SwSh How is the Wild Area?

[TRNatalie]

For those of you who have the game, how has the Wild Area been for you so far? I’ve been hearing lots of different things varying from it being pretty barren without online interaction to the Pokémon being really interactive to the point where you can get ambushed by a Liepard if you’re not careful enough. So what’s your opinion on it? What experiences have you had out there? What Pokémon have you seen so far?

 

[Poneto]

I'm still very early in the game, so I expect my experience to change as my Pokes level, but currently it's not been amazing.

Like, yeah, it's a beautiful area, and there are Pokemon everywhere, but there doesn't seem to be many new Pokemon to catch. I spent like 30 mins exploring the Wild Area yesterday, and of the dozens of Pokemon I found, only 2 were new. And I couldn't even catch them, cause they were too high level (Corviknight + Arrowkuda evo). Checked quite a few Pokemon dens but no GMAX pkmn either. Sad times.

 

[PinkIceFox]

The wild area is full of random items you can pick up like apples (for curry), mushrooms of various sizes (for selling), and things like that. Plus the weather system is kinda interesting. It was snowing when I got there so I got a bunch of ice type pokemon.

Also I found one of those dynamax things with a swirl around the beam of light and got me one of those apple dragons. Kinda sucks all the ghosts were too high level for me to probably catch but I can come back later. You get the ability to use the game's equivalent of the Fly HM real early so its not like you have to wait to make the full lap back to the wild area after beating the gyms.

 

[Phosphene]

I have several issues with the Wild Area and I honestly hope they either ditch the concept and stick with the traditional region design, or go all the way in terms of open world design instead of trying to combine both because, in my opinion, GameFreak fell flat on their face--hard--when designing the Galar region. In my opinion, GameFreak failed to make the Wild Area a location with lasting explorability or enjoyment (without Internet access, at least) and the rest of the region doesn't make up for it, being as disappointingly empty. I remember seeing a link to a reddit post that showed that the Wild Area was only a fraction of the size of BoTW's map. I wasn't bothered by that because I figured the rest of the region would be pretty fleshed out, and the Wild Area wouldn't be empty. However, the routes are short hallways and the towns are mostly window dressing while the Wild Area is basically a field with some trees, ponds, and rocks. I think, by attempting to have both routes/non-town environments and an open area segment, the devs could not properly flesh out either part and so we ended up with a rather empty region.

 

[BlueWaves]

Yes I haves lot of complaints about the Wild Area, particularly the rarity of some Pokémon, specifically the those who can only be found in the Wild area.

Look at Sligoo/Goomy. They can only be found in the Lake of Outrage during the Thunderstorm, and only have a 2% encounter rate. Same applies to Togepi, Drampa, Solosis, and Corsola. Not to mention the weather is random save for the first day of each month, so good luck trying to wait fr one until the weather appears. I ended up spending my wishing pieces until I got a Goodra raid.

 

[P_S_B]

My biggest complaint about the Wild Area at the moment is the frequency of the Wild Area News Pokémon. At least two of either Centiskorch, Snorlax or Butterfree, sometimes Corviknight too always seem to spawn every raid set, sometimes in multiples. It's most annoying when they're 5 star because 5 stars takes such a lot of time and effort to dispatch only to then have a minuscule chance of getting in the ball. If I have to go to that much effort to kill it I do not wish to get nothing out of it. Nowadays I just skip the 5 star ones and let them despawn through doing other people's raids if they're not purple or something I otherwise want. Who ever thought biking all the way to the farthest raid den from any given flypoint only for it to be yet another 5 star G-Snorlax (with its multiple sets of 4 to 5 shields and 2 AOE moves) could be this disheartening?

 

[BigBadButterfree]

This isn't so much a complaint about the wild area, probably more about the Pokedex, but it is inconsistent with the Pokemon it says are available at any given time. For example: I've seen Vaporeon walking around that lake of outrage area before. It was too high-leveled to catch. Well, when I check the Pokedex, it says that's the only place it can be found, in the rain. Makes sense.

Next time I'm there, it's sunny and there's a Leafeon. So I catch it, right? Well, when I check Vaporeon's page, it now actually says that it is unavailable in the wild. The Pokedex does this for any Pokemon that is found in a place where the weather doesn't currently match. It's infuriating, like why can't it just tell me that it's only available there during that weather? I hate that I have to wait for that weather to appear in that specific place for the dex to even say I can catch something at all.

 

[Aulos]

I like the idea of a larger open area than we've ever seen in Pokemon with a controllable camera and Pokemon in the overworld, and I did enjoy it.

However, in the end, it did get repetitious fairly quickly. While it is a big open area by Pokemon's standards, in reality, it's only really on par with Hyrule Field from OOT or maybe more Twilight Princess. The differing weather conditions feel completely unnatural and only break immersion. While one might say those are neat in that they provide different Pokemon each day, when you actually play the game, you don't see too many different Pokemon in reality. The same Pokemon will appear in most areas with the same weather condition, while many Pokemon appear regardless of the weather and those same Pokemon appear in many different areas, too. Each day to walk around to see the different weather conditions you just see the very same Pokemon over and over and over again.

