Dunsparce’s Pokémon legacy goes back many years, as it first appeared in Pokémon generation 2, but the Pokémon didn’t get a lot of interest until recently. First considered a largely useless addition when introduced, big changes over the years have eventually made it a popular pick for players looking for something different. By the time Pokémon Scarlet and Violet arrived, Dunsparce had, heh, evolved to become a quirky member of a high-potential Pokémon fighting team.
If you’re interested in trying out Dunsparce in Scarlet and Violet, where it receives its first notable evolution, we’ve got you covered with our Dunsparce evolution guide. We’ll also touch on how Dunsparce works in Pokémon Go. Continue reading for the details on how to get it, how Dunsparce evolves into Dundunsparce plus a special evolution, and everything else you should know.
How Do I Get Dunsparce in Scarlet and Violet?
Dunsparce isn’t a starter Pokémon — the little “land snake” normal type Pokémon is a little too weird for that — but it is easy to find. Once you get out and start exploring Paldea, you may run into a Dunsparce right away. They can be found in almost every region, including the earliest regions. If you want one on your team ASAP, head out to Area One or Two and start exploring. You should run into a wild version before too.
Capturing a Dunsparce successfully is a little more complicated. When you find one in the wild, you’ll have to approach it very carefully. Get too close, and Dunsparce will tunnel away, forcing you to find another. Players have the most success launching their own Pokémon at a Dunsparce. This initiates a fight from a distance, so try this tactic first.
As usual, once in a fight, the lower the Dunsparce’s HP and the more status effects on it, the easier it is to capture. Fight a bit to whittle it down, then through a Pokeball to attempt a capture. In Scarlet and Violet, you get a couple of tries even if the first throw misses, but use your Pokeballs carefully. If you’re having trouble, use a specialized Pokeball made for conditions Dunsparce is found it. The Dream ball works well if you can inflict sleep, or the Fast ball may prove useful. If you’re confident, you can use a Friend ball or similar item to get a high affinity Dunsparce right away.
How Do I Get Dunsparce in Pokémon Go?
Pokémon Go has offered Dunsparce for a few years now, so you can reliably find one just by playing. We suggest focusing on completing your research tasks and seeing if you get one as a reward. Put in your steps and earn eggs for your paces, too. Dunsparce can hatch from these eggs with a little bit of luck. If you want to focus on exploration, use your incense and head out to look in partly cloudy weather, where its spawn rate is higher.
How Do I Evolve Dunsparce into Dundunsparce?
If you’re patient, it’s not difficult. Keep playing with Dunsparce to earn experience and level the little guy up. It takes longer than many evolutions, but by the time Dunsparce reaches level 32, an important change occurs. At this level up, Dunsparce learns the ability Hyper Drill. Once Dunsparce has Hyper Drill, it will automatically turn into a Dundunsparce.
In games like Scarlet and Violet, players have the ability to skip teaching a move to their Pokémon. That makes room for other taught moves but can go wrong. If you accidentally do this with Hyper Drill, you’ll have to manually teach it to Dunsparce and level up again. This will force its evolution, and you can usually do it the Remember Moves menu. This also works if you find a high-level Dunsparce that doesn’t know Hyper Drill yet.
Dundunsparce gains an extra segment on its body (hence the name) and remains a normal type Pokémon. If you’ve already beaten Scarlet or Violet and are chilling in the endgame trying to put a zany team together, you can find Dundunsparce in the wild. Look for Pokémon in Area Zero caves and you will eventually run across it.
Are There Any Advantages to Evolving Dunsparce?
Dunsparce doesn’t change much when leveling in Dundunsparce, but there are benefits. You get a stats boost, and the ability to learn a couple of new moves, including Hyper Drill and Boomburst. We’ll talk a bit more about that later in our Dunsparce evolution guide.
Can You Evolve Dunsparce into a “Dundundunsparce?”
The name doesn’t literally change, but there is something special about the Dundunsparce evolution. There’s a very rare chance that the Dunsparce will level into a form that has three segments instead of just two. It’s infrequent, only about a 1% chance, so you can’t count on it with a normal evolution. The only way to get a three-segment Dundunsparce is to get really lucky, or spend a some time farming/breeding Dunsparce with parents that know Hyper Drill. You could also try to find one in the caves where you can run across normal Dundunsparces.
While the three-segment version of the Pokémon is very rare, it’s purely aesthetic. You don’t get better stats or new abilities for Dundunsparce. It’s just a fun quest to go on if you really like the squirmy dude.
