How to Get the Eevee Evolution You Want in 'Pokemon Go'

A popular trick discovered by Reddit checks out.

Eevee, as a first generation Pokémon, is an adorable little fox/cat hybrid. When it’s time to evolve, it is capable of turning into one of three variations: the icy Vaporeon, the electric Jolteon, and the fiery Flareon. In previous Pokémon games, you’d have to give Eevee an elemental stone in order for it to level up into the variation you want, but things work a little bit differently in Nintendo and Niantic’s Pokémon Go.

At first, gamers believed that the Eevee’s evolution was determined at random — basically, a player has to love whatever their Eevee turns into — Reddit has unearthed a secret trick for steering the little guy in the desired direction. And quite appropriately, it’s related to an Easter egg from the original Pokémon anime series.

In the 40th episode of Pokémon which you can watch on Netflix), Ash, our plucky protagonist, meets the Eeevee Brothers, a trio of siblings named Sparky, Rainer, and Pyro who are really into their Eevee evolutions. So much so that they’ve dyed their hair and they have matching clothes to their evolved Eevees. The plot revolves around their youngest brother, Mikey, who hasn’t yet evolved his Eevee and is reluctant to do so.

Luckily, you’re not a whiney scaredy cat like Mikey. If you have a favorite evolution, Reddit user smithnigel suggests changing the name of the Eevee you wish to evolve with the name of the corresponding Eevee Brother. Guess what? It totally works. I know because I tried it!

The Eevee Brothers, with their evolved Eevees. Imgur, Pokemon

After evolving two previous Eevees into Flareons, I wanted to change things up and get a Vaporeon. So, I simply changed the name of one of my Eevees to Rainer, the brother who had Vaporeon. A co-worker and I witnessed in anticipation for my Eevee’s (now Rainer’s) evolution, and…

…it totally worked!

I don’t have enough Eevees to run the trick through multiple trials, but there is an overwhelming positive response to the trick on Reddit, so it’s worth trying the next time you want to evolve and Eevee. Your next step now: To find and catch more Eevees.

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