Wurmple is a nightmare. Honestly, if you've been playing Pokémon GO for more than a week, you've probably felt that specific sting of disappointment when your cute little party-hat bug turns into the "wrong" cocoon. You want a Beautifly to fill that Hoenn dex slot, but the game hands you a Cascoon for the fourth time in a row. It feels personal. It feels like the game is rigged.
The reality of how to Pokemon Go evolve Wurmple is a bit of a slap in the face to long-time fans of the main series. In the original Game Boy Advance games, specifically Ruby and Sapphire, Wurmple’s evolution was determined by a hidden "personality value." This was a complex string of data that the player could never see. In Pokémon GO, Niantic took that confusing mechanic and basically said, "Let's just make it a coin flip."
There is no trick. There is no naming hack. There is no "evolving it at night" or "evolving it while it's your buddy" that actually works. I know, I know—you saw a YouTube video from 2018 saying otherwise. They were wrong.
The Brutal Truth About Silcoon and Cascoon
Wurmple has a split evolution. It can become Silcoon (which leads to Beautifly) or Cascoon (which leads to Dustox). In almost every other Pokémon GO scenario involving split evolutions, there’s a way to influence the result. Eevee has the naming trick. Tyrogue depends on its highest stat. Even Rockruff has different forms based on the time of day.
But Wurmple? Wurmple is pure chaos.
When you hit that "Evolve" button for 12 candies, the server essentially rolls a die. You have a 50% chance of getting Silcoon and a 50% chance of getting Cascoon. Because this calculation happens on Niantic's servers the moment you tap the button, there is zero room for player intervention.
Think about the implications of that for a second. If you’re a shiny hunter or a 100% IV collector, you are at the mercy of a random number generator. You could find a literal "Shundo" (Shiny 100% IV) Wurmple, and if you desperately want a Purple Beautifly but the game decides it's a Cascoon day, you're stuck with a neon green Dustox. It’s high stakes for a bug that most people ignore.
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Why the Naming Trick is a Myth
You’ve probably heard people swear by names like "May" or "Jessie." This comes from the anime, where May had a Beautifly and Jessie had a Dustox. It sounds logical. It fits the pattern Niantic established with Eevee (naming them Sakura or Sparky).
Except it doesn't work.
The community at The Silph Road (rest in peace to their active research wing) conducted massive, large-scale tests on this years ago. They tracked thousands of evolutions. The result? Total randomness. People who claimed the naming trick worked were simply experiencing a statistical fluke. If you flip a coin twice and get heads both times, you haven't discovered a "naming trick" for coins; you've just experienced basic probability.
The Math of Frustration
Let’s talk about the "Law of Large Numbers" for a second. If you need a Silcoon to complete a Research Task—which happened quite a bit during the Hoenn Celebration events—you might think, "Oh, I'll just catch two Wurmples."
Mathematically, you still have a 25% chance of failing twice. I’ve seen players go through six or seven Wurmples before finally getting the Silcoon they needed. It’s a resource sink. While 12 candies sounds cheap, it adds up when the RNG is against you.
- Wurmple to Silcoon/Cascoon: 12 Candies
- Silcoon to Beautifly: 50 Candies
- Cascoon to Dustox: 50 Candies
If you get the wrong middle stage, you’ve wasted those 12 candies. It’s not a huge loss, but it’s annoying. The real pain comes when you’re dealing with the special event versions.
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Event Wurmples: The Party Hat Problem
Niantic loves putting hats on Wurmple. We’ve had the New Year’s party hat Wurmple for several years now. For a long time, these event versions couldn't evolve at all. They just sat in your storage looking festive and useless.
Recently, Niantic has started "unlocking" evolutions for these costumed variants. This adds a whole new layer of stress to the Pokemon Go evolve Wurmple process. If you only managed to catch one or two shiny party-hat Wurmples during a limited-time New Year's event, the 50/50 split feels much more punishing. You can't just go out and "grind" more of them once the event ends. You get one shot.
