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Evolution stone

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For the Oval Stone, see evolution-inducing held item. For the Eviolite, see stat-enhancing item.
Gloom's branched evolution family as demonstrated in the anime: both of Gloom's potential evolutions require an evolutionary stone.

An evolutionary stone (Japanese: 進化の石 Evolution stone) is a stone-like item that radiates a mysterious energy that causes some species of Pokémon to evolve.

Another stone, the Everstone, is different in that radiates a type of energy that prevents evolution in the holders; however, if a Pokémon holding the Everstone has an evolutionary stone used on it, it will still evolve.

Evolutionary stones may be used at any time, and cause instant evolution in the Pokémon they are used on, which cannot be canceled. With the exception of the Everstone, which must be held for its effects to take place, all evolutionary stones are applied directly to the Pokémon. All stones that cause evolution in a Pokémon are consumed upon that Pokémon's evolution.

The use of a stone is seen by many to be "forced" evolution, especially by the main characters of the anime, as the Pokémon is not in charge of its own transformation. Many Pokémon that result from a stone-based evolution also have vastly different level-up learnsets than their pre-evolutionary forms, with several learning no moves after evolution at all.

List of stones

In the anime

A giant Moon Stone.

Evolutionary stones are showcased somewhat rarely in the anime, as only a relative few Pokémon are able to evolve by using them. Despite this, they were among the earliest of items to have been showcased in the anime, appearing as early as Clefairy and the Moon Stone, where a rather large Moon Stone appeared deep within Mt. Moon. It was being worshipped by a group of Clefairy who lived there, and was soon stolen by Team Rocket and ended up being blown up. The shards from it, however, rained down on the Clefairy and caused some of them to evolve into Clefable. It is also speculated in the anime that the Moon Stone was the reason why and how various Pokémon—Clefairy in particular—arrived in the Pokémon world.

The second appearance of an evolutionary stone occurred in The Electric Shock Showdown, where the Thunder Stone was introduced. This was likewise the first opportunity that a Pokémon belonging to a main character was given to evolve by stone. Ash's Pikachu, however, refused the offer, intending to beat Lt. Surge's Raichu as a Pikachu. He kept the Thunder Stone on hand, in case Pikachu ever wanted to evolve; however, in Pika and Goliath!, the same scenario occurred and Pikachu still refused to evolve. Seeing his determination of not evolving, Team Rocket stole it, planning to sell it.

The remaining Generation I evolutionary stones made their debut in The Battling Eevee Brothers, as part of a collection held by the Eevee brothers. Additionally, two of the Eevee brothers offered a Fire Stone and Thunder Stone to Brock and Ash, respectively, to evolve their Vulpix and Pikachu, though both refused.

A forest that appeared in The March of the Exeggutor Squad, was a reported hotbed of Leaf Stones, and the radiation from these stones in the forest was so strong as to induce evolution in Melvin's Exeggcute, which proceeded to cause chaos by hypnotizing a horde of other Exeggutor.

A fake Leaf Stone, made by Team Rocket, appeared in Make Room for Gloom, where the discovery of its nature as a fake was central to the episode.

A real Leaf Stone finally appeared at the very end of Pikachu's Rescue Adventure. With it, the Exeggcute that had been following Misty's Togepi around evolved into Exeggutor.

Ash won a Sun Stone in the Bug-Catching Contest during The Bug Stops Here, later using it to evolve a Sunkern in Moving Pictures.

Fire Stones played an important role in The Stolen Stones!, where they were intended to be delivered to a stadium to be used as a prize for competitors there.

Both the Leaf Stone and Sun Stone appear in Whichever Way the Wind Blows as a demonstration of the branch in Gloom's evolutionary line.

The Water Stone appears in Once in a Mawile and is used by Brock's Lombre to evolve into Ludicolo. This is the first time that a main character's Pokémon evolves via an evolutionary stone on-screen, although it is likely that James's Weepinbell was evolved by way of a Leaf Stone prior to The Breeding Center Secret.

A Moon Stone appeared in a flashback in Delcatty Got Your Tongue?, evolving Dr. Abby's Skitty into a Delcatty.

In Stopped in the Name of Love!, Dawn gave an Everstone to her Piplup to prevent him from evolving until he wants to.

