Pokémon: 10 Craziest Evolution Methods The Games Made You Do

Half of the joy of Pokémon has forever been the mystery of the game. Between learning new type advantages, catching weird and wild critters, and - best of all - evolving them, the game really sets itself apart from other similar franchises.

But not all Pokémon are created equal, so while some merely need you to grind them to a certain level, others have some more... complicated needs. It seems to be a pet project of anyone working on the Pokémon series to try and one up whatever complicated and crazy evolution that came in the game prior, leading to an assortment of methods that could only be solved by luck, a sneaky Google, or by trying literally everything until you finally get the long-awaited monster of your dreams.

And with methods that involve flipping fish, beating up your own Pokémon, and even running eight thousand kilometres, the competition is fierce as to who officially wins the title of having the most painfully obscure evolution requirements.

That said, when you can evolve a Pokémon by doing a sweet dance move, it's hard to stay mad - so you win this round, Nintendo.

As a Pokémon based off of the ancient wooly mammoth, it's fair to assume that most people saw a Mamoswine and thought, "I need me one of those". For anyone who didn't want to learn how to evolve the Ice Age lookalike via internet tips or one of the Pokémon guides however, figuring out exactly how to get a Mamoswine is a bit of a riddle.

That's because Piloswine only evolves into Mamoswine when it levels up while knowing a move fittingly called 'Ancient Power'. This doesn't sound like a big deal until you find out that this Pokémon can't learn the move by leveling, as Piloswine technically learns the move at level 1, way before you'll have caught or evolved one.

While this isn't an impossible challenge, it leaves you with two weird choices to pick between. In order to evolve yourself a Mamoswine, you need to either breed its first form, Swinub - as these bred Pokeémon automatically know Ancient Power - or take it to one of the Move Learners placed in every game, and get them to teach your long-suffering Pokémon the move it needs to reach its final form. Should you not do this oddly specific set of actions, your icy dreams are forever doomed.