Official Generation I-VIII Travelog Thread

[IncineROAR]

I just completed Chirchester Gym. I didn't even bother with dynamax for the gym leader's Coalossal. I just kept a supply of hyper potions and kept hitting the opponent with Rock Tomb. My guess is that the game would have trolled me and made any water type attacks on Coallossol subject to the steam engine ability. My Drednaw has been the superhero for the majority of my gym battles.

Current team:

Inteleon, lv 43
Corviknight, lv 45
Drednaw, lv 42
Morgrem, lv 37
Centiskorch, lv 42

I have been rotating out Indeedee, Polteageist, and Boltund for the sixth slot. I know that Inteleon, Corviknight, and Drednaw will remain on my team.

The game has also been rather uneventful so far. Hop is really annoying too.

 

[Dizzard]

I just realized I never finished off my travel log...

So I finished the game. Piers and Raihan were really easy for me....I'm not sure if it's because the camping really started kicking in with the Pokemon bond bonuses in battle but I did notice this was the point at which things started becoming easier and I started one shotting Pokemon a lot.

The champion cup wasn't that difficult either overall but it was still enjoyable.

So right now my team is:

Raven (Inteleon) lv 70
Kimura (Grapploct) lv 69
Cuppa Jo (Polteageist) lv 71
Mollie (Appletun) lv 75
Senzei (Centiskorch) lv 71
Luci (Grimmsnarl) lv 70

Story wise...

Spoiler

I think I spoke too soon saying that Team Yell were my least favourite evil team, because.....I forget what they're called....Macro Cosmos or whatever have to be the most sudden and random evil team in any Pokemon game ever. If Team Yell are like a discount Team Skull, Macro Cosmos are like a discount Aether Foundation.

I think they were mentioned by Sonia (maybe) earlier in the game on route 3 I think....but I had completely forgotten about them so when they appeared at the end it was like I was hearing about them for the first time.

Also that part with Oleana hiding the key was super weird....it was like we all just suddenly decided that Rose was a bad guy for no real reason. (I mean I guess when that dynamax Pokemon appeared earlier it felt like Rose might be up to something but it still felt like a reach) What's wrong with Rose and Leon having a private conversation?

It all happened so suddenly and I think it's more annoying because for the whole story they kept steering you away from all the action with Leon doing everything....then at the very last minute they threw everything haphazardly at you and hoped it would make sense. I think this was the biggest issue because I think if we had been more involved in the action, I think the story would have at least felt on par with previous generations. As it stands story wise generation 8 feels very much like nothing at all happens for 99% of the story and it all gets thrown at you during the last 1%.

It really did feel like they just didn't care about the story or about having it make any sense at all.

On another more positive note, I think Piers (and Opal) are among my favourite gym leaders now. Although I think it's really weird that Piers seems to be considered an "evil" team leader....since he never did anything bad the whole story and didn't even know what the people under him were doing. Still! The positives are that Piers is cool. (and his battle theme is awesome!)

Ok rant over pretty much.

 

[Sakuraa]

Spoiler: Long

All hell broke loose today. Hop and I went through slumbering Weld where we saw both Zamazenta and Zacian, but they dipped. We did gran and old sword and shield tho.

We headed to Hammerlocke where Oleana begged for my help, saying Eternatus is out here about to kill us. Even though I don't trust her snake ass, I went to save the day anyway. I saw Rose who said he needs Leon to control Eternatus...for no explainable reason. Also, apparently Galar needs endless energy for endless prosperity and that's why he's doing this........but what about the darkest day and the 1000 year away disaster. Was that all a lie and Rose was really just after energy too keep his companies successful? Was the disaster literally just not having prosperous companies? Ugh, typical businessman, only worrying about money.

Anyway, we battled. Joy (Dracozolt) is in desperate need to experience so I let her handle most of this fight. She beat Escaviler, but I switched for Irene (Cinderace) to beat Ferrotorn. Joy took out Klinglang and Perrserker. Lastly, I sent out Irene for Copperjah who she destroyed in one hit.

So Rose doesn't remember how exciting battles are, even though he's literally the Chairman over the entire league and has probably watched battles all day everyday for the past several years. Yep, totally believable. Also, what energy issue is this man talking about? Where did this come from? What happened to the 1000 year away tragedy? Was that legit an entire lie?

