Pokemon Go is a simple game on paper but long-term players will know it’s more complicated than it seems.
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Is it worth evolving your 500 CP (combat points) Charmander when you have a 1,000 CP Charmeleon in the game? What about your 200 CP Magikarp, or should you wait to encounter a higher one? Evolving species increases CP at different rates. In Pokemon Go, species’ CP increases at different rates when evolved. A lot are around the 2x multiplier whereby their CP will double.
There are some that differ wildly to this, though. One example is Caterpie, where its CP tends to increase by a mere 6%. So, if you have a 200 CP Caterpie, it would only evolve into a 212 CP Metapod.
Conversely, a Magikarp gets a lot stronger when it evolves. After all, it is evolving into Gyarados after having to earn 400 Candy! If we take the number of 200 CP again for Magikarp, it would evolve into a 2,200 Gyarados.
It can be tricky to know exactly when to evolve a Pokemon in the mobile game. You might not know each and every evolution multiplier, but luckily, we can rely on a Pokemon Go evolution calculator.
There is no real ‘best’ evolution calculator to use. A simple Google search of “Pokemon Go evolution calculator” will give you plenty of options to choose from, though, such as the one made available by GameInfo.
They all have roughly the same algorithms so it’s really down to what interface you prefer to use. The process of using each of them is very simple:
Select the Pokemon you want to evolve
Enter its current CP
Click calculate
This will give you a likely CP range and also a minimum and maximum CP its evolved form can be.
After playing around with it for a little while, you’ll quickly learn to get a rough idea of which Pokemon you should be transferring and which you shouldn’t.
To make things a little easier, here is a list of some of the more popular Pokemon’s maximum CP. This will allow you to know what CP you should be targeting when encountering a variety of species.
NianticSeason 7 introduced more reasons to use an evolution calculator.
Pokemon Go evolution calculators are super popular, in regards to Battle League, too. The introduction of the league (now in Season 7!) has trainers working out when to evolve certain species in order to make sure they’re under the league’s CP limit.
For reference, the Retro League and great League Remix limits are 1,500 CP. The Ultra League has a limit 2,500 CP, and the Master League is uncapped. There’s going to be a lot of Pokemon that trainers regret transferring!
