Pokemon Sword and Shield Curry Cooking’s Better with Other People

Pokemon Sword and Shield curry cooking is quite an affair. It becomes an optional activity whenever you set up camp and can be a quick way to heal characters up, get them some experience, and make them friendlier. It can also help you build up your Curry Dex, which is essentially a recipe book of all the different kinds of curry available in Galar. But the interesting thing is how it feels designed to be a communal activity.

The basics of Pokemon Sword and Shield curry cooking are easy to grasp. You collect berries from trees or raids and ingredients by talking to other players you see in the Wild Area or from shopping at vendors. (Shield players will need to trade a Sword player for a Bob’s Food Tin, while Sword players will need a Bach’s Food Tin from Shield players.) When you cook, you need to try to match flavors. The ingredient you pick determines the kind of curry you make, while the berries determine the taste. To completely fill the Pokemon Sword and Shield curry dex, you must make sure each ingredient has been paired with each flavor at least once.

Each berry’s description notes what kind of flavor it has, and there are six varieties total. These are bitter, dry, sour, spicy, and sweet. The Chesto berry, for example, has a description that notes it is dry in a subtle sort of way. Meanwhile, the Apicot description says it is “very dry.” Also, some berries have multiple flavors associated with them. The key is to combine enough so one flavor comes through more than the others.

What really matters with Pokemon Sword and Shield curry making is how many people you can get to cook with you. That’s because the ranking is determined by how well you play the minigame and how many berries have been added to the recipe, and succeeding is easier when you have extra people to fan the flames and stir the pot. Each step is easier to accomplish when at least one other person is there to help. I’ve only made Charizard Class curry, the best sort, when I have had at least one other person around. Setting up camp near a nursery or town entrance in the Wild Area is a good way to guarantee an extra chef or two.

Once someone else is around, the cooking can begin. First, you want to add as many berries for the flavor you want as possible and pick a key ingredient you would like. Then, when it comes time to fan the flames, you need to look for visual cues. You want a lot of grey smoke and a tall fire that lures Pokemon in the vicinity to the pot. The Pokemon will also have musical note balloons appear above their heads if things are going well. You don’t want to see black smoke or black frustration bubbles from the Pokemon. For the second step, you want to stir until you see a lot of sparkles, but slow down if you start seeing visible curry splashes. Finally, when adding the love, you want to toss in the heart a little before it hits the inner green circle.

If all goes well and you keep finding time to cook with friends, it shouldn’t be too difficult to start cooking some award-winning Pokemon Sword and Shield curry recipes. Maybe you won’t always make a Charizard Class dish that completely restores your party’s health and PP, makes them happy, and gives them a lot of experience, but even managing Copperajah Class and getting its health, PP, experience, and happiness boosts can be a big help.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are available for the Nintendo Switch.