Picture this: It’s late afternoon on a Saturday and you’ve just finished your first WaFu raiding session. Feeling the buzz of adrenaline, you open your Item Storage to see that you’re flush with Rare Candies.
Or maybe you prefer to stack your free passes and hit a couple of raids every other day. Sure, it’s a slower grind but after a lot of hard work you’ll have a nice stockpile of Rare Candies.
But whether you’re just looking to clear out some bag space or you’ve been saving up those Rare Candies for a specific evolution, you probably want to make sure you’re investing them wisely. With that in mind, we here at GO Hub have a few suggestions on where you might like to spend them.
If you’re unsure what a Pokémon GO Rare Candy is, check out this article here.
Meta-relevant Pokémon
The in-game weather system and Pokémon nests makes it easier to grind candies for specific Pokémon. But, you can’t always count on the weather or a nest migration to cooperate with your needs. Add to that the fact that some Pokémon don’t nest at all and you may find yourself wanting to spend Rare Candies to evolve or power up your meta-relevant Pokémon.
Take, for instance, Larvitar. Tyranitar is the strongest Dark-type attacker in the game and should be a part of any trainer’s arsenal. But, Larvitar doesn’t nest and for some isn’t a common sight in the wild, even under weather-boosted conditions. This leaves egg hatching and the occasional wild catch to amass those Larvitar candies.
Let’s assume you’ve caught yourself a level 20 Larvitar with IVs that you can live with. To evolve and power it up you’ll need a total of 373 Larvitar candies (125 for the evolution and 248 to power up to level 40). Subtract 3 for the catch (6 if you Pinap’d it) and you’ll need 370 candies for your level 40 Tyranitar or 1850km of walking (370 candies times 5km/candy). While that’s probably easier on the feet than walking a Legendary, it doesn’t do you any good if you need a powered up Tyranitar for your Mewtwo raid in a few days.
| Pokémon (Level 20) |
Total # of Candies to Evolve and Power Up | Buddy Walking Distance (5km/candy) |
Larvitar
|
370 | 1850km |
| Should I use Rare Candies? | ||
| Simple answer is yes. It’s never a bad idea to have a good supply of candies for powering up meta-relevant Pokémon. | ||
Legendary Pokémon
This probably seems like the obvious choice. But, with low base catch rates and a finite amount of time as a raid boss, gathering enough candies of any Legendary can be a tall order. Also, remember that if you plan on making up that shortfall of candies by walking your Legendary as your Buddy, you’re going to need to walk 20km to get just 1 candy.
Powering up a level 20 Legendary Pokémon requires 248 candies to reach max level. Minus the 3 you got for the catch and that leaves you with 245 to go. That’s equal to 4,900km of walking if you were going to set it as your Buddy. So, spending Rare Candies on Legendaries is a pretty safe bet.
| Pokémon (Level 20) |
Total # of Candies needed to Power Up | Buddy Walking Distance (20km/candy) |
Mewtwo
|
245 | 4900km |
| Should I use Rare Candies? | ||
| Pokémon can be hard to catch and require a lot of walking to amass enough candies to power it up. If you’re planning on maxing out your Mewtwo, Rare Candies will definitely help. If the Legendary you’re choosing to power is meta-relevant, like Mewtwo, even better as it’ll add a top-tier attacker to your Pokémon arsenal. | ||
Community Day Pokémon
If you’re like me, you were excited about the announced exclusive move for Venusaur for the upcoming Community Day. However, if you’re also like me and have only 12 Bulbasaur candies, getting a Venusaur with Frenzy Plant is going to be a problem.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a Bulbasaur nest in my area at the moment and they only occasionally spawn in the wild. Now, you’re probably saying to yourself: “Why don’t you just catch Bulbasaurs on Community Day? You can get enough just from the event.”
And while that’s probably true, I’m not leaving anything to chance. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and with Community Day fast approaching I am prepared to spend Rare Candies to ensure I get a Frenzy Plant Venusaur or 2.
You can find out more more about Frenzy Plant and its place in the meta here.
| Pokémon (Level 20) |
Total # of Candies to Evolve |
Buddy Walking Distance (3km/candy) |
Bulbasaur
|
125 | 375km |
| Should I use Rare Candies? | ||
| Pokémon’s place in the meta. Will you want an army of them? Or is 1 enough as a Community Day souvenir? | ||
Pokédex
Is it your mission to complete your Pokédex every time a new wave of Pokémon is released? Do you relentlessly hunt down new mons in the wild until every last silhouette is gone from the Nearby tracker? Are you always the first among your friends to have all of your Pokémon fully evolved?
It seems as though Niantic has chosen to limit wild spawns of particular Pokémon in the wild and not just rare ones like Bagon and Beldum. For example, Pokédex-filler Pokémon, like Lileep and Wingull, don’t appear that frequently in the wild where I live, so getting enough candies for their evolutions could take a while.
Sure, these Pokémon can be hatched or walked as your Buddy to gain more candies. But, if you’re the type of trainer who can’t stand having empty spots in your Pokédex, spending your Rares to fill those blanks makes perfect sense.
| Pokémon (Level 20) |
Total # of Candies to Evolve |
Buddy Walking Distance (3km/candy) |
Lileep
|
50 | 150km |
| Should I use Rare Candies? | ||
| Maybe. This is a great way for trainers who only care about completing their Pokédex to get those evolutions for harder-to-find Pokémon done faster. | ||
In the end, they’re your Rare Candies and you should feel free to use them however you want. So if you want to spend them to build a team of 6 maxed-out Ludicolos, more power to you. #LudicoloArmy.
