Evolve or Wait?

[Metallixs Girl]

Hey everyone, when you play Pokemon, do you let them evolve when they get ready or do you let them learn some or all their moves first?

I like to wait til they're in their 40s or whenever they've finished learning moves. I think that adds a bit more challange as well. What about you guys?

[mattbcl]

It depends on whether the non-final forms learn a move or three that the final form doesn't, and on the limits of my patience. For example, I like Seed Bomb on my Bulbasaur, but that means I have to wait until L40 to evolve him, because Ivysaur and Venusaur won't get it and there's no Heart Scaling that.

On the other hand, Trapinch learns Earthquake and Fissure at very late levels, but practically speaking, I'm not willing to wait on his evolution that long. Also Fissure is extremely inaccurate, so I TM or breed Earthquake onto Vibrava/Flygon. STAB is STAB.

[Oslo]

I once tried to wait before evolving my Psyduck into a Golduck during a run-through of Emerald. No strategic reason... I just liked Psyduck. Then after a few levels I got bored and evolved him.

And such is the story of the only time in history Oslo didn't evolve one of his Pokemon at the earliest possible opportunity.

[Lady Vulpix]

It depends on the Pokemon. If it can learn all its moves after evolving, and especially if it doesn't take too long to learn the good ones, then I let it evolve. If it needs to evolve in order to get the moves I want (like Eevee), then I evolve it by the time it should learn them. Otherwise, I wait until I get the moves I want.

[Blademaster]

Let 'em evolve unless they'll lose moves, like Magneton's Tri Attack or any Stone Pokemon. That's the only time I wait.

[Metallixs Girl]

Actually LV, I do that too. It's been a while since I played the games. Let me just say I prefer getting the moves I want, and I can be patient. Straightforward growers are the ones I wait til they learn their last move (unless it's something I don't want like Hydro Pump or something, then I'll evolve them when they finish the moves I do want).

[Drago]

Unless there was a specific move that I wanted them to learn, I would evolve my Pokemon immediately, cramming them full of the appropriate TMs until they had the moveset I wanted.

Of course, this was before I realised that their level gains scale for when they're evolved. I used to think that a later evolved Pokemon would end up weaker than one you had evolved immediately. Ha.

[Jeff]

I remember people thinking that if you evolved a Pikachu early, it would end up slow. Thanks, Lt. Surge. Now we know that when you evolve a pokemon has no effect on the final outcome. I evolve as soon as possible, because it makes in-game training easier, unless the Pokemon can't learn a move I want after it evolves. A good example being most stone evolvers.

[mymyilikepie]

If there's something like Flaaffy and Ampharos I wait. What I mean is Flaaffy level up wise is stuck with thundershock but learns discharge at 31. Ampharos evolves form Flaaffy at 30 and learns Discharge a few levels later. I would wate in that situation.

[Ayeun]

Back in the good old days, I didn't evlove till they learnt the moves that I wanted... But that was because most of my team back then was Stone evolvers..

Oddish had to have petal dance before I evolved it to Gloom, and then on to Vileplume.
And Shelder had to have its last move (about level 50) to evolve, where it got another move...

But since G3, I just let them evolve at whatever...

[Toucan Sundae]

Back in the old days, I'd just evolve them.

Then again, whenever I used the move bubble, or bubblebeam I'd go 'It's time to burst your bubble.' Now-a-days, I don't evolve until they've got the movepool I want, or I'm using them as a pickup slave.

[Ayeun]

Hehe... Back in the 'good old days', I used to think Cut and Vinewhip did the same thing because they looked the same.

[Telume]

Depends on the pokemon, if it's something like Kingdra (which gets agility at 42 as a Seadra and 56(?) or 57(?) as a Kingdra) then I let it get the move and THEN evolve it.

[Magmar]

Back in the good old days, I thought Poison Sting and Stomp were good moves in general. My nidoqueen was well equipped o_o;;

evolution? depended on the pokemon. caterpie and metapod would evolve right away. if not, i'd miss out on that precious psychic attack move so early in the game.

a pokemon like eevee? i'd wait to evolve it until the level in which its evolution starts learning relevant moves. eevee's normal-type bonus helped out at first!

bulbasaur? once it knows razor leaf. life is so much easier with razor leaf! ivysaur would wait until it learned growth, then i'd pop on the mega drain, leech seed and sleep powder, and just proceed to pillage and destroy all opponents.

[Blademaster]

Back in the good old days...

Yeah, back when I thought a Jolteon with Double Kick and a Jynx with Bubblebeam were good ideas.

[Ayeun]

Heh...

I ran thought the R/B legue once with an ODDISH that had Acid, and the 3 spores...

[Whitlea]

If I'm attatched to the PoKéMoN or have a particular liking to them, I don't let them evolve until they have all their moves or I'm ready to let that image of them go. For example, my Cubone is level 65 but I still refuse to let it evolve due to being so to clingy to it. I captured a Marowak to fill in the Pokédex entry instead. Or like my Nidorina, I evolved it before hand just because I wanted a Nidoqueen. Then worked on what moves it could learn.

[Emily]

I think that I have to agree with those guys who say that it depend on a type of pokemon. I think they are right.