Dipplin confuses me. It’s a toffee apple, that much I understand. But is it a regional form like Paldean Wooper or an example of convergent evolution like Toedscruel? After all,Pokemon Scarlet & Violethas both.
The distinction between the two may not seem that important, but it may tell us something about Dipplin’s evolutionary line. It evolves using a different item to Appletun and Flapple, meaning it’s not a regional evolution in the same way that Alolan Exeggutor, Galarian Weezing, and Hisuian Typhlosion are. Honestly, it’s more akin to classic evolutions like Poliwrath/Politoed or Slowbro/Slowking. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Syrupy Apple in Kitakami or Paldea, you still get a Dipplin.
What does this make Dipplin? I think it makes it just an evolution.Pokemonhas gone back to its roots, before regionals or convergents, and just added another evolution. But there’s one more mystery surrounding the toffee apple Pokemon, one that hints either to poor quality control or a future evolution.
Dipplin can hold Eviolite in Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC. “Well actually,” I hear you say, “Any Pokemon canholdEviolite, it just doesn’t have any effect on fully-evolved Pokemon.” Guess what, fucko?
Eviolite currently improves Dipplin’s Defence and Special Defence in battle, something it should only do for Pokemon that aren’t fully evolved. Dipplin is fully evolved. Or is it?
There are currently two schools of thought: either it’s a bug, or a tease. I guess it could also be a mistake, which is neither of those things and also both of those things, but it falls into the ‘bug’ category. If it’s a bug, it’s just an error. Somebody messed up and ticked the wrong box in the code, and now the game thinks that Dipplin can evolve, or use Eviolite, or both.
The second school of thought should be self-explanatory. Many people believe that Dipplin will evolve in The Indigo Disk, the second piece of DLC for Scarlet & Violet, and this is a tease. It could be a reference left intentionally as a piece of marketing, or perhaps the developers couldn’t work out how to implement Dipplin’s evolution in the second DLC without leaving this trail of breadcrumbs in the first. Either way, many people are expecting a Dipplin evolution soon.
However, the ramifications of a Dipplin evolution would be stranger still. Would we also get Flapple and Appletun evolutions? Eviolite’s uselessness on them in The Teal Mask would suggest not. It’s not like Bellossom can evolve again after the Oddish line splits in two. It would be a first for the series, but further confusing evolutions wouldn’t surprise me at this point.
The biggest piece of evidence for a Dipplin evolution is the latest patch. The update fixed a lot of bugs in the game, but crucially steered well clear of Dipplin’s Eviolite applicability. Perhaps it’s too complex a fix. Or perhaps it’s a tease, a hint, a riddle for fans to solve. Until we know for sure, grab yourself a Trick Room user and abuse Eviolite Dipplin as a bulky sweeper on the ranked ladder. Those Pollens aren’t going to Puff themselves.
