Lickitung Evolves Into Lickilicky by Knowing One Move — But That Move Is Rock-Type, and BDSP Teaches It 27 Levels Sooner Than the Original

Lickitung is a pure Normal-type Pokémon. The move that turns it into Lickilicky is Rock-type. That mismatch isn’t a typo in some fan wiki — it’s the entire mechanic, and it’s the reason more players get stuck on this evolution than almost any other move-based one in the franchise. There’s no friendship counter, no held item, no time-of-day trick. Lickitung evolves into Lickilicky the moment it levels up while it knows Rollout, full stop — the catch is that “knows Rollout” isn’t automatic in every game, and the level where it becomes automatic has swung as wildly as 33 down to 6 depending on which title you’re playing.

This guide covers the exact level or method in every generation Lickilicky exists, what to do if your wild-caught Lickitung skipped past that level without picking the move up, and where the jump to Lickilicky’s stats actually pays off.

Quick Start: Evolve Lickitung in Under 2 Minutes

• Open your Lickitung’s summary screen and check its move list for Rollout.
• If Rollout is already there — level it up once. It evolves into Lickilicky immediately, no other condition needed.
• If Rollout is missing, check your game below: most modern titles (Sword/Shield, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl) teach it by level 6, so a fresh catch usually already has it.
• If your Lickitung is already past the learn level and never picked up Rollout, you’ll need a Move Relearner or Move Reminder NPC (Heart Scale cost) — see the fix section below.
• Playing Scarlet/Violet? Skip ahead to the Gen IX section — Lickitung isn’t in that Pokédex at all, so this isn’t a moveset problem.
• Playing Pokémon GO? The mainline steps above don’t apply — jump to the GO section for the real requirement.

The Mechanism: Why a Rock-Type Move Triggers a Normal-Type Evolution

Rollout is a Rock-type physical move, 30 base power, 90% accuracy, that’s been in the game since Generation II [1][2]. Its gimmick is a rolling snowball effect: power doubles on each of five consecutive turns it’s used (30 → 60 → 120 → 240 → 480), and doubles again on top of that if the user opened with Defense Curl the turn before. None of that has anything to do with why it evolves Lickitung — the power curve is a battle mechanic, the evolution trigger is a completely separate rule Game Freak bolted onto one specific move for one specific Pokémon.

Bulbapedia states the evolution condition in one line: a Lickitung that knows Rollout evolves into Lickilicky when it levels up, starting from Generation IV onward [1][3]. Lickitung is the only species in the entire franchise that evolves this way — no other Pokémon’s evolution depends on knowing a specific move at all, let alone one from a mismatched type. Compare that to the other early-game evolution triggers on Switchblade Gaming: Buneary needs a friendship threshold, Bidoof just needs to hit level 15, and Applin’s whole evolution line branches by which item you feed it. Lickitung’s move-knowledge trigger is a category of its own.

There’s no friendship component, no minimum level beyond “the level where it learns the move,” and no held item. Once Rollout is in the move list and Lickitung gains a level, the evolution happens on that same level-up — you don’t need to wait for the next one.

Generation-by-Generation: Every Way Lickitung Learns Rollout

The level where Rollout becomes a natural level-up move has changed more than almost any other move in Lickitung’s kit, and the swing between Diamond/Pearl and their own remake is the single fact no other guide covering this evolution mentions.

Read that Gen VIII row again: Diamond and Pearl made you grind to level 33 for this evolution in 2007, and their own 2021 remake, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, drops that requirement to level 6 — a 27-level difference between two versions of what’s nominally the same game. If you’re replaying the originals expecting BDSP’s pace, you’ll be waiting a long time.

One clarification worth stating plainly, because it’s an easy trap: Rollout was not removed in Generation IX. It’s still a fully usable move in Scarlet and Violet [1][2]. Lickitung itself simply isn’t in that game’s regional or DLC Pokédexes [6]. If you’re hunting for a Lickitung on your Switch in 2026, the fix is bringing one over from an older game via Pokémon HOME, not chasing a move tutor that doesn’t exist in that title.

The Move Relearner Fix: When Your Wild Lickitung Doesn’t Already Know It

Here’s the part every other guide covering this evolution skips: knowing that Rollout is a level-up move doesn’t guarantee your specific Lickitung has it. Pokémon only remember four moves at a time, and a level-up move only gets added to that list at the exact level it’s learned — or overwritten later if four other moves fill the slots first. Catch a wild Lickitung above its game’s Rollout level, and there’s a real chance the move never made it into its final moveset.

This is common in practice, not a hypothetical. Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl’s Grand Underground and Lake Valor spawns, and Sword/Shield’s Isle of Armor overworld encounters, both routinely produce Lickitung well past level 6 [16]. If yours doesn’t have Rollout, you need an NPC that reteaches level-up moves — called the Move Reminder in most games, Move Relearner in others. In Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl specifically, that NPC is in Pastoria City and charges one Heart Scale per move taught [16][17]. Sword/Shield’s equivalent NPC works the same way. Feed it the Heart Scale, select Rollout from the relearnable list, and the next level-up triggers the evolution exactly as if it had learned the move naturally.

Decision Tree: What To Do Based On Your Game

Lickitung vs. Lickilicky: Where the Stat Jump Actually Lands

Lickilicky doesn’t just get bigger numbers across the board — the jump is uneven, and that unevenness tells you what the evolution is actually for.

Every stat gets a flat +20 except one: Attack jumps +30, the only stat that breaks the pattern [3][4][22][23]. That’s the tell. Lickitung is a slow, defensively-leaning wall with nothing to threaten anything; Lickilicky keeps the same bulky shape (95/80/95 defenses are still its strength, not 85 Attack) but gains just enough offense to stop being purely passive. It’s not becoming a sweeper — 50 base Speed rules that out — but it stops being dead weight in a slot that used to just soak hits and do nothing back.

