Gaining EXP and Evolving

[Akira]

First things first. For a Pokemon to evolve, they must first gain Experience, or EXP for short. There are a number of ways to do this, and, if one plays their cards right, they can gather a fair bit of exp fairly quickly. The following is a list of the ways one can gain EXP;

Battling a wild Pokemon
Each wild Pokemon you battle will give out one point of EXP, regardless of whether or not you catch it. If more than one Pokemon is used against a single opponent, only the Pokemon who did the majority of the battling (i.e. was out for the most turns) will get the exp. In the event that two Pokemon were out for the same number of turns, the point will go to whichever Pokemon landed the last attack. Should you face more than one wild Pokemon in a single thread (only possible during missions), a single Pokemon may gain EXP for each battle.

Battling against another trainer
Like with wild Pokemon, defeating a trainer's Pokemon will net one point of EXP. However, there is one major difference, in that only a Pokemon who was knocked out will actually give any EXP; those who are still conscious will not. Like in wild battles, the Pokemon that did the most battling against a single opponent will get the EXP for knocking out an opponent. Even if a different Pokemon finishes the opponent off after they've been knocked out, they will get the EXP; not the new Pokemon. To put it simply, try not to get swept.

Battling against a Gym Leader or Elite Four member
These are a bit simpler compared to other Pokemon battles. Basically, as long as a Pokemon lands at least one hit on any of the opponent's Pokemon, they will gain two points of EXP. Unlike other battles, there is no extra EXP for knocking out multiple Pokemon.

Completing a Mission
On top of any EXP gained during any potential battles, completing a Mission will give the character's entire party one point of EXP each as a reward for doing so.

Using the Training Grounds
Though this can only be done once every other week (unless you buy the VIP Pass), Battlers who use the Training area gain two points of EXP. Everyone else only gets one.

Using a piece of Rare Candy
This is simple. Each piece of Rare Candy gives one point of EXP. Only one piece of Rare Candy can be used toward a single evolution.

Using a Rare Soda or an Ultra Rare Soda
Both of these can be obtained at the Juice Shop. They work the same way that rare Candies do. Rare Sodas will give a random amount of EXP (1-4), which is rolled by a mod when the Juice is actually created. Ultra Rare Sodas will give a whopping five EXP. That said, the berries used for mixing both of these drinks are hard to come by. Either way, only one of these juices can be used on a single Pokemon when evolving them, and they cannot be used in conjunction with Rare Candies.

Either way, that's about it. If you have any questions regarding any potential EXP you think your Pokemon may or may not be eligible to receive, contact a staff member and they'll help you sort everything out.

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Either way, once you've collected enough EXP to do so, you may go to the Trainer Shop to purchase the appropriate Evolution and evolve your Pokemon. On this site, this method covers all of the ways to evolve a Pokemon from the actual games, from item-induced evolutions and trading, to the more obscure methods, like needing a Dark-type in your team to evolve Pancham or having to battle in a specific location.

When you go to purchase the Evolution, you will need to provide links to all of the threads that Pokemon gained EXP in. If everything checks out, then you may update your PC and evolve the Pokemon. Please keep in mind that EXP is not cumulative between evolutions. Once that Pokemon evolve (and if it's capable of further evolution), then its EXP is reset to 0. Either way, to see how much EXP is needed for each type of Evolution, check the Trainer Shop.

When you evolve your Pokemon, there are some bonuses involved. For one, You may change all of the Pokemon's Normal Moves to something else if you wish, but only those learned via Level-up. Egg Moves may not be changed in any way, nor may you change a Level-up move to an Egg Move. Additionally, this only applies to the first four Normal Moves. If you've purchased a Move Expansion (Normal), you may not change the moves you gained from that.

Another stipulation to this is that you may not teach that Pokemon any moves that it can only learn in a previous evolution stage. For example, Oddish is able to learn Moonblast by level-up, but Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom cannot. As such, if you want to teach an Oddish that move, make sure you do it before evolve it into Gloom. The same goes for a large number of Pokemon who evolve via Evolution Stone. Most of them, once evolved, have a rather limited pool of moves they can learn via level-up, so make sure you don't regret evolve them too soon.