Pokémon Sword and Shield guide: How to change your Pokémon’s nature

Pokémon Sword and Shield introduces a way to change your Pokémon’s nature, the characteristic that determines how they gain stats.

Older games did not let you change natures. If you wanted a Pikachu with a specific nature, you were forced to breed or catch them until you found the one you want. Now you can feed your Pokémon a mint to change natures without going through that hassle.

How do I change my Pokémon’s nature?

Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

There are mints for each nature and they’re all only available in the Battle Tower in Wyndon, which you won’t be able to access until after you beat Leon in the Pokémon League. Each mint is available for 50 Battle Points via the cashier on the left side of the Battle Tower lobby, so they don’t come particularly easily.

After you get the mint you want, just use it on a Pokémon and their nature will change.

What does a Pokémon’s nature do?

Natures determine what stats the Pokémon gets. For example, a Pokémon with the Adamant nature will gain more attack, but less special attack, so it’s great for Pokémon who deal a lot of physical damage.

Natures also have an impact on which flavors a Pokémon likes to eat, which determines how much experience and happiness is gained from eating curry, according to Serebii. This means that since an Adamant Pokémon will gain less experience and happiness from eating Dry curry and more from eating Spicy curry.

For a full table of natures, the flavors they like, and the stats they gain you can check out a table on Bulbapedia.

Are there other ways to get specific natures?

You can still breed natures if that’s more of your thing. Give the Pokémon with the nature you want an Everstone to hold and it will produce a Pokémon with the same nature as it.

If you have a Pokémon with the ability Synchronize and you put it as the lead in your party, all Pokémon you encounter will share the same nature with it as well.