How To Get Special Items In Pokemon GO: Some Guidance

This week we're tearing through the Pokemon GO Gen 2 update to see how everything works – today's subject: Special Items. What the game calls "Special Items" are also called Evolution Items, or Evolution Requirements by the game. There are several Pokemon which require one of these items to evolve into their next-level Pokemon. That, and a healthy dose of patience to capture many times over or carry along as a Buddy Pokemon for Pokemon Candy.

Included in the first collection of Special Items are Dragon Scale, King's Rock, Metal Coat, Sun Stone, and Up-Grade. Each of these items corresponds with one or more specific Pokemon evolution. The following items connect with the Pokemon listed beside them – in addition to the candy they require, which is almost always 100.

* Sun Stone + Gloom = Bellossom* Sun Stone + Sunkern = Sunflora*π King's Rock + Poliwhirl = Politoedπ King's Rock + Slowpoke = Slowkingø Metal Coat + Onix = Steelixø Metal Coat + Scyther = Scizor∆ Up-Grade + Porygon = Porygon2Ω Dragon Scale + Seadra = Kingdra

While these evolved forms can be found in the game outside of this evolution process, they're all fairly rare, and extremely difficult to catch. Porygon2, for example, has a base capture rate of 0.05. Only a few Pokemon in the game have that low a capture rate.

Pokemon with "0.05" Base Capture Rate – quite difficult to catch:

• Venusaur Gen I

• Charizard Gen I

• Blastoise Gen I

• Dragonite Gen I

• Meganium Gen II

• Typhlosion Gen II

• Feraligatr Gen II

• Bellossom Gen II

• Scizor Gen II

• Porygon2 Gen II

• Blissey Gen II

• Tyranitar Gen II

To attain the items you'll need to evolve the Pokemon listed in the combination math above, you'll need to spin Pokestops. That's it. At the time this article is published, the only way a user can get a Special Item for evolution is to spin Pokestops and cross their fingers. These items are very, very rare.

SEE TOO: How to make Eevee evolve into all 5 forms!

Dragon Scale requires that the trainer be at least Level 10 – the same is true of King's Rock, Metal Coat, Sun Stone, and Up-Grade. Each of these has an Item Type and Category "Evolution_Requirement." And they're all living in Pokestops right this minute.

The bad news is that some users have gone out and spun 100-200 Pokestops only finding one Special Item. They don't necessarily come from the first spin of the day, and they don't necessarily come from the 7th day spin in a 7-day streak. They're distributed randomly.

Because of the way Niantic keeps their release rarity housed on their own servers, we cannot say exactly how rare Special Items really are. Suffice to say they're incredibly difficult to find, and we should not take their usage lightly. Keep them secret, keep them safe!