If you’re wondering how Pokémon GO would handle evolution for Pokémon, it seems we have a clearer picture of it. A clearer picture… literally. Thanks to this infographic shared by a Reddit user, we now know just how evolution works in Pokémon’s mobile foray – and it’s quite different from how we know it.
According to the guide, every time you capture a wild Pokémon, you will earn crystal pieces or shards that can evolve only that specific species. You have to keep catching instances of that Pokémon until you have enough shards, which you can then use to evolve a single instance of that Pokémon.
The number of shards you need to evolve a Pokémon depends on the number of stages of evolution that Pokémon has: 10 shards for 3-stage Pokémon, and 20 shards for 2-stage Pokémon. Magikarp, in keeping with tradition, takes a ridiculous 100 shards to evolve into Gyarados.
After evolution, the shard counter resets to 1 for both the evolved Pokémon and the pre-evolution Pokémon. So this means if you evolve the Magikarp I mentioned above, your Magikarp’s shards will go back down to 1, and your new Gyarados will also have 1 shard. Of course, this would mean you probably had to catch 100 Magikarps. If you’re wondering what to do with all of those: the guide also has a solution – you simply release them. The game even gives you an option to do so right after you capture a Pokémon.
What do you think of Pokémon GO’s evolution system? Let us know in the comments below.