POKÉMON Scarlet and Violet take place in an open world, making them different to many games so far in the series.
If you’re as confused as we were when we first opened the games, don’t worry, help is at hand.
Tera-pokemon are new to Scarlet and Violet.
Here’s all the differences from the mainline games, as well as beginner tips and tricks to help you out in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: Planning your path
Mainline series games usually only have the gym challenge, but Scarlet and Violet have switched things up by giving you three different objectives.
Completing gym challenges is one of the most important activities, as in this latest pair of games even Pokémon you catch can disobey.
This means that clearing gyms is necessary in order to boost your level cap, and if you neglect this quest your Pokémon will soon refuse to cooperate.
The Titan questline will reward you with different options for your ride Pokémon.
At first it can only walk around, but by completing Titans, you will be able to climb, swim and fly around the map.
The least important and most difficult questline is the Team Star quest which sees you clear out the bases.
This rewards you with a boost, much like the badge boosts from older generations, and some new TMs.
Prioritise the gyms and Titans to have an easier time exploring on your journey.
Levels for gyms, and challenges don’t scale, so you may want to check out our roadmap of the best order to beat them in.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: Really knowing your type match-ups
Much like Hop always taught us in Sword and Shield, to get to grips with Pokémon, you really have to learn your type match-ups.
However, while most Pokémon players have the elemental type match-ups memorised, this isn’t actually what we mean.
Far more important is learning your physical from your special Pokémon.
Sprigatito and Quaxly are both physical Pokémon, so while you can teach them special moves you are really doing them a disservice.
Our grass cat learns Magical Leaf early on, which you might teach over Leafage, as the former is 60 power and the latter 40.
However, when used by Sprigatito, Leafage is actually the more powerful move as it deals physical damage over special damage.
This is more important than ever in Scarlet and Violet, as the Titan questline is packed with physically defensive Pokémon that you will have to take down with special attacks.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: How to finding Rare Pokemon
There are a few tricks which can help you out with finding rare Pokémon.
If you are planning to complete your Pokédex, you can use Let’s Go mode with R, to help you register Pokémon you see in the wild quickly in your dex.
Tera-types are new to Scarlet and Violet, and the best way to collect them is by taking part in Tera-raids marked on your map.
There’s a special trick for changing these raids for the Pokémon you want, and we have a guide which will help out with that.
The rarest Pokémon are obviously Shiny Pokémon, which are harder than ever to find in Scarlet and Violet.
Masuda Method is still the best way of doing this, but if you want to find out all the different ways you can hunt, we have a guide for that too.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: Time to go shopping
Shopping is more important than ever before, and there are many more shops than usual in Paldea.
Food and sandwich ingredients will give your Pokémon a boost in stats over the next 30 minutes.
Delibird Presents is also a great shop which allows you to buy held items, and the inventory expands the more badges you collect.
These will give you a big boost when it comes to battles, especially the Bottle Caps that raise your stats.
Nature mints are also widely available now so you don’t have to keep grinding encounters for the right nature.
This again plays into whether your Pokémon is a special or physical attacker, as most special Pokémon will want a Modest Mint, while physical attackers will want an Adamant Mint.
While this is the same in all Pokémon games, buy and use X items, they are by far the best items in the game.
Noone did it as a kid, but you’re an adult now, you know how to make good choices.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
