Candy (GO)

Generic artwork of Candy in Pokémon GO

Candy (Japanese: アメ Candy) is a type of currency in Pokémon GO. Each evolutionary family has its own kind of Candy, usually named after the lowest stage of each evolutionary family, which can only be used on members of that family. For example, Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur all require Bulbasaur Candy to Power Up. The Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂ evolutionary families have separate Candies. Each Candy has its own color scheme based on the Pokémon it is named after. Prior to the addition of Generation II Pokémon, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan had their own Candies, which were later converted into Tyrogue Candy.

In June 2017, the Rare Candy was introduced as a wildcard Candy. It's a rainbow-colored Candy that, when used on a Pokémon, turns into the Candy of that evolutionary family.

In December 2020, the level cap was increased from 40 to 50. Candy XL was introduced as a requirement for powering up Pokémon beyond level 40, taking the place of standard Candy. Players can start acquiring Candy XL after reaching level 40. Candy XL is acquired randomly through most other activities that reward Candy. Players may also convert 100 regular Candy into one Candy XL.

Acquisition

There are several ways to earn Candy. Most of these methods also have a chance of also rewarding Candy XL for level 40 and higher players.

Method	Candy	Candy XL
Catching Pokémon
Unevolved Pokémon	3	0 - 3
Second-stage Pokémon	5	1 - 4
Third-stage Pokémon	10	2 - 5
Legendary/Mythical Pokémon	3	3 - 6
Using a Pinap Berry	×2	N/A
Using a Silver Pinap Berry	×2.3334
Hatching Eggs
Hatch a 2 km Egg	5 - 10	0 - 8
Hatch a 5 km Egg	10 - 21	0 - 16
Hatch a 7 km Egg
Hatch a 10 km	16 - 32	0 - 24
Hatch a 12 km Egg
Trading Pokémon
Obtained <10 km apart	1	0 - 1
Obtained ≥10 km and <100 km apart	2	0 - 1
Obtained ≥100 km apart	3	1
Transferring Pokémon
Transfer Pokémon to Professor Willow	1	0 - 1
Transfer Pokémon to Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee! or HOME
Other
Evolve a Pokémon	1	N/A
Walk a Buddy Pokémon a certain distance (1, 3, 5, or 20 km)	1	0 - 1
Feed a Berry to a Gym defender	0 - 1	0 - 1

* Candy XL was obtainable via these methods at the time of release, but has been disabled due to unintended drop rates.

Prior to February 16, 2017, all Pokémon gave 3 when captured.

Pokémon that can evolve from Baby Pokémon, except Togetic and Lucario, are considered to be unevolved Pokémon, so only award 3 when caught, and their evolved forms only award 5 when caught.

Candy XL

The amount of Candy XL that can be randomly received has been observed to follow a weighted coin-toss model with two parameters: a maximum number of coin tosses (or maximum number of random Candy XL), n, and the probability of receiving a Candy XL for each coin toss, P.

For catching Pokémon, n is fixed at 3, and P depends on the wild Pokémon's level.

Level	n	P	0	1	2	3	Average
1 - 14	3	0.01	97.03%	2.94%	0.03%	0.0001%	0.03
15 - 19		0.05	85.74%	13.54%	0.71%	0.01%	0.15
15 - 19		0.1	72.90%	24.30%	2.70%	0.10%	0.3
23 - 25		0.15	61.41%	32.51%	5.74%	0.34%	0.45
26 - 30		0.2	51.20%	38.40%	9.60%	0.80%	0.6
31 - 35		0.3	34.30%	44.10%	18.90%	2.70%	0.9

In addition to the above, catching evolved, Legendary, or Mythical Pokémon reward a guaranteed base amount of Candy XL.

• 1 for second-stage Pokémon (maximum 4)
• 2 for third-stage Pokémon (maximum 5)
• 3 for Legendary and Mythical Pokémon (maximum 6)

For transferring Pokémon and walking buddy Pokémon, n is fixed at 1, and P depends on the Pokémon's level.

Level	n	P
1 - 14	1	0.025
15 - 19		0.125
15 - 19		0.25
23 - 25		0.375
26 - 30		0.5
31 - 50		0.75

For hatching Eggs, P is fixed at 0.2 for all distances, and n depends on hatch distance.

Distance	n	P	Average
2 km	8	0.2	1.6
5 km 7 km	16		3.2
10 km 12 km	24		4.8

For trading Pokémon, n is fixed at 1, and P depends on the distance between the locations of origin of the traded Pokémon.

