Pokemon fans are calling this evolution method a “hassle”

Pokemon fans are debating whether evolving Pokemon through trades has been a “hassle” or useful over the years.

Evolving Pokemon typically require you to level up their party members to a certain level. You may also need to expose the Pokemon to a specific evolution item, like Jolteon with the Thunder Stone.

However, there can also be unique methods, like losing at least 294 points of HP to recoil damage to evolve Basculin.

Some evolution types are less desirable than others. On the Pokemon subreddit, a Reddit user has discussed how evolving by trading can be a pain.

The OP wrote, “It slows down team building so much when you have to account for and coordinate with a second person.”

The list of Pokemon that require you to trade with other players to evolve keeps growing with each mainline game. However, a few examples include Seadra into Kingra and Rhydon into Rhyperior.

While trading online has gotten considerably easier over the years, it wasn’t always a simple process.

“It was absolutely bonkers to hear about someone having a Machamp/Gengar/Golem/Alakazam back in the day because coordinating a trade with someone as a child with a physical cord was pretty difficult,” one player commented.

The Pokemon games were originally designed to utilize the link cable. You could then catch ’em all with the help of fellow players. Considering there have always been two versions, you would need to trade with someone to fill up your Pokedex.

Another fan discussed how trading to evolve is a “double-edged sword.” “Trade evolutions are a double-edged sword since you can get access to pretty power Pokemon early on as long as you have either another game/system, a friend, or PKHeX,” they wrote.

While some people can’t find people to trade, others don’t trust people on the Internet to return their Pokemon. Therefore, one player had an interesting suggestion for the situation.

“I think it’d be neat if they had an NPC somewhere in the game that you could battle and after winning they’d evolve your trade evolution. It stops it from being handed to you but also doesn’t require a second person who owns the game,” the Reddit user suggested.