100% completion in the Pokémon series is tricky, to say the least. There’s no in-game indicator of your completion status, so it’s up to you as the player to decide what tasks are necessary to fully finish the game. That being said, we’ve compiled a list of potential requirements and our opinion on whether each one truly counts towards 100% completion. If you’re looking to fully complete your Pokémon Sword or Shield save file ahead of Scarlet and Violet, you’ve come to the right place!

100% Required

With most other Pokémon games, you can track your completion progress via the stars on your Trainer Card. With Sword & Shield, you’ll obtain all seven stars just by playing through the main story. Unfortunately, this means we can’t go by the Trainer Card to determine completion — in other words, we have to determine what counts as “complete” for ourselves, so there are a lot of tasks in this section. Do note that things like beating Gym Leaders, the Champion, and the postgame story are a given, so they aren’t specifically written on the list. Buckle up, because this is a hefty list!

1. Complete the Pokédex. This entails capturing every Pokémon in the standard Galar Pokédex, the Isle of Armor Pokédex, and the Crown Tundra Pokédex — Legendaries included! Mythical Pokémon technically don’t count towards Pokédex completion, but if you manage to get one in your game, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Remember to collect the Catching Charm and Shiny Charm afterward!
2. Collect all seven League Card stars. These appear on your trainer card, and there are a grand total of seven of them if you have the DLC installed. By the time you beat the main story, you should have five stars; you can get the sixth after obtaining a Gigantamax Urshifu from the Isle of Armor and the seventh after winning the Galarian Star Tournament.
3. Obtain every key item. As a rule of thumb, items that can’t be sold count for 100% completion. You’ll have to collect the Shiny Charm, the Catching Charm, and the Oval Charm from Game Freak Morimoto, too. Pokémon-specific items like the DNA Splicers and Zygarde Cube count, too!
4. Collect every Rare League Card. After meeting certain requirements, specific NPCs like Gym Leaders will give you Rare League Cards. Once you’ve obtained one of these, you can view it via your own Trainer Card’s menu.
5. Complete the Curry Dex. We’re not going to sugar-coat it: this task is terrible. Even so, completing the Curry Dex does yield rewards, though they’re nothing more than special cookware. If you’re really going to try and complete this task, get your control stick ready — you’re going to be spinning it a lot.
6. Purchase all clothing options. This includes hats, shirts, shoes, and everything in between. You’ll need to scour each town’s boutique and buy up everything they’ve got. The guide we linked above covers money farming too, so it shouldn’t be all that difficult to gather up the funds you need.
7. Unlock all Card Maker options. You’ll unlock these periodically after completing certain tasks, like visiting towns for the first time or defeating specific Gym Leaders. Some of the requirements are a bit difficult, such as winning 100 Double Battles in the Battle Tower.
8. Find every TM. In games where TMs are infinite-use, they’re considered a requirement for 100% completion — and Sword & Shield’s TMs are indeed infinite-use. You’ll find TMs in shops, routes, caves, and more. Please note that TRs (Technical Records) aren’t a requirement because they’re disposable.
9. Receive all non-repeatable Gift Pokémon. Other than your starter Pokémon, this includes the Gigantamax Pikachu from the train station, Toxel from the Day-Care center, the Type: Null at the Battle Tower, and Leon’s Charmander. This also entails finding all 151 Alolan Diglett spread about the Isle of Armor, which is why this section is in required instead of optional. Don’t forget Poipole in the Crown Tundra!
10. Obtain every Rotom Bike upgrade. Of course, this does entail upgrading the Rotom Bike so that it can pass over water, but it also entails upgrading its boost capability. You can perform this upgrade via Watt Traders in the Wild Area. Simply speak with them and select the “improve my bike” option.
11. Achieve Master Ball Rank in the Battle Tower’s Singles and Doubles modes. In this game, ranking up is permanent — once you achieve your Master Ball Rank, you can never lose it. Reaching the Master Ball Rank is slightly easier than it sounds, and this is because Galar’s Battle Tower lets you use powerful Legendary Pokémon like Zacian and Shadow Rider Calyrex. Do take full advantage! You’ll also automatically unlock the IV Judge function by participating in the Battle Tower.
12. Unlock all Dojo upgrades. This requires tons of Watts, which might seem intimidating at first. Fortunately, farming them is super easy — and you can check out our guide on how to do that right here. Keep that link handy, because you might need it for the next task, too.
13. Complete Restricted Sparring as every type. You’ll need plenty of competitively-trained Pokémon on hand in order to complete this challenge, which you find in the Isle of Armor’s Master Dojo. That’s okay, though, because Sword and Shield make raising competitive Pokémon much easier than in previous titles.

Indeed, there are several tasks here to keep you busy! Remember, our 100% guides assume you’re done with the main story — which means you’ll have to tough it out through the Sordward and Shielbert arc, too. If you don’t own the DLC packs for Sword & Shield and only want to complete the base game, you can safely ignore the tasks that require DLC (#12 and #13). If you think of any potential completion requirements that aren’t listed here, please let us know!

100% Optional

These tasks are a bit iffier. Technically, if you don’t complete these challenges but do complete the ones above, you can still say you have 100% completed the game. Whether or not these truly count towards completion is up to you, so read our list and make your decision!

1. Catalog all forms and gender differences in your Pokédex. This entails things like Alcremie forms, regional forms, and Zacian and Zamazenta’s Crowned forms, among others. Most of the Pokémon with gender differences are from Generation I, II, III, and IV — past Generation V, very few Pokémon have them. If you’re absolutely insane, you can try your hand at hunting down every Shiny Pokémon in the game, but that’s certainly not required for 100% completion.
2. Pick a favorite Pokémon and decorate it with every ribbon in the game. There are just five of them to collect in this game, and only three are exclusive to the region: the Galar Champion ribbon, the Tower Master ribbon, and the Master Rank ribbon. The Master Rank ribbon is only obtained through online competition battles, so it’s very much optional.
3. Complete all in-game trades. There are several in the main game alone, but there are even more on the Isle of Armor! Specifically, there’s an NPC named Regina who lets you swap regional forms of Pokémon with her.
4. Visit every area in the game. Beat all of their trainers and collect all of their items. Again, very much optional because Pokémon games love hiding invisible items. Most of these items are easily found elsewhere, so you don’t have to complete this task if you don’t think it’s worth the effort.
5. Fully complete the Curry Dex. This goes beyond making one of each type of curry; it entails cooking each type of curry three times. There are three sizes: small, medium, and large. The Pokémon in the first position of your party dictates the size of the curry you cook, and certain Pokémon will cause that curry to be served in a small or large portion. Examples of Pokémon that result in a small portion include Metapod, Joltik, and Cutiefly; some Pokémon that result in a large portion are Eternatus, Wailord, and Snom (don’t ask us why).

That should be about all there is to do, then! Pokémon games are usually fairly straightforward to 100% complete, as progress appears on your Trainer Card — since that’s not the case in Sword & Shield, though, things become a bit more complicated. If you need help finishing some of these tasks, feel free to check out our full list of guides for Pokémon Sword & Shield via this link right here. Remember to join our Discord community if you have any questions. Good luck!

If you would like to read more 100% completion guides, please follow this link.

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