How to evolve Magikarp into Gyarados in Pokémon Magikarp Jump

Did you know that your Magikarp can evolve into Gyarados in Pokémon Magikarp Jump? If you want to learn how to accomplish this, follow these steps, courtesy of Nintendo Life:

1) Ensure you’ve reached at least Trainer Rank 10, where you’re able to fish for Lv. 20 and above Magikarp. You can do this by earning Trainer Exp. Points, and that’s done by winning leagues and league battles. This is made even faster by purchasing certain pond decorations with Diamonds, as well as fully levelling up several Magikarp (described in step 3) and retiring them – either by losing a battle, getting unlucky in an in-game event, or choosing to do so yourself (you only have the ability to do the latter at Lv. 20, so that kind of defeats the purpose of that method).

2) Now, with your Magikarp being able to level up to at least Lv. 20, keep tapping him/her in the pond area. All Magikarp have an Everstone automatically equipped which, like in the main-series Pokémon games, is an item that stops Pokémon from evolving. Your mission here is to break this Everstone, and believe it or not, it’s possible with a bit of patience and vigorous screen-tapping! When the Everstone eventually breaks, a message will pop-up, reading: “Huh?! Your Everstone cracked and broke!”

3) Now level up your Magikarp to Lv. 20 by increasing its JP (Jump Power), which can be done by feeding it food, undertaking training mini-games, optional in-game events (though risky), and using Friendship Items (Support Pokémon) such as Pikachu who will supply JP occasionally. You can drastically speed this process up by purchasing and upgrading different types of food and training activities with Coins, as well as Friendship Items and specific pond decorations to boost the amount of JP earned for each activity with the aforementioned Diamond currency. Once done, you’ll receive a pop-up reading “What the–?! What’s wrong with Magikarp?”, and lo and behold – your Magikarp will evolve into a Gyarados! If you broke your Everstone at Lv. 20, then your Magikarp will evolve on its next level up.

Doing so will complete the “Adios, Gyarados!” Event Dex entry, netting you 10 Diamonds in the process. Unfortunately, Gyarados can’t compete (though it’d be awesome to see a 6.5 metre, 235 kg beast soar into the air), resulting in Mayor Karp informing you that your new fanged friend is in forced retirement. It’s a sad moment and somewhat pointless venture, but hey, it’s a cool little extra that completes an event, nets you some Diamonds, and also Trainer Exp. since it’s retired and all!

Here are a couple of extra tidbits that you may have been wondering about:

1) Yes, Shiny Magikarp (Gold Magikarp) also result in Shiny Gyarados (Red Gyarados). Gold Magikarp are rare and generally yield more Coins/JP, so perhaps only do this on a spare Gold Magikarp that you’re willing to sacrifice in your current in-game situation.

2) No, Gyarados do not swim in the depths of your pond, as other retired Magikarp do (*sigh*).

3) Sometimes, you may be tapping your Karp for a while, only to find that nothing happens – at least that’s what you may think. This happened to this writer, as he kept on tapping his Magikarp while occupied with something else, only to find that he had unintentionally closed the pop-up after it had appeared. However, checking whether you’ve destroyed the Everstone or not can be achieved by going into ‘MENU’ and then ‘Items’. You will see the state of your Everstone, and if it doesn’t show its description and instead reads “It’s broken.”, then well done, you’ve done it, and so you just need to wait and level up your Karp. Otherwise, you’ve gotta be patient! Though unconfirmed, it’s believed that accidentally eating a bit of food or interacting with a Support Pokémon during your furious bout of tapping sort of interrupts the chain of taps, meaning you must start again. Just aim to go for a clean run of taps!

Source: Nintendo Life