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Pokemon Go is a game you'll need to sink a bit of time into before you, or your Pokemon, are any good at it. Thankfully, the developers are kind enough to include ways to speed up that process. One of the ways to speed things along is Rare Candies, a special item you can receive in the game that'll allow you to boost your Pokemon to new heights.
Of course, they're not as common as you might hope. After all, 'Rare' is right there in the name. If you're looking for the best ways to find some of these delicious treats, we've got everything covered right here.
Updated March 22, 2023, by Sean Murray: We've updated this guide with better formatting for greater readability.
What Is Rare Candy?
In Pokemon Go, players "power up" their Pokemon by feeding them Candy. Each evolutionary line of Pokemon has its own type of Candy; for example, Pikachu Candies are used to Power Up Pichu, Pikachu, and Raichu, but not any other Pokemon.
You (usually) obtain Candy by catching the species of Pokemon, trading excess Pokemon to the Professor, and/or walking with your Pokemon as your buddy.
Rare Candy is like a wildcard — it can turn into Candy for any type of Pokemon. This makes it incredibly valuable for legendary and mythical Pokemon since you can't obtain Candy for them using the first two methods.
That means you'd need to resort to walking the Pokemon to get Candy, but these rare Pokemon need to be walked 20 km (compared to one, three, or five km for other species) before finding a single Candy! As you can imagine, Rare Candy is a much shorter route to take.
How Do You Get Rare Candy?
As A Reward For Defeating A Raid Boss
Raid Boss Battles are fights that appear in Gyms in the Pokemon Go overworld. Difficulties vary, so some are solo-able while others require a large group.
As a reward for defeating the boss, you'll get a certain amount of XP (based on the difficulty) and a few items. While you aren't guaranteed to get Rare Candy every time you beat a Raid Boss, it's one of only eight kinds of items that you could receive as a possible reward.
As A Reward For Completing Certain Research Tasks
Research Tasks, whether they're Field Research, Special Research, or Event Research, may provide Rare Candy upon completion.
To check whether there are Field Research Tasks available this month that provides Rare Candy, just head over to the Silph Road, where they keep an up-to-date list of all available tasks and what their possible rewards are.
After that, if you're determined enough, it's just a matter of camping on a Pokestop, spinning it to get new tasks, deleting the ones that don't give Rare Candy, and repeating.
Keep in mind that Pokemon Go is fully aware of how valuable Rare Candy is, so the tasks that provide it are usually a little more challenging than normal.
As A Reward For Winning In The Battle League
The GO Battle League is a PvP mechanic in Pokemon GO that allows players to pit their best Pokemon against one another. Each time you enter, you get to play five rounds of PvP. Depending on how many times you win, you'll earn unique rewards.
|
1 Win |
300 Stardust |
|---|---|
|
2 Wins |
Random Item |
|
3 Wins |
A Pokemon Appears |
|
4 Wins |
3 Rare Candies |
|
5 Wins |
600 Stardust |
If you're feeling extra confident in your team, you could go for the Premium Rewards, but this requires you to pay first with one Premium Raid Pass.
|
1 Win |
A Pokemon Appears |
|---|---|
|
2 Wins |
Random Item |
|
3 Wins |
900 Stardust |
|
4 Wins |
6 Rare Candies |
|
5 Wins |
5 Charged TMs |
As A Reward For Your Weekly Adventure Sync
Adventure Sync allows you to track your walks and count them towards your Pokemon Go account, even if the game is completely off. Your Weekly Adventure Sync occurs on Mondays at 9 a.m. and counts up exactly how far you walked in the last seven days.
|
Rewards For Walking 5km |
Rewards For Walking 25 km |
Rewards For Walking 50 km |
|---|---|---|
|
You'll Always Receive These Rewards |
You'll Always Receive These Rewards |
You'll Always Receive These Rewards |
|
|
|
|
You'll Receive One Of These Rewards |
You'll Receive One Of These Rewards |
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As A Reward For Training
Once per day, you'll receive a reward for training with one of the three team leaders. It can be Stardust, a Sinnoh Stone, a Rare Candy, a Fast TM, or a Charged TM.
|
Great League Training |
1 percent |
|---|---|
|
Ultra League Training |
3 percent |
|
Master League Training |
5 percent |
As A Reward For Battling Other Trainers
It's worth noting that this is different from battling other trainers in the Go Battle League. Three times per day, you will earn a reward for battling other trainers independently, by hitting the 'Battle' button in their Friend summary or by scanning one another's QR codes. Each of those three times, you have a 15 percent chance of receiving a Rare Candy.
What Is Rare Candy XL?
In a large update, Pokemon Go changed the player level cap from 40 to 50. This meant that all the player's Pokemon can have higher CPs than ever before as the CP maximum is tied to the player's level. However, to power up your Pokemon past the level 40 CP cap, you need a special kind of candy: Candy XL.
Rare Candy XL, then, can simply be turned into any kind of Candy XL, so that you can evolve your Pokemon beyond level 40.
How Do You Get Rare Candy XL?
Rare Candy XL, unlike normal Rare Candy, is a limited resource. There is only a certain number that you can possibly acquire in the game (as of the time of this writing).
In total, you'll be able to acquire 31 Rare Candies XL, obtained in only two ways:
- Some are received as rewards for leveling up between level 40 and level 50/
- When you reach levels 43, 45, 48, and 50, you'll be given access to Special Research missions that reward Rare Candies XL once they are completed/
It goes without saying that you should save these until you're very confident about which Pokemon to use them on.