How to evolve Pokemon in Pokemon GO
Unless you're a complete newcomer to the world of Pokemon, you already know that one of the pleasures of playing any game from the franchise is to evolve your pocket monsters into more powerful forms. It's been one of the core concepts of the IP from the start, and it's a part of Pokemon GO as well.
That said, it's also one of the many aspects of the game that isn't explained to new players at all. Unless you already know where to look or simply stumble into the best way to evolve Pokemon, there's nothing leading you in the right direction.
We'd like to change that. Even with server loads and random glitches peppering our first week with Pokemon GO, we've logged enough hours to explain how to evolve Pokemon and the best ways you can prepare to do so. Without further ado ...
Candy is the key
If you've already captured a few Pokemon, you've probably noticed that you receive two bonuses with them. One is Stardust, a generic resource used to make your monsters more powerful.
The other is Pokemon Candy, and unlike Stardust, it's specific to that that type of Pokemon. Pidgey candy can only be used on a Pidgey (or its evolved form), while Spearow candy has to be given to a Spearow. It's pretty simple.
Evolving a Pokemon takes a whole bunch of its candy, anywhere from a dozen pieces to several hundred. So you're constantly forced to choose between increasing the power of the Pokemon you already have and saving up to evolve it.
How to get more candy
Currently, there are three ways to get more candy. The primary method is to simply catch more of that type of Pokemon, as you'll receive three pieces of candy each time. You can also hatch Pokemon from eggs, but since only certain Pokemon arrive this way and it takes plenty of walking to incubate them, this isn't a technique that can serve as your candy-supplying mainstay.
The least obvious way to get an extra piece of candy is to transfer a Pokemon back to the professor who started you on your road to being a trainer. You can do this by opening your Pokemon inventory from the main menu, tapping on the Pokemon you'd like to trade in, and then scrolling all the way down to where you see the green 'Transfer' button.
Tapping that will offer you one last chance to abort, but if you select yes, the Pokemon will leave your collection and you'll get an extra piece of its candy. Essentially, this means that each duplicate Pokemon you catch can be worth four pieces of candy provided you are willing to transfer it.
The idea here is that you keep the most powerful of any one type of Pokemon and then transfer all the others you find later.
One tap to evolve
Once you've accumulated enough candy, the actual evolution process is easy. Just open up the Pokemon's profile, hit the 'Evolve' button, and enjoy the resulting animation.
Most Pokemon can be evolved again, though it will take more candy the next time around. For instance, you need just 12 Weedle Candy to evolve Weedle into Kakuna, but it takes 50 Weedle Candy to transform Kakuna into Beedrill. Sadly, I had to look that one up. Mea culpa.
In any case, it's fairly straightforward to evolve Pokemon in Pokemon GO, and doing so whenever possible should be one of your goals. This is one of those times candy isn't bad for you, so take that, dentists of the world.
Please check out our other Pokemon GO guides: