To evolve... or to not evolve?

[Starry Windy]

There are some trainers who like to evolve their Pokémon straight away because they want their Pokémon to be strong, there are some who tend to delay the evolution so the Pokémon can learn several moves before evolving, and some who tend to not evolving them at all because of how pretty/cool they look.

Do you tend to evolve your Pokémon in the game, or do you tend to keep it from evolving them instead, and why?

 

[MachoPony]

i usually evolve then whenever possible however in some instances if the evolved form dosent learn any(many) moves i might keep it pre-evo till it learns something specific then evolve it. notable examples are most stone evos. i would usually wait for flame wheel on growlithe or petal dance on gloom before evolving. however if the poke can learn a variety of strong moves after evolving (TM or otherwise) like Starmie or Nidoqueen. i'll evolve them as soon as i can.

 

[GiovanniViridian]

I usually evolve my Pokemon unless the Pokemon won't learn any more moves once it evolves such as those which need to evolve via evolutionary stones.

 

[cookie-san]

harooo~ cookie here~
i guess everyones answering form a move and statwise stand point...
but for me i evolve it straight away!
why?, cuz i like to watch it grow! cuz i love them and i raised them!
and when there bigger i can be proud of them!
but there were times that was complicated when in pokemon gaia my fem ralts turned into a gallade but i convinced my self this gallade will always be my lil girl sniff sniff
for me i think is kinda stupid convincing yourself ur never gonna grow uup but u gotta at some point but u can also grow while keeping ur inner child alive! and thats why i evolve my pokemon at the 1st chance i get hehe sorry if i kept rambling~

 

[Pendraflare]

Sometimes I keep an evolution for a certain move. In my Black 2 Challenge Mode Nuzlocke, I kept my Krokorok as such so it could get Earthquake at Level 48, where as a Krookodile it would learn it at Level 54, which wouldn't be in time for Drayden's Gym. Aside from that, if I'm playing X and want to level a certain newly bred Pokémon up fast, I'll keep it not evolved so it'll gain extra EXP until I don't think it's needed, or about to reach its final form.

 

[Sirenita55]

I usually delay evolution if the next stage can't learn certain moves, also I prefer the smaller and cute forms of the earlier stages although I do eventually let them evolve.

 

[blue]

Most of the time I'll let my Pokemon evolve as soon as it becomes available. The only reason why I'd hold off an evolution is to learn specific moves that the evolved form can't learn.

 

[Wicked3DS]

I usually evolve as soon as I can. The only exceptions I can think of are for Pikachu getting Thunderbolt and Spearow getting Aerial Ace, both in FireRed.

 

[PageEmp]

I always evolve them. Even if I prefer the pre evo's design, I don't care, I just want my mons to get stronger.

The only time I delayed evolving was my Gible in my dimond run as I wanted him to learn Slash and to a lesser extent Dragon claw before he evolved.

 

[Ammako]

I'm kinda torn, I have some shinies I don't want to evolve completely because I prefer one of their lower forms (I prefer Fletchinder over Talonflame, for example.)

Since those Pokémon are mainly for collection purposes and not necessarily for them to be the strongest Pokémom ever I might keep that one as Fletchinder.

But in-game team? Evolve, always.

 

[fenyx4]

I tend to like evolving my Pokemon, particularly since it provides a sense of strength and progression. As of now, the only Pokemon I plan to prevent evolution of is Scyther :t123: (although I plan on owning a separate Scizor as well), mainly due to the Base Stat Total (BST) of 500 uniquely not changing upon evolution (along with the secondary typing being drastically different), permitting Scyther to play differently (as in, get smushed by rocks more) when juxtaposed with Scizor :t212:. I mean, if the Base Stat Total doesn't change at all, I don't see why I should regard the entity as a proper evolution - you might as well make it a classified as a counterpart Pokemon or a Forme Change. {XD} Plus, I feel that Scyther's design is worthy of being allocated to a "fully-evolved Pokemon (which Scyther used to be at one point in time prior to Generation 2)" rather than a pre-evolution; while Scizor's "modified miniature scissors" can make sense as a logical progression from dual giant blades, I feel like the link between Scyther and Scizor was kind of after-thought-ish for some reason.. >_>

i usually evolve then whenever possible however in some instances if the evolved form dosent learn any(many) moves i might keep it pre-evo till it learns something specific then evolve it. notable examples are most stone evos. i would usually wait for flame wheel on growlithe or petal dance on gloom before evolving. however if the poke can learn a variety of strong moves after evolving (TM or otherwise) like Starmie or Nidoqueen. i'll evolve them as soon as i can.

This; I think the only one I did (a while ago) was delaying Mudkip's evolution in Pokemon Sapphire so that it could learn Hydro Pump at Level 40 (which I guess would be largely useless now, due to Hydro Pump missing and getting nerfed in Generation 6, not to mention Swampert being physically-offensively-oriented, anyway..). {XD} I intended on preventing Vigoroth from evolving into Slaking purely because of Truant, but I think that Slaking's statistics are worth the Ability trade-off (at least in certain scenarios; maybe not so much in competitive settings).

I don't really remember an instance that I've kept a Pokemon for its looks or anything. o.o I've always trained so I could evolve them, so they can become stronger Pokemon, in the end. While yes, it sucks it lose that cuteness factor in some, the results afterwards is usually worth it.

