How to Evolve Eevee Into Espeon Pokemon Go

Espeon (Image via Niantic)

Thanks to Pokemon GO's Eevee Community Day this month, trainers worldwide are experiencing the joy of "Eeveelutions," the many evolutionary forms of the beloved Pokemon Eevee.

With so many forms available to players, some who might be new to Pokemon GO or who don't recall the specifics for each evolution may need a refresher.

Eevee's attack-focused Psychic-type evolution known as Espeon requires a little more legwork, literally, than the likes of Flareon, Jolteon, or Vaporeon.

Introduced originally in Generation II of the Pokemon franchise in Pokemon: Gold, Silver, and Crystal, Espeon was originally evolved by leveling up an Eevee with a sufficient "happiness" during the daytime.

Pokemon GO has a somewhat similar way of doing this evolution, but there is also a method for players who have yet to utilize it.

Pokemon GO: Evolving into Espeon via travel distance or the nickname trick

Image via Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO players, especially those hoping to get an Espeon with the move Psyshock, should certainly utilize the current Community Day festivities centered around Eevee and its evolutions.

For those looking for a quick and easy way to evolve Eevee into Espeon, there is the well-known "nickname trick," which can be used to evolve Eevee into any of its available evolutions simply by providing enough candies and without any additional requirements.

This trick can only be used once per account for each of Eevee's evolutionary forms, so Pokemon GO players should make sure the Eevee they're evolving is worth it.

By changing their Eevee's nickname to "Sakura" on their stat page, Eevee will be guaranteed to evolve into Espeon the first time the trick is used. Players can make sure that the trick will work by taking a look at the "evolve" button with the correct nickname entered.

The silhouette of the Pokemon on the button should resemble an Espeon, with large ears and a forked tail. With the nickname trick active, all it will take to evolve Eevee into Espeon is 25 candies.

Under normal circumstances without the nicknaming trick, there is a little extra work to be done to ensure Eevee evolves into Espeon.

Namely, players will need to set their Eevee as a Buddy Pokemon and travel 10 kilometers with it. Once players have traveled a total of 10km with their Eevee as a buddy, all they need to do is evolve it during the daytime while it is still a buddy, similar to its requirement in the Generation II Pokemon games.

Meeting these circumstances should evolve Eevee into Espeon and not one of its randomized options.

Additionally, Niantic has announced a bug requiring no walking requirement for Eevee to evolve into Espeon or Umbreon until a fix arrives on August 16, 2021 at 10am PDT.

This is another exceptional opportunity to evolve an Espeon without having to traverse the 10 kilometer distance required.

Trainers, an issue is causing there to be no walking requirement to evolve Eevee into Umbreon or Espeon, while it is your buddy. We will not implement a fix for this until August 16th, 10 AM PDT, after the upcoming Community Day event.
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) August 12, 2021

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