Distance	n	P
<10 km	1	0.1
≥10 km and <100 km		0.25
≥100 km		1

Uses

Evolution

Main article: List of Pokémon by evolution family (GO)

Candy is required for Pokémon to evolve. The cost in Candy to evolve a Pokémon is typically based on its number of evolution stages, but with some exceptions:

• Two-stage lines usually require 50.
  • Rattata, Eevee, Sentret, and Ledyba only require 25.
  • Feebas and Snorunt* require 100.
  • Magikarp, Wailmer, Swablu, Larvesta, Noibat and Meltan require 400.
• Three-stage lines require 25 for the first evolution and 100 for the second.
  • Pidgey, Caterpie, Weedle, Wurmple, Whismur, and Pidove require only 12 for the first evolution and 50 for the second.
• Baby Pokémon require 25 to evolve for the first evolution and 50 for the second, if any.
  • Marill only requires 25 to evolve.
  • All two-stage Baby Pokémon introduced in Generation IV require 50 to evolve.
• Regardless of the above, all Pokémon that may evolve using a Sinnoh Stone require 100 to evolve.
• Regardless of the above, Pokémon introduced in Generation V that are eligible for a trade Evolution cost reduction require 50 to evolve into the middle stage, if any, and 200 to evolve into the final stage, if not traded.

Generation II evolutions which require a Sun Stone or evolution item in the core series games also require that same item in Pokémon GO (in addition to Candy). Most Pokémon with cross-generational evolutions introduced in Generation IV require a Sinnoh Stone and 100 to evolve. For evolutionary families introduced prior to Generation V, other Evolution stones (including the Ice Stone) are not required in Pokémon GO. The Unova Stone is required for all Unova-based evolutions that require some Evolution stone, except for Cottonee and Petilil, which require a Sun Stone instead.

In past updates, two-stage Pokémon that cost 50 to evolve have their cost reduced to 25 whenever a cross-generational third-stage is added, like with Zubat and Duskull. Snorunt's evolution cost was increased when Froslass became available, due to it requiring a Sinnoh Stone to evolve into Froslass (and all Sinnoh Stone evolutions cost 100), the cost to evolve into Glalie was increased to match.

Purified Pokémon require 10% less Candy to evolve, with costs rounded down. For instance, a Purified Rattata, which would normally cost 25 to evolve, would instead only require 22.

Power Up

Main article: Power Up → Levels

Powering Up Pokémon costs both Stardust and Candy. The cost to Power Up increases with the Power Up level. If a Pokémon were to be Powered Up from level 1 all the way to the maximum level 40, it would require 304 total (not including any used for evolution).

Shadow Pokémon require 1.2× Candy and Stardust to Power Up at all levels. Once purified, they require 10% less Candy and Stardust to Power Up than normal (with decimals of 0.5 or lower rounded down).

New Attack

Main article: Move → Pokémon GO

The player can spend Stardust and Candy to teach a Pokémon a second Charged Attack. In addition, Wobbuffet, Smeargle, Taillow, and any Pokémon that learns Struggle cannot learn a second Charged Attack, except for Shadow or Purified forms that already know Frustration or Return.

The cost varies depending on the Pokémon species and largely corresponds with the distance needed to walk for a Buddy Pokémon to find a Candy. In addition Shadow Pokémon, compared to their base forms, requires 1.2× Stardust and Candy to learn a second Charged Attack, while Purified Pokémon require 0.8× the base amounts.

Buddy distance	Stardust	Candy
1 km	10,000	25
3 km	50,000	50
5 km	75,000	75
20 km	100,000	100

In addition, these are the exceptions to the above:

• All starter Pokémon and their evolutionary relatives require 10,000 + 25
• All baby Pokémon require 10,000 + 25
• Leafeon and Glaceon require 75,000 + 50
• Ferroseed and Ferrothorn require 75,000 + 75
• Obstagoon requires 10,000 + 25

Purification

Purifying a Shadow Pokémon requires both Stardust and Candy, with the amount required proportional to the Shadow Pokémon's Buddy distance.

Appearance

Main article: List of Candy (GO)

Trivia

Evolution Shards

• In pre-release screenshots of Pokémon GO, Evolution Shards (Japanese: 進化のカケラ Evolution Shards) take the role of Candy, being earned by catching multiple instances of the same Pokémon and being used to evolve Pokémon. They did not have unique names or designs for each evolutionary family.
• The maximum possible amount of Candy that can potentially be used on a single Pokémon in GO is 804 on Melmetal, which include:
  • 304 to power up from level 1 to level 40
  • 400 to evolve
  • 100 to teach a second Charged Attack
  • In addition to the above, it will also require 296 to power up to level 50. This may be acquired by converting 29,600, thereby increasing the theoretical maximum to 30,404.
• Prior to their removal from Pokémon GO, Hitmonlee Candy and Hitmonchan Candy had the following appearances.

Hitmonlee Candy

Hitmonchan Candy

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 糖果 Tòhnggwó Mandarin 糖果 Tángguǒ French Bonbon German Bonbon Italian Caramelle Korean 사탕 Satang Brazilian Portuguese Doce Russian Конфета Konfeta Spanish Caramelo Thai ลูกอม Lukom

References

This article is part of both Project Sidegames and Project ItemDex, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on items in the sidegames.