Beyond VGC, Pokémon are our friends and partners. Everyone has favorite Pokémon partners from different points in their journeys, and now you can bring them with you into the competitive world, too! Pokémon Sword and Shield allows almost any Pokémon, even those from past generation games, to become ready for competition! 

Firstly, if you want to use a Pokémon from a past generation game, you’re going to need to transfer it up to Pokémon Sword and Shield. Albeit long-winded, Pokémon from as far back as the Generation 3 games (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen) can be moved up to Sword and Shield. 

You can find a comprehensive guide to transferring Pokémon here. 

After your Pokémon has arrived in the Galar region, go to the Battle Tower and talk to the man next to the elevator at the back. He’ll be able to apply the Battle Ready symbol to your Pokémon - this will make it eligible for Ranked Battles and tournament play. In doing so, the Pokémon will have its moves wiped and replaced with level up moves. This means any Pokémon with event moves will not be able to relearn them, so be careful. Sorry, Eruption Heatran! 

Now that your Pokémon has the Battle Ready symbol, it’s time to make it big and strong! 

First, we recommend you level up this Pokémon to Level 100, to allow you to Hyper Train it. You can do this in one of two ways - EXP Candy, or leveling up using Pokejobs and date skipping. 

EXP Candy can be obtained from winning Max Raid Battles, or bought for Dynite Ore in the Max Lair. EXP Candy L give 10,000 EXP, while XL Candies give 30,000 EXP. Using EXP Candy is by far the fastest method, so if you have a large supply of it, this is the method we recommend.

Alternatively, you can use Pokejobs and date skipping to level up a lot of Pokémon at once, without expending resources. Find out how to do this here.

Hyper Training

If the Pokémon you transferred does not have the IVs you’re looking for, don’t worry! Any imperfect IVs can be made into a Perfect IV of 31 using Hyper Training! As mentioned before, your Pokémon will need to be Level 100 to undergo Hyper Training. 

Hyper Training uses Bottle Caps - one Bottle Cap will raise one stat to a 31 IV, while a Gold Bottle Cap will raise all of a Pokémon’s IVs to 31. Bottle Caps can be bought for BP in the Battle Tower shop or created in the Cram-o-Matic. If you’re feeling lucky, they can be obtained rarely in Max Raid Battles or from the Digging Duo. Gold Bottle Caps, their far rarer cousin, can be obtained from monthly Battle Stadium rewards, events and once again, the Digging Duo.

You can learn more about Hyper Training here.

Mints

If your Pokémon has a less than optimal Nature, you’re going to want to freshen its breath with a Mint! Mints allow you to change your Pokémon’s Nature (or more specifically, change its stats to reflect that nature). 

Mints can be bought in the Battle Tower shop for 50 BP each, or can be found in the overworld in various places. More info on Mints and where to find them can be found here.

EV Training

EVs are an incredibly important part of training a Pokémon for VGC - a Pokémon’s EV spread makes a world of difference on the KOs it can take and the attacks it can survive. EV training in Sword and Shield is a lot easier than in previous games due to changes made to Vitamins (HP UP, Protein, etc) - they can now boost a stat all the way to its maximum. You can find out more about how to EV train here.  

Transferring Egg Moves

Before Sword and Shield, Egg Moves were finicky at best and aggravating at worst. Sword and Shield, however, introduced the ability to transfer Egg Moves across Pokémon provided they are of the same species. 

For example, if you have an Incineroar with Fake Out, you can put it into the Pokémon Nursery with another Incineroar (this Incineroar must have an open move slot - you can use the Move Deleter, found in Pokémon Centers, to do this). Walk or cycle around a little, and then go back - your Incineroar will now both know Fake Out! 

Both Pokémon must be of the same exact species for this to work - for example, Incineroar cannot pass Fake Out to Torracat, and vice versa. You can learn more about Egg Moves here. 

Dynamax Candy

This step is only applicable to Pokémon being used for formats where Dynamaxing is allowed. Dynamax Candy impacts the increase in health when Dynamaxing. Dynamax Candy can be found through raids, or can be purchased in the Max Lair. We recommend making all your Pokémon Dynamax Level 10 - you never know when you may need to Dynamax that Indeedee! Find out more about Dynamax Candy here. 

Max Soup 

A final, optional step - in Pokémon Sword and Shield, a certain few Pokémon are capable of Gigantamaxing. However, not all Charizard can Gigantamax, for example - they must specifically have the Gigantamax Symbol to be capable of doing so. In the Isle of Armor DLC, Max Mushrooms were introduced, and along with them, Max Soup. Feeding a Pokémon Max Soup (made with 3 Max Mushrooms, which can be found around the Isle of Armor after completing Max Raid Battles) makes it capable of Gigantamaxing in battle. Find out more about Max Soup here.

Conclusion

Now you’re ready to battle with your favorite Pokémon - try them out on the Battle Stadium Doubles ladder or even in a tournament!