Pokémon GO Choose A Path: Sword Or Shield?

As part of the Legendary Heroes event in , Trainers are asked to «choose a path» between Sword or Shield, just like they did when deciding whether to playor on the Nintendo Switch. This decision will primarily affect the Incense spawns you can encounter during the event, so it's important to make the right choice.

Branching paths have become quite common in in recent years, with many Timed Research and Special Research quests now requiring Trainers to make a decision between multiple paths. Sometimes this leads to different tasks and rewards, other times it decides which Pokémon you'll learn about, such as the recent Galar Calling quest. For the Legendary Heroes quest, though, your decision will impact which Pokémon you can catch.

There's always going to be an element of personal preference with branching paths, but if you're looking for a concrete answer, I'd recommend choosing the Shield path in the Legendary Heroes Timed Research quest.

The main reason for selecting the Shield path is that Larvitar is one of the exclusive spawns that can appear when using Incense. Larvitar's final evolution, Tyranitar, is one of the best Pokémon in the game right now, and it becomes even better when Mega-Evolved. Mega Tyranitar is currently the top Dark-type attacker for Raid Battles and one of the best Rock-type attackers, too. Even without this Mega-Evolution, regular Tyranitar is still a top-tier attacker for both types.

On the other hand, if we take a look at the Sword path, the standout Incense spawn is Deino. Deino's final evolution is Hydreigon, a powerful Pokémon that's almost as good as Tyranitar when used as a Dark-type attacker in Raid Battles. However, it lacks a Mega-Evolution to boost its power and it doesn't excel at being an attacker of any other type, so it doesn't have as much versatility as Tyranitar. It's still an excellent Pokémon, it's just not as good.

The Great League is the entry-level challenge in the Pokémon GO Battle League, but you'll still need to