Sword & Shield’s Exp Share

[Jimmu]

In Sword and Shield the option not to use Exp Share has been removed. How do you feel about this? Do you feel like this makes the game too easy or just removes unnecessary grinding time?

I personally don’t mind Exp Share always being on but it would be nice to be able to turn it off for those who don’t want to use it. I think it undoubtedly makes the game easier but for someone who is time poor this function helps a lot.

 

[Spirit]

It made sense to have the exp share on in Let's Go because wild encounter battles weren't a thing.

In Sword and Shield it isn't done well at all. I chose Scorbunny and kept myself at a good level, but because Double Kick and Fire moves almost break the game I never needed to switch Scorbunny out during battle until after the fourth gym.

By this point a lot of Pokemon who I had never used that were in my party had fully evolved. It was difficult to remember who was in my team sometimes because I rarely ever needed to use them.

All of this is the fault of the exp share. I never needed to switch out Scorbunny if he could hold his own to raise other Pokemon because the exp share was doing it for me.

Sure it wasn't as much exp as Scorbunny was getting but it was still more than enough and that's before we even think about the exp we gain just for catching Pokemon.


The exp share made the game far too easy and pretty boring to play. Which sucks because the game is boring enough on its own to begin with.

 

[~Kilza~]

I feel like the changed Exp. Share was unbalanced in XY when it was first introduced, since it never felt it was taken into consideration when those games were being made, so it made the games super easy if it was turned on. But having played through UM and Shield myself with Exp. Share on, it was fine and did feel like those games were designed with it in mind, so the difficulty was never super easy with it on (unlike XY). Like in Shield, having it perma-on worked well with my team and being able to get any of my new team members leveled up more quickly, while also not having to sacrifice the levels of the other Pokemon on my team. While I was overleveled for most of the game, I ended up being at the right level/underleveled for the champion fight and postgame fights, lol.

Just in general, I do feel like having it permanently on helps to make the games more accessible to people as well, especially anybody who is coming into the series for the first time, and not just the "hardcore" fans of the series. Although I can understand how it'd irk some people that they can't turn it off, I'm honestly fine with it, since I wouldn't want to play Shield with it off tbh.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I mean the EXP share isn't as much an issue because of the level caps on the wild pokemon, if you only have the ability to catch lvl 35 pokemon then the exp you get is what you'd get from a pokemon at that level regardless of level.

The bigger issue is why doesn't the badge limiter work? By this i mean the whole "pokemon up to level 30 will obey you" cuz you can literally raise a pokemon to lvl 100 before Milo's Gym.

 

[Fraxinus]

On one hand, it does help keep your entire party within a similar level range, depending on how long they've been on your team. However, with the badge level caps being so low (and I found this to be an issue in Ultra Sun as well, but I was able to disable it to work around it), I constantly found my team hugging the level threshold where they would stop listening to me and that was pretty frustrating. I don't typically start running from wild encounters until late game but Shield had me getting into that habit BEFORE THE FIRST GYM because I couldn't risk getting the exp. I think the levelling rate got faster too. They really streamlined levelling probably for their competitive stuff or whatever, but it is pretty annoying especially early game if you're trying to take your time.

 

[A Link In Time]

I think the experience share being always on made the games easier but not substantially so. X and Y are still the easiest games in the series by a comfortable margin. The experience in the Galar region doesn't stack up too much if you only spend a moderate amount of time in the wild area. My Pokémon were always pretty close in levels to the gym leaders, gym challengers, and champion. My bigger issue is decisions like healing your party between matches at the way end when you challenge for the title of champion. That eliminated the need for full restores and revives that at least added tension towards the end of the journey in previous generations when challenging the Elite 4 and champion.

 

[Ⓡⓔⓖⓘⓝⓛⓔⓘⓕ]

Personally I love it. You get it free and saves you the time to level up the rest of your party via having to battle to earn XP, also saves you time of switching pokemon around in the party that would have to be in battle. How I hated doing that in the past.

 

[Doc]

I was very disappointed that it couldn't be turned off. It seemed like such an unnecessary change that only hurt players more than help. I don't have a problem with EXP Share being the default, but the fact that I could no longer decide I didn't want it was so upsetting. I never felt like I had to really train my pokemon for gyms. They were just all strong. There was no Pokemon who was really weak but I had to invest in to make stronger or useful.

And I don't mind the EXP Share as a feature. Now that I've beaten the game, it has made things a lot easier for just trying to evolve pokemon to fill out the dex. But throughout my adventure, it didn't feel like I had to put any amount of work in.

 

[Jirohnagi]

On one hand, it does help keep your entire party within a similar level range, depending on how long they've been on your team. However, with the badge level caps being so low (and I found this to be an issue in Ultra Sun as well, but I was able to disable it to work around it), I constantly found my team hugging the level threshold where they would stop listening to me and that was pretty frustrating. I don't typically start running from wild encounters until late game but Shield had me getting into that habit BEFORE THE FIRST GYM because I couldn't risk getting the exp. I think the levelling rate got faster too. They really streamlined levelling probably for their competitive stuff or whatever, but it is pretty annoying especially early game if you're trying to take your time.

I've honestly not had this issue with the obedience limiter, i had a level 100 before the first gym and it's always obeyed.

 

[DynoStretch]

After having beaten the game I can say it does really feel like the game's difficulty curve was built around the Exp Share system. Even I found myself a little too underleveled at times, so it was welcome.

 

[Mikey the Gengar]

I've honestly not had this issue with the obedience limiter, i had a level 100 before the first gym and it's always obeyed.

yeah, this only applies to pokemon received in a trade.

 

[Princess Niki]

I hated it cuz I like to raise each Pokemon and see all of their forms evenly, the exp share makes that impossible. Once everyone is fully evolved then I start to use it.