Pokémon Evolution Items: Sinnoh Stone now enables many Gen 4 evolutions!

How do you evolve Onix, Porygon, Scyther, Seadra, and other Gen 1 Pokémon into their all-new Gen 2 forms? With Evolution Items!

November 14, 2018: Many Gen 4 evolutions are out and... they require a Sinnoh Stone

Pokémon Go has just added a 'Sinnoh Stone' to the items list. With it, you can evolve:

• Rhydon
• Magmar
• Electabuzz
• Misdreavus
• Gligar
• Porygon 2
• Murkrow
• Sneasel
• Roselia
• Togetic
• Dusclops

You can currently only get a Sinnoh Stone from a Research Breakthrough after collecting seven stamps over the course of seven days, but Pokémon Go has said more ways to get Sinnoh Stones will be discovered or added in the coming weeks.

August 20, 2018: Pokémon Go 'A Ripple in Time' Celebi Special Research requires Evolution Items and special evolutions

While you can get Evolution Items from the Special Research tasks in Pokémon Go's "A Ripple in Time" quest for the mythical Celebi, it's good to have a few extra and know how to use them. So, skip down below for all the details.

June 22, 2018: Pokémon Go introduces Gifts, can include Evolution Items

When you open the Gifts sent to you by Friends in Pokémon Go, you can receive a variety of items. Once in a rare while, those items can include an Evolution item. Just one more way to get your Gen 2 special evolutions on.

March 21, 2017: Pokémon Go is now guaranteeing an Evolution Item from your 7-day streak PokéStop spin. Hallelujah!

In Pokémon Go Gen 1, you could evolve any Pokémon you wanted as long as you had enough Candy. For some Pokémon in Gen 2, though, Candy is no longer enough. Now, if you want to evolve Gloom into Bellosum, Sunkern into Sunflora, Poliwhirl into Politeod, Slowpoke into Slowking, Onix into Steelix, Scyther into Scizor, Seadra into Kingdra, and Porygon into Porygon 2 you need more — You need Evolution Stones. Here's how they work!

What are Evolution Items in Pokémon Go Gen 2?

Evolution Items are objects that trigger the new evolutions — or new split evolutions — for Gen 1 Pokémon into Gen 2 Pokémon forms. There are five types of Evolution Items in Pokémon Go Gen 2:

• Sun Stone: Evolves Gloom into Bellossum (and Gen 2 Sunkern into Sunflora).
• King's Rock: Evolves Poliwhirl into Politoed and Slowpoke into Slowking
• Metal Coat: Evolves Onix into Steelix and Scyther into Scizor
• Dragon Scale: Evolves Seadra into Kingdra
• Up Grade: Evolves Porygon into Porygon 2

If and when you get one, it'll show up in your Items list alongside your Poké Balls, Potions, Lucky Eggs, etc.

What level do you have to be to get an Evolution Item? Is it really level 10?

Several of the more potent items in Pokémon Go only become available when you reach higher levels, like Max Revive. Evolution Items are the same. They currently seem to "unlock" only at level 10.

Arguably, getting all the Pokémon and candy you need to use all the Evolution Items should take about as long, if not longer, than getting to level 10. But still, it would be nice to be able to collect Evolution Items right from the start.

Can you just buy Evolution Items in the Pokémon Shop?

Sadly, no. Unlike Lucky Eggs, Insense, and Storage upgrades, you can't buy Evolution Stones in the Pokémon Shop no matter how many Poké Coins you have or are willing to spend.

How do you get Evolution Items in Pokémon Go Gen 2?

Evolution Items in Pokémon Go Gen 2 are given out by PokéStops, just like Revives, Ultra Balls, and Razz Berries.

Visit a PokéStop, give it a spin, and there's a tiny chance a Sun Stone, King's Rock, Metal Coat, Dragon Scale, or Up Grade, will pop out along with the usual Poké Balls and Potions.

Do 7-day streaks guarantee you an Evolution Item?

The very first 7-day streak right after the launch of Gen 2 resulted in so many people getting Evolution Items the hope was it would be a sure thing for subsequent 7-day streaks. I didn't. At least not for a while.

