Every other evolution guide in this series exists because something got in the way. Magneton and Nosepass only evolve standing inside a location flagged internally as a “special magnetic field.”[1] Buneary needs a friendship stat you can’t see. A dozen others need the right stone, the right trade partner, or a held item nobody remembers to check for. Elgyem breaks that pattern entirely — it evolves into Beheeyem at exactly level 42, level-up only, with nothing else attached.[1][3]
That simplicity is exactly why most guides for this line are thin: there’s no gotcha to write 1,500 words explaining. What’s actually worth covering is everything the “level 42” answer skips past — the stat jump, whether evolving right at 42 costs you a move, where you can even find one in 2026, and the UFO-crash Pokedex lore that gave this line one of the more specific real-world inspirations in the franchise.
Quick Start: Evolve Elgyem Into Beheeyem Right Now
- Get Elgyem to level 42. That’s the entire requirement — no item, no trade, no time-of-day check, no hidden friendship threshold.[1][3]
- Don’t hold an Everstone. It’s the only thing that can block a level-up evolution, and it works by simply preventing the evolution prompt from firing.
- Playing Sword or Shield? This is your best shot at catching one outright — Elgyem still spawns at Bridge Field and Motostoke Riverbank, plus Max Raid Battles.[1]
- Playing Scarlet, Violet, or Legends: Z-A? Stop looking for a location. Elgyem isn’t in either game’s Pokedex, and it isn’t on Pokemon HOME’s transfer-only compatibility list either — see the availability section below before you burn time searching.[1][7][8]
- Want to hit 42 fast? Exp. Candy or Rare Candy skip the grind entirely; Elgyem is a low-BST early-to-mid-game Pokemon, so 42 comes quickly once you’re past the game’s midpoint.
- Worried evolving at 42 costs you a move? It doesn’t — the exact math is below, and it’s more interesting than a flat “no.”
Why Elgyem Is the Contrast Case in This Series
Most of the odd evolutions covered on this site exist because Game Freak buried a condition inside the mechanic. Magneton and Nosepass have to be standing in one of a handful of magnetic-field zones per game, a location-only trigger so specific it makes the evolution flatly impossible in games that don’t have a matching zone.[1] Elgyem has none of that baggage. It’s the single most conventional evolution method in the games: reach level 42, the game checks nothing else, and Beheeyem replaces Elgyem in your party immediately.[1][3]
I cross-checked the level-42 requirement against two independently fetched sources — Bulbapedia and Pokemon Database — specifically because evolution-level guides for older, less-played Pokemon get this wrong more often than you’d expect when a source pulls from an outdated generation’s data. Both agree on 42, with no generation-specific exceptions recorded for this particular line.[1][3]
The Stat Jump From Elgyem to Beheeyem
| Stat | Elgyem | Beheeyem | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 55 | 75 | +20 |
| Attack | 55 | 75 | +20 |
| Defense | 55 | 75 | +20 |
| Sp. Atk | 85 | 125 | +40 |
| Sp. Def | 55 | 95 | +40 |
| Speed | 30 | 40 | +10 |
| Total (BST) | 335 | 485 | +150 |
The 150-point jump isn’t spread evenly. Sp. Atk and Sp. Def each gain 40 — double what HP, Attack, and Defense pick up, and four times what Speed gets.[3][4] Beheeyem comes out the other side as a slow special attacker with real bulk on the special side specifically, not a generalist stat spread. Speed staying at a modest 40 matters more than it looks: paired with Telepathy or Synchronize and a kit that includes Calm Mind and Recover, Beheeyem’s stat distribution reads as built for outlasting a fight rather than winning a speed race — the kind of profile that leans into slow, defensive formats rather than fast offense.[4][6]
Should You Evolve at 42, or Wait?
Wait for a level or two and Beheeyem picks up Calm Mind at level 52 — a stat-boosting move worth having before you commit to a build. But the more specific question people actually ask about this line is narrower: does evolving right at 42 make you miss a move Elgyem would have learned?
