs to die
Find it a bit odd you need a guide on how to challenge yourself.
Like saying the game isn't fun enough on its own.
why the need for autosave when youre not allowed to load a previous save anyway?
@PBandSmelly @Xaessya I was going to talk about how this game has even less challenge than previous entries but really, do I even need to say it now?
Some friends of mine do Nuzlocke races often. It's fun to watch. Might be worth getting the new game to try it.
I'm surprisingly enjoying this game so much. Even if I buy a lot of poke balls whenever I can.
Guess this Nuzlocke guy doesn't have to cope with work or study as normal people. Lucky him. But I still would like to see him to work in a veggie field for a couple of months. Just to improve his creativity.
For me it was completely ditching raids until the post game. I overleveled on xp candies from a handful of raids early on, gradually balanced back out by the 3rd gym. Not doing any raids or candy use when I had to go back through the wild area made me a lot more even with gyms 4-8.
"So here's our advice: destroy the game's design to make it better!" Yeeaaahh... No.
My shield run I basically ditched a team member everytime I found a ghost type.
I’m breeding shinies right now and my plan is to do a shiny bug type run in sword with 6 lvl 1 shiny bug types.
I'm training 12 Pokemon instead of 6 and most of the game (I have seven badges now) was easy anyway. Howewer, I must admit that it gets harder over time. Who knows, maybe I will come across an obstacle that will overcome me.
I always like the Competitive Run. You have your battles as 'Set' so you can't switch every time you faint an opponent and you cannot use items in battle (Except Pokeballs). Pretty simple to do but adds a bit more of a realistic challenge so when you battle a real player its not as big a shock.
@Seananigans
You clearly dont understand the problem with the exp share. It turns the game way way too easy. There is a difference between no grinding and forcibly turning easy mode on. It encourages the use of your one best pokemon, and the rest to go unused. It sucks. You are always overleveled. If you played heartgold or soul silver, you can see that no grindind can be achieved without the exp share. Its a horrible move to make it always stay on, and a huge turn off to long time fans. This makes EV and IV training terrible as well.
@Seananigans Sword and Shield literally shower you in exp candies; the grinding risk, which was always pretty low to begin with in Pokemon, has been completly removed already.
Forcing the exp share is honestly just overkill, especially with the game keeping most opponents at a low level just in case the player somehow still managed to fail to level up.
I finally learned what Nuzlocke is, lol.
I just want to add my criticisms about Sw/Sh in other comment sections aside, I am finding some enjoyment in learning about the new Pokémon and the Gym Challenges. So it isn't all negative
I find the default difficulty perfect. I can understand hardcore RPG players finding it too easy, but there are tons of hard turn-based RPGs (and hard games in general) out there that they can play. Let us hard-casual players have this one to ourselves.
It's like how hardcore gamers say that it's okay for Sekiro to not have an easy mode because it's not for us casual gamers. By that same token, it's okay for Pokemon to be easy, because it's not for you hardcore types.
I'm doing something different. Switching out my Pokemon frequently not to overlevel them, not taking type-advantage Pokemon into gyms, and only carrying three mons at a time. It's forcing me to be a lot more strategic with my choices, and it adds a real sense of tension to gym battles.
With that said, it's a bit ridiculous that we have to play with one hand tied before our backs every gen in order for these games to not be braindead easy. Just add a hard mode that we can enable from the start, GF. It shouldn't be too demanding in terms of additional development time, it'll make seasoned fans happier, and you can even lock it away in a menu so that you don't scare off any of the kiddies with a difficulty select option at the start.
What I did was rotate Pokémon all the time. I didn’t really narrow my team down til after I had all eight badges. I often brought disadvantageous Pokémon into gyms, usually with a safety net ace in my pocket.
Tl;dr I played the games story with roughly 18 different Pokémon, plus some flavor of the minute mon.
No need for a nuzlocke, and no need to make things more difficult, just save your experience candies, and yes, rotate pokemon, in my case i rotate so that all the pokemon i like, will level up, so the game is already difficult enough as it is for me. i had a hard time with opal and bea and post opal hop with that cinderace spam.
The only people who say it is easy are those who use the experience candies to level up. I am not tying my hands behind my back, i just want all the pokemon i like, to be of similar levels before i challenge the next gym and i dont use experience candies because i am saving those for my bred pokemon post game.
I put my own challenge. You can only use Poké Balls or Premier Balls to catch Pokémon.
@Dm9982 That's exactly how I've played every Pokemon game after gen 3.
I also try to rotate my Pokemon. Instead of a team of 6, I usually try to use around 15 to 20 of the new Pokemon and make different teams as I go along.
How about you just give the player the option to turn off the dreaded exp.share like you did in the last two games? That alone would already make it way better.
