I played Pokemon when I was younger and kind of brute-forced my way through, not really strategizing much and I just played to beat the gyms and whatnot. Now that I'm older and getting back into it, I want to play with more care and thought. I'm playing Pokemon Sword and I'm almost to the second gym, and I guess I should say what I want out of the game so you can give me some guidance. I don't really want to be some master competitive player, but I do want to be casually competent and battle online at some point.

1. Do you rush through the story to get to the post-game and for you is that where the "real game" begins? Wherein you build your "real team"? How much care should I put into my team just to beat the game? Should I build my team by spoiling what pokemon are in future routes so I can know what I want my team to eventually be ahead of time? Or just work with what I have at the moment and switch out team members as I keep progressing?

2. Do you breed for better pokemon for online play/friendly battles in the post game? Or are you breeding and dealing with eggs during your main playthrough?

3. Same question for IVs and EVs, are you paying attention to these during the main game or do you save dealing with these for the post-game?

4. What's the rule of thumb for evolving pokemon? Do you just evolve them immediately or do you hold off? For what reasons would you do either?

5. Do you use TMs through the story?

6. What's the purpose of trading for someone like me who is just playing single-player and online and doesn't have someone locally to play with?

That's all I can think of, thanks to anyone that answers. I'd just like to have a sort of blueprint for how to approach these games.