Sylveon Pokemon Go Guide

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Alex Maksymiw

Having began his writing career at Veryali Gaming, Alex has changed gears and has decided to write about his one true passion, Pokémon! Alex is one of our resident competitive experts and loves messing around with peculiar EV's, move sets and typing combos to keep his opponents on their toes. Also, when he's not out tossing Pokeballs in the tall grass, he's quite a handy guitar player and a decent photographer to boot!

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Exposed to Pokemon at a young age because of my brother. We would battle, learn and grow as trainers together. Fast forward decades later, and the Pokemon universe has changed a lot over the years.

Pokemon GO was released in 2016 and took the world by storm. Like many of my friends, I always dreamed of going on my own Pokemon adventure, and now that dream would come true. I’ve moved town, graduated from university twice, and explored countries, all with my Pokemon by my side, thanks to Pokemon GO.

Sylveon is one such Pokemon that has recently joined me on my journies battling gyms and the Pokemon GO League.

Bottom Line-Up Front

• Sylveon is one of my favorite Eevee evolutions and all-time favorite Fairy types as it resembles an actual animal, not a piece of food, like other Fairy types. It has great potential in the Pokemon GO League and can wipe out Dark, Fighting, and Dragon types, making it a Pokemon worth upgrading.
• You can evolve Eevee into Sylveon quickly by renaming your Eevee “Kira” however, this is only a one-time method. Therefore I evolved my strongest Eevee for this method.
• Alternatively, you can Evolve Eevee into Sylveon by making it your Buddy, walk with it for 10KM and reach the Great Buddy tier. I like this method of evolving Eevee as it makes Sylveon stronger and generates more Eevee candy.

Sylveon the Fairy-Type Eevee Evolution

Sylveon is the cute and loveable feline Fairy-type Pokemon introduced in Pokemon X and Y and is the eighth evolution of everyone’s favorite little brown fox Eevee.

Like all other Eevee evolutions, Sylveon takes on characteristics of Fairy-type Pokemon to feature a white and cream-colored fur with blue accents. Sylveon also features a scarf and ribbon-like appendages. I think Sylveon has a cool and original design that conforms to the Pokemon aesthetic, and I think it fits well into the Eevee evolution family.

A brilliant Pokedex entry reads that these features are more than just pretty ribbons and are actually used for hunting prey and calm and understand trainers and Pokemon. After reading this, I get the sense that Sylveon is a loyal comrade who shares my Pokemon adventure’s joy.

Don’t be deceived by this Pokemon’s looks. It’s a powerful fighter that will leave Dragon, Dark, and Fighting types weeping to their trainers for Poffins! Honestly, I think Game Freak did a great job designing Sylveon. It not only looks cute and graceful, both qualities that make great Fairy-type designs but also combat-ready. If this critter was real I could totally imagine seeing it on a wildlife documentary hunting at night on unsuspecting prey!

Sylveon is my “GO” to Fairy-type Pokemon in Pokemon GO, thanks to its high CP cap and DPS. Equipped with significant attack and defense stats to match, it’s a reliable Pokemon to use in the Pokemon GO League. Moreover, you will be able to boost Sylveon’s CP fairly quickly once reaching higher trainer levels.

This will allow you to encounter rarer Pokemon and discover Eevee frequently, making it easy to farm Eevee candy for your Sylveon.

Sylveon’s Origins

Sylveon is based on the Moon Rabbit, the companion of Change the Moon Goddess within Chinese mythology. This would explain its tall ears and big eyes. In Chinese mythology, the Moon Rabbit has been sent to China to cure people of the plague.

If you look at the moon, you can roughly see the outline of a rabbit from a series of craters. I find this fascinating as it explains why the concept of a moon rabbit in mythology is featured in Aztec culture as well.

I honestly love that Game Freak was inspired by this mythology as it’s a perfect fit for a Fairy-type and Sylveon. Looking at Sylveon, I do see bunny-like qualities and a trace of alien peculiarities. Moreover, its Pokedex entry is wickedly cool in Pokemon Ultra Sun as it is described to unflinchingly charge Dragon-type Pokemon much bigger than itself. Now that’s a Pokemon I want on my team!

