Pokémon Scarlet and Violet/Branching Paths

Opening up

After the conclusion of the tutorial, the game opens up to the player, mostly allowing the player to go where they want or do as they please. There are three paths of objectives, each of which can mostly be completed in any order. In general the further the player goes from Mesagoza, the more challenging these objectives will be.

The three primary objectives of the game are:

Completing the gym challenge with Nemona, which enables the player to more easily use Pokémon of a higher level and adds more items to the shops, and classes to the school.
Finding the Herba Mystica with Arven, which allows the player to have more movement options.
Battling Team Star for Cassiopeia, which awards the player with additional currency and moves.

Travel Direction

Traveling along the path to either east or west from Mesagoza will result in the player encountering suitable beginner objectives at first. It is possible to skip an objective and move on, though doing so may make reaching or completing other objectives more difficult. Rather then going in a complete circle around Paldea, the game becomes much easier if you alternate directions, tackling one or two objectives on one side, and then one or two on the other, as both will be balanced for similar levels.

Advised Travel strategy

Since Pokemon Scarlet and Violet doesn't scaling up Pokemon levels, but went with the strategy of "the farther, the stronger", it can be hard not to be overleveled when exploring Paldea without restraints. And while you can check online the Gyms and over events levels, traveling Paldea by levels making traveling weird and kinda against the point of the open world nature of the game. Here's a strategy that I used while playing the game that made the traveling balanced.

This guide is good only if you expect to take each challenge as you tackle them. (as it seems to be intended that way)

First Phase: Pick left or right after leaving Mezagosa, and get along the road from either West-south/East-south to West-North/East north, doing every event you tackle on (Gym, Team star base or Titan Pokemon). Build Pokemon teams according to the challenge type (it appears on the map). You should train your teams along the road with Pokemon trainers or catching Pokemon. It's advised to make the route challenges.Stop the traveling when you come to Medali and also not challenging the titan near there.

Second Phase: Go back to Mezagosa, and pick the other route that you didn't choose in the first phase (left if you picked right, right if you picked left). Do the same pattern for the first phase by making a team for any challenge you come across, and get to Medali in the same south to north way. If you followed this guide and trained your Pokemon teams well, they are supposed to be around Lvl 30-37. So it's time to fight the Medali gym and battle the titan in the lake.

Third Phase: After Fighting the Medali Gym you can go North Paladea without fearing of being underleveled. Start making a proper Pokemon team combined with mix types (you can do your favorites types too) and train them while going to which challenge you want. Though in this phase you can get crazy with which challenge to pick, you should leave Glaseado as the final Challenge. If you get tired of North Paldea you can go to South Paldea (Alfornada) as well, but you will need to go there anyway.

Final Phase: Basically once you made all Gyms, Titan Pokemon and Team Stars bases you done. Only make sure to leave every last phases of each routes after finishing them all while you can do those right away, since those battles will be in the levels of the farthest areas of Pladea (Lvl 45+). But you can still do them however you like.

Training advise: Though in usual Pokemon game you will want to stick to one team, in Scarlet and Violet it's advised to mix up the team in a while so they won't get too overleveled. If you get to the first Gym (either Cortondo or Aratzon) being more than Lvl15, you are overleveld. The fact it's so easy to get access to the box in this game make this process much easier and fun.

Side objectives and activities

There are some side objectives and activities that are not strictly required to complete the story of the game, but may make doing so easier or may simply be enjoyable.

Catching new Pokémon to build a team or expand a Pokédex.
Battling trainers in a region - After enough trainers are battled, a prize may be available at a nearby Pokémon center.
Participating in raid battles, giving the player a chance to catch an unusual Pokémon, earn League Point currency (Even if the raid is simply checked), or earn rarer items.
Finding Gimmighoul coins.
Collecting items off the ground.
Collecting sandwich ingredients and picnic gear.
Hosting picnics.
Buying accessories such as hats or backpacks.