Fainted Pokemon Can Evolve?

I was battling the fourth gym leader elisa with my cubone and it easily took out 3/4 of her Pokemon (on challenge mode) after defeating them Cubone leveled from 27-28. Once she sent out Joltik Cubone was knocked out and my lucario defeated her. Once the match was over and I was awarded money my Cubone evolved into marrowack. Now from previous games and to my understanding when a pokemon reaches an evolution level requirement and faints, it won't evolve until the next leveled up event. After the gym leader gave me my badge I checked my pokemon and there in deed was a marrowack but with no HP. A fainted evolved Pokemon.

Is this a glitch or a new element to the game? How new is this? Am I super late? Well for the of chance that I have discovered something awesome, I present you my finding! Also variables that may come into play. This was a gym battle and my Cubone is from dream world.

Has this happened to anyone else before? If so, with what Pokemon?

According to several sources I found via Google (yahoo answers/ pokemon database/ pokefarm), a pokemon will in fact evolve after fainting if it reaches the required level. Apparently this has been possible since 4th Gen. I've never encountered this myself, but it is an interesting function nonetheless. It makes some sense considering fainted pokemon can also use HM moves.

Interesting to know indeed. Thanks for that info

This is interesting indeed. Since evolved Pokémon gain maximum HP and - I think - also gain the relevant HP, I am surprised that there isn't some bug that causes a fainted Pokémon to suddenly have the, say, 16 new HP as their total, and not fainted. Or still fainted and having 16 HP.

Cyclone

Yeah, this is something I came across I want to say a year ago when I was playing White. I always had a habit of switching out a pokemon if it was about to evolve and it gained level, just to prevent it from fainting and not evolving. Then one time I wasn't concerned about whether it evolved right away, so it fainted, but to my astonishment, still evolved. I just chalked it up to a new feature. I don't remember it being around in 4th gen, but I just might have always switched out my evolving pokemon before it fainted and never noticed it.

Hmm...I did not know this! I usually try like mad to protect my pokémon from fainting once they've levelled up. I'm pretty sure I've had one hit the right level to evolve against Elisa, I guess they don't evolve if you lose the battle?

@Cyclone: Yeah, kinda like how Rare Candy can revive pokémon?

...a Rare Candy can revive a Pokemon? Interesting! Is it because of the HP gain from leveling up? What if it gains +0 HP, does it stay fainted? Huh, this is something I never realized... cool.

Amore, I think that if you completely lose a battle, it makes sense from a game-tech standpoint because the battle never "ends" normally... you white-out and go right to the Pokemon Center. So the battle ending that would trigger the evolution is skipped. At least, that would be my theory. {:3}

OffRoadSP said:

...a Rare Candy can revive a Pokemon? Interesting! Is it because of the HP gain from leveling up? What if it gains +0 HP, does it stay fainted? Huh, this is something I never realized... cool.

Amore, I think that if you completely lose a battle, it makes sense from a game-tech standpoint because the battle never "ends" normally... you white-out and go right to the Pokemon Center. So the battle ending that would trigger the evolution is skipped. At least, that would be my theory. {:3}

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In other words, if you are about to evolve a Pokémon, do whatever you have to to win the battle. Empty an entire case of Moomoo Milk and run the other guy out of moves. Whatever. {XD}

Cyclone

I wonder how the fainted Pokemon will react when they wake up, lol.

now, that's something I really didn't know. That's interesting. Even when unconscious...a Pokemon knows when nature's calling. lol

I actually just had this happen to me just a couple minutes ago playing Fire Red on my Ulti Monotype Challege. My weedle killed the first trainer's pokemon and leveled (lvl 7) but fainted on the next pokemon and then evolved after the battle. If i wasn't playing it on the original GBA i'd have screenies. I -think- i've had this happen on Crystal as well. but i can't remember for sure.... and i've played all the games several times @.@;;

Interestingly, it does happen quite a bit. It did happen to me at one stage.

On White 2 I was playing a double battle against Zebstrika and Jellicent (Lv 61.) with A highly leveled Stoutland and a severely underleveled Numel (At Lv. 32). My Stoutland's Return was strong enough to take down Zebstrika in one hit, and after that Numel went to level 33. Their Jellicent used Hydro Pump to take down my Numel. On the next turn my Stoutland used Crunch to take down Jellicent and end the match. After that, despite the fact that Numel fainted, it still evolved into Camerupt!

Kinda funny, because I remember Pokemon evolving after they were defeated in one of the early gens...

Can't remember, if it was gen one, or two, though...

I'm pretty sure due to the fact that i've played the early gens a lot more than the new ones...

R.F. said:

Kinda funny, because I remember Pokemon evolving after they were defeated in one of the early gens...

Can't remember, if it was gen one, or two, though...

I'm pretty sure due to the fact that i've played the early gens a lot more than the new ones...

Click to expand...

same here. I'm pretty sure it also happened on previous gens, and was never hindered. (e.g some other cases are where you use Stones to evolve fainted Staryu, Shellder, etc)

Although what i am not really sure of, is that if your pokemon fainted and you coincidentally blacked out in that battle... would your pokemon still evolve at the pokecenter, or not?
edit: the reason why i'm highly in doubt is because i could vaguely remember one of my pidgeottos evolving this way, but i'm not sure if i'm remembering the right thing or not.
edit2: nevermind, found the answer by googling. Someone tested it on GEN5, and no, evolution didn't happen. Have no idea with older GENs though