What To Do First In Pokemon Scarlet And Violet

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduce a revolutionary open-world experience that can overwhelm newcomers with its expansive mechanics and non-linear progression. Understanding where to focus your initial efforts dramatically impacts your long-term success in team building and competitive play.

During the opening sequence, you’ll encounter the three starter Pokemon before making your selection. For players serious about breeding optimization, this moment presents a critical decision point. By saving your game before choosing and resetting until you obtain a female starter, you establish the foundation for efficient breeding chains without requiring Ditto availability.

Female starters provide immediate breeding capabilities, allowing you to produce offspring with optimized Individual Values (IVs) much earlier than traditional methods. This approach becomes particularly valuable for trading, as well-bred starters command premium value in exchange networks. Consider that breeding mechanics now integrate with the Class Guide principles of strategic resource allocation.

Traditional Pokemon games typically restrict multiplayer functionality until later stages, but Scarlet and Violet break this pattern dramatically. The moment you reach the initial Pokemon Center, you gain access to game-changing features that can accelerate your progression exponentially.

After your encounter with the legendary motorcycle Pokemon and receiving its Poke Ball, proceed directly downhill to locate the first Pokemon Center. This facility serves as your gateway to multiplayer interactions, including link trades and the incredibly valuable Surprise Trade system.

Surprise Trade represents one of the most powerful early-game tools available. By capturing numerous common Pokemon and exchanging them through this system, you can receive everything from alternate starter Pokemon to endgame creatures, and even specially bred specimens with exceptional IV distributions. This mechanic aligns with the resource acquisition strategies discussed in our Weapons Unlock guide, emphasizing strategic resource exchange.

Your initial team composition will naturally feel limited during the early hours. While you’ll gradually encounter diverse Pokemon species, the Flying Tera-type Pikachu available through Mystery Gift provides immediate strategic advantages that shouldn’t be overlooked.

This exclusive Pikachu variant possesses the Flying Tera type and knows the powerful Fly move—normally inaccessible to Pikachu. Although Fly’s overworld travel functionality has been redesigned in this generation, it remains a formidable combat move that significantly enhances Pikachu’s type coverage.

To claim this valuable asset, navigate to the Poke Portal, select Mystery Gift, and choose Get via Internet. The acquisition process takes mere seconds but provides long-term team building benefits, similar to the strategic equipment choices outlined in our Complete Guide to optimal loadouts.

The Paldea region features various glowing resource indicators scattered throughout the landscape. Red luminous pillars denote consumable items like Potions and Poke Balls, while golden sparkles indicate Berry locations. However, the green glowing lights represent Technical Machines (TMs), which hold significantly greater long-term value.

Unlike previous generations where TMs were single-use items, Scarlet and Violet introduce a revolutionary crafting system. Once you obtain a TM from these green sources, you permanently unlock the ability to craft additional copies using collected materials.

This systematic collection approach becomes crucial for team customization, allowing you to teach specific moves to multiple Pokemon as your strategy evolves. Prioritize TM collection early to maximize your movepool options throughout the game.

While most wild Pokemon encountered during the initial hours will match your team’s level progression, Tera Raid battles break this pattern entirely. These encounters provide access to Pokemon that typically exceed your current level cap, feature optimized movesets, and possess unique Tera types unavailable through normal encounters.

Pokemon captured through Tera Raids often come with competitive-ready stat distributions and Tera types that provide unexpected type advantages in battles.

Whenever you observe a radiant pillar of light in the overworld, make it a priority to investigate. These raids offer some of the most efficient methods for strengthening your team beyond normal progression limits.

The Titan Pokemon encounters represent critical progression milestones that unlock essential movement abilities for your legendary companion. These abilities dramatically enhance your exploration capabilities, allowing access to previously unreachable areas.

By seeking out these powerful creatures early in your journey, you gain traversal capabilities that transform how you navigate Paldea’s diverse landscapes.

Each defeated Titan grants Miraidon or Koraidon new movement functions, progressively removing exploration barriers and opening new strategic possibilities for team acquisition and resource collection.

Pokemon obedience represents a frequently overlooked mechanic that becomes crucial as your team levels up. Without the appropriate gym badges, Pokemon above certain level thresholds may disobey commands during battles.

The Bug-type gym provides one of the earliest solutions to this limitation. By utilizing the Auto-Battle feature strategically and targeting this gym early, you can ensure that Pokemon up to level 25 will consistently follow your instructions.

This strategic gym progression approach allows you to maintain control over your growing team while maximizing battle efficiency throughout the early and mid-game segments.

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