Curry Connoisseur Sw/Sh runs
I did not know this was a thing! May I propose the Chef Run in SwSh. Go to a route, camp, and cook curry until you get a Curry Conniseur Mark pokemon. That's your encounter for the route. XD
1. Start a new game. Name yourself something punny. I'm Connie Seur.
2. Go through the tutorial. 2a. Buy the curry shirt at the Wedghurst shop. 2b. Buy like 70 berries of one kind from the berry merchant. 2c. Get to the Wild Area and shake all the trees for berries. Talk to people in online mode for ingredients while you're running around. 2d. Also stop by Motostoke and give yourself an updo or short haircut with a berry themed dye job. You are a professional chef, dress like it! As close as possible I guess.
3. You now need 2 pokemon. You will be seeing these pokemon up close and personal for a number of hours so pick 2 you like. I chose Eevee and Pichu and may I say I do NOT recommend Eevee, its name-cry gets annoying real fast, go for something that's a sound and not a person saying a word. Your pokemon will level up to about lvl 20 in the setup here so if they are friendship evos or evolve at low levels, give them everstones. This run, only Curry Connoisseur pokemon get to be used in battle once the setup is complete, so it seems thematically consistent to have them be babies of some kind. I feel baby pokemon like Azurill and Pichu, cleffa, even and especially maybe munchlax are good thematic choices. You could also use pokemon the evolve at high levels like Larvesta or Dreepy. Whatever you pick, you will need them for the whole game, unless you want to repeat the setup process for your Rte 1 and 2 pokemon. Some people like repetition, I don't judge.
4. Once you have your pokemon, camp anywhere. Settle in for the long haul. Put on Critical Role or some podcasts or the Golden Girls reruns, whatever you like to listen to while performing drudgery. This will take 3-5 hours.
5. Call both your pokemon to you, and play with them until they stop playing and do a little dance.
6. Cook a curry with no ingredients and one basic berry (Oran, Pecha, or Cheri). Do okay on the minigame. You will get Wobuffet Class basic curry. This will reset your pokemon's playfulness. You could cook higher value curry if you wanted, but you are making a LOT of curry here and in the early game your resources are sparse and the sociability score increase of better curry is not worth it in my opinion, but you do you, chef, this is your kitchen.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for several hours. You don't even have to leave camp. Just Play, Curry, Play, Curry. Periodically test how your pokemon's Sociability Score is by calling them to you and then talking to the space between them to address both of them at once. You want the message "A and B seem to be Best Friends!" You have now maxed these two pokemon's Sociability.
8. Go to a route and camp. Make the best curry you can. After each curry, look around your camp for a new Pokémon standing there with "..." over their head and talk to them. Voila. You have caught a Curry Connoisseur Pokémon.
Important to note, you must box all but your Max Sociability pokemon everytime you camp for a new encounter. Only Maximally Sociable pokemon should be in camp or you're wasting curry, it seems. I caught Wacan the Grubbin on my first curry on Rte 1, a Charizard Class using my best quality berries. It took more for Bluk the Rookidee to join on Rte 2 cause I just had lower class berries and was making Milcery Class curries with the occasional Copperajah. I made 10 of those before it dawned on me that Wacan's newness and low sociability might be interfering with Pinap and Pomeg's great hosting skills. After I boxed Wacan, Bluk showed up for the 4th Milcery Class curry. So, the key is Max Social mons with Milcery Curry or above, the better Curry the better chances.