Checked directly against Sword & Shield’s move data for both species: as Elgyem, the next scheduled move after Zen Headbutt at level 36 is Recover at level 43.[5] Evolve at exactly level 42 and you become Beheeyem one level before that trigger — so you never learn Recover as Elgyem. But Beheeyem’s own moveset doesn’t drop Recover entirely; it’s just rescheduled to level 45 on the new species’ table.[6] The move isn’t lost, it’s delayed by two levels. If you want Recover the moment it’s available, hold off evolving until 43 and let Elgyem learn it first; if you evolve at 42 like the game intends, you’ll have it by 45 regardless. Either path ends in the same place — this is a two-level scheduling quirk, not a permanent trade-off, and it’s worth knowing before you assume delaying evolution is “safer.”
The Roswell Incident Hiding in Elgyem’s Design
Elgyem’s own Pokedex entry states plainly that “rumors of its origin are linked to a UFO crash site in the desert 50 years ago” — in-game text, not fan speculation.[1] The name itself confirms the reference is deliberate: Elgyem derives from “LGM,” the classic UFO-conspiracy shorthand for “little green man,” while Beheeyem comes from “BEM,” or “bug-eyed monster” — another stock term from mid-20th-century alien iconography.[1][2] The French localization makes the specific incident even more explicit: Elgyem’s French name, Lewsor, is “Roswell” spelled backward, and Beheeyem’s French name, Neitram, reverses “martien” — French for Martian.[2]
Beyond the confirmed name etymology, Bulbapedia’s design-analysis notes connect several visual details to broader UFO folklore — treat these as corroborated fan analysis rather than a developer-confirmed statement, since no direct Game Freak commentary on the line surfaced in research for this guide. Beheeyem’s trenchcoat-and-hat silhouette echoes the “Men in Black” government-agent archetype associated with UFO cover-up stories, and both Pokemon’s colored, glowing fingertips are linked to the red-green-blue lighting used by the Martian tripods in the 1953 film adaptation of The War of the Worlds.[2] Their finger-flash communication method mirrors the light-based “conversation” scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[2] None of that is confirmed by an official developer statement, but the Pokedex text and the reversed-name localization alone are enough to call this one of the more specifically sourced real-world references in the Pokedex, not a loose “aliens are spooky” theme.
Where to Actually Get One in 2026
This is the part most level-up guides skip, and it’s more restrictive than you’d expect for a Pokemon this unremarkable. Elgyem’s last catchable appearance was Sword & Shield — Bridge Field, Motostoke Riverbank, and Max Raid Battles.[1] It never appeared in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl or Legends: Arceus, and it’s absent from Scarlet & Violet’s Paldea Pokedex entirely.[1]
The more surprising gap is that it’s not a simple “catch it in an older game and transfer it forward” situation, either. Elgyem and Beheeyem don’t appear anywhere on Serebii’s Scarlet & Violet transfer-only compatibility list — the roster of older Pokemon that skip the regional dex but can still be moved in through Pokemon HOME.[7] Cross-checking against a full Legends: Z-A Pokemon list confirms the same absence there.[8] Compare that to a Kalos-region Pokemon like the ones covered in our Mega Aegislash Legends Z-A breakdown — native Kalos Pokemon got a home in Z-A’s Lumiose setting; a Unova import like Elgyem currently has not. If your only copy is sitting in a Sword or Shield save file, that save is currently your one way to own this line at all — there’s no confirmed path onto Gen 9 hardware as of this writing.
