Pokémon Scarlet & Violet are the first fully open-world games in the series. While Legends Arceus laid the groundwork, you were still limited to exploring the zone you selected for that day. With Scarlet & Violet, after the intro to the game, you are given free roam of the entire island of Paldea.
There are three distinct storylines to follow, one of them being the Victory Road path or the Gym system from earlier mainline games. What makes the Victory Road system different is that the gyms can now be fought in any order the player wishes. While you can choose to fight any gym at any time, the lack of level scaling leads to a semi-paved path for players to follow.
Level Scaling In Scarlet & Violet
Despite this game’s massive free-roaming capabilities, level scaling is not included. Each section of the game, and therefore each gym leader, has set levels for their Pokémon. While you can go to the later gyms at the beginning, you’ll face an incredible challenge as you fight Pokémon 20-30 levels higher than your own. This is the same for Team Star battles and Titan battles. With each area having set levels of Pokémon, it makes sense to save those areas until you’ve leveled up further and can take them on.
The wild Pokémon in an area are set to a relative level to the Pokémon of the gym they are near. It is reasonable to assume the gym leader will have Pokémon a few levels higher than what you find in the wild around the city. While you can physically go to any gym whenever you want, you may not be able to battle those gyms effectively. Yet, at your current level, should you skip what is recommended as an earlier gym, returning there later will result in a laughably easy battle against much weaker Pokémon than your own.
Terastalization And Rewards
Like in previous games, each gym leader will have a party of Pokémon that mainly focuses on their gym’s type in Scarlet and Violet. Additionally, with Terastalization, each gym leader will have a strong Pokémon near the end of the battle that is a different type entirely. On its first turn, this Pokémon will Terastalize into the same type the gym leader specializes in. This may throw off players when selecting the first move, but knowing about this change can help you select the perfect move to still have a super effective attack on its way.
While these gyms can be attempted in any order, following this list will make the gym battles much more doable and your time in Paldea more enjoyable. Like in previous games, with each gym badge, Pokémon of higher levels will listen to you better and be easier to catch if they are much stronger than your team. In Scarlet & Violet, this bonus is based on how many gym badges you have, not which gyms you completed. If you can defeat the Ice-type gym first with lower-level Pokémon, you’ll still only have one badge, and only Pokémon up to level 25 will listen to you. Sticking to the gym order will allow you to properly control Pokémon that are strong enough to challenge the next gym.