... but wait a minute. Nothing happened when it levelled up. No flashing lights or funky music... nothing.

Just how do you go about evolving on Mystery Dungeon?

Well, unfortunately, it takes a while to unlock the ability to evolve. Once you defeat Rayquaza at the end of the main storyline, after a very long and touching cutscene [which I'll leave you to watch for yourselves rather than spoil it if you already haven't =P], a fragment of the destroyed meteor will fall into Whiscash's pond. The little island in the middle becomes the entrance to an underground cave, however when you first try to enter a voice from nowhere informs you that the entrance is too small for your partner to enter as well - it's only big enough for one.

But your partner is always with you... isn't it?

Well, it always used to be. But this all changes. Talk to Granbull - yes, Granbull, Snubbull is no more - and it'll tell you that it went into the cave and evolved. It's not too happy about it, but it'll get over it. Save and go to sleep. Upon waking the next morning, your partner greets you outside the house as normal - to tell you that they think that it's unnecessary for them to follow you around all the time. From now on, your partner will live in its Friend Area [which you will have received by default at the start of the game, handily] and you can go to call on it just like any ordinary recruit. The only difference is that you can't release your partner. This bit is slightly depressing if you become attached to your partner, as it will no longer visit you on a morning, and you have to actually add it to your team every day in order to travel with it, but it's a price you have to pay in order to progress with the game.

So, now that you can finally travel solo, head north to the pond and enter the cave. You'll see a glowing stone that changes colour, and a voice will "emanate from somewhere" and ask you exactly what conditions need to be met for you to evolve. For your starters, just answer "No" when it asks "Will ye give an item?" and, voila. Your hoppy little Mudkip will become a slightly less hoppy, middly-height Marshtomp. Hurrah!

But what about your other Pokémon?

By visiting your other recruits in their Friend Areas, you can now make them the Leader of the Rescue Team and play as them instead of your starter. Simply talk to them and choose "Make Leader" at the top of the menu. If you want to enter the cave as that Pokémon, you'll then need to visit your starter in its Friend Area and select "Stand By" from the menu. Now you can return to base and enter the cave as any Pokémon you've recruited!

And for evolutions that require items, or trading?

You have to take the required item with you in the Toolbox and answer "Yes" upon being asked "Will ye give an item?" Choose the item from your Toolbox [note: the item WILL vanish once you've used it, you can't reuse them]. If the evolution requires trading, or trading with an item, you'll need a Link Cable. These count as items, and can be found in dungeons in the place of HMs or special Ribbons that you've already collected. For example, if you've already picked up the Friend Bow from Mt. Faraway [you won't have it if you've only just beaten Rayquaza, it's part of a subplot later in the game] and you revisit the locked chamber, there will be a Link Cable there instead.

But happiness doesn't exist on Dungeon! How do you evolve that Golbat of yours?

Pokémon that evolve by happiness require a certain number of IQ stars to evolve. Below is a list of all the IQ-based evolutions and the number of stars they need:

• Pichu - 6
• Cleffa - 6
• Igglybuff - 6
• Golbat - 5
• Togepi - 5
• Azurill - 6
• Eevee - 4
• Chansey - 5

On top of that, however, Eevee now has two special items needed to evolve into Espeon or Umbreon: the Sun and Lunar Ribbons, which can be found on 30F of Wyvern Hill and 29F of Northwind Field respectively.

Happy evolving!

Thanks to CrystalScizor10 for compiling the list of IQ-based evolutions.

... and thanks to Dragonpika for the page!

Page written by Typhlosion.

Digg this! | del.icio.us | Reddit | Stumble Upon | Facebook

Tags: None!