Galar's Wild Area: 18 Zones, All-Powerful Weather, Max Raids

The Wild Area is the big new feature of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Between Galar's towns stretches a vast territory where you control the camera freely, where the day's weather picks which Pokémon you run into and where glowing red dens hold Dynamax Pokémon to take on as a team.

Contents

• An open territory at the heart of Galar
• Weather that picks your encounters
• Dens and Max Raid Battles
• Watt Traders and life after the League
• The Wild Area in the anime
• The Wild Area at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

An open territory at the heart of Galar

The Wild Area is a vast natural space in the middle of Galar, stretching from the banks of Motostoke to the outskirts of Hammerlocke. You can only explore it in Sword and Shield, where it marks a clean break from the linear routes of previous generations.

The territory is split into eighteen zones, from the Meetup Spot to the Lake of Outrage, by way of the Stony Wilderness, Lake Axewell, Lake Miloch and the Dusty Bowl. Within a single zone, wild Pokémon are at similar levels, but the gap from one zone to the next can be huge.

The camera rotates freely, which lets you spot Pokémon and hidden items from afar in the tall grass. Wandering Pokémon, stronger than their neighbors, also stray from their usual zone: you're better off steering clear of them until your team is ready.

Weather that picks your encounters

Weather is the heart of the system. Every day, each zone draws its own from nine possibilities: clear skies, intense sun, overcast, rain, thunderstorm, snow, snowstorm, fog and sandstorm.

It doesn't just change the scenery: it changes which species appear. Snowy weather brings out Ice-type Pokémon, intense sun brings out Fire types, and fog brings out Fairy and Psychic types. Certain dates on the calendar even force the same weather onto every zone.

Not everything is available right away: you have to reach Hammerlocke before snowstorms blow in or sandstorms kick up, and fog stays locked until you become League Champion. One quirk of the system: the sun can shine perfectly well in the middle of the night.

Dens and Max Raid Battles

Along the way, you'll come across dens, piles of glowing red rocks that give you Watts as soon as you touch them. When a beam of light shoots out of one, a Dynamax Pokémon is lurking inside and can be challenged in a raid; if not, tossing a Wishing Piece inside will make one appear.

Raids range from one to five stars: the higher the rank, the stronger the Pokémon and the thicker the barrier it puts up. You take them on as a group, online or locally, or alone, backed by three computer-controlled Trainers.

Encounters also show version exclusives at work: only in Pokémon Shield do the Stony Wilderness and certain dens hold Toxicroak. So it's best to check your version before setting out to hunt a specific species.

Watt Traders and life after the League

The Watts you collect have somewhere to go: seven Watt Traders, run by League staff, are spread across the territory, from the Meetup Spot to the Giant's Cap. Their stock changes every day, but each one always offers a Poké Ball, a Wishing Piece and five TRs.

Once the adventure is over, the Wild Area is still well worth your time. Once Eternatus is caught, all of the area's Pokémon are raised to level 60, except those that were already higher: the area becomes a training ground for the post-game.

🎒 Ready to roam the Wild Area? Our Pokémon backpacks keep up with long expeditions.

The Wild Area in the anime

The series Pokémon Journeys takes Ash and Goh there as early as episode JN005, to investigate the mysterious phenomenon that makes Pokémon gigantic. A wild Snorlax struck by a red glow takes on its Gigantamax form across a railway line; it's by helping to calm it down that Scorbunny becomes Goh's first Pokémon.

The group goes back there in episode JN050, with Chloe, for a fossil hunt that goes wrong: two scientists put together the wrong fragments and bring back to life a Dracovish and an Arctozolt instead of the species they were after.

Finally, in episode JN100, Leon takes Ash there to train, after getting lost on the way yet again, a running trait of Galar's Champion. The duo flies on the back of Charizard over the area's rivers.

The Wild Area at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where is the Wild Area?
  In the center of the Galar region, from the banks of Motostoke to the outskirts of Hammerlocke. It only exists in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
• How many zones does the Wild Area have?
  Eighteen. Each one has its own Pokémon, its own encounter level and its own weather of the day.
• How does the weather affect which Pokémon you encounter?
  It changes which species appear: snowy weather attracts Ice-type Pokémon, intense sun Fire types, and fog Fairy and Psychic types.
• How do you trigger a Max Raid Battle?
  A den with a beam of light shooting out of it already holds a Dynamax Pokémon. If no beam comes out, just toss a Wishing Piece into it.
• What happens to the Wild Area after the League?
  Once Eternatus is caught, all of the area's Pokémon are raised to level 60, except those that were already higher. Fog, unlocked when you become Champion, also adds Fairy- and Psychic-type Pokémon.

In short

The Wild Area ushered the series into the era of wide-open spaces: weather that decides your encounters, raids built for multiplayer and a territory that stays useful long after the story ends. The open worlds of Hisui and Paldea later took the same idea much further.