Hail to the king, baby
If you’re aiming to complete your Pokedex, you’re going to spend a bit of time with Slowpoke.
Contrary to what you might initially think, Slowking is not an evolutionary form of Slowbro. Slowking is, in fact, its own derivative evolution of Slowpoke. It’s worth noting that Slowking isn’t that different from Slowbro. With a handful of base stats shifted from defense to special defense, their main differences are a handful of moves they can learn. They also deviate a bit in terms of how you get them, so let’s talk about that.
How to get Slowking
Typically, Slowpoke will evolve into Slowbro at level 37. You obviously don’t want this to happen when gunning for Slowking, so either keep Slowpoke’s level low or prevent it from evolving by pressing the B button during the animation. In fact, you don’t need to level Slowpoke at all for this evolution.
Your first step to get Slowking is to get a King’s Rock. We’ve covered this in detail already, so check out this guide for all the ways you can grab this item. If you’re using Slowpoke in your playthrough and want Slowking fast, your quickest option is to visit Delibird Presents in Mesagoza after defeating four gym leaders. The King’s Rock will cost 10,000 Pokedollars, so fight some Trainer battles or sell some Nuggets if you don’t have the cash on hand.
The next, and ironically hardest step is to trade your Slowpoke while holding the King’s Rock. This will prompt Slowpoke to evolve into Slowking, similar to other trade evolutions like evolving Haunter into Gengar. Naturally, have your partner trade any Pokemon to complete the evolution, and trade both Pokemon back to complete the process. If you don’t have a friend playing the game, this can be a difficult task. Consider looking for a community like the Pokemon Trades Subreddit to find a partner willing to help.
If you’d rather skip trading entirely, there is another route to getting a Slowking. If you fight enough Tera Raid battles, you might see a Slowking show up as a 5-Star or 6-Star encounter. Tera Raid Pokemon have a 100% catch rate, so toss any Pokeball and you’ll have your own Slowking! The major drawback to this is that 5-Star Raid Pokemon are tough. By the time you can participate in these encounters, you’ll at least be most of the way through the game anyway. Still, if you’re just looking to complete the Pokedex, this is a viable way to get this monster for yourself. After all, you’ll need to do a lot of raids anyway to min-max your Pokemon.
