When was each Eeveelution added to the Pokédex in Pokémon

For many fans of Pokémon, Eevee and its ability to evolve into Pokémon of many different types is a fan favorite feature. It’s a metaphor, in a way, about your fate not being entirely sealed and anything being possible. Or perhaps that’s me reading too much into it. 

Either way, Eevee is a beloved generation 1 Pokémon who is still a mainstay in many players’ parties to this day. Creating an entire party made up of different evolutions continues to be a challenge that players take part in as new games are released, and the worldwide Eevee merchandise scene is huge. 

But not all Eeveelutions were added at the same time. There are now eight different Eeveelutions, each of a different type, added to the Pokédex through the years since 1996. Here’s all of the Eeveelutions, when they were added, and why. 

Why were Eeveelutions added to the Pokédex?

As a general rule, Game Freak have added new Eeveelutions at times when new mechanics are introduced. The initial three from original games were used as examples of how Stones worked in terms of evolution. Sylveon, the most recently added of all the Eeveelutions, was added to showcase the newest type that was introduced in generation 6, Fairy. 

I’ll go into each reason more below, but it’s safe to say that Eeveelutions are used as a showcase whenever they’re added, teaching something new that hasn’t appeared in previous games.

Generation 1 – Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon

Only Eevee and three of the eight Eeveelutions were present in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow. Water type Vaporeon, Electric type Jolteon, and Fire type Flareon were all evolved with the aid of stones that matched their type, and could not be obtained in any other way. This was a tutorial of sorts for all of the Pokémon that followed and also evolved in the same way. 

Generation 2 – Espeon and Umbreon

Both Espeon and Umbreon were added with the addition of two new mechanics:

• Day and night cycle
• Friendship

An Eevee with high friendship (at least 220) would evolve into a Psychic type Espeon during the day, while an Eevee with the same level of friendship would evolve into a Dark type Umbreon at night. Neither evolution would happen in areas where there was either a Moss Rock or an Ice Rock. 

It’s all a little complicated, but it worked well to introduce both new mechanics that have featured in most of the Pokémon games released ever since, with the method to obtain both Pokémon remaining much the same since they were introduced. The exception to this is Pokémon XD, which would require a Sun Shard to evolve Espeon or a Moon Shard to evolve Umbreon.

Generation 4 – Leafeon and Glaceon

After skipping over generation 3 with no new Eeveelutions, Game Freak added two in generation 4 in the shape of the Grass type Leafeon and Ice type Glaceon. They were added alongside the new mechanic of evolving Pokémon in different areas to get different results. Evolving an Eevee in an area with a Moss Rock would result in a Leafeon, while evolving one in an area with an Ice Rock would result in a Glaceon. 

The method of obtaining both of these Pokémon changed in generation 8, when it became possible to evolve an Eevee using an Ice Stone or Leaf Stone, but their introduction was a great way to get players used to the idea of location-based evolutions. 

Generation 6 – Sylveon

Fairy type Sylveon was the first glimpse that players had of the new Fairy type Pokémon at all, and that’s pretty much the only particular reason for its introduction that I can gather. To evolve an Eevee into a Sylveon, you would need to increase its friendship to a high level and have it learn a Fairy type move. Both mechanics were added to Pokémon games way back in generation 4, so neither was new or specific to Sylveon. 

Will we ever get more Eeveelutions in Pokémon?

In truth, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever get a new Eeveelution for a variety of reasons. Historically, we’ve only ever skipped over a single generation without the addition of a new Eeveelution, and we’ve gone three generations now since Sylveon was added, completely breaking the established pattern. More than a decade has passed since the Fairy type was added, making the addition of a new Eeveelution a distant memory. 

Back in October, information was revealed during a leak of data that revealed exactly why Pokémon might never add a new Eeveelution to the Pokédex again, and it seems that fan designs might be to blame. 

That’s not to say that fans should stop coming up with their own designs. I’ve spent many hours lapping up gorgeous fan designs of Eeveelutions for every type, and some of them are truly beautiful. The fact that these designs exist at all is testament to how badly fans want more Eeveelutions to collect. The problem is that Pokémon designers now apparently have a hard time coming up with original designs that don’t border on plagiarism against designs created by artistically talented fans. 

However, this isn’t a definite no to more new Eeveelutions in future, provided that Game Freak and Pokémon can come up with something truly unique. Who knows if we’ll ever get a new type, and a new Eeveelution to showcase it in the same way that Sylveon spearheaded the Fairy type. I live in hope that we’ll see an eighth Eeveelution at some point, but I’m also happy with the eight that we already have.