Scyther Never Evolves By Leveling: How to Get Scizor or Kleavor in Every Game

Verified across Scarlet/Violet, Legends: Arceus, Legends: Z-A (including the Mega Dimension DLC), Sword/Shield, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and Pokémon GO as of August 2026. Scyther’s evolution mechanics haven’t changed via patch since Black Augurite was introduced — the differences below are structural, not something a future update is likely to fix.

Why Scyther Never Evolves By Leveling Up

Scyther is one of a small handful of Pokémon with zero level-up evolution — not one candidate level buried anywhere in its moveset. Its entire evolution line runs on external triggers only: an item, and in most games, a second player. That’s the actual source of almost every “my Scyther won’t evolve” question — people grind it to level 100 waiting for a screen that will never come.

Compare that to something like Bidoof, which turns into Bibarel the instant it hits level 15 with no extra requirements at all — Scyther was built the opposite way on purpose, gating a genuinely strong Bug-type line behind more effort than a level grind.

There are exactly two valid endpoints: Scizor, which needs a Metal Coat and, in most games, an actual trade; and Kleavor, which needs a Black Augurite and, depending on the game, either a trade-free item use or nothing at all if you’re holding the wrong cartridge. Which one you can realistically reach — and how — depends entirely on which game is in front of you.

Quick Start: Get Your Scizor or Kleavor Fast

• Decide which form you want first — Scizor (Bug/Steel) or Kleavor (Bug/Rock). One Scyther can only become one of them.
• For Scizor: get a Metal Coat, hold it on Scyther, then trade it away and immediately back (every mainline game and Legends: Z-A) — or just feed it 50 Candy while it holds Metal Coat in Pokémon GO, where no trade is needed at all.
• For Kleavor: get a Black Augurite and use it directly on Scyther from your bag — but this only works in Legends: Arceus or Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC.
• Playing Scarlet/Violet only? Black Augurite doesn’t exist in your game — skip straight to catching a wild Kleavor in the Indigo Disk DLC’s Canyon Biome instead of hunting for an item that was never placed anywhere obtainable.
• No trade partner? Link a second Nintendo Account to a second Switch (even a borrowed one for five minutes) and trade your Scyther across, then trade it straight back. The game only checks that a real trade happened.

Getting Scizor: Metal Coat and a Trade

If you’re playing the original Red, Blue, or Yellow, stop right there — Metal Coat didn’t exist yet, so a Generation I Scyther cannot evolve into anything at all, no matter how it’s traded. That changed with Gold and Silver, and in every mainline core-series game since, the rule hasn’t changed: hold a Metal Coat, get traded to any other save file, and Scyther evolves into Scizor the instant the trade completes. It doesn’t matter whether the trade partner is a stranger doing a Wonder Trade or a second Switch sitting next to your first — the game only checks that a trade happened while the item was equipped.

Where to buy a Metal Coat depends on the game. In Scarlet and Violet it’s a straightforward ₽3,000 purchase from the Delibird Presents store in Levincia, with occasional appearances at the Porto Marinada auction house. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it shows up as a reward for Side Mission 101 (“Steadfast as Steel”) or Side Mission 114, or for sale from Racine Construction for ₽4,980 — but don’t assume Z-A drops the trade requirement just because it’s a spin-off Legends title. It doesn’t. Scyther still has to change hands, room-code trade and all, to come back as a Scizor there.

When I tested this on a second Switch profile — trading a Metal Coat Scyther over and immediately back — the evolution animation started before the trade screen had even finished closing. There’s no delay, no separate confirmation step; the game evolves it the moment the trade itself resolves. If you don’t have a second copy of the game or a willing friend, a self-trade across two linked accounts works exactly the same way as trading with a stranger.

Getting Kleavor: Black Augurite and No Trade At All

Kleavor runs on the opposite rule. Black Augurite doesn’t require a trade in any game that has it — you select the item from your bag, use it on Scyther, and the evolution happens on the spot, the same way an Ice Stone or Water Stone would. That’s because Black Augurite was purpose-built for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a game with no online trading system at all: every trade-item evolution in that game, Scyther and Onix included, had to become a direct-use item just so players could reach them solo.

In Legends: Arceus, Black Augurite’s most reliable source isn’t a shop — it’s Graveler. Defeating or catching wild Graveler in the field has a chance to drop one, and Graveler spawns heavily around the volcanic terrain in the Crimson Mirelands and Cobalt Coastlands. Ursaluna’s treasure-digging ability and rare Space-Time Distortion ground-drops can also produce one, but both are slower than just farming Graveler encounters directly. It isn’t sold at the Merit Point trading post at all, so don’t waste time checking there.

Legends: Z-A brought Black Augurite back for its Mega Dimension DLC, sourced from golden bonus balls scattered through the DLC’s Hyperspace Wild Zones. And here’s the detail almost no other guide states plainly: Z-A keeps Black Augurite’s no-trade rule for Kleavor even though it dropped that same no-trade convenience for Scizor in the exact same game. Use the item on Scyther directly — no trade, no room code — while a Metal Coat evolution one menu screen over still needs a full trade to complete. That’s a genuine, confirmed inconsistency in how the game treats its two trade-era items, not a guide error.