Anyway we caught up to Leon and the beast skeletal monster that I guess is Eternatus. Not really what I expected that thing to look like, but okay. Also, is he surprised that he couldn't catch Eternatus in that basic Poke Ball. C'mon man, at least us an Ultra Ball.

The beast attacked and I had no idea what type it was. I guessed Dragon. It took out Seulgi (Appletun) with a move called Dynamax Beam which was super effective so I was kind certain it was dragon. I sent out Yeri (R-Rapidash) since I figured a fairy would do well against a dragon, but it one shot her with a crit Cross Poison. I sent out Red Velvet (Alcremie) next and for some reason that stupid beast tried to use Dragon Pulse on her twice. Meanwhile I was hitting it with Tri Attacks, trying to give it some status condition. I was gonna throw a Poke Ball, but was told I couldn't, even though I thought our goal was to catch it. All of a sudden it switched to Cross Poison which nearly took her out. Then it used Dragon Pulse again and a third Tri Attack burned it. I healed RV and the weakened Cross Poison didn't do much and burn damage KO'd the beast.

Then the thing got HUGE. I guess it Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed or something. I was really nervous, but Hop and I decided to battle it together. But then we couldn't use moves. Well crap, but at least he couldn't hit us either. But then Hop remembered our Shield and Sword and then Zamazenta and Zacian bust up in the battle. It was a whole Max Raid Battle. Seulgi was out since she was still first in the party. Gonna be real, Zacian did most of the work for a while with his Ballistic Blade (I think that's the name). Then he started just using Howl and sadly Zamazenta got taken out by Max Flares. Eventually, we were able to beat the beast.

Since I'm not weird like Leon, I caught Eternatus in a Premier Ball. One I'd had in my bag since the beginning of the game. I thought it would be special to keep him in that ball. Three days later it was time to battle the unbeatable Champion Leon. I was so happy to see fans cheering for me, not only outside the stadium but inside right as I headed out to battle Leon. So now it was time for the final match. And...I lost. I see why this dude is unbeatable. Level 60+ Pokemon, dude? Yeah, I need to go grind. So I did.

I headed to the Wild Area to battle as many Dynamax Pokemon as I could find and snag candies. And in the process I found a Gigantamax Corvinight!!!!! and caught it!!! I was soo freaking excited. It must have been because of that special event thingy the were doing, but I actually found one, I'm so happy. Gonna try to beat Leon tomorrow

 

[Phosphene]

I am now a little over halfway done with my Pokedex. I have 202 species registered.

 

[NotAPassenger]

The gym battle with Raihan was fantastic. Brilliant concept for a match.

Loving exploring the wild area now we have access to capture everything. I wish Wishing Stars were more readily available though...

 

[IncineROAR]

I took down Raihan last night. I previously taught the move Ice Fang to my Drednaw (who has the ability Strong Jaw), and Rain Dance to my Inteleon. 3/4 of Raihan's Pokemon went down with no problem. I didn't anticipate Duraludon being as difficult as he was, but Rain Dance + Inteleon's torrent gave my Inteleon enough extra oomph to finish that skyscraper looking dragon off.

Current Team:

Drednaw
Corviknight
Inteleon
Grimmsnarl
Centiskorch

and the sixth slot is occupied my Dreepy, who one of these days will evolve and be of some use. I haven't quite decided if I am keeping Grimmsnarl on my team or not (same for Dreepy). The other four however, are staying.

 

[Sakuraa]

Spoiler: Long again

Today was the big day. Time to battle the unbeatable Leon. I like how he and Hop both slap their face when they're about to fight.

