There isn't much of a shortage of cash in Pokémon Sword and Shield. You get enough money throughout the story to carry you through the game, and the post-game has a lot of easy ways to make money. While selling items you find after Max Raids can be lucrative, Game Freak gave a gift to anyone looking to farm some cash, Gigantamax Meowth. Its G-Max Gold Rush is Payday on steroids, tossing coins everywhere for you to collect after the battle. When doubled up with an Amulet Coin, you can make over 100,000 Pokédollars in a single battle between prize money and money you pick up.
This method of money farming has been around since Sword and Shield launched, but if you just got your first Gigantamax Meowth in the ongoing Gigantamax event, you might have not heard of it before.
Get Gigantamax Meowth to appear
Originally an early adopter exclusive, Gigantamax Meowth became obtainable again during the May Gigantamax event. The Gigantamax Meowth portion of the event started on May 26, 2020 and ends on June 2, 2020. If you're reading this during that timeframe, make sure to grab one! Here's how to get Gigantamax Meowths to appear in the Wild Area if the event is still ongoing.
- Press "X" in Pokémon Sword or Shield to open your menu.
- Select Mystery Gift.
- Select Get Wild Area News.
This process will connect you to the internet and get your Wild Area up to date. Assuming the event is still live, you'll now see Gigantamax Meowths in the Wild Area. They won't appear in every den, but they are fairly common during the event. They aren't all five stars either, so some are easier to catch.
If you've missed the event, you can probably trade for one. Gigantamax Pokémon from events like this aren't that rare because you can get a bunch of them during the event. People are probably willing to part with one since they could conceivably have a box of them with only a little effort.
If you need help catching a Gigantamax Pokémon, make sure to check out our guide.
How to make money
To make money with Gigantamax Meowth, you need to battle with it while it holds an Amulet Coin. You can get the Amulet Coin after defeating the first three gyms in the game. You can find the Amulet Coin behind a sign in the Motostoke Outskirts. Chocolate Chum has a quick YouTube video to help you find it. With your Amulet Coin in hand and a Gigantamax Meowth, you're ready to make some money.
- Give the Amulet Coin to your Meowth that can Gigantamax.
- Enter a battle (the Champion Cup matches will give you high prize money).
- Gigantamax your Meowth in the battle.
- Use the move G-Max Gold Rush three times.
- Win the battle in any way that you'd like.
At the end of the match, you'll collect whatever prize money you earn and pick up a mountain of money thanks to G-Max Gold Rush. In my battle against Hop, I made 33,600 Pokédollars in prize money and picked up 91,200 Pokédollars. You'll always pick up around 90,000 Pokédollars after you use three G-Max Gold Rushes.
You can't double up again
If you've collected money-making Meowths since before Sword and Shield, you'll have a Meowth that knows the move Happy Hour. This move doubles the money you earn from a battle. Unfortunately, there's a cap that means it's hardly worth it to use two Meowths to farm money. If you use the Gigantamax Meowth method from above and then switch to another Meowth and use Happy Hour, you won't pick up 180,000 Pokédollars. The maximum amount you can pick up in any battle is 99,999 Pokédollars. While that's a bit more than you'd make without Happy Hour, it's probably not worth switching over to a second Meowth.
Even though you can't double up a Gigantamax Meowth and a Happy Hour Meowth, you can still get over 100,000 Pokédollars per battle using the G-Max Gold Rush and an Amulet Coin. If you do the Champion Cup three times you should make around 1 million Pokédollars, which is more than enough to buy your favorite clothes and items in the game.
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A whole new region to explore
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Discover new Pokémon in Galar
As you travel around the UK-inspired Galar region, you'll come across new and familiar Pokémon. See if you have what it takes to become the Champion and capture the new legendary Pokémon.
