How to Evolve Starly

Starly evolves into Staravia simply by reaching level 14 through battle experience, Rare Candies, or EXP Candies. To complete the line, Staravia evolves into Staraptor at level 34. No evolutionary stones, specific times of day, or friendship thresholds are required.

The Starly family follows a straightforward, level-based progression system. You do not need to hunt down specific held items or manage friendship stats to reach its final form.

• Target: Staravia
• Method: Level up
• Requirement: Level 14

• Target: Staraptor
• Method: Level up
• Requirement: Level 34

While Staraptor is absent from serious competitive Smogon tiers in the current generation, it remains an exceptional choice for story playthroughs. Its access to the Intimidate ability and high base Attack make it a reliable early-game physical sweeper that easily punches holes through NPC teams.

In the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A, evolution mechanics follow the standard set by previous Legends titles. Reaching the required level will not force an automatic evolution screen after a battle.

You must actively trigger the transformation once Starly is ready. Follow these steps to evolve your Pokémon in Lumiose City:

1. Raise Starly to level 14 using battles or EXP Candies.
2. Open your satchel and navigate to your party menu.
3. Select the glowing Poké Ball icon next to Starly's name.
4. Press the designated button to confirm the evolution into Staravia.

Repeat this exact manual process when Staravia reaches level 34 to obtain Staraptor.

In the Paldea region, the evolution process returns to the traditional automatic trigger. However, the open-world mechanics introduce a new caveat regarding how experience is gained.

Here is the most efficient way to evolve Starly in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:

1. Keep Starly in your active party to gain passive experience via the Exp. Share mechanic.
2. Engage in standard turn-based battles against wild Pokémon or Trainers.
3. Alternatively, feed Starly EXP Candies or a Rare Candy from your bag to hit level 14.
4. Allow the automatic evolution animation to play out.

Pokémon GO relies entirely on resource gathering rather than battle experience. You will need to catch multiple Starly to accumulate enough candy for the full evolution line.

Evolving Starly into Staravia costs exactly 25 Starly Candy. Taking Staravia to Staraptor requires an additional 100 Starly Candy. Use Pinap Berries during every Starly encounter to double your candy yield and speed up this grind.

If your Starly has passed level 14 but remains in its base form, a specific game mechanic is blocking the process. Here are the most common issues and how to fix them.

• The Let's Go Mechanic: In Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon leveling up via auto-battles (the Let's Go feature) will not evolve. Fix this by leveling up once in a standard manual battle or by using a Rare Candy.
• Holding an Everstone: If Starly is holding an Everstone, it is programmed to never evolve. Remove the item from the summary screen and level it up again.
• Fainting Mid-Battle: If Starly faints during the battle where it reaches level 14, the evolution sequence is skipped. Revive it and gain one more level.