As of the week of March 19, 2017, Pokémon Go restored the guaranteed Evolution Item for your 7-day streak spin. The item is determined at random, so there's no telling what you'll get. Could be all the ones you need in row, or could be the same one over and over again. But, guaranteed!

Does time of day or buddy help make sure you get an Evolution Item — and the one you want?

It was hoped that having a related buddy, for example, Seadra or Porygon would increase your chances of getting their specific item, Dragon Scale or Up Grade respectively. This isn't the case. It's random.

There's also been some theories that time of day is related to Evolution Items or the seeding thereof. It'll likely take a lot of research to narrow that one down but, so far, there doesn't seem to be much to it either. Random.

So, random?

Maddeningly random!

What are the odds of getting an Evolution Item from a PokéStop?

Low. Very low. The lowest.

It's been guessed that any given PokéStop has a 20% chance of giving you a Pokémon Egg. Max Potion and Max Revive might be closer to 1%. Evolution Items seem to have a drop rate even lower than that. Something like 0.3%. Some people get them after a few hundred spins. Others, a few thousand. Yeah. The lowest. There's also five different kinds, which makes the odds of getting any specific Evolution Item even lower.

Random Number Generators — and math — are tricky things, though. At 20%, you'd think you'd get a Lucky Egg every 5 PokéStops, but as anyone who's played Pokémon Go for anything length of time knows, you might go 10 or 15 stops before getting one, then get 6 in a row.

The same has proven true with Evolution Items, only to an even greater extreme. The average seems to be one item every 300 or so spins. But again, that means out of 3000 spins you might get 10 items, but you might also go 2000 spins between getting items.

It took me 30 days and 2660 spins to get at least one of each of the Evolution Items. (I ended up with 3 extra Sun Stones and 1 extra King's Rock.) That includes a 10 day period where I spun 1073 times without getting anything. Despite rumors to the contrary, neither the buddy I had at the time, nor the time of day, seemed to have any direct relationship to the items I got.

Now that 7-day streaks will absolutely award them again, hopefully it'll be a bit faster.

Once you get an Evolution Item, can you just keep on using it or does it burn out?

Evolution Items are single use only. Yeah. Tears. You need one for every evolution you want to make. So, to evolve two Onix into two Steelix, you need two Metal Coats. To evolve a Poliwhirl into Politoed and Slowpoke into Slowking, you need two King's Rocks.

Spin. Spin. Spin. Spin. Sigh. Spin.

When you finally get an Evolution Item, how do you use it?

Using an Evolution Item is the easy part.

1. Tap on the Poké Ball menu button at the bottom center of the game screen.
2. Tap on the Pokémon button at the bottom left of the menu screen.
3. Tap on the Pokémon you want to evolve.
4. Tap on the second/bottom Evolution button.
5. Tap on Use This Item on your Pokémon to confirm. (It'll show the specific Evolution Item you'll be consuming.)
6. Enjoy!

Once the evolution is done, the Evolution Item will be spent.

Help, how do you ditch all the Evolution Items clogging up your bag?

@$$#()!#%. Sigh. Fine.

1. Tap on the Poké Ball menu button at the bottom center of the game screen.
2. Tap on the Items button at the bottom right of the menu screen.
3. Tap on the Delete button (looks like a trash can) to the right of the Evolution Stone you want to discard.
4. Hit the Plus or Minus buttons to choose the number of items you want to discard.
5. Hit Yes to confirm.
6. Burn in—

Sorry. Deep breaths. Wish you could give them to me!

How do you evolve the Pokémon Go in Gen 2 who don't need Evolution Items?

Some of them you can evolve normally simply by hitting the Evolve button. That's true of Chansey and Golbat from Gen 1 and almost all of the Gen 2 Pokémon as well. Getting Eevee to evolve into Espeon and Umbreon or Tyrogue to evolve into Himontop is another matter:

Learn how to evolve Gen 2 in Pokémon Go: Candy, Items, and friendship!

Any Evolution Item or Pokémon Go Gen 2 questions?

If you have any questions about Evolution Items in Pokémon Go Gen 2 or any great tips to share, drop them in the comments below!