Getting Palafin in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet takes a bit more effort than usual, since the process of evolving Finizen involves going online, but if you can hop online or join a local session, it’s absolutely worth your time. Palafin is one of Scarlet and Violet’s most powerful Water types once you learn how to use them.

How to get Finizen in Scarlet and Violet

Finizen is a bit tricky to find. You have a random chance of encountering them in any of Paldea’s seas. Your Koraidon or Miraidon must recover their ability to swim by defeating the Bombirdier Titan Pokemon in West Province. You can do that around the time of your third Gym battle, but the spawn rates of Pokemon in the oceans seem a bit random.

Whether that’s down to some of Scarlet and Violet’s many glitches or something else isn’t quite certain, but you can find a guaranteed Finizen in one location: West Province Area Two. This broad area is also where you can find Girafarig, though naturally, you should be looking for Finizen in the rivers and ocean.

Once you find Finizen, if you don’t fancy searching for more, consider breeding one with a DItto to get a Finizen Egg.

How to evolve Finizen into Palafin

Unlike Dundunsparce, you don’t need to teach Finizen a specific move to help them evolve. Instead, you need:

• Finizen at level 38 or higher
• to be in the Union Circle with at least one other player
• to level Finizen up once while in the Union circle

The Union Circle is the golden circle at the end of any Pokemon Center where you can join other players and set off on an adventure. To evolve Finizen, you only need to stay in the circle with the other player long enough to level Finizen up once–with EXP candy, for example– and that’ll do the trick.

Can you catch Palafin in the wild?

If you’re very lucky, possibly. Palafin don’t show up in the wild, even in Area Zero, but you have a very small chance of finding one in a high-level Tera Raid. Otherwise, your only chance of adding a Palafin to your team is evolving Finizen.

Is Palafin good?

Palafin is an excellent Water type and the only Pokemon currently able to learn or remember Jet Punch, but their strength hinges on one key aspect: changing forms. Palafin changes into Hero Form after you swap them out for another Pokemon during battle, and Palafin remains in Hero Form until that battle ends. All their stats except HP get a substantial boost, with base attack in particular topping out at a staggering 160. Combine that with moves such as Jet Punch and Wave Crash, and you have a mighty friend in Palafin indeed.

The swap requirement does make setup a bit clunkier, though. You’ll want a Pokemon who knows Baton Swap or another switching move to make taking advantage of Hero Form easier.

If you’re looking for some more tips, check out our list of things we wish we knew before starting Scarlet and Violet so you don’t have to make the same mistakes we did. And to get another strong new Paldea Pokemon to your team, have a look at how to evolve Charcadet, whose final form changes depending on which version of Scarlet and Violet you’re playing.