How to get special items in 'Pokémon Go': Evolution upgrade item drop rate trick revealed

Impact

Evolution items are special items that some Pokémon require in order to evolve. They are a staple of the main Pokémon games but were utterly absent from Pokémon Go until the recent Gen 2 update.

That means Pokémon Go players who aren't fans of the Pokémon franchise as a whole might not know what evolution items are or how they work. We're here to help with a very simple trick for procuring these hard-to-find special items.

Pokémon Go special item drop rates are low, but there's a trick

Evolution items in Pokémon Go are just another component needed to evolve a Pokémon. For some Gen 2 Pokémon it's not enough just to have enough candy on hand. You'll also need a specific item.

You acquire evolution items from PokéStops, just like most other items in Pokémon Go. That can be a tedious process, though. Thankfully, there's a trick that makes it much easier to gather evolution items.

How to get special items in Pokémon Go and evolve your Gen 2 pocket monsters

According to The Silph Road, evolution items are frustratingly rare results of normal PokéStop spins. However, it also seems that players are more likely to receive an evolutionary item on the seventh day of a seven-day PokéStop streak. So make sure you spin at least one PokéStop a day for seven days in a row to get those special items.

That's pretty much it. Just a little discipline means a better chance at getting an evolution item once per week. There's no guarantee that you'll get the specific type of evolution item you need, but you will get some kind of evolution item. But if drop rates for evolution items are as bad as this report claims, this trick is really going to come in handy moving forward.

Check out more Pokémon Go guides, tips and tricks

If you're booting up the game for the first time in a while to get ready for Gen 2, be sure to check out Mic's guides on how to get stardust, how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, the kind of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, how to create new PokéStops, how to maximize your chances of catching Pokémon and how PokéStops distribute Pokémon eggs. Also check out how to catch Gen 2 baby Pokémon, our analysis of post-balance update Chansey and Rhydon and everything you need to know about finding the long-awaited Pokémon Ditto.