Pokémon Go keeps adding more and more creatures for us to find in the real world and collect. You may notice that as you go about catching these Pokémon, many of them will evolve into new forms. Some Pokémon only need a ton of candy to evolve, while others require a bit more.
If you want to evolve some of these Pokémon to their highest form, you’re going to need to know how to get special items. There several ways to get these evolution items and we’re going to go over everything you need to know about them.
Special items explained
So, what are special items in Pokémon Go? Well, as we mentioned, they are items that trainers can use to evolve their Pokémon. Special items are much rarer and harder to find than your typical potion or Ultra Ball. While the generation one games have Pokémon that can evolve from stones like Eevee, that initially wasn’t the case in Pokémon Go as special items weren’t introduced until the release of generation two. Since then, Niantic has continued to add even more special items for players. In fact, new special items were added in February 2019.
List of all special items in Pokémon Go
Here is the full list of all currently available special items and when they were released below:
- Dragon Scale: Evolves Seadra into Kingdra
- King’s Rock: Evolves Poliwhirl into Politoed and Slowpoke into Slowking
- Metal Coat: Evolves Onix into Steelix and Scyther into Scizor
- Sun Stone: Evolves Gloom into Bellossum and Sunkern into Sunflora
- Up Grade: Evolves Porygon into Porygon 2
- Sinnoh Stone: Evolves Gen 1 and 2 Pokémon to Gen 4 evolutions with 100 candy. See the table below for all the Pokémon that presently evolve with the Sinnoh Stone.
| Pokémon | Candy to evolve |
Evolution | ||
| Aipom |  |
100 | Ambipom |  |
| Dusclops |  |
100 | Dusknoir |  |
| Electabuzz |  |
100 | Electivire |  |
| Gligar |  |
100 | Gliscor |  |
| Kirlia (m) |  |
100 | Gallade |  |
| Lickitung |  |
100 | Lickilicky |  |
| Magmar |  |
100 | Magmortar |  |
| Misdreavus |  |
100 | Mismagius |  |
| Murkrow |  |
100 | Honchkrow |  |
| Piloswine |  |
100 | Mamoswine |  |
| Porygon2 |  |
100 | Porygon-Z |  |
| Rhydon |  |
100 | Rhyperior |  |
| Roselia |  |
100 | Roserade |  |
| Sneasel |  |
100 | Weavile |  |
| Snorunt (f) |  |
100 | Froslass |  |
| Tangela |  |
100 | Tangrowth |  |
| Togetic |  |
100 | Togekiss |  |
| Yanma |  |
100 | Yanmega |  |
How to get special items in Pokémon Go
There are a few different ways that you can get special items like King’s Rock, Metal Coat, Dragon Scale, Up Grade, Sun Stone, and Sinnoh Stone in the Pokémon Go. It’s important to note that they are all obtained the same ways, so until Niantic changes this, there are no special methods for acquiring specific evolutionary items. Here are the best options for getting these super rare items.
1. Poke Stops
Poke Stops are places scattered around the world that you can physically visit and spin the medallion to get free items. You can also find them at Gyms. Poke Stops are the standard method of getting special items in Pokémon Go but they’re also one of the hardest. The chances of getting special items at Poke Stops are pretty slim. They are by far the rarest item you can get so it can take hundreds, if not thousands of tries using this method.
2. Gifts
Another way to get special items in Pokémon Go is through gifts. Gifts are items that players can send to and receive from friends, as well as through Poke Stops. Gifts are like a free Poke Stop, offering rewards like special items. If you have one of these, be sure to send them to your friends and maybe you’ll get one in return.
3. Weekly rewards
Another way that you can get special items is through weekly rewards. For example, if you spin at least one Poke Stop a day for seven days straight, you will receive a weekly reward. What’s the reward? Well, it’s a guaranteed special evolution item. This is by far one of the easiest methods but it does require patience and you can only get one per week.
4. Field Research
Every once in a while, there will be new Field Research for you to complete. These could be ‘Battle X number of Gyms’ or ‘Walk 10 kilometers.’ Completing this research can sometimes earn you special items so be sure to check the reward list for any new research that comes up.
5. Trainer battles
Last but not least, trainer battles are one of the best ways to get special items in Pokémon Go. Recently introduced, you can now battle against your friends and NPC team leaders. You can receive rewards from these battles up to three times per day for real players and one time per day for NPC’s. On Community Day, you can usually earn a good amount of Sinnoh Stones through battling with other trainers so make sure to check the events page to see when the next one takes place.
