You've finally tracked down that Tera Raid Charizard or maybe you spent three hours grinding Chanseys near North Province. Your team is stacked. Your starter is level 60, and you haven't even touched the second gym yet. Then, you get into a battle, and your prized Ace decides to "loaf around" or "pretend not to notice." It’s frustrating.
Honestly, the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet level caps are a bit of a mess if you're coming from older games. In the past, level caps only applied to traded Pokemon. If you caught it yourself, it obeyed you forever. That’s gone. In Paldea, even your own "Original Trainer" (OT) Pokemon will stop listening if their level exceeds your current badge rank. It’s a mechanic designed to keep the open world from becoming a total cakewalk, but the game doesn't always do a great job of explaining the math behind it.
The Badge System is Your Real Experience Bar
Everything in Paldea revolves around Gym Badges. Forget the Titan Pokemon or the Team Star bases for a second—at least in terms of obedience. While those paths give you essential traversal upgrades like climbing or swimming, only the eight Gym Leaders control the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet level caps.
If you have zero badges, you can catch and command Pokemon up to level 20. If you catch a level 25 Psyduck early on because you wandered too far north, that duck is going to ignore you. It doesn’t matter if your name is on the trainer ID.
💡 You might also like: Silver Galaxy Love and Deepspace: How to Actually Get Those Rare Memories
Here is how the scaling breaks down as you progress through the Victory Road path. With one badge, the cap moves to level 25. Two badges gets you to level 30. Once you hit three badges, you're at level 35. It stays pretty tight until the mid-game. Four badges bumps it to level 40. Five badges takes you to level 45. Six badges moves the needle to level 50. Seven badges is level 55. Finally, once you have all eight badges, every Pokemon—regardless of level—will obey your commands.
This creates a weird incentive. You might want to rush the gyms just so you can actually use the cool stuff you find in the wild.
Why Your "Caught" Level is the Only Stat That Matters
There is a massive nuance here that catches people off guard. The game checks the met level.
Let's say you have zero badges. You catch a level 15 Pawmi. You then grind that Pawmi until it's level 35. Even though the "cap" for zero badges is level 20, that Pawmi will still obey you. Why? Because you caught it under the cap. The game views it as a Pokemon that grew up with you. It trusts you.
However, if you go out and catch a level 35 Pawmo while you still have zero badges, it will act like a brat. It doesn't know you. It sees your lack of hardware and decides you aren't worth the effort.
This creates a specific strategy for "nuzlockers" or challenge runners. You can technically overlevel your starter to level 100 before the first gym, and it will still follow every order. But if you swap that starter out for a high-level encounter you found in a 5-star raid, you're back to square one.
The DLC Complication: Kitakami and the Blueberry Academy
When the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero dropped, things got even weirder. If you start the Teal Mask DLC early, the levels of wild Pokemon scale based on whether you've finished the main story. But the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet level caps don't shift just because you changed maps.
If you travel to Kitakami with only two badges, the wild Pokemon will be around level 10 to 20. If you've finished the game, they'll jump to level 60+. The problem arises when players try to bring their level 70 Ogerpon back to the main Paldea map before they've finished the gyms. If Ogerpon was caught at level 70 and you only have four badges, she’s going to nap mid-battle.
The Blueberry Academy in The Indigo Disk is a different beast entirely. It's strictly post-game content. The levels there start at 60 and quickly climb into the 80s. By the time you’re there, you should have all eight badges anyway, so obedience isn't the issue—surviving the double battles is.
Tera Raids: The Level Cap Loophole?
Tera Raids are the fastest way to break the game’s intended progression. You can join a high-level raid online even if you haven't beaten the first gym. If your friends carry you through a 5-star or 6-star raid, you’ll end up with a level 75 monster in your PC.
Can you use it? Sorta.
You can enter a battle with it, but the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet level caps will trigger immediately. It will use a move maybe 30% of the time. The rest of the time, it'll "turn away" or "begin to doze." Using high-level raid captures is a terrible strategy for clearing the story because of the RNG involved in obedience. You're better off using a level 25 Fuecoco that actually listens than a level 100 Iron Valiant that refuses to move.
Real World Testing: The "Affection" Myth
There used to be a theory in the early days of the Scarlet and Violet launch that high friendship (affection) could bypass level caps.
It can't.
You can wash your Pokemon, feed it sandwiches, and play ball with it until the sun goes down. If that Pokemon's "met level" is higher than your badge cap, it will still disobey. Friendship provides other benefits, like surviving a hit with 1 HP or clearing status effects, but it doesn't override the authority of the Gym Leaders.
Interestingly, the "met level" is tied to the specific save file. If you trade a level 100 Pokemon to a friend, it becomes a "Traded Pokemon" for them. Even if they have eight badges, if they ever trade it back to you, it reverts to being your "OT" Pokemon. The game remembers.
Navigating the Paldea Open World Without Getting Stuck
If you're looking to optimize your run, the sequence of gyms matters less than your current team's level relative to the next "cap" jump.
- Check your "Trainer Profile" regularly. It explicitly tells you "Pokemon caught at level X or below will obey you."
- Prioritize the Gyms if you plan on catching "static encounters" or Titans. While Titans don't give badges, they often guard high-level areas.
- Don't over-rely on the EXP Candy from raids early on. It’s tempting to boost your team to level 50, but if you haven't cleared enough gyms, you might accidentally push a new capture into the "disobedience zone" if you're not careful with your party slots.
The most effective way to play is to keep a "rotating" team. If your main hitters are getting too close to the cap and you still have three gyms to go, swap them out for lower-level mons. This keeps the game challenging and ensures you never lose a turn because your Pokemon thinks you're a rookie.
Ultimately, the level cap system is Paldea's way of enforcing a "soft" order in a world that lets you go anywhere. It’s not about how strong your Pokemon are; it’s about proving to the world—and your team—that you have the hardware to back up your commands.
Actionable Steps for Managing Your Team
To ensure you never lose control of a battle, follow these specific protocols:
- Verify the Met Level: Open your Pokemon’s summary and check the "Original Trainer" and "Met at Level" stats. If you are struggling with obedience, this is where the answer lies.
- Gym Sprinting: If you catch a "Shiny" or a favorite Pokemon that is too high-level, stop exploring and bee-line for the nearest Gym. Every badge you earn provides an immediate 5-level cushion.
- The "Starter Rule": When in doubt, lean on your starter or Pokemon caught in the first two routes (Poco Path and South Province Area One). Since they were caught at level 5, they will literally never disobey you, even if you power-level them to 100 before facing Katy in Cortondo.
- Raid Management: Use high-level raid captures for their items (Exp. Candy and Rare Candies) rather than using the Pokemon themselves until you have cleared the Elite Four. Use those candies to level up Pokemon you caught at low levels to bypass the cap safely.