Pokemon Sword and Shield: The Biggest Problem with Max Raids

Pokémon Sword and Shield launched November 15, 2019 amid the Dexit controversy, anger over reused animations and Galar Pokédex leaks. Despite the online outrage, Sword and Shield has received fair reviews with critics and players complimenting the familiar atmosphere while criticizing the barebones story and world-building.

As with every Pokémon game, Game Freak added new mechanics to shake up the formula. Sword and Shield added camping activities, freely roaming Pokémon, Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing and, most interestingly, Max Raid Battles. In this Pokémon GO inspired mode, four trainers battle one Dynamaxed (or Gigantamaxed) boss. These are tough to beat, but doing so will yield participants rare items and a chance to add a powerful Pokémon to their teams. However, there are several issues that make this mechanic frustrating and, in some cases, almost impossible.

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The biggest problem with Max Raids are the NPCs. While the mode is mainly meant for multiplayer, any slots not filled by real players when the timer runs out will be filled by NPCs who, quite simply, make it unnecessarily difficult to beat four and five star bosses. The pool of NPC Pokémon is abysmally small and consists of questionable options such as Togepi, Magikarp and Wobbuffet. What's worse is that the game always seems pick Pokémon that are weak to the boss being fought. Fighting an Electric-Type boss? No problem. MVP Magikarp is here to get fried by a Thunderbolt after it gets a noneffective Hydro Pump off.

Players who had done a lot of Max Raids know to give up immediately if a Wobbuffet, Eevee, or Solrock is put in, as these Pokémon are known for spamming useless moves that don't damage the raid boss. Plus, Max Raid Battles have two loss conditions: the battle lasting ten turns or four Pokémon fainting. When weak or useless NPCs use moves like Helping Hand and Rock Polish, they waste turns and, since many of them are generally weak or have type disadvantages to the boss's moves, they bring the player closer being blown out of the den by fainting from one hit. As a result, entering Max Raid Battles can be a roll of a dice depending on which allies the AI selects, and frustrated players may have to resort to grinding their Pokémon to Level 100 to have any chance at going it alone.

Some cynical players have posited that Nintendo is using the incompetent NPCs as a way to push people towards paying for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. With online functionalities, players can collaborate with one another instead of being at the mercy of the bad AI. But players have reported bugs with the service and have noted that it is difficult to coordinate raids over the Internet. Even when playing online, there are major problems with the matchmaking that makes it hard for players to find or join Max Raids, often resulting in players having to play with NPCs whether they subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online or not.

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Then, there are the battles themselves. In Max Raid Battles, four player (NPCs or otherwise) take turns using moves to damage a Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed boss. After a certain point, the boss will put up a number of shields that the opponents must break before dealing damage again. While this may seem straightforward, there are several flaws.

The shield mechanic will be triggered one the player and their allies drain the boss's health to a specific point. This means that if they are just a little bit off, someone will have to waste a turn taking out that single Hit Point before the shields come up. This is especially frustrating if a player has Dynamaxed their Pokémon, as Dynamaxing only lasts three turns, can only be done once per battle and Dynamaxed Pokémon can often take out two shields and deal plenty of damage, so wasting one of these turns is a huge loss that can end up costing the player the battle.

Additionally, players cannot use forward-thinking strategies, such as strengthening their stats or utilizing abilities. While nothing's stopping players from using status moves, at a certain point, the boss nullifies both stat changes and abilities. Status effects like poison also have little effect, and players simply waste turns trying to set up long-term payoffs. Meanwhile, the raid boss can use moves like Bulk Up or Calm Mind to boost their stats to ungodly levels, and using stat reducing moves does next to nothing. And, again, the AI can further complicate things, as an NPC might bring a Pokémon with a weather changing ability (like Torkoal's Drought) that ends up damaging your own Pokémon.

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Even if a player is able to make their way through the mire of terrible mechanics and earn their chance to capture the boss, Gigantamaxed Pokémon (the rarest and toughest bosses who are exclusive to this mode) don't have a 100% catch rate. It's especially frustrating if players won the raid by a hair after invited others join them or when the boss part of a time-sensitive event. Losing that Gigantamaxed Snorlax who's only available until the end of the month after five attempts is off-putting and doesn't incentivize players to try again.

The last problem is somewhat minor compared to the others, but the fact that there is no option to back out after selecting "Ready for Battle" means a little mistake, like selecting the wrong Pokémon, other players not joining in time or ending up with an AI-selected Solrock can result in a huge waste of time. The player will have to either attempt the battle anyway, sit through up to 10 minutes of animations or close the game entirely. That last one may sound like an easy solution, but if you have manual saves on and you haven't saved in a while, you'll lose a lot of progress.

Max Raid Battles could be a lot of fun and have plenty of cool new ideas in them, but there are massive issues with the current mechanics. While having a new way to play Pokémon cooperatively is great, the systems in place don't work as intended whether you've paid for Nintendo Switch Online or not. The foundation for an innovative system is there, but in its current state, Max Raid Battles are frustrating and unrewarding.

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