Pokemon Sword & Shield How to Get Male - Female Starters

How to get male or female Starter Pokemon in Pokemon Sword & Shield is a question that a lot of players are going to be asking themselves. The game introduces some changes to the tried and true formula. I would expect that people are also gonna be asking how to soft reset, and, depending on the odds, are the Starter Pokemon genderlocked, and more. So, in our Pokemon Sword & Shield How to Get Male – Female Starters guide, we’re going to show you how to get a Starter Pokemon of a specific gender in Pokemon SwSh, whether there is a soft reset, whether the starter Pokemon are genderlocked, how to disable autosave in Pokemon Sword & Shield, and more.

How to Get Male or Female Starters in Pokemon Sword & Shield – Where is Soft Reset?

To get male or female Starter Pokemon in Pokemon Sword & Shield, you’ll have to restart the whole game. There is no soft reset in Pokemon Sword & Shield, at least, not in the traditional sense. You can disable autosave right at the beginning, then manually save right before the selection. To save manually, press X and select Save. Then, reload the save as many times as necessary. You do that by pressing the Home button, exiting the game, and then restarting it.

Otherwise, you have to start the whole thing over again. And, keep in mind, the odds for your Stater to be male rather than female are eight to one, or somewhere just above 10%. Yes, that means that you’ll potentially have to restart the game, or reload your save, a number of times. And sure, maybe the gods of RNG will favor you and grant you the gender that you want, but I wouldn’t count on it. All I can say is, good luck, trainers.

How to Disable Autosave in Pokemon Sword & Shield & Reset Save Data?

To disable Autosave in Pokemon Sword & Shield, go into the Options menu. Then, scroll down until you find the Autosave option and switch it from On to Off. That’s about as simple as it gets. However, if you want to make sure that you can re-roll the dice on your starter Pokemon’s gender, you’re going to want to do this as soon as you gain control in the game.

This will happen after the opening cutscene and some dialogue. The moment you can move around your house, disable the autosave. If you wanna reset your saved data, you’ll have to do that from the Switch’s menu, you can’t do it while in the game.

Are Starters Genderlocked in Pokemon Sword & Shield?

No, the Starter Pokemon in Pokemon Sword & Shield are not genderlocked. It’s just that it’s all in the hands of the RNG gods. Apparently, the odds between getting a male or female Starter are eight to one in favor of male. Which makes the fact that some people have been getting eight female starters in a row very surprising.

Either way, expect that you’ll have to restart the game a lot in order to get the Starter gender you want. And, if you haven’t disabled autosave in Pokemon Sword & Shield and saved before the selection screen, you’ll be very well-acquainted with that opening cutscene and dialogue by the end.

If you need further help with the game, check out some of our other Pokemon Sword & Shield guides. Among others, we’ve got What Starter to Choose – Sobble, Scorbunny, Grookey, Change Pokemon Nickname – Rename Pokemon, and Change Hairstyle & Customize Appearance.