The Rare Candy item was first introduced back in the late 90s with Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue, allowing trainers to use it on any of their Pokemon in order to quickly raise its level without having to gain experience through battling other creatures. It's an easy way to get a Pokemon to evolve without spending time raising it, but unfortunately, the item isn't that common, even in the mobile iteration of Pokemon, Pokemon GO.
In the mainline games, Rare Candy would sometimes be rewarded to players for completing certain objectives or they can be found in certain locations. Pokemon GO is a different story though, offering players several different methods to unlock the elusive item.
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One way that Pokemon GO players can get Rare Candy is by completing Special Research Tasks. Rare Candy won't be a reward for each one, but trainers can get lucky and have the item available as a potential reward. Make sure to check these tasks often to check out what can be obtained.
A different method for collecting Rare Candy in Pokemon GO is by simply walking a lot. The game rewards players depending on how far they've traveled on foot whilst playing the mobile title. The rewards are typically dished out weekly and if a player manages to get more than 25 km, there's a small chance they can get awarded with Rare Candy.
Raid Battles is a feature of Pokemon GO that was added post-launch that lets trainers team up with other players IRL to fight against big Pokemon bosses. Players should look out for these Raid Battles on their map and try to fight in as many as they can. If a battle is won, there's a chance to grab up to 12 Rare Candy at one time, which might be the most efficient way to gather these items, if you have strong enough Pokemon of course.
And for those that are wondering what Rare Candy even does in Pokemon GO, it's essentially a type of candy that can be fed to any Pokemon species to help level it up or evolve it. The candy should be used on the rarer Pokemon that are less likely to be seen in the wild, since getting Candy for them is more challenging, than say getting Candy for a Pidgey or a Rattata.
Pokemon GO is currently available on Android and iOS mobile devices.