SPOILERS! Sword and Shield in-game team discussion thread

You can have Kubfu and Fly access to your chosen tower before you walk out onto Route 3. That's what I did.

Technically, nothing's even stopping you from getting Urshifu then; you just need to get Kubfu beefy enough to punch through Mustard's level 30 Kubfu at the top of the tower. The most efficient way to route it is probably to do the quest up until the tower opens up as soon as you can, use Kubfu for a bit early game to level it, and then go back after Kabu (before Kabu if you want to use Rapid Strike as your answer to him?) to evolve it.
 
Oh I thought the level curve wasn't for the Tower of the two fists. So you only need to have a Kubfu better than Mustard level 30 Kubfu !

Thanks for the clarification ... Maybe I will do a new playthrough ;)
 
Also, if you can get your hands on multiple Kubfu, you can bring all of them to the scroll in whichever tower you chose and evolve them just by walking up the now-empty tower. So you can have an Urshifu as low as Level 10 without having to train it at all.
 
Antihaxxer said:
Oh I thought the level curve wasn't for the Tower of the two fists. So you only need to have a Kubfu better than Mustard level 30 Kubfu !

Thanks for the clarification ... Maybe I will do a new playthrough ;)
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FWIW: you don't even need to be at level 30. Mustard's Kubfu has no EVs, bad AI, and a Focus Sash. It's not one-shotting you, you're probably outrunning it, and you can two-shot it easy w/ Aerial Ace or Zen Headbutt. (Remember: TRs are consistently easily obtainable in a DLC world, so you can assume them.)

I took it at level 25, you can prolly go as low as 23/24 without issue. Urshifu will generally hit after the Kabu fight, and if you need it beforehand, you can do that.
 
Infinite Light said:
FWIW: you don't even need to be at level 30. Mustard's Kubfu has no EVs, bad AI, and a Focus Sash. It's not one-shotting you, you're probably outrunning it, and you can two-shot it easy w/ Aerial Ace or Zen Headbutt. (Remember: TRs are consistently easily obtainable in a DLC world, so you can assume them.)

I took it at level 25, you can prolly go as low as 23/24 without issue. Urshifu will generally hit after the Kabu fight, and if you need it beforehand, you can do that.
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Bad AI is really the savior here. Aeiral Ace can do over half and while he has no EVs he has IVs. If it wasn't for bad AI sometimes using Focus Energy or the fighting move I forget the name of you'd probably die every time.
Anecdotally speaking he outsped me on my attempt. Gotta be at least a little weary depending on how bad/well your Kubfu's turning out.

Also as a general aside, but you can have an Urshifu as low as level 10 if you get someone to trade you their Kubfu. After you beat the tower you always have access to the scroll that evoleves Kubfu
 
Infinite Light said:
Started a new run when the DLC hit because I was curious about how it integrated into main story progression and the eventual process of trying to do in-game tiers for SW/SH. Answer: somehow Isle of Armor makes the process of tiering Sword/Shield even hairier!

Some notes on the team I've been playing with, up to Route 8 atm:

Cinderace: it's fast, it's strong, it's a starter. Hasn't really shined so far but that's mostly just because it's been upstaged by the sillier parts of my party. Still, it puts in solid work vs. route Trainers, and it dealt w/ Route 7 Hop pretty handily. Pyro Ball is an incredible tool to have access to.

Corviknight: this thing is a monster, and while tiering SW/SH is a hairy prospect, Rookidee is the S-Tier mon when it happens. Available on the first route of the game, good typing, good stat line, more or less immediate access to Hone Claws + Power Trip for snowballing through major fights. Anything that can't punch you out immediately is setup bait. Obnoxiously good at exploiting Dynamax boosts to smash through gyms, with Flying/Steel STAB and access to Fighting coverage. The DLC somehow makes it even better by giving you access to Dual Wingbeat to give Rookisquire/Corvidee access to strong STAB when you'd otherwise be stuck Plucking things.