@Deege Same here, typically. This time I was a little overwhelmed by Wild Area, forgot what I should be doing, and over leveled. 😂 Now my team is lvl 50, and just past badge 5. Thankfully I’m a bit bored of Centiscorch, Grimmsnarl, Orbettle, Gossifleur (evo, just forgot name), and Toxtricity. Time for a change! Keeping Inteleon on though, as I like to take my starter on the whole journey.
Debating on making a hail team for fun.
@Seananigans Nah, they really need to have different difficulty settings in a game like this now, because a HUGE chunk of their fan base is young adults-adults who were kids when they first play Pokemon with Red and Blue, Gold and Silver. The EXP Share is just annoying to me, and I would only want it enabled for end game.
"I swear you guys don't know what you want."
Because their is more than one opinion, millions of people are Pokemon fans, you can't really say that sentence when it does not apply to everyone.
@mmarkster Did this on X/Y, amazingly rewarding! Even managed to get the bird trio and Mewtwo in poke balls, which I heard had lower rates than Xernas or Zygarde. Saved my Master Ball and sent it to ORAS. ORAS I need to continue, but it’s funny to be walking around with 2 badges and a master ball. 😂
@Dm9982 @mmarkster You too?
I also have been using only PokéBalls to catch Pokémon since the 3rdGen XD
(Althought challange aside, I also like the original PokéBall design better).
And this is actually one of the thing that bothers me about Sw&Sh, I had to give up this challange...
Not fully, pretty much all my mon are in PokéBalls, but with MaxRaids giving you only a single shot to catch a Pokémon and the rarest ones having a low catch rate despite this, I had no choice but stock on different kind of PokéBalls for the first time in ages...
I've fought every trainer I've come across so far and have stuck to pretty much the same 6 Pokemon for most of my playthrough. I'm underleveled. As far as difficulty, I think I would have to go back to Gen. 3 or 4 for the last time I was this challenged by a Pokemon game particularly in Gyms. Unless the game suddenly gets easier following the fourth Gym, the difficulty has been solid from my experience.
@BakaKnight Lol yeah, I always stock the other balls just in case, plus a handful of pokes I prefer in specific balls - like Blissey line in Heal Balls, or certain ones I really like in Premier Balls. Most other ball designs I don’t like, but certain ones fit certain pokes well.
The problem is, that everyone is excited for the wild area and doing the RAID's early. Giving you a lot of XP and tons of XP candies.
They should have locked out the Wild Area until Post-game, as a true post-game feature.
This would have made the game more balanced through the gyms.
Now everyone just runs into the Wild Area as quickly as they can, all excited, doing tons of RAID's and whatnot and so unexpectedly overleveling all your Pokemon real quick.
@I-U Dunno why the downvote, but yeah the game could be harder, if you don’t try to catch every poke per route and didn’t spend handfuls of hours in the Wild Area doin raids left and right for fun.
It’s just easy to over level yourself in here compared to others mainly because of the Wild Area and raids, but I could see if those were largely avoided, the difficulty being on par with other gens.
@BakaKnight that's where being host has its perks.
I could care less about exp share always being on, if it only shared exp. Because it shares EVs too that makes it annoying. But with the ability get vast amounts of cash easy, buying full sets of vitamins easy, and being able to FULLY EV train a poke via vitamins more or less negates all that because what’s the point in grinding with Power Items now the old fashion way? Use vitamins or Job train a ton of pokes at once....
I get what Game Freak is trying to do, increase accessibility, adapt to the next wave of younger fans. If you played Pokémon Go and Let’s Go, you HAD to know these types of changes were coming. Just be thankful we don’t have to deal with the CP system!
All these design changes and additions make sense from business, future, and accessibility stand points. And honestly, while I don’t like Sw/Sh as much as I liked ORAS, I’m enjoying it far more than X/Y or Sun/Moon. The Wild area and raids alone are worth the price of entry here.
And even though I’m from Gen 1, I think the Dexit was logical and long time coming. Anyone who’s completed a national dex with 800+ pokes will tell you just how fun that turns out not to be. Exciting for the first half, tedious for the rest. Plus, eventually, at some point, those pokes will return. Sun/Moon only allowed its dex for 3+ months before they made bank work with it.....
Thank you for the article and all the comments. I am really liking the game, but it is obviously easy. Which is not a bad thing, per se, because this article and thread show how to tweak the difficulty. I have already done some of that in my first 19 hours.
I can make this easy game more difficult on my own, but I wouldn't be able to make a hard game more easy. (except grinding, of course) So, overall, I am really liking this game!
Why cant Nintendo add hard mode in Pokemon? As a kid i picked Charmander, got my * kicked by Brock and i had to plan my team better, ended up leveling to a Butterfree and it was quite hard atleast for a child.