....lol I like how this is the most robotic response I've given so far. >.<;

This; typically, I train my Pokemon with the intent of eventually fully-evolving them. {XD} While I like some Pokemon for their cutesy aesthetics, in the end, I value power/strength and accessing a Pokemon's full innate capabilities.

I usually evolve as soon as I can. The only exceptions I can think of are for Pikachu getting Thunderbolt and Spearow getting Aerial Ace, both in FireRed.

Wow; Generation 3 games seem to have done this a lot - giving pre-evolutions access to moves that their evolutions don't have.. First, it was Poochyena with Crunch; now it's Spearow with Aerial Ace.. Thank goodness that most of these move discrepancies have been rectified and corrected in Generation 6, at least.. The only case I feel where the "pre-evolution learns moves that evolutions cannot" mechanic could be maintained is in Pokemon whose evolutions are triggered by evolutionary stones. But even then, I have a feeling that this "mechanic" will be revised/abolished soon enough, due to being a Scrappy Mechanic in that some learnable moves being "lost forever" upon evolution if you are unaware of the "mechanic".. Seriously, if I didn't pay attention to Bulbapedia's learnsets and such, there would be so many moves that I would have missed. I am kind of anticipating of personally documenting "potentially missable moves" someday (Poochyena and Crunch in mind was documented until Generation 6 fixed that issue), so that I don't screw one of my competitively-oriented Pokemon over when migrating or something.. >_> IIRC, Eevee and something with Solar Beam (Gloom?) are still affected somewhat by this "issue"..

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

Most of the time I'll let my Pokemon evolve as soon as it becomes available. The only reason why I'd hold off an evolution is to learn specific moves that the evolved form can't learn.

What this guy said. I have this odd neurosis about keeping a Pokemon unevolved. It makes me feel like it isn't living up to its full potential or efficiency in most cases.

But there are two exceptions to this rule.

Braixen is number 1. On my second playthrough of Y, I just stuck an Eviolite on it and suffered through the pain of pressing B every single level up. Sometimes I was tempted, but I knew I would regret it. Braixen's 3D model is just so much better-looking than Delphox's, and I find its design to be cuter and more personable.

And then there's Dragonair. When it evolves, it looks like a completely different Pokemon. And whilst I like Dragonite, I massively prefer Dragonair. That design is much more majestic and unique to me. I haven't prevented a Dragonair from evolving just yet, but I probably will in a future playthrough.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Normally, I let my Pokemon evolve the first chance I get, but I hold back on evolution sometimes to let them get moves early/moves they can't normally get in their evolved state.

 

[noa]

I always evolve my Pokemon right away because I'm impatient, except when my finger slips and hits B because I'm too impatient. :3

 

[Early]

I'll usually let my Pokemon evolve as soon as they can. Though like a lot of the above replies to the question, I'll sometimes stall so that they can learn certain moves that their next form can't. There's only been one major time where I didn't allow it; in my very first playthrough of Diamond (which is also when I was still fresh to the series), I didn't let my Prinplup evolve until it reached its Lvl. 50's or so because it happened to be my favorite Pokemon at the time. I eventually got over it, though, and let her evolve.

I still haven't fully evolved my player character in Explorers of Time, and my current file is ages old by now. I don't have anything against Sceptile, but Grovyle is still my favorite of Treecko's evolutionary stages.

 

[Hiatus]

As for me, similarly to the above responses, unless I'm looking to teach my Pokémon certain moves, or for battling purposes in general, I don't leave them unevolved. There is one Pokémon I kept unevolved for a while years ago (when I was more of a kid) to see if anything would happen out-of-the-ordinary, but unfortunately, nothing came out of it, haha.

 

[Sun]

As for me, similarly to the above responses, unless I'm looking to teach my Pokémon certain moves, or for battling purposes in general, I don't leave them unevolved. There is one Pokémon I kept unevolved for a while years ago (when I was more of a kid) to see if anything would happen out-of-the-ordinary, but unfortunately, nothing came out of it, haha.

Your unevolved Pokemon, is that one of those Level 100 Wurmple? XD

And on to the topic, it depends on the Pokemon. For example Granbull learns the move Play Rough at late Level 40s and as a Snubull it learns the said move at Level 36. Then I will have to stop evolving it until it learns the said move. Otherwise for Pokemon like Caterpie, Mudkip etc, I usually evolve them upon reaching the level to evolve.

 

[bobandbill]

The only time I hold back on evolution is when I want Pokemon to learn a move earlier, or a move they can't learn once evolved.

Many years ago I (re-)played GSC and had a Cyndaquil for ages and got to learn how much earlier it got Flamethrower, haha. I was inspired to given an NPC's comments about it and decided to check it out for myself!

 

[waveguidebuizel]

I think it's about half and half for me; sometimes I delay evolution, sometimes I don't. Most of my favorites tend to be unevolved, so that can affect my decision too. Though in my first run of Omega Ruby, I did an unevolved run, which I really enjoyed--I want to do another unevolved run blind.

 

[Princess Diana]

I had an existential crisis when I had to choose whether or not to allow my baby Skitty to evolve into a Delcatty. It was the hardest decision I've ever made.