For as long as the Pokemon franchise has been around, trying to control (and collect) Eevee's evolutions has been a core part of the Pokedex completion challenge. That tradition is no different when it comes to the Pokemon GO mobile AR experience. With so many different Eevee evolutions available in Pokemon GO at this point in the game, it can begin to get a bit difficult to keep track of how to obtain each different evolution of the popular Gen 1 Normal-type Pokemon.
Not only are the Eevee evolutions all fairly relevant to the Pokemon GO PvP meta game, they are also some of the most popular Pokemon amongst fans and collectors. Eevee may not be one of the original three starter options for Gen 1, but the Pokemon is certainly on par in terms of popularity compared to the other starters. The novelty of Eevee's evolutions hasn't faded over the years and finding new and surprising ways to find those evolved forms or control the evolution is an exciting part of nearly every Pokemon game.
RELATED: Pokemon GO: How to Get Jolteon
Because items work a little differently in PoGO, controlling Eevee's evolution into Flareon doesn't work quite the same way it did in the original release of Pokemon Red and Blue. Instead, there is a fun one-time only trick to controlling the Eevee Flareon evolution that fans of the anime are sure to appreciate. In addition to that trick, there are also a few other ways to obtain the Eevee Fire-type evolution...
This trick goes all the way back to the earliest days of Pokemon GO. Keep in mind, it will only work one time per account though.
The first step is to open the menu and select the Eevee that you plan to evolve (probably the one with the highest CP). Click the edit button next to Eevee's name and change it to the appropriate nickname...
Pyro = Flareon
Be sure to match the name character for character and capitalize the first letter. After renaming Eevee and saving, close the game all the way and then restart it. This is an optional step, but because the servers are sometimes unstable, we recommend restarting to make sure that the name change stuck. A few Reddit users reported that the evolution trick didn't work, but they skipped this step and it's possible there was a server error. At this point, all that is left to do is click evolve. Game Rant tested this with each of the different evolutions and had a 100% success rate.
For Pokemon fans that are interested in knowing the other special nicknames for evolving their Eevee, here's the full list (Sylveon isn't included because this Pokemon is yet to be available in Pokemon GO):
- Linnea - Will evolve into Leafeon, a Grass-type
- Sparky - Will evolve into Jolteon, an Electric-type
- Rea - Will evolve into Glaceon, an Ice-type
- Pyro - Will evolve into Flareon, a Fire-type
- Tamao - Will evolve into Umbreon, a Dark-type
- Sakura- Will evolve into Espeon, a Psychic-type
At this point, there are a ton of players in the world who have multiple copies of Flareon and would likely be more than willing to offload one to an in-game friend. Find a way to safely use your local community of players to organize a trade if the name change trick is no longer an option.
Although Flareon is not currently a Battle Raid boss, it does appear in the three star difficulty spot from time to time. Players who have already used the name change trick and want another strong Flareon may want to consider keeping a close eye on the Battle Raid rotations and earn some encounters that way using their Remote Raid Passes.
Over the next week or so players should begin to learn a lot more about what other events are on the way in February. Be sure to check back in the near future for more Pokemon GO strategy guides, news, and updates. Until then, good luck out there, trainers!
Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS.