8 Items You Should Keep in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Highlights

• Keep valuable items like Rare Candy, PP Max, and Mochi for Pokemon leveling and stat growth.
• TMs are essential for gameplay, so it’s best not to sell them.
• Avoid selling trade-evolution items (ex: Prism Scale) and Ability Capsules/Patches as they have value for evolving and changing a Pokemon’s Ability.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have an endless amount of items that trainers can find along the ground or earn from talking to NPCs. Poke Balls are the most obvious choice when sorting through which items should stay in the bag and which should be sold to merchants. However, stat-changing items and experience items such as Rare Candy should also be kept.

Before selling anything in the bag, Scarlet/Violet trainers will want to go through the Treasure pouch before digging through the others. Items such as Grassy Seeds are more disposable thanks to how common they are, but Nature-changing Mints are worth keeping due to their rarity and high prices at Chansey Supply stores. Items that are exclusive to difficult Tera Raids are also worth keeping even if trainers don’t intend to use them right away.

8 Vitamins

Calcium, Carbos, PP Max, etc.

Vitamins and feathers are items that give a particular stat more EVs. They generally add 10 EVs, whereas stat-increasing feathers only add one EV. Feeding/Using them on Pokemon will also make that Pokemon friendlier towards its trainers. HP Up, Protien, Iron, Calcium, Zinc, and Carbos can all be bought from Chansey Supply for 10000 once players have obtained three Gym Badges. However, trainers may have noticed that two items are missing from the shelves.

PP Up and PP Max do not enhance stats. Instead, they will increase the amount of Power Points (PP) for a selected Move. Each Move has a limit of how many times it can be enhanced, and using a PP Max will increase it to its limit. For example, Moves with 5/5 PP such as Hydro Pump have a max 8/8 PP. Using a PP Max will instantly raise it to 8/8 whereas a regular PP UP will just increase it to 6/6 PP. Since PP Up and PP Max bottles can’t be bought from stores, it’s highly suggested that trainers keep them for their Pokemon. In fact, all vitamins aren’t worth selling as their sales price is 2500. Instead, use these to help EV train Pokemon and increase friendship.

7 Mochi

Fresh-Start Mochi, etc.

Like vitamins and feathers, Mochi are a brand new stat-increasing item that was added with the first half of Scarlet/Violet‘s expansion pass: The Teal Mask. Unlike vitamins and feathers, they can’t be bought, nor can they be found in the overworld. Mochi is instead received from doing the Ogre Oustin’ minigame at Kitakami Hall. The better the score, the more Mochi. Unfortunately, the Mochi given is randomized, so if trainers are looking to enhance a specific stat, it may take them some time.

There’s a special Mochi called Fresh-Start Mochi that completely wipes the EVs of a Pokemon. While this sounds more bad than good, clearing the slate of a Pokemon’s EVs allows it to be EV-trained again. Thus, it’s a very useful item to use if trainers want to EV-train their Pokemon from the ground up. Another reason why trainers should not sell Mochi is its poor sales price: 75 poke dollars.

6 Technical Machines

TMs

Just like in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and mainline games pre-Unova, Technical Machines (TMs) will break after one use in Scarlet/Violet. TMs are a way to teach a Pokemon moves that it can’t normally learn via leveling up. If players intend on having a well-rounded battler for competitive play, then they will absolutely need TMs to give their Pokemon some type coverage.

Scarlet/Violet allows players to craft TMs with certain Pokemon Materials and League Points (LP), mitigating the “one use per TM” rule. Since farming Materials can be quite tedious, it’s best to refrain from selling the TMs. Sure, players can always craft more if they desire, but compared to Treasure-classified items (ex: Nugget), TMs are not worth a few extra poke dollars.

5 Nature Mints

Adamant, Modest, Timid, etc.

Since Gen 8, players can obtain an item called a Nature Mint. As their name implies, Nature Mints will change the Nature of a Pokemon, thus making them very useful for those that want their Pokemon to have their best stat-growth. If a species of Pokemon does better with great Speed and poor Attack but has a Brave Nature (+Attk, -Spd), then trainers can remedy this by giving it a Timid Mint (+Spd, -Attk).

Nature Mints can be picked up in the overworld, but they can also be bought from Chansey Supply for 20000 once players have 7 Gym Badges. Therefore, they’re not as “valuable” as some of the other items listed. However, because they’re so costly, it’s best to collect them and use one when necessary to hold off on wasting money.

