Stone Evolution

[Yukiko_Shi]

This question appeared in my mind when I was watching a youtuber called AceTrainerLiam's branch evolution videos.

I've always wondered how other trainers use evolution stones? Do you evolve them straight away like Lt. Surge did with his Raichu or wait until they learn a certain move?

If a Pokemon evolves with a stone, I tend to train them up to the level when they learn the move that I prefer. Since I don't do competitive battling it tends to go to the last attack move. For instance, I wouldn't evolve a Clefairy until it reached level 50 when Clefairy learns Meteor Mash.

What do you do?

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Depends on the Pokemon really. If the moveset I want for it has moves that it can only learn (or conveniently learn) at a certain level of its pre-evolved form, I hold off on evolving it until it learns that move. Otherwise, I might just shove the stone down its throat and evolve it as soon as possible for the stat boost.

 

[Beten]

Yeah, I think most people wait until the pre-evolved form learns a certain move before evolving them with the stone. However, some of them are worth just evolving then and there, like Stell said.

 

[KoL]

For me it depends entirely on how many of the Pokemon's best moves are taught via TM/HM. Staryu for example I'll evolve straightaway since almost all of Starmie's best moves are TM/HM moves and almost none of its level-up moves are of any use at all, so there's no reason not to evolve it immediately.

 

[kirikizanite]

Like the others have said, It all depends on the Pokemon. For example, if I have a Growlithe, I would hold off on evolving it as it can learn some very valuable and strong moves like Heat Wave, Outrage, Crunch, and Flare Blitz that it would be unable to learn (excluding Egg Moves, Tutors, etc) as an Arcanine. But, there are other Pokemon where I could evolve them straight away.

 

[Keleri]

If I'm not actively training the pokemon and just need it for dex completion, then I evolve it right away, yeah. (I think I had a level 3 raichu kicking around for a while.) Otherwise, gotta get those good moves first.

To broaden the topic a little since everyone is giving the same answer, in the games the consequence of stone-evolving pokemon is that their moveset changes and they stop learning new moves, and the anime touched on that with Lt. Surge's Raichu not knowing Agility. What might be some other in-universe consequences for evolving a pokemon early (see: my level 3 raichu)? I read one fanfic where the pokemon's physical growth was impaired as well if they were evolved "too early".

 

[alolatrainer]

I usually just evolve it right away..but it really does depend on the pokemon

 

[OnePiecefan11]

Like other people here said, it depends on the Pokemon. Eevee I would evolve right away, but not something like Gloom.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Well, I often prefer to wait a bit before evolving a pokemon, especially if it's my main-game travelling team. Just fits the mood a bit. The main reason I don't evolve pokemon until I need to however is because pokemon at their lower forms need less xp to level up than a fully evolved pokémon does. So if you're training a pokémon up to lvl 50 for tournament use, it's often better to wait until it actually reaches 50 before you evolve it, even though the difference is in minutes with optimum levelling methods.

 

[Tearra]

I tend to just evolve off the bat and then level. :3