The Two Best And Two Worst Items In Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

It isn't just Pokémon that players can collect in "Scarlet" and "Violet;" there are also tons of items for them to gather as well. There were 73 different kinds of items in "Pokémon Red," "Blue," and "Yellow." That might have seemed like a lot in 1996, but it's nothing compared to what can be found in the modern generation. There are now hundreds of pokéballs, recovery potions, held items, battle items, and various other goodies scattered across the landscape of the Paldea Region (per Powerpyx). Players will need to regularly stock up on many of them at Poké Marts while other, more specialty items, can only be purchased from the specific stores located in the cities. Then there are those that are gifted by NPCs, those that are dropped by Pokémon, and many more which can be found on the ground while exploring the brand new open world.

Not all "Pokémon" items are created equally, however. A Hyper Potion is obviously much more valuable than a regular one, especially once you get into the late game, and your team needs a heck of a lot more than a 20 HP boost when they get hurt. There are a few of these trinkets that can be absolutely game changing while others can be all but useless. Here are the two best and two worst items found in "Pokémon Scarlet" and "Violet."

Battle Items have been in the "Pokémon" games since the very beginning. Things like X Attack and X Defense can give major boosts to a Pokémon's stats, which can be really useful when the player is facing a powerful opponent they are struggling to defeat. For example, an X Accuracy may really come in clutch against a Pokémon with a high evasion rate that the player is struggling to land a hit on. The only downside to these items is that they cannot be given to Pokémon to hold. This means the trainer is forced to waste a turn in order to use one.

There are times when this is an acceptable loss since losing one turn to power up a Pokémon for an entire battle may be worthwhile, but it's always been a hard pill to swallow when it comes to X Speed — and it still is in "Scarlet" and "Violet." The whole point of the Speed stat is that it gives the Pokémon with the higher Speed the first move in combat, so it's really unfortunate that the player has to give up a turn in order to use the item to boost it. There might be a few rare use cases where it comes in handy while facing trainers with multiple Pokémon, but the situations where the benefits outweigh the cost are few and far between.

One of the things that sets "Scarlet" and "Violet" apart from past generations of "Pokémon" games (other than all the funny glitches) is that it's the first generation in the franchise that gives players multiple questlines, and allows the player to complete them in whichever order they choose. There are the typical gym battles, a new mission to disrupt the activities of Team Star, and the Path of Legends quest. This is given to the player by a sandwich enthusiast named Arven, who wants them to track down and defeat the five Titan Pokémon so that he can gather the legendary Herba Mystica.

There are five herbs in total: Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, and Spicy. Once the player has helped Arven beat a Titan Pokémon in battle, he will gather the Herba Mystica that the creature was guarding in order to make sandwiches. Players can then share these sandwiches with either Koraidon or Maraidon (depending on the version of the game they have). This will unlock these Pokémon's unique travel forms, granting them the ability to sprint across the land, surf across the water, glide across the skies, and eventually participate in battle.

Not only that but they can also be gained as rewards for five- and six-star raids. These can then be used to make Sparkling Sandwiches, which are the best ones in the game, with the highest chance of spawning shiny Pokémon types (per Nerd Stash).

Held items are another cornerstone of the "Pokémon" franchise. They've been around ever since Gen 2, and some of them can make a major difference in battle. While it's common for players to give their Pokémon a berry or potion so that they can heal themselves when their health is low or cure any status conditions they might contract, there are other items that can boost combat stats or even grant special abilities.

Seven new Held items were added in Gen 9 (per Victory Road), and the Ability Shield is easily the weakest of them. According to the description, "this cute and rather unique-looking shield protects the holder from having its Ability changed by others." This makes it so moves like Worry Seed and Mummy won't change the Pokémon holding the shield's Ability. It's not that this is necessarily a bad thing to have. Some abilities, such as Intimidate, are incredibly useful and are difficult to lose. It's just that the list of situations where this kind of protection is actually something the player needs to worry about is incredibly short. Meanwhile, there are several other items the player's Pokémon can hold that will boost attack power, mimic enemy stat increases, or take advantage of any number of other effects that would make much better use of the slot.

A more recent feature that has been seen in several of the newer "Pokémon" games is the addition of special combat transformations, such as Mega Evolutions and Dynamax. These often give Pokémon boosted stats and abilities beyond what they are typically capable of in their normal forms. The new version of this is called Terastallization. This allows the trainer to encase their Pokémon in a special layer of crystal, which gives them access to boosted type-based abilities. One particularly interesting thing about this new method of battle transformation is that the boosted type may not necessarily correlate to the Pokémon's natural type, so a Pikachu might get a boost to Flying or Fighting-Type moves instead of Electric ones.

In order to make this work, the player needs a special key item called a Tera Orb. Luckily, this item is gifted to the trainer by Nemona very early in the game. The player can activate the orb on any Pokémon in their party at any point in a given battle, but the orb can only be used once before it needs to be recharged at a Pokémon Center. This forces the player to use it sparingly, but it's also an incredibly useful ace in the hole to use on Titan Pokémon, Team Star crew bosses, and gym leaders.