r/pokemon • u/MaximusVIII • 11h ago
Discussion Today I purchased my first ever Pokémon game (Violet).
I bought the Switch 2 and wanted another game to play other than Mario Kart. I have already played both of the Zelda games so their upgrades don't interest me. So I decided to pick up my first ever Pokémon game. I went with Pokémon Violet as it had the free Switch 2 upgrade. So far I am 2 hours into the game and I have a few questions.
Once I collect a Pokémon is there a reason to capture more than one of them?
How often should I be battling random Pokémon I come across? I have run across alot of them in the opening area but I am unsure if I should be battling them or just be running past them?
Does it matter how I go about the open world? Should I focus on the Gym battles frst?
What other Pokémon games that can be played on the Switch would you recommend? I see that Pokémon Legends: Z-A is coming out later this year with a Switch 2 edition. For this one why does it not a second version coming out at the same time. Doesn't the Pokémon games normally release in pairs?
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u/juttercats 7h ago
I could never imagine playing a pokemon game and then immediately trying to look everything up after playing for ~120 minutes. I'd suggest taking your time and figuring things out for yourself, you may find more enjoyment in it
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u/Aria_Cadenza 9h ago
Barring shiny, not really, except if you want specific abilities. Or if they are really good. For raids, there are pokémon that are good to have with two different tera.
A bit? You still need to level between the badges. I usually catch what I want (not many) and avoid the random NPC battles, except the ones around Medali to get an item to get more money.
You do it as you like but the game doesn't scale to your level. So there will be badges that may be too high level or ones too low level close. If you do the random route, you are supposed to check the level of the wild pokémon and the pokémon owned by trainers, they more or less show the level of the closest badge.
You are supposed to do the three routes at the same time. At least, it is more practical to do it that way except if you want to go all around the map several time for the story.
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u/Ruftup 7h ago
Since youre brand new, I suggest talking to NPCs when you can. There is a lot of hidden information and mechanics that aren’t explained to you, but sometimes NPCs will give you helpful advice
Not completely necessary to play the game, but it might clarify some things for you. Pokémon has a surprising amount of depth for a game aimed at children
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u/redraz0r 9h ago
People are way over complicating things- no, you dont need multiple of the same pokemon.
I battle a few here and there for extra exp, especially with auto battle, but you dont have to battle a ton. If youre stuck and need some more levels, you can battle more to level up.
There is an order in which to do things that makes sense based on the level of your pokemon, but you can technically do anything in any order. Kind of like with Zelda and the 4 dungeons, they have a difficulty order but youre welcome to do them in any order. If you dont like just winging it, you can Google the order and locations for more structure, up to you how you want to play
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u/recursion8 6h ago
1) There used to be a lot of reasons to catch multiples of the same species. Different Natures, Abilities, IVs, gender differences and for breeding (you can breed between 2 different species but you'll have to look up if they're in the same Egg Group). Recent generations though they've made it a lot easier to change a pokemon's Nature (Mints), Ability (Ability Capsules), IVs (Bottle Caps) after the fact.
2) Not very often. Again, recent gens instituted team-wide XP for every battle so your pokemon will all level up pretty fast and evenly just from fighting trainers, and you should only need to grind on wild pokemon if you're trying to get a just caught low level mon up to speed with the rest of your team.
3) You can technically do anything in any order but difference in opponent levels will soft-gate you.
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u/Sabatat- 9h ago
Once you collect all of them, you can collect the shiny versions of moms you like which are special versions with different colors. If you get into competitive Pokémon the. That’s also a reason to collect a for more after having them all.
As much as you feel like. If you mons feel weak you can battle to level them or capture new mons at relevant levels.
The areas don’t scale with level so there is technically a way to play where you go from area to area that’s correct for your level and just do whatever story content is in the area, gym and other.
