Is Sunkern Good in HeartGold & SoulSilver Playthrough?
National Park encounter. Grass-type with AbilityChlorophyll or AbilitySolar Power. The lowest base stats of any fully evolved Pokemon. Sun Stone for Sunflora doesn't fix the fundamental problem. Even the National Park has better catches.
Falkner's Pokemon outpace and outclass Sunkern here.
Bugsy's team hits Sunkern's weaknesses hard.
Sunkern trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
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.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Sunflora resists most of Brock's coverage and hits back hard.
Sunflora resists most of Misty's coverage and hits back hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Lt. Surge's team.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Erika's team.
Janine's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Blaine's team hits Sunflora's weaknesses hard.
Sunflora trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
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 10-12, common).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 10)
- LV 10GrassMega DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15
- After Bugsy
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- LV 29GrassRazor LeafPower 83Accuracy 95%PP 25
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 43
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Lake of Rage
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Lake of Rage
- LV 41GrassGiga DrainPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 45GrassSeed BombPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
Evolve Sunkern to Sunflora
Sunkern evolves into Sunflora with a Sun Stone. You can usually obtain this item before you reach Morty.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- LV 29GrassRazor LeafPower 83Accuracy 95%PP 25
- LV 33GrassPetal DancePower 135Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 43
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Lake of Rage
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Lake of Rage
- LV 41GrassSolar BeamPower 180Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 43GrassLeaf StormPower 210Accuracy 90%PP 5
How to Get Sunkern in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Sunkern is a strictly daytime catch, common in the grass on a Kanto route, the National Park, and the Safari Zone. Skip the night and morning hunting, it simply does not come out then.
Wild Sunkern may be holding when caught:
Coba Berry (5% chance) If held by a Pokemon, it weakens a foe's supereffective Flying-type attack.3 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 HGSS
The line opens with Sunkern at Lv. 10-17 via walking encounters. 1 catchable stage total, with locations listed for each one below.
- Step 2Evolve into Sunflora
Bring the right balls: check Sunkern catch odds in the HeartGold & SoulSilver Catch Rate Calculator before you throw.
How to Get Shiny Sunkern in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Sunkern basks on Route 24 and in the National Park, though breeding it Masuda-style is the quicker path to a shiny. Compare Shiny Sunkern odds across every game
HeartGold & SoulSilver Shiny Sunkern Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Masuda Method, about 1 in 1,639 on each try.
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 | 173-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 472-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 1,136-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 3,773-- | -- |
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 HeartGold & SoulSilver 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
 Scyther Bug | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Scyther builds →U-turn 2x191-226%KO Wing Attack 2x165-195%KO | ||
 Ninetales Fire | C | |
 Glaceon Ice | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Eevee (Goldenrod City Gift) | ||
 Arcanine Fire | B | |
 Yanmega Bug | B | |
 Magmar Fire | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Magmar builds →Fire Blast 2x304-358%KO Smog 2x39-46% | ||
 Parasect BugGrass | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Parasect builds →Cross Poison 2x116-137%KO Leech Life 2x53-63% | ||
 Beedrill BugPoison | C | |
 Quilava Fire | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Cyndaquil (New Bark Town Gift) | ||
 Lapras WaterIce | C | |
Obtain MethodUnion Cave Interact Encounter | ||
 Golbat Poison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Golbat builds →Wing Attack 2x128-153%KO U-turn 2x100-119%KO | ||
 Ariados BugPoison | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Ariados builds →Bug Bite 2x142-168%KO Poison Sting 2x39-47% | ||
 Noctowl Normal | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Sunkern View Noctowl builds →Sky Attack 2x214-253%KO Silver Wind 2x91-109%KO | ||
 Gloom GrassPoison | 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.
HGSS Sunkern Best Moveset
30 across every single stat, the lowest total of any Pokemon. AbilityChlorophyll in sun doubles 30 Speed to 60, still slow. AbilitySolar Power boosts Sp. Atk at the cost of HP each turn. The moveset has no function. Evolve with a Sun Stone.
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 Seed Bomb 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
It may plummet from the sky. If attacked by a SPEAROW, it will violently shake its leaves.
It lives by drinking only dewdrops from under the leaves of plants. It is said that it eats nothing else.
Sunkern HeartGold & SoulSilver Guide
- Where in the HeartGold & SoulSilver Safari Zone can I find Sunkern?
See the Locations section above for where to find Sunkern in HeartGold & SoulSilver.
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.
Yes. Wild Sunkern in HeartGold & SoulSilver 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 HeartGold & SoulSilver, 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
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