Pokemon Sword and Shield came out last month, and so far the games have been receiving above-average reviews from both the critics and fans of the series. However, the games did hit a slump in the beginning when angry players started review-bombing both games on Metacritic. Fortunately, things worked out eventually, and both the games have an 80+% rating on Metacritic as of now.
Pokemon Sword and Shield made several changes to the gameplay and even cut some of the fan-favorite Pokemon from the games, but the core gameplay remains the same: catch Pokemon, train them to make them stronger, and beat all the Gym leaders. Similar to previous games in the franchise, Pokemon Sword and Shield also require players to level up their Pokemon by battling other trainers, participating in Max Raid battles, feeding them Exp Candy, and more.
Whenever a Pokemon levels up, it gains higher stats and even learns new moves at certain levels. Some Pokemon even evolve into a much stronger form once they reach a specific level, so leveling up Pokemon is definitely an important task. As already mentioned, battling is not the only way to level up Pokemon. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, using EXP Candy is definitely the easiest and fastest way of leveling up Pokemon.
EXP Candy in Pokemon Sword and Shield
EXP Candy is similar to Rare Candy, but instead of providing Pokemon with 1 level per each candy, the EXP Candy grants a set amount of experience points depending on the size of the candy. There are five different sizes of EXP Candy, and the bigger the candy, the higher the experience points.
XS: 100 exp
S: 800 exp
M: 3,000 exp
L: 10,000 exp
XL: 30,000 exp
How to Farm EXP Candy in Pokemon Sword and Shield
Players who want to farm EXP Candy can head over to Max Raid battles to earn a bunch of candies. The Max Raid battles grant a bunch of EXP Candies, but the sizes depend on the difficulty of the raid. 5-star Max Raid battles will almost always grant L and XL EXP Candies, so it’s always better to participate in those to maximize the earnings. Players can also find EXP Candy in the Wild Area by interacting with NPCs. There’s one NPC that can give players EXP Candy in exchange for Watts, but he shows up at random locations, so there’s no surefire way to get to him.
Another way to farm EXP Candy in Sword and Shield is the visit the Battle Cafe and talk to the man at the counter. The man challenges trainers to a Pokemon battle, and upon losing the battle, he grants players with an item that may or may not be an EXP Candy. So, it’s recommended to invest the time in Max Raid battles to earn the maximum number of EXP Candies in the game and level up the entire team to challenge some of the toughest Gym leaders in the Galar region.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are out now for the Nintendo Switch.