Magnezone: reliably obtainable as soon as you get access to Isle of Armor. It's Magnezone and we all know what that does, right? Electric/Steel is as solid a typing as ever and gives you favorable matchups vs. most major fights, you're bulky, you hit hard, you have Sturdy but you don't really even need it. Magneton just evolves with a Thunder Stone now, which means you're somehow even more low-maintenance than ever. Needs the Thunderbolt TR to perform optimally ASAP but getting TRs before the credits roll is quick, consistent, and easy in a world with the Cram-o-Matic and Digging Pa, so you can just give it that.

Starmie: like Magnemite, you can just catch a Staryu ASAP when you get to Isle of Armor. It's fast, it's strong, and its movepool is nuts. Give it Expert Belt and Surf/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam and you can basically punch through anything; you can do whatever you want with your fourth moveslot, but I like Flip Turn just b/c it's free chip damage if you ever need to go out. Needing a Water Stone is annoying (you can't get a guaranteed one until after you get the water bike...) but it's not really a big deal b/c you have a bunch of watts from Digging Pa to feed to the digging duo. You get an Expert Belt at the very start of Isle of Armor and Starmie is a perfect user for it. Notably tears through Kabu, who can otherwise be kind of a jerk, even before it evolves. Slow exp. group kinda bites but you don't really care because you can still do your job even if you lag a little bit.

Axew: got it early as a raid, but it really hasn't impressed so far. Dragon Dance is cool, and SW/SH are games that reward snowball sweeps, so it sounds appealing, but so far the amount of time you spend as Axew has just really stunk. Late evolutions feel really bad in Sword/Shield because these games are full of really, really explosive things and Axew just... isn't. Still going to keep it around for endgame, since it's easy to babysit things in these games and most of the harder stuff is backloaded anyway, so Haxorus might prove useful yet... but it's definitely the weak link right now.

Urshifu (Single-Strike): this thing is nuts. Super strong, fast, surprisingly durable. Wicked Blow's auto-crit is nifty b/c you don't care about attack drops or defense buffs; you just punch through everything. You don't even really care about matchups that should be bad for you; yeah, you're quad Fairy weak, but your stat line is ridiculous and you have easy access to Poison/Steel coverage options. Kubfu is really solid when you get it, but after evolving, it feels kinda gamebreaking. You're on the slow curve but you don't even fall behind the party in terms of levels because following the questline to evolve Kubfu gives it a bunch of affection anyway.

The Kubfu/Urshifu questline is super short, too, so it doesn't really feel like a big impact on its availability. The only awkward thing is dealing w/ Klara/Avery 3 to get it; that fight is really scary with a weaker party. I went in w/ level 18-ish mons, and it was doable, but setting up to punch through Slowbro w/ unevolved mons is a Project, and you can't even set up on Skorupi b/c you have to kill Weezing first or you just get hit with Clear Smog. I think you generally do wanna do that fight as early as you can if you want to run Kubfu, though, just b/c if you get Kubfu earlier you don't need to grind it or feed it candy to get it ready for the towers.

Performance-wise, it competes w/ Corviknight and maybe even eclipses it, but it takes at least a little bit of work to get Urshifu online and SW/SH give you this embarassment of super-powerful super-easy-to-obtain early mons so I feel like it's probably a notch lower than things like Corviknight/Magnezone? It's absolutely competitive with them (and you want to do most of the Isle of Armor quest anyway just because it's super brief and easy until Klara/Avery 3 and the Expert Belt, the Exp. Charm, and the Cram-o-Matic are all more than going to pay for that time investment) but it feels less effortless than other similarly strong mons.

