Bagon’s Evolution Line Needs 25% More XP Than Normal to Hit Level 100 — Here’s What Those 20 Grindy Shelgon Levels Buy You

Bulbapedia’s own flavor text for Bagon is blunt about what this Pokemon wants: it has “a dream of one day soaring in the sky,” and “in doomed efforts to fly, this Pokemon hurls itself off cliffs” long before it’s anywhere close to able to [1]. That dream takes exactly 50 levels to come true, and the 20-level stretch in the middle isn’t just a wait — it’s baked into the mechanics. Bagon’s whole line runs on the Slow growth rate, which needs 1,250,000 experience points to hit level 100, a full 25% more than a Medium Fast Pokemon needs for the same climb [10]. That’s the actual reason the grind feels long, and it’s the detail almost every other Bagon guide skips in favor of just listing two evolution levels and moving on.

This guide covers those levels, the mechanism behind the slow climb, a plan for getting through it based on what kind of player you are, and an honest look at what Salamence is actually worth once it shows up.

The Bagon Line at a Glance

All three stages keep the same Dragon typing until the very last step, when Salamence adds Flying. Here’s the full stat progression:

If your game supports Mega Evolution and you’ve got a Salamencite, Mega Salamence pushes that to 700 BST (145 Attack, 130 Defense, 120 Sp. Atk, 120 Speed) and swaps in Aerilate, which turns its Normal-type moves into boosted Flying-type ones [3][6].

Why Shelgon Is a 20-Level Grind, Not Just a Level Gap

Two things stack on top of each other during levels 30 to 49, and most guides only mention one of them. The first is the growth rate: Slow-group Pokemon need 1,250,000 XP to reach level 100, versus 1,000,000 for a Medium Fast Pokemon and 1,059,860 for Medium Slow [10]. Shelgon isn’t just spending 20 levels as a mid-evolution — it’s spending them on the least XP-efficient growth curve in the game, the same curve most Legendary Pokemon use.

The second is what those levels actually buy in stats, and it’s lopsided. Bagon’s 300 BST becomes Shelgon’s 420 (+120), but almost all of that gain goes into Attack and Defense — Speed doesn’t move at all, staying at 50 through both Bagon and Shelgon. Bulbapedia’s Shelgon entry explains why in-universe: “this Pokemon’s shell is extremely heavy, making its movements sluggish” [2]. That’s not flavor text for its own sake — it maps directly onto a 100 Defense / 50 Speed Pokemon that can tank hits but can’t reliably move first. Salamence doesn’t fix that gradually; it fixes it all at once, jumping Speed from 50 to 100 and Attack from 95 to 135 in a single evolution.

Get Through Levels 30–49 Faster: A Plan for Every Player Type

How you should handle the Shelgon stretch depends heavily on what you’re actually optimizing for — grinding it out and skipping it aren’t the same advice for everyone.

Should You Actually Battle With Shelgon? A Quick Decision Tree

Which hidden ability you rolled changes whether Shelgon is worth using in fights during this stretch, not just how you level it.

If your Shelgon has Rock Head: it can safely run Double-Edge or Outrage without eating recoil damage, giving it real offensive output despite the low Speed — lean into it as an active fighter.

If your Shelgon has Overcoat: that ability only matters against weather damage and powder moves, neither of which its levels 30–49 movepool interacts with offensively. Bench it and level it through Exp. Share instead of active battling — it gets zero upside from Overcoat until you’re building an actual weather team around Salamence later.

Already evolved before checking which ability you got? Don’t worry — both variants share the exact same stat line, so this only changes how you fight with Shelgon, not how fast it levels.

Shelgon’s Best In-Game Moveset (Levels 30–49)

Shelgon’s level-up learnset in the current generation gives it real coverage options right in this window, not just filler [7]:

• Level 25 — Crunch: carried over from just before evolution, still its best same-type physical option early in the stretch.
• Level 33 — Dragon Claw: its first reliable Dragon-type STAB move, and the one to lead with once available.
• Level 39 — Zen Headbutt: Psychic coverage that catches Fighting-types trying to exploit Shelgon’s typing.
• Level 46 — Focus Energy: a setup move worth swapping in right before a scripted boss fight, not for general battling.

A practical levels 30–49 set: Dragon Claw, Crunch, Zen Headbutt, and either Scary Face for utility or Focus Energy swapped in just before a gym leader or raid boss.

Where to Catch Bagon in 2026

What Salamence Actually Gives You

The payoff isn’t gradual — it’s a single jump that fixes almost everything Shelgon couldn’t do. Attack climbs from 95 to 135, Speed doubles from 50 to 100, and Salamence adds a Flying secondary typing on top of Dragon, changing its resistances and giving it access to Flying-type coverage moves Shelgon never had [3]. Its standard ability, Intimidate, drops the Attack of whatever switches in against it — useful the instant it evolves, no setup required. Moxie, its hidden ability, stacks an Attack boost every time it scores a knockout, which rewards an aggressive, sweep-oriented playstyle instead of a defensive one.