Professor Oak gave a Water Stone to a wild Lombre in A Faux Oak Finish!, while a Dusk Stone was central to the plot of Try for the Family Stone!.

Ursula used a Fire Stone and a Water Stone to evolve her two Eevee in Last Call, First Round!, making them a Flareon and Vaporeon, for use in the Grand Festival.

Ash had to find a Thunder Stone as part of a scavenger hunt in Climbing the Tower of Success!. He came across a young man in possession of one who tried to toss it to him from a long distance. The Thunder Stone nearly came in contact with Pikachu but he jumped out of the way just in time leaving Ash to catch it.

Mystery on a Deserted Island! featured all evolutionary stones available as of Generation V.

Evolutionary stones do not seem to be required for evolution in the anime as they are in the games. James's second Weepinbell evolved without a Leaf Stone in Here's Lookin' at You, Elekid, though this may just be an example of anime physics. In addition, Pokémon that evolve via proximity of evolutionary stones apparently seem to control their evolutionary urges and physically touch the stone without evolving, as evidenced by Pikachu whacking away the Thunder Stone when refusing to evolve the first time, as well as a Clefairy holding onto a Moon Stone for prolonged periods of time before delivering it to the larger Moon Stone without evolving.

Pokédex entries

Episode Pokémon Source Entry
EP187 Sun Stone Ash's Pokédex The Sun Stone enables evolution in several Pokémon, changing Gloom into Vileplume and changing Sunkern into Sunflora.

Template:Animedexfooter

Gallery

Mystery on a Deserted Island!

  • Fire Stone

    Fire Stone

  • Water Stone

    Water Stone

  • Thunder Stone

    Thunder Stone

  • Leaf Stone

    Leaf Stone

  • Moon Stone

    Moon Stone

  • Sun Stone

    Sun Stone

  • Shiny Stone

    Shiny Stone

  • Dusk Stone

    Dusk Stone

  • Dawn Stone

    Dawn Stone

In the manga

In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga

In Clefairy Tale, Ash, Professor Oak, and Bill witness a Clefairy evolution ceremony involving a large Moon Stone.

The focus of the chapter To Evolve or Not to Evolve, That Is the Question! is evolutionary stones. Misty hopes to buy a Water Stone for her Poliwhirl in Stone Town, a town on Dream Island where all the evolutionary stones in the Pokémon world come from. However, she cannot afford one, remarking that an inexpensive one might make the evolution go bad.

She is later given a Water Stone by Mikey, who is being pressured to join the Knights of the "E" Stone, a club which requires members to own a Pokémon evolved by an evolutionary stone. By battling club members, Ash and Mikey prove to the leaders that Pokémon which have evolved by evolutionary stone are not necessarily superior to their unevolved counterparts.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

In the Red, Green & Blue arc, a Moon Stone is first mentioned by Professor Oak in Gyarados Splashes In! as a rock with a crescent moon-shaped indentation that boosts a Pokémon's power immensely. In the next round, Raging Rhydon, Team Rocket searches for one in Mt. Moon, however it is Red who finds it. Later on, Red uses this Moon Stone to evolve Green's Clefairy during the Silph Co. catastrophe. Additionally, Red's Poliwhirl was able to evolve into a Poliwrath with the help of a Water Stone when they were thrown in the water.

In the Yellow arc, Yellow finds a Leaf Stone in Vermilion Harbor in The Kindest Tentacruel, but the Fire, Thunder, and Water Stones are missing. Later, it is revealed Giovanni gave them to Red so he could evolve and devolve his Eevee freely.

In the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc, Gold's Sunkern evolves into a Sunflora in The Last Battle VI because the sun's energy reflected off of the rocks near Ilex Forest replicated the Sun Stone's effects.

In the Ruby & Sapphire arc, Ruby's Skitty evolves into a Delcatty in VS. Mawile due to being exposed to one of Steven's Moon Stones.

In the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga

In (Violent) Earthquake! Cyrus's Consuming Ambition!!, it is revealed that Mitsumi secretly attached an Everstone to Hareta's Piplup before he started his journey. She thought Hareta would learn faster with weaker Pokémon, and removed it. Piplup immediately evolved into Prinplup, then into Empoleon.

