SPOILERS! Sword and Shield in-game team discussion thread

[Siggu]

There's almost everything available by that point. The only typing you'd lack in variety is Ice, as the route-only ice types are after gym 5, and in wild area you can only run in Avalugg, Vanillite and Obamasnow families.
Well, there's also quite a scarcity of dragons, I'm unsure if you can even run into any at all aside Axews and Trapinch.

The Swinub line, as well as Delibird, are also available early in the Wild Area if it's hailing. I can confirm that as the very first area was hailing when I got there first :P

I didn't find wild Bergmite though, until Route 9.

Also, there are wild Applin in Route 5, and wild Noibat near the ruins in the Wild Area (though I'm not sure if they can be caught as soon as you get there as the ghosts there are above level 20)

 

[Wishy]

Is it just me or are Great Balls awful? The window for their use seems to close shortly after they become available. I can't catch anything in the mid/high 20s without 2-3+ Great Balls failing. Maybe I'm unlucky but why is a level 26 red health paralyzed Vanillite resisting so hard?

 

[Siggu]

Is it just me or are Great Balls awful? The window for their use seems to close shortly after they become available. I can't catch anything in the mid/high 20s without 2-3+ Great Balls failing.

I actually struggled greatly at catching a Cramorant as it kept breaking out of Great Balls, and was at the same time so frail even a Nuzzle could deal more damage than I expected.

 

[MrHands]

Is it just me or are Great Balls awful? The window for their use seems to close shortly after they become available. I can't catch anything in the mid/high 20s without 2-3+ Great Balls failing. Maybe I'm unlucky but why is a level 26 red health paralyzed Vanillite resisting so hard?

Story mode is so blazing fast that I didn't even realize I had access to Great Balls before I already had Ultras lol. I notice the price of Ultra Balls is only 800 so Great Bs are even more worthless.

 

[Hada Yaba]

The Swinub line, as well as Delibird, are also available early in the Wild Area if it's hailing. I can confirm that as the very first area was hailing when I got there first :P

I didn't find wild Bergmite though, until Route 9.

Also, there are wild Applin in Route 5, and wild Noibat near the ruins in the Wild Area (though I'm not sure if they can be caught as soon as you get there as the ghosts there are above level 20)

Unfortunately, sneasel's only ice move is ice shard until it gets ice punch just before the league and swinub's stuck with ice fang so woukdn't rly count them as ice types

I'm so disappionted that trs r a thing now...its cool for competitive variety but in game, acess to them is fking unreliable. In the first four gens, it might be an unfortunate single use but AT LEAST I GOT TO USE IT ONCE . I wanted traditional tms like eatthquake n tbolt to return but nope, the best tms rn r trash shit like rock slide, acrobatics, bounce and u turn. (Elemental punches r an exceptiom but they're so late game) what this means is that everything with a poor level up movepool is fked. Examples include cursola without shadow ball, inteleon with only 1 special move and centiskorch who is stuck with flame wheel n bug bite up to lvl 50s.

Also like to mention my in game team was rillbaoom, corvi, grimmsnarl, hatterene, barraskweda and coalossal.

Rillaboom was consistent but grass typing sucks...corviknight's typing is god like and it has surprisingly many coverage moves like payback and revenge (steel wing sucks tho), hatterene was slow and had to be babied, barraskweda only got good late game after i lucked out with trs, snarl is strong but slow and frail. Coalossal was a monster tho. Doesn't have an advantage in many gyms but every route trainer seems weak to it. Also cucks the champion in my run by running through aegislash, zard and cinderace.

 

[Siggu]

I'm so disappionted that trs r a thing now...its cool for competitive variety but in game, acess to them is fking unreliable. In the first four gens, it might be an unfortunate single use but AT LEAST I GOT TO USE IT ONCE . I wanted traditional tms like eatthquake n tbolt to return but nope, the best tms rn r trash shit like rock slide, acrobatics, bounce and u turn. (Elemental punches r an exceptiom but they're so late game) what this means is that everything with a poor level up movepool is fked. Examples include cursola without shadow ball, inteleon with only 1 special move and centiskorch who is stuck with flame wheel n bug bite up to lvl 50s.

While I don't like the fact it was made to make you raid more... they are quite easily accessible during raids.

Then again, you need to find a Max Raid boss of the type you want a move of, and then pray to the RNG.

UPDATE: Just beaten the final gym. Wow, not only Raihan's specialty was incredibly misleading, but it was one of the best gyms in the entire series. It teaches you about doubles, the official tournament format! It shows weather combos, like it's common in the official tournament format! Why can't we have more gyms like this one?

It surprised me a bit as I was underleveled and my Dynamax Cramorant was OHKOed by a surprise Thunder Punch from Flygon. And his Duraludon kept spamming Max Knuckle which forced me to spam Tearful Look with Inteleon to just be able to fire one Ice Beam without fear of being KOed.

