How To Evolve Gastly Into Haunter And Gengar In Pokémon Scarlet And Violet

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Gastly has been the staple Ghost-type Pokémon for several generations of the game. Since its iconic debut in Generation 1, it’s making a reappearance in the latest iteration of Pokémon, Scarlet and Violet. The purplish Pokémon has an incredible Speed stat which makes him a solid contender for your Pokémon Kit. However, if you want to amp it up even more, you can go for Gastly’s evolved forms: Haunter and Genger. 

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Both Haunter and Genger have a unique Poison-Ghost dual typing which makes them great offensive Pokémons in battle. That said, the method to evolving Gastly and its evolution Haunter has remained the same across all generations. If you’re not familiar with it already, don’t worry! This guide will take you through everything you need to do to evolve Gastly. 

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How Can You Evolve Gastly Into Haunter And Gengar

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Obviously, we can’t do any of the above until we find a Gastly, so here’s how you can catch yourself a Gastly in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:

How To Get Gastly 

Gastly has a lot of spawn habitats in the Paldea region. However, the Pokémon only shows up at night, fitting its spooky theme of giving children nightmares. Nevertheless, you can easily find Gastly in any of the following locations:

  • Asado Desert
  • West Province (One)
  • South Province (Area One)
  • South Province (Area Two)
  • South Province (Area Three)
  • South Province (Area Four)
  • South Province (Area Five)
  • Upper South Province (Area Six)
  • East Province (Area One)
  • East Province (Area Two)
  • East Province (Area Three)
  • Zapapico

Lower-level Gastly can be found around the South Province, while higher leveled Gastly is usually spawned in the West and East Province locations of Paldea. 

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How To Evolve Gastly Into Haunter

As mentioned before, you need to level your Gastly up to Level 25 to evolve it into its first stage evolution, Haunter. Evolving it should be even easier if you try to find a high-leveled Gastly, as you won’t have to spend as much time training it. Otherwise, you might need to put in some grind.

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Alternatively, if you’re not looking to put in all the grind to evolve your Gastly, you can also catch a Haunter directly. 

How To Catch Haunter

Haunter, like its pre-evolved form, also only shows up at night. However, its habitats lie around the Northern part of the Paldea map instead: 

  • Zapapico
  • Tagtree Thicket
  • Northern Province (Area One)
  • Northern Province (Area Two)
  • East of West Province (Area Three)

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How To Evolve Haunter Into Gengar

Acquiring Gengar can be a bit tricky since it requires a coordinated trade. Otherwise, you’d have to be pretty lucky to get it in a random trade. 

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So the most reliable way to evolve Haunter into Gengar is to set up a Link Trade with any of your friends. Players should remember that they’ll be trading whatever Haunter they’ve acquired if they want to evolve it into Gengar, so try not to use any expensive items or spend too much effort on the Gastly or Haunter you’ve caught if you’re aim is to evolve them into Gengar. 

How To Catch Gengar Without Evolving Haunter

Gengar also appears as a Tera Raid boss, but you’d have to be a bit lucky for that to happen. If you do manage to run into a Tera Raid boss Gengar, you can group with a bunch of friends and take it down for a chance to catch it!

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Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar Stats In Battle

While Gastly has rather poor base stats, its evolutions fare much better and can certainly perform well in battle. We’ve listed the stats of Gastly and its successors so you can judge for yourself if they’re worth putting in the grind: 

Base Stats GastlyHaunterGengar
HP 304560
Attack355065
Defense304560
Sp. Attack100115130
Sp. Defense355575
Speed8095110
Total310405500

As you can see, Gengar has an astonishingly high Sp. Attack attribute, easily rivaling legendary Pokémon in this stat. It also has a respectable Speed stat to go with it, meaning it can dish out high damage before its opponent even gets the chance to have a turn.

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Final Thoughts

Gengar is an incredibly strong attacker. Its typing gives it immunity to Normal and Fighting moves while also providing it with a bunch of useful resistances. These strengths can make it fit easily into any Pokemon team as a strong Special Attacker, so it’s probably worth going through the effort of evolving your Gastly. Looking for more helpful Pokemon Scarlet and Violet guides? You should take a look at our guides tab! 

About the Author

Si Yan

Si Yan is an editor on Videogamer.com, researching interesting topics, working with a team for content creation and then editing onto site. Game wise Si Yan loves Pokémon and Super Mario.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

  • Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
  • Genre(s): RPG
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