I feel like that would happen no matter what after a while, but it is really hard to ignore in Sword/Shield.

 

[Jolty94]

It was great during my playthrough, to go back to it and grind or do some raids.
But after the post game story, I only really go back to do raids or get some items and it often feels like a chore sometimes especially given the turbo on the Rotom Bike comes and goes no matter how much you upgrade it.

As a competitive player, I would have liked if after the main game that each raid would maybe grant you 1 or 2 BP also, because I dislike the way the Battle Tower works in this game and I find myself battling more than usual just to get a few BP.

Also, little tip for anyone that doesn't know yet:
If you get the G-Max Kantonian Meowth from Mystery Gift, level it too 100 with candies ect, give it the Amulet Coin and have it use G-Max Gold Rush 3 times in a battle and you will pick up 99,999 after it.
You can do this to get between 300,000-350,000 after the 3 battles in the League Tournament. It's a good way to earn money fast.

 

[Sakuraa]

Not a fan, which isn't surprising to me. Since the Wild Area was fist announced, I figured it would be the least interesting aspect of the game for me, and lo and behold, it was. There are some benefits, like the reward EXP. Candies and TRs from Max Raid Battles. And the Digging Duo to an extent (why do they require 500 damn watts to do a single round of digging ). It really jut doesn't have much appeal unless you're a Pokedex completion player, which I've never been.

My main issue is that there's no way to just buy watts. They're annoying to get. Unless you mass replay that annoying af Rotom Rally game, the only other option you have is to literally just wait for the days to pass and gather them up from as many dens as you can. That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that so many of the things you can buy with Watts are expensive af. And the ironic thing is that I'm now overly rich in watts, since after getting the fossil I needed for my team and upgrading my bike, I really don't use them for anything anymore.

 

[proserpina]

At first the Wild Area was quite boring for me, as it did nothing but rain everywhere for the first few days playing and I couldn't actually catch many of the Pokémon I encountered until I got more badges. Then things picked up and I really enjoyed camping, collecting items, and catching a bigger variety of Pokémon. Ultimately that didn't last long, either, though, and I've now caught everything I have been able to find over many hours across the past few weeks, with no optimism left for the remaining rarer finds.
In my exerience now, the weather is same-y and I could tell you by heart what you will find in different sections, because it feels as though it's only ever the same 2-3 species in each zone and the same 2-3 weather conditions across the entire area. I find it ridiculous that an entire weather condition is apparently not available until you beat the Champion, and raids are pretty much always Pokémon I already caught elsewhere, even before I got that far into the story.

Maybe I've had a bad run of it, but the Wild Area has become largely a chore for me now. My one particular success story was finally finding a Togepi after hours searching, and a female one at that. I mostly only visit to collect berries and items now, and again, I've actually only completed the 8 gyms storyline wise, so I would have hoped for it to have a bit more mileage left yet at this stage.

 

[P_S_B]

I've noticed that the raids since the Snorlax event started seem to be far more limited in scope than they used to be. Nowadays I'm seeing the same old Roselia, Claydol, Xatu, Greedent etc. spawn all the time instead of the exotic stuff I used to get. Not only that but these days a purple beam often doesn't spawn at all in the first raid set of the day and I can't get one until I've cleaned out the 3 or 4 event dens that constantly spawn at midnight.

 

[GhostLucario]

It is an interesting concept for Pokemon to go open-ish world but in reality it's just a big field. There's nothig interesting really and I have a lot of problems with it.
- The weather system and the encounters. While a cool idea at first, it gets tedious and boring fast. Regardless of the area, you only see the same 2-3 mons in a certain weather (Wingull in rain; Vulpix/Growlithe in sun; Baltoy in sand; Vanillite, Snorunt and Snover in hail; etc etc). Then there's also the same 2-3 mons that appear in the areas regardless of the weather. Also having to wait for a specific weather for a specific mon to show up is a chore. I hated this aspect with Alola's SOS battles (for Goomy and Castform, and others I believe) and this just turned it up to eleven. I hate it.

- Event raid battles. I know it makes it easy for you to find those gigantamax pokemon but for god's sake, there's Butterfree, Corviknight, Snorlax and Centiskorch everywhere! to add to the insult, they're all 5 star battles, which are nearly impossible to win solo (because the AI allies are trash) and even if you connect to the internet, some people will mess with you by making you lose or leaving after you connect. And even then there's only a tiny chance to catch those. Like, it's too much effort for a very small reward.

-It's pretty much empty and has nothing to do other than farm watts, berries and buy TRs. That's it. No battles, no sidequests, the bike is trash....ugh

Honestly it's one of the worst things about the games and makes me think how rushed the game had to be. The graphics are awful and the game lags like crazy if you connect to the internet. Pass

 

[Phosphene]

As much as I rant about the Wild Area like the bitter (not) old woman I am, I have to give credit where credit’s due: the Wild Area is new and innovative. I appreciate GameFreak branching outside of their comfort zone despite the end result.

 

[Deleted member 116266]

Wild area is a pretty interesting feature, too bad it's too way easy to fully explore.

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

I loved running around in the Wild Area. Don't care about these trees. Toy Story was not affected by 90s CGI.