Both stages share the exact same ability spread: Own Tempo (blocks confusion), Oblivious (blocks Attract and Intimidate), and the hidden ability Cloud Nine (cancels all weather effects while active) [3][4]. Neither Pokémon gains or loses an ability on evolution — whatever Lickitung had, Lickilicky keeps.

Is Lickilicky Worth Using?

As a general guideline, Lickilicky’s niche is bulk-with-just-enough-offense rather than a genuine threat. 515 BST puts it in the same rough tier as plenty of mid-game Normal-types, and 30 base Speed on Lickitung (50 on Lickilicky) means it’s rarely acting before the Pokémon it’s trying to answer. Where it earns a slot is as a physical wall that can actually punch back a little — the +30 Attack means it’s not purely a punching bag the way pre-evolution Lickitung is. If you’re building a in-game playthrough team and want a Normal-type that can tank a hit and answer with something more than a token attack, Lickilicky does that job better than most of the alternatives available at the same point in most regional Pokédexes.

Pokémon GO Uses a Completely Different Method

If you came here from Pokémon GO, none of the above applies — GO doesn’t track individual moves the way the mainline games do, so the Rollout requirement doesn’t exist there at all. Evolving Lickitung into Lickilicky in GO costs 100 Lickitung Candy plus one Sinnoh Stone [25]. Sinnoh Stones come from spinning PokéStops and Gyms (a low, roughly 1% drop per spin), with better odds from 7-day spin streaks, PvP rewards, and Team GO Rocket leader battles. There’s no move-knowledge check, no level requirement — just the Candy and the Stone, feed both in, done.

Who Should Prioritize This Evolution

Common Mistakes

• Assuming any level-up will trigger it. Only a level-up where Lickitung already knows Rollout counts — if it doesn’t have the move yet, leveling up does nothing.
• Confusing this with a friendship evolution. Unlike several other early-game Normal-types, happiness plays no role here at all.
• Assuming Diamond/Pearl and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl behave identically. They’re a 27-level gap apart — 33 in the originals, 6 in the remake.
• Giving up on a wild-caught Lickitung that won’t evolve. Check its actual move list first — the Move Relearner/Move Reminder fixes this in one visit for the cost of a single Heart Scale.
• Assuming Rollout was cut from Scarlet/Violet. It wasn’t — Lickitung itself just isn’t in that game.

FAQ

Does Lickitung need a high friendship level to evolve, like some other Normal-types?

No. That’s a fair assumption if you’ve evolved Buneary or a similar species recently, but Lickitung’s trigger is entirely about the moveset — friendship never enters into it, in any generation.

Why does Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl let me evolve Lickitung so much earlier than the original Diamond and Pearl?

Because Game Freak changed the level-up learnset in the remake, not because of anything the player does differently. It’s a deliberate pacing change — BDSP moved several mid-game move-learn levels earlier across multiple species, and Rollout’s jump from 33 to 6 is one of the more dramatic examples.

My Lickitung is level 40 and still hasn’t evolved — is it stuck?

Check its move list. If it’s missing Rollout, it almost certainly didn’t learn the move at its scheduled level (common with wild catches above that level) — a Move Reminder/Move Relearner visit fixes it immediately, and the very next level-up will complete the evolution.

Can I get Lickilicky in Scarlet and Violet?

Not by catching one in-game — Lickitung and Lickilicky aren’t in the Paldea, Kitakami, or Blueberry Pokédexes. You’ll need to transfer one in through Pokémon HOME from a game where it’s obtainable.

Is Lickilicky good in Pokémon GO, and does it need Rollout there too?

No Rollout requirement in GO — it’s Candy and a Sinnoh Stone only. Competitively it’s a niche pick at best; GO’s PvP metas are dominated by Pokémon with better typing and movesets, and Lickilicky’s Normal typing doesn’t hit anything for extra damage.

Verified against current per-generation learnset and Pokédex data as of Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC. Move-learn levels are stable historical data and don’t change with patches, but Lickitung/Lickilicky’s Legends: Z-A availability wasn’t confirmed at the time of writing — check your in-game Pokédex if you’re playing that title.

Sources

• Bulbapedia — Rollout (move)
• PokemonDB — Rollout move data (pokemondb.net/move/rollout)
• Bulbapedia — Lickitung (Pokémon)
• PokemonDB — Lickitung Pokédex (pokemondb.net/pokedex/lickitung)
• PokemonDB — Lickitung Generation 4/5/6/7/8 move lists (pokemondb.net/pokedex/lickitung/moves/4–8)
• Bulbapedia — Lickilicky (Pokémon)
• Serebii — Lickitung Pokédex entries, Generations IV–VIII (serebii.net/pokedex-dp, -bw, -xy, -sm, -swsh)
• Game8 — Lickitung Evolution, Location, and Learnset (BDSP)
• Marriland — Lickitung Generation 8 Pokédex (marriland.com/pokedex/lickitung/gen-8)
• PokemonDB — Indigo Disk (Blueberry) Pokédex
• Serebii — Blueberry Pokédex (serebii.net/scarletviolet/blueberrypokedex.shtml)
• Serebii — Unusable Attacks in Scarlet and Violet
• Bulbapedia — Moves unusable in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (category page)
• PokemonDB — Lickilicky Pokédex (pokemondb.net/pokedex/lickilicky)
• Gfinity Esports — How to evolve Lickitung in Pokémon GO

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.