4 Rare Candy

Exp. Candy XS/S/M/L/XL

Rare Candy will raise a Pokemon’s level by one, and Exp. Candies will give a set amount of experience depending on the size of said candy. An Exp. Candy XS will yield little experience compared to an Exp. Candy M. What gives Exp. Candy L/XL has a greater advantage over Rare Candy, is that they can potentially be used to elevate the Pokemon’s level by more than one level at a time. As such, it’s important not to get rid of Rare Candies or Exp. Candies.

These can’t be bought from stores, but Exp. Candy and Rare Candy serve as rewards for Tera Raids. The higher the raid, the rarer the Candy. The sales price for Rare Candy is 2500, and the Exp. Candy XS, S, M, L, and XL are 5, 60, 250, 750, and 2500 respectively. Thus, they’re not worth selling to try and rack up some poke dollars. Use them for Pokemon, but keep in mind that leveling a Pokemon with experience candy won’t give them an EVs.

3 Pokedex Completion Evolution Items

Reaper Cloth, Prism Scale

Since Gen 2, certain Pokemon species can only evolve in a trade if they’re holding an evolution item. One prime example is Slowpoke, who can evolve into Slowking if it’s holding a King’s Rock at the time of being traded. Since then, a handful of Pokemon have this trade-item-evolution method. With the Teal Mask DLC, Scarlet/Violet players can get Pokemon such as Dusknoir and Milotic, who evolve from Dusclops and Feebas in a trade while holding the correct item. Players will need a Reaper Cloth and Prism Scale respectively, and there are only two of each in Kitakami: One as a Pokedex Completion Reward, and another hiding away in Timeless Woods (Reaper Cloth) and Fellhorn Gorge (Prism Scale).

If players do not have Legends: Arceus or Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, they will want to hold onto trade evolution items, as it will be the only way to get Dusknoir and Milotic without battling in 5-star Tera Raids/waiting until the postgame. They also don’t sell for much at Pokemon Centers. Even if players don’t like to trade Pokemon in Scarlet/Violet, it’s best to save these items until a more-accessible way of obtaining them becomes available.

2 Bottle Caps

Gold Bottle Caps

Bottle Caps are strange items, because most beginner players may not know where or how to use them. They don’t do anything when held by a Pokemon, and they can’t be used to enhance a Pokemon’s Abilities either. Bottle Caps and the Gold Bottle Caps are used for Hyper Training, which pushes one (or all) of a Pokemon’s six stats to the max. Hyper Training can be done if a Pokemon is level 50, and if a trainer has a regular Bottle Cap or a Golden Bottle Cap in their bag. Speak to the man next to the Abomasnow in Montenevera to Hyper Train a Pokemon.

Since Hyper Training is used to enhance a Pokemon’s IVs, players will want to refrain from selling Bottle Caps. They only sell for 5000 and 15000 respectively, which isn’t a lot when compared to individual treasures such as a Comet Shard and Big Nugget. Players will get more use out of them through Hyper Training than they would by selling them. Regular Bottle Caps can be farmed from 5/6/7-star Tera Raids, but Golden Bottle Caps go for a fortune at the Auction in Porto Marinada.

1 Ability-Changing Items

Ability Patch

Gen 6 of Pokemon introduced an item called an Ability Capsule, which allowed a Pokemon to change its Ability from one common Ability to another. In Gen 7, Pokemon created the Ability Patch, which allowed a Pokemon to access its Hidden Ability. These items have made it into Scarlet/Violet with the Ability Capsule being much more accessible than in previous games. Normally, a Pokemon’s Hidden Ability (if they have one) is greater than their regular Abilities or Ability, but this isn’t always the case. Regardless, a Pokemon with a good Hidden Ability is never out of place in a competitive team, and should be considered if trainers want to partake in PVP.

Ability Capsules can be gained from 5/6/7-star Tera Raids, or they can be bought from Chansey Supply for 100000 poke dollars. On the other hand, Ability Patches are exclusive rewards for 6/7-star Tera Raids, and they have an extremely low drop rate (4.5%) when compared to other 6/7-star Tera Raid rewards. Thus, they are items that trainers should never sell. While the 125000 sell price looks tempting, losing an item as good as an Ability Patch is not worth the exchange.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are available for Nintendo Switch.