In the TCG

The Moon Stone and Dusk Stone are featured in the Pokémon Trading Card Game on a Trainer card and on Pokémon cards as held items. These held items work in the same fashion as Poké-Bodies, in that the effect the item provides is active whenever the Pokémon is in play. The following is a list of cards named or including Moon Stone or Dusk Stone.

Evolutionary stone cards
Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format.
Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
Card Type English
Expansion 		Rarity # Japanese
Expansion 		Rarity #
Moon Stone T       Extended Sheet 1    
Pokémon cards with evolutionary stones as held items
Card Type English
Expansion 		Rarity # Japanese
Expansion 		Rarity #
Clefairy* Colorless Secret Wonders Common 83/132 Shining Darkness Common  
Murkrow* Darkness Secret Wonders Common 95/132 Shining Darkness Common  
 

Artwork

These are artwork of the items as seen in the Pokémon Dream World.

Dream Fire Stone Sprite.png Dream Water Stone Sprite.png Dream Thunder Stone Sprite.png Dream Leaf Stone Sprite.png
Fire Stone Water Stone Thunder Stone Leaf Stone
Dream Moon Stone Sprite.png Dream Sun Stone Sprite.png Dream Shiny Stone Sprite.png Dream Dusk Stone Sprite.png
Moon Stone Sun Stone Shiny Stone Dusk Stone
Dream Dawn Stone Sprite.png Dream Everstone Sprite.png
Dawn Stone Everstone

Trivia

  • Of all Pokémon that evolve by evolutionary stone, only Eevee and Gloom can use multiple ones; together they can use any of the stones introduced in Generation I or II except for the Moon Stone.
  • Only four Pokémon that evolve by stone can evolve using another method: Poliwhirl, Eevee, Kirlia, and Snorunt.
  • Only Grass-type Pokémon evolve using the Leaf Stone.
    • Simisage is the only Pokémon evolved via Leaf Stone which is not dual-typed.
  • The Oval Stone is sometimes considered an evolutionary stone, and can even be selected to be used like one. However, unlike other evolutionary stones, the Oval Stone does not trigger evolution in any Pokémon when it is used on them. It must instead be held and the Pokémon leveled up, making it an evolution-inducing held item.
  • All Pokémon that evolve with the Fire Stone are in the Field Egg Group.
  • Through a glitch in the Generation I games, Pokémon can be evolved without the use of a stone, provided that the player has sent out the correct Pokémon in the same battle that a Pokémon that evolves using a stone levels up.
  • The Dawn Stone induces evolution in only two Pokémon species, Kirlia and Snorunt, the fewest of any stone. Both of them only work if the Pokémon is of a specific gender.
    • This also makes it currently the only stone that only evolves Pokémon introduced in a single generation, as Kirlia and Snorunt were both introduced in Generation III.
    • It is also the only stone not to gain a new use in Generation V.
  • As of Generation V, the Fire Stone is the only one not used in a three-stage evolutionary line.
  • The Sun Stone and Moon Stone share their names with actual gemstones.
  • Though six Pokémon families evolve with the Moon Stone, only the four introduced in Generation I can be readily caught in a Moon Ball, since Moon Balls can be acquired only from Kurt in Azalea Town.
  • The Leaf Stone is the only evolutionary stone that cannot be sold to the ore maniac in Black and White; this was corrected in Black 2 and White 2.
  • Due to the limited number of characters allocated for text entry boxes in Generations I through V, the Thunder Stone was then written as "Thunderstone".


Types of items
General Evolution stones • Fossils • Flutes • Shards • Held items
Evolution items • Escape items • Exchangeable items • Valuable items
Battle items • Scents • Nectars • Candy • Ingredients
Medicine Status condition healing items • Vitamins • Feathers
Mints • Mochi • Drinks • Herbal medicine
Berry and Apricorn Poké Balls • Apricorns • Berries • Mulch
Aesthetic Decorations • Accessories • Backdrops • Props • Décor
Clothing (XY • SMUSUM • LGPE • SwSh • BDSP • LA • SV)
Other Mail • Key Items • Event items
Wonder Launcher items • Rotom Powers

Project ItemDex logo.png This item article is part of Project ItemDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all items.
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