How to get specific Eevee evolutions in Pokemon Go

Eevee has been one of the most popular Pokemon of the franchise for decades. It’s cute as heck, evolves into loads of other cute- or cool-as-heck Pokemon, and features deeply throughout the Pokemon universe as a flagship Pokemon. In Pokemon Go, the diversity of Eevee’s evolutions - or ‘Eeveelutions’ - makes it such that almost every player will want at least one of the evolutions for actual gameplay at some stage, whilst the desire to collect all of them is of course a big draw for all players as well.

Eevee is unique in Pokemon Go however, for another reason: Niantic have had a lot of fun with the mechanics of evolving Eevee, and have added in enough tricks and easter eggs to the game to help you get all of them without leaving it entirely down to luck of the draw. In this article, we’ll cover how you can ensure you get exactly the Eeveelution you’re after when looking to evolve your next Eevee.

Nicknames for specific Eevee evolutions

The main method for guaranteeing your first of each Eeveelutions is what players refer to as the ‘nickname trick’. This is a purposeful easter egg put in the game by Niantic. Each Eeveelution has a reserved nickname in the game, that when given to an Eevee before evolving it, will guarantee a particular Eeveelution.

Simply nicknaming your Eevee one of the nicknames below (and using the usual 25 Eevee candy) will guarantee the Eeveelution you get:

• Vaporeon: Rainer
• Jolteon: Sparky
• Flareon: Pyro
• Espeon: Sakura
• Umbreon: Tamao
• Leafeon: Linnea
• Glaceon: Rea
• Sylveon: Kira

You can only use each nickname once per account, so if you need more Eeveelutions of the same type, you’ll need to rely on other methods that we’ll now get into.

How to get Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon in Pokemon Go

The classic three Eeveelutions are relatively simple to obtain in Pokemon Go, but exactly which of the three you’ll get is down to chance (unless you haven’t already used the nickname trick). The get one of these three, just perform a standard evolve on an Eevee using 25 Eevee candy. With the relatively low candy requirement, even with some bad luck, it shouldn’t take any trainer too long to get these three Eeveelutions in the bag.

How to get Espeon and Umbreon in Pokemon Go

Espeon and Umbreon have some of the more interesting evolution mechanics you’ll see amongst the Eeveelutions. To get these two Eeveelutions, you’ll need to do the following:

• Walk with an Eevee as your buddy for at least 10km.
• Evolve that Eevee during the day for Espeon, or during the night for Umbreon

Be sure you check the in-game map to see if it is night or day in game, as looking outside isn’t always representative of the game’s state.

How to get Leafeon and Glaceon in Pokemon Go

Leafeon and Glaceon are two Eeveelutions that you can obtain using two in-game items, and a trip to your nearest Pokestop.

If you evolve your Eevee at a Pokestop that has Mossy Lure applied to it, you will receive a Leafeon. Switch it up for a Glacial Lure instead, and you’ve got yourself - you guessed it - Glaceon.

Available from the in-game store for 200 coins each, even free-to-play players can easily amass the required coins from gyms to buy the lures needed and get these two Eeveelutions.

How to get Sylveon in Pokemon Go

The final Eeveelution is arguably the toughest one to get (of course, outside of using the nickname trick to guarantee one Sylveon). Getting Sylveon is all about friendship, and making this Eevee feel very special before evolving it:

• You need to set an Eevee as your buddy and earn 75 hearts with it. This can be done with all the usual methods: taking photos of Eevee, playing with it, feeding it berries, spinning new Pokestops, etc.
• Once you’ve earned enough hearts, you’ll see the evolution silhouette change to Sylveon. At this point, you can go ahead and evolve: you’ve done it!

If you make your Eevee excited, you can earn a maximum of 20 hearts per day, meaning theoretically you can start and finish a Sylveon evolution grind in four days. To make a buddy excited each day, you need to keep doing activities with it as your buddy. Check out this Reddit comment with a great guide on how to make your buddy excited as quickly as possible.

Once you’ve earned enough hearts, you’ll see the evolution silhouette change to Sylveon. At this point, you can go ahead and evolve: you’ve done it!