Mega Evolution

Pokemon has around for several years and there is one thing that has started in the original Red, Green, and Blue that still baffles people: Evolution. Several questions pop up regarding evolution, like why do some Pokemon evolve with a stone or with friendship, but arguably, the biggest question is why do some Pokemon evolve and others don’t? Evolution baffles me, too. Let’s take a basic Pokemon like Sentret. Sentret evolves into Furret at level 15. But why not 14? or 13? Why does it have to be 15? Why does it stop there? Well, lucky for you, some people evolve twice. All of the starters do. But there are other Pokemon that evolve twice that aren’t starters. Let’s take Mareep. Mareep evolves at level 15 into Flaaffy. It would stop there, but it evolves again at level 30 into Ampharos. But why doesn’t Furret evolve again? Let’s not forget there are many, many more ways to evolve Pokemon. The main one is by experience points, but there are quite a few that evolve by stones, trading, friendship, trading with an item, leveling up knowing a certain move, leveling up in a specific area or under certain conditions, leveling up at a certain time of day, and leveling up with an item at a certain time of day. Still, there are more, but I’d be here for a while telling you all the evolution methods. There are also branched evolutions like Poliwhirl and Gloom. Poliwhirl has the choice to evolve into Politoed by trading it with a King’s Rock or Poliwrath with a Water Stone, and Gloom has the choice to evolve into Vileplume with a Leaf Stone or Bellossom with a Sun Stone. There aren’t a lot of branched evolutions, but there are more. What’s interesting is that some Pokemon are able to evolve but couldn’t evolve in the game they first debuted in. Gligar and Sneasel are examples. Gligar and Sneasel are both Generation II Pokemon that could not evolve until Generation IV. But why did they have to wait? Presumably, the things needed for evolution where already there because in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, they couldn’t evolve, but in HeartGold and Soul Silver, remakes of the same exact games, they could evolve. The regions were already there, too. Regions don’t just appear out of nowhere. It seems unlikely that they were just not able to evolve at all. There were also undiscovered baby Pokemon like Elekid and Magby. Their evolutions were available, but there pre-evolutions weren’t. I probably don’t need to explain what’s wrong there.

Anyway, I know I’ve been rambling on for a while about evolution, but I’ll just get to the point. Pokemon can evolve at most two times. Some Pokemon don’t evolve at all like Tauros, some Pokemon evolve once like Rattata, and some Pokemon evolve twice, like Pidgey. It’s been like that ever since Generation I. But a new feature in Generation VI is called Mega Evolution. This allows Pokemon to evolve again. Sadly, it only lasts for the duration of the battle. Once the battle’s over, the Pokemon will return to its normal state. This may seem sad but the Pokemon becomes quite powerful when it mega-evolves. I don’t have a full list of Pokemon that mega evolve, but here are Pokemon that mega evolve so far:
-Kangaskhan
-Ampharos
-Blaziken
-Mawile
-Absol
-Lucario
Plus Mewtwo’s “new forme” is actually just its mega evolution (Yes, legendaries can evolve now.)

What’s also interesting is that stats may not be the only thing different. Some Pokemon may get a new type and/or new ability. Lucario may get the ability Adaptability, powering up the STAB on its moves like Force Palm and Metal Claw. You’re probably thinking “this sounds kinda cool, but how does it evolve?”. Well, there’s something called a Mega Stone that evolves certain Pokemon while held in battle. Although there are currently 6 Pokemon that mega evolve, only two stones’ names have been revealed, Blazikenite and Lucarionite. They mega evolve Blaziken and Lucario while holding their respective stones in battle. However, it has to be the right kind. A Blaziken holding a Lucarionite will NOT evolve in battle, but it will with a Blazikenite. How do you get these? Well, Blazikenite is being distributed along with a level 10 Torchic that knows Ember, Focus Energy, Scratch, and Growl (Hey, if you don’t like the new starters, maybe you can use this Torchic as your starter). What’s more is the Torchic will have its Dream World ability Speed Boost, which raises its speed by one stage every turn. This event starts on October 12, the day the game is released worldwide. It’s the only legit way to get Blazikenite or a Speed Boost Torchic. It’s unknown how to get Lucarionite yet, but it will be available during normal gameplay. What’s more is you can learn more about it from Korrina, the Shalour City Gym Leader. All we know is it has something to do with the Tower of Mastery (Perhaps that’s where the Lucarionite is?) Anyway, when there’s more on this, I’ll be sure to update this post.

Who’s your favorite Mega Evolution so far?