Unova Stone

Overview

The Unova Stone is a black-and-white evolution item used to evolve seven specific Pokémon originally discovered in the Unova region. Introduced on September 16, 2019, alongside the first wave of Generation V Pokémon, its split color scheme echoes Pokémon Black and Pokémon White. Each evolution consumes one Unova Stone along with family Candy: Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, Munna, and Minccino require 50 Candy, whereas the middle-stage Pokémon Eelektrik and Lampent require 100 Candy.

In the core series games, these seven species evolve using several different stones (such as Leaf, Fire, Water, Moon, Shiny, Thunder, and Dusk Stones), which Pokémon GO consolidates into the Unova Stone. The only Unova Pokémon that use an evolution stone in the main series but bypass the Unova Stone in Pokémon GO are Cottonee and Petilil, which use the pre-existing Sun Stone instead.

How to get it

• Complete a 7-day Field Research Breakthrough for a chance to receive a Unova Stone from the item reward pool.

• Complete specific Field Research, Timed Research, Special Research, or Collection Challenges during events that list a Unova Stone as a guaranteed reward. Unlike Johto evolution items, Unova Stones do not drop from PokéStop spins, 7-day PokéStop streaks, Gifts, or GO Battle League rewards.

• Defeat Team GO Rocket Leaders Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra for a chance to receive a Unova Stone in one of their two post-battle item bundles.

How to use it

1. Open the Pokémon's summary screen in your storage and tap the Evolve button displaying the Unova Stone icon.

2. Verify the target evolution and family Candy cost (50 or 100 Candy), then confirm to permanently consume one Unova Stone and the required Candy.

Worth knowing

Wait for events that feature exclusive attacks upon evolution—such as Community Day classics or global tour events granting Poltergeist to Chandelure or Volt Switch to Eelektross—before spending a Unova Stone.

Fight Team GO Rocket Leaders while your Egg storage (including bonus storage) is completely full so a 12 km Strange Egg does not occupy one of the two reward bundle slots. Also remember that evolving does not change a Pokémon's IVs, so appraise your Pokémon before spending the stone.

Compatible evolutions

All seven compatible evolutions consume exactly one Unova Stone plus the standard family Candy amount shown below. None of these species have regional forms or trade-evolution discounts, though the three elemental monkeys—Pansage (Asia-Pacific), Pansear (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India), and Panpour (the Americas and Greenland)—are regional exclusives in the wild outside of special events, so you may need to trade for their base forms first.

Research Breakthroughs and Rocket rewards

Claiming at least one Field Research task reward per day earns a daily stamp, and collecting seven stamps unlocks a Research Breakthrough. Those seven days do not need to be consecutive. Alongside Stardust, XP, and a Pokémon encounter, a Research Breakthrough rolls from an item pool that includes the Unova Stone, though receiving one is not guaranteed.

Do not confuse the Research Breakthrough with the 7-day PokéStop spin streak: normal PokéStop or Gym spins, 7-day spin streaks, Gifts, and GO Battle League or Trainer Battle rewards only drop earlier evolution items (such as Johto items or the Sinnoh Stone) and never award a Unova Stone.

Defeating a Team GO Rocket Leader—Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra—at a PokéStop Hideout or in a Rocket Balloon with a Rocket Radar equipped grants 1,000 Stardust and two item reward bundles. One Unova Stone can drop from these bundles, competing with restorative items like Hyper Potions, Max Potions, Revives, and Max Revives.

However, if you have an open space in your regular or bonus Egg storage when the battle ends, one of the two reward bundles is guaranteed to become a 12 km Strange Egg, cutting your chances at a Unova Stone in half. Fighting Leaders when all Egg slots are full allows both bundle slots to roll from the item pool.

Note that while Team GO Rocket Boss Giovanni could drop a Unova Stone when he first debuted, the stone was removed from Giovanni's reward pool in July 2020. For a guaranteed Unova Stone, look for event-specific Field Research, Timed Research, Special Research, or Collection Challenges—such as Community Days for Litwick or Tynamo—that explicitly display the stone as a reward.

Planning the Candy and item costs

Five of the seven compatible evolutions—Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, Munna, and Minccino—are two-stage families that evolve directly from their base forms for 50 Candy and one Unova Stone. The remaining two—Eelektross and Chandelure—sit at the top of three-stage families. Tynamo first requires 25 Tynamo Candy to evolve into Eelektrik, and then 100 Tynamo Candy plus one Unova Stone to reach Eelektross (125 Tynamo Candy total).

Litwick follows the exact same progression, requiring 25 Litwick Candy to evolve into Lampent, followed by 100 Litwick Candy and one Unova Stone to become Chandelure (125 Litwick Candy total).

Registering one of every Unova Stone evolution in your Pokédex requires 7 Unova Stones and 450 Candy across the final evolution steps alone (five evolutions at 50 Candy equals 250 Candy, plus two evolutions at 100 Candy equals 200 Candy).

If you are starting from base-stage Tynamo and Litwick rather than already-evolved Eelektrik and Lampent, add 25 Candy for each of those two first-stage evolutions, bringing the complete start-to-finish total to 500 Candy across the seven families. None of these Pokémon benefit from trade-evolution discounts, and consuming the Unova Stone and Candy is permanent and irreversible.