Now every kid needs to be spoonfed with stuffs, its like the kids that endured battle games in arcades and kids who plays now are two completely different species.
I played smb3 as a kid and i learned the hard way, by dying and restarting till i made it. What happened?
Tbh I usually cakewalk through Pokémon games, but not Sword/Shield. Found everything sufficiently hard as long as I did not grind or spammed consumables endlessly.
@graysoncharles
Correct me if I am run, but Exp. Sharing was an optional thing in previous games. Unless Sword and Shield have made it a mandatory thing?
@Samsamsam
That's why I prefer Advance Wars over Fire Emblem. Once your characters are at a high level, it can make the games a cake-walk.
@PBandSmelly Actualy, the problem is not the exp share. The game could be well balanced with or without this item, because dificulty is more about artificial intelligence and strong Pokémon than about level. I bet this game without any problem, even though the champion had higher level Pokémon. This game is simply inevitably easy, even If you always use underleveled Pokémon.
@Seananigans Theirs your problem, "youre the pickiest, whiniest, most ungrateful fanbase to walk the face of this Earth." You basically just attacked me and assumed when you said "you're". Like really I don't whine or be picky like those certain people in the fanbase. All I said was one simple complaint and you exploded. And I did gave a reasonable answer, because Pokemon is not just for kids when their is adults who grew up with it.
Like seriously did you see anything in my comment that complains about every little/big thing about the game? No
(Now to go a bit off topic)
The newer Pokemon games just don't appeal to me as they did with the games from Gen 1 - Gen 5 (Omega S/R and Lets go were appealing to me though and somewhat X and Y too).
Basically something went missing in the new games (S/M and X/Y as well) that turned me off, it wasn't just the difficultly it was also the number of Pokemon each trainer have, their was no variety, like where did all the trainers (especially NPCs) go with 4-5-6 Pokemon in their party?
Basically that is my only problem. But go ahead and assume away that I am a very picky whiny ungrateful fan, when this is all I ever complain about these games (I also hate the tutorial in game as well, to me that is just "easy" dialogue to put in the "content" that seems unnecessary. Just keep the tutorial part on signs in game gamefreak, also I would like signs that does not have tutorial parts in it too.).....
Thanks - not sure if i will need these tricks down the line, but so far so good! I might apply the "no revival, faint means gone" technique, or keep multiple teams that i switch on occassion. First pokemon game though and i am loving it! I can see why all the fuss with these games...it is pretty addictive so far. All the negativity almost made me not buy the darn game! Now i realize it's mostly hardcore-fan negativity that shouldn't really concern me - cause the game is a real gem!
Be sure to remove the option when the game asks you what pokemon the opponent will send. It helps.
For the most part I feel that the argument that the "Game is to easy" is just because we know how to properly play the game/have played competitively. Im pretty sure kids these days, which is the main market of the game, might find some areas of the game difficult for someone who doesn't know which moves to keep, etc.
But yes, GameFreak could add a challenge mode, like it did in Gen 5, and actually make it harder.
It's not like the AI isn't designed to do bad. I was playing this modded version of ultra moon which made the game harder, and trainers had pokemon with competitive movesets and mega evolutions,. and the AI knew how to use them. It made for a fun and entertaining challenge.
I'm a big fan of monotype, and one really cool thing about SwSh is that the Wild Area makes assembling full teams early on much easier, and it makes several types much more viable for monotype runs than they've ever been before.
I played Shield with an Ice Monotype team, which would be unthinkable in almost any other generation, but I was able, as soon as I got to the Wild Area (and as soon as I figured out how to manipulate the weather) to catch 6 ice types (or ice-types to be): Shellder, Swinub, Shover, a female Snorunt, Delibird, and Vanillite. Those last two didn't make the final team (I used the evolutions of the first four plus Weavile, Mr. Rime, Frosmoth, and Arctozolt--never traded over a Darumaka from Sword or found a Lapras). I doubt there will ever be a Pokémon game where I can as effectively make an Ice team.
I usually play a variety team which is much more interesting than a mono type team. Meaning i am not allowed to have more than 1,5 of each type in my team and max two pokemon that share the same type. Single type pokemon count as 1, dual type count as 0,5 each. I can have have a grass and a grass/bug, or a grass/bug and grass/poison, but never three pokemon with grass type and not two pure grass either. You could simply limit yourself to all different types but i like to switch pokemon around so this gives me some more freedom.
I often also limit my team size to be the same as other trainers, especially in the early game.
And of course i purposely don't overlevel my pokemon, i change them when they get that far.
All of this also ensure you don't play with one pokemon all the time so exp. share is not really a problem. In fact it makes it easier to take new pokemon with me when i get overpowered.
How about, I do all of these!
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