My Ideas For Pokémon GO Generation IV Evolutions

With Generation IV just around the corner I’ve been thinking a lot about how that roll out will look.  Sure, we’ll have plenty of new Pokémon to catch and hatch, but what about all the evolutions from Pokémon that are already in the game?

There are 21 Pokémon from Generations I through III that will evolve in Generation IV.  In addition there are seven baby forms.

When Generation II launched I remember one of the most anti-climactic things was simply evolving the Pokémon where I already had the candies.  I had a Crobat immediately and evolved both Espeon and Umbreon the same day as well.  Hitmontop was a challenge because you needed to hatch the right Tyrogue and Blissey was also challenging in that Chansey candies were so ultra rare at that point.

As we’re over two years into the game at this point, even casual players should be sitting on a decent number of candies for a lot of these Pokémon.  Additionally, with the introduction of raids, rare candies are not exactly hard to come by and anyone can dump candies into any Pokémon they choose.

Evolving these next generation Pokémon minutes after Generation IV launches and adding 21 Pokémon to your Pokédex would be a considerable letdown.  Not only do I have all the candy resources I need, I’ve got all of the Pokémon in the list ready to go with either good or great IVs at this point.

Even the Mew quest was a little bit of a letdown.  As a serious player there were so many items in that quest that I just automatically accomplished.  If quests had launched on day one it would have taken me months to get my Mew.  I would have felt so much more accomplishment at getting Mew, and probably even more anger at the fact that his IVs were at 76%.

I’m hoping they utilize Special Research to get some or all of the Generation IV evolutions.  Research has been out for months and my Special Research tab is looking pretty sad.  That’s eve though I’ve had the opportunity to do twice as much Special Research projects as most players by attending Go Fest (i.e. two).

Potentially you could have a quest for each evolution item.  Completing the quest would give you the evolution item, then maybe even introduce it into the pool of evolution items you get during your 7 week streak.  A challenging quest would be a great way to get your first Pokémon for the Pokédex.  Let’s face it, with evolution items at this point I’m trashing them to make space in my storage as there’s no real reason to evolve more than one or two of any of the Gen 2Pokémon that require them.

The staggered roll out of Gen 3 did a lot to keep things interesting but I think we need more.  In order to make Gen 4 a fun and engaging roll out, here’s my proposal to ensure that no one is able to complete 20% of their Sinnoh Region Pokédex within minutes of launch.

Generation 1 Evolutions

Gen 1 Pokémon have been out for more than two years.  I’m all for making things accessible to new players but there needs to be some challenge to evolving any of these in Gen 4.  These are all screenshots of Pokémon from my collection.  Even for the super rare Tangela I have 156 candies, that’s without ever using a Pinap berry.  I went months to hatch my first Tangela and I think I’ve only ever seen one or two in the wild.  To just evolve it instantly would be too easy.

Here’s a breakdown for how I’d like to see the Gen 4 evolutions for Gen 1 to work out.

Magneton to Magnazone

• Candy Cost: 100
• Walk Magneton 10km
• Complete Evolution Item Research Task
• Evolve During Rainy Weather
• Must have Gold Rocker Medal
• Must have Gold Depot Agent Medal

Lickitung to Lickilicky

• Candy Cost: 50
• Must Defend Gym(s) for 12 Hours with Lickitung

Rhydon to Rhyperior

• Candy Cost: 100
• Win 100 Gym Battles With Rhydon Before You Can Evolve
• Must be Trainer Level 35 or Higher

Tangela to Tangrowth 

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Gardener Medal
• Special Research Task to Unlock Grass Evolution Item

Electabuzz to Electivire 

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Rocker Medal
• Gold Pikachu Fan Medal
• Special Research task(s) to Unlock Electric Evolution Item
• Evolve During Rainy Weather

Magmar to Magmortar 

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Kindler Medal
• Gold Sinnoh Medal
• Evolve During Sunny Weather

Eevee to Leafeon 

• Candy Cost: 25
• Walk 10km
• Evolve as Buddy in Sunny Weather
• Gold Gardener Medal
• Gold Backpacker Medal

Eevee to Glaceon 

• Candy Cost: 25
• Walk 10km
• Evolve As Buddy in Snowy Weather
• Gold Skier Medal
• Gold Backpacker Medal

Porygon2 to Porygon-Z

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Pokémon Ranger Medal
• Walk Porygon2 10km
• Evolve During Partly Cloudy Weather

 

Generation 2 Evolutions

Not being in the game as long as Gen 1, the Gen 2 evolutions could potentially be a little easier to achieve.

Aipom to Ambipom

• Candy Cost: 50
• Can Only be Evolved from Aipom Received in Trade

Yanma to Yanmega

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Bug Catcher Medal
• Win 20 Gym Battles Using Yanma

Murkrow to Honchkrow

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Delinquent Medal
• Must Trade 5 Murkrow
• Must be Evolved Between 12am and 1am

Misdreavus to Mismagius

• Candy Cost: 50
• Complete Ghost Pokémon Special Research Tasks
• Can Only Be Evolved on Halloween

Gligar to Gliscor

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Ruin Maniac Medal
• Gold Bird Keeper Medal
• Walk Gligar 10km

Sneasel to Weavile

• Candy Cost: 50
• Evolve During Snowy Weather
• Gold Skier Medal

Piloswine to Mamoswine

• Candy Cost: 100
• Gold Skier Medal
• Must Win 3 Piloswine Raids

Togetic to Togekiss

• Candy Cost: 100
• Complete Research to Obtain Fairy Evolution Item
• Use Fairy Evolution Item

Generation 3 Evolutions

Gen 3 have been around for around eight months.  These are the least likely for players to have tons of candies for but I’m certainly not hurting for candies on any of these Pokémon.  It would be great to see some challenge brought to these evolutions as well.

