To evolve... or to not evolve?

Started by Starry Windy January 23rd, 2016 1:58 AM
  • 6311 views
  • 24 replies

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.

Male
Liberty Garden
Seen April 28th, 2020
Posted April 28th, 2020
9,307 posts
10.4 Years
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?
Male
Equestria
Seen 3 Weeks Ago
Posted July 12th, 2021
275 posts
11.7 Years
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.
Male
Seen February 10th, 2023
Posted January 1st, 2017
439 posts
9.7 Years
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.

Currently playing: The Ultimate Rodent Solo Run Challenge Marathon
Pokemon Blue Raticate Run: (8/8) (COMPLETED)
Pokemon Silver Furret Run: (16/16) (JOHTO + KANTO + RED COMPLETED)
Pokemon Sapphire Linoone Run: (8/8) (COMPLETED)
Pokemon Pearl Bibarel Run: (2/8)
Pokemon White Watchog Run: (N/A)

cookie-san

Male
thailand...but im not thai!
Seen July 31st, 2016
Posted February 7th, 2016
8 posts
7.3 Years
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~
when you graduate but pokemon is life...

Pendraflare

Age 32
Male
Pennsylvania
Seen July 30th, 2021
Posted March 29th, 2021
6,263 posts
9.8 Years
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.
Azurilland | Twitter | Nuzlocke Forums
May someday resurface in full. We'll see what happens down the road!

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
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.

PageEmp

I can’t do money puns. It just doesn’t make any cents.

Male
with an axe
Seen 6 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Hours Ago
12,448 posts
7.8 Years
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.
I… might put something interesting here eventually.

Ammako

I hate you. You know who you are.

Seen February 1st, 2018
Posted November 20th, 2017
534 posts
15.3 Years
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.
Male
Stuck in Generation 3 :(
Seen July 23rd, 2017
Posted June 9th, 2017
1,761 posts
14.8 Years
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"..
"The balance of power has shifted." Regret | Solemnity | ElitenessIntensity

Currently in intermittent forum activity for 2017. ;_; Credit to Game Freak for avatar and signature. @Fenyx4 on Bulbapedia for more about me. Tune into TOONAMI!

Arylett Charnoa

No one in particular.

Age 31
Female
Seen January 5th, 2023
Posted October 18th, 2017
1,130 posts
9.3 Years
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.

noa

sleeping cutie

Age 30
Female
Seattle
Seen November 29th, 2020
Posted July 20th, 2020
5,474 posts
7.6 Years
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

☆ My, how the Earth does move... ☆

Age 24
Non-binary
Out of This Dimension
Seen January 3rd, 2017
Posted December 18th, 2016
214 posts
10.9 Years
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.
☆ || deviantART | Flight Rising | Steam | Avatar || ☆

Hiatus

Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted July 24th, 2021
12,283 posts
10.8 Years
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

When the sun goes down...

Male
Seen January 20th, 2017
Posted January 2nd, 2017
4,705 posts
9.7 Years
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.
Leaving PC completely

For trade requests and contact, please send me a message on
https://www.facebook.com/tachibanaadmin/

bobandbill

one more time

Male
A cape
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 7 Hours Ago
16,794 posts
15.2 Years
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!

Staff Anime Villain Collab - Earl de Darkwood - Interstella 5555

Daily | Drabble Dex | A Change of the Season
The Retelling of Pokémon Colosseum
Paired to Sheep :>

waveguidebuizel

weirdguybuizel

Age 34
Male
rhythm heaven
Seen August 15th, 2016
Posted July 16th, 2016
1,033 posts
15.8 Years
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.
Completed Solo Runs
Treecko: FR (3 KOs) | HG (29 KOs)
Buizel: Pt (5 KOs)
Female
Seen April 18th, 2022
Posted April 18th, 2022
532 posts
12.7 Years
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.
rip lady diana
people's princess
gone but never forgotten

Sheep

She/Her
Australia
Seen 4 Hours Ago
Posted 15 Hours Ago
39,267 posts
16.6 Years
Evolve unless the Pokémon can only learn specific, good moves in its previous form. That or if I can just level it up two or three more times to learn an awesome move that the evolution would take 10 more to learn. Or if it's just not as cool/cute-looking to evolve then you know.. I'll just try keeping it the way it is forever. ; ; Even if that's not always viable lol.

Dedenne1

Changing Seasons~

Age 24
Non-binary
Mewni~
Seen September 30th, 2021
Posted March 4th, 2018
6,454 posts
9.6 Years
i always evolve unless im either doing a challenge or i have to wait for that pokemon to learn a specific move but ya otherwise its gonna evolve eventually :D
-
Playing
Reading
Credit
Haitus
Discord

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
I always tend to evolve Pokemon, because you do need strength. For some stone evolutions I tend to wait for certain moves before evolving them.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
Visit my Tumblr page if you wish to contact me.

http://daikenkki.tumblr.com/