Milo: The Turffield Farmer Placed on Galar's First Step

The first Gym Leader a Galar Trainer meets is also a man of the fields. Milo runs the Turffield Gym and fields only Grass-type Pokémon there. His spot at the start of the Gym Challenge is no scheduling accident: it stems directly from his reputation as an easygoing Gym Leader who pulls his punches with less seasoned Trainers. The rest of the time, you'll find him out in his crops, surrounded by a herd.

Contents

• Turffield, the Entry Step of the Gym Challenge
• A Gym Leader You'll Find in the Fields More Often Than at the Gym
• Galar's Short Series: One Wooloo Too Many
• Cards and Sync Pairs: Milo Beyond the Main Games
• Milo at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Turffield, the Entry Step of the Gym Challenge

Milo defends Turffield for the Galar League, and his specialty comes down to one word: the Grass type. The Trainers who visit his Gym are fond of him — for a post whose job is to block the way, that's worth pointing out.

The way he battles reflects the same temperament. Milo enjoys battles that drag on, because length is what showcases his endurance and that of his Pokémon. The team he fields at the stadium in Wyndon, where he becomes a possible opponent again, also changes depending on which version you're playing, Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield.

His League Card spells out the consequence plainly, and the description in the mobile sync pair game repeats it almost word for word: because he readily goes easy on those who haven't yet mastered their team, he was placed at the start of the circuit rather than in the middle. His gentleness is therefore a progression setting as much as a personality trait.

One last detail completes the picture on the games side. In the first round of the Galarian Star Tournament, he doesn't stand against fellow Gym Leader Nessa: the two Gym Leaders team up there, in a two-Trainer format that reshuffles the deck of type specialties.

A Gym Leader You'll Find in the Fields More Often Than at the Gym

Being a Gym Leader clearly isn't his main occupation. Milo is first and foremost a man of the land: the anime repeatedly shows him tending his crops, and that's even how it introduces him the very first time, in an end-of-episode shot where he catches his breath after a long day.

Around him, a herd of Wooloo. The species is so much a part of him that it even shows up on his clothes: the 831 he wears is Wooloo's number in the National Pokédex, and most of the media he appears in show him busy looking after them.

His signature partner, however, isn't a Wooloo but an Eldegoss — still in the fluffy register, but this time a Pokémon of his favorite type. That's the Pokémon he forms his sync pair with when the mobile game adds him, in December 2024, in his canonical outfit.

🌱 The herd fits on a shelf too: check out the Pokémon plushies.

Galar's Short Series: One Wooloo Too Many

His real moment comes in an episode of the short series devoted to Galar. His herd comes to tell him that a stray Wooloo has tumbled in among his own, and the Gym Leader, intrigued by this visitor he doesn't recognize, tries to work out where it came from.

The resolution is deliberately mundane, and that's what makes it ring true. Milo spots a tag around the animal's neck, reads its Trainer's address and concludes it has run away; he immediately thinks of how worried the owner must be and calls a Flying Taxi to take it home. The Wooloo clings on, resists, and leaves anyway — after which the Gym Leader goes back to his own flock.

The rest of his appearances happen on a screen. A TV broadcast shows him defeating Nessa in an official match, and another episode films him being interviewed in the middle of his fields, where he's asked what he thinks of Leon, the Champion of the Galar League.

Cards and Sync Pairs: Milo Beyond the Main Games

The trading card game welcomed him early. His first card came out in the Sword & Shield—Rebel Clash expansion, released in France on May 1, 2020, and others have followed since.

The mobile sync pair game, on the other hand, took its time: Milo was only added on December 5, 2024, alongside Eldegoss. For a Gym Leader that every player who has been through Galar is bound to have met, it was a long wait.

Milo at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where is Milo's Gym?
  In Turffield, in the Galar region. Milo defends the Grass type there, and his Gym is the first stop of the Gym Challenge.
• Why is Milo the first Gym Leader you face in Galar?
  Because he has a reputation for going easy on Trainers less experienced than he is. The description in the mobile sync pair game explicitly gives this as the reason he opens the circuit.
• Which Pokémon are associated with Milo?
  Eldegoss above all: it's his sync pair partner in the mobile game. He also raises a herd of Wooloo in the anime. His Gym team (Gossifleur and Eldegoss) is the same in both versions; it's at Wyndon Stadium that it differs between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.
• What does Milo do in the anime?
  The short Galar series mostly shows him on the farm. One episode has him take in a lost Wooloo, which he sends back to its Trainer by Flying Taxi; elsewhere, he's seen on TV beating Nessa, then giving an interview in his fields about Champion Leon.
• What does the 831 Milo wears mean?
  It's Wooloo's number in the National Pokédex. Milo is regularly shown looking after this species, so he wears its number on his clothes.

In short

Milo is the first obstacle on the Galar circuit, and his own profile explains why he isn't a serious one: the League put him there because he goes easy on beginners. The story uses that to sketch a character whose Gym is clearly not his center of gravity — his crops and his Wooloo come first, right down to the number stitched on his outfit. It's a rare portrait in the series: a Gym Leader who has a job elsewhere and never turns it into a selling point in battle.