[Sword & Shield] Beginner Tips (Please Help)

[SonajM]

Hey,

Sorry if this is a very amateur / basic post.... and not sure if this is the right area to post.

However, I am slowly becoming addicted to Pokemon Sword and Shield. Huge Pokemon fan, however my experience is very outdated. I havent played main series since Gen4 and i feel a lot has changed in that time.
I just need a few starter tips on being efficient and wanting to go Competitive online Wi-Fi eventually.

Few quick questions:

Items:
Which items are important to keep and which are purely profit items (to sell)?

IV's:
How important is it to have 6 max IV's competitively? do 4/5 Best IV's do?
Anyway of telling IV's before reaching battle tower and gaining IV Checker? - Just loving some of my Team at the moment and investing a lot of time into them and dont want the time to be wasted if theyll be useless when it comes to competitive

Breeding:
Is the 'Masuda' method (?) using a different regional pokemon only to raise shiny chances or do they help with IV's?
Is it best to start breeding end game after obtaining IV Checker?

EV's / IVs
Short explanation on how these work and which Mons' to invest time/rescources into and how?

General Help
Any other tips for competitive preparation?
Tips on important Items that can make a pokemon more viable (or any pokemon that desperately need a specific item/which items work best on which pokemon)

Any help appreciated apologies if this is all basic stuff :(

 

[Nah]

I can't answer all of your questions, as I haven't battled competitively for a couple of years now and we're just shy of a week into a fresh meta anyway, but I'll answer the ones I can:

Items:
Which items are important to keep and which are purely profit items (to sell)?

Most of the items whose only purpose is to be sold for cash usually say so in their description, but to name a few, there's stuff like Nuggets, Stardust, Big Pearls, Rare Bones, Tiny and Big Mushrooms, etc. At the very least, hold on to equip items and berries.

IV's:
How important is it to have 6 max IV's competitively? do 4/5 Best IV's do?

Most Pokemon don't need all 6 IVs to be maxed, as most have a stat they don't need and so can go without a perfect IV in that stat.

Breeding:
Is the 'Masuda' method (?) using a different regional pokemon only to raise shiny chances or do they help with IV's?
Is it best to start breeding end game after obtaining IV Checker?

Masuda method only affects your chances of getting a shiny Pokemon and nothing else. Breeding is best done after you have access to the IV checker yeah.

EV's / IVs
Short explanation on how these work and which Mons' to invest time/rescources into and how?

I'll just copy-paste an explanation I have in a guide I wrote, if you need clarification on anything, do ask.

IVs: Stands for "Individual Values". The current IV system was introduced in Gen 3; in Gens 1 and 2, a different system was used for the same basic idea, and were called DVs ("determinant values") instead. IVs play a part in determining exactly what a Pokemon's stats are, and are set from whenever the Pokemon is generated--they cannot be altered (Hyper Training is a Gen 7 thing and technically does not actually alter IVs)--so you can think of them as a Pokemon's "genes". There is an IV number for each of a Pokemon's stats, ranging from 0 to 31. At level 100, a Pokemon with 31 IVs in a stat will have 31 more points in that stat than a Pokemon of the same species, nature, and EVs with 0 IVs in that stat. IVs also determine a Pokemon's Hidden Power type.

EVs: Whenever a Pokemon defeats another Pokemon in battle and gains Exp. or undergoes Super Training, it also gains Effort Values. EVs affect your Pokemon's stats. A Pokemon can have a maximum of 252 EVs in a single stat, and a maximum of 508 overall. The math is that every 4 EVs=+1 to that stat (at level 100). Before Generation V, a Pokemon would get the benefit of its EVs upon leveling up (so you could potentially get +64 to a stat in a single level up), but from Gen V onward it was changed to alter the growth rate instead, so more EVs in a stat means the stat grows more with each level up than if there were no or less EVs. It still gives the same result in the end either way. Leveling up to gain the benefit of EVs is no longer required, so even level 100 Pokemon can be EV trained. EVs are part of the reason why your Pokemon tend to be stronger than other Pokemon of the same species of the same level encountered in the wild or used by NPC trainers.