You Can Play Pokémon Sword And Shield's DLC Even If You Haven't Beat The Main Game

@RupeeClock To boot up the hype machine.

Yeah I haven't beaten the main game yet, got kinda bored with it, I've played 2 hours of shield and my copy of sword is still sealed in plastic and haven't even opened it yet in months

@RupeeClock Why does it matter?

@geni53yr7 same here.. not how i envisioned it to be the first time it was revealed.

Looking forward to it! Hopefully my shiny charm will give me some good luck and ill actually find a couple shinies in the wild when i start playing again.

@Northwind Actually, the level cap in the Wild Area for the Pokemon there is 60-65. Meaning that you won't face anything higher, in the beginning the Pokemon will be lower. As you progress the levels of those Pokemon will become higher until after you collect the 8th Badge and that's when you hit the cap.

That's what DLC is about right? Paying for it so you have the shortcut? Like buying characters and they are unlocked without doing much self. I prefer even if you add as DLC. Give more reason to a gamer to finish the game and start again. That was gaming about. They really messed it up with the DLC. Now if you pay you can get it right away. Well it's what it is

@graysoncharles
"All payers are welcome"
Fixed it more.
MIC DROP!

Looks neat, hope magnamite is there

@AlexSora89 missing the who payed part, you can't get in unless you pay... so no not everybody is welcome technally.

@Torakaka Close, but the levels don't actually scale as you level up in the original wild area. They all stay the same until you beat the game, then they jump up to 60.

@Musharna read his comment again.

Game based on the UK, crown tundra is to be released in Fall, not autumn, fail lol

@Northwind Like the regular wild area, which starts of at level 10, but once you've beaten the game, every Pokemon is level 60.

So for most people everything will be locked at level 60. That's what I expect. I don't expect some fancy level scaling based on your party, but a simple system like the Wild Area, based on your progress in the main game.

Interesting. I was so curious about this. I wonder if the Isle of Armor will be similar to the battle frontier? Where you battle but don't gain experience. Otherwise what would happen on level up? Would the opponent's pokemon level up too? Seems unnecessary. Maybe you can level up in the wild areas but all trainers are capped at whatever your highest level pokemon is and you don't gain experience from trainer battles.

@Brydontk this actually make me wonder if the scaling will be based on badges or something like an average party level

@Dremp considering that in the direct lat year it sounded like Isle of Armor would have additional content for PVP in the form of new battle rules options, i would not be surprised.

@Ludovsky The IGN article said that the trainer they watched in the hands-off demo had a team that was based off of the highest level in the player's party. The devs confirmed the scaling matches the trainer, even all the way up to level 100, but because they could only watch 30 min, the extent isn't known. So it's unknown if it's based off of an average or ONLY the highest level in the party, or if the first trainer battle sets the level for the DLC. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it. If it's successful, it could be implemented in the next mainline games. I'm crossing my fingers for actual scaling. I'm planning on evolving the Grassy Surge Grookey I got and bringing it to the DLC so I can catch a new team for the story.

@Northwind then again with how easy it is to level up in these games, you might as well just give the hypothetical level 1 gourgeist a few exp candies and call it a day.

@Northwind of course there’s also the option of not handicapping your own team by removing either the weakest or strongest Pokémon.

@Northwind this is not endgame though. As far as I know, these expansions are meant to be played as their own thing.

I doubt you'll need a cohesive 100-hour team for them. So it's better not to stress about that.

And those who want to, can continue training their team until they're all the same level. As I said, training a Pokemon to level 100 can't take longer than one hour in these games.

Typo in the headline - it should be 'even if you haven't beaten the main game'.

@AlexSora89 @graysoncharles
I believe The Pokemon Company said that you don't need to buy the DLC to order to get the added Pokemon, and will be able to trade for them without buying it. 🤔

@Northwind ''for people who want to use endgame teams like mine that they’ve spent a hundred or more hours preparing''

Then yer doing something wrong.

@Northwind Well, if you recall the announcement for these. DLC 1 is focused on growth and DLC 2 is focused on exploration. Educated guess: You could probably use Isle of Armor to raise up pokemon you didn't use in your main story. Which would explain level scaling, the EXP Charm (Which has been revealed to be an exp booster) and giving you a brand new pokemon you're expected to use in the plot. It seems as though theyre intentionally discouraging the use of the endgame teams.

DLC 2, what with all the exploring and legendary catching, is probably the DLC meant to bring your postgame team... Though I'll be honest, I personally don't really see much of a point in using level 100s in plot-driven gameplay anyway.

So I bought it(sword) played it upto the second gym, music in the wilds (I'll call it) is great, but the second gym(route 5) is probably I worst I heard so far. It questions to what where they thinking? It's also kinda funny how easy it is cause I got a ninjask in the wilds with false swipe so now I can catch anything.. heck even used it to beat the first two gyms. It's a little too simplistic, however I do like the atmosphere of the game. Once I get scyther then I'll just use him as my main for the rest of the game.

@ACNHislit This is correct.

If you don't buy the DLC, your options include:

• Trading (either through the game itself or through the mobile version of Home, which is free and bypasses needing NSO).
• Pokémon Home (which yes, would require paying a minimum of $3 USD if you have more than 30 old Pokémon stored on it that you want to carry over, but it is still cheap).
• Participating in Max Raid Battles, if you want to catch the Pokémon yourself. So even though you can't catch the new/old Pokémon natively, the raids are open to everyone online. So if you see someone doing a Luxray, Golduck or Slowbro Raid, you can get Pokémon that way as well.

Obviously this means you miss out on the new areas, features, customization options and the ability to catch most of these yourself, but you can obtain the Pokémon without having to pay the $30 for the expansion pass.

I’m used to games where the DLC is purposefully hidden from view, like Dark Souls/Bloodborne, but this is nice that players can just kinda get in there without having to dig lol

Just want them to include magearna, victini and diancie into these games, it's strange that they gave me a pokemon colour shiny magearna but I can't even use it in the game

But what about the story? Wouldn't it be awkward to use a legendary early game? I prefer to think about this more as a post-game expansion.

Well you better get to play something if you paid for it.

Wake me when us who won't be buying the DLC still get to play the DLC.