If you wanted to, you could build a full team to take down the Champion with without ever using a single Poke Ball. This is thanks to the multiple Pokemon that are gifted to you throughout Sword & Shield, many of which are quite viable in battle.

From your first partner Pokemon — your Starter — to rare Legendaries, there are quite a few Pokemon you can receive as a gift from various NPCs. If you’re looking to collect them all or just complete your Pokedex, here’s where you can find each one.

12 A Starter

One of the first things you’ll do in your adventure is receive a Starter Pokemon, just like every main series game to date. In Galar, new trainers are given a choice between three fun friends: Grookey, the Grass-type, Scorbunny, the Fire-type, and Sobble, the Water-type.

For the first time since Generation II, all three starters remain a single type throughout their evolutionary lines. Grookey will evolve into Thwackey and then Rillaboom; Scorbunny evolves into Raboot and then Cinderace; and Sobble will evolve into Drizzile and then Inteleon.

11 Gigantamax Pikachu or Eevee

This gift is locked to people who have purchased and played a previous game: Let’s Go Pikachu or Let’s Go Eevee. If you have the save data for either of these games on your console, you will receive a gift of the corresponding partner Pokemon at the Meetup Spot.

If you played Let’s Go Pikachu, you will receive a Pikachu capable of Gigantamaxing from a young girl. If you played Let’s Go Eevee, a young boy will give you an Eevee that can Gigantamax. Neither of these Pokemon can evolve or be shiny, unfortunately.

10 Toxel

It’s not every generation that introduces a Baby Pokemon, but Generation VIII fortunately did — and it’s a great one. Toxel is the new Baby Pokemon that evolves into new fan-favorite Toxtricity, and you can get a free Toxel yourself.

All you need to do is speak to the Pokemon Breeder inside the Day Care on Route 5. Which nature the Toxel has will determine which of Toxtricity’s two forms it’ll evolve into. If you don’t get the one you want, you can soft-reset your game to try again.

9 Fossils

There are four new Fossil Pokemon in Generation VIII, and they’re all pretty terrible. This is because the wrong parts of matched up to make strange hybrid Pokemon that never existed. This is done by Cara Liss on Route 6.

With a Fossilized Drake and Fossilized Fish, you can create Dracovish; with a Fossilized Bird and Dino, you can create Arctozolt; with a Bird and a Drake, you can make Dracozolt; and with a Fish and a Dino, you can make an Arctovish. They’ll all be level 10.

It’s important to note that the Fossilized Bird and Dino are somewhat exclusive to Sword and the Drake and Fish are exclusive to Shield, though you can obtain the opposite game’s fossils via the Digging Duo if you’re lucky.

8 Type: Null

The Legendary Ultra Beast killer from the Alola region, Type: Null, can be obtained in Sword & Shield fairly easily. Once you defeat Leon and become League Champion, you’ll unlock the Battle Tower.

In the lobby, there’s a young League Staff member who will give you a Type: Null with all the Memories you need to change its type when it evolves into Silvally.

7 Charmander

Type: Null isn’t the only Pokemon gift you can receive once you become Champion. Another is Charmander, which is left behind for you by Leon. Visit his house after defeating him and you’ll find the lone Poke Ball with the Charmander inside.

Once it evolves into Charizard, this Pokemon has Gigantamax capability.

6 Bulbasaur or Squirtle

Luckily, Venusaur and Blastoise were eventually given Gigantamax forms as well, coming to the games in the Isle of Armor expansion.

Once you finish the first Master Dojo trial, you’ll be granted either a Bulbasaur or Squirtle — your choice. Both can evolve into final forms with the ability to Gigantamax, but you can only choose one.

5 Kubfu

The second of three gift Pokemon you can receive inside the Isle of Armor’s Master Dojo is Kubfu, the Fighting-type Legendary whose questline serves as the main bit of story for the expansion pack. You’ll be gifted a Kubfu after completing the main trials of the Dojo.

Once you receive a Kubfu, you’ll have to choose between one of the two forms of Urshifu it can evolve into — Rapid-Strike or Single-Strike. Which form it becomes is determined by where you train it — the Tower of Waters (for Rapid-Strike) or the Tower of Darkness (for Single-Strike).

4 Porygon

The final gift Pokemon that you can grab at the Master Dojo is your very own Porygon. After completing all of Mustard’s challenges, Hyde, the small computer-obsessed child in the right-hand room of the Dojo, will give you a level 25 Porygon that’s hanging out nearby.

The only other way to obtain a Porygon in these games without transferring from Pokemon HOME is via the Max Lair.

3 Alolan Forms

Before there were Galarian forms, there were Alolan forms. These special regional variants from Gen VII are obtainable in the Isle of Armor expansion pass through a simple system: find some Diglett.

The Diglett Master, who stations himself right out front of the Dojo, will task you with finding 150 of his missing Diglett around the Isle of Armor. For certain numbers of found Diglett, he’ll reward you with Pokemon from the Alola region. Here’s how many Diglett you need to find for each reward:

5: Alolan Meowth

10: Kantonian Slowpoke

20: Alolan Vulpix

30: Alolan Sandshrew

40: Alolan Raichu

50: Alolan Marowak

75: Alolan Exeggutor

100: an Alolan starter in the same type as your chosen Galar starter (Rowlett for Grookey, Litten for Scorbunny, or Popplio for Sobble)

150: Alolan Diglett

2 Cosmog

You may notice a small Cosmog bouncing around happily inside a cabin in Freezington once you get to the Crown Tundra. Luckily, you can obtain this little friend for yourself. Once you save the village from Glastrier or Spectrier as part of Legendary Clue #1’s storyline, the woman in the cabin will give you the Cosmog to keep.

1 Poipole

After finishing the first three Legendary Clues, you’ll unlock a strange fourth clue. This will lead to battles against the Ultra Beasts in the Max Lair’s Dynamax Adventures. After catching five Ultra Beasts through this method, a Poipole will appear in the lobby that apparently came through one of the Ultra Wormholes.

The researcher hanging on to it will say it keeps getting away from her, so she wants you to take it. It’s all yours! It’ll evolve into Naganadel when it levels up while knowing Dragon Pulse, which it learns at level 1, meaning you’ll need to take it to a Move Tutor.

NEXT: Pokémon Sword & Shield: 15 Tips For PC Management