What happens if you hack in a Pokemon over level 100 into sword and shield?

Question

1. Would it be level 100?
2. Would the game crash?
3. Would it corrupt data?
4. Would it be able to go into raids?
5. Will the game become glitched?

Answer 1

I can't vouch for what would happen if you do this in Sword/Shield, but I imagine it's similar to what happens in other recent games.

Specifically, on Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon:

• No, the game doesn't crash.
• Only party Pokemon can ever be over 100 even with hacking. If you deposit them into the PC or day care, level is not stored as a distinct value there, but is dynamically recalculated from Exp. Points using a lookup table that only goes up to 100, so it will drop down to 100.
• You cannot use Rare Candies on Pokemon above 100, the way you could in Red/Blue. This much, at least, could feasibly be subject to change between USUM and SwSh; a new function to the Rare Candy was deliberately added so that if you have a Pokemon that's not fully evolved and evolves by level-up, but has already reached 100 without hitting its final stage, it's no longer locked out of that stage because you can now use the Rare Candy like an evolution stone in this case. It's unclear if this still applies at level 101 or higher, or if doing so causes an immediate reversion down to 100. More testing will be needed to accommodate this.
• At the end of any wild or trainer battle in which experience could be awarded, all levels and stats are sanitized, so anything in the party that was at an abnormally high level, or has directly edited stats (such as 999 Attack) without changing level, will be brought back to what it's supposed to be without hacking. Note that this doesn't require that experience is actually awarded to it; even if the battle ends by running away, there's no avoiding getting its level sanitized.
• On the team summary screen in battle, where it lists the party members you can switch to, a "too high" Pokemon shows up as level 100 with its proper level 100 health bar, but if you click on it to show its individual summary and stats, the original "too high" level and stats will be shown.
• If a Pokemon undergoes a form change (such as mega evolution) in battle while its level is above 100, its stats are immediately recalculated using the new form's base stats and a level of 100. For the remainder of the battle, its individual summary (see the previous bullet point) will show up as 100 instead of "too high"; the only place the "too high" level continues to appear in this case is by its name and health bar on the main battle screen. It will of course be reduced to 100 permanently at the end of battle, but the level displayed above the active health bar will stay as it is in the mean time even if the Pokemon is switched out and back in. From a Sw/Sh perspective, Dynamax is not a form change, but does involve recalculation of at least HP; again we will need more testing to see if this same behavior applies there.
• If a Pokemon with a "too high" level undergoes a form change outside of battle (such as giving a plate to Arceus), its level is immediately dropped to 100 and its stats are forcefully recalculated from the new form's stats. For form changes that are caused by fusing with another Pokemon, Kyurem or Necrozma will be brought down to 100 this way, but if Reshiram, Zekrom, Solgaleo, or Lunala has its level "too high" at the time it's tucked away to form the fusion, you can then unfuse it and its original level and stats will be brought back, without being forced down.
• Where the obedience guidelines mentioned in game say that having all badges/being Champion is sufficient to make "all Pokemon obey", this really only means "up to level 100". If you have a traded Pokemon at level 101, it will still frequently disobey, causing you to lose a bunch of turns.
• Some battles don't award experience, such as Battle Tree, Battle Royal, mock battles launched from a Battle Video, and of course PVP wifi battles. In these cases, the Pokemon will be scaled down to the proper level for the duration of the battle. Even if there is nominally no "proper level", such as non-Super formats in the Battle Tree or a PVP battle with "No Restrictions", it will still be scaled down to 100, so you can't use that means to get an advantage against other players. After the battle is over, the Pokemon's previous level and stats will be restored, even if that level is "too high".

Comments

Thank you!

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If you find what happens if you dynamax a over level 100 pokemon please let me know, again, thank you!

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DaWoblefet has now answered these questions from the perspective of Sw/Sh with a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccxmrzd_H3M

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Thanks (Plus I've never had one of my questions in a video before, Yay!)