There’s a number of ways that certain Pokémon need to evolve. Maybe they need to hold a stone, be traded or even be your best friend. Pokémon Sword and Shield have introduced a few new ways for its more unique Pokémon to evolve. So here’s a special evolution method guide that’s going to help your buddy morph up strong.
Applin To Flapple (Sword) / Appletun (Shield)
Type: Grass/Dragon
Location: Route 5 and in the Dusty Bowl, Giant’s Mirror, Axew’s Eye and Stony Wilderness of the Wild Area
Applin is basically a Dragon worm living inside an apple. According to its description, from the moment it’s born it burrows into an apple. The apple serves as its food course as well as camouflage from its natural enemy, bird Pokémon. The flavour of the apple will determine its evolution.
In Pokémon Sword, it evolves in Flapple after using a Tart Apple on it. And in Pokémon Shield, it evolves into Appletun after you give Applin a Sweet Apple.
Obtain the Tart or Sweet Apple by going to Hammerlocke. Near the entrance to Route 6 is an NPC who tells you that he wants an Applin to show his love to his beloved. I don’t know what happened to good ole flowers but you can go ahead and give him your Applin. Don’t worry he’ll give it back after showing his boo. He’ll thank you for giving him the Applin by giving you either a Sweet Apple or a Tart Apple. From there, give the item on your Applin as a hold item, and the evolution will start.
Milcery Into Alcremie
Type: Fairy
Location: Route 4, in heavy fog just south of Bridge Fields, and at the Giant’s Mirror in the Wild Area
Milcery is, essentially, heavy cream and to get Alcremie you’ll have to “whip” Milcery into its whipped cream evolution. It’s not a very hard process — much easier than making actual whipped cream, in fact. What makes it complicated is that Milcery has seven different flavour options. Their flavours range from strawberry, berry, love, star, clover, flower and ribbon. What kinda hell flavour is ribbon? And addition to that there are nine cream flavourings that your Alcremie can take on. From vanilla, ruby, matcha, salted cream, mint cream, lemon swirl, caramel swirl, ruby swirl and rainbow swirl. In conclusion, there’s a lot of variations for the way your Alcremie can end up looking.
To get started on this whipping process you’re going to have to hand your Milcery a Sweet. These sweets can be obtained by battling the Café Master in the towns of Motostoke, Hammerlocke, and Wyndon . You can do this once a day and if you win there’s a chance he’ll grant you a Sweet. The Sweet will determine the flavour of your Alcremie. Which will, in turn, affect its accessories and eye colour. Then the next step is to spin by quickly rotating your left thumbstick on your Switch. Your character will start spinning rapidly and, once you let go of the stick, land in Leon’s signature Charizard pose. Ta da! An Alcremie is evolved.
Alcremie Evolution Chart
Your Alcremie’s cream colour/flavour is determined by your spin. It’s quite a lot so I’m going to list them.
| Vanilla Cream (plain white) | Spin clockwise during the day. |
| Ruby Cream (pinkish tinge) | Spin counterclockwise during the day. |
| Matcha Cream (greenish tinge) | Spin clockwise at night. |
| Salted Cream (pure white) | Spin counterclockwise at night. |
| Mint Cream (blueish-green tinge) | Spin counterclockwise for more than five seconds at night. |
| Lemon Swirl (white with yellow streaks) | Spin clockwise for more than five seconds at night. |
| Caramel Swirl (white with light brown streaks) | Spin clockwise for more than five seconds during the day. |
| Ruby Swirl (white with pinkish streaks) | Spin counterclockwise for over five seconds during the day. |
| Rainbow Swirl (all possible colors) | Spin counterclockwise for over 10 seconds at dusk (between 5pm and 5:59pm). |
Overall Alcremie has 63 variant looks. Have fun making them all!
Farfetch’d To Sirfetch’d (Sword)
Type: Normal/Flying
Location: Route 5, Giant’s Mirror
Sirfetch’d is exclusive to Pokémon Sword and evolves from Farfetch’d. As the description of Sirfetch’d go “only Farfetch’d that have survived many battles can attain this evolution”. This doesn’t just mean you have to win a lot of battles but you’re going to need to get three critical hits in one battle. The easiest way to do that is to teach Farfetch’d Focus Energy. You can get this from the guys outside the record store in Motostoke. From there, get into a fight with a sturdy opponent. Use Focus Energy, then choose a weak attack like Peck. Repeat until you score three critical hits.
Sinistea Into Polteageist
Type: Ghost
Location: Glimwood Tangle
Sinistea is one of the more hilarious additions to Pokémon Sword and Shield. As the name suggests it’s a sort of poltergeist that haunts a teacup. For it to evolve you’ll need to let it haunt a teapot. There are two types of Sinistea’s you can catch, either a forged or an authentic. The only way to tell the difference is to look at a little stamp of authenticity on the bottom. The type of Sinistea will affect the pot needed for its evolution. The Forged Sinistea will need a Cracked Pot item to evolve. And the Authentic Sinistea needs the Chipped Pot item to evolve.
To find the Cracked Pot item head over to Stow-on Side. As you’re walking towards the Gym you’ll see a ladder on your right. Climb it and follow the path to find a Cracked Pot. For the Chipped Pot, you’ll need to get lucky and wait for it to go on sale at Stow-on-Side’s Bargain Store. The shop’s selection rotates daily, so it’s worth checking in every day.
Clobbopus Into Grapploct
Type: Fighting
Location: Route 9
To get Clobbopus to evolve into Grapploct it needs to know the move ‘Taunt’. It’s a bit of a unique requirement and I’m not sure why. I guess it must be a coming of age thing. So the traditional way to do this is to level up Clobbopus to Lvl 35 when it automatically learns Taunt and it’ll evolve. Or you can take a shortcut and buy TR37 that teaches Taunt and have it evolve whenever you want. TR37 can be found randomly at the Watt Vendors.
Galarian Yamask Into Runerigus
Type: Ground/Ghost
Location: Route 6
This is another weird evolution requirement. Galarian Yamask needs to take 49 or more points of damage in one hit. Then after sustaining said injury you’ll need to head over to the Dusty Bowl and walk under the Giant Arch. This should cause your Yamask to evolve into Runerigus. You know without this guide there’s no way I would have guessed how to evolve this guy. Like how/why?
