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SwSh How difficult have you found Sword & Shield thus far?

I think the gym leaders are definitely stronger than the trial captains and island kahunas.

That's one part of the game where I'm meeting more resistance. Allister was kind of an awkward victory.
Without spoiling, Kabu most certainly threw me for a loop. As I had no Water, Rock, or Ground types, we nearly lost the match 3v3; on the other hand, I'm super impressed with how my Arcanine carried us during the battle. It's certainly my most favorite yet.
 
My personal rule is no healing items during battle and no intentional grinding. I found the game to be on the easy side but not so much that it wasn't engaging. There was a fair difficulty curve but I feel the game only ever got challenging for me right at the end. The first battle I lost was against the champion. It took me four tries to beat him and it was a really exciting battle. I just wish I could have seen a challenge like that from say the seventh gym onward. Still it was fun the whole way through, not like the pandering snooze-fest that was XY.

It's really baffling that Gamefreak won't just put in difficulty options. They could hide it in the settings behind two "are you sure?" prompts, I just don't understand their mindset. The game could be so much more fun with a bit of difficulty customization. From making opposing Pokemon hit harder and have more HP to forcing you into using the same amount of Pokemon as your opponent, there's just so much potential there.
 
There are times where I get caught off guard against Gym stuff so I'd say I'm not having too easy time!

Before release people said there was too much free healing but after getting to the first gym's town I haven't really seen much free healing at all.
 
I think I'm probably the only person on the planet that doesn't go out of the way for a Pokemon's nature..

In retrospect, I think the gyms in Kalos gave me more of a challenge than what I've experienced so far in Pokemon Sword.
Nah, I generally go with whatever nature I catch too, unless it really actively hinders a 'mons performance
 
I catch what mons I like with no regard for stats or whatever. Though there was this one time where there was a Galar Zigzagoon with glowly lines above it in the overworld andnI caught that and released my other Zigzagoon.
 
Nah, I generally go with whatever nature I catch too, unless it really actively hinders a 'mons performance

I'm pretty much the same way. I take what I can get, I don't actively go out of my way to get the absolute "best" nature, unless it directly hampers the Mon's strengths (ie: Modest nature on physical attacker like Hitmonlee). It's one reason why I like neutral natures, as it makes it easier to mold the Mon to your tastes without any major drawbacks.
 
I found it moderately difficult. I think the one gym leader that gave me the most trouble was Opal, thanks to her damn quizzes.

But the one thing I find hard is the catch rates on the G-max pokemon. I fought butterfree five times and I STILL haven’t caught him.
 
Without spoiling, Kabu most certainly threw me for a loop. As I had no Water, Rock, or Ground types, we nearly lost the match 3v3; on the other hand, I'm super impressed with how my Arcanine carried us during the battle. It's certainly my most favorite yet.

My Centiskorch has been effective against quite a lot of the Pokemon I've come up against. He's really become the powerhouse of my team. (although now that I have Inteleon, his Snipe Shot attack packs a punch)

Opal wasn't too hard although I did get lucky with the questions she asked. (I think I got 3 out of 4 right)
 
Except for a few encounters with very strong wild Pokemon, I've found the games to be really easy even with less than six Pokemon and a no Dyanamx clause because the levels of my team members are 5-10 levels higher than my opponents. However, this is probably a result of my instinctual urge to grind as much as possible. If a Pokemon evolves within roughly 5-10 levels, in most cases I will level it up until it evolves.
 
I've been pleasantly surprised by the last few Gym Leaders not named Gordie (though his puzzle made up for it). They're not Whitney-tier or anything, but for me, the battles have progressed pretty evenly with some nice back-and-forth, especially against Raihan, who I really adore for finally taking on board the suggestion of having Gym Leaders who focus less on types and more on strategies. Of course, the atmosphere of the stadium and the quick cuts of dialogue from them add a lot.
 
Without spoiling his team, Leon is pretty challenging if you don't have a good counterteam against his.
Depending on the playstyle in a whole, the game might be pretty challenging if you don't have proper counters against the Gym leaders, Bede and Marnie. Especially Raihan and Opal were hard, considering i didn't have a proper counter against them yet (I didn't have Corviknight yet).
 
How would you compare it with gen 6 and 7? What would you change? What pokes in gyms? Items? Second and Hidden abilities? Items? In built Strategies?switching outs and moves?
 
(I didn't have Corviknight yet).
My new favorite regional bird; I love this thing, so much.

Anyway, I just completed Opal's Gym Battle. Without spoiling anything, it really threw me for a loop and may be one of the most unconventional Gym Battles to date; depending on how you go about it, it can be challenging...or not. She truly embodied the capricious side of Fairies that Valerie didn't even touch. Definitely one of my favorite Gym Battles in the series!
Sucks her Badge is also called the Fairy Badge, though.
 
My new favorite regional bird; I love this thing, so much.

Anyway, I just completed Opal's Gym Battle. Without spoiling anything, it really threw me for a loop and may be one of the most unconventional Gym Battles to date; depending on how you go about it, it can be challenging...or not. She truly embodied the capricious side of Fairies that Valerie didn't even touch. Definitely one of my favorite Gym Battles in the series!
Sucks her Badge is also called the Fairy Badge, though.

Omg, I LOVE Opal's Gym battle. Given that you're not obscenely over-leveled, you can basically decide how difficult you want to make it for yourself. It's so cool!

Really makes me wish Game Freak would implement fun twists like that in future generations' Gym Battles. Alas, I don't expect it, but if regional variants can return, why not Gym Battle gimmicks? A man can dream, right?
 
Leon put me on my back foot. I really wasn't expecting a level jump of 6 relative to the other Cup participants. I still managed to beat him, but only by using two Max Revives, which is a bit sad for me because until then, I had gone through the whole game without using any Revives in battle.
 
But the one thing I find hard is the catch rates on the G-max pokemon. I fought butterfree five times and I STILL haven’t caught him.

What ball type are you using? I've caught 3 easily with net balls. I feel like the Watt traders in the Wild Area sell the specialist balls for a good price, so I'm super stocked up on different ball types.
 
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