Dynamax Adventures are a new type of content added in the Crown Tundra DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield. This system is the only way to capture the returning legendaries, other than the Regis, in the Crown Tundra. With almost 50 legendaries, Dynamax Adventures will take you a while to complete.
How Do Dynamax Adventures Work?
Shortly into the Crown Tundra expansion, you will unlock this new system. Each run will pit you against multiple Pokemon, with a guaranteed legendary at the end. You will have a chance to catch the legendary if you defeat it. However, you can only a capture each legendary once. You will not get the option to capture a legendary you have already captured.
Rather than bringing in your own Pokemon, your team will check out rental Pokemon with set templates. Each Pokemon you defeat along the way to the last fight can be exchanged for your current rental Pokemon. HP, PP, and statuses all carry over between fights.
Rental Pokemon
You will not be able to bring your own Pokemon into Dynamax Adventures. Instead you and your team will be using rental Pokemon templates. There are only a limited number of Pokemon that can be used in this setting. Obtaining them for your run is left up to RNG. These templates ensure that in group play you will not get matched up with someone with a “bad” Pokemon.
While it is nice to be able to play with Pokemon I would not otherwise use, I wish I could use my Pokemon instead. You catch all these legendaries, but can’t even use them in this format. Using Pokemon that aren’t mine makes me feel a bit disconnected from the fights. Most runs end up feeling more like RNG than skill.
Legendary Pokemon as Rewards
The main rewards from Dynamax Adventures are Legendary Pokemon. Every Legendary is obtainable in the Crown Tundra. It’s great that these Pokemon have been added, but their use is limited.
With so many of them, they feel a lot less exciting to capture than they were originally. Many of these Pokemon used to be at the end of extensive quest chains that culminated in battles with dedicated arenas and music. Instead, now you’ll be fighting every legendary in the same boring Dynamax Den arena with a slightly remixed version of the boring Dynamax Den music. Overall, the ease of access and the shear number of legendaries you’ll be capturing remove a lot of the “legendary” feeling from them.
They also, generally, cannot be used in competitive battles. There are some events and formats where legendaries can be used. But, for the most part you won’t be able to bring your new OP Pokemon into ranked fights. Perhaps there is some use for them in the new Galarian Star Tournament. However, by the time you’ve captured these Pokemon you’ll already be in the endgame of Sword and Shield, limiting the use of these legendaries.
Dynamax Adventures Additional Rewards
Completing a Dynamax Adventure will also reward you with the new currency, Dynite Ore. This currency can be spent on a few useful items like Beast Balls, vitamins, and the new Ability Patch. Dynite Ore is a decent reward and the rate you get them from adventures is ok.
In addition to legendaries, Dynamax Aventures are a good way to shiny hunt. Unlike normal Max Raid Battles, the Pokemon in these fights do not gain shields at certain health breakpoints, making the fights pretty quick. It is possible to obtain shiny versions of the legendaries too, but you can only catch one of each. If you are planning on shiny hunting legendaries, you’ll have to pass on every non-shiny until you get lucky.
Unlike Max Raid Battles, you don’t get TRs or EXP candies. Despite being a good source of Dynite Ore, once you capture each legendary, you’ll have very little incentive to continue doing Dynamax Adventures. You can trade your Dynite Ore for Armorite Ore, which can then by converted into Watts at Digging Pa. For more on this process, check out our guide on Watt Farming. Unfortunately, the exchange rate isn’t great and if you are targeting Watts specifically; it’s probably best to just farm the Armorite Ore instead.
Playing With a Team
Real Players
Dynamax Adventures encourage playing in a group with other players. Sometimes these fights can be quite difficult with rental Pokemon. Playing with others is the best way to complete these challenges. I’ve generally had good experiences with the groups I have had. But, Sword and Shield has always had an issue with player interactions.
Other than the few choices you make during your run, you can’t interact with the other players at all. Pokemon, and Nintendo in general, has always tried to limit the ability of players to be toxic to one another. However, with almost no interaction, the other players in my team might as well be intelligent bots. Even something as simple as an emote system would bring some life into these groups. Though, I’d probably end up spamming “Good Job!” when someone uses another water move into Maractus’s Storm Drain…
Non-Playable Characters
If you can’t or don’t want to play with other real players, the game will match you up with NPCs. Luckily these bots aren’t as bad as those in Max Raid Battles. They will be using the same rental Pokemon that you have access to, which are mostly decent. However, they still make frustratingly bad decisions, especially when it comes to status moves and two-turn moves.
Playing with NPCs does mean that you get to pick the path. This lets you pick the Pokemon that will be most useful in the final battle. However, you can’t force them to pick the Pokemon that you capture along the way. Even if those Pokemon would be clearly superior than their current Pokemon, the bots might not pick them. When playing with NPCs, your success is much more reliant on RNG than when playing with other players.
Dynamax Adventures Summary
Pros
Dynamax Adventures are a good addition to Pokemon Sword and Shield. It’s nice to be able to catch all the legendaries of previous games. Rental Pokemon make you diversify your Pokemon choices, keeping it fresh (for a while).
Cons
Once you have one of each legendary, there is little reason to continue doing these. Many runs feel that they are in the hands of RNG rather than skill. You are encouraged to play with others, but can’t interact with them. NPCs still make terrible decisions and can turn a good run into a failure with no mistakes on your part. Catching legendaries in this format does not feel “legendary.”
