With so many evolutions to choose from, you want to make sure that you get your favorite – so let’s talk about how to evolve Eevee in Pokemon Go.
For our money, Eevee is one of the coolest Pokemon. It’s one of the cutest of the original Red/Blue/Green generation of Pokemon games, yes, and it’s just been promoted to starter status for Pokemon Let’s Go – but the coolest thing about Eevee is how it evolves. Eevee can evolve into more different Pokemon than any other species discovered so far – and of course that carries over to Pokemon Go.
In the original Pokemon games, Eevee evolves based on factors like using special items, its happiness level, moves or the time of day. In Pokemon Go, Eevee Evolution is handled in an entirely different way still – and we’re going to explain them all.
As Pokemon Go players know, evolution in that game is all about candy – all you need to do is farm candy through walking with, catching and transferring Pokemon in order to get the right amount of candy to ‘buy’ the evolution. For Eevee, that’s 25 Eevee Candy – and with candy being the sole method of evolution, that means special items or stats-based influencing of your Eevee’s evolution isn’t possible. Eevee also hatches from 5km Pokemon eggs and this weekend there’s an Eevee Community Day Event – an ideal time to stock up on Eevee and candy for getting every Eeveelution.
Once you’ve walked with your Eevee, hatched, caught and transferred enough Eevee to get the candy you need, stop! Don’t evolve yet. First, you need to decide which Eevee Evolution you want. There’s seven in the game from the different Pokemon generations – Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon from generation 1, Umbreon and Espeon from generation 2 and Leafeon and Glaceon from generation 3.
Which do you want? You’ll want to carefully consider this – each evolved form of Eevee is a different type, so you’ll want to consider strengths and weaknesses with our Pokemon Go Type Chart – and you might also want to consider which some of the Best Pokemon in Pokemon Go are – since some of the Eevee Evolutions rank quite highly there.
Eevee Evolutions: how to evolve into Glaceon, Leafeon, Umbreon, Espeon, Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon in Pokemon Go
Eevee Evolution is meant to be a random process in Pokemon Go. Once you press evolve on an Eevee, you have a random chance of getting one of the original three eeveelutions. The others can be obtained through other means, all of which require a bit of effort – and we’ll detial all of that on your page.
With that said, there are some lovely, useful shortcuts and cheats – of a sort – to get around the random factor and guarantee yourself the Eevee Evolution you really want. Here’s how that works:
First off, if you evolve an Eevee ‘raw’ by spending 25 candy, it’ll just evolve into one of the different available evolutions at random. However, you can actually force a specific evolution by renaming your Eevee of choice to a special nickname – and the whole thing began as an easter egg nod to a classic set of Eevee evolutions found in the Pokemon anime TV show.
So, basically, all you have to do is rename your Eevee to a specific name and then evolve it the regular way by spending 25 candy. Here are the names and the Eevee Evolutions:
Pokemon Go Eevee Evolution Nicknames
An important note about this little cheat: it only works once per Eevee Evolution. Once you’ve renamed one Eevee as Tamao to get Umbreon, for instance, you’ll only be able to get another Umbreon through ‘natural’ means – with that exact method depending on the eeveelution in question. This is why you should check your CP values and IV values before evolving an Eevee – make sure it’s a good one, as you only get one shot.
How to Evolve into Espeon and Umbreon
For Espeon and Umbreon, you can also evolve into them based on their in-game method of evolution in Pokemon Gold and Silver back on the Game Boy – based on the time of day. In order to do this, you’ll first need to build a relationship with your Eevee. Set them as your buddy Pokemon and walk with them as much as you can.
Once you’ve walked 10km with that Eevee as your buddy Pokemon, it’s ready to evolve into either Epseon or Umbreon. Just evolve in the day for Espeon and night for Umbreon – and this isn’t limited, you can do it as often as you like!
How to get and use the Glacial Lure & Mossy Lure to get Glaceon and Leafeon
The final current Eeveelutions available in Pokemon Go are Glaceon and Leafeon, and this duo has the most specific evolution method yet. In order to evolve, you’ll need some new items: the Glacial Lure and the Mossy Lure. These two new types of Lure Module are available in the shop and will soon be appearing as Field Research Rewards. These lures exist to make you more able to catch different Pokemon – the Glacial lures in Water and Ice type Pokemon, while the Mossy attracts Bug and Grass types. (As an aside, the Magnetic Lure has no impact on Eevee Evolution, but also attracts Electric, Steel and Rock Pokemon.)
