When it comes to starting a Pokemon game, players are only as strong as their Starter Pokemon and, like its predecessors, Pokemon Sword and Shield gives players a choice between a grass, fire, and water pokemon. In this case, players are given the option to choose between Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble.
That being said, if having just one of the Starter Pokemon isn’t enough, it's possible to get all three in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
There is a variety of ways that players can go about acquiring all three, but the most straightforward requires breeding, trading, and two friends.
In other words, if a player were to choose Scorbunny as their Starter Pokemon, then the player can breed a second Scorbunny and trade it to another player for a different Starter Pokemon like Sobble. Then players can breed another Scorbunny or a second Sobble and trade that with another player for Grookey, the last of the Starter Pokemon.
The first step for players looking to breed their Starter Pokemon is to locate the Pokemon Nursery right along the main road on Route 5. Players will also need to upgrade their bike so that it can travel across water. Put simply, this upgrade can be acquired by talking to the same doctor along Route 9 that players got the bike from originally, but if players are still having trouble finding it, then they can checkout the getting across water guide.
With those two things done, players will be able to travel to the Lake of Outrage in order to catch a Ditto, which they can breed with their Starter Pokemon back at the nursery. The nursery will then give players an egg, which, if carried in a party slot for a few minutes, will ultimately hatch and give players a second of their Starter Pokemon.
Now that players have a Starter Pokemon to trade, then all they need is someone to trade with before, hopefully before the first competitive season starts. If players could corral two of their friends with Pokemon Sword or Shield into repeating the process with their Starter Pokemon, then an effective and seamless three-way trade can be transacted and the world will now have to face three trainers each with all three Starter Pokemon.
Now that players have Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble at their disposal and had a crash course in breeding, they're one step closer to earning their Master Ball.
Pokemon Sword and Shield is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.