How to evolve Woobat into Swoobat in Pokemon GO (February 2023)

There is no better way for Pokemon GO trainers to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a Spotlight Hour. Fittingly, players will have the chance to add the heart-decorated Bat Pokemon, Woobat, to their collection during the occasion.

Though much less loved than its Kanto counterpart, Zubat, Woobat still gets its share of love from the community. Since many Pokemon fans started in the fifth generation of the franchise, where Woobat debuted, they may have fond memories of the Woobat on their team or remember Jessie's Woobat from the anime.

Since Woobat is one of the many creatures that can evolve, many players may want to know an easy way to do it. No matter how players acquainted themselves with the creature, getting one to evolve in Pokemon GO may not be as cut-and-dry as many players may initially think.

So, how can players expect to evolve the Woobat they captured from the Spotlight Hour event just hours away?

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Everything to know about Woobat and Swoobat in Pokemon GO

Woobat as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The first step towards evolving Woobat into Swoobat in Pokemon GO is to collect the required candies. Every creature in Pokemon GO requires candies in order to evolve, and Woobat is no different. While there is an additional requirement that needs to be met, the candies will take the longest to collect.

Players will need to collect a grand total of 50 Woobat candies if they want to evolve just one Woobat into Swoobat. This can take a long time to grind since the bonus for this Spotlight Hour event doubles the catch Stardust rather than the candy. However, since Woobat will still spawn in such high amounts, players should have no problem collecting 50 candies in the provided hour.

The next step towards evolving a Woobat in Pokemon GO revolves around the Buddy feature. Players will need to walk at least one kilometer with Woobat registered as their Buddy Pokemon in order to fulfill the friendship requirements needed to evolve it. Since most trainers will be out for the Spotlight Hour anyway, this step can be easily fulfilled without much effort.

Once players have the candies and the friendship to evolve their Woobat, they are free to do so from the creature's status screen. However, why would someone willingly go out of their way to evolve a Woobat into Swoobat? Does this pick have any viability in competitive PvP or Raid Battles?

Unfortunately, Swoobat is a terrible battler in terms of viability, but whoever is brave enough to give it a serious chance is more than encouraged to do so. Swoobat's lack of offensive presence, paired with its low maximum combat power cap, leaves much to be desired, especially in Great League, where Steel-types run rampant.

Overall, Swoobat seems to be nothing more than a creature that players should catch to fill the Pokedex. Even then, trainers will still need to unassign their current Buddy Pokemon and spend valuable time fulfilling Woobat's friendship requirements in order to fill a page. It may be better to just wait until Swoobat is available through raids.