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If there is no "Evolve" button on a Pokemon, is it at its highest form? How do you know when it can't evolve anymore?

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    @Theyna - Not all Pokemon Go players have played other Pokemon games before. Remember: Let's be nice :)
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 4:56
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    @Pharap Although a wikilink can be helpful, "Read the ****ing manual" is not an acceptable response. If you want to advise a user to do more research you can do so without being rude, and if you can't, then just downvote and move on.
    – Wipqozn ♦
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 12:15
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    Pokemon Go is a release of an extremely popular IP, so many, but not all players are familiar with them. I can name every Gen 1 from the silhouette but I'm surprised at how absolutely unfriendly this game is for new players. It's mind-boggling how non-intuitive everything is if you have no idea what a "Pokeman" is.
    – Nelson
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 14:01
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    @Robotnik I understand that completely, saying "Do you even Pokemon?" was meant to be a joke (although not a great one), it was not intended to be nasty at all. Also if it was done in a non constructive way I would not have left an answer to help the OP understand.
    – Theyna
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 19:40
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    Behold: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon
    – Logan
    Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 9:07

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In Pokemon Go you cannot evolve a Pokemon that is in its final evolution (disregarding mega-evolution from other Pokemon games and anime).

  • You know a Pokemon is in its highest evolved state if there is no Evolve button.
  • You can learn the total possible levels of evolution in the Pokédex entry. It shows the existence of all evolution levels, (although those not yet seen show up as nameless shadows). This offers more detail than the "main" Pokemon page, as it allows you to see if there are multiple possible evolutions beyond yours, as well as lower-evolved forms.

Here is a table of all the Pokemon evolutions however only Generation 1 and Generation 2 Pokemon (i.e. the first 251 Pokemon of the National Pokedex) are currently available in Pokemon Go.

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    To clarify, some of the first 151 Pokémon got further evolutions in later games. For instance, Onix (#95) was a Pokémon who did not evolve in the first generation, but could evolve into Steelix (#208) in the second generation. Right now, Pokémon Go does not allow Onix to evolve, but might in the future.
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 3:27
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    @Thunderforge absolutely correct, but those evolutions (Crobat is another) are not part of the 151 original generation 1 Pokemon. We will have to wait to see them (if it happens) in Pokemon Go.
    – Theyna
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 3:28
  • Also, as far as I know, no Pokemon can evolve more than twice in any generation. (I'm not 100% sure on that since I stopped keeping track after 2nd gen, but that seemed to be the pattern in any case.)
    – Mage Xy
    Commented Jul 29, 2016 at 18:04
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    Hi @Theyna, I've updated based on the latest info.
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 2:24
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    @Theyna As per the implementation of 4th gen (and maybe there will be some in 5G), there are now some Pokemons that could still evolve but don't have an evolution button. As an example, I can cite Nosepass and Magneton which both can evolve one more time, but the button appear only when in the range of a magnetic lure.
    – Zoma
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 9:10
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Basically, if there is no "Evolve" option, then the Pokemon is at it's highest evolution

Evolve Pidgey Can't evolve Pidgeot

There are some Pokemon that do not have any evolutions at all, like Pinsir for example. You can see the full list of 1st gen Pokemon here (Pokemon Go currently only has the 1st gen in it's Pokedex)

As the newer generations are released, this also releases new evolutions, and some pre-evolutions for existing gen Pokémon, and with the addition of the new Magnetic, Mossy, and Glacial lures, some specific Pokémon require these in order to evolve, which the option will only appear if you have one of these applied to a nearby PokeStop (E.g. Magneton will only show it's ability to evolve if you are in a Magnetic lure that has been applied to a PokeStop).

And finally, with the new addition of "Mega Evolution", only certain Pokemon have the ability to Mega-Evolve, and (currently) they are still releasing them one by one (at time of posting, only Blastoise, Charizard, Venusaur, Beedrill and Pidgeot can Mega Evolve). This will always appear as an option for these Pokémon, but require Mega Candy in order to evolve.

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    Hey Ben I switched the images to use medium-size so they fit better, hope that's ok. (You can add s, m or l to the end of the image file name name to switch sizes. Large is the default) :-)
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 5:04
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    Not a big deal, but after the Magnetic, Mossy, and Glacial lures were released, the statement if there is no "Evolve" option, then the Pokemon is at it's highest evolution is not 100% accurate anymore. Nosepass and Magneton have a next evolution, but the evolution button will only appear for those two if you are next to a Magnetic lure
    – Wondercricket
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 12:25
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Aside from there not being an Evolve button in that case, it is also possible to check your Pokédex, which will tell you the evolution chain of your selected Pokémon.

Example: To view the evolution information of Bulbasaur (#1 in Gen I), assuming you caught it:

  1. Click on the PokéBall icon
  2. Click on the PokéDex icon (top most at time of writing)
  3. Click on the Bulbasaur entry
  4. Scroll down and you'll see the evolution section which will list 2 more evolutions (based on whether you catch or saw these next evolution stages, they'll be coloured in or not respectively)

Examples:

Pidgeotto here shows it is on the second evolution but has a third possible (Pidgeot). Charmander shows two more evolutions, but neither is a known Pokémon.

Pidgeotto showing evolutions Charmander showing unknown evolutions

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  • Thats not right. it only shows you the pokemons you allready own. requiring you to know if it is a evolution or not to extract that information from the pokedex. But if we presume OP hasn't that knowledge this answer doesn't help.
    – Zaibis
    Commented Jul 26, 2016 at 8:40
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    @Zaibis So if you want to know if your Pidgeot is in its final stage, you go to the Pokédex, click on Pidgeot's entry and you can visually verify there are no further evolutions available. Same principle holds if you'd have a Pidgeotto but not yet encountered a Pidgeot. Go to the Pokédex entry of Pidgeotto, it will show you there's another final stage. It doesn't matter that you don't know that Pokémon yet. That also wasn't the OP's question, they'd like to know if the Pokémon is in its final stage.
    – thomaux
    Commented Jul 26, 2016 at 12:15
  • @Anzeo: If I don't know pokemon and never had contact with it, how would the pokedex make clear that a Venusaur not theoretically could evolve into a charmander? If I missed that point, I'm sorry. But to visually get this you woudl require some pokemon preknowledge.
    – Zaibis
    Commented Jul 26, 2016 at 12:33
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    @Zaibis Well that's exactly why Zkarts explains that the Pokédex does provide that information. I was pointing out your statement about their answer being incorrect is itself incorrect. I will update the answer to specifically state you need to click on a species there to visualize the evolution chain
    – thomaux
    Commented Jul 26, 2016 at 13:42
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    @Zaibis You can see from the example pictures I just added what Zkarts and Anzeo mean.
    – Joe
    Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 4:08
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Yes, its the highest if there's no "evolve" button. But expect future updates will allow more species to evolve to higher evolution. I see no official reference for this, but Updates are of essential, and common to online games, for further maintenance and game improvement.

An example would be the Magneton, In the arcade games, and the story of Pokemon, it has 2 evolutions. Read http://pokemondb.net/pokedex/magneton

While it only offers the first evolution, it is of most expectancy to allow the next evolution to be offered. Also, other generation pokemon might be added.

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There are two ways (that I know of) of knowing this. The first is seeing if it shows EVOLVE under power up if it doesn't than it is fully evolutionised. The second is clicking on the Pokémon in your pokedex and at the bottom there may be "shadows" of its evolutions.

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