Appendix:Sword and Shield walkthrough/Section 1: Difference between revisions

Starting Out

After initially launching the game, you’re presented with several languages of which you can play the in, those being English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Korean, and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Once you select your preferred language, the game then allows you to choose your gender, skin tone, and both of your beginning hair and eye colors. The language you’re playing in as well as your character’s selected gender and skin tone can not be changed after they have been selected, while there are a multitude of customization options spread throughout the game to change your character’s eye and hair colors. After all of your default options have been confirmed, the introductory cutscene begins with a live feed of the Wyndon Stadium Pitch as the current head of Macro Cosmos and Chairman of the Galar Pokémon League, Rose, introduces not only the world of Pokémon but also the Galar Region of which he calls home. While his spiel may sound familiar to returning veterans of the series, it serves as a good introduction of the basics to newcomers as well. Once Rose finishes his introductory speech he then moves on to introduce the main event of the night, an exhibition match between two life-long rivals: The current Dragon-type leader of Hammerlocke, Raihan and the reigning Pokémon Champion of the Galar Region, Leon. As he finishes saying that, Leon and his trusty partner Charizard appear on the pitch from a cloud of smoke and make their grand entrance for their audience. Raihan and his partner Duraludon stand battle-ready on the opposite side of the pitch, with Raihan bragging about how this will be the day that Leon’s pristine winning streak will finally end. Leon counters by saying that he doesn’t lose battles and calls for his Charizard to Dynamax, causing it to grow massively in size while also changing its appearance as well. The camera then pans up revealing the logo of which version of the game you ended up choosing and the story begins proper.

Postwick

The player's house

For once, your journey doesn’t actually start with you waking up in your room for once. Instead, your player character is sitting on the couch in their living room and is currently watching the live feed of Leon’s exhibition match on their Rotom Phone. Just then, your next door neighbor and best friend Hop and his Wooloo both excitedly burst through the door, urging you to meet them at his house so that you can both go pick up Leon of all people! Apparently he’s got a present for the both of you, so you better get going. Afterwards, the player character’s mum tells you to go grab your father’s old hat and bag from your room before you actually head out, just to be safe of course. Once you gather up your things and say goodbye to your mum, and are finally introduced to your little home town of Postwick. It’s a small little farming town and it’s close to both the Slumbering Weald and Galar Route 1. As you head down the hill from your home, you see that Hop’s apparently been waiting for you outside and urges you to come along to his house. He runs ahead, and you should follow him. As you enter his and Leon’s house, Hop excitedly asks his mum if Leon’s arrived yet, to which she responds with that he’s running late and that the two of you should go over Wedgehurst to meet him.

Route 1

Route 1 is just north of Postwick and is split into two different paths. The shorter path leads straight to Wedgehurst while the longer path on the other hand is one big curve that connects back to the shorter path. Since the player has no Pokémon with them at this moment, Hop advises that they stay away from the long path since it has tall grass where wild pokémon could potentially jump out and attack. So for now, just take the shorter path and head straight into Wedgehurst to meet Leon at last.

Wedgehurst

Upon the player's first visit to Wedgehurst, they and Hop see that Leon's currently putting on a show for his fans in front of the station. He eventually spots Hop waving for him in the crowd and says that it's finally good to meet the player character since he's heard a lot about them from Hop. He then ends his little meet and greet and then runs off back towards Postwick, with the player, Hop, and Leon's Charizard all following after him out of worry since he's so bad with directions.

Postwick

Upon returning to Postwick, Leon finally reveals the gift that he's brought for Hop and the player. This gift happens to be the Galar region's very own Starter Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. After a brief cutscene showing off the small pokémon's personalities, Leon tells them all to line up and then offers the player and Hop a choice of one of the three starter pokémon.

Grookey		Scorbunny		Sobble
Grass		Fire		Water
	Thwackey		Raboot		Drizzile
Grass		Fire		Water
	Rillaboom		Cinderace		Inteleon
Grass		Fire		Water
	Gigantamax Rillaboom		Gigantamax Cinderace		Gigantamax Inteleon
Grass		Fire		Water

• The Grass-type Grookey has the most weaknesses out of the three starters with 5, those being Fire, Flying, Bug, Poison, and Ice. However, it makes up for this by it and its evolutions having good HP, Attack, and Defense. This allows its evolutions to take a couple of hits during a battle and dish out respectable damage before potentially getting knocked out.

