Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are here, representing a massive change to the traditional Pokemon formula. While these open-world games bear some resemblance to Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it all takes place in a single contiguous world and lets you go just about anywhere you’d like after you’ve completed the tutorial. But before you make a beeline for the toughest gyms, here’s our recommendations for which order to take on the various challenges.

Which gym should I do first?

Scarlet and Violet actually have 18 badges in all–eight gym badges, five Team Star badges, and five Titan badges. Those are your rewards for the three distinct mission types in the game: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends. By the time the tutorial is done, you’ll have every mission for each of those three mission types marked on your map and you can wander freely. However, the game doesn’t tell you what level your opponents will be, so it’s easy to wander into a gym that’s too tough for you. Similarly, later Team Star bases and Titans will be set at much higher levels. As a rule of thumb, the further north you go, the harder the missions will be.

Since you need gym badges to get higher-level Pokemon to listen to you, you’ll probably need to do those roughly in order of the gyms themselves, so that you can have powerful monsters to match. Gyms in Scarlet and Violet often revolve around some non-battle activity, so you may not know how tough your Gym Leader opponent will be until you’re face-to-face with them in battle. See below for our recommended levels to take on certain gyms.

Recommended levels for gyms

• Cortando Gym (Bug) – 10-15
• Artazin Gym (Grass) – 15-20
• Cascarrafa Gym (Water) – 25-30
• Levincia Gym (Electric) – 30-35
• Medali Gym (Normal) – 35-40
• Alfornada Gym (Psychic) – 40-45
• Montenevera Gym (Ghost) – 40-45
• Glaseado Gym (Ice) – 45-50

Path of Legends order

But tough battles aren’t the only way that Scarlet and Violet subtly gate your progress. The Path of Legends fights are how you’ll gain new traversal abilities, and some gyms are much easier to reach if you’ve unlocked particular ways of getting around. These unlocks are tied to particular Titans, which you can find below. You’ll need a High Jump or Glide to get across some chasms into the northern areas. The final ability, Climb, gives you essentially full access to any area, since you can scale cliffs. That’s especially helpful for reaching the Alfornada Gym, since it provides an easy shortcut instead of traversing through a maze-like cave. You also need the Surf ability to even reach the final Titan.

Titan Abilities / Recommended Order

• Stony Cliff Titan – Dash
• Open Sky Titan – Surf
• Lurking Steel Titan – High Jump
• Quaking Earth Titan – Glide
• False Dragon Titan – Climb

Team Star battles

The Team Star battles are less necessary for gating content. They don’t provide you a boost to your Pokemon obedience level and they don’t give you new traversal options. The currency and TMs are helpful, but not strictly necessary. However, these do get progressively tougher, and the hardest Team Star base is one of the toughest fights in the game. So you’ll want to keep pace with your Team Star challenges by mostly taking on the bases nearest to other missions you’ve completed. One nice thing about the Team Star missions is that after you’ve run the gauntlet portion and drawn out the commander, you don’t need to repeat that part. If you fail to defeat the Team Star commander, you can simply come back and skip straight to the battle.

For more on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, check out our starter evolutions guide and a bunch of things we wish we knew from the start. And while you’re at it, be sure to read our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet review.