Probably the way I'd put it: so far, it feels like 20 minutes of work for a mon as dominant as Urshifu is would be a shoo-in for S-tier in prior games, but SW/SH has so many comparably powerful things that are obtainable w/ virtually no work that it doesn't feel as Worth It as it otherwise would. It's still really good, though.
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Just one caveat on Staryu: I was looking for it to test it out (EDIT: as soon as I first arrived in Isle of Armor), and not two steps into the beach I ran into the already evolved Starmie instead, which must have to bump it up even more in terms of tiering - catching it isn’t that hard with Net Balls available for purchase in the first Motostoke PokéCenter before you get access to the Isle. Then, when you do catch it, a quick trip to the Pokémon Center grants it Brine, Psychic and Hydro Pump (and other stuff like Power Gem if you really want to) right out of the gate, because the Relearner makes Stone evolutions busted in this game. And that’s before factoring in TR’s: right at the Wild Area’s Motostoke entrance you can get it Surf and Thunderbolt, IDK about the Ice Beam TR, but its current movepool already seems pretty ridiculous as is.

All in all, Starmie’s ranking should probably be evaluated separately from Staryu, and probably higher, what with the Water Stone suddenly becoming unnecessary to get a very strong and fast Mon with an insane movepool immediately available to it.
 

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Infinite Light said:
Oh, wow. What level does Starmie come at? Is it feasible to catch it before the first gym?
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Mine came at lv 20, and yes, I did catch it before the first gym. Like I said, it was my very first visit to Isle of Armor, I took a few steps into the beach, and there Starmie was. I actually had to force overworld Pokés to respawn to take the photo above (that’s another Starmie), but it took less than two minutes to spawn another one, so yes - Starmie is a very feasible find as soon as you arrive in Isle of Armor

And let’s not talk about how lucky I got with my catch... Timid and Natural Cure on the first try, hoo boy! XP

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I feel like Starmie is probably just what gets tiered then? If it's that easy, there's no reason not to skip the Staryu stage entirely. Which... might put it up in hypothetical S-tier w/ Rookidee.

edit: Another notable thing that occurs to me w/ the DLC - you can get Ability Capsules out of 3x Rare Candies + anything, which is def. not a nonexistent cost, but it's very much a payable one. So mons that really only want to have one of their two abilities can just assume they have the correct one, to an extent.
 
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Infinite Light said:
I feel like Starmie is probably just what gets tiered then? If it's that easy, there's no reason not to skip the Staryu stage entirely. Which... might put it up in hypothetical S-tier w/ Rookidee.
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I would not agree with the sentiment that Rookidee is S-Tier; it lacks the offense to get you through the game quickly. 2~3HKO'ing things isn't ideal; and yes, it dosen't faint, but that dosen't mean it's the most efficient choice. Also; I'd say it isn't even that good pre-Corviknight.

Is Rookidee really in the same boat as things such as an Arcanine with Flamethrower/Play Rough/Crunch/Extremespeed before the 1st Gym?

The answer is no. For these games; on an in-game tier list S-Tier would have to be reserved for the truely absurd. Rookiedee might make S in another game; but when up against stuff like Arcanine before Gym 1 with an endgame moveset?
 
Unsure but this seems the best place to post. I'm thinking of maybe getting the game and ofc a switch, but that's a bit expensive so wondering if there's any word that Pokemon is done with new gens, in which case i will get it. But I don't wanna if it'll just be rendered obsolete before I even get a decent team together, as has happened before in ORAS then USUM...
 
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Omastar68 said:
Unsure but this seems the best place to post. I'm thinking of maybe getting the game and ofc a switch, but that's a bit expensive so wondering if there's any word that Pokemon is done with new gens, in which case i will get it. But I don't wanna if it'll just be rendered obsolete before I even get a decent team together, as has happened before in ORAS then USUM...
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They're not going to announce not having a new generation for a console but barring a complete shake up I would be surprised if Gen 9 didnt both happen but happened on switch
 
Omastar68 said:
Unsure but this seems the best place to post. I'm thinking of maybe getting the game and ofc a switch, but that's a bit expensive so wondering if there's any word that Pokemon is done with new gens, in which case i will get it. But I don't wanna if it'll just be rendered obsolete before I even get a decent team together, as has happened before in ORAS then USUM...
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Probably a better question for the SQSA thread

There has been a maintained pace of a new generation roughly every 3-4 years for the entire existence of the franchise, and there's no reason to suspect that the pattern will be changing any time soon. That means we likely still have at least another 2 years of generation 8 before it's obsoleted.
 
