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Restricted Sparring Guide & Rewards

Isle Of Armor | Restricted Sparring | Pokemon Sword and Shield

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Isle Of Armor | Restricted Sparring | Pokemon Sword and Shield - GameWith
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Check out this Restricted Sparring Guide for the Isle of Armor Pokemon Sword and Shield. Learn about Restricted Sparring battle feature, rewards, and best teams for each type!!!

Table of Contents

Check Out More Isle Of Armor Features Here!

Restricted Sparring Battle - What Is It?

A New Gameplay Mode In Isle of Armor

Isle of Armor

Restricted Sparring mode will only be available for players who have cleared the Isle Of Armor story. You will need to purchase the DLC to unlock this feature. 

> Check Out Isle Of Armor Post-Game Content

Restricts The Pokemon You Can Use

Restricted Sparring

↑ A team of Ground types about to enter Restricted Sparring.

The main draw of this mode is that it will limit the type of Pokemon you can bring to a battle. This means you will need to start thinking more about the type of Pokemon than you have before. This is a good opportunity to raise up strong Pokemon in all varieties of types.

>> Check Out All Pokemon By Type In The Pokedex Here!

Restricted Sparring Rules & Tips

Fight With A Party Of A Single Type

restricted sparring

After you beat the game, you can challenge the Restricted Sparring. In this battle mode, your Pokemon's type will be restricted. Your opponent's Pokemon type is sometimes strong against yours, although it is possible that your opponent's Pokemon are random. It's important to learn moves that can cover all your weaknesses.

Restricted Sparring Rules

  • Form a party with 3 Pokemon of the specific same type
  • You'll fight 5 battles in a row
  • You can heal in between battles twice
  • You can Dynamax or Gigantamax

Although you can continue past 5 battles, you will not get more heals if you continue! Consumable items such as the Weakness Policy and Berries will respawn only if you use a restore!

Restricted Sparring Tips

EV Training Is Most Important!

EV Training

If you don't have perfectly raised Pokemon for each type, that's OK. Although it's ideal to have a perfect Pokemon with max IVs, EVs, and Nature, in reality, as long as your Pokemon has average IVs, EVs will make the biggest difference in terms of performance. You'll be getting lots of BP from this event anyway, so save it up to buy Nature-changing Mints as well!

The Faster, The Better

Having a high speed, high attack Pokemon that can take out opponents in one shot is ideal for this mode. Since you have a limited amount of heals available, you'll need to minimize the amount of damage you take.

Don't Rely On Consumable Items

Consumable items, such as the Weakness Policy and Berries will only respawn on your Pokemon after using a restore! This means you won't be able to have them at your disposal every fight. This is less than ideal, so try to use another item instead. Leftovers and Choice items are a safe bet. Avoid items that reduce your health, such as the Life Orb.

Use Your Dynamax Wisely

Every battle, you'll have the opportunity to Dynamax your Pokemon. This presents a huge advantage over your AI opponent, so make sure to use it wisely. Remember that Dynamaxing unlocks your Choice item restrictions!

Reward Of Restricted Sparring

Reward Of Restricted Sparring Is BP

Just like Battle Tower rewards, you can get BP (Battle Points) by winning at Restricted Sparring. The more you win, the more BP you get.

Amount Of BP You Can Get

BattleRewarded BP
1~4th3BP each
5th20BP※
6~9th3BP each
10th20BP

※ 30BP will be given as a one-time prize when you clear the 5th battle for the first time!!!

Recommended Teams By Type

Recommended Team By Type List

※ Team recommendations for the other types are coming soon!!!

List Of Types
PoisonBug
NormalPsychic

Recommended Poison Type Team

The poison challenge can be a bit difficult if you don't have enough Pokemon trained already. If you do competitive ranked battles you probably already have a Toxapex, but it alone will likely not be enough. You will need the raw damage of Venusaur and Gengar to push you through.

