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Magikarp (and some others?) require at least 400 candies to evolve. The obvious way to evolve a Magikarp is to catch 101 wild Magikarp (which would take me about 0.5 years).

Thus far, I've caught 1 (maybe 2) Magikarp and hatched 1. My current candy level is 13. And, I'm not sure why it is 13.

strategy for evolving Magikarp
1. Hatch as many eggs as possible, and hope for a Magikarp (that seemed to yield 10 candies).
2. And of course, catch as many in the wild as possible.

What else can I do to accelerate the evolution of my Magikarp?

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  • 5
    Catching a Magikarp gives 3 candies and transfering another 1. So to evolve one you don't need 400 Magikarp but only 100
    – Ivo
    Jul 18, 2016 at 22:44
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    It's really 101. You can't transfer all of them, because you need to keep one to evolve.
    – murgatroid99
    Jul 18, 2016 at 22:53
  • 1
    Go somewhere near water, I already have about 120 candies w/o spamming too much pokemon
    – Mario Garcia
    Jul 19, 2016 at 6:59
  • I think this would have worked during the water festival. On other days I've tried this. Doesn't seem to work
    – Raj Kumar
    Sep 19, 2019 at 16:42

4 Answers 4

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The quickest way I have experience to catch Magikarp is to locate a Pokestop next to a body of water. With the combination of a Luremodule and an Incense, I have witnessed people "fishing" for Magikarp. I sat there and a Magikarp was spawning roughly every 2 minutes

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    Literal fishing, who could've imagined that?
    – Braiam
    Jul 20, 2016 at 0:50
  • There's a famous spot in my town with 3 Pokéstops, which are always lured since there's at times hundreds of people playing there. Magikarps come in multiples every minute, as well as water Pokémon. If you're able to find something like that you'll only need a couple of hours.
    – Agustín Lado
    Aug 17, 2016 at 15:43
  • There's a spot like that near me too. I got over 100 candy without even trying.
    – Kat
    Sep 22, 2016 at 8:49
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There's evidence that Gyarados can be found in the wild, so if you can manage that, you don't even have to evolve your Magikarp at all. Hang out around lakes, harbours and the seaside and you might get lucky (in the meantime, you'll probably catch Magikarp anyway).

Other than that though, the only way is to catch 101 Magikarp, transfer at least 97 of them1, and then evolve 1 of them. You don't need 400 of them, because you get 3 candies for each catch and 1 for each transfer.

Eggs could help (Magikarp can hatch from 2km eggs, and you'll get much more than 3 candies for a hatch), but given the odds of 14 different Pokemon that can hatch from a 2km egg, you'll probably find it faster to specifically focus on catching Magikarp near bodies of water. If you hatch one... bonus :)

1 Thanks xehpuk for the maths help ;)

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    It seemed to me that the hatched magikarp yielded me several more candies than the one which I caught. But, I definitely could be wrong.
    – Just Someone
    Jul 19, 2016 at 1:05
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    I assume the additional candies from hatching is because of the chance that if you just hatched a rare that doesn't spawn near you, finding NONE AT ALL ever again would be really frustrating for leveling it up.
    – Sobrique
    Jul 19, 2016 at 13:02
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    You only need to transfer 97 of the 101 Magikarps.
    – xehpuk
    Jul 19, 2016 at 15:10
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    @xehpuk Good point. Your arithmetic skills are outstanding, mostly because you actually used them.
    – wizzwizz4
    Jul 19, 2016 at 17:11
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    Now that Pinap Berries are available, the math is even more favorable. Catching 58 Magikarp (with Pinap berries on at least 57 of them) and transferring 57 of those will be the shortest route now, leaving out the possibilities of wild Gyarados or egg hatching.
    – pjmorse
    Mar 13, 2017 at 17:17
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I put a magikarp as my buddy. That way I get one candy per km walked! I am up to 80.

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    The question asked for the fastest scenario... I've had the game since July 6th and I've only walked 263km. Walking 400km is much slower than any other method.
    – Vemonus
    Sep 22, 2016 at 13:16
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    Unless you are not conveniently near water areas, in which case, having a Magikarp buddy would be the fastest way.
    – Jerry
    Nov 15, 2016 at 12:21
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I would just go near a body of water and hang there... If there is a pokestop, double luck! If you are going on a vacay to a beach, fully charge your device, and get out there!

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