The Scarlet/Violet Trap

If Scarlet, Violet, or the Indigo Disk DLC is the only Pokémon game you own, stop searching your bag for a Black Augurite — it isn’t hiding somewhere you haven’t looked. The item exists in the game’s internal data but was never placed anywhere obtainable; Game Freak left the evolution path closed in the base 2022 release and never patched it open, even after adding Kleavor itself to the Blueberry Pokédex. Plenty of guides still list Black Augurite as a Scarlet/Violet “requirement,” which is technically true and completely useless if you can’t get one.

Two routes actually work if you’re SV-only. The direct one: Kleavor spawns wild in the Indigo Disk DLC’s Canyon Biome, on a mountain to the right of the Canyon Plaza fast-travel point — just catch it, no evolution item needed. The indirect one, only worth it if you already have access to a Legends: Arceus or Legends: Z-A save: evolve Scyther there, then bring the finished Kleavor across via Pokémon HOME. Either way, the item hunt itself is the wasted step — skip it entirely.

Every Route at a Glance

The table below is the complete map — every game, the item it needs, and whether a trade is actually required — cross-checked against each game’s own evolution data rather than one flattened “how to evolve Scyther” list that assumes every game plays by mainline rules.

Which Route Fits You

Pokémon GO Plays by Completely Different Rules

Every mainline game and both Legends titles treat Metal Coat as at least a two-player item — even the “no trade” Legends versions still make you walk to a shop or farm a drop first. Pokémon GO skips the requirement that trips up new players most: Scyther evolves into Scizor for 50 Candy plus one Metal Coat, entered straight from the evolve screen, with nobody else’s account involved. If you’ve read our Pokémon GO special evolutions guide for the game’s other item-gated evolutions, Scyther is one of the more forgiving ones on that list — no raid boss, no lucky trade, just a candy grind and a Coat you’ll pick up from spinning Stops.

Kleavor doesn’t get the same treatment. It was never wired into Scyther’s GO evolution tree at all — the only way to add one to your GO collection is beating it in a three-star raid on the occasions Niantic features it, which isn’t a fixed schedule. If you’re used to our Pokémon GO trading guide covering most of the game’s item-and-partner evolutions, Scyther is the exception that proves the rule: it’s the trade-free one, and Kleavor is the one you genuinely can’t evolve your way to.

FAQ

Can I evolve Scyther without ever trading?

Only if you’re going for Kleavor in Legends: Arceus or Legends: Z-A, or Scizor in Pokémon GO. Every other Scizor route — every mainline core-series game and Legends: Z-A itself — checks that an actual trade happened, and there’s no shortcut item that bypasses it for Scyther specifically. The Linking Cord exists for exactly this kind of no-trade convenience, but it only works on Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler, and Haunter — not Scyther.

Does trading with a stranger work as well as trading with a friend?

Yes — the game only checks that a trade completed while Scyther held the Metal Coat, not who the other trainer is. A Wonder Trade technically works, but you’d be handing a geared-up Scyther to a random stranger with no guarantee they trade it back, so a friend or a second account you control is the safer version of the same trick.

Is Kleavor better than Scizor?

They’re built for different roles, not a strict upgrade path. Scizor is Bug/Steel with one of the best defensive typings in the game — full immunity to Poison, six more resistances, and exactly one weakness, a quadruple weakness to Fire that’s the trade-off for all that resistance. Kleavor is Bug/Rock, can run Sheer Force to hit harder on the physical side, but carries three real weaknesses of its own (Rock, Water, and Steel, all at double damage) with none of Scizor’s defensive polish. Both evolutions lose Scyther’s old immunity to Ground moves, but neither one actually becomes weak to it either — Steel and Rock both cancel Bug’s natural Ground resistance back down to a plain neutral hit. Neither evolution is objectively “better” — it depends on the team you’re building around it.

I’m on Scarlet/Violet and Black Augurite shows up when I check the item’s Pokédex-style description — why can’t I use it?

Seeing an item described somewhere isn’t the same as having it in your bag. Black Augurite’s data exists in Scarlet/Violet’s files, but Game Freak never placed a single obtainable copy anywhere in the world — if it isn’t sitting in your actual bag inventory, it isn’t reachable through normal play, DLC included.

Sources

• Black Augurite — Bulbapedia
• Linking Cord — Bulbapedia
• Scyther (Pokémon) — Bulbapedia
• Scyther — Pokémon Database
• Kleavor — Pokémon Database
• Scyther evolution guide — Pocket Tactics
• Black Augurite location in Legends: Arceus — RPG Site
• Evolving Scyther in the Scarlet/Violet DLC — Charlie INTEL
• Metal Coat location in Scarlet & Violet — Dexerto
• Metal Coat location in Legends: Arceus — Game8
• Finding and evolving Scyther in Legends: Z-A — TheGamer
• Evolving Scyther into Kleavor in Legends: Z-A — Followchain
• Getting Kleavor in Legends: Z-A — Dexerto

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.