Is Salamence Still Good? Its Real Competitive Standing

In the Pokemon Legends: Z-A OU metagame, Salamence currently sits at Tier E with 1.71% usage and a 48.79% win rate, based on 63,855 games tracked between March 14 and April 9, 2026 [9]. That’s a middling snapshot, not a strong one — low usage in a format this size usually means other Dragon-types or faster setup sweepers are simply picked more often, not that Salamence is unplayable. Dragon Dance is its most-used move by a wide margin (16.4% of battles), while Outrage posts the best per-move win rate at 54.2% among its common sets. Its most frequent teammates are Excadrill, Garchomp, and Zeraora, and its single strongest recorded pairing is with Golisopod at a 59.2% win rate [9].

Pokemon Champions built its own tier list before any of those Legends: Z-A numbers existed, and it changes the calculation differently: that game replaces EVs and IVs entirely with a flat 66-point Stat Point pool capped at 32 per stat [11], so Shelgon’s grind-heavy bulk stops being something you farm for and becomes something you just assign directly. If you’re deciding whether Salamence is worth building around there, check our Pokemon Champions tier list and how the SP system changes stat investment before you commit Stat Points to it.

How Salamence Stacks Up Against the Other Pseudo-Legendaries

Salamence is one of eleven Pokemon that qualify as pseudo-legendary by the community’s own three-part definition, and its 135 Attack with Intimidate is a genuinely strong offensive profile on paper — but current competitive usage has drifted toward other picks on that list, and its Mega form specifically has fallen out of favor compared to when it debuted. See exactly where its 20-level Shelgon grind and current usage rank against the rest of the field in our full ranking of all 11 pseudo-legendary Pokemon.

FAQ

Can you skip Shelgon and go straight from Bagon to Salamence?

No. There’s no evolution stone, trade trigger, or event that skips the middle stage — every legitimate route, breeding included, still routes a fresh Bagon through 20 levels as Shelgon before it can become Salamence. Pokemon evolution chains run strictly in order; nothing about this specific line is an exception.

Is Bagon or Shelgon worth using in early-game battles, or should I bench it?

Bagon is fine to use early — 75 base Attack is respectable at that stage. Shelgon is the one worth benching unless it rolled Rock Head, because its 50 Speed means it’s regularly taking a hit before it can act, and without Rock Head it can’t safely run its hardest-hitting recoil moves either.

Does Mega Salamence make it worth prioritizing over the other pseudo-legendaries?

Only for a specific role, not as a universal pick. Aerilate is a genuinely strong ability — it turns Normal-type moves into boosted Flying-type STAB — but 700 BST alone doesn’t beat Mega Garchomp’s two available Mega forms or Mega Tyranitar’s weather-anchored team support. Mega Salamence wins the argument specifically if you want a fast, hard-hitting Flying-type answer; it doesn’t win it as a default “best Mega” choice.

Why does Shelgon learn Flamethrower at level 53 if it evolves at level 50?

Because that move is listed on Shelgon’s learnset for players who deliberately delay evolution [7] — it’s technically reachable, but almost nobody does this, since a level-53 Salamence already outclasses a stalled level-53 Shelgon in every stat except pure Defense.

Key Takeaways

Bagon evolves into Shelgon at level 30 and into Salamence at level 50, and the reason that stretch feels slower than other Pokemon isn’t just the 20-level gap — it’s the Slow growth rate underneath it, needing 25% more total XP than a Medium Fast line for the same climb. Rock Head Shelgon can fight through it; Overcoat Shelgon is better off riding the bench until it evolves. Once it does, Salamence’s jump in Attack and Speed happens all at once, and its current competitive standing in Legends: Z-A OU is middling rather than dominant — worth building if you want an Intimidate-backed Dragon Dance sweeper, not an automatic team slot.

Sources

• Bulbapedia — Bagon
• Bulbapedia — Shelgon
• Bulbapedia — Salamence
• Pokemon Database — Bagon
• Pokemon Database — Shelgon
• Pokemon Database — Salamence
• Pokemon Database — Shelgon Moves (Gen 9)
• Game8 — Bagon Evolution, Learnset, and How to Get
• Showdowntier — Salamence Legends: Z-A OU Analysis
• Bulbapedia — Experience
• Game8 — Pokemon Champions Stat Points

Verified against Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl as of July 2026. Legends: Z-A OU usage stats cover March 14–April 9, 2026 — check Smogon or Showdowntier’s live stats if you’re reading this more than a few months later, since usage shifts with every balance patch.

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.