Evolution

Info

Evolution families
An evolution family is a group of Pokémon who will all, if bred with Mimadge, Badgeange, or a Pokémon in the same Egg Group, make a Pokémon Egg that will hatch into the same Pokémon, excluding baby Pokémon. This also means that the most basic form has the potential to become any of the rest of the family, although it will ultimately be able to follow only one evolutionary path.

Stages of evolution
Pokémon can be divided into different evolutionary stages, based on where they appear in their evolution family. All Pokémon fall into one of four groups: baby Pokémon, unevolved Pokémon, first-evolution Pokémon, and second-evolution Pokémon.

Due to the fact that no evolution family contains both a baby Pokémon and a second-evolution Pokémon, many regard baby Pokémon as the most basic form, while moving their evolved counterparts one level higher.

One-evolution families
By far the most common type of evolution family, these families are based in a Pokémon that will only ever evolve once in its development. About one third of all Pokémon that would later get a baby form were part of this kind of evolution family before their baby form was revealed. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

Two-evolution families
Perhaps the most well-known types of evolution families are those that feature two separate evolutionary events in the Pokémon's development. Indeed, this type of evolution family is what all of the starter Pokémon in the core series, and ReallyDarkandWindie's canon, are a part of, as well as all pseudo-legendary Pokémon. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

Pokémon that do not evolve
The least common type of evolution family is that in which no evolutionary event takes place, meaning that it is made up of only one member. Many of the Pokémon that have no evolutionary relatives are and Mythical Pokémon. However, there are still 137 other Pokémon that do not evolve.

Not belonging to an evolutionary family is not indicative of strength, or a lack thereof. Some Pokémon, such as Herculift and Cryena, are comparable to fully evolved Pokémon while others, like Spiroll and Chroblob, are more comparable to unevolved Pokémon. Often this indicates a Pokémon's possibility to be eligible for future new evolutions or pre-evolutions.

Branch evolution families
Several families, while also one- and two-evolution families, are also branch evolution families. What this means is that there is a split in the evolutionary line at some point so that even though two Pokémon of the same species evolve the same amount of times, they can become one of two or more entirely different creatures. Fuzzie is the best-known example of this, evolving eighteen different ways depending on the method used. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

Advantages
A major difference between the final forms of an evolution family with a branch in evolution is in the way that their base stats line up.