Pokemon Sword and Shield have ditched features that were previously staples of the franchise — namely, the games’ lack of a National Pokedex. This has led many fans to question other elements of the games’ quality, wondering about features such as the Pokemon Sword and Shield post-game. Leaks provided potential details about Pokemon Sword and Shield’s endgame content before launch, but more details about the post-game have since been revealed. We’ll go over everything known about what happens after Sword and Shield’s campaign in this guide.
Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s post-game story
While there will be a few major activities for players to try out once the main story is over, Pokemon Sword and Shield’s most immediate post-story content is reportedly a sort of “small campaign episode” that explains the origins of Dynamax Pokemon. In a Pastebin link tweeted by the now-suspended Twitter account CentroLeaks, a leaker linked to details about this post-game story (via Dexetero). This story episode will reportedly last just a few hours.
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Warning: Potential spoilers ahead. Skip to “Pokemon Sword and Shield post-game activities” if you’d like to avoid them.
According to CentroLeaks, the story episode begins with the Galar Region royalty being upset with the player for proving Zacian and Zamazenta were the real heroes spoken about in Galarian legend, as opposed to the royal family’s ancestors. The royal family then corrupts Zacian (or, presumably, Zamazenta, depending on which version you’re playing), and you’re forced to fight it. You can then catch the other legendary (in the case where Zacian is corrupted, you’d catch Zamazenta), and your rival, Hop, calms and catches the corrupted legendary.
This leaked info seems to imply that the main legendaries won’t be caught until after the main story is over and you’ve beaten all of Pokemon Sword and Shield’s gyms and become champion, which is a departure from previous Pokemon titles.
End of spoilers
Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s post-game activities
Aside from the post-campaign story episode, players will be able to engage with a few different activities. We’ll cover each below.
Pokemon Collecting
Obviously, with the total number of Pokemon obtainable in Sword and Shield drastically reduced, it isn’t possible to pursue the franchise’s traditional goal of catching ’em all. The number of Pokemon you can catch in the wild, however — as opposed to transferring them over from other Pokemon games — is actually about on-par with previous titles like Sun and Moon. This means that there’s still a normal amount of Pokemon to catch for completionists and collectors, and the reduced number of Pokemon could actually be a positive for those looking to finally have the satisfaction of owning every Pokemon possible in a mainline game. Additionally, some of the Pokemon will be exclusively obtainable through the next post-game activity in this list, which adds some extra challenge to the affair.
Max Raid Battles
Max Raid Battles are Pokemon Sword and Shield’s new co-op feature. These allow four players to take on one permanently Dynamaxed Pokemon in the Wild Area. Some of the new Pokemon in Sword and Shield, like Gigantamax Charizard and Gigantamax Butterfree, can only be caught after defeating them in “very rare” Max Raid encounters. While players can participate in Max Raid Battles as soon as they get to the Wild Area, some encounters can be very challenging, meaning players will likely want to wait until they’ve got more powerful Pokemon in the post-game.
Battle Tower
But what do you do with all the powerful ’mons you’ve caught if there are no more gyms or routes to conquer? Of course, you can take your team into online battles with other players, but Pokemon Sword and Shield also include a Battle Tower where you can fight NPC trainers indefinitely, presumably earning rewards as you go. If you aren’t confident in your Pokemon’s abilities, you can instead rent a pre-made team of Pokemon to help you learn the finer strategies of competitive play.
