Eevee evolution Pokemon GO guide: all 5 forms (for now) [UPDATE!]

This morning the expanded set of Eevee evolutions has been passed to us by an anonymous source familiar with the development of Pokemon GO. This source suggests that the first big update to Pokemon GO (with regards to Pokemon availability) will be the "Gen II" update, very likely set for early 2017. In this update, we can expect many of our favorite Pokemon Gen II monsters from the games, including two very important evolved forms of Eevee. What'll be interesting is how the user will be able to direct Eevee's evolution to one of these new forms. UPDATE: We've got the update and it's time – see below!

The first three forms of Eevee are relatively simple to direct. Each has a name associated with it, each name coming from the original Pokemon cartoon series – or Anime, if you prefer. Each name of the three Pokemon Gym leaders that possessed each of these three Eevee evolutions makes an evolution occur the way the user wishes.

• Jolteon = Sparky

• Vaporeon = Rainer

• Flareon = Pyro

• Espeon = 2017 (See Below)

• Umbreon = 2017 (See Below)

SEE TOO: Stay ahead of Pokemon GO cheaters

The user will want to change the name of the Eevee they wish to evolve into Sparky, Rainer, or Pyro BEFORE evolving. After changing the name, the user should do a full restart of the app. They'll want to close Pokemon GO, make sure it's no longer in their running apps list, and re-start the app. This way they can be sure the name has registered properly with Niantic's servers.

After a restart, the evolution of Eevee should produce the Pokemon the user has directed.

But what about Gen II?

In the second generation of the original Pokemon game series, two more evolutions of Eevee were revealed. The game became a bit more involved in this generation – users were able to affect their Pokemon's "Friendship Level" and give them a variety of Powders, Roots, and Herbs.

Because Pokemon GO has thus far appeared to super-simplify the gameplay of Pokemon games elsewhere, our source's suggestions about testing in Gen II with alternate means of directing evolutions seems likely.

One way in which Eevee will likely be affected when it comes to directing it toward one of two NEW evolution forms is in Pokemon Candy. While the original games have the user giving Eevee a wide variety of "Vitamins" to make it gain Friendship points, just Pokemon Candy might very well do the trick in Pokemon GO.

Eevee requires a Friendship level of 220 in the original Pokemon game series in Gen II to evolve into one of two new forms. Since that's not a factor (yet) in Pokemon GO, it would seem that Niantic would be better off using CP level – already integrated in to Pokemon GO even before Gen II is released.

From there – once a set of prerequisites is set, having to do with Pokemon Candy and/or CP level, Eevee can be evolved into...

Espeon

or

Umbreon

Espeon is associated with daytime, while Umbreon is associated with night. In the original game series, evolutions of Eevee between certain times of day resulted in either an Espeon or Umbreon.

It's likely Pokemon GO will seek the time of day according to the region the user is in – according to GPS coordinates.

• Day time runs from 4:00 AM – 5:59 PM.

• Night time runs from 6:00 PM – 3:59 AM.

At least, that's how it was in the original game series for this evolution. We'll have to wait until Q1 2017 to see if this ends up making it to the final build!

Update: It's time! All a user needs to do to evolve Eevee into Espeon or Umbreon is name them Sakura or Tamao!

Have a peek at SlashGear's @TeamPokemonGO Twitter portal for more Pokemon GO updates, tips, and oddities!

Some imagery above is Designed by Freepik and distributed by Flaticon