Summary
Life must be pretty bizarre for a Pokemon. One day, you’re a little fish swimming around the ocean, and the very next, you mysteriously turn into an octopus. It’s not exactly equitable to what we humans go through, having to wait millions of years for any meaningful change and all that.
Pokemonreally put us to shame in that regard. Spend a few days outside, and your little monkey will have grown some boxing gloves or an extra pair of arms. Even more interesting with Pokemon is when their evolutionary path forks, letting them adapt to the surroundings of their world, and some of them sure do have a lot of diverging paths.
Updated December 19th, 2024 by Hilton Webster:With every Pokemon game comes new and exciting (if a tad obscure) ways of evolving more of our favourite monsters. Sometimes, massive new evolutionary lines are added, or maybe a pre-existing pokemon gets a few more forms. We’ve updated this list to showcase even more of the pokemon with the most evolutions.
11Rockruff
One Evolution, Three Forms
Rockruff is an adorable little puppy Pokemon introduced in Sun and Moon. You should treat them a bit like a dingo, though, because they’ve got quite the temper with that neck of sharp rocks. This little Rock–type is quite interesting, though, because even though they only have one evolution, it can take on three different forms.
The three forms of Rockruff’s evolved form, Lycanroc, are as follows:
These forms are also non-interchangeable, meaning once Rockruff evolves into Lycanroc, they are locked into their specific form.
10Zigzagoon
Two Evolutions, Two Forms
Introduced back in Gen Three of Pokemon, Zigzagoon, and its evolution Linoone, quickly found their way into the hearts of trainers around the world. And for almost 20 years, they remained untouched. No new evolutions, regional forms, anything. Until Sword and Shield’s Galar region.
Zigzagoon was introduced to a brand new regional form, painting them in black and white and turning into a mascot for Team Yell. This extended to Linoone as well, who now looks like a member of Kiss. But also this regional line also came the heavy metal Obstagoon who would fit just as well in a Pokemon battle as they would in a mosh pit.
9Burmy
Two Evolutions, Three Forms
Burmy was introduced back in Diamond and Pearl, and they’re a somewhat indiscernible creature. According to the Pokedex, they are a bagworm, a subset of moths that create small bodies of various materials around them. In Burmy’s case, that is a coat of leaves, sand, or trash. True adaptation.
Each Wormadam form is non-interchangeable, but each also comes with its own unique moves it learns as it levels up.
8Meowth
Meowth has been a mainstay of the series from its debut back in 1996, and has become something of a mascot of the series as a whole for itsassociation with Team Rocket. This feline has gotten a change extra forms over the years too, beginning in Alola, and even a new evolution in Galar.
Both regional forms change Meowth and Persian’s type, with the Alolan form being Dark-type, and the Galarian form becoming Steel.The Alolan form definitely looks like it could get up to some mischief still. The Galarian form looks like it might eat you.
7Poliwag
Three Evolutions
Poliwag is a confusing little tadpole that’s been around since the very beginning of Pokemon. Following the growth of an actual frog, it grows hands and legs once it evolves into Poliwhirl at level 25. At this point, they plateau in terms of evolution. They no longer evolve by levels but through specific items.
Politoed is a distinct design shift from the original evolution family, but that’s okay.
6Cosmog
Introduced in Sun and Moon, Cosmog is the first Legendary Pokemon that can evolve, though, in its defence, this is also a major point of the story. Cosmog is, technically, not a Pokemon at all but an Ultra Beast that got dragged into our world. They just also happen to evolve into the mascot Pokemon.
Being able to obtain a second Cosmog means it is technically feasible to obtain both mascot Pokemon in a single version with a small amount of help.
5Ralts
Ralts is a psychic Pokemon introduced in Ruby and Sapphire and is a member of one of the most well-known evolutionary lines in the franchise. With their original introduction, Ralts only had two evolutions, with a third introduced in Diamond and Pearl.
Unlike the rest of the main evolutions, Gallade also has a type change to psychic-fighting.
4Tyrogue
Tyrogue is a fascinating exception in the Pokemon games because no other Pokemon has evolved like them or had previous Pokemon altered as much. Tyrogue has three different evolutions, though two of them existed as independent Pokemon in Gen 1.
Because of the nature of how Tyrogue evolves, it can actuallyrequire EV trainingso good luck getting those stats to line up correctly.
3Applin
Four Evolutions
First seen in Pokemon Sword and Shield as a humble apple with a worm inside, Applin has quickly grown in both popularity and number of evolutions. Originally, they were confined to just Flapple and Appletun, diverging paths that required the use of a Tart Apple and Sweet Apple respectively. The two DLC for Scarlet and Violet introduced another two evolutions to the mix.
No beast is more unexpected than an apple that actually houses a dragon. In fact, across all of these forms, the dual typing of Grass-Dragon remains the same.
2Wurmple
Did you know Pokemon began from a love of bug-catching? That’s why there areso many bug Pokemon out there, and Wurmple is one of the best. Not only are they very cute, but they also have four different evolutions.
The only way to change Wurmple’s evolution is to catch another, as its personality value is determined at spawn, not during the evolution stage.
