Is Sunkern Good in Crystal Playthrough?
The lowest base stat total of any Pokemon, and Crystal doesn't fix that. Sunflora via Sun Stone is a marginal improvement. Every Grass-type in Crystal outperforms the entire line. A Sun Stone is too valuable to spend here.
Falkner's team hits Sunkern's weaknesses hard.
Bugsy's team hits Sunkern's weaknesses hard.
Whitney's typing presses Sunkern's defenses.
Morty's typing presses Sunflora's defenses.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Jasmine's team.
Sunflora resists most of Pryce's coverage and hits back hard.
Clair's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Lt. Surge's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Erika's team.
Janine's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Sunflora resists most of Brock's coverage and hits back hard.
Blaine's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Blue's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Will's team.
Koga's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Karen's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Lance's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Catchable
Catch Sunkern in the National Park (walking, Lv 14, common).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 14)
- LV 14GrassMega DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 14GrassAbsorbPower 30Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Falkner
- HM01NormalCutPower 50Accuracy 95%PP 30Ilex Forest
- After Whitney
- TM13NormalSnorePower 40Accuracy 100%PP 15Moomoo Farm
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift from an officer in the Route 43 gate
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- After Clair
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 27
- LV 46GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 5
Evolve Sunkern to Sunflora
Sunkern evolves into Sunflora with a Sun Stone. You can receive the Sun Stone from an NPC in National Park.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 20)
- LV 20GrassRazor LeafPower 83Accuracy 95%PP 25
- LV 20NormalGrowthPower —Accuracy 100%PP 40
- LV 31GrassPetal DancePower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift from an officer in the Route 43 gate
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- LV 46GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Lt. Surge
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 5Prize for defeating Erika
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner prize (7500 coins)
How to Get Sunkern in Crystal
Sunkern is a daytime-only catch, common in just two grassy spots: National Park and Route 24. Step in at the wrong time of day and the grass comes up empty.
2 locations to catch Sunkern
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 3
Badge 4
Badge 5
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8Where To Catch Sunkern in C
- Step 2Evolve into SunfloraBREEDINGAvailableLeave a compatible parent at the Pokemon Day Care to receive a Sunkern egg.
Bring the right balls: check Sunkern catch odds in the Crystal Catch Rate Calculator before you throw.
How to Get Shiny Sunkern in Crystal
Sunkern suns itself in the National Park and on Kanto's Route 24 during the day, and its common spawn rate keeps the encounters flowing steadily. Compare Shiny Sunkern odds across every game
Crystal Shiny Sunkern Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
Planning a longer hunt? Set up Sunkern in the Crystal Shiny Odds Calculator to compare every method side by side.
Sunkern Weakness
Sunkern's Grass typing leaves it vulnerable to Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, and Bug. The Grass typing picks up 4 resistances to work with.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Water, Electric, Grass, Ground |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Sunkern Weak Against
FragileBest Pokemon Against Sunkern
 Arcanine Fire | B | |
 Flareon Fire | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Eevee (Goldenrod City Gift) | ||
 Quilava Fire | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Cyndaquil (New Bark Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Quilava builds →Fire Blast 2x254-300%KO Fury Cutter 2x14-18% | ||
 Lapras WaterIce | C | |
Obtain MethodUnion Cave Interact Encounter | ||
 Magby Fire | C | |
Obtain MethodRoute 34 Gift Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Magby builds →Fire Blast 2x232-274%KO Smog 2x30-35% | ||
 Smoochum IcePsychic | C | |
Obtain MethodRoute 34 Gift | ||
 Ledian Bug | C | |
 Weezing Poison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Weezing builds →Sludge 2x151-179%KO Fire Blast 2x179-211%KO | ||
 Nidoking PoisonGround | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Nidoking builds →Fire Blast 2x179-211%KO Blizzard 2x179-211%KO Poison Sting 2x44-53% Fury Cutter 2x19-25% | ||
 Gloom GrassPoison | C | |
 Nidoqueen PoisonGround | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Nidoqueen builds →Fire Blast 2x163-193%KO Blizzard 2x163-193%KO Fury Cutter 2x19-25% | ||
 Noctowl Normal | C | |
 Weepinbell GrassPoison | C | |
 Beedrill BugPoison | C | |
Sunkern Evolutions
To get Sunflora from Sunkern, you need an evolution item. The evolution method matters here. The evolved forms gain up to 245 total stats over Sunkern. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Sunkern easily with 23 breeding partners from the Grass egg group.
C Sunkern Best Moveset
Lowest base stat total in the game. MoveGrowth can boost Sp. Atk, but from the lowest possible starting point. No competitive purpose.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Solar Beam
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Mega Drain
Moves List
The level-up pool is slim, so TMs matter here. Sunkern's Normal and Poison coverage all comes from technical machines, built on top of Solar Beam and Giga Drain for same-type damage. Sludge Bomb and Solar Beam are the payoff moves.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
15 of 20 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
It is very weak. Its only means of defense is to shake its leaves desperately at its attacker.
Sunkern Crystal Guide
In Crystal, for a casual playthrough, Sunkern works as a placeholder. Grass coverage is useful early. The real payoff is Sunflora. That's where the stats start mattering.
Game Availability
Since Gold & Silver, Sunkern has been in 16 games. Requiring an item-based evolution to obtain means it's consistently available but requires more effort than simply catching it in the wild.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GSDebut
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Sunkern.
Keep playing · CrystalCrystal Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Crystal Tier List