Key Takeaway
You can only evolve your Tangela after it learns Ancient Power. Then, you need to equip Ancient Power to one of Tangela’s move slots before it can evolve into Tangrowth.
Pokémon that need certain moves to change form can be a bit tricky to understand. Sometimes, you need to use a specific move multiple times. However, to evolve Tangela, it just needs to learn one.
Table Of Contents
What Move You Need to Evolve Tangela
In Pokémon Legends: Arceus (and past games), the move you need to evolve Tangela is Ancient Power. However, there’s more to it than simply leveling Tangela up until it learns Ancient Power.
After Tangela learns Ancient Power, you’ll need to equip this move to one of Tangela’s four move slots. Following this, you’ll immediately be able to evolve Tangela into Tangrowth.
Tangela learns Ancient Power at level 34. Sadly, you cannot use the move tutor to teach Ancient Power to Tangela early. As such, you’ll have to train Tangela until it reaches the right level before you can teach it Ancient Power.
Tips to Level Up and Evolve Tangela
The quickest—albeit most expensive—way to level up Tangela is to feed it a bunch of Exp. Candy. The bigger the Candy, the better, as the larger ones will give you much more experience points. You can buy Exp. Candy from Bonn in Jubilife Village. He hangs out near the front entrance to Galaxy Hall.
If you’d rather train Tangela the old-fashioned way, you should keep it in your party while you defeat foes that give you a lot of experience points. Firstly, the Alpha Chansey in the Cobalt Coastlands can be a great target for experience farming. This Pokémon is found on the most southeastern island—near the Coastlands Camp.
Furthermore, you can find a few wild Blissey as you explore the Alabaster Icelands. These evolutions of Chansey will also give you lots of experience points. Just be quick, as they can potentially run away.
Reasons to Use Tangrowth on Your Team
Tangrowth can be a valuable ally for multiple reasons. Firstly, its got fairly well-balanced stats. Furthermore, being a mono-Grass-type, it has the same type matchups as the many other mono-Grass-type Pokémon out there. This makes Tangrowth pretty intuitive to use on your team.
Tangrowth’s Stats
A high Defense stat is Tangrowth’s most notable trait. Its next highest stat is its Special Attack, which allows it to hit foes with quite a lot of force. Next, Tangrowth’s highest stats are its HP and Attack.
All four of the aforementioned stats are high enough to make Tangrowth a well-rounded Pokémon. However, its remaining stats (Special Defense and Speed) are very low. This results in Tangrowth being unable to tank many special attacks and also means it won’t move first against most foes.
Thankfully, the high HP stat compensates a bit for the poor Special Defense. With that said, you’ll still want to avoid using Tangrowth against a foe with a high Special Attack.
The Best Moves for Tangrowth in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
The four best moves that Tangrowth can learn through leveling up are Ancient Power (learned at 34 prior to evolving), Energy Ball (learned at level 25), Sleep Powder (learned at level 43), and Sludge Bomb (learned at level 52).
Ironically, out of these four, Ancient Power is the least viable. It gives Tangrowth some Rock-type coverage, however, its special effect (which raises the user’s offensive and defensive stats) only has a 20% chance to activate. Even when used in Strong Style, this chance only goes up to 40%, which alone does not make Ancient Power worth using. Especially since this move’s base power is only 60.
Sleep Powder, although only semi-viable in combat, is great for helping you catch wild Pokémon. This is due to the sleep status condition making afflicted targets about twice as easy to catch.
In regards to moves learned via the move tutor, Tangrowth doesn’t have very many great options. With that said, here are some of the best ones:
- Rest [Psychic-type] (status move)
- Rock Slide [Rock-type] (75 base power)
- Giga Impact [Normal-type] (120 base power)
- Hyper Beam [Normal-type] (120 base power)
Tips for Giving Tangrowth the Best Moveset
Since Tangrowth’s Special Attack and Attack stats are similarly high, you can sensibly give this Grass-type both special and physical attacks. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to give Tangrowth both Attack and Special Attack effort values if you want to keep the damage output balanced.
With that said, a solid moveset for this Pokémon will include Sleep Power (or Rest) and three damage-dealing moves. One of the offensive moves should be Energy Ball, as that is Tangrowth’s best STAB (same type attack bonus) move. Next, you’ll likely want to give Tangrowth Sludge Bomb, as this will help it deal with opposing Grass-types as well as some other kinds of foes.
Lastly, the final move you’ll want to equip should be a Rock or Normal-type one. Rock-type moves will be handy when dealing with foes that are dangerous to Tangrowth, as four out of the five types that can threaten this hulk of grassy vines are weak to Rock-type moves. However, if you want to forgo coverage, you can teach Tangrowth Giga Impact or Hyper Beam if you just want to hit foes as hard as possible.
