Pokemon Go Unova Stone: how to get the Unova Stone and which Pokemon it can evolve
Pokemon Evolution is a key part of growing your Pokedex and powering up the creatures under your command in Pokemon Go, but to perform some evolutions you'll need evolutionary stones including the Unova Stone.
The Unova Stone is one of several evolutionary items or evolution stones in Pokemon Go, and like the Sinnoh Stone, it represents an item to evolve certain Pokemon that made their debut in a certain region: Unova. Unova is the region where Pokemon Black and White took place, thus the stone's black and white color scheme - and it's Pokemon that made their debut in that game that are evolved by the item.
Unlike the Sinnoh Stone, the Unova Stone doesn't evolve existing Pokemon into new forms - rather, it forces Pokemon from Unova to evolve into other forms that also made their first debut in Unova.
How to get an Unova Stone in Pokemon Go
If you want to get your hands on an Unova Stone, it's all pretty simple: it can drop in one of three key ways.
First of all, there's a chance for an Unova Stone or other evolution items to drop when you collect seven days of rewards from completing several Field Research Missions in a row. This will also give you an encounter with this month's Field Research Breakthrough Pokemon, whatever it is. That's often a legendary Pokemon, so that's a double win.
Second, you have another chance for an Unova Stone to drop when you defeat one of the Team Go Rocket Leaders - that's Arlo, Cliff, Sierra and finally Giovanni. Once you've defeated six Team Go Rocket Grunts, you'll be able to track down and challenge a leader. Once you defeat a leader, you need to beat 6 more Rocket Grunts to get the components to construct a Rocket Radar to track down the next leader. Once all three regular leaders are defeated, your next Rocket Radar will point you to Giovanni, the ultimate Rocket Leader. All of these battle encounters, if won, have a chance to drop an Unova Stone as a reward.
| Pokemon | Cost | Evolution |
|---|---|---|
Pansage | 50 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Simisage |
Pansear | 50 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Simisear |
Panpour | 50 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Simipour |
Minccino | 50 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Cinccino |
Lampent | 100 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Chandelure |
Eelektrik | 100 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Elektross |
Munna | 50 Candy + Unova Stone | 
Musharna |
The Best Unova Stone Pokemon Evolutions: how to use your Unova Stone
Given that Unova Stones are a little difficult to get your hands on and require at least a bit of grinding, be that of missions or Team Rocket battles, you'll want to use the ones you do get wisely. Here's a few of our thoughts on which the best Pokemon to evolve using it are:
- Evolving Lampent into Chandelure is without a doubt the best overall use of your first Unova Stone. Chaldenure is a pure ghost type that is actually one of the better ghost types in the game - in fact, only a legendary Pokemon, Giratina, comes close. Evolve this first unless you have another strong ghost-type with great stats waiting in the wings.
- The chimp trio, Pansage/Simisage, Pansear/Simisear and Panpour/Simipour are all interesting. They're regional exclusives, and they're all three pure types with some interesting move set potential, and if you trade or travel you could choose which you prefer based on a gap in your team - as they get grass, fire and water moves to differentiate them depending on which you go for.
- The least useful Unova Stone option is arguably Eelektross, though Cinccino is also pretty poor. If you really need an electric type, even using the Eevee Evolution Methods to grab a Jolteon is preferable.