Giga Drain For Sustain

As you'll only have 2 heals available for this mode, having a sustain move like Giga Drain will be a huge help. It will also offset your Life Orb recoil damage.

Max Speed And Sp. Atk For Venusaur/Gengar

In terms of EVs, you'll want to go offensive on Venusaur/Gengar. 252 Speed/252 Sp. Atk is ideal for both of them. With Toxapex you can go 252 HP / 252 Def.

Other Viable Pokemon

Other Poison Pokemon
ToxtricityToxtricity ScolipedeScolipede RoseradeRoserade

If you're missing the 3 we recommended, here are some alternative Pokemon you can use!

Recommended Bug Type Team

Note that many Bug Pokemon were added in the Isle of Armor expansion, including Scizor, Volcarona, Heracross, Pinsir, and Scolipede. Try capturing some of these in the Isle of Armor and feed them some Vitamins quickly to boost their EVs.

Extremely Weak To Fire

The team we've set up above is unfortunately slightly weak to fire. Volcarona takes neutral damage from fire, & can use a Psychic move, so that might be enough for some cases, but if you get really unlucky, consider swapping Durant to Golisopod.

Hustle/Choice Band Durant

If you can get a fully trained up Durant with 252 Speed/Atk EVs and a speed-boosting nature with the ability Hustle, you can likely one shot a majority of Pokemon you come across. Remember that Dynamaxing unlocks your Choice Band and that Dynamax moves always hit!

Other Bug Pokemon
HeracrossHeracross ScolipedeScolipede GolisopodGolisopod

As mentioned above, Golisopod is a good bet if you're really struggling with Fire types for this challenge.

Recommended Normal Type Team

Snorlax is an obvious choice as your lead here, as it has great stats and moves at its disposal, but don't discount Diggersby here, a Choice Banded Quick Attack can often be enough to finish off a low-health enemy.

Various Snorlax Builds

Snorlax is a Pokemon with a wide variety of builds, many of which are quite viable. Check out our detailed Snorlax guide here to decide which ones you want to run. You could even use the Gigantamax build, if you want.

Why Diggersby?

Diggersby's decent 112 attack, combined with a 150 power STAB Giga Impact can be quite deadly. STAB Quick Attack and Earthquake are also nothing to sneeze at.

Other Normal Pokemon
ObstagoonObstagoon Type:NullType:Null Porygon-ZPorygon-Z

The above three are also good alternatives, but make sure they're properly trained with the right moves before using them.

Recommended Psychic Type Team

Note that Alakazam is a newly added Pokemon in Isle of Armor, so you'll have to find one on the Isle to catch and train up.

Trick Room Possible Too

Alakazam and Hatterene's raw damage and decent move coverage should be enough to get you through this challenge. Hatterene and Reuniclus are both very slow, so if you want, you can run Trick Room on Hatterene - but only use it after Alakazam dies.

Defensively Built Reuniclus

We recommend building Reuniclus somewhat tanky for this, with HP or Defense EVs. Running Recover on it will also allow you to stall out fights a little bit longer. Be careful vs. Dark type opponents though.

Other Psychic Pokemon
StarmieStarmie EspeonEspeon GalladeGallade

If you don't have trained versions of the 3 we recommended and want some more coverage, Starmie is a good bet. Espeon and Gallade are also decent Pokemon to have as well.

Isle Of Armor Related Articles

New Pokemon In The Isle Of Armor

New Features

New Characters

Other Expansion (DLC)

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Article Written by
Sword Shield Strategy Team

Sword Shield Strategy Team

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Anonymous 5

cinderace for fire, inteleon for water, rillaboom for grass maybe?

Anonymous 4

How about fire, water, grass team?

Anonymous 3

For all interested, I've made a Playlist for all types here https://bit.ly/2Cb8XDV

Walter Crobato 2

The challenge is fun, but reward is rather disappointing.

ahhhh 1

I LOST LILLIGANT HOW TO FIX HOW TO FIX HELP ME RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!!!!

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