Pokemon Sword and Shield – How To Evolve Machoke into Machamp

There’s a lot of new mechanics in Pokemon Sword and Shield, with many involving how to evolve all your favorite characters. Sometimes an old favorite requires a new trick, or a new creature has some fancy method to trigger his evolution. Other times though it’s the same as it’s always been, with most requiring players to get their Pokemon to a certain level. But even when things haven’t changed, sometimes it can be confusing. Machoke was one of the first characters to feature a special evolution method, so let’s break down how to evolve Machoke into Machamp in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

How to Evolve Machoke into Machamp

The method hasn’t changed in twenty years, but if you weren’t playing on the Game Boy you might still be confused. Thankfully evolving Machoke is pretty simple, requiring the player to trade him away. Yes, like so many others in the game, Machoke evolves through trading with another player. Of course, if you want a Machamp of your very own you may wonder how this all works. If you trade Machoke and he evolves, you don’t have a Machamp, you just gave one to a friend. There’s a trick for that too.

All you have to do is find a friend with their own Machoke they are ready to evolve. That way you can do an equal trade, Machamp for Machamp. Otherwise you’ll have to find someone you trust a lot because you’ll need to trade them and then trade back if you want one of your own. Trainers have been doing this since the Red and Blue days on Game Boy, so surely you can make it work. However you decide to handle the specifics, the answer to how to evolve Machoke into Machamp in Pokemon Sword and Shield is that simple. Trade him away.