What Dunsparce Abilities are Good?
Dunsparce is a normal type Pokémon with fairly high health but otherwise middling stats. But it’s far from useless thanks to a few important abilities that can make it very annoying in battle. Keep in mind as a normal type, Dunsparce has strong defenses to many other types except for Fighting. This helps make up for some of its less impressive stats. But it will struggle to effectively attack rock and steel, and can’t hurt ghost types much at all. Focus on capabilities like:
- Serene Grace: Serene Grace doubles the chance to inflict a secondary effect. That is a surprisingly powerful capability that stays useful throughout the game. It works particularly well with Dunsparce’s physical attacks that have the ability to flinch an opponent. With a high chance of working, flinch can render a Pokémon unable to attack over and over again.
- Hyper Drill: The move Dunsparce learns before evolving has its uses too. Hyper Drill has high damage compared to the attacks that Dunsparce learns beforehand, essentially a more useful version of Drill Run. It can hit an opponent that’s using Protect or Detect to shield itself from damage, making it very effective against blocking tactics.
- Boomburst: When Dunsparce evolves, it can level up and learn Boomburst as its final move. This high-damage normal type attack is simple, effective, and won’t drain too many resources to use. Keep it as a Dunsparce ability makes the Pokémon a very reliable damage-dealing machine.
- Dragon Rush: If you want to start flinching targets over and over again, Dragon Rush is an excellent innate ability that Dunsparce learns at level 40. It both deals a fair amount of damage and has a chance to flinch. That’s one of the effects boosted by Serene Grace, so it all works together.
- Rattled: Rattled increases speed whenever intimidated or hit with bug, ghost, or dark attacks. You don’t want to put Dunsparce against a ghost type at all, so that part isn’t useful. But if you are fighting but or dark Pokémon then you can often end up with an advantage in longer battles that shouldn’t be overlooked.
As far as teaching Dunsparce moves through Technical Machine work, users have lots of choices but not all of them work well. We would recommend using attacks that can make targets flinch: This is one of the most frustrating and useful things Dunsparce can do. Adding Zen Headbutt, or Air Slash could be good options. Or, you could shore up its attack abilities against rock and steel if you don’t have other Pokémon that can handle those types.
What Nature is Best for Dunsparce?
A nature typically gives a boost to one stat at the expense of another. Some Pokémon benefit from a certain nature to enhance their abilities in battle. With Dunsparce, players usually have two options. First, the Jolly nature increases speed while reducing special attack power. Increased speed is very helpful when trying to reliably flinch an opponent, making it a common choice.
Players could also prioritize damage and choose the Adamant nature. This increases attack power at the cost of special attack damage, a trade-off that works very well for Dunsparce attacks.
You can customize a nature in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet via breeding. Breeding is a complex process that players can spend a lot of time on, especially after they’ve completed the campaign. Since Dunsparce is a field type, you’ll need to breed it with another field type Pokémon or a Ditto to produce eggs. Hold a picnic and bring foods along that enable the Pokémon to produce eggs, so they’ll fill up the nearby basket. To help guarantee a nature, you’ll also want to give the right parent an Everstone before you begin to breed.
How Do I Use Dunsparce in Battle?
While Dunsparce is still sometimes seen as a joke Pokémon, it can have an effective place on your team. In fact, if you’re playing against other players, they may be surprised by the inclusion of a Dunsparce and make a mistake when fighting it. In addition, the little caterpillar-fish-bird can prove helpful in several ways.
First, check that you aren’t fighting a ghost, rock, or steel type. If Dunsparce is useful against an opponent, bring it out early. Use its flinching attacks to try and trap an enemy in a flinch cycle so it can’t make a move against you. While Dunsparce is especially helpful for this thanks to Serene Grace, you can also bring out other Pokémon who can flinch to continue the tactic. With practice, Dunsparce can be a legendary annoyance at just the right times.
Keep in mind, these tactics are focused on Scarlet and Violet. In Pokémon Go, there is no flinch mechanic, so Dunsparce doesn’t have this edge against enemies. That means it’s far less useful in that mobile game, and you’ll have to work a lot harder to build a team with Dunsparce on it. If you’re still determined to use it, focus more on its damaging attack moves, such as Rollout against high HP Pokémon to take them down as quickly as possible.
Wait, I Thought Dunsparce Didn’t Evolve?
When Dunsparce was first released in Generation 2, it didn’t have an evolutionary form. Its evolution into Dundunsparce was added beginning with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. That’s why some players were surprised to find this was an option when picking Pokémon back up again.
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