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Pokémon Go - Which Pokémon Require Items to Evolve?

Picked up a strange item at a PokéStop? Use it for a different type of evolution!

When Pokémon GO launched in 2016, players were surprised to see that Pokémon evolved with Candy, a concept that hasn't been seen in prior Pokémon games. However, the game quickly showed it was different from existing games in the franchise, and the Candy system works because of that.

If you want info other than which Pokemon require items to evolve, we advise you head to our Pokemon Go Guide Hub. It's full of articles that will help you become a better Pokemon trainer.

With the launch of Gen 2, there's more than a few extra Pokémon creeping into Pokémon GO. There are now several Pokémon that require an evolution item in addition to a good quantity of Candy to evolve into a stronger form. Here are the Pokemon that require items to evolve:

  • Slowpoke - Can evolve into Slowking with 50 Candies and a King's Rock
  • Poliwhirl - Can evolve into Politoed with 100 Candies and a King's Rock
  • Gloom - Can evolve into Bellossom with 100 Candies and a Sun Stone
  • Sunkern - Can evolve into Sunflora with 50 Candies and a Sun Stone
  • Onix - Can evolve into Steelix with 50 Candies and a Metal Coat
  • Scyther - Can evolve into Scizor with 50 Candies and a Metal Coat
  • Porygon - Can evolve into Porygon2 with 50 Candies and an Upgrade
  • Seadra - Can evolve into Kingdra with 100 Candies and a Dragon Scale

How do You Obtain Evolution Items in Pokemon Go?

Every time you spin a PokéStop, there's a very small chance of acquiring an evolution item amongst the usual PokéBalls and Potions. This chance really is very small, however, with many reports estimating it to be a chance of around 0.1% per spin. Spinning the same stops consecutively also doesn't seem to work.

Fortunately, there is a reliable way of earning them. When you complete a 7 day streak for spinning PokéStops, you're now guaranteed to get at least one evolution item. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to aim for one of them specifically, so expect to come across some duplicates in your quest to catch them all.

Will there be more in the future?

It's very likely that there will be more of these items coming to Pokémon GO. There are many more Pokémon in later generations that evolve by using an item, whether it's as a consumable or by holding something in particular and being traded. In fact, Gen 1 also had these, but it seems Niantic are reluctant to retroactively make it more difficult to acquire Pokémon like Vileplume, Victreebel, Poliwrath and Arcanine, all of which need items to evolve in the games.

Elsewhere on the site you'll find numerous other Pokemon Go guides, including how to evolve Eevee, which Pokemon are the Strongest, and how to earn XP and level up fast.

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