Pick Your Path: Player-Type Table
| Player Type | What to Do |
|---|---|
| New player | Just level up normally through Sword/Shield’s story. You’ll clear 42 naturally before the midgame ends — no candy, no detour required. |
| Casual player | Use any spare Exp. Candy the moment you catch an Elgyem. There’s no reason to hand-grind wild battles for a Pokemon with this low a BST. |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Decide on your move timing before you evolve — hold at level 42 with an Everstone if you specifically want Recover as Elgyem first, or evolve immediately and pick it up two levels later as Beheeyem. Either way, plan around Calm Mind unlocking at 52. |
| Completionist / Living Dex | Prioritize catching Elgyem now if you still have access to Sword or Shield. With no current path onto Scarlet/Violet or Legends: Z-A, an older save file is the only route to a Living Dex entry for this line at the moment. |
How Beheeyem Stacks Up Against the Rest of the Cast
A 485 BST puts Beheeyem well below anything resembling elite — for scale, the games’ pseudo-legendary Pokemon all sit at 600 or higher, more than 100 points clear of Beheeyem’s total.[4] That’s not a knock on the line; it’s context. Beheeyem was never designed as a build-around powerhouse. Its 125 Sp. Atk and access to Calm Mind and Recover point toward a slower, defensively-minded support role rather than a sweeper, which tracks with how the rest of its kit is distributed.[4][6]
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there any way to speed up Elgyem’s evolution besides leveling normally?
Rare Candy and Exp. Candy XL are the only shortcuts — both jump a Pokemon straight to a target level without requiring battles. There’s no stone or trade alternative for this line the way there is for Magneton and Nosepass, so “level it up faster” is genuinely the only lever available.[1]
Why does a Unova Pokemon from 2010 still have no path into the current games?
Game Freak’s regional Pokedex model since Sword & Shield trims each new game down to a curated roster rather than including every existing species, and Elgyem simply hasn’t been added back in through a DLC pass or a HOME compatibility update the way some other older Pokemon eventually were.[1][7] It’s not a bug or an oversight being fixed later that we know of — it’s a design choice that happens to leave this specific line out for now.
Does holding an Everstone actually stop the level-42 trigger, or just delay it?
It fully blocks the evolution prompt from appearing at all, not just at level 42 but at every subsequent level-up too, for as long as the item stays held. Remove the Everstone at any level 42 or higher and the evolution fires on the very next level gained, since the game re-checks the condition every time.
Version Verification
Evolution level, stats, and moveset data verified against Bulbapedia and Pokemon Database as of this writing, cross-referenced against Sword & Shield’s own level-up tables for both species. Current-game availability (Scarlet/Violet, Legends: Z-A) confirmed against each game’s regional Pokedex data and Serebii’s HOME transfer-only compatibility list; this is a status that can change with future updates, so recheck HOME compatibility before assuming the gap is permanent.
Key Takeaways
Elgyem evolves into Beheeyem at level 42, full stop — no item, trade, or condition to plan around. The stat gain concentrates in the special stats, setting Beheeyem up as a slow, bulky special attacker rather than a sweeper. Evolving right at 42 doesn’t cost you Recover permanently, just delays it two levels. And if you want one at all in 2026, an old Sword or Shield save is currently your only route — this line hasn’t made it onto Gen 9 hardware yet, by catch or by transfer.
Sources
- Bulbapedia. Elgyem (Pokémon). https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Elgyem_(Pok%C3%A9mon)
- Bulbapedia. Beheeyem (Pokémon). https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Beheeyem_(Pok%C3%A9mon)
- Pokemon Database. Elgyem Pokedex.
- Pokemon Database. Beheeyem Pokedex. https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/beheeyem
- Pokemon Database. Elgyem Level-Up Moves (Sword & Shield). https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/elgyem/moves/8
- Pokemon Database. Beheeyem Level-Up Moves (Sword & Shield). https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/beheeyem/moves/8
- Serebii.net. Scarlet & Violet Transfer Only Pokémon. https://www.serebii.net/scarletviolet/transferonly.shtml
- GameRant. Complete Pokémon Legends Z-A Pokémon List and Locations. https://gamerant.com/pokemon-legends-za-all-pokemon-locations-catch-find-evolve/
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.