Omastar68 said:
Unsure but this seems the best place to post. I'm thinking of maybe getting the game and ofc a switch, but that's a bit expensive so wondering if there's any word that Pokemon is done with new gens, in which case i will get it. But I don't wanna if it'll just be rendered obsolete before I even get a decent team together, as has happened before in ORAS then USUM...
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Also I'll give you a personal opinion on that, and getting a 3-400 bucks console for literally one game is a waste of money.
Before committing, consider if there's multiple titles you are interested in, because even assuming you like SwSh, like the DLCs, AND like gen 9 games, you're still wasting money if that's all you're going to get.

The Switch is a great console with a lot of good games, both native and ports. Don't look at just Pokemon for it, because it aint worth it, SwSh is not a game worth 500 €.
 
Omastar68 said:
Unsure but this seems the best place to post. I'm thinking of maybe getting the game and ofc a switch, but that's a bit expensive so wondering if there's any word that Pokemon is done with new gens, in which case i will get it. But I don't wanna if it'll just be rendered obsolete before I even get a decent team together, as has happened before in ORAS then USUM...
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Chief if your gonna invest in a game and a console at least make sure the game you get looks good and is fun. Granted I'm biased in this case because SwSh, In my opinion, was a letdown. If you do buy the Switch get something that isn't gen 8 like PMD red and blue rescue team. That way your money actually goes to something fans appreciate and enjoy.
 
At people talking briefly about tiering SwSh, I think it's in everyone's best interest to ignore it. At best we can highlight a few "extremely good" Pokemon. Realistically with how the Wild Area works, Isle Of Armour existing and with how easy it is to sequence break with Raids (you can get stuff like Sinistea incredibly early), one of the biggest differentiators between Pokemon has been removed. That being: Availability. You hit the Wild area at around Lv 14 and at that point, more than 100 species are available to you almost instantly. So you get a handful of mons with an "advantage" and then literally nothing else has one. And then some get cons in that they are super late (Like Snom, but again, thats probably available from Raids earlier than getting to Circhester).

Throw XP Candy into the mix and you've got something which just doesn't really work anymore. Even if you ban XYZ things (like Raids or Candy), you still have a huge issue with many Pokemon available at the same time. I don't think its worth the effort to go into tiering for this game at all.
 
pupbert said:
Could SomeBody please advice Me a Grass Type if I have not choosen Gorkey?? They are all Shit and it annoys me!!!
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I used a Seedot once, and it worked well for me. It's pretty bland at first, but it evolves early on and learns Razor Leaf upon evolving. You can also get a Leaf Stone in Turffield, so you can have a Shiftry before you even have your first badge. It's exclusive to Sword, but I imagine Lotad would be all right as well.

I eventually replaced it with a Flapple, but you won't be able to get one of those until you reach Hammerlocke.
 
I've been using Bellossom, and its probably the best mon on my team. It gets Giga Drain and Sleep Powder around the first gym and once it evolves, you can teach it Moonblast and Quiver Dance from the move relearner automatically. Sleep Powder + Quiver Dance lets it sweep most trainers, and its good Bulk + Giga Drain gives it good self-sustain in the various Gyms and Routes in the game. Moonblast is also a nice move to one-shot Dark and Fighting types.

I'm only halfway done with my current playthrough, but so far, Bellossom has swept Milo and Nessa with Acid and Giga Drain, and did really well against Bea with Sleep Powder + Quiver Dance, only failing to OHKO Machamp with a boosted Moonblast.
 
I will start my Pokemon Shield playthrough in a few days and my planned final team looks like this:

Cinderace
Raichu
Ferrothorn
Milotic
Togekiss
Mudsdale

I already did some research and I found out that Milotic will be available very late in the game.
So I will probably have to use another water-type pokemon to beat the story.
Which water-types other than the water/flying type ones (I don't like those) can be recommended?
 
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