I got my team to level 60. I started with Irene (Cinderace), but switched to Wendy (Morpeko) to actually fight Aegislash. She she switched to Hangry form on the next turn, she beat it with one Aura Wheel. Then it was Red Velvet (Alcremie) vs. Haxorus. Dazzling Gleam wasn't enough to take it down and one Iron Tail almost took her out, but she toughed out the second Iron Tail so I wouldn't be sad and took out Haxorus with another Dazzling Gleam. I sent out Joy (Dracozolt) to battle Dragapult, but she just couldn't beat it with a Dragon Claw, nor take two Dragonbreaths. Yeri (G-Rapidash) was sent out to finish it off, but was too slow. One Shadow Ball almost KO'd her, but she survived with just enough HP to beat it with Zen Headbutt. Wendy was sent out against Mr. Rime, Crunch put it down to half health, but Freeze Dry was too much. I sent out Seulgi (Appletun) to heal Yeri. For some reason he only used Teeter Dance first. Then Freeze Dry took her down. Yeri's first Megahorn missed so she took some damage, but the second took Mr. Rime out. He sent out Intelleon so I used a Max Revive on Joy. Intelleon's Snipe Shot finished off Yeri easily. He went with Tearful Look, weakening Thunder Fang, which put it at half health. Then he used the same move again, but Thunder Fang took it down. Now it was time for Charizard. I sent out Irene. I used Max Strike to slow it down, and the stupid thing used Max Rockfall, taking Irene to half. The second Max Strike was a critical hit. But Irene couldn't take a second attack. I sent out Red Velvet to heal Irene, and she went down to Max Windrage. Sandstorm from Max Rockfall had been wearing Charizard Down. So one Double Edge was all I needed to claim victory.

I was so happy to see Mum, Hop, Marnie, and Bede in the audience watching me finally beat the unbeatable Leon. This was easily the one of the best Champion matches ever. I was a bit confused that there was no Hall of Fame scene before the credits, but then I saw the title screen with my team! Now that was lit!

I wandered around Galar for a minute and was happy to see people calling me Champion. I went to go find Hop, but he wasn't at his house. Leon left a Charmander on the floor for me since I guess he just has a farm of them or something.

I remembered the moment from after I beat the league, so I headed to Slumbering Weald, wanting to catch Zamazzenta. But instead, I found my boy Hop who wanted another battle. Yeri beat Dubwool, Seulgi beat Pinurchin, Wendy beat Corviknight, Joy beat Snorlax, Irene beat Rillaboom, and Red Velvet beat Cramorant.

After the battle Sonia showed up since she's the real new professor now. And she's got books! But apparently we aren't besties with Zamaenta and Zacian according to Sonia, even though I thought we were.

Then these weirdos Soward and Sheilbert showed up and Sheilbert challenged me to a battle. Yeri beat Sirfetch'd, Wendy beat Bronzong, Red Velvet beat Fawlinks and Joy narrowly beat Klinglang. Sadly, Hop lost to Soward, probably cuz I knocked out his whole team 2 minutes prior.

I'll follow up with these shenanigans later.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Been a while since I updated my main playthrough, so here we go.

Spoiler: Very Long

After spending some time grinding in the Wild Area, catching whatever I could now that I beat Raihan, I finally made my way to the train station for the League finals. After catching a few extra Mons and battling with the resident Trainers, I made it to Wyndon. Spent a bit of time exploring and getting all that I could, and, for the first time, I couldn't buy out all the TMs at the Poke Mart, so I left the ones like Hyper Beam and the Stat Swaps behind, taking pretty much all the Punch moves and such. I also replaced Blitz's Fire Fang with Fire Punch for more power and accuracy. Then it came to the battles themselves.

Marnie was pretty easy. Blitz and Gustav pretty much mowed her team down, while D-Maxed Skyla clobbered her Grimsnarl with one Max Steelstrike. Then came Hop. Like with every battle I've had with him, it was cakewalk. Blitz pretty much did most of the heavy lifting, including one-shotting his D-Max Rillaboom with his own D-Max form. Sorry, Hop, but I just ended your career. You never had a chance.

Then we get to the story events. It was really cool to see Piers get involved and be an active helper in the infiltration of Rose's HQ. He's definitely my second favorite Gym Leader in these games (first goes to Bea). Given the events that would soon follow, it was no surprise that Macro Cosmos uses Steel-types. After chasing that goon around and having Peirs brilliantly use Team Yell and his own singing to distract the guards was really creative. Then it was time to face Oleana. I always knew she was something nasty, and she very much was. Though I will admit that seeing Garbodor, of all Mons, get a G-Max form was quite a surprise (and, to be honest, rather refreshing), as it also acted as a means of showing her more toxic nature. Very fitting. Then, we finally heard some of the "big events" about Galar's power crisis. But, really? It's a millennia away from now. Rose, why are you so fixated with something that won't happen for freakin' 1000 years!? No surprise Leon was trying to talk some sense into him. Anyway, it was time to move on.

