I Feel Like I’m Playing This Game Wrong

While I’m writing this article, I have my Nintendo Switch next to me, leveling up my team in Pokemon Shield. I’ve been playing Pokemon Shield for a bit now (you can tell from all the articles surrounding this one) and I’ve spent a lot of time leveling Pokemon to great heights, ready for fights against the gym leaders across the Galar region. But something about how I’ve been playing Pokemon Shield just feels… off.

I basically feel like I’m doing this all wrong.

A dedicated team for each gym

But as I put together teams for fighting gyms, I find myself leveling up new Pokemon, just for these battles. Sure, my Rillaboom is always a part of the team, but aside from maybe one other Pokemon, everyone else is new. There are a handful of main roster Pokemon that I keep close, but everyone else has been caught from the wild or found in a bush no one cares about. In fact, I think only 3 Pokemon I own, I didn’t catch them from the wild. I’ve had Grookey all along, since he was a starter, but the only other Pokemon I can recall is Toxel, which I was given when briefly visiting a Pokemon daycare. The very last Pokemon is a Sawk which I got from a guy who wanted a Vanillish, and I just happened to have one.

Oh look, I got distracted. Probably for the best, because it makes the grind go faster.

Grabbing what I can

I don’t just grab any Pokemon though. They have to be super effective against whatever gym I am working towards. Most other Pokemon end up dead and fainted at the hands of my starter Pokemon.

However, after all that, my teams don’t look amazing. The levels are all over the place, and most of the time, they have no items on them. At least they have nicknames, I guess, but even those aren’t particularly interesting. No one on my team is permanent, if they’re not needed, they’re stuffed into a box. If they’re very lucky (or are my Rillaboom and Salazzle), I might use them again, but it might also be easier to just go and get new, fresh Pokemon from the wild areas.

I’m playing like a Pokemon GO player

Yeah, I’ve worked out what I’m doing. Instead of thinking of tactical battles, I’m trying to power my way through. Stat-increasing moves? Nah. Enemy debuffs? Can’t be bothered. More damage? Yes please! In fact, the only debuffs I care about are ones connected to moves and have high accuracy. And the ONLY no-damage buff I have is on a Shiinotic, which knows Spore. Every other Pokemon has 3 damage moves at minimum.

This is exactly how I build my teams for raids in Pokemon GO. Everyone needs to have super effective moves against the raid boss, otherwise there’s no point. And just like my raid teams, I always have an anchor Pokemon or two, in case something goes wrong. in GO, it’s generally something like Dialga or Tyranitar. In Shield, it’s Rillaboom or Salazzle and that’s kinda it. Everything else has super-effective moves shoved on them, then they get leveled up to match whatever gym I’m fighting, and then I just damage-only everything to death.

After that though, it’s back into the box, unless you also happen to be useful for the next gym as well.

It doesn’t feel right

Most of the Pokemon I have are one-offs. They get used for a little bit, then shoved back into a box. But these Pokemon aren’t like the stationary, half-dead critters we have in Pokemon GO. They’re more alive. Yet I just throw them in boxes and leave them. Then again, I guess I kinda do the same in Pokemon GO, in which I have about 1900 Pokemon sitting in my storage, only a handful of them ever getting used.

I should probably put a bit more love and care into my teams, regardless of game, but oh well.