How to get it
- Catch, hatch, transfer, or trade eligible Pokémon from the family.
- Walk with a buddy or convert Rare Candy into that family’s Candy. Research can also award it.
How to use it
- Open a Pokémon’s details to see the family’s balance and the cost of the desired action.
- Spend the matching family Candy; another species’ Candy cannot substitute for it.
Worth knowing
Pinap Berries increase ordinary catch Candy, making them useful when building an evolution or power-up supply.
Evolving a Pokémon does not reroll its IVs. Choose the individual first, particularly for expensive branches.
A family’s balance survives changes to your collection
You keep a family’s Candy even after transferring every Pokémon from that family. Research can also award Candy for a family you have not yet registered in the Pokédex; receiving the Candy itself does not register the Pokémon.
Trading gives Candy for the Pokémon you send away, while evolving normally returns one Candy after charging the evolution cost. For a standard 25-Candy evolution, you need the full 25 beforehand even though the net reduction afterward is normally 24.
Trading can remove the evolution Candy cost for certain eligible species, but it also rerolls IVs. Decide whether you want the cheaper evolution or to preserve a particular individual’s existing stats.
Sources & further reading
- Pokémon GO: A Quantitative Approach by nick blackVersion 1.0.6 (October 4, 2026), §2.5, pp. 10–11; §4.3, p. 24; §8.2, p. 80, Table 8.5
Event rewards, shop offers, and limits can change. Check the current in-game description for event-specific rules. Worked examples are illustrative calculations.