The Easiest Pokemon to Level Up Past Level 40

Getting a Pokemon to level 40 is kinda tricky. On the last few stages, you’re looking at thousands of stardust and up to 15 candy for half a level. Unless you have a Lucky or Purified Pokemon, the stardust costs become ridiculous. Powering up Pokemon to level 50 however takes that long grind and makes it even harder.

For one single power up, from level 40 to level 40.5, you require 10k stardust and 10 Candy XL. One Candy XL is equal to 100 normal candy. the only guaranteed way to get XL Candy is to hatch a Pokemon, which is purely luck. Catching Pokemon, unless they are Legendary or Mythical, is pure luck as well. While, yes, the chances of getting Candy XL has improved, it’s still a pain in the ass getting the candy you want.

Luckily, for some Pokemon, it’s easier than others.

1Km Candy Pokemon

Pokemon like Magikarp and Swablu are some of the hardest Pokemon to evolve. They need 400 regular candy for one evolution. That being said, there’s a small quirk to them to make getting that candy easier. If you walk one as a buddy, they earn one candy for every kilometer walked. But there’s also a chance to get a Candy XL every time they earn a candy.

There is a catch though. The chance to get that Candy XL increases based on a Pokemon’s level. A higher CP Pokemon will have a higher chance of getting Candy XL than a lower one.

We also have a few non-400 candy evolutions though. Aron for example isn’t just a common spawn, but it’s also a 1km Pokemon with a Mega Evolution down the line. But there’s no real reason to walk an Aron the same way you’d walk a Magikarp or Swablu.

Eevee, Pikachu, common spawns

Why are these two on this list? Because they seem to constantly spawn. Honestly, I could claim that any standard spawn is good for getting XL Candies. But most of the common spawns… aren’t that useful. Sure, Pokemon like Bunnelby, Spoink, Plusle and Minun spawn all the time, but getting those above level 40 isn’t exactly useful, let alone getting them past level 40.

However, Pikachu and Eevee are permanent semi-common spawns, and they regularly appear in events. Plus, their evolved forms (some of them at least for Eevee) spawn in the wild as well. Evolved Pokemon are guaranteed to give you a XL Candy on catching them no matte what. And I’ve seen quite a few Raichus lately.

Weather-boosted Community Day Pokemon

The Pokemon featured on Community Days are on this list for one reason: there are LOTS of them. In fact, Community Days are the only real chance to get a fuckton of Candy XL in one go for one specific Pokemon. Sure, the spotlight hours kinda help, but they rarely spawn potentially useful Pokemon. That and there’s only so many spawns available.

On Community Days, between the boosted Incense and natural but increased spawns, you have so many Pokemon to catch, and since you’ll be transferring a lot of them anyway, you get more Candy XL than you expect. That being said, even though I did the entirety of the Machop Community Day, I only managed about 200 XL Candy. It’s still a tough grind, and you need to use all 6 hours.

As to why weather-boosted is better? While yes, they are harder to catch, but the higher CPs means a higher chance of XL Candy.

Lucky Pokemon

Really, the biggest benefit here is the stardust cost. If you take any of the other, previous mentions and make them lucky, then you’ve got a good thing going. Lucky Pokemon require half the amount of stardust to power up compared to normal Pokemon.

You can also double-dip on this with a purified Pokemon. Purified Pokemon require a special trade, but if you get a lucky trade, a lucky and purified Pokemon is even cheaper to power up. Purified Pokemon also have a tiny discount on candy costs as well.

Of course, the downside is that you need to, uh, obtain the Candy XL first…

Meltan

By far the easiest Pokemon to power up is, weirdly, a Mythical Pokemon. Seems weird, but Melmetal is the easiest Pokemon to get to level 50 by a mile, simply BECAUSE it is a mythical. Every Meltan you catch has a guaranteed chance to give you anywhere between 1 and 5 Meltan XL Candy. Every Meltan you transfer has a high chance of giving you XL Candy. But also, Meltans are super easy to get, now that we have Pokemon Home. You can get a Meltan Mystery Box every 3 days, and opening it gives you a Meltan every minute or so.

Assuming you get 2.5 Candy XL from every Meltan (just as an average), and you get about 30 Meltan from every box, you can get a fully maxed out Melmetal in 4 Mystery Boxes. And that’s before you take into account transferring all those Meltans.

Seems like a lot of work, but, compared to most other Pokemon? It’s a fucking breeze.