Sylveon, Hydreigon’s Nemesis

As a mythology and history nerd, I love all the nuances and details that are included in the Pokemon games. One such Galarian folktale depicts Sylveon vanquishing an aggressive dragon that unremorsefully burned whole villages to ash. As the pseudo legendary Dragon-type of the Galar region, Dragopult may be the first Pokemon to be theorized in this tale.

However, conducting more research, Hydreigon makes more sense as its Pokemon Sword Pokedex entry states that there are many stories of Hydreigon destroying villages. Sylveon would be the answer for Hydreigon’s long reign within competitive battle since its debut in Pokemon Black and White. It’s also a blatant reference to Saint George the dragon slayer in English legend.

As one of the greatest counters to Dragon-types in the main line series and Pokemon GO, “Sir Sylvey the Dragon Slayer” is an apt nickname I’ve given to this Pokemon. The mythos surrounding Sylveon, along with its wicked and graceful design, is why I love this Pokemon so much.

Catching Eevee

Before you can acquire Sylveon, you must catch an Eevee. I often encounter Eevee in populated areas such as towns and cities; however, I have a high trainer level of 38, and as a result, I have collected hundreds of Eevee Candies and Shiny Eevee. This is because the higher the trainer level, the higher the chance of encountering rare Pokemon.

Catching Eevee is not too tricky as it only has a 10% chance to flee and has a base capture rate of 40%. You can improve your chances of catching Eevee by feeding it either a Razz Berry or Golden Razz Berry. However, because it is easy to acquire, I almost always feed Eevee Pinup or Silver Pinup berries to double the number of candies I receive from catching it.

I believe this has a lot more value as Eevee has many evolutions, and I’ve found that they are all decent Pokemon to own for Pokemon Gyms, Raids, and Pokemon Go League. Alternatively, if you can’t be bothered to catch Eevee or just can’t wait to get Sylveon, you can use Rare Candies to acquire more Eevee candy. However, I would not do this as they can be used for much rarer Pokemon.

You will need to collect at least 25 Eevee candies before you can evolve it into Sylveon along with accomplishing the methods of evolution that I’m about to tell you in the next segment, so buckle up!

Acquiring Sylveon in Pokemon GO

Naming Method

Like other Eevee evolutions, you’ll be able to evolve Eevee into Sylveon by nicknaming it “Kira” and feeding it 25 Eevee candies. Note that this is only a one-time method; therefore, you won’t be able to use this method again, so make sure you use your best Eevee.

If you misspell Kira and evolve Eevee, it will randomly evolve into one of the three original Eevee evolutions, Jolteon, Flareon, or Vaporeon. Therefore before evolving Eevee into Sylveon, ensure that the silhouette on the evolved button is Sylveon.

You must capitalize “K” in the nickname for it to count. You probably think this is a random name and process of evolving a Pokemon. However, all Eevee evolutions have meaning behind their nicknames, a characteristic feature in every Pokemon name. For example, the etymology of Sylveon combines the word sylph, the term used for a mythical elemental air spirit, and the eon, the suffix for evolution.

In Japanese, Kira is a name that means glittery or shiny, a fitting nickname for Sylveon. Other Eevee evolution nicknames are much more straightforward, such as Sparky and Pyro for Jolteon and Flareon. There are also references to the Pokemon anime, such as Umbreon’s nickname of Tamao.

This is an actual nickname given to an Umbreon owned by one of the five Kimono sisters first appearing in the “Troubles Brewing” episode.

Buddy Method

This is the primary method to evolve Eevee into Sylveon, but it takes much longer than the previous nicknaming process. However, it will make your Sylveon much more powerful, giving you extra utility with the Pokemon.

First, you’ll need to make Eevee your Buddy and raise its friendship value to the Great Tier. You can do this by acquiring 70 hearts.

Now you will need to walk 10KM with Eevee if you haven’t already done so before evolving it into Sylveon. This is similar to other Eevee evolution methods such as Leafeon and Glaceon; however, you won’t have to place a Lure down on a Pokestop to evolve it into Sylveon.

Raising Eevee’s Friendship Level

To increase Eevee’s Friendship level, you will have to acquire Hearts by accomplishing the following:

• Acquire hearts every 2km walked with your Buddy with a maximum of 2 hearts per day. Switching your Buddy will reset the step counter for the Pokemon.
• Play together with your Pokemon. You can do this by entering AR mode and touching your Buddy.
• Battle with your Buddy to earn hearts. You must win the battle for the hearts to count. You only need your Buddy at your party for it to count.
• Take snapshots of your Buddy in AR mode.
• Visit Pokestops that you’ve never visited before to collect even more hearts.
• Feed your Buddy with berries to gain hearts.

You can feed your Buddy Poffins to gain a boost of hearts as well as achieve an increase in the number of hearts that can be earned that day. Furthermore, feeding your Buddy Poffins will also increase the duration that your Buddy explores with you. This is a great way to quickly improve your friendship level with Eevee. However, Poffins are hard to come by and are rarely used as rewards from quests and research. Although they can be purchased from the Pokemon GO store for 100 coins.

Sylveon Buddy Rewards

Acquiring Sylveon through this method allows Sylveon to assist you in catching wild Pokemon by knocking back Pokeballs at the target wild Pokemon after its attack.

Sylveon will also be able to find Souvenirs while exploring with you. Unlocking the Best Buddy tier, the max Buddy tier available in the game will grant Sylveon a boost to its CP. Therefore this is a particularly valuable endeavor to pursue.

Sylveon the Dragon Slayer

Sylveon is a great Pokemon to counter the dominating Dragon-type Pokemon. Dragon-type is arguably one of the most remarkable and powerful typing for its resistance to many elemental-type moves. Their awesome-looking designs match their fierce battling capabilities.

However, this changes with one simple switch, and the roles are reversed. Since my first playthrough of Pokemon X and Y, I have kept Sylveon close at my side. Its powerful Fairy-type moves, high special attack, and even higher special defense make it a strong combatant in battle.

Sylveon’s power is no different in Pokemon GO as it can swiftly overwhelm Dragon, Dark, and Fighting types. I’ve found that the following Pokemon are highly vulnerable to Sylveon’s attacks.

Mandibuzz

Scrafty

Umbreon

Medicham

Zweilous

Hydreigon

Hakamo-o

Kommo-o

Primeape

Obstagoon

Kingdra

Goodra

Garchomp

Dragonite

These are but a few of the manly Pokemon that Sylveon can counter. I added these Pokemon to the list as they are prominent in the GO League. Highlighting Sylveon use not only within the Great League, Ultra League, and Master League.

Sylveon also benefits from not being a legendary or mythical Pokemon allowing it to be used in the Premier Leagues. Allowing it to safely dodge Dialga, Zacian, Deoxys, and, Eternatus.

Sylveon Weaknesses

Even though Sylveon is an extremely powerful show stopper, it has its weaknesses. While boasting high special defense and special attack stats, it has below-average physical defense stats making it even more vulnerable to physical Steel and Poison-type moves.

Note that Pokemon’s stats in the mainline games are taken into account in Pokemon GO and are bunched together to determine the Pokemon’s Stamina stat. An unseen stat makes up the Pokemon’s attack, defense, and health points.

Many Fairy-type killers lurk within the Pokemon GO League to counter Pokemon such as Sylveon and Togekiss. I’ve found the following Pokemon to be significant threats in battle.

Dialga

Metagross

Bastiodon

Registeel

Skarmory

Steelix

Empoleon

Skuntank

Drapion

Escavalier

Muk

Venusaur

Roserade

Ivysaur

Gloom

Vileplume

Victreebel

Weepinbell

Weezing

Bronzong

Metang

While Steel-types are frightening for Sylveon as they feature powerful physical moves that exploit Sylveon’s poor physical defense.

However, Grass/Poison-types are terrifying to fight against due to their powerful Poison-type stab moves. They significantly threaten my Pokemon GO League Sylveon team by being super-effective to Sylveon and my trusty swamp expert Swampert.

Metagross is a notable Pokemon that hits Sylveon hard. Its spectacular stats give it overwhelming physical damage output. Whenever I see this Pokemon, I Immediately switch to a counter.

It’s just a Pokemon that you don’t want to linger around for too long as it will ruff up your team, and before you know it, the battle is over before it’s even started. However, its exclusion in the Premier Leagues grants Sylveon breathing room, making Sylveon a confident pick.

Powerful Fairy-type Alternatives

Sylveon is a formidable Fairy-type Pokemon in Pokemon GO. There are alternatives to it that offer better DPS and typing. Togekiss is a prime example of a much superior Fairy-type. Boasting both Fairy and Flying-type, Togekiss dominates the Master League due to the heavy usage of Dragon-types. Speaking from experience, Togekiss is not a Pokemon you want to go against.

Gardevoir, Granbull, and Whimsicott are notable Fairy-type alternatives offering niches that warrant their use over Sylveon.

Whimsicott may not be the biggest damage dealer or have the highest CP. Still, its dual typing of Grass and Fairy-type gives it excellent resistance to Water, Dark, Ground, Electric, and Grass-types allowing you to build a different kind of team around Whimisicott. Note that Sylveon does have the edge over its 4x weakness to Poison-type.

Sylveon GO League Setup

Look no further if you are trying to find a counter to Dark, Fighting, and Dragon-type Pokemon for your Pokemon GO League party. Sylveon is equipped with powerful Fairy-type moves to devastate the most disciplined Machamp or fire-breathing scaly Hydreigon.

Use Charm as Sylveon’s fast move and either Dazzling Gleam or Moonblast as your main Charged Attack with Psyshock as an extra Charged Attack if you have the spare Stardust and Eevee Candy lying around. Although Psyshock is not a stab move, it provides Sylveon with extra offensive capabilities to defend itself from Poison-type Pokemon.

However, you should only fight Poison-types when all else has failed with Sylveon as your last remaining Pokemon. Psyshock is a fantastic move to strike your opponent’s Poison-type off guard as they won’t expect it. This allows you to sometimes remove an injured Poison-type from battle and defeat less experienced trainers.

Charm provides Sylveon with a powerful and fast attack that can damage your opponents considerably. Charm is essential for Sylveon, and even though moves such as Quick Attack provide more rapid energy gain, I always run Charm as it has better offensive capabilities and has the potential to inflict super-effective damage.

Dazzling Gleam or Moonblast?

Both moves are highly effective and definitive moves you should equip your Sylveon with. There is a slight difference between these two Charged Moves. I prefer Dazzling Gleam, as it provides slightly more DPS despite Moonblast’s much high attack power. This is due to Dazzling Gleam requiring significantly less energy in the battle to launch.

However, for the cost of extra energy, you can strike with a devastating Moonblast to inflict massive damage on to your opponent with a slight chance to lower your opponent’s attack stat.

In my experience in battling in the Pokemon GO League, I prefer dishing out as many Charged Attacks as possible to remove my opponent’s shields from play. Subsequently, allowing me to remove the defenses to my opponent’s spare and most threatening Pokemon.

Pokemon GO League Sylveon Team

In Pokemon GO, you can only choose three Pokemon for your team to fight in the Pokemon GO League. Therefore, you must choose these Pokemon with great thought and care. The best teams that allow consecutive wins require high DPS and high-health Pokemon to act as your line of defense.

Moreover, You’ll want good type coverage to balance out Sylveon’s weaknesses and include Pokemon in your team that can unleash fast Charged Attacks if you decide on running a Sylveon with Moonblast as its Charged Attack.

Swampert Covers Sylveon’s Type Weaknesses

Swampert is one of my oldest Pokemon in Pokemon GO. Catching it as a Mudkip on my University campus five years ago, it’s fought in many battles and traveled far with me. It’s great support for Sylveon as it counters Steel and Poison-type Pokemon with its Mud Shot attack and deals super-effective damage to Steel-types with Hydro Cannon.

Swampert is a great Pokemon to switch to once your opponent has swapped in a Sylveon counter, as this will trap your opponent with Swampert for a significant amount of time. The extra resistance in immunity to Electric-type moves is an extra bonus.

Swampert has great stats that grant it decent HP and attacking power. Earthquake is Swampert’s most substantial Charged Attack move; however it takes up more energy to launch than Hydro Pump. The biggest issue with Swampert is its 4x weakness to Grass-type moves. I have been caught out by many unexpected Grass-type attacks and Pokemon. However, to ensure that my Swampert is safe in battle, I only switch Swampert in or out once my opponent has switched Pokemon, as this grants me a bit of free time before my opponent can switch Pokemon again.

Pure Poison-types such as Drapion, Muk, and, Weezing are considerable threats to Sylveon. However, this problem can be elevated with a simple switch to Swampert. To be a master trainer in Pokemon GO, you must understand that there are substantial differences between the game and the mainline series.

For one, Pokemon do not feature abilities; therefore, Weezing is a lot easier to deal with in Pokemon GO. Swampert can make short work of it in Pokemon GO; however, in the main series, Weezing has the Levitate ability granting it Ground-type immunity.

I’m particularly fearful of Roserade and Venusaur as their dual typing of Grass and Poison-type allow them to inflict super effective stab attacks on Sylveon and Swampert. So if you encounter a Venusaur or Roserade in combat, run and switch in their counters, such as my favorite Fire, Psychic-type answer; Delphox.

Delphox the Spell Casting Fire Fox

Delphox is a Pokemon that I include on my saved Sylveon Pokemon Go League as it is the final piece of the puzzle for Sylveon and Swampert. Its dual typing of Fire and Psychic-type allows it to take out strong Grass and Poison-types that threaten both Sylveon and Swampert.

Delphox weakness to Dark-type Pokemon is countered with Sylveon, and its weakness to Ghost-type is countered with Delphox’s powerful Psychic Charged Attack. Leaving Swampert to cover Rock and Ground-types with its Water-type attacks. Note that this team leaves Delphox open to Water-type attacks.

Battle Strategy

To make the most out of Delphox, I suggest saving its Charged Attacks for incoming Ghost-types, as Delphox will quickly be burned down by Ghost-types if it doesn’t have an answer ready for them. I always opt for Psychic as my Delphox’s primary Charged Attack as it can also be used to decimate Grass-type Pokemon that threaten my Swampert.

For this team, I much prefer leading Sylveon into battle as this allows me to bait out its type of weaknesses. Allowing me to safely switch in Swampert to clean up its counter. After this, I will likely counter the switched Pokemon giving me an advantage over my opponent.

If my opponent switches in a Grass-type like Venusaur, I can counter it with Delphox leaving me with Sylveon to pick up the pieces with a Moonblast or whittle the remaining Pokemon down with Charm.

Sylveon Raid Setup

Like the Pokemon GO League, Sylveon, equip Sylveon with Charm and Dazzling Gleam as these allow for the most significant damage output in the least amount of time. Pokemon Raids are remarkably different from trainer battles, as your Pokemon will automatically fire its charged attack when ready. You will not have to power it up by touching the type of energy on your phone’s screen before its attack.

This is because Raid battles are about racing the clock to deal as much damage as possible to knock out the boss Pokemon before the timer reaches zero. The faster you wipe the Boss Pokemon out, the more Premier Balls you are rewarded with. Other factors such as the damage you contributed and your team’s damage contribution to the raid impact the number of Premier Balls you receive when advancing to the catching phase.

Note that Fairy-type attack power is increased when the weather is cloudy, granting you extra damage in both raids and battles. So next time you are raiding, take into account the typing matchups as well as current weather.

FAQs