Game Freak on the removal of Exp. Share in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield
As the name implies, past Pokemon games included the Exp. Share item so that members in the party not currently used in battle can earn experience. However, in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, Game Freak has done away with it entirely. All party members are now automatically given experience equally. Some fans were surprised by this since there’s no way of turning it off.
In an interview with Dutch site InsideGamer, director Shigeru Ohmori explained the move. He noted that most players had Exp. Share turned on, and those who want to train one Pokemon at a time can remove everyone else from the party.
Ohmori’s full words:
“Those who have it turned off want to train one specific Pokemon. We thought: is there a way to achieve that? There is, simply by putting the rest of your Pokémon in the PC.”
Big thanks to MikeDeAardappel and MehikiStefan for assisting with the native translation.
