Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC: How to Evolve Kubfu into Urshifu
This powerful little legendary Pokemon can be evolved into one of two forms; a water-type Ursifu or a dark-type Urshifu. We'll show you how to evolve it and which is better below.
One of the biggest selling points of the Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC is the introduction of Kubfu, a small fighting-type that can evolve into one of two forms of Urshifu. We'll show you how to evolve Kubfu into Urshifu and which of the two forms it can take is better.
On this page:
- How to Evolve Kubfu into Urshifu in Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC
- How to Raise Kubfu's Friendship
- Where Are the Tower of Waters and Tower of Darkness?
- What Level Should Kubfu Be for the Towers of Waters and Darkness?
- How to Beat the Tower of Waters
- How to Beat the Tower of Darkness
- Which Urshifu Form is Better?
- Can You Change Urshifu's Fighting Style?
How to Evolve Kubfu into Urshifu in Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC
To evolve Kubfu into Urshifu you'll need to undergo several complex steps, far different from the usual levelling or items needed to do so. We'll go into more detail below, but for now these are the basic parameters needed to make Kubfu evolve:
- Raise Kubfu's friendship rating.
- Take it to see Mustard at the Master Dojo once sufficiently friendly.
- Train Kubfu to around level 70 or up (it can be lower, but we don't recommend it).
- Take Kubfu to the Tower or Waters or Tower of Darkness on the Isle of Armor, depending on which form you want him to evolve into.
- Defeat five trainers in a row using only Kubfu, finishing with Mustard.
- Have Kubfu read the Scroll of Waters or Scroll of Darkness to have him evolve.
How to Raise Kubfu's Friendship
The first step is to raise Kubfu's confidence and affection towards you, which you can do any one of a number of ways. The following will all help:
- Talk to the yellow-clad Dojo students spread around the island to experience interesting sights.
- Interact with it at Camp and feed it cooked curry (very effective).
- Battle with it, and don't allow it to faint.
- Don't feed it bitter food.
- Let it hold the Soothe Bell.
- Use Vitamins on it.
- Certain berries will raised friendliness, as mentioned in their description.
The game won't tell you when it's sufficiently friendly, but bring it back to Mustard regularly and he'll tell you when you're ready for the next stage - the Towers!
Where Are the Tower of Waters and Tower of Darkness?
Mustard will explain that to evolve, Kubfu must go through one of two challenges: the Tower of Waters or the Tower of Darkness. The Tower of Waters is found on the beach to the left of the Soothing Wetlands, past where you found the Slowpokes for the first trial.
The Tower of Darkness is past the Forest of Focus, as though you were headed to the tunnel where you found the mushrooms again. Only this time, head right when you go out of the forest, up the curving path that raises up the mountain ahead. The Tower of Darkness is visible at the end of that path. If you're uncertain about which Tower to go against, remember that this relates to which Urshifu is better, which we've laid out a little further on.
What Level Should Kubfu Be for the Towers of Waters and Darkness?
Assuming you've beaten the Elite Four, the game suggests that Kubfu should be around level 70 to safely take on either tower, and frankly that's a good suggestion. It is possible to do it at a lower level, but we certainly wouldn't suggest being under 60 when you try it. That being said, it will be slightly easier to beat the Tower of Darkness, which we'll explain below.
How to Beat the Tower of Waters
If you pick the Tower of Waters Kubfu will evolve into the Rapid-Strike Style Fighting/Water Urshifu, and you'll have to beat four Water-type Pokemon along the way, followed by a single boss fight. There are five floors in the tower, each one with a trainer who has one Pokemon for battle. In order, they are as follows:
- Psyduck, lv. 65 (Water)
- Krabby, lv. 66 (Water)
- Marill, lv. 67 (Fairy/Water)
- Poliwhirl, lv. 68 (Water)
- Kubfu, lv. 70 (Fighting)
Yes, the final battle is against another Kubfu, owned by Mustard himself! Until then there's very little options for type advantages, though Marill is a bit of an exception. Fairy-type moves are good against Fighting types, but Kubfu can learn Iron Head, which will be super-effective. You'll also want to make sure that your Kubfu learned Aerial Ace, a Flying-type move that does extra damage on your doppelganger Kubfu. Other than that, make sure to heal between matches if at all possible so you're not going in on low health.
How to Beat the Tower of Darkness
The Tower of Darkness functions the same way as the Tower of Water - five battles against trainers with one Pokemon each, in which you can only use Kubfu - but this time they're all Dark-types. Bit stupid of them really, considering that Dark-type Pokemon are weak to Fighting attacks, like the kind that Kubfu learns all the time. Yeah, this is definitely the easier tower, as you'll be going up against this line-up:
- Zorua, lv. 65 (Dark)
- Scraggy, lv. 66 (Fighting/Dark)
- Inkay, lv. 67 (Psychic/Dark)
- Krokorok, lv. 68 (Ground/Dark)
- Kubfu, lv. 70 (Fighting)
Yep, Mustard is still the same final battle, which can be fought using Aerial Ace. The others are all weak to Fighting-type attacks, though Inkay knows Psychic attacks which Kubfu is weak to, so you'll want to deal with it quickly. Punch through the last of them and you can turn Kubfu into the Dark/Fighting-type Single-Strike Urshifu.
Which Urshifu Form is Better?
Urshifu has two different forms, a dark/fighting-type known as "Single-Strike Style" Urshifu, and a Water/Fighting-type referred to as "Rapid-Strike Style" Urshifu. Both are similar, with an Unseen Fist ability that allows their attacks to pierce moves like Protect, not to mention focus on attacks with high or even guaranteed critical hit chances.
The only major difference is in their type weaknesses. Water Urshifu has a lot more vulnerabilities, weak to Flying, Grass, Electric, Psychic and Fairy. Dark Urshifu only has three weaknesses: Fairy, Fighting and Flying, as well as being immune to Psychic attacks, but it takes four times damage from Fairy, a level of danger Water Urshifu doesn't have to worry about. Frankly neither one is hugely worse than the other and they're pretty well-balanced, but we'd say that Dark Single-Strike Urshifu is slightly more powerful.
Can You Change Urshifu's Fighting Style?
If you want to change from Rapid-Strike Style to Single-Strike Style then you're out of luck - as far as we know there's no way to switch evolution forms. Once you commit to a tower and a fighting style, you're ostensibly locked into it forever, so make sure you know the one you want.
If you want more Sword and Shield content, why not go here to see the most baffling survivors of the original Pokedex cull? Or check out how some of the new Pokemon were inspired by the greatest mistakes of palaeontology.