Now, for the final round before Leon. Well, well, well, what a surprise. I got to face Bede again. And he's wearing what looks like Opal's outfit (not the Fairy Gym outfit) that he modified into a shirt over a dress. Now that he uses Fairy-types, it allowed Skyla to utterly mow him down while Blitz faced Mawile. Even his G-Max Hatterene went down with a single Max Steelstrike from Skyla. Faced Nessa next and she was pretty easy. Baxter the Boltund and Torpedofang the Barraskewda pretty much took care of her. Then I got to fight my favorite Gym Leader, Bae. Like the last time I faced her, she did give me some trouble, especially since I wanted to save Skyla for her G-Max Machamp, so she managed to do some hefty damage, even KOing Baxter (he had Play Rough in his moves, making him a good choice against Fighting-types), forcing me to put Skyla in early. But when it came down to D-Max Skyla VS G-Max Machamp, it was over in one shot this time, thanks to a Max Airstream fueled by Brave Bird. I still find her to be one of the more graceful losers in these games, especially when she gives such a nice smile. Small wonder why I like her. And, finally, it was time to face Raihan in the final round. With the battle now 1-on-1, it made dealing with his weather shifting team more easy, with the final match being between G-Max Dusty the Sandaconda VS G-Max Duraludon. Dusty won pretty handily, as all it took was one G-Max Sandblast and it was over.

Now, we interrupt the Championship Match to bring you a live bulletin... THE DARKEST DAY HAS RETURNED!!! Dammit, Rose! You couldn't wait?! Now we have a rampaging, and probably very angry, alien Pokemon recreating Galar's previously biggest disaster! Nice work, Rose, you really blew it this time. So, off to the Slumbering Weald again, where it all began. Saw the two awesome wolf Legends, collected the items needed and made our way back to Hammerlocke to confront Rose. Well, this is a sudden turnaround, Oleana is actually begging for help. And here I thought she was a psychotic screwball. Well, okay, she is, but, hey, at least it's progress on her part. Time to face Rose. Talk about a case of "poor, predictable rock", with his entire team made of Steel-types, small wonder Blitz pretty much destroyed him by his little soccer bunny self. Huh, I guess being the Chairman of the big battling event doesn't mean you get to battle as often as the competitors do. At least Rose, despite his impatience, is affably evil, though maybe more on the misguided side. But, seriously, Rose, Galar had 1000 years before it even needed to THINK about the problem. I think there is enough time to find a solution before then.

But, anyway, time to confront Eternatus. Sheesh, Leon, did it ever occur to you that a standard, run-of-the-mill Poke Ball might NOT work on such a powerful behemoth? At least use an Ultra Ball or something! But, it was time for me to shine. Blitz actually burned Eternatus with one Fire Punch, which made dealing with it easier. Then after beating it, came the "bad to worse" situation, as it Eternamaxed!? So, there's a level above Gigantamax?! And even with Hop, we were sitting ducks. But then, the noblest wolves of legend came to our aid; Zacian and Zamazenta, becoming their Crowned Forms, and it was time to kick some alien Mon butt in the ultimate Max Raid Battle! It was a lot of back and forth, but, in the end, we won, and I caught that baddie in an Ultra Ball (see, Leon? Ultra Balls are better than Poke Balls, so use one of them next time, okay?).

Then it was time for the final showdown. Two undefeated Trainers duking it out on the grand stage for the crown! Who will win? The answer: ME! My team was significantly higher leveled than Leon's (for comparison, my weakest, Torpedofang, was equal to his strongest, Charizard, in terms of level). So, you can bet it was a pretty quick battle, as I almost one-shotted everything. Only G-Max Charizard lasted more than a turn, but it went down with two Max Geysers from Torpedofang. And, it was over. I became the new Champion by defeating the undefeatable Leon. Guess there's always a first time for everything, huh, Leon? Now, since I know there is post-game stuff to do, I'm taking a break and going out to catch whatever I couldn't before, as I found out that places like the Wild Area now have new Mons before doing the next bit. But history was made... twice in one week. A new Champion has been born and Galar is safe. The End.

