Is Sunkern Good in Emerald Playthrough?
Often cited as the weakest Pokemon in the franchise. Sunkern has AbilityChlorophyll but base stats too low for the sun Speed to matter. Sunflora via Sun Stone doesn't improve things enough. Safari Zone catch with no team value.
Sunkern resists most of Roxanne's coverage and hits back hard.
Sunkern trades roughly evenly with Brawly's team.
Wattson's typing presses Sunkern's defenses.
Flannery's team hits Sunkern's weaknesses hard.
Norman's typing presses Sunkern's defenses.
Winona's Pokemon outpace and outclass Sunkern here.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Tate & Liza's team.
Sunflora has the type edge here and should clean up Juan's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Sidney's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Phoebe's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Glacia's team.
Drake's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Wallace's team.
Catchable
Catch Sunkern in the Safari Zone (walking, Lv 33-35, common). Safari Zone: 500 entry fee, 30 Safari Balls, 500-step limit.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 33)
- LV 33GrassMega DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Wattson
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Route 111
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Fortree City
- After Norman
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10Safari Zone
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Dewford Town
- TM42NormalFacadePower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Prize for defeating Norman
- LV 42GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 5
- After Tate & Liza
- TUTORNormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Sootopolis City
Evolve Sunkern to Sunflora
Sunkern evolves into Sunflora with a Sun Stone. You can receive the Sun Stone from an NPC in Mossdeep City.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 33)
- LV 33GrassRazor LeafPower 83Accuracy 95%PP 25
- After Norman
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 5Route 123
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Lilycove Department Store
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Dewford Town
- TM42NormalFacadePower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Prize for defeating Norman
- LV 37GrassPetal DancePower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20
- LV 42GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Tate & Liza
- TUTORNormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Sootopolis City
How to Get Sunkern in Emerald
Levels 33 to 35 and mostly common, Sunkern grows only in the Safari Zone grass for Emerald. It is a reliable find once you are inside, so a single pass usually turns one up.
1 location to catch Sunkern
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 6Where To Catch Sunkern in E
- 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 Emerald Catch Rate Calculator before you throw.
How to Get Shiny Sunkern in Emerald
Sunkern buries itself among the Safari Zone grass, popping up regularly as you stroll the field, so keep circling and check every little seed sprite for the off-shade shiny before your Safari steps run out. Compare Shiny Sunkern odds across every game
Emerald Shiny Sunkern Calculator
2 MethodsBoth methods here share the same odds, about 1 in 8,192 on each try. Pick whichever fits how you play.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breeding: Hatch eggs of this line; each egg rolls at the base shiny rate (no Masuda before Gen IV).
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 864-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 2,357-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 5,678-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 18,862-- | -- |
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 Emerald 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
What is Sunkern Weak Against
FragileBest Pokemon Against Sunkern
 Blaziken FireFighting | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Torchic (Route 101 Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Blaziken builds →Overheat 2x388-457%KO Aerial Ace 2x120-142%KO | ||
 Typhlosion Fire | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Cyndaquil (Littleroot Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Typhlosion builds →Overheat 2x381-450%KO Aerial Ace 2x91-107%KO | ||
 Houndoom DarkFire | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Houndoom builds →Overheat 2x388-457%KO Sludge Bomb 2x142-167%KO | ||
 Altaria Dragon | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Altaria builds →Fire Blast 2x153-181%KO Fly 2x136-160%KO Ice Beam 2x122-144%KO | ||
 Muk Poison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Muk builds →Sludge Bomb 2x240-283%KO Fire Blast 2x145-172%KO | ||
 Vileplume GrassPoison | C | |
 Ninetales Fire | C | |
 Tropius Grass | C | |
 Camerupt FireGround | C | |
 Regice Ice | B | |
Obtain MethodRoute 105 Interact Encounter | ||
 Golbat Poison | C | |
Obtain MethodMeteor Falls Surfing Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Golbat builds →Sludge Bomb 2x195-230%KO Wing Attack 2x130-153%KO Leech Life 2x31-37% | ||
 Ariados BugPoison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Ariados builds →Sludge Bomb 2x213-251%KO Leech Life 2x50-59% | ||
 Torkoal Fire | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Torkoal builds →Overheat 2x314-370%KO Sludge Bomb 2x136-160%KO | ||
 Seviper Poison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Seviper builds →Sludge Bomb 2x230-272%KO Flamethrower 2x162-191%KO | ||
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 35 breeding partners from the Grass egg group. Pass egg moves like Curse, Encore, Grass Whistle and 3 more to offspring.
E Sunkern Best Moveset
The lowest base stat total of any Pokemon, with 30 in every category. AbilityChlorophyll doubles 30 Speed to 60 in sun, which still trails competitive thresholds. The moveset cannot function.
Best Build
Sunkern best EVs are Sp. Def and Speed
Wall Moveset
- Leech Seed
- Endeavor
- Encore
- Substitute
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 Giga Drain 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
All 19 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
SUNKERN try to minimize movement to conserve the nutrients they have stored in their bodies for evolution. They will not eat, subsisting only on morning dew.
Sunkern Emerald Guide
- Where in the Emerald Safari Zone can I find Sunkern?
See the Locations section above for where to find Sunkern in Emerald.
Safari rules: You can only use Safari Balls. No battling. Two tactical items shift the catch/flee trade-off:
- Throw bait to keep Sunkern from fleeing (flee rate cut to 1/4) but it becomes harder to catch (catch factor halved).
- Throw a rock to make Sunkern easier to catch (catch factor doubled) but it flees twice as often.
- Each effect lasts 2-6 random turns; throwing one cancels the other.
In Emerald, 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 · EmeraldEmerald Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Emerald Tier List