Pokemon Sword and Shield

• You get some pokeballs pretty early without really being told about it, and if you catch something before hitting the catching tutorial it’ll automatically skip the tutorial, which helps somewhat with the never-ending intro sequence. So check your inventory and catch something ASAP.

• The Pokémon wandering around outside of grass in the wild zone can be much higher level than you, I ran into a level 40 something when my team was roughly level 12. So probably stick to the ones in the grass at first.

• You can do the dynamax raids in the wild area very early to get some good items and Pokémon, they’re honestly pretty easy even with the dumbass AI raidmates.

• Pick whichever starter you like most, none of them have types that are particularly hard to find.

• Don't sell Bottlecaps or Fossils. Everything else in the treasure tab is fair game, although there is an NPC who buys them for more than they sell for, if you don't need the money right now.

• Chaining is no longer an effective way to shiny hunt midgame. Just wait until postgame.

• You can't (easily) catch a Pokemon of a higher level than the one you're using, so switch to something else before you start throwing Pokeballs. Ideally, after roughing it up a bit and either putting it to sleep or paralyzing it.

• The first available Mystery Gift (until 01/15/20) is a Gigantimax Meowth (often affectionately referred to as Longcat), who is extremely useful for money grinding in gym battles and dynamax raids (in the Wild Area).

• TMs are infinite use, but TRs are one-use, and are somewhat rarer when you're first starting out.

• You can get a few free TMs by doing the Rotom Rally bike races in the Wild Area if you're fast enough, and then use those watts to buy TRs.