Do you guys think its better to let Pokémon evolve at their natural levels or to delay evolution?

[pippitha]

I got the numbers off bulbabedia: link.

And upon further inspection of that page, turns out that there is indeed a 20% boost if you hold off evolution, like Stargazer said, but that's only in gen 6. So the numbers I posted are only valid for previous generations.

I apologize if you were only talking about gen 6 as well :)

So okay, looks like I have another reason to delay evolution in XY.

lol, no i'm talking about all the games in general. it's always been this way. I learned it from one of the older games from an NPC telling me that.

 

[Miau]

lol, no i'm talking about all the games in general. it's always been this way. I learned it from one of the older games from an NPC telling me that.

Yeah, and the NPCs also say that caring for your Pokemon makes them better in battle, and that never made any sense before Pokemon Amie.

I honestly don't think that's the case in games previous to XY. Each Pokemon has a growth rate that dictates the amount of exp points it needs to level up. In case of an evolutionary family, it doesn't change at all. So like I said before, a level 49 Lotad would need 7,766 exp points to reach level 50, same as a level 49 Lombre or Ludicolo. This is valid in all the games.

The only thing that changed is that in XY, a level 49 Lotad or Lombre would gain 20% more experience after a battle, thus leveling up faster, but the fact still remains that they need the same amount of exp points to level up. They would just earn it faster than a Ludicolo.

 

[pippitha]

Yeah, and the NPCs also say that caring for your Pokemon makes them better in battle, and that never made any sense before Pokemon Amie.

I honestly don't think that's the case in games previous to XY. Each Pokemon has a growth rate that dictates the amount of exp points it needs to level up. In case of an evolutionary family, it doesn't change at all. So like I said before, a level 49 Lotad would need 7,766 exp points to reach level 50, same as a level 49 Lombre or Ludicolo. This is valid in all the games.

The only thing that changed is that in XY, a level 49 Lotad or Lombre would gain 20% more experience after a battle, thus leveling up faster, but the fact still remains that they need the same amount of exp points to level up. They would just earn it faster than a Ludicolo.

Trust me, it's always been like this. This is how I've always leveled up my pokemon if I wanted them to level up quickly. It's much faster than when they're evolved. Maybe they do get more experience, but either way it's faster.

 

[Miau]

Trust me, it's always been like this. This is how I've always leveled up my pokemon if I wanted them to level up quickly. It's much faster than when they're evolved. Maybe they do get more experience, but either way it's faster.

Yeah, but that's only in XY :P

 

[pippitha]

Yeah, but that's only in XY :P

Then why has it worked for past generations?

 

[Miau]

Then why has it worked for past generations?

As far as I know, there is no evidence to support the fact that unevolved Pokemon leveled up faster in previous generations. Maybe it's just wishful thinking from your part, have you ever really tested it out?

I just did. I got my B2 version, and I got two untrained Swablu at lv 40, from the Dream Radar. Now, as we all know, Swablu evolves into Altaria at level 35. So I used Rare Candy on both, and evolved one. So now I have a lv 41 Swablu and a lv 41 Altaria. Both need 4,616 exp to level up, which fits with the numbers for the erratic growth rate on bulbapedia, so no, an unevolved Pokemon does not need less exp points to level up than its evolution. Next I took them to the Driftveil Drawbridge, and battled a lv 25 Ducklett with each of them. Both Swablu and Altaria each gained 169 exp. This means that an unevolved Pokemon does not gain more experience than its evolution.

I'm not gonna test this out any more than that, and I'm not really sure why I did anyway...