Is Sunkern Good in Diamond & Pearl Playthrough?
The lowest base stats of any Pokemon. AbilitySolar Power is new in Gen 4 and boosts Special Attack in sun at the cost of HP. Sunflora at Sun Stone doesn't improve things much. Transfer-only and outclassed by everything.
Sunkern has the type edge here and should clean up Roark's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Gardenia's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Maylene's team.
Sunflora has the type edge here and should clean up Crasher Wake's team.
Fantina's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Byron's team.
Candice's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora has the type edge here and should clean up Volkner's team.
Aaron's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora resists most of Bertha's coverage and hits back hard.
Flint's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Lucian's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Mars's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Jupiter's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Saturn's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Cynthia's team.
Catchable
Catch Sunkern on Route 204 (Poké Radar, Lv 6-8, common).
Recommended Moves
- After Gardenia
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10Veilstone Department Store
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Amity Square
- LV 29GrassRazor LeafPower 83Accuracy 95%PP 25
- LV 41GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Candice
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Galactic HQ B2F in Veilstone City
- LV 45GrassSeed BombPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
- Post-Game
- TM53GrassEnergy BallPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 226
- TM42NormalFacadePower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Survival Area
Evolve Sunkern to Sunflora
Sunkern evolves into Sunflora with a Sun Stone. You can usually obtain this item before you reach Gardenia.
Recommended Moves
- After Gardenia
- TM68NormalGiga ImpactPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Veilstone Game Corner
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Veilstone Department Store
- LV 33GrassPetal DancePower 135Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Fantina
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 209
- LV 41GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Candice
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Galactic HQ B2F in Veilstone City
- LV 43GrassLeaf StormPower 210Accuracy 90%PP 5
- Post-Game
- TM53GrassEnergy BallPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 226
- TM42NormalFacadePower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Survival Area
How to Get Sunkern in Diamond & Pearl
The tiny seed only turns up at the end of a Poke Radar chain, common at level 6 to 8 on a single route. A plain walk through that grass never produces a Sunkern.
Wild Sunkern may be holding when caught:
Coba Berry (5% chance) Held: Consumed when struck by a super-effective Flying-type attack to halve the damage.1 location to catch Sunkern
Badge 1Where To Catch Sunkern in DP
- Step 1Sunkern ✓
- 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 Diamond & Pearl Catch Rate Calculator before you throw.
How to Get Shiny Sunkern in Diamond & Pearl
Sunkern nestles in the Route 204 grass, where a PokeRadar chain is what pulls its shiny way lower. Compare Shiny Sunkern odds across every game
Diamond & Pearl Shiny Sunkern Calculator
3 MethodsThe best route is PokeRadar Chain at full boosts, about 1 in 200 on each try. Tune it below.
PokeRadar Chain: Chain shaking-grass patches without breaking the combo. The rate peaks at a chain of 40.
Masuda Method: Breed with a parent from a different-language game. Works on any breedable line.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 22-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 58-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 139-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 460-- | -- |
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 Diamond & Pearl 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 |
- Fairy type does not exist — Dragon has fewer checks
- Physical / Special split now per-move (introduced Gen IV)
What is Sunkern Weak Against
FragileBest Pokemon Against Sunkern
 Monferno FireFighting | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Chimchar (Lake Verity Gift) | ||
 Growlithe Fire | C | |
 Golbat Poison | C | |
Obtain MethodMt Coronet Surfing Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Golbat builds →Wing Attack 2x117-138%KO Leech Life 2x29-35% | ||
 Aerodactyl Rock | B | |
Obtain MethodOreburgh City Gift Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Aerodactyl builds →Wing Attack 2x140-167%KO Ice Fang 2x104-123%KO Fire Fang 2x104-123%KO | ||
 Vespiquen Bug | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Vespiquen builds →Gust 2x83-98% Poison Sting 2x21-27% Fury Cutter 2x23-29% | ||
 Heracross BugFighting | B | |
 Murkrow Dark | C | |
 Masquerain Bug | C | |
 Beautifly Bug | C | |
 Doduo Normal | C | |
 Staravia Normal | C | |
 Butterfree Bug | C | |
 Mothim Bug | 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 45 breeding partners from the Grass egg group. Pass egg moves like Curse, Encore, Grass Whistle and 5 more to offspring.
DP Sunkern Best Moveset
The lowest base stat total of any Pokemon at 180. Every stat is 30. No moveset exists for this. Evolve to Sunflora.
Best Build
Sunkern best EVs are Attack and Sp. Atk
Screens Setter Moveset
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Encore
- Light Screen
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
The natural movepool does the job, but Curse and Encore from the egg pool give Sunkern something extra. Pair those with Solar Beam and Energy Ball for STAB and Normal and Poison coverage for reach, and the kit fills out nicely.
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. That triggers abilities like Static, Flame Body, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs, plus items like Rocky Helmet and Sticky Barb.
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
26 of 28 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Transfer Moves
Base Stats
It suddenly falls out of the sky in the morning. A year after a cold summer, their population explodes.
Sunkern Diamond & Pearl Guide
Yes. Wild Sunkern in Diamond & Pearl can hold Coba Berry (5%). Use Thief (TM46) or Covet to swipe the held item without affecting your catch chance. Quickest way to farm rare items like Coba Berry.
In Diamond & Pearl, 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 · Diamond & PearlDiamond & Pearl Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Diamond & Pearl Tier List