When it comes to competitive battling in the Pokémon series, it's next to impossible to win if you don't give your Pokémon a held item, as they are often the difference between success or defeat and allow your team to perform at their best. In a standard run through the game, however, some items that are amazing in competitive battles are less than ideal and can easily be wasted by accident.

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While some items, like Weakness Policy and Focus Sash, which are staples for many Pokémon shouldn't be wasted during a normal playthrough, there are other held items that are useful in just about every situation and should be given to your team even if you aren't into online battling.

10 Leftovers

Hitmontop holding Leftovers Sword Shield

Unlike in previous games, Leftovers can be found fairly easily and infinitely in the Wild Area and you can obtain them as soon as the Wild Area opens up to you. Giving a Pokémon this item will restore 1/16 of their health at the end of every turn and is a good option for Pokémon that uses recoil moves like Take Down or Double Edge, but also for highly defensive Pokémon with low damage output to keep them in the fight longer. While you can find a guaranteed Leftovers in Giant's Seat, the berry trees in Giant's Cap, Giant's Mirror, Bridge Field, Hammerlocke Hills, Lake of Outrage, and Motostoke Riverbank all have a chance to drop them when shaken.

9 Eviolite

Clefairy holding Eviolite Sword Shield

Since the Pokémon in your team are likely still going to be evolving throughout your journey through Galar, giving certain teammates an Eviolite, which boosts their defense and special defense by 50% if they aren't fully evolved, if definitely worth it. While you can obtain an Eviolite in Ballonlea, this is fairly late in the game and your Pokémon will have likely evolved already, unless you are purposefully keeping them unevolved for the sole purpose of giving them an Eviolite. Using the Cram-o-Matic in the Isle of Armor, you can make Eviolite by combining 1 Star Piece with 3 Wishing Pieces, which is a much easier way of getting one early in the game.

8 Sitrus Berry

Greedent holding Sitrus Berry Sword Shield

Berrys in Sword & Shield are somewhat more abundant than in previous generations since you can potentially obtain a dozen at a time depending on your luck with Berry Trees. Several berries are useful, such as the Pecha, Chesto, and Cherri berries, but the Sitrus berry is probably the best general use berry you can give a Pokémon.

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A Pokémon holding a Sitrus berry will have its HP restored by 25% of its maximum value when its HP falls below 50%, making it a decent healing option during tough battles and means you don't have to waste a turn healing if things aren't going your way.

7 Pixie Plate

sylveon

There are a lot of Fairy-type Pokémon in Galar, including the Galarian alternatives to Weezing and Rapidash, and they are useful for the majority of the game due to Leon and Raihan both having a lot of Dragon-type Pokémon in the teams. To get the most out of their attacks, the Pixie Plate is the way to go, which can be found on Route 8 or bought through the Stow-on-Side bargain shop. When held, a Pixie Plate boosts the damage of a Fairy-type attack by 20%, which is a considerable amount when using attacks like Moonblast or Dazzling Gleam.

6 Amulet Coin & Luck Incense

Kantonian Meowth holding Luck Incense Sword Shield

While money isn't particularly hard to come by in Sword & Shield, you can run out very fast if you are spending it all on TMs or Vitamins. The Amulet Coin, combined with Meowth's Pay Day or Gigantamax Meowth's G-Max Gold Rush can allow you to get more money very quickly by just doing wild battles. The Luck Incense has the same effect of doubling the amount of prize money won, but can't be found until you reach Hulbury, where it can be bought from the Incense merchant for 11,000, while the Amulet Coin can be found just before this in Motostoke Outskirts.

5 Focus Band

Pelipper holding Focus Sash Sword Shield

While the Focus Band is largely inferior to the Focus Sash, which is a one-time use item that is guaranteed to save a Pokémon from fainting in one attack, the Focus Band is still useful, if less reliable. While the Focus Band only has a chance to trigger the same effect, the item isn't consumed when it activates and can potentially save a team member multiple times in one battle. This item can be bought from the Stow-on-Side bargain shop, but it also has a 5% chance of being held by wild Machop, Machoke, and Machamp, two of which can be found as soon as the Wild Area opens up to you.

4 Lucky Egg

Blissey holding Lucky Egg Sword Shield

The Lucky Egg is a very useful item to obtain early, particularly if you plan on using difficult to level up Pokémon like Larvitar or Dreepy in your playthrough, and is thankfully found very early on.  Increasing the experience gained by the Pokémon holding it by a whopping 150%, you can find the Lucky Egg in Hulbury by doing the food delivery side mission, which will also give you 5 Nuggets, 2 Big Nuggets, and an L Candy.

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If one Lucky Egg isn't enough for you, there is also a small chance of them being prize items won for defeating Chancey and Blissey in Max Raid battles on the Isle of Armor. Both Pokémon can be found in just about every Raid Den on the Isle of Armor, but will only begin showing up once you have unlocked level 3 of higher Raids.

3 Type Enhancing Items

Krookodile holding Soft Sand Sword Shield

Like the Pixie Plate, there are many other held items in Sword & Shield that boost the damage done by certain attacks. The majority of these items like the Hard Stone, Black Belt, and Charcoal, can be found on wild Pokémon 5% of the time, though this percentage can be boosted if your team member has the Compound Eyes ability, which is available on Butterfree and Blipbug very early on. Some items, such as the Black Glasses, can be found in the overworld as well as on wild Pokémon, while others aren't found on the Pokémon type that benefit from them, such as Trubbish and Garbodor holding Silk Scarf despite not being a Normal-type.

2 Soothe Bell

Crobat holding Soothe Bell Sword Shield

There are many Pokémon in Sword & Shield that evolve when their happiness level reaches its maximum, such as Eevee, Togepi, and Riolu. However, this can be difficult to do early in the game without cooking curry over and over again, which can be very time-consuming. Giving the Pokémon you want to make happy a Soothe Bell helps this process go a little faster, improving increases to their friendship level by 50%, which also stacks with the Luxury Ball's 100% increase. The Soothe Bell can be found in Hammerlocke, in the house east of the Pokémon Center from a Lass, though another can also be found in the Old Cemetary in the Crown Tundra.

1 Assault Vest

Arcanine holding Assault Vest Sword Shield

During normal playthroughs, it's rare that you will need to use status inflicting, stat increasing, or stat decreasing moves unless you are using a Grass or Bug-type that uses Powder moves frequently. The Assault Vest gives the Pokémon holding it a 50% boost to its special defense if it only knows attacking moves and is very useful for the majority of the game, since most gym leaders and major trainer battles use Pokémon with strong special attacking moves. Although you normally can't find the Assault Vest until you have obtained the water attachment for the Rotom bike, you can make one at the Cram-o-Matic on the Isle of Armor by combining 1 Babiri Berry and 3 Wishing Pieces.

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