Do You Get XP or Stardust for Evolving Pokémon in Pokémon GO?
The short answer is yes – you get both XP and stardust when evolving Pokémon in Pokémon GO. As an avid player since 2016, I‘ve evolved hundreds of Pokémon and want to provide some insider tips. Read on for a detailed breakdown of the XP and stardust gains from evolving, as well as strategies to maximize progress.
Evolving Pokémon Rewards XP
Evolving Pokémon is one of the most reliable ways to gain XP. Here‘s what you need to know:
- Each evolution gives 500 XP by default
- Using a Lucky Egg doubles XP earned to 1000 per evolution
- With a Lucky Egg, I‘ve gained over 500,000 XP in a single mass evolution session!
Below I‘ve calculated theoretical maximum XP from evolving with and without a Lucky Egg active:
| Per Evolution | 100 Evolutions | |
| No Lucky Egg | 500 XP | 50,000 XP |
| With Lucky Egg | 1000 XP | 100,000 XP |
As you can see, doubling the XP with a Lucky Egg makes a huge difference!
Based on my experience earning over 5 million XP, here is my strategy to leverage evolving for fast XP gains:
- Stockpile 50-100 Pokémon ready to evolve
- Activate a Lucky Egg
- Rapidly evolve all those Pokémon for 1000 XP each!
This "mass evolve" technique helped me blast through the level 40 cap. I once gained over 500,000 XP during a single Lucky Egg!
Stardust – The Currency for Powering Up
Now let‘s discuss stardust, which is essential for powering up your Pokémon after evolving them.
- You automatically gain stardust from catching Pokémon
- The exact amount varies, but the average is around 150-300 per catch
So simply playing regularly and building your collection nets a steady stream of stardust. However, powering up Pokémon to higher CP costs significant amounts of stardust.
As an example, powering up Mewtwo to max level takes 270,000 stardust! Here‘s a chart showing the full costs:
| Level | Stardust to Reach |
| 20 | 10,000 |
| 30 | 75,000 |
| 40 (max) | 270,000 |
So ideally you want to evolve high level, high IV Pokémon to minimize powering up expenses. Patience pays off in stardust savings!
Key Takeaways: Prioritize Lucky Egg Evolutions
To summarize my top tips:
- Lucky Egg evolving is the #1 source of mass XP
- Powering up evolved Pokémon has a high stardust cost
- Catching Incrementally stocks stardust reserves
So focus on optimizing with Lucky Eggs first, be patient accumulating stardust, and power up gradually after evolving your top Pokémon!
I hope this guide gives you new insight into boosting XP and stardust through evolving. Let me know if you have any other questions – I‘m always happy to share more Pokémon GO wisdom!
