Whether you’re leveling up your main team to beat the endgame challenges or to go PVP, or if you have the masochistic goal of getting every Pokémon you can obtain in the game to level 100, knowing how to power level your Pokémon is going to save you a lot of time and headaches.
Granted there’s still going to be a lot of grind as that’s the nature of the Pokemon games, but these 10 tips that apply to many generations will get you tournament-ready sooner.
10 Lucky Egg
Lucky Eggs are obtained through a variety of methods, typically at the end of a story or via a Chansey found in the wild (which has a 5% chance of holding one). If you can get your hands on one and have a Pokémon hold it, that Pokémon will receive 150% of the EXP they normally would.
Admittedly getting your hands on one is a pain, but that boost will save you a lot of time and, honestly, hunting Chansey’s is a good strategy anyway as you’ll see in the next entry.
9 Chansey SOS Chains
This isn’t present in every game, but those that have it are a lifesaver for power leveling and Lucky Egg grinding. In Pokémon Sun & Moon, wild Pokémon will gain the ability to call an ally in battle and trigger an SOS Battle. This normally only happens once, unless you use an Adrenaline Orb which makes them use it infinitely.
Then what you do is find a Chansey, use the Adrenaline Orb, wound Chansey to red, wait for SOS to kick in, kill it, and start over with the new Chansey. Chanseys and especially Blisseys give out great EXP and increase your opportunities to find a Lucky Egg sooner.
8 Type Countering
This one should be obvious, but a fast way to power level is to have your Pokémon fight similar or even higher leveled Pokémon that they have a strength against. For instance, if you want to level a flying Pokémon quickly, ensure it has a flying move and then go hunting for bug Pokémon.
It does require you have a type-based move and you’re in an area with a high population of whatever is weak to that move, but a clever use of TMs and some patience can get you some quick EXP.
7 Endgame Grind
Most Pokémon games have endgame content that you can grind out for great experience. Pokémon Blue & Red had the Elite Four you could fight repeatedly and later games have locations like Battle Tower or Battle Maison.
These are among the best areas in any game to grind out EXP for your strongest creatures while still providing somewhat of an interesting challenge. If you can get a strong fighter or two who can breeze through the fights on their own, and you have EXP Share, this is a great way to level up weaker Pokémon quickly.
6 Traded Pokémon
If you have a friend, or trust someone to do a trade with you, then one strategy is to acquire an entire team of Pokémon that once belonged to someone else. These Pokémon will come with a 50% boost to the experience they gain from battle.
Do keep in mind that you want to have all badges in the game prior to doing this or you might end up with a team of unruly Pokémon who ignore your orders. But it’s a great way to get fast levelers early on, just pray your friend didn’t give them too weird of names.
5 Rare Candy
Short of using cheats, this isn’t a viable way of leveling your Pokémon up quickly, although some games allow you to accumulate larger amounts than others. It’s a consumable that once fed to your Pokémon of any level it will immediately increase them a single level.
As stated before, this typically isn’t a renewable method of leveling and, if it is, it usually takes a while to accumulate, but if you save them for higher levels, say the upper 90s, it can save you a lot of time.
4 Foreign Exchange
Similar to trading Pokémon with a friend, if you can find someone who has the game in a different language, you can trade with them to get an EXP boost on top of the 50% you get from traded Pokémon.
Admittedly this is very situational and really depends on your network of friends or if your game supports Wonder Trading but, if you can pull it off, you’ll have Pokémon who can level very, very quickly. Check your local area for Pokémon clubs or see if you can attend a Pokémon festival to increase your odds of meeting someone from another country.
3 Repel Weaklings
If you’re resorting to wild Pokémon hunting for your EXP gain, like using the Chansey SOS Chain method mentioned earlier, then a good way to make things more efficient is to put a Pokémon at the top of the list with a strong level and then use a Max Repel.
This causes any Pokémon weaker then your strongest Pokémon from appearing for at least 250 steps. Granted, you need to make sure you’re in an area with Pokémon as strong or, ideally, full of Pokemon stronger than yours, but this is a great way to weed out any wild Pidgeys or Zubats that aren’t worth your time.
2 Daycare/Poke Pelago
This method of leveling up Pokémon isn’t terribly efficient but is the only passive way to level them up. Using a Daycare or Poke Pelago, you can leave your Pokémon in an area for a certain price and have them level up without you.
This is a great way to level up certain Pokémon you may not want to PVE with or to round out your Pokedex with weak Pokémon that evolve at certain levels. Just stick them in the facility, go do something else, come back, and your Pokémon should be a few levels stronger.
1 Exp Share
This is a device present in every game and an absolute must-have if you want to minimize team grinding or to train up a low-level Pokémon quickly. The EXP Share is a device that splits 50% of the experience gained between the Pokémon that fought and 50% for every Pokémon in your team.
For instance, if you use one Pokémon in a fight that gives 120 EXP then that Pokémon will get 60 EXP and all six Pokémon in your team, including your fighter, will split the other 60 EXP equally. Your fighter will get a total of 70 EXP and those who sat on the sidelines will get 10 EXP each.