Either way... this is my team right now.

ACTIVE PARTY

Level 45 Cramorant
Level 45 Dracozolt
Level 46 Corviknight
Level 46 Inteleon
Level 46 Arctozolt
Level 46 Dracovish

BENCHED ROTATION

Level 45 Sirfetch'd
Level 45 Amped Toxtricity
Level 46 Drednaw
Level 46 Flapple
Level 46 Coalossal
Level 50 Gigantamax, fresh-from-a-4-star-raid Sandaconda

I still need to get Arctovish (I've got several of the Fossilized animals, but I only got a single Fish), Duraludon and Dreepy to get my final planned team. Appletun would be great... but I need the Shield-exclusive Apple.

I greatly encourage everyone to use the Mobile PC given it makes expanded parties astronomically more time-efficient than in past generations. It lets you use more of your favourites, and the time you spend level-catching means it's almost impossible to be overleveled (I did not miss a single trainer and I was underleveled for the last two gyms).

 

[Steel With It]

Cinderace, Corviknight, Sirfetch'd, Copperajah, Dragapult and either Centiskorch or Coalossal. Fuck type balance.

Now that I've beaten the game: This team with Centiskorch (Centi's Coil + Fire Lash is amazing and Coal's typing is unfortunately unsalvageable). Yes, that means I only used five 'Mons until after the last gym. Yes, it was worth it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My MVP was Sirfetch'd, partly because his Fighting + Grass coverage helped with the whole "I'm running two Fire-types and two Steel-types" thing and partly because MAX KNUCKLE + MAX AIRSTREAM = WIN. Don't sleep on Sir Duxalot; he might be overshadowed by Hawlucha in OU, but something tells me that won't last long.

 

[tinyranitar]

I have been waiting for 4-5 days now and still no Foggy weather for Dreepy to finish my team.
Idk if this is the appropriate place to ask but if someone can get me a Dreepy/breed me one I'd be very grateful. I have an Axew with best Attack/Speed IVs so if you want that in return I can give it too

 

[RunWithTheScizors]

I have been waiting for 4-5 days now and still no Foggy weather for Dreepy to finish my team.
Idk if this is the appropriate place to ask but if someone can get me a Dreepy/breed me one I'd be very grateful. I have an Axew with best Attack/Speed IVs so if you want that in return I can give it too

Are you looking for Dreepy in overcast or thunderstorm? I think it appears in those too. Also be sure to search the “!’s” in the grass, Dreepy does not appear in the overworld.

 

[Codraroll]

I am planning to play the game through my usual "alter ego challenge", with two teams that are swapped back and forth after each Gym. I had also planned out my two teams in advance:

Team A: Grookey, Tympole, Rolycoly, Clefairy, Duskull, and Solosis.
Team B: Lotad, Rhyhorn, Hattenna, Falinks, Shelmet, and Snom.

I've caught the former four members of Team A and used them to beat the first Gym already. But now I'm in a bit of a conundrum: You see, of the six Team B members, only Lotad is catchable before the second Gym. I caught it at level 13. At this point in the game, all opponents are level 20 and up. And need I remind you, Lotad is Lotad. Looks like my plan has to be modified somewhat if I ever want to get past Route 5...

 

[Steel With It]

I have been waiting for 4-5 days now and still no Foggy weather for Dreepy to finish my team.

Oh, if you're having trouble with the weather, you can cheese it a bit: Go to the Switch's options, turn off the "Synchronise Clock" option, and jump back or forward in time until you find what you're looking for. You can keep the game running while you do this, so it's less annoying than it sounds. =)

 

[Siggu]

As a matter of fact, is there a way to check which weather will be present each day?

 

[Spenstar]

I'm planning out my run for when I get the game (waiting until Christmas), and I'm going for a rotating team of 11 Pokemon. Problem is, there are 13 I want, and I'm having some difficulty narrowing it down:

Cinderace
Mr. Rime
Vespiquen
Toxitricity
Grimmsnarl
Grapploct
Centiscorch
Corviknight
Polteageist
Galarian Darmanitan
Hatterne
Dracovish
Arctozolt

(I'm trying to get someone to trade me a Mime Jr egg when I begin the run so I have access to the Mr. Rime line early)
I don't really know about how available each of these mons are or when in the game you get access to them. (I looked on pokearth on serebii but that only gets you so far) I don't want to frontload my team, but I don't want to backload my captures either. (looking for basically a steady stream of team additions throughout the run) Based on availability and in-game strength, any recommendations for narrowing this down? Are any of these a huge mistake?

