Every mainline Pokemon game outside of Yellow has allowed players to pick from three starters at the beginning to go on their journey with. That is no different in Pokemon Sword and Shield, with your created character getting to choose between Scorbunny, Sobble, and Grookey as the Fire, Water, and Grass starters respectively. After picking a starter, you cannot obtain one of the other two starters outright in your playthrough, but there are still methods to get them and this guide will explain how you can do just that in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
How To Get All Starters
At the very beginning of your adventure in Pokemon Sword and Shield, you will have to pick one of Scorbunny, Sobble, or Grookey as your starter Pokemon. There are plenty of other Pokemon in the game to fill out the other five slots in your team, but sometimes you really want to add one or even two of the other starters to your team to use. If say you pick Grookey as your starter, you cannot just go and catch Sobble or Scorbunny in the game itself.
Instead, you have to try something different to get all three starters in your party in Pokemon Sword and Shield, which is pretty similar to how it has been in the past. The easiest method of all is to just have have a copy of both Pokemon Sword and Shield or two copies of the same game in your possession and two Nintendo Switch consoles. From here, you want to start up your own main game and select one of the starters here. Then, you need to start up the other game and select another starter. Get to the point where you are able to trade and then trade between the two games. This can either be done online or through local Wi-Fi connection, the latter of which does not require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to perform.
You could also try to get a friend to trade you one of their starters, though that’s likely only going to happen if they have breeded the Pokemon. That brings us to our next option, start breeding Pokemon. Breeding your own starter Pokemon can be a good method to try and obtain other starters online, whether you’re trading with a friend or have found a community online that allows you to match up with trade partners for what you need.
The last option you have to obtain all starters will have to wait until next month when Pokemon Home releases. With that, you will be able to send your Pokemon in and out of Sword and Shield. That means you should be able to start a game, transfer a starter to Home, reset your data and start over again with a new starter until you have all three. We don’t know for sure how this will work though, so for now you’ll have to rely on the other options.
