Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk has added a new way to interact with important characters from the base game’s story. The Special Coaches feature not only lets you learn more about NPCs like the Paldean Gym Leaders but also lets you trade with them.
After you unlock a Special Coach, befriending them will net you a few different kinds of rewards. Certain characters will give you useful items, but the main thing you want is their Special Trades, which feature Pokémon with a unique tie to each trainer.
How to unlock Special Coaches Trades in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk
A Special Trade requires you to reach a certain level of “affinity” with one of the Special Coaches you can invite to the Blueberry Academy League Club room. There is no real way to measure how close you are to a coach, but the main thing you can use to check is if a gold border is around their profile picture on the Special Coaches menu.
Every time you invite a coach to the League Club, you can talk with them. You need to invite and talk to each coach three times to get the gold border on the menu and unlock their Special Trade. You do not need to battle them at all to progress, but that’s something you can do before or after you get access to their trades.
All Special Coaches Trades in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk
Once you befriend a Special Coach, they will offer you a trade. This trade can only be done once and has a few restrictions you need to know about before accepting.
Each Special Coach will offer one trade, and you can trade back any Pokémon you want. The only exceptions are that the Pokémon you offer can’t be Shiny and can’t be considered a “Special Pokémon.” This likely means you can’t trade any Paradox or Legendary Pokémon, but you likely wouldn’t be doing that anyway.
Once you accept the trade, you will receive a Pokémon from the coach that has a special Partner Ribbon. Much like how in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, you can catch Pokémon that formerly belonged to N and they will have a special animation, attaching that Partner Ribbon will change the Pokémon’s title to something like “Rika’s Wooper.”
| Katy | Combee |
| Brassius | Sunflora |
| Iono | Magnemite |
| Kofu | Veluza |
| Larry | Dudunsparce |
| Ryme | Greavard |
| Tulip | Flittle |
| Grusha | Cetoddle |
| Rika | Paldean Wooper |
| Poppy | Tinkatuff |
| Clavell | Pawmo |
| Jacq | Gulpin |
| Raifort | Gimmighoul |
| Tyme | Rockruff |
| Saguaro | Hattrem |
| Dendra | Meditite |
| Hassel | Arctibax |
| Salvator | Alolan Meowth |
| Miriam | Mareanie |
| Geeta | Glimmet |
| Nemona | Paldean Tauros (Combat Breed) |
| Arven | Skwovet |
| Penny | Eevee |
There is one additional trade you can unlock once you bring in enough Special Coaches, though it is the only one that requires a battle. Your reward is a free Shiny Blitzle, which makes it worth the effort.
How to unlock Special DLC trades in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk
On top of the Special Coaches, you can also interact with the Blueberry Elite Four, Carmine, and Kieran in the League Club. They don’t count as Special Coaches but do offer rewards and trades the more you interact with them.
You don’t invite these DLC characters to the League Club, they just appear at random every day. They reward you with an item, emote, or accessory after your first battle with them and trade when you talk to them on the third day they appear. Here are the trades you get for each of these special characters.
| Amarys | Skarmory |
| Crispin | Magby |
| Drayton | Duraludon |
| Lacey | Snubbull |
| Carmine | Poltchageist |
| Kieran | Applin |
While you are dumping Blueberry Points (BP) to get all of these Special Trades, you can also grind the Item Printer to get rare items or unlock new Throwing Styles to change how you toss a Poké Ball in battle.