 

[RunWithTheScizors]

I'm planning out my run for when I get the game (waiting until Christmas), and I'm going for a rotating team of 11 Pokemon. Problem is, there are 13 I want, and I'm having some difficulty narrowing it down:

Cinderace
Mr. Rime
Vespiquen
Toxitricity
Grimmsnarl
Sirfech’d
Centiscorch
Corviknight
Polteageist
Galarian Darmanitan
Hatterne
Dracovish
Arctozolt

(I'm trying to get someone to trade me a Mime Jr egg when I begin the run so I have access to the Mr. Rime line early)
I don't really know about how available each of these mons are or when in the game you get access to them. (I looked on pokearth on serebii but that only gets you so far) I don't want to frontload my team, but I don't want to backload my captures either. (looking for basically a steady stream of team additions throughout the run) Based on availability and in-game strength, any recommendations for narrowing this down? Are any of these a huge mistake?

I like these choices a lot! Since it’s ingame, I don’t really think any of these will let you down (they’re all decent anyways actually). Cinderace is really good from what I’ve seen (pyro ball is very good) and I can guarantee that it will help you a lot.

Also I like how you’re getting it for Christmas, that sounds very exciting!

 

[Hada Yaba]

I'm planning out my run for when I get the game (waiting until Christmas), and I'm going for a rotating team of 11 Pokemon. Problem is, there are 13 I want, and I'm having some difficulty narrowing it down:

Cinderace
Mr. Rime
Vespiquen
Toxitricity
Grimmsnarl
Grapploct
Centiscorch
Corviknight
Polteageist
Galarian Darmanitan
Hatterne
Dracovish
Arctozolt

(I'm trying to get someone to trade me a Mime Jr egg when I begin the run so I have access to the Mr. Rime line early)
I don't really know about how available each of these mons are or when in the game you get access to them. (I looked on pokearth on serebii but that only gets you so far) I don't want to frontload my team, but I don't want to backload my captures either. (looking for basically a steady stream of team additions throughout the run) Based on availability and in-game strength, any recommendations for narrowing this down? Are any of these a huge mistake?

I think mr.rime's late game n doesn't learn ice beam naturally, meaning yr stuck with freeze dry. Centiskorch on the other hand is stuck with flame wheel n bug bite until the 50s. The fossils if i remember correctly have a poor level up movepool missing out on at least 1 stab. Plus, they learn their signature moves after hitting lvl 60 so you're not even using them to their full potential imo.

Others r fine for in game runs; its just that the above three feels 'incomplete' to me

 

[Spenstar]

I think mr.rime's late game n doesn't learn ice beam naturally, meaning yr stuck with freeze dry. Centiskorch on the other hand is stuck with flame wheel n bug bite until the 50s. The fossils if i remember correctly have a poor level up movepool missing out on at least 1 stab. Plus, they learn their signature moves after hitting lvl 60 so you're not even using them to their full potential imo.

Others r fine for in game runs; its just that the above three feels 'incomplete' to me

I'm ok with just Freeze Dry, and I'm going to get a friend to breed a Mime Jr and send the egg to me at the start of the run so I have it from the get-go. For Centiskorch, that's kind of a yikes, but at least it has the stats to back it up, and I can't pass on that design. Same for the fossils; the type combo on Arctozolt is something I've wanted for too long to pass up on now, and with Dracovish, the payoff of Strong Jaw Fiscious Rend is well worth it.

I actually have settled on my team of 11, actually:
Cinderace
Mr. Rime
Toxitricity
Dracovish
Grimmsnarl
Grapploct
Centiscorch
Golurk
Arctozolt
Hatterne
Duraludon

Not all of those mons are going to be easy to use, but they're going to be fun, with some cool payoffs!

edit: I have just learned that sandstorms in wild areas, which is neccesary to get golett when I want him, is locked behind "midgame." I heard that's after 3 badges, is that true? Or is there a way to actually get Golett earlier than that?

 

[Giratina93]

So because I am an absolute madlad and willing to push the Exp. Broke to its limits, I decided to go with a 21 mon rotation team.

It was a mistake.

I was so hideously underleveled past the third gym I needed to grind raids for the experience candies necessary to do work, and it sucked. Being lv. 33 against the sixth gym's lv. 40 mons, plus the capturing mechanics in this game meant it was an experience I NEVER want to do again. I am sticking with 9 to 12 mons for this game, because that was pain incarnate.

The team:
Inteleon
Corviknight
Arcanine
Gardevoir
Sandaconda
Dracovish
Mamoswine
Appletun
SIrfetch'd
Goodra
Cooperajah
Hatterene
Barraskewda
Boltund
Cerntiskorch
Abomasnow
Alcremie
Drednaw
Manectric
Thievul

All inbetween levels 56-58 when I became champion. It was an experience, it was fun, but it was also pain incarnate.