• The Fire-type Scorbunny is the fastest out of the three Galar starters, boasting high Speed and physical Attack. This lets the Scorbunny line go first during most in-game battles all the while hitting like a truck with moves such as Bounce and Pyro Ball. However, its low defenses mean that while it can get in a few strong hits it can be knocked out easily, especially by Water, Ground, and Rock-type Pokémon.

• The Water-type starter, Sobble and its evolutions can exploit the weaknesses of opposing Pokémon with its high Speed and Special Attack stats while having a decent Attack stat to boot. However, its poor defenses and HP stats hinder it to the point where it only takes one or two super-effective moves to knock it out, especially with its two weaknesses being Grass and Electric.

Hop lets the player pick whichever starter pokémon they want first since he already has his Wooloo with him. He then picks the starter that happens to be weak to the player's new partner Pokémon, while Leon ends up taking the starter that's stronger than theirs. Then Hop and Leon's mum comes outside and says that dinner is ready, which results in Hop and the player's families having a barbeque in Hop's backyard.

The next day the player meets the brothers in their backyard and out of nowhere, Hop declares that he and the player are now rivals and challenges them to their first rival battle. Hop will always send out his trusty Wooloo first, which the starter they chose should be able to defeat with their Normal-type moves. Wooloo will always yield enough experience for their starter to learn its first STAB move, those being Branch Poke, Ember, or Water Gun. These new moves should be more than enough to knock out Hop's new starter, earning the player the first of many victories on their journey.

First battle

If the player chose Grookey:

Pokémon Trainer Hop Postwick Sword and Shield Reward: $400
Type: Normal Unknown Ability: Run Away Held item: None Wooloo♂ Lv.3 Tackle Normal Physical   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Type: Water Unknown Ability: Torrent Held item: None Sobble♂ Lv.5 Pound Normal Physical   --       Growl Normal Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --

If the player chose Scorbunny:

Pokémon Trainer Hop Postwick Sword and Shield Reward: $400
Type: Normal Unknown Ability: Run Away Held item: None Wooloo♂ Lv.3 Tackle Normal Physical   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Type: Grass Unknown Ability: Overgrow Held item: None Grookey♂ Lv.5 Scratch Normal Physical   --       Growl Normal Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --

If the player chose Sobble:

Pokémon Trainer Hop Postwick Sword and Shield Reward: $400
Type: Normal Unknown Ability: Run Away Held item: None Wooloo♂ Lv.3 Tackle Normal Physical   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Type: Fire Unknown Ability: Blaze Held item: None Scorbunny♂ Lv.5 Tackle Normal Physical   --       Growl Normal Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --

Slumbering Weald

After the battle with Hop, you will hear a crashing noise from the other side of Postwick. You and Hop run there to find out the gateway in front of the Slumbering Weald has been crashed through, and find that the Wooloo who attempted to charge in broke through it. Both of you run in to save the rolling Wooloo.

You will run into three distinct Wild Pokémon along the way, but then you and Hop run into a thick fog, but not before becoming confronted by a strange wild Pokémon. You battle it, but cannot touch it as it seemingly vanishes.

Pokémon	Games		Location	Levels	Rate
Forced random encounters
Skwovet	Sw	Sh	Grass	2	One
Skwovet	Sw	Sh	Grass	3	One
Rookidee	Sw	Sh	Grass	2	One
Special Pokémon
Zacian Hero of Many Battles	Sw	Sh	Only one	???	One
Zamazenta Hero of Many Battles	Sw	Sh	Only one	???	One
A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.

After this battle, you and Hop both faint. Both of you wake up eventually, and end up running into Leon, who ran in trying to find both of you. He manages to find the Wooloo and safely take it back. After this, both of you head back to Postwick.

This article is part of Project Walkthroughs, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive step-by-step guides on each Pokémon game.