10 Ways to Prepare for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC arrives on Sept. 13, 2023, allowing you to journey out of the Paldea Region and explore Kitakami Village as part of a field trip. During this trip, you’ll be able to experience the joys of a festival, meet new characters, and — of course — discover and catch new Pokemon. If you’re yet to prepare for the arrival of the Teal Mask DLC, then we’ve got you covered with 10 ideas to help you get organized and ready to jump into your journey at Kitakami.

Decide What Team You Want to Take to Kitakami

One of the first things you’ll want to do is decide on your team approach for Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC.

Kitakami is a brand new area to explore, packed full of new Pokemon and returning fan favorites. Are you going to take your trusty, fully-leveled team from Paldea into this new environment, enter with a new team of low-leveled Pokemon, or choose one trusty buddy as your next ‘starter’ and catch a new team as you go?

You’ve still got some time to figure things out, but If you haven’t put much thought into this, now is the time to do so! 

Wrap Up Loose Ends in Paldea

While you don’t need to complete the main story of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet to adventure in Kitakami, now is the perfect opportunity to tie up loose ends in the Paldea Region while you wait for the Teal Mask to arrive.

Whether you need to finish exploring Area Zero, complete one of the main story paths, or collect a few Pokemon to take with you if you’re at an earlier stage of the Paldea storyline, now is the time to start getting prepared. Make sure you’ve completed every task you wish to achieve before setting foot in Kitakami.

Complete the Paldea Pokedex

Kitakami will likely have its own Pokedex, or be separated into a sub-section as an expanded Dex. For this reason, it can be helpful to complete the Paldea Pokedex before venturing into Kitakami so you can focus purely on these new and returning specimens. I mean, c’mon, almost every Pokemon player wants to catch em’ all — even if we fail to succeed due to lack of luck or patience!

And besides, even if the Kitakami Pokedex isn’t separated and the new and returning ‘Mons are mixed into the bunch, it’s still a good idea to try and complete the Paldea Dex before the Teal Mask’s arrival. Doing so will help you organize and track down the Pokemon you’re wanting to catch without getting mixed up about which specimens can and can’t be found in the area.

Prepare a Stash of Pokeballs For Catching New Pokemon

With Kitakami bringing an extended list of Pokemon, you’ll likely be setting out to catch all the new specimens and old-time favorites that you adore. However, in order to do so, you’ll need to be prepared with a good stash of Pokeballs. That way, you can simply fire away until you catch each critter without any worries of running out and missing out on a rare or beloved catch.

While a good stock of regular Pokeballs is a solid starting point, you can take this a step further by preparing a large quantity and range of other variants. These could include Love Balls, Dusk Balls, Net Balls, and more. Doing so will enable you to have a wide assortment of catching devices that can give you the upper hand in successfully catching almost any specimen you encounter.

This will make your time rounding up the new critters much more relaxing and easy, and remove the need to travel to a PokeMart every so often to re-stock your assortment.

Farm Tera Raids For EXP Candies

Tera Raids are a bonus feature in Scarlet & Violet that enables you to take on Terastallized Pokemon in battle and catch them, as well as earn a variety of useful goodies as a reward. The most prominent reward you can earn from participating in Tera Raids is EXP Candies, which can be used to boost the EXP of your Pokemon and make leveling an absolute breeze.

Stocking up on EXP Candies will enable you to quickly and efficiently raise the levels of new Pokemon you catch in Kitakami, evolving them in mere seconds without the need to tirelessly train and grind your way through battles for multiple hours. For the best EXP Candies (L and XL), you’ll want to target 5 and 6 Star Raids. If you’re at an earlier stage of the game though, you can just go for any Raid you encounter, as any level of EXP Candy will be more useful than none.

Prepare Pokemon You Want to Tranfer to Scarlet & Violet via HOME

When the Teal Mask arrives for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, an assortment of ‘Mons from previous Generations will be returning to the game and become available to find and catch in the Kitakami Region. With the inclusion of these specimens, Pokemon HOME will be receiving an update to make them compatible with the game.

This means that you can not only transfer captured specimens into Pokemon HOME for storage, but you can also bring back your beloved (eligible) friends from your previous Generations into Scarlet & Violet. Many Pokemon have already been confirmed as returning to Kitakami, so now is a great opportunity to check out the known Pokedex on Serebii and make a designated box in your HOME database for the Pokemon you wish to bring into Generation 9.

Clean Out Your PC Boxes To Make Room For New Pokemon

With the extended list of new and returning Pokemon for Kitakami, you’ll be setting out to catch many of these critters for yourself. Of course, to the dismay of many Pokemon hoarders and collectors, your PC Box storage is limited to 32 boxes total. If you find yourself running low on room, then now would be a great time to rearrange and clean out your boxes to make space for some newbies.

This may involve re-organizing your boxes by Type or Competitive Battling potential, releasing unused Pokemon, or even seeing some of your critters over to Pokemon HOME for storage. This can take some time to do, so be sure to utilize this window leading up to the Teal Mask’s release to get everything prepared the way you want.

Make a List of Pokemon You Want to Catch in Kitakami

As I mentioned above, there has already been a collective of Pokemon from prior Generations that are confirmed as returning to Kitakami. You can use this time to plan ahead and make a list of specimens you wish to track down first or get your hands on via Trading.

If you’re planning to catch a new team of Pokemon within the Kitakami Region to use for your Teal Mask playthrough, then this can also be useful for planning out your team composition and deciding which of your favorite ‘Mons will make it into your final selection of six.

Prepare a False Swipe Pokemon For Shiny Hunting

If you’re a shiny hunter, then there’s no doubt you’re excited about hunting down shiny variants of Pokemon that inhabit Kitakami. While several techniques can be used to hunt shinies with success, such as Shiny Sandwiches or Mass Outbreaks, there is often the lingering anxiety of accidentally KO’ing the rarity, or having it run away.

To prevent this, players have been utilizing the False Swipe method for a long time. It’s as simple as equipping a suitable lead Pokemon with the False Swipe move, which will take the enemy’s HP all the way down to 1 but never 0.

This makes the Pokemon much easier to catch and significantly improves your chances of obtaining the shinies you encounter. Because of this, it will be very useful to prepare a False Swipe Pokemon before heading into the Teal Mask DLC. A popular choice among many Trainers is a Level 100 Scyther or Scizor, but any high-level Pokemon capable of learning the move will get the job done just fine.

Refresh Your Battle Technique with Practice in the Academy Ace Tournament

For many of us fellow Trainers, it’s been a while since we’ve last played Scarlet & Violet, due to having already completed the game. Because of this, it’s fairly common to forget little details about battles such as what a certain Ability does, how to properly utilize Terastallization, or which Hold Items have the best effects for your team members.

To refresh your mind on these topics before entering the Teal Mask DLC, you should make the most of Scarlet & Violet’s Academy Ace Tournament. This is a battle tournament involving all of your beloved friends and rivals that you can participate in and repeat multiple times, making it the perfect opportunity to test out potential team compositions and give yourself a gentle reminder of all the battle mechanics.