Kirlia (Male) to Galade

• Candy Cost: 100
• Gold Psychic Medal
• Gold Fairy Tale Girl Medal
• Kirlia Must Be Male for Galade (this seems to already be the case)
• Gold Hoenn Medal
• Trainer Level Must Be 35 or Higher

Nosepass to Probopass

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Hiker Medal
• Gold Hoenn Medal
• Must Defend Gym with Nosepass for Combined 12 Hours

Roselia to Roserade

• Candy Cost: 50
• Gold Gardener Medal
• Gold Hoenn Medal
• Must Win 20 Gym Battles with Rosella to Evolve

Duskclops to Dusknoir

• Candy Cost: 100
• Gold Hex Maniac Medal
• Gold Hoenn Medal
• Must Evolve During Foggy Weather

Snorut to Froslass

• Candy Cost: 100
• Gold Skier Medal
• Gold Hoenn Medal
• Must Evolve During Snowy Weather

New Baby Pokemon

Baby Pokémon will most likely hatch from eggs.  This makes sense but it was a little unsatisfying in Gen 2 when you were just incubating eggs to try to round out your Pokédex.  Much the way the Alolan 7km eggs were fun for a week or two then got really stale.  It would be very interesting if they considered bringing out breeding in Gen 4.  This would make for an interesting extra element of game play.

The following baby Pokémon are who we will see introduced in Gen 4.

• Mime Jr. (baby Mr. Mime)
• Bonsly (baby Sudowoodo)
• Happiny (baby Chansey)
• Mantyke (baby Mantine)
• Munlax (baby Snorlax)
• Budew (baby Roselia)
• Chingling (baby Chimecho)

Some ideas for how to potentially introduce these new baby forms:

1.) Hatching

This is the obvious, if boring, way to introduce the new babies.  You simply release them into 2km eggs, presumably during an event, and we just get them randomly.  This is usually not very satisfying.  Who among us did not hatch an unwelcome number (more than one) Mantine during Gen 2?

2.) Breeding at Pokémon Centers

To be honest, I’m not a scholar of the original games so I’m not fluent with the game play dynamic of how breeding worked in the original series.  The idea of having Pokémon Centers is something I heard floated a while ago for Pokémon GO but I haven’t heard mentioned again.  It would be interesting to introduce this new mechanic in the game as a place to heal, train, and breed Pokémon.

Perhaps leaving two Pokémon at a Center (a male and female) for a specified time would result in gaining an egg that you’ll have to walk and hatch.  For Happiny maybe you need to leave it at the Center for a week then walk it 20km.  For Mantyke maybe you leave it at the Pokémon Center for ten minutes and walk it for .5km because, let’s face it, who will ever want more than one baby Mantine?

3.) Research Tasks

Additionally there could be research tasks though I think the breeding requirements would be the best options.  Happiny and Munchlax should be the more difficult to obtain as they are meta relavent.  The rest of them I can’t see anyone wanting more than one for the Pokédex.

4.) Encounters in the Wild

Encountering babies in the wild may be my least favorite option but it’s something we haven’t seen before.

The Mime Jr. Dilemma

Mime Jr. poses and interesting dilemma.  This is the only region exclusive baby form being introduced. This does make things a little uneven as far as all other regions are concerned.  I suppose with trading it is more possible to obtain a Mr. Mime so maybe that doesn’t matter.  I still do not have Mr. Mime but admittedly I haven’t really made any effort to obtain one either.

Still, it seems odd that one region essentially gets an extra exclusive.

In Conclusion

Some may not think some of these ideas are fair.  For example, evolving only during snowy weather is hard for people who live in Southern California.  Currently shiny Snubbull is released in the game and I live in an area where I never see Snubbull.  I’ve caught a total of two during the event and they were from research tasks.  Like with region exclusives there would be some unbalance, but that’s part of what makes getting the rarer Pokémon such a challenge.

Ideas like only being able to evolve Pokémon during a specific day (like the Halloween idea) may seem very rigid, however, I think that paired with an event this would be very doable even for a new player.  Getting your Gold Hex Maniac medal during a Halloween event would be pretty easy, then concluding it with getting the super rare evolution on Halloween would be interesting.

With trading now in the game, these limitations could exist for people who want a challenge without training.  Anyone else that simply doesn’t want to jump through these hoops would need to go the trading route, potentially as a special trade.

If everything is just released with a simple candy cost then I guess I’ll join millions of others in just going through the motions and evolving 1/5 of my Gen 4 Pokédex in ten minutes but I’m really looking for something more interesting and challenging in this release.

And I’m really looking to never have more than one Mantyke.