There’s an added benefit to these, however: when they’re placed, they can impact Eevee Evolution. Simply place one of the lures in a Pokestop; if you place the Mossy Lure you’ll be able to evolve any Eevee you have into Leafeon while standing in that Pokestop’s radius (close enough to spin it). If you place the Glacial Lure on a Pokestop, that’s when you’ll be able to evolve into Glaceon – just remain within the Pokestop’s radius. This works even if you didn’t place the lure, too, so you can share this chance with other players.
Which is the best Eeveelution? Eeevee Evolutions Ranked
If you’ve got your hands on only one or two Eevee, you’re thus faced with a difficult choice: which of the five Eevee Evolution forms you can currently get is the best one to have? Several of the Eevee Evolutions rank decently in our list of the Best Pokemon for battles in Pokemon Go – in Attack Espeon is ranked 13th and Flareon 18th, while in Defense Umbreon clocks in at 16th. Vapoeron ranks a respectable 10th in HP and Stamina, too – but those are just basic stats. What about beyond that?
Pokemon Types are of course absolutely vital in Pokemon Go, and an important thing to consider is how each Eevee Evolution ranks when compared to other Pokemon of its type – and also how easy they are to obtain compared to their powerful peers. Let’s take a look at that:
- Flareon isn’t as powerful as Moltres or Entei, but those two are legendary Pokemon that can’t be found, caught or powered up as easily. It’s still definitely the best non-legendary fire Pokemon option in the game, all things considered.
- Vaporeon is beaten by both Kyogre and Gyarados. Kyogre is another legendary, and Gyarados – which is far more difficult to evolve from the lowly Magikarp – is only a hair more powerful overall. It’s a great water Pokemon option alongside something like a Blastoise with a good IV.
- Jolteon doesn’t rank on the best Pokemon list but finds itself in a similar situation to Flareon – it’s a great, viable electric-type Pokemon that’s only really hand-over-fist beaten by Zapdos and Raikou, legendary beasts.
- Espeon has fewer rivals in the Psychic-type category, but it still has two legendary Pokemon to compete with – Mewtwo and Latios. It is predictably worse than this pair, but is on the whole superior to most other Psychic Pokemon in the game.
- Umbereon finds itself as one of the best Dark-type Pokemon in the game. In fact, it’s only really bested in super effective damage output by Tyranitar, a third evolution and one of the best Pokemon in the game in general. Any other Dark-type Pokemon can’t hold a candle to it.
- Leafeon is a solid grass-type Pokemon with some decent moves; it’s stronger than the likes of Venusaur, Torterra and Roserade, but is inferior to the likes of Exeggutor (including its Alolan form), Shaymin and Legendary Celebi.
- Glaceon is definitely the stronger of the gen 4 evolutions for Eevee; it ranks as one of the better ice-type Pokemon in the game, only really behind Mamoswine and legendary Pokemon Regice and Articuno. It outclasses the likes of Weavile and Jynx with ease.
The story behind Pokemon Go’s Eevee Evolution names
If you’re wondering where the above names come from, they’re actually a deep-cut nod to fans of the Pokemon anime – a nice little easter egg for players who have been particularly dedicated in their following of the series.
Rainer, Sparky, Pyro, Sakura and Tamao are actually the names of the ‘Eevee brothers’ that appear in the Pokemon anime. The first three Eevee evolutions and their owners – all siblings – show up in episode 40 of the show, meeting Ash and Pikachu. Each brother has a unique Eevee of his own, and it’s after the brothers that the Eevee take their names.
Sakura later has an Espeon of her own later on in the series – thus that nickname – and Tamao, one of the five Kimono sisters, uses an Esepon.
For Glaceon and Leafeon, the names Linnea (Leafeon) and Rea (Glaceon) are taken from NPCs that use those eeveelutions in the Eevium Z quest of Pokemon Sun & Moon. That’s all the names explained!