Several Pokémon Go fans have discovered a method which, according to them, guarantees players their preferred evolutionary form of Eevee, one of the series' most popular characters. The trick stems from the original Pokémon cartoon, with a reference that only a Pokémon lover deeply familiar with the television show will recognize.
Here’s how to force Eeveelution, based on several corroborating reports from Pokémon Go-playing Redditors.
Naming your Eevee — the normal-type Pokémon that, in the traditional games, evolves into one of eight Pokémon in accordance to stones, time of day and other factors — after one of the Eevee Brothers from the first season of the anime (episode 37, available on Netflix) will net you said brother’s respective Eeveelution.
The Eevee Brothers were a group of four; the youngest, Mikey, had a standard Eevee, while his older brothers each had one of the original three evolutions. Rainer had Vaporeon, Sparky had Jolteon and Pyro had Flareon. (It’s unclear whether these were the names they were assigned at birth or ones they chose for themselves based on their Pokémon-typing affinities.)
Thus, according to Reddit, if you name your Eevee Rainer, you’ll get Rainer’s Eeveelution, Vaporeon. There are several screenshots and even video that seem to confirm this method, but players should keep in mind that there’s a 33.3 percent chance of randomly getting the character you want, which isn’t huge, but isn’t tiny either.
Others have said that this only works on the first try, which may push you further into the realm of "this doesn’t work." The original poster of the Reddit thread also suggested the trick won’t work twice in a row; perhaps try spacing out your Eevee Brother-inspired evolutions.
Although several players have confirmed that this odd, obscure method works for them, The Pokémon Company refused to comment on if this or other anime-based secrets exist within Pokémon Go. Eevee require 25 candy to evolve, so it’s up to your discretion whether you want to take the risk to evolve it into that otherwise elusive Vaporeon. If worse comes to worst, you’ll just end up with one of the other equally great Eeveelutions.
For more on how evolution works in Pokémon Go, check out our guide on candy. We’ve also got primers on egg-hatching, catching and gym battling, as well as all of your other big questions.
Correction: There are eight Eeveelutions in total across all of the games.
