Pokemon Sword and Shield - Restricted Sparring

What is Restricted Sparring?

Restricted Sparring is a feature in the Isle of Armor. Here, you’ll face other trainers using only one type of Pokemon, similar to how gym leaders perform.

How to unlock

Restricted Sparring appears at the end of the main story in the Isle of Armor. In other words, you need to surpass the three trials to gain access to it. When it’s unlocked, head inside the dojo and talk to the Master Dojo Student guarding the door that lies ahead.

Rules

The challenge is to surpass other trainers in battle while having type disadvantages. Battles take place in streaks of 5. No two Pokemon can be the same and they cannot hold duplicate held items. In between the 5 battles, you have the option to heal the party for only two times. You can make use of the dynamax factor. After surpassing the first 5 matches, you lose access to heals in between battles. Similar to the Battle Tower, you can earn BP after achieving feats.

Preparation

Form a party of three Pokemon of the same type. When deciding members, assess Pokemon’s stats. Pokemon with high attack stat or special attack stats coupled with stellar speed give the best chance of picking up knock outs. In other words, you need hyper-offensive teams that can cause loads of damage while taking the least amount of hits. Train them or give 26 vitamins to whichever stat you’re aiming for. About 26 Protein or Calcium, 26 Carbos and 1 more vitamin on either HP, Defense, or Sp. Defense is enough to max one Pokemon out. Don’t forget to also give 10 pieces of Dynamax candies to capitalize on its health when dynamaxed.

When the match starts, use Dynamax to gain an advantage. Some examples of fast and hard-hitting Pokemon include dragon or ghost teams with Dragapult, water teams with Inteleon, or fire teams with Libero Cinderace. Aim for as many coverage moves as possible while sticking to the primary type. If your team consists of fire types, have each of them at least have a fire type move to get the boost through STAB (Same type advantage bonus) while the rest of their moves being different from each other to have optimal coverage from as many types as you can. For example since fire types struggle against water, you can opt to teach one of them an electric type move.

Players who avail of the expansion pass can take on the restricted sparring challenges as an alternative to grind for Battle Points (BP) fast.

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