RedShell

Yeah, I heard about this. Yet to try it though. I already had quite a lot of dosh saved up just from picking up and selling random stuff from the wild area it seems.

Cheers for the tips @Glen-i, I’m familiar with the IV/EV malarkey though, from when I kinda got into it back in the GBA days, and it seems like they’ve not changed much, but made some nice improvements (like the removing the vitamins limit) to make it a bit more straightforward, which is nice. Yesterday I managed to breed an Axew with the right nature/perfect attack stat and get it EV trained (or rather, drugged up ) and levelled up to 100 in record time! I actually let this one evolve too as the plan was to make a False Swipe machine to help with catching the remaining Pokémon. It’s been doing a great job so far, although ghost Pokémon will still be a bit problematic. You probably won’t be aware of this as you weren’t on N-E back then, but basically I have this weird thing where every single Pokémon I catch has to be in a standard Poké Ball, including legendary Pokémon. It’s become a tradition. Yep. The only limit now is money.

Funny thing is, it turns out my Grookey actually has pretty bad stats. Yeah, I just unlocked the stat checking function and Grookey is just OK overall with Decent for both Speed and Sp. Atk, and No good for Attack. However, that Pikachu you very kindly sent my way has amazing stats, Best for everything! Are all of the Let’s Go save data Pokémon blessed with such perfect stats, or was I just super lucky? Or perhaps this is just proof (if proof were needed) that Pikachu is indeed the best Pokémon ever. Anyway, looks like I’ll be resetting her EVs at some point then and doing some proper training. Am I correct in thinking it has to be done gradually with certain berries, or is there some new/more efficient way in this version?

Credits rolled for me last night. The final hour or so was a bit weird/repetitive, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this game, it’s probably one of my favourite Pokémon games actually! Pretty funny when you consider how much backlash it received. I can understand some people being upset over certain Pokémon not making the cut, or complaints about aspects of the online features (ok, and perhaps the story too ) but other than that I think Sword/Shield is a really good game. The absolute star of the show for me though is its soundtrack, I was super impressed with so many of the tracks. The Max Raid Battle theme in particular is just insane! Get that playing through some good speakers/headphones and wow! It’s so Pokémon, yet so ludicrously epic. Spine-tingling stuff: And then there’s nice chilled-out stuff like this: I spent way too much time in the train stations because of that. The crazy Latin section in one of the final battle themes was just the icing on the delicious soundtrack cake. I think the fact the game was based on the UK made it extra enjoyable too, some very entertaining references to be found throughout. I assume James Turner probably had quite a bit of input when it came to some of this stuff. Anyway, I’m looking forward to checking out the post-game content, perhaps even trying to put together a “decent” team for some online battles, although I usually struggle with the increased tactical element of competitive Pokémon, not helped by my reluctance to use evolved Pokémon. Speaking of which, this happened during a raid battle last night and gave me a good chuckle: Spoiler for Grookey’s final form: Cool. I shall try to join you for some of those, love doing max raid battles.

A cross between BotW and Pokémon? That’d be pretty good actually.

Did those games not make use of the friends list either? That’s really the main thing I dislike about the online with Sword and Shield. I mean sure, by all means have the code stuff in order for random players to connect with each other, but forcing the same thing on those that are already friends at system level is simply unforgivable. I would just love to know what the reasoning was behind that truly bizarre decision.

Yeah, the online setup in this game truly is atrocious. It’s just been so poorly thought out. Worst of all though is how it completely ignores the Switch’s friends list! Why the hell should anyone registered as friends on the Switch itself need to then use a separate code in order to connect online? It’s actually unbelievable how stupid that is. I had a good laugh yesterday reading the trading thread, when you and Blade were trying to trade and he instead got connected to “Lauren”. It’s as if there was a contest within Game Freak to design the worst online system possible. Anyway, online stuff aside I’m still really enjoying the game. Not played a Pokémon game for a long time though, so I imagine that has helped quite a bit. I’d forgotten just how addictive it could be too.

Awesome, cheers @Glen-i! Enjoy your candy.

Cool, any kind of items that you’d like?

@Glen-i, can I get in on this starter egg trading thing too? I’d actually like eggs of all 3 if that’s cool, as I don’t want to evolve my own Grookey.

Is there anyway to stop this game from automatically using local wireless every 2 seconds? Whenever I return to the Switch home screen while this game is running I notice that I’m disconnected from the internet. It’s really annoying.

I really cannot even begin to imagine how, but I’ll take your word for it as I never played either of those. I suppose at the very least (if I had to find a positive to something about the online in this game) it’s good that friends have that little square face symbol next to their names, so it’s easy to differentiate from randoms. But I’m still amazed that they went with this bizarre code system for everything.

Wow... What were they thinking!? Anyway, that seems to have worked. Man this online setup is weird.

I’m really not getting the online setup on this game. It seems pointlessly convoluted. Would’ve much preferred a bog-standard friends list. The game itself is great though, been having a lot of fun exploring and discovering new Pokémon.

Nope, I’ve definitely got that. Once you set a code, does it apply to all of the different online interactions and remain active constantly, or do you need to set one for each online aspect each time? Seriously hope not.

Cool. Thanks @Glen-i. I clicked on yes to swap cards too, but it didn’t work for some reason.

Ah, ok. Code is 2402.

Yeah, I just jumped online. Confused as hell though, what’s all this code malarkey?

Yeah, won’t be until this evening. Don’t worry about the name, I’ve actually turned off the nickname feature in my copy of Shield as I’d always spend way too long trying to come up with names in previous Pokémon games, so I’ve decided not to mess with that at all this time.

Thanks. I’ve not unlocked the ability to trade yet, but will let you know when I do.

Yeah, that was something special. Thanks for the games everyone! Oh, and thanks for switching in those Pokéball only rules @Glen-i.

That Jigglypuff Final Smash finish!

Made my choice a long time ago and it hasn’t changed, Grookey!