 

[Worldie]

I was so hideously underleveled past the third gym I needed to grind raids for the experience candies necessary to do work, and it sucked. Being lv. 33 against the sixth gym's lv. 40 mons, plus the capturing mechanics in this game meant it was an experience I NEVER want to do again. I am sticking with 9 to 12 mons for this game, because that was pain incarnate.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone before *not* being happy of the exp share not completely breaking the exp curve to the point you have to rotate 20 mons to not overlevel :P

 

[Kurona]

Having now completed the game and postgame, some brief notes:-

- Scorbunny and Corviknight 100% carried the team for most of the game. Very satisfied with how good they are

- As always the Pokémon I wanted to use were mostly not great. Ponyta is weak, Yamask is slow and Barraskewda is a complete glass cannon

- Haxorus is still an absolute god of destruction who crushes everything beneath her heel, almost soloing the entire endgame with Dragon Dance

- Ȩ̶̛̝̰͕̹͎͍̳̤̠̇͌̚͜͜ͅt̶̝͙̠̭̯͇̯̜̥̞̼̖͂̂̽̑͜͝e̶͖̪̤̮͓͚̹̭͉̻̳̱̫͍̎̓̉͂ṟ̵̡̡̬̦̼͙̳̝̼̗̇̉͆́͊͌̎͠n̷̜̳̥̪͓̟̾̅̀͊̅̈́̉̎̂̅̀́a̵̡̘̱̠͇͎̣͑̈̆̃̊̌̿̍͂̃̈̚̚͠ţ̴̠̮̈́͠ͅe̶̤̪̠̜̓̊̈̀͐͆̇̔͘͠͠ư̵̪̙̈̄̿̒̈͠ş̸̛̺͙̟̼͐͗͛̊̈͆͂͆͐͊ is exactly what you'd expect from a legendary you catch during the game. Strong, terrifying, just about solos postgame.

- Zamazenta is easy to acquire, and fun to use


All in all, really enjoyed that. I think I might have liked it more than the entirety of the 3DS era including LGPE but vanilla SM definitely makes a strong case. Though there's a lot of areas in this game where I feel "this is good, but needed more content", and I can already feel Pokémon Ultra Gun on the horizon.

 

[Worldie]

a lot of areas in this game where I feel "this is good, but needed more content"

I can agree, but then, this is basically all Pokemon games in the last 10 years or so :\

 

[Roivax]

So I’m planing on breeding all the eeveelutions for my copy of shield and I was wondering what would be the best movesets for each eeveelution to go up against the galar region and online.

 

[Bribery]

Finished my Sword playthrough yesterday. My final team was Rillaboom / Grimmsnarl / Sirfetch'd / Toxtricity / Centiskorch / Drednaw. I benched Dubwool, Boltund, and Corviknight early on since they felt like they were deadweight most of the time.

I finished in approximately 39 hours. I spent a ton of time in the Wild Area in between each gym badge. I think they did a good job with EXP Share this game - I was actually underleveled when facing Leon!

I found the story to be quite bland tbh. I felt that the characters in this game lacked personality and charm compared to Sun/Moon, though I liked Hop as a rival. However, I still really enjoyed my playthrough largely because of the Wild Area. I'm glad they let us venture into the Wild Area quite early on. Raids are incredibly fun!

 

[Worldie]

I finished in approximately 39 hours. I spent a ton of time in the Wild Area in between each gym badge. I think they did a good job with EXP Share this game - I was actually underleveled when facing Leon!

Well.... honestly that's not a lot about the "exp share balance" (although that's definitely not as awful as it was in gen 6 and SM), but more about the fact that

Hide

Both Leon's team and the postgame miniquest for Zacian/Zamazenta are 5-7 levels higher than anything you faced until Eternatus

 

[Zbarnes]

Just finished my play through of Pokémon shield and want to build a team of some of my favorite Pokémon to go through battle tower/any post game/online battles. I’ve never been much into competitive but have the I know ev/iv/nature’s etc but not actual team building

hazards: tyranitar, copperajah, toxapex, mamoswine

set up sweepers/breakers: charizard,gyrados, flygon, dragapult, ludicolo, rapidash, gallade, gardevoir, togekiss, grimmsnarl

others: umbreon, inteleon, lucario, gengar, Salazle

I’ll take any advice I can get, I just wanted some ideas for putting a team together

thanks in advance

 

[Codraroll]

Just finished my play through of Pokémon shield and want to build a team of some of my favorite Pokémon to go through battle tower/any post game/online battles. I’ve never been much into competitive but have the I know ev/iv/nature’s etc but not actual team building

hazards: tyranitar, copperajah, toxapex, mamoswine

set up sweepers/breakers: charizard,gyrados, flygon, dragapult, ludicolo, rapidash, gallade, gardevoir, togekiss, grimmsnarl

others: umbreon, inteleon, lucario, gengar, Salazle

I’ll take any advice I can get, I just wanted some ideas for putting a team together

thanks in advance

Post moved to the dedicated in-game team thread.

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