Which Path Should You Choose for the Legendary Heroes Pokemon GO Event?

Much like the main series games, Pokemon GO likes to offer branching research paths. In the Legendary Heroes event in Pokemon GO, players will choose between Sword or Shield—but which path should you pick?

When is the Legendary Heroes Event in Pokemon GO?

The Legendary Heroes event starts on September 26 at 10 AM local time and runs through October 1 at 8 PM local time.

The event is jam-packed with plenty of bonuses and encounters, including the debut of Shiny Zacian. However, players won’t be able to truly catch ’em all this time around. Thanks to the branching Sword or Shield research, we’ll need to pick a path that changes some parts of the event.

What Does the Branching Path Affect in the Legendary Heroes Event?

The Sword Path vs. Shield Path choice is part of the Timed Research for the Legendary Heroes event in Pokemon GO. The one you choose will affect the following aspects of the event for you:

• Research Encounters from the branching Timed Research
• Incense Pokemon Encounters during the event
• Which Collection Challenge you’ll take on for the event

So, the choice between Sword and Shield comes down to which Pokemon you’re most interested in collecting during the event. As far as we know, all other bonuses will be the same no matter which path you pick.

Should You Choose the Sword Path or Shield Path in Legendary Heroes?

Pokemon encounters will be the deciding factor when choosing between the Sword Path and Shield Path. These Pokemon will most likely also be the featured Pokemon you encounter from completing the Timed Research, if previous events are any indication. Here are the Incense Encounters for each path.

Sword Path Pokemon Encounters

Deino	Gothita	Passimian
Scraggy	Seedot	Swirlix

Shield Path Pokemon Encounters

Croagunk	Larvitar	Lotad
Oranguru	Solosis	Spritzee

All Pokemon on both of these paths do have Shiny versions in the game. If you’re still hunting for a particular Shiny on one of the lists, that may well be a deciding factor.

Otherwise, the decision really comes down to which Pokemon you’re trying to pursue. Do you need candies to evolve a Deino, or are you trying to get an Oranguru Shundo? Lean into the list that has the most Pokemon you’re after since you’ll be seeing them with Incense and as reward encounters from the research itself.

Alternatively, you could base the decision on which Pokemon spawn less frequently in your area. For me, I see the Shield Path spawns constantly on my PokeWalks, so I’ll probably opt for the Sword Path. Whatever you decide, be sure to stock up on Incense leading up to the event to get the most out of those Incense spawns!

Pokemon GO is available to play now.