Pokémon Camp is a brand new mechanic introduced in Pokémon Sword & Shield. When camping with your party Pokémon, Trainers can cook up a ‘classic’ British staple - curry. Whilst at first it may seem a bit pointless, cooking curry is essential if you want to complete your Currydex. It also has benefits like healing your team, XP boosts and additional in-battle bonuses, just like Pokémon Amie did in earlier games.
If you want to maximize the benefits of cooking curry, you’ll want to aim to make the best curry Galar has ever seen. The ranks are Gold (Charizard Class), Silver (Copperajah Class), Bronze (Milcery Class), Iron (Wobbuffet Class), and Koffing Class. The higher ranked your curry, the more HP and PP you’ll gain. Your Pokémon, Galarian form or not, will get friendlier, too, which is helpful for in-battle bonuses and some evolutions.
Whilst the exact method for consistently getting Charizard Class Curry isn’t known, here are some tips to help you along your way.
10 Work Together With A Friend
Curry cooking includes three steps: Fanning flames, stirring a pot, and ‘putting your heart into it.’. It goes without saying that another pair of hands will make this a lot easier for players to get a Charizard Class Curry. Plus, it comes with the bonus that they might have ingredients you don’t have, making you one step closer to completing the Currydex. Especially because some ingredients, like Bob's Food Tin (Sword) and Bach's Food Tin (Shield), are version-exclusive items.
You’ll need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription if you want to cook with distant friends. If you don’t, you can have a look for camping NPCs in the Wild Area or along the game’s routes.
9 Don’t Over Stir/Under Stir Your Curry
The key to making the perfect curry is to make sure you go for a steady stir. Stirring the curry too much will mean you spill it over the side. Under stirring it will mean your ingredients aren’t properly combined. If you can see sparkles over the pot, keep doing what you’re doing.
If you own a Nintendo Switch, rather than a Nintendo Switch Lite, you’ll also be able to feel vibrations in your controllers if you spill it. This means you’ll easily be able to tell if you’re stirring too hard.
8 Match Flavors
If you read the item description for berries, you’ll be able to see each berry has its own flavor profile. These flavor profiles are key to determining what type of Curry you produce. The Currydex has over 100 recipes for you to choose from, but most of them are just flavor variations.
It’s important to make sure you try and pair your ingredients together. Your Pokémon will dutifully much down pretty much anything you eat, but they deserve better than a Sour Smoked-Tail Curry. It’s alarming enough that Game Freak force your Pokémon to eat other Pokémon.
7 Cycle Around the Wild Area While Connected to the Internet
If you talk to another player in the Wild Area whilst online, they have a chance of giving you Curry ingredients for free. It’s completely random what you get, but if you do this you’ll have a never-ending supply of fresh ingredients you can use to complete your Currydex.
As tempting as it might be to chase after someone else who is cycling around the Wild Area, it might look a little bit strange. Fortunately, there are loads of players who are standing around waiting and you can approach them a lot more easily.
6 Use A Lot Of Rare Berries
If you go into your bag and check out your ingredients section, you can sort your berries by type. This will list them in order of how rare they are. Your most common berries will be at the top and your rarest berries will be at the bottom. If you’re looking for Charizard Rank Curries, the berries at the bottom will be your friends.
While it’s not been proven that berries will have an impact on the base ingredient you choose, it’s a lot nicer to imagine you and your Pokémon friends eating a Sweet Plenty-of-Potato Curry than a Spicy Whipped-Cream Curry.
Expert curry makers recommend you use at least seven berries to maximize your chances of cooking a Charizard Class Curry.
5 Fan The Flames, But Don’t Burn The Curry
The first step in any good curry is to fan the flames. The best way to cook Charizard Class Curry is to get the biggest flame possible as quickly as you can, making sure you don’t burn it. If you mash A too quickly, you’ll burn your curry. Getting the right balance sounds like a difficult task, but this game is forgiving. If you burn your curry, it’s still possible to get Charizard Class, but you have to let the flames die down. Check out the picture above for the ideal fire size.
4 Aim For The Middle Of The Light Green Ring
When it comes to “putting your heart into it” you’ll want to aim for the lighter green circle on the inside of the circle. A common mistake that catches newcomers out is the fact that your heart has significant travel time in the air. This leads to Trainers throwing the heart way too late and ending up with a lackluster curry. Whilst your Pokémon will console you and be grateful for the meal, nothing feels worse than the shame of failure.
To avoid that outcome, you’ll want to press A when the shrinking circle is in the middle of the dark green outer circle.
3 Use High-Quality Ingredients
Your Pokémon are with you through thick and thin during your adventure. They deserve the best quality ingredients you can find. Throw out those Instant Noodles and Oran Berries (unless you still need to complete your Currydex, of course.). Precooked Burgers, Fresh Cream, and Moomoo Cheese are your friends. Fortunately, nobody has lactose intolerance in the Galar region.
Using your rarest berries and the highest-quality base food items you can find is sure to help you boost the ranking of your curry and help you enter that elusive Charizard Class.
2 Keep A Steady Rhythm Throughout
You can simmer your ingredients, but make sure you simmer everything. You can boil things, but make sure you boil everything at high heat. In fact, it’s encouraged. Certain entries to the Currydex can only be obtained through a certain method of cooking, so make sure you do your research before you begin cooking.
Perfecting your cooking rhythm is key to making sure you don’t spill, under/over-stir your ingredients, and making sure your heart goes into whatever you make.
1 Cheat by using two joy-cons
Players can take advantage of Pokémon Sword and Shields's two-player online mechanics and cook with a friend. It’s in everyone’s best interest - if you cook with others and get Charizard Class, you'll get more EXP than cooking alone. If their Joycon just so happens to end up in your hands and you can make sure they’re NOT OVERSTIRRING THE CURRY, that’s just a bonus, right?