Galarian Yamask Has Some Steps to its Evolution in 'Pokémon GO'

You can catch just about every Pokémon that can be found in the national PokéDex in Pokémon GO. Though certain Pokémon are rare to find most of the year, just about every coveted creature gets an opportunity for players to catch it in the popular mobile AR game.

Galarian Yamask is one of those Pokémon that, while not a Legendary or Mythical, is a bit hard to find most of the year. Now, players are catching it during the spooky season and hoping to evolve it while they can.

Galarian Yamask is a Gen VIII variant of the Gen V Pokémon Yamask. The Galarian form appeared in Pokémon Sword and Shield, later being added to Pokémon GO in 2020.

Besides the obvious differences in appearance, Galarian Yamask is a Ground- and Ghost-type Pokémon, while Yamask is traditionally just a Ghost-type. Their evolutions are also different: Yamask usually evolves into Cofagrigus, while Galarian Yamask evolves into Runerigus. These evolutions match their predecessors' type.

Yamask candies aren't the only thing you'll need to evolve Galarian Yamask, unfortunately, as this Pokémon has other requirements necessary to achieve its evolution.

Once you've captured a Galarian Yamask, you'll want to set it as your buddy. Not only will this bring you up to the required 50 Yamask candies needed for the evolution, but also set you up for the additional requirement. Before evolving Galarian Yamask into Runerigus, you'll need to also battle in 10 raids with it.

You do not have to win all 10 raids, but you do need to battle in them with the Galarian Yamask as your buddy. You can either complete this task in 10 days, spending your daily free raid pass, or you can get Premium Raid Passes and compete in more than one raid a day.

Once you've gotten the candies and completed the raids, you should be able to evolve the Galarian Yamask into Runerigus. Remember, this is a different Pokémon than Yamask traditionally evolve into, so you'll want to catch both forms.

Unfortunately, though Galarian Yamask was added to the game as part of the 2020 Halloween event, there is no guaranteed way to catch the Pokémon. It was previously offered as a guaranteed encounter, so long as you completed the research tasks associated with the 2020 Halloween event, but if you did not log onto the game during that time period, you won't have the guaranteed encounter.

During the 2022 Halloween event, Galarian Yamask will appear in some one-star raids, as well as in 7km eggs.

If you don't catch the Pokémon through either of these methods, you'll have to hope to encounter one in the wild. Galarian Yamask is more likely to appear in the wild during the 2022 Halloween event, so after that you may have a tough time finding the Pokémon. It may be best to watch the Pokémon GO social channels for updates on when it is appearing in abundance in the game again.