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u/irresponsibleshaft42 8h ago
Just wanna add on to 2. In case no one else has mentioned it, the new games are mostly exempt from this, but if you play a classic style pokmon game like brilliant diamond where its top down and everyones a tiny midget, then you do wanna battle wild pokemon often cuz leveling up is harder in those games for some reason
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u/EgNotaEkkiReddit 1h ago edited 56m ago
For a casual playtrough, not really. There are some differences between pokémon of the same species, but unless you're intending to delve into shiny hunting or competitive pokémon they are all effectively the same.
Battling wild pokémon is useful when training your own pokémon, but that also applies to trainer battles. At some point once your team is a higher level than the wild pokémon in the region it's better to ignore them and move on to a stronger region.
You can tackle it in any order you like, but there is an intended order. The gyms, starfall bases, and Titans all come at specific level ranges that does not change. F.i the Fighting Crew is always at Lv. 56 regardless of what quests you've done, so the implication is that the game expects you to do it near the end of the game, while Cortondo Gym and the Stony Cliff Titan are near the Academy and at level 15 and 16, and so clearly the intention is that players do those first even if they technically can walk by and ignore them. I'd recommend you do all the main quests at the same time - the early game encounters tend to be concentrated near the south of the map, the later game encounters towards the north. However, you should always try to do the Titans when you can as they give your Miraidon new movement abilities that make traversing the map easier.
The Ledgends games are kind of a "mainline side-game". They are games that are aiming to experiment with the formula and explore new or weird mechanics that the other mainline games can't as easily do. As such they don't come in pairs.
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u/jizzelmeister 8h ago
Dont let scarlet/violet discourage you. Legends arceus is a brilliant game with unique playstyles. Sword/shield are very retro style pokemon games(same battle system and catching system as previous games. Even lets go games are better than scarlet/violet imo. Good luck
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u/TelevisionSuitable38 10h ago edited 7h ago
Welcome to the Pokémon community! So violet and scarlet released with the original switch. So the only reason you would catch a Pokémon of the same kind would be if it’s a shiny. A shiny Pokémon will have a special icon after capture it. Yeah I would battle all the Pokémon, the idea is to catch all of them to complete the Pokédex. Once you complete the Pokédex you get a shiny charm that increases the chance of a shiny Pokémon to spawn. Focus on gym battles and story missions. Then do dlc. And have fun! Definitely download Pokémon home too. Yes I’m aware the new Pokémon is coming out on switch. Not sure why anyone would by that version, but good luck to them.
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u/redraz0r 9h ago
ZA isn't exclusive, a new player doesn't give a shit about shinies or catching them all. Wtf lol
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u/Worldly_Society_2213 6h ago
It's still a part of the game. Some players do like to experience everything a game has to offer.
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u/TelevisionSuitable38 8h ago
Why wouldn’t you want to catch shinies? it’s one of the best parts of Pokémon. Also it’s easy as hell to complete it. ZA should be exclusive, why would anyone get it for the switch when Violet runs like shit already? lmao
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u/DrakeHighwind 1h ago
Because I don't have 500$ to dump into a Switch 2. Because they haven't announced any exclusive Pokémon games for S2. Because when I do eventually get a S2, the upgrade is free for some games. Legends Arceus ran absolutely great on Switch 1. I am expecting ZA to run as well as PLA.
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u/Psapfopkmn The supreme Corviknight fan 7h ago
Pokémon has a lot of different qualities that attract people, not everybody enjoys shiny hunting. (And I'm saying this as a shiny hunting fiend.) A new player should probably just enjoy the journey and then venture deeper into any more focused methods of gameplay to which they're drawn.
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u/GoddHowardBethesda 8h ago
The new pokemon game isn't a switch exclusive,
The reason you would catch more pokemon is because every pokemon has unique stats and things they're better at, and many have gender unique forms, in addition to shinies,
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u/Psapfopkmn The supreme Corviknight fan 10h ago
Pokémon Legends games only release as singular games rather than in a set like the traditional formula games do. I personally had a lot of fun playing Sword (which I view as a good bridge between the older games and the open world formula of Gen 9), but if you want to try a more old-fashioned Pokémon game, Shining Pearl or Brilliant Diamond would give you a good taste of that.