Comparing the Two: Beautifly vs. Dustox
Does it even matter which one you get? If you're a competitive player, sort of.
Beautifly is a Bug/Flying type. It’s glass. It dies if a Rock-type even looks at it funny. In the Great League, it’s almost never used because there are just better options like Butterfree or Vivillon. It has access to moves like Infestation and Bug Buzz, but it lacks the bulk to survive long enough to use them effectively.
Dustox, on the other hand, is Bug/Poison. Historically, Dustox had a tiny niche in certain "cup" formats (like the Rainbow Cup or similar themed metas) because it’s surprisingly tanky for a moth. With Confusion as a fast move, it can actually put a dent in Fighting-type Pokémon.
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But let’s be real. Nobody is evolving a Wurmple because they want a top-tier meta attacker. You’re doing it for the Pokédex or because you like the aesthetics. Dustox has that weird, alien-moth vibe, while Beautifly is the classic "pretty" Pokémon.
How to Handle the RNG Without Losing Your Mind
Since you can't control the outcome, the only real strategy is volume.
Don't evolve your "best" Wurmple first if you need both evolutions. Catch ten of them. Trade them with friends to get "Luckies" if you really care about the IVs. Then, mass evolve them.
The odds of not getting at least one of each after five evolutions is statistically very low (about 6%). If you’re the person who evolves six and gets six Cascoons, I’m sorry. You should probably avoid Las Vegas.
Practical Steps for Your Next Evolution Session
- Check your Candy: Make sure you have at least 62 candies before you start. This covers the 12 for the first stage and 50 for the final stage. If you're hunting both, you'll want at least 124.
- Ignore the Weather: Some players think evolving in "Rainy" weather (which boosts Bugs) influences the result. It doesn't. Weather only affects the level and IVs of the Wurmple you catch in the wild, not the result of the evolution button.
- Tags are your friend: If you are doing a massive storage cleanup, tag your Wurmples as "Evolve" so you can burn through them quickly.
- Trading: If you have a friend who keeps getting Silcoons while you keep getting Cascoons, trade! The evolution is determined at the moment of the tap, so a Wurmple traded to you has the same 50/50 chance it had with your friend. It doesn't "carry" its destiny from one trainer to another.
Why Does Niantic Do This?
It’s about engagement. If you could just name your Wurmple and be done with it, you’d stop catching them sooner. By making it random, Niantic ensures that players keep clicking on that little red bug, checking for shinies, and collecting candy. It’s a small, subtle way to keep the "loop" going.
It also stays true—in spirit, if not in mechanics—to the original games. The "personality value" in the GBA games was essentially random to the player anyway, as there was no way to see that data without external hacking tools.
Moving Forward with Your Bug Collection
If you're looking to optimize your Pokédex, stop searching for a secret trick. There isn't one. The "secret" is just catching more Wurmples.
Focus on the upcoming Bug-type events or general seasonal rotations where Wurmple is a common spawn. Save your Pinap Berries if you're low on candy, though at 12 candy per evolution, you'll likely have plenty just from casual catching.
When you finally do sit down to Pokemon Go evolve Wurmple, just take a deep breath and hit the button. Whether it’s a Silcoon or a Cascoon, it’s all part of the game’s internal math.
The best thing you can do right now is check your current collection for any high-IV Wurmples you've ignored. Check for the "4-star" (100% IV) using the search filter 4*. If you find one, remember: it has a 50% chance of being exactly what you want. Good luck. You're going to need it.
To make the most of your Wurmple candy, wait for a 2x Evolution XP event, usually found during a Tuesday Spotlight Hour. This allows you to burn through those 12-candy evolutions to rack up thousands of experience points while you're rolling the dice for that Silcoon or Cascoon. Once you've secured one of each for your living dex, you can stop stressing about the RNG and treat Wurmple like what it truly is: excellent fodder for leveling up your trainer account.