Pokemon Sword & Shield Wild Area Explained: What It Is, How It Works & More

If you bought Pokemon Sword and Shield or are thinking about getting the games, you might be wondering what the Wild Area is and why you should care about it. Here is everything you need to know about the Wild Area.

What is the Wild Area?

The Wild Area is a central region in Galar that you first visit very early in the game (even before the first gym) and return to throughout your journey. It is the only open world section of the game.

This is also the only area in the game where you can move the camera freely around you, giving you a brand new perspective for the first time in a Pokemon game.

What Can You Do in the Wild Area?

There are a number of fun things that you can do each time you visit the Wild Area.

Max Raid Battles

Max Raid Battles are one of the main attractions. When you see a pink or purple beam of light coming out of a den, that’s how you know there is an active raid ready to battle.

When you interact with the beam of light, it will show you a silhouette of a Pokemon and its typing. You can choose to team up with NPCs or other people online, and if you defeat the Pokemon in battle, you can try to catch it.

Keep in mind that these Pokemon are in their Dynamax forms, so they can be difficult to take down. The difficulty of the battle is indicated by the number of stars shown.

Max Raid Battles are worth doing not only because you have the chance to catch rare Pokemon that are only found in raids, but you also get prizes (such as exp. candy, Dynamax candy, berries, and TRs).

If you see a glowing raid den that doesn’t have a beacon of light, you should still interact with it anyway, because you can find Watts. You can also use an item called a Wishing Piece to spawn a raid Pokemon in an uninhabited den.

Battle and Catch Rare Pokemon

Since the Wild Area is open world, you can go as far into it as you want. However, you won’t be able to catch all of the Pokemon just yet.

At first, you can only catch Pokemon that are under level 20. The level you can catch increases with each gym badge you earn. If you encounter a Pokemon you can’t catch, it will say that it is “very strong-looking.” You can still try to battle them to gain a lot of experience, but they will be a lot tougher to beat.

You can still explore as much as you want, though. The Pokemon available to catch change with the time of day and weather, which provides an incentive to keep returning to the Wild Area.

If you see a bubbling spot in the water, that means you can use your fishing rod to encounter a Pokemon. If you see a flying Pokemon, whistle by pressing the left analog stick to call it down.

Shake Berry Trees

Throughout the Wild Area, you can find trees that have berries growing on them. Shake them and some berries will fall off.

You can choose to keep shaking for a chance at more berries, but if you shake too much, a Pokemon will jump out and attack you. Shaking it more times means more berries, but you can lose them all if you get too greedy.

Set Up Camp and Cook Curry

If you press X in the Wild Area, you can set up camp. There are two main things to do while camping.

The first is playing with your Pokemon with toys. If you interact with them a lot, they’ll gain experience. This is a good idea to do if you want to train your Pokemon without battling with them.

The second is cooking curry. You can use various ingredients to cook different types of curry, which have helpful effects such as restoring HP, gaining experience, and making your Pokemon friendlier.

Collect Rare Items

There are a lot of items to find throughout the Wild Area. Some items like TMs are hidden in plain sight in Pokeballs, but others are a bit harder to spot.

If you see a sparkling area on the ground, walk up to it and press A. These are items such as revives, ingredients for making curry, and mushrooms that sell for a high price.

If you see an NPC, talk to them. Some will offer to give you something in exchange for Watts. Say yes, and they will give you rare items like Pearls that can be sold for a high price.

And that’s pretty much everything you need to know about what the Wild Area in Pokemon Sword and Shield is.

For more tips, tricks, and guides, visit our Sword and Shield guide wiki, or check out one of the guides below:

• How to Get Pikachu or Eevee From Let’s Go
• How to Soft Reset
• All Hairstyles in the Game
• How to Get Money Fast