Pokemon Go How To Get Sinnoh Stone

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Feb 16, 2019, 07:35am EST |

'Pokémon GO': How To Get 5 Guaranteed Sinnoh Stones And Evolve Mammoswine This Community Day

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Credit: Bulbapedia/The Pokemon Company

Ever since November I've been questing after Sinnoh Stones. The new-ish items in Pokémon GO are the key unlocking the untapped potential of your Pokémon, as well as Niantic's grindy item of choice for the past few months. Gen 4 is full of evolutions of Pokémon from previous generations, and Sinnoh stones are how Niantic kept long-time players from evolving as soon as those evolutions were made available. They're required for all of those particular Gen 4 evolutions, and they only come from 3 places: trainer battles, gym leader training and Field Research 7-day rewards. The drop rate has been low enough to make them pretty annoying, too. I train with my gym leader and do three trainer battles every day, and I only recently got enough to evolve all of the currently available creatures. That grinding is looking a little futile right now, because the game is giving away a bunch of Sinnoh Stones this Community Day.

February Community Day features Swinub, an admittedly unremarkable pig sort of thing that evolves first into Piloswine and then into Mammoswine. Mammoswine is one of those special cases: a Gen 4 Pokémon that evolves from a previous-generation Pokémon. It's only going to be available during Community Day, and it will require a Sinnoh Stone to evolve. But don't worry! Niantic is making it rain with Sinnoh Stones, so here's how to get them.

First off, it's more complicated than it seems. To start with, let's get you your 5 guaranteed stones. You can get those from training with a gym leader seemingly any time on the calendar day that is Community Day in your region. It turned on at 12:00 AM on February 16 in the Americas, and I can confirm that I got 5 stones from 5 training sessions.

In addition to that, you are eligible for five rewards from trainer battles on both February 16 and 17, rather than the usual 3. Rewards for that are still random, however, so you won't necessarily get a stone even if you get more chances to roll the dice. Niantic clarified a somewhat convoluted system in a tweet:

Allow us to clarify further. On February 16 and 17, Trainer Battle rewards will increase from 3 to 5 on both days. During your region's Community Day, you will be guaranteed 5 Sinnoh Stones. See the in-app notification for the date and time of your region's bonuses. ^KM

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) January 23, 2019

If you don't have anyone you regularly battle with, Community Day is a great time to start. People are sure to be roaming around looking for Sinnoh Stones, and most people are pretty friendly if you offer to battle. Raids are always a good place to find people, but consider heading to social media to see if there are any meetups happening in your area.

Regardless, you only need 1 Sinnoh Stone to get your Mammoswine, or maybe two if you want one regular and one shiny. If you're still trying to fill out the rest of your Pokédex, however, be sure to load up.