Now, with that over with, I can start a new save file on my Switch Lite and try different things. Tune in next time to see what happens in that playthrough.

 

[IncineROAR]

I finished the semi-finals, now I am um.. well trying to track down Leon. I'm really amused that Team Yell and I are on the same side.

Team:

Centiskorh, lv 53
Inteleon, lv 53
Corviknight, lv 54
Grimmsnarl, lv 53
Drednaw, lv 55
Drakloak, lv 57

 

[Alola]

So, I made a separate account on my Switch to start a Nuzlocke. Unlike my main account, I chose Scorbunny (who I originally was going to pick prior to all the leaks); he recently evolved into a Raboot. While the art and still models don't leave much to the imagination, his in-game model in Camp is freaking adorable! He puts his paws in his fur akin to a hoodie, looking like a little kid XD I also love how he actually kicks the Ball back to me rather than pick it up and deliver it like other Pokemon.

Also, I played with another NPC's Camp and discovered that Ralts levitate when moving instead of running; it was jarring seeing a Ralts...fly...at speed, too. Sadly, I forgot to screenshot it.

This is unrelated, but here's a picture of my Boltund from my main account being rejected by another Trainer's Galarian Rapidash:

 

[Sakuraa]

Spoiler: Longish

I'm so mad. I spent I don't even know how many attempts battling some stupid Dynamax Maractus, just rtying to get some rare candies and the stupid thing refused to be defeated. I had to use the Gigantamax Corviknight I caught the other day, just to beat this annoyance. And even that also took multiple attempts.

Then I decided to actually go help with this whole Dynamax situation like I was supposed to. Milo and Piers were just standing around chatting, while there was a crisis in the stadium. When they said we'd team up, I didn't know they mean it would be a Max Raid battle. But it was cool, and Milo has an Appletun, nice taste I used Irene (Cinderace). Hop dynamaxed his Rillaboom, but Pier's Obstagoon got KO'd becuase Tsareena kept using Max Starfall instead of actual grass moves. Milo had Apple lower Tareena's Sp. Defence, even tho we were all using physical moves. We won so it's all good.

I exaggerated what happened to Sonia since that's totally something I'd do. I also really wanted to chance the sword and shield weirdos, but Sonia said she'd do it...on social media.

Anyway, we headed to Hilbury where I dyanamxed Joy (Dracozolt), hoping for an easy kill on Gyarados. It used Max Hailstorm which did a lot to Joy, but one Max Lightning took it out after everyone else had weakened it just enough. Then we went to Motostoke. I used Joy again, since she knows Stone Edge and we won rather easily.

Hop and I battled Soward and Sheilbert at the lab. But it was all just a distraction, and it was revealed that Sonia's assistant is a snake.

I think it's cute that Piers is so concerned about Marnie even though there are no Power Spots near her so she's totally safe. But as soon as they said more gyms were having issues, I instantly thought of my baby Alister! I flew to his gym immediately since he needs to be protecc at all costs. And omg, he's was talking so much. It looks like he's doing better with his shyness. I had to take on the battle alone since apparently now Pokemon are dynamaxing in large numbers. But Rotom was still in Allister's gym filming everything even in this crisis. Wendy (Morpeko) won, even though Dusknoir used Max Quake. After the match, baby Allister gave me his special league card with his uncovered face! I can't believe he gave it away so willingly.

I headed to Ballonlea to help Bede only hear that he already solved the problem by himself. But then the brat decided to waste everyone's time by challenging me to a match right then and there. Why can't this kid not be annoying for once? And why can't they give me any more options to berate him? They let me do it before, now the game is forcing me to praise him when I don't want to.

Anyway, I went off to save Melony, who was so shook that she didn't recognize us, but it's okay cuz we're still gonna help anyway. One Max Flare from Irene easily beat Frosslass. Bruh, is this Gordie dude supposed to the the son that was mentioned on Melony's original card? Cuz, I kept wondering after I read that, 'who is her son'?

Raihan's gym was last. I was happy to see that Sonia was already there. Damn it, why did that Haxorus know Max Steelspike? Red Velvet (Alcremie) and Seulgi (Appletun) both went down to that thing. Red Velvet because she was too slow to attack twice and not strong enough to take two Max Steelspikes, and Seulgi since Draco Meteor f*cking missed. Yeri (G-Rapidash) had to come out and save the day. Sonia called me on the phone and told me to head to the Hammerlock stadium.......the one I was literally already in, standing at the end of the same hallway she was also in. Did she just totally forget that I spoke to her five seconds ago before that dynamax battle? Anyway, her dog helped us unlock the door to the energy plant.

We battled Sheilbert and won, but then Zacian attacked and this thing was LEVEL 70 WTF?! The thing easily took down Joy, then started spamming Swords Dance to OHKO Seulgi. I did get in two Acid Apple's during that time, so Rocky Helmet just barely took it down. Irene was able to deal the final blow since it used Swords Dance again instead of attacking her. Zacian was about to kill charge at Hop, but Zamazenta showed up to save him. I caught Zamazenta and named him Kingdom since he's true royalty.

We went back to Slumbering Weald where Hop calmed Zacian and effortlessly caught him. Legend. He challenge me to a battle with Zacian which I lost becuase Zacian is a level 70 beast while my team is only around level 66. Thankfully you don't lose money after that battle, so I guess I'll go get some rare candies to battle time later.

 

[Sakuraa]

I finally ended up beating Hop in our final battle. It was pretty cheap. I just leveled up Irene (Cinderace), until she could survive a Close Combat from Zacian and then used Counter to one shot it. And with that, my official Shield adventure is over.

 

[IncineROAR]

I just took down Raihan in the last battle of the Finals. I used his own strategy (weather effects) against him. I sent Inteleon out first, and after Raihan's Torkoal started the Sunny Day weather effects via its Drought ability, I had my Inteleon use Rain Dance. Which worked to good effect because if I hadn't, Torkoal would have one shotted me with Solar Beam. Canceling the Sunny Day effect allowed my Inteleon to use Snipe Shot to knock it out.

For Goodra and Flygon, I sent out Drednaw and he took care of them with Ice Fang. For Turtonator, it took a couple of turns, but I knocked that Dragon out via Drednaw using Rock Tomb.

For Duradulon, I first sent out Centiskorch and had it use Will O Wisp. When Duradulon knocked it out, I sent out my Dragapult and it used Hex and finished off Duradulon. Hex's power was increased because I had previously burned Duradulon. I didn't even bother Dynamaxing in this battle

Just Leon left.. which I'll take care of him tonight. I have to think about how I want to handle him, I'm thinking Drednaw will be saved for Charizard.

Team for the Champion Cup

Dragapult, lv 62
Inteleon, lv 61
Corviknight, lv 61
Grimmsnarl, lv 60
Drednaw, lv 61
Centiskorch, lv 60

 

[IncineROAR]

I just took down Raihan in the last battle of the Finals. I used his own strategy (weather effects) against him. I sent Inteleon out first, and after Raihan's Torkoal started the Sunny Day weather effects via its Drought ability, I had my Inteleon use Rain Dance. Which worked to good effect because if I hadn't, Torkoal would have one shotted me with Solar Beam. Canceling the Sunny Day effect allowed my Inteleon to use Snipe Shot to knock it out.

For Goodra and Flygon, I sent out Drednaw and he took care of them with Ice Fang. For Turtonator, it took a couple of turns, but I knocked that Dragon out via Drednaw using Rock Tomb.

For Duradulon, I first sent out Centiskorch and had it use Will O Wisp. When Duradulon knocked it out, I sent out my Dragapult and it used Hex and finished off Duradulon. Hex's power was increased because I had previously burned Duradulon. I didn't even bother Dynamaxing in this battle

Just Leon left.. which I'll take care of him tonight. I have to think about how I want to handle him, I'm thinking Drednaw will be saved for Charizard.

Team for the Champion Cup

Dragapult, lv 62
Inteleon, lv 61
Corviknight, lv 61
Grimmsnarl, lv 60
Drednaw, lv 61
Centiskorch, lv 60

Well, I just finished of Leon and completed the main game of Pokemon Sword. The end is very anti-climactic. My ending team is the same as above, except I swapped out Dragapult for Eternatus, mainly because I didn't want to have the same dragon on my team that Leon has on his.

 

[ShinyOotachi]

So I hung about Route 9 for a few days and, after over 700 Clobbopus encounters, I gave up and just decided to go with regular Grapploct. I wanted to move forward with the story.

Spikemuth was a really fun town, just like the Team Skull place in Alola, and I actually really liked Piers as a Gym Leader. I like that the first Dark type Gym didn't use the games gimmick and just gave me a traditional old school Gym Battle. It felt right. I also managed to defeat Raihan pretty easily.

I arrived in Wyndon and, after a little exploring, I made my way to the Stadium. I defeated Marie and Hop without any trouble. I felt the story escalated really quickly here... Like I knew there was more going on with Oleana and Rose in the background and they weren't all good, but it really just seemed to lunge at me from the background. I really enjoyed that the Gym Challenge was the main focus of the story, but at this point in Wyndon the battles with the League Staff and Macro Cosmos felt pretty random to me. Although, maybe because I took breaks from the story or played through some bits too quickly, I might have missed some context.

Anyways, I breezed through it and caught Eternatus. Now I await my final battle with Leon. I decided to take a break and try to complete more of the Pokedex. As of this morning, I have seen 373 and caught 348. I got really lucky with some surprise trades, getting Pokemon like Goomy, Jangmo-o, Deino, Larvitar, Dreepy, Charmander, Grookey and Sobble. I don't know how much more I will try to do before I take on Leon, but I want to get as much of it done as possible so I can focus on breeding in the post game. I'm also doing a Living Dex, but I'm dreading doing these 60+ Alcremie forms, ugh...

On a side note to that. During my time trying to complete the Pokedex, I headed back to Slumbering Weald and, on the way out, I decided to stop off and see what Mum had to say, thinking she would have some words of wisdom before my battle with the undefeated champion...

Spoiler

I guess this is an error in the game, but thanks for the vote of confidence mum!
I live in Scotland and my mum would talk about me and my brothers as if we had already achieved our goal, so even though it is probably a mistake in the game, I still really love it.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I started playing Shield today. While I picked Sobble in Sword, I decided to go with Scorbunny for this playthrough. As of now, I have sadly begun to crush Hop's dreams and his self esteem by beating him and gaining my letter of endorsement from Champion Leon. I am still working on building my team, though as of now it is looking like...

Scorbunny- Lvl 11- Male- Relaxed nature
Nickit- Lvl 8- Male- Sassy nature
Eevee- Lvl 10- Male- Quirky nature

I am in the wild area and I took my Pokemon out camping for a little bit. Nickit and Eevee really enjoyed their selves, though Scorbunny seemed to be keeping his distance for the most part. He seems to actually be afraid of Nickit. Soon I'll start some Max Raid battles and head off to Motostoke.

 

[Louise]

I have been doing max raid battles with my brother also been trying to find a Wooloo

 

[IncineROAR]

I just finally finished the post-game episode and captured Zacian and had one last battle with Hop.

The End

Last comment: why does Game Freak think I want to bother with a battle facility...? Especially since the Pokemon and features I'd want to use at the facility aren't even available in the game..? (Yes I am perfectly aware that Game Freak did not develop the facility solely for me).

Edit

I'm starting a second run through of Pokemon Sword using a different user on my Switch. I'm going to choose Grookey as my starter this time.

 

[Ambrose7]

I just finally finished the post-game episode and captured Zacian and had one last battle with Hop.

The End

Last comment: why does Game Freak think I want to bother with a battle facility...? Especially since the Pokemon and features I'd want to use at the facility aren't even available in the game..?

While the facility is less than stellar for sure, GF didn't make it solely for you.

 

[IncineROAR]

While the facility is less than stellar for sure, GF didn't make it solely for you.

I am perfectly aware of this, thank you for insight.

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My second run through of Pokemon Sword continues, I'm about to board the train with Hop to the next city.

Current team (I promise I will try to differentiate it from my previous team)

-Grookey
-Chewtle
-Rokidee

I'll start Pokemon Shield after this second run through, I